Guild Wars 2

I recently got into running fresh air a few days ago, and while I’m certainly not an expert, I have gotten the hang of it while making my own little tweaks. I love the massive damage, but notice I don’t see many fresh air eles compared to staff or d/d. I do have a few questions though:

-Is there a 1v1 variant of this build?
-I know there aren’t any specific combos, but what bursty combos do you usually like to use?

One thing I am enjoying so far is even though thieves are still a counter to it similar to my shatter mesmer, my ele seems to put up a little more of a fight in that the damage itself can scare a thief to play defensively more often. xD

Here my answers:

-There is no 1vs1 variant

-You will lose 1vs1 against most meta builds

-Fresh air is one of the worst zerk specs in terms of self survival, you will lose most encounters by simply being outsustained..nothing to with your skill level and fun part is meta zerk specs will outsustain you too *(in a direct fight, started face to face and at full CD on both parties )

-No ways to keep enemy at range : you just have LF in some case to buy 1-2s before enemy on you again with no way to keep mele dmg at bay, this is by far the worst aspect about fresh air , a complete lack of range safety skills

-On mesmer you have multiple ways to re-position yourself when caught in a pinch, you have : GS knockback, 2-3 stealth options ( if using focus or not ), a set of short CD and a “long” CD invulnerability skills…and most of all the ability to deal dmg while ducking behind LoS ( cast Izerker before moving/stealthing away)

-Med guardian will simply outheal all dmg that you may do, they have : 3 moderate CD block skills, 7 healing skills of 1.5k and 2k healing on moderate CD, blind on demand.

-Smart thief will only hit when you run out of options, still you have a far higher chance to down a thief than a poorly played med guardian.

Personally I only play fresh air when I see : A – loads of engies/necro on enemy team , B- no guardians or thieves in the enemy team , C – at least a couple of tank/bunkers in my team

Honestly at max level of skill you’ll get heavy countered by : Thieves and Med guardian; conditions can prove to be a serious problem but nothing that let you drop the game out of frustation..at least not that badly as when you face med guardians ( poorly played) who won’t even waste a dodge on you as they heal to full every time and against smart d/p thieves who will make your life very miserable

- 66002 is highly effective in 1v1. If you learn to not double up on blinds you’ll find yourself winning a fair few matchups

- The 2 main combos you need to master are the phoenix flash, and gale-dragon’s tooth. The second is not mechanically difficult at all, but you have to be able to count stunbreaks, and know when to go for it.

Gale-dragon’s tooth is far more important in actual matches. Especially engis and shoutbow warriors are very vulnerable to it.

P.S.: If you run with icebow, gale-deep freeze-ice storm is a pretty much guaranteed oneshot on anything that’s out of stunbreaks.

Supreme.3164:

Here my answers:

-There is no 1vs1 variant

-You will lose 1vs1 against most meta builds

-Fresh air is one of the worst zerk specs in terms of self survival, you will lose most encounters by simply being outsustained..nothing to with your skill level and fun part is meta zerk specs will outsustain you too *(in a direct fight, started face to face and at full CD on both parties )

-No ways to keep enemy at range : you just have LF in some case to buy 1-2s before enemy on you again with no way to keep mele dmg at bay, this is by far the worst aspect about fresh air , a complete lack of range safety skills

-On mesmer you have multiple ways to re-position yourself when caught in a pinch, you have : GS knockback, 2-3 stealth options ( if using focus or not ), a set of short CD and a “long” CD invulnerability skills…and most of all the ability to deal dmg while ducking behind LoS ( cast Izerker before moving/stealthing away)

-Med guardian will simply outheal all dmg that you may do, they have : 3 moderate CD block skills, 7 healing skills of 1.5k and 2k healing on moderate CD, blind on demand.

-Smart thief will only hit when you run out of options, still you have a far higher chance to down a thief than a poorly played med guardian.

Personally I only play fresh air when I see : A – loads of engies/necro on enemy team , B- no guardians or thieves in the enemy team , C – at least a couple of tank/bunkers in my team

Honestly at max level of skill you’ll get heavy countered by : Thieves and Med guardian; conditions can prove to be a serious problem but nothing that let you drop the game out of frustation..at least not that badly as when you face med guardians ( poorly played) who won’t even waste a dodge on you as they heal to full every time and against smart d/p thieves who will make your life very miserable

I always wondered why I didn’t see them to often ,it’s a shame because I find the playstyle much more interesting than d/d or staff so far, so you would say fresh air isn’t a very viable spec?

Gokil.2543:

- 66002 is highly effective in 1v1. If you learn to not double up on blinds you’ll find yourself winning a fair few matchups

- The 2 main combos you need to master are the phoenix flash, and gale-dragon’s tooth. The second is not mechanically difficult at all, but you have to be able to count stunbreaks, and know when to go for it.

Gale-dragon’s tooth is far more important in actual matches. Especially engis and shoutbow warriors are very vulnerable to it.

P.S.: If you run with icebow, gale-deep freeze-ice storm is a pretty much guaranteed oneshot on anything that’s out of stunbreaks.

I need to work on the gale dragon’s tooth thing, can you link me that 66002 build? I’m kinda curious!

With a good team behind you..maybe the spec reaches a resemblance of viability.
For good team I mean a thief ready to protect your backs while you burst down targets, generally a team where somebody can peel for you, hoping you get away while being heavily focused.

As solo player, the spec is not recommended, you can play it ofc, but don’t expect any help when heavily focused and once enemy team realized you’re zerk..you’ll get focused for the duration of the whole game.

Most I can do in those situations is to down as many targets as i can before getting downed myself, which is unavoidable and this only works when your team has at least a couple of decent tanks.

Definitely fresh air is fun to play and it’s more interesting than d/d, problem is the weapon set is lacking in terms of synergy and self-sustain, making fresh a dubious choice over any other meta zerk spec

Supreme.3164:

With a good team behind you..maybe the spec reaches a resemblance of viability.
For good team I mean a thief ready to protect your backs while you burst down targets, generally a team where somebody can peel for you, hoping you get away while being heavily focused.

As solo player, the spec is not recommended, you can play it ofc, but don’t expect any help when heavily focused and once enemy team realized you’re zerk..you’ll get focused for the duration of the whole game.

Most I can do in those situations is to down as many targets as i can before getting downed myself, which is unavoidable and this only works when your team has at least a couple of decent tanks.

Definitely fresh air is fun to play and it’s more interesting than d/d, problem is the weapon set is lacking in terms of synergy and self-sustain, making fresh a dubious choice over any other meta zerk spec

That’s a shame, I really like the playstyle. Ele in general has never really interested me due to the meta builds being a little boring for my taste, but fresh air I was a bit decent at.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJArdhcMqe2zwzBf0ACAW4AQCoIKeFkBqhleDA-TJBFwAMOBA12foaZAAPAAA

Three thing worth commenting on:
Ice bow is mainly there for downed cleave, which you severely lack as fresh air otherwise, especially if you already used fire to kill the target. Ice storm is insane damage. If your target has no invuln stunbreaks or ground targeted blinks, it can be worth gambling a deep freeze lightning flash as well. If you have a thief on your team, the icebow can become much more dangerous with stab rip freeze from stealth and whatnot.

Sigil of hydromancy is there for a number of reasons. The main one being a form of inexpensive kiting. Fresh air really struggles when having to kite a melee opponent without using major cooldowns for it. On top of that it’s a really nice sigil to have to compliment major burst combos/clear blinds/proc fresh air.

One with air over bolt to the heart is again there for inexpensive kiting potential. A hydro proc + superspeed can create a pretty nice distance between you and whatever’s wailing away at you. Excellent vs medi guard too. Don’t forget to use superspeed just as you use FGS 3. The distance travelled is often enough to straight up drop combat.

The best fresh-air spec is this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJArdhcMqb2zwzBf0AOAGxaQMQcEIA0BLeFWCA-T5AFwA12foaZAAPAAA

This has great burst damage, can survive quite well with range + invulns + reflects + boons, has pretty good support through boons, healing, and projectile hate, and can 1v1 relatively well against many classes with this build. Some people prefer 6 in arcana and 2 in either earth (stone splinters) or 2 in water, but 4 in water allows you to keep the heal/cleanse without wasting a dodge. I also take soothing wave over vital striking if they have a lot of thieves or mesmers who can pressure you as it can give you just enough health to land 1-more air swap ftw. Also, if there are no thieves/mesmers, feel free to take ice bow over signet of air for some fun. If there are a lot of thieves, mistform might be better there, or arcane blast if you want to play the aggressive “I’ll 1-shot you before you 1-shot me” game. Signet of air is a good compromise as a low-CD stunbreak (to keep you alive in fights) while helping you with map mobility.

You definitely want to keep both air/fire as they are 100% unavoidable damage. Hydromancy will often be useless b/c you should only be in melee range when someone jumps on you, and OFTEN it will hit nobody. Air/fire are excellent for when you start your air attack channel while a thief is going stealth, as you will see the procs and know where the thief is, and often will be down).

You have favorable matchups against warriors, guards, engies, rangers, and necros when played right. Don’t bother fighting 1v1 with a tanky build (you will just be out-sustained by d/d ele and shoutbow).

The fight vs. thieves is entirely cooldown dependent and how patient they are. If a thief just goes yolo with backstab thinking you are dead meat while you have cd’s, you can easily stunbreak, phoenix, air-swap to 1-shot them. A smart thief will burst you then back off or go stealth and force you to blow your CDs (arcane shield, earth invuln).

Mesmer is also a tough fight as they can try to burst you from stealth and 1-shot. It really requires you to get a feel for their play-style and to win the mind-game of predicting what they are going to do, while making sure to nail your air-swaps and phoenix (and don’t blow them during an invuln).

Going 6 in fire is a little too yolo for high levels and will just get you 1-shot by thieves more easily. With this build, you actually have a favorable matchup with thieves unless they are patient (and only the BEST thieves know how to be patient).

It sounds like you’ve made up your mind already so I probably shouldn’t bother convincing you otherwise. But I’m stupid so here I go.

06044 does no damage. All you can do is decent spike damage, but your sustained dps is really low. Obviously a bit of a hyperbole but still. The difference in damage (and to an extent cover condi pressure) is massive vs 66002.

A zerker’s most important job is getting stuff done in +1 situations. Classic fresh air doesn’t do that nearly as efficiently as the standard medi/shatter/panic strike.

The sustainability gained from traiting into water and arcana is still just a patch on the 1800 armor ele you’ll be running. Blinds will likely mitigate more damage than the sustain could ever bring you, especially when you’ll have a dd ele, shoutbow or probably both on your team to cover your basic sustain needs.

Hydromancy does over twice as much damage as a fire proc, further increasing the lethality of your actual kill combos, while losing a bit of free cast random damage in the process. It doesn’t take much away from your offensive pressure if at all, while still bringing you the self-peel you so desperately need.

One cleanse per 10 seconds is outclassed by a triple autocleanse before you even realise you needed it.

Talking about matchups is a bit silly in my opinion because that’s not the kind of role you’ll be playing in conquest. Your sole focus is trying to stay on top of the thief/medi/shatter jumping game. You don’t just push far cause you think you can.

I hate to have to add this but this comes from extensive experience trying numerous fresh air setups in the highest regions of MMR.

I play this one-shot build for a while. It’s viable in both team Q and solo Q. To make this type of aggressive play work, you need to pay attention to your position and the enemy’s postion. Don’t get hit, don’t get tunnel vision, don’t over commit to a fight, don’t try to “help” healing or rez-ing teammate during the heat of the battle. One-shot and move on. As soon as you can neutralize the enemy zerkers, you’re golden.

Gokil.2543:

It sounds like you’ve made up your mind already so I probably shouldn’t bother convincing you otherwise. But I’m stupid so here I go.

06044 does no damage. All you can do is decent spike damage, but your sustained dps is really low. Obviously a bit of a hyperbole but still. The difference in damage (and to an extent cover condi pressure) is massive vs 66002.

A zerker’s most important job is getting stuff done in +1 situations. Classic fresh air doesn’t do that nearly as efficiently as the standard medi/shatter/panic strike.

Standard fresh air does no damage? Hyperbole much? In fact, it is more than enough damage to quickly end any +1 situation quickly. Just don’t whiff your phoenix or lightning flash. Further, while you shouldn’t be 1v1-ing, unfortunately when soloQ-ing you will often have a team that isn’t in the right position and you get stuck doing so. With standard fresh-air you can survive long enough for your team to get there against tanky players, and probably win against most other players.

The sustainability gained from traiting into water and arcana is still just a patch on the 1800 armor ele you’ll be running. Blinds will likely mitigate more damage than the sustain could ever bring you, especially when you’ll have a dd ele, shoutbow or probably both on your team to cover your basic sustain needs.

The water/arcana not only allows you to survive without needing to be babysat to not be farmed by thief, it also brings crucial team-support that is incredibly relevant at high levels. In 2v2’s or even fights this makes you an absolute asset, while not being a liability while thieves are around.

Hydromancy does over twice as much damage as a fire proc, further increasing the lethality of your actual kill combos, while losing a bit of free cast random damage in the process. It doesn’t take much away from your offensive pressure if at all, while still bringing you the self-peel you so desperately need.

It’s not a self-peel b/c you can’t control when it procs. You are also playing s/f, so you shouldn’t be going HAM so often and put yourself in melee range. If you are gonna put yourself in melee range (nullifying the key advantage of focus), you might as well go full HAM and play s/d.

One cleanse per 10 seconds is outclassed by a triple autocleanse before you even realise you needed it.

aoe cleanse + heal that you control is inifinitely more valuable than an RNG cleanse. While the auto-cleanse will often clear 1 vuln, a 2s cripple, and 1 stack of bleed, you can play smart with water-swaps to cleanse the important condis (burns, large bleed stacks, immobs).

Talking about matchups is a bit silly in my opinion because that’s not the kind of role you’ll be playing in conquest. Your sole focus is trying to stay on top of the thief/medi/shatter jumping game. You don’t just push far cause you think you can.
I hate to have to add this but this comes from extensive experience trying numerous fresh air setups in the highest regions of MMR.

Thanks for being condescending, but if you really play at high MMR levels you will know that you often get stuck with low MMR players who have NO IDEA how to rotate and are in all the worst places. Your team will be 4v1ing at mid while 1 player is clearly crossing to home. Tanky players will run off from a fight and leave you to cap while a thief is clearly incoming…etc. I understand you will get a lot of hotjoin heros thinking they should 1v1, but in anything that isn’t a coordinated team, you WILL get caught in a 1v1. If you go 66002, even a 2v2 with a good thief will be a loss for your team b/c he CAN and will 1-shot you after wasting your 1 invuln. With 06044 you will survive that backstab and can very much 1-shot that thief after he opens up as long as you are quick with targeting.

It’s really tempting, but I wouldn’t want a Kodiak vs Zelyhn 2.0 so we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I’ll likely put up a video sooner or later to back up my opinions on fresh air in tPvP. See you then.

Gokil.2543:

It’s really tempting, but I wouldn’t want a Kodiak vs Zelyhn 2.0 so we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I’ll likely put up a video sooner or later to back up my opinions on fresh air in tPvP. See you then.

I was having a good read here too

Kodiak.3281:

Gokil.2543:

It’s really tempting, but I wouldn’t want a Kodiak vs Zelyhn 2.0 so we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I’ll likely put up a video sooner or later to back up my opinions on fresh air in tPvP. See you then.

I was having a good read here too

It’s just that I’m pretty sure I won’t get anywhere. It’s very clear that he’s made up his mind, which I can’t blame him for. 66002 sounds like a gimmicky yolo setup at best, but it’s not imo. I’ve named most of my arguments, all I’d be doing in the next 10 posts would be rephrasing them or arguing about what a ‘real game’ looks like.

Yea I feel ya just having a bit of fun with the response.

Really tough to make a point if people aren’t willing to work with you to a certain extent. Even if you show video proof how good something else it’s very easy to downplay any successes like you implied with “Well that wasn’t a real game.” or “Your opponents are just so bad.” Incredibly easy to nit pick anything when you get right down to it.

I have to agree with @Gokil, the build he uses deal far more dmg than meta fresh air while not losing much in sustain, this because the target will be dead before much dmg is done.

Tried a variant with arcane shield, mist form and LF + FGS, I’m able to get away most times once I get locked on ( unless they have a smart thief). I do the burst and run away, staying second more would mean the death of me..but hey I win teamfights so who care about winning duels? ^^

-Ofc I’d still love some quality of change on s/f-

God all you guys have no idea what you are talking about, fresh air ele is very viable in competitive play, and I know this because I play it competitively. A good fresh air ele will be a thieves worst nightmare, most of the top thieves hate playing against me. Yes, atm I’m the only one that plays it competitively (zoose no longer plays) but you just need the right composition for it to shine. Yes, the sustain dps isn’t great compared to other zerkers, but the survivabilty is actually pretty kitten good as long as you get peels. You have no disengage(such as stealth, and the blink I often use offensively) but you have some really clutch CDs that if you use wisely will always be ready to go when needed. Also you don’t have to cast a heal, so if you are fast with your skill rotations the healing you get makes u super tanky. Not to mention you also have a 6 second protection potentially ever 10 seconds… It just requires a high amount of experience and mechanical skill to effectively play and not many people have put in the hours that zoose or I have to the build.

Playing s/f ele is revolved around the concept of counter pressure, when an opponent makes you waste(or just use) one of your crucial CDs you better punish the hell out of him with that cd. For example, you are forced to invuln, so during that invuln duration you better be pressuring the hell out of your target, and if you do it efficiently you will heal up while doing so.

Shnicky, you still get farmed by AK every time tho… zzz…

IMO Fresh Air, S/D annihilate or S/F are both dueling, roaming, ganking builds.

Play it in conquest the way you would play a thief, or a shatter mesmer. It is quite a comfortable way to 1v1, but 1vX is definitely a serious challenge.

people underestimate the power of piercing shards and water auto attack. Easy way to get a person to half health before a burst.

Farmed by ak? Lol what

Didn’t you also switch to medi to play competitively as well? zzz…

Who are you lol? And no, I have no idea where you got that from. Not sure what your problem is.

Is it viable? Sure. I don’t think its quite as optimal as some other berserkers though. It’s close.

^^^^
Probably the better way to put it, I just get kitten when I see people say they get farmed by thieves and have no impact in team fights.

Even lightning rod is viable as a burst spec. LR+Earth shield is an extremely fun way to play ele, actually. Been using it for a long time with great results. It wrecks thieves if played well, pressures pretty much any zerk spec out there. Granted, it takes some time to get the hang of it… But oh god is it worth it.

Hamster.4861:

IMO Fresh Air, S/D annihilate or S/F are both dueling, roaming, ganking builds.

Play it in conquest the way you would play a thief, or a shatter mesmer. It is quite a comfortable way to 1v1, but 1vX is definitely a serious challenge.

Link me some builds, as I do not have any to go by other than the metabattle variant.

DrDivine.5378:

Hamster.4861:

IMO Fresh Air, S/D annihilate or S/F are both dueling, roaming, ganking builds.

Play it in conquest the way you would play a thief, or a shatter mesmer. It is quite a comfortable way to 1v1, but 1vX is definitely a serious challenge.

Link me some builds, as I do not have any to go by other than the metabattle variant.

Try this burst ele spec. Let me know what you think!

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k3d;2B2kX025gMFZ0;9;55-33;159C;149-17-IZ0;3F-03F-035BW

Sigil of strength can be swapped by doom sigil, depending on the poison application efficiency of your teammates.

Viprek.6730:

DrDivine.5378:

Hamster.4861:

IMO Fresh Air, S/D annihilate or S/F are both dueling, roaming, ganking builds.

Play it in conquest the way you would play a thief, or a shatter mesmer. It is quite a comfortable way to 1v1, but 1vX is definitely a serious challenge.

Link me some builds, as I do not have any to go by other than the metabattle variant.

Try this burst ele spec. Let me know what you think!

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k3d;2B2kX025gMFZ0;9;55-33;159C;149-17-IZ0;3F-03F-035BW

Will do, thank you! I have to ask though, why run tornado? Isn’t this a little squishy to be in the fray?

DrDivine.5378:

Viprek.6730:

DrDivine.5378:

Hamster.4861:

IMO Fresh Air, S/D annihilate or S/F are both dueling, roaming, ganking builds.

Play it in conquest the way you would play a thief, or a shatter mesmer. It is quite a comfortable way to 1v1, but 1vX is definitely a serious challenge.

Link me some builds, as I do not have any to go by other than the metabattle variant.

Try this burst ele spec. Let me know what you think!

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k3d;2B2kX025gMFZ0;9;55-33;159C;149-17-IZ0;3F-03F-035BW

Will do, thank you! I have to ask though, why run tornado? Isn’t this a little squishy to be in the fray?

Lightning rod + tornado burst . interrupt dmg + blinds should keep you up. Play it smart, you might not be able to survive a focus in the middle of a legacy 5v5, but you sure can peel for your team who is getting focused 2v1, avoid a rez/stomp, win a losing 1v1 vs. a squishy, pressure a shoutbow. Use your dodges smartly when in tornado, if you really think you will get high initial dmg then obsidian flesh + protection before going in.

Never said build was easy to play, you probably haven’t used earth shield in a while. After using this spec for hundreds of matches I could constantly feel improvement in how i used its skills.

Earth shield 4 can counter stealth play pretty well. Get thief out of shadow refuge, avoid mesmer heal, destroy mesmer clones with aoe burst, air burst + earth shield (Stay in air) “1” sustain dmg while you wait for air cooldowns then earth 4 then 3 into air 2, ES 2 block basilisk venom, ES 3 interrupt anything AOE on 3 targets, 1.8k autos IN SCEPTER. Trick is to ES while your air attune is in CD to go around not having fresh air.

Speed is everything in the build, cant waste a single second against thieves, beware poison and take full advantage of that resto sig, ES also gets you skills to proc a lot of it on.

After 7k+ ele tournament games I kinda know my kitten.

Scepter dagger elementalist provides enough additional burst combinations to potentially make up for the loss of survivability by not running focus. I prefer dagger because it is far more offensive. The lack of a panic button makes it more challenging, but there is ways to easily kite from damage. It isn’t going to be a cake walk in competitive play, but with a well built team and a non kittenty ele you should b fine.