Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’m working on writing a battle between a Mesmer and Elementalist and was wondering if anyone would be willing to help me out? I’ve written one for Mesmer vs Guardian and received a request to do the same for Elementalist. While Ele is my second favorite class, it isn’t my main and I haven’t been keeping up with the updates unfortunately. That being said, I’m looking for…

• An elementalist who’s come up with a backstory for their character. Doesn’t have to be long an intricate, just something to give them some personality for the story.
• Willing to duel me in the Mists.
• Willing to answer a few general questions
• It helps to know something about GW2 lore, but not at all required.

Sophea of Elements.
Back Story
Sophea was brought up as a noble in the court of Divinities reach. As a child the stories of the Hall of Heroes reached Sophea’s ears and one day she knew her destiny, to fight in the Mists, enter the Hall of Heroes and become the Champion! “Shopea’s team has won a battle in the Hall of Heroes” echoed through her bones. While other kids dreamed of being keg ball winners, and played through matches in their heads, Sophea played through battles with other contenders and envisioned earning the favour of the Gods.

After her basic training in the ways of the Elements (donning the title “of Elements”) Sophea set off on her adventure with 1 goal in mind, Reach Lions Arch, travel through the Portal to the Mists and engage in battle, become the Champion of the Hall of Heroes. Along the way she ran into some old friends, Slasher Sladorian and his sister Sophea Sladorian, two Charr she grew up with. Her family had taken the two refugee cubs in and raised them in a human manner. Her team had reached three, two more were required and would be found along the way. A Ranger, Warrior, two Elementalists and a Thief would make the final composition.

Fighting many a foe, winning and losing matches along the way, Sophea was disheartened that the portal to the Hall of Heroes never opened. Whilst a little set back, she still fights to this day, hopeful the portal to the Hall of Heroes will open.

Willing to Duel? Sure, though the outcome will be that you will win (I hate mesmers, mainly their tactics :/)

Willing to answer a few general questions? Yup

Know something about GW2 lore? Some, but I mainly play PvP

Edit: BTW, I’m form Australia, so time zone differences will be in play. The weekend might be the best time

I recommend you contact ARM.3912

He would be the most useful in this scenario.

Kodiak.3281:

I recommend you contact ARM.3912

He would be the most useful in this scenario.

Oh god, you could write just a story on the endless quest of how bad he thinks eles are.

my character has a backstory.. in progress, sigh
i can’t write as long as you can, lawl ..
and as an elementalist i can tell you it’s a bit depressing and
easy to throw a story on the backburner zz
but i’m on anvil rock too, so i can answer Some questions iguess

Lol TG, that is a great story! Particularly the part about two elementalists on the team.

Kodiak.3281:

I recommend you contact ARM.3912

He would be the most useful in this scenario.

I agree. I am clearly the best candidate for the interview.

Baladir.2736:

Lol TG, that is a great story! Particularly the part about two elementalists on the team.

Yea, completely flavour text considering that Slasher Sladorian and Sophea Sladorian are 2 of my other alts.

Though originally our team was 2x ele, 2x thief, 1x guard. That’s about all our guild could put forth for pvp. From one of the better Oceanic Aion pvp guilds, down to a wvw to non existent guild. Because all you get in pvp is skins.

2x eles was quite hard to defeat though. OP Staff ele with D/D bunker ele. That point was yours until some thief came along and took advantage of the eles low base hp and armour. OP Staff ele with guardian bunker, well … gg

ARM.3912:

I agree. I am clearly the best candidate for the interview.

We should all come up with a fictional story for ARM’s Elementalist and submit it.

Kodiak.3281:

ARM.3912:

I agree. I am clearly the best candidate for the interview.

We should all come up with a fictional story for ARM’s Elementalist and submit it.

Yes! Best idea ever!

ARM is a vietnam war baby who was adopted into a rich white family from america. He has always hated his parents for being white and has tried to dip into his asian heritage and become a ninja. He has learned the arcane arts through a book he bought on ebay and is now a super asian ninja elementalist.

oooo that is good stuff

I’ll duel you.
That’s my story.

@TGSlasher: I really like that history, do you have a picture of the associated character? And unfortunately, I’m in NA so I don’t think we can duel. =/ But if I am allowed to incorporate Sophia and the Charr I’d be happy to.

@cheshirefox: I’ve always been interested in writing for Norn (or.. half-norn in this case?), and its interesting how you weaved Eir into the story. (I read Destiny’s Edge, Eir is one of my favorite characters)

Now that I think about it, the fight doesn’t need to be 1v1 at all. A larger scale battler would allow me to incorporate different Elementalist fighting styles (Staff, Scepter, Dagger and even the Focus that no one but me seems to ever want to use)

What weapons do the characters wield?

I read your work with guardian and the sylvari and I am a HUGE fan!
I would love to see how you would deal with the fast paced reactionary playstyle of a dual dagger elementalist. Id love to speak with you about the different tricks eles use in fights. I would be happy to duel you as many times as you’d like. I should be able to answer any of your questions:I’ve beenn playing this class since release.

Hey man, much appreciated! I’ll detail the questions here so others can throw their two-cents in.

• Popular Ele combos? (Such as RTL >> Updraft for Dagger/Dagger and Eruption >> Frozen Ground for Staff. )
• Popular Ele utilities/Elites?
• Popular Ele traits, it’ll be really fun to weave in things like Evasive Arcana.
• The elementalist mindset vs Mesmer (and any other class if you’d like to add. The more, info the better)
• Any particularly notable Eles in the GW lore besides Zojja?
• How do you “view” the standard Elementalist? (For example Mesmers have an upper-class air of “better-than-you” royalty about them. Thieves are secretive and shady. Warriors are Spartacus. Necros are creepy, ect.)

katniss.6735:

I’ll duel you.
That’s my story.

My guild is also [D-ERP]. Dashingly Elegant Respectable People. I shall duel you and destroy you guildy!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

@TGSlasher: I really like that history, do you have a picture of the associated character? And unfortunately, I’m in NA so I don’t think we can duel. =/ But if I am allowed to incorporate Sophia and the Charr I’d be happy to.

@cheshirefox: I’ve always been interested in writing for Norn (or.. half-norn in this case?), and its interesting how you weaved Eir into the story. (I read Destiny’s Edge, Eir is one of my favorite characters)

Now that I think about it, the fight doesn’t need to be 1v1 at all. A larger scale battler would allow me to incorporate different Elementalist fighting styles (Staff, Scepter, Dagger and even the Focus that no one but me seems to ever want to use)

What weapons do the characters wield?

I’m from Australia, naturally I play on NA servers (because going through usa to get to EU would be 1 second lag, not 300 -500) you can find me on Sea of Sorrows, but mists battles are universal so should be a problem to get into a match.

Weapons: Scepter Focus, build, Selfish Auras (personally made build that no one else seems to run). Sophea of Elements, Sophea Sladorian and Slasher Sladorian are all on my account so if you wanted to picture them fighting along side one another that could be difficult.

I don’t have a pic unfortunately. Sophea of Elements wears the Pheonix Armour, with a jewel head piece. Her colours are Purples and Illuminate (yellow). On her back she carries (previously a quiver for the frost bow) the Lightning Charm. If I can get on tonight after work I’ll try upload a pic.

Popular Ele combos? (Such as RTL >> Updraft for Dagger/Dagger and Eruption >> Frozen Ground for Staff. )
When utilising the elementalist, I find that our “popular” combos are quite telegraphed and that people will generally avoid them. I proposed quite some time ago 2 ways of fighting. Fighting out of the ring (related to tPvP in general) and unpredictability.

One of the more powerful tools the elementalist has up its sleaves is Lightning Flash. Will taking a hit to its stun break ability I would have to ask many who qq about it if they actually used it for stun break. For me it was used to catch enemies off guard. Lightning flash is an instant teleport. It can be used defensively (get out of enemy skills, move around when doing big stationary casts) and offensively (many of the eles bigger skills are slow, starting them away then porting in range can help to land them on an unsuspecting foe).

While RTL into Updraft is a good combo for beginners, lightning flash updraft is much better. To put the enemy on the defense, you can start with RTL which will generally force them to dodge (expecting your updraft) then you can port updraft at them. Frost bow is an excellent tool to use with Lightning Flash. Frost bow 5 is unescapable (stun breaks don’t work, invulnerabilities will however) and landing a frost bow 5 can be difficult as the skill has a high cast and the projectile itself is slow. Starting the cast then lightning flashing into a foes melee range will greatly assist in landing this skill. From point blank a frost fan (bow 3) will up the chill considerably and frost bow 4 will hail down a tonne of damage (esp if that foe has a pet or minions). There are many other uses for Lightning flash such as; double damage from firey whirl? (flaming greatsword 3), flaming great sword 4 for extra damage, combining Lighting Flash with Cleansing Fire and getting off a teleported Fire Grab and many more combinations

Frost bow however has to be my favourite ele tool. It can be hard to use in a pvp situation, but catching an enemy in it can lead to their doom. Frost bow 5 doesn’t have to be followed with bow 3 or 4, you can in-fact drop the bow straight after, this opens up enough stun time to land the dreaded Dragons Tooth and apply a reasonable amount of damage.

Air, Fire and Earth 15 points unlock a damage ability when swapping to those attunements. How is this good? Well, limited number blocks, such as aegis. Instead of waiting your big burst skills straight into an aegis, or your RTL -> updraft / Teleport updraft onto their aegis, these skills can up to pop said aegis (as long as you are in combat). Particularly effective when a thief pops his elite for lyssa runes, a simple attunement change and you haven’t waisted any of your weapon or utilities on said aegis.

The elementalist has many more tricks up its sleaves but to carry on past my favourites would take a long time

Popular Ele utilities/Elites?
- Many people will tell you that can trips are popular and well they are (were much more before the stun breaks were removed from some of them). Cantrips can be specked to be very good through the water tree, the synergy is better then any other utility type the ele has. Cantrips traited gain vigor and regen on use, cool down 20% faster and with the grandmaster water tait where regen removes conditions, well each cantrip will remove a condition (5 second internal cd in pvp). Armour of Earth, Cleansing Fire, Mist Form and Lightning Flash are your selection for Cantrips.

-I myself, well I run a unique build, utilising Signets and many of the Signet related traits. Signet of Earth, Signet of Fire, Signet of Water and Signet of Air are those said signets. Carry Signet of Fire (for the lower cool down) Signet of Air (stun break and instant blind) and Signet of Earth (very long duration immobilize) combined with traits to grand Fire Aura on Signet use, Protection, Fury and Swiftness on Aura use, I can maintain a high durations of those buffs.

-Other favorites are the Lightning Hammer (large dps output for PvE), I like the Frost Bow (personal favourite utility in the whole game) and the arcane wave and blast for instant damaging abilities.

-Elites:
-Glyph of Elementals, probably the most used in pvp. This summons an elemental of the attunement you are in. Earth is useless in pvp, Air and Fire do decent damage and water lays down chill fields and a slow heal skill. All the summon elementals cannot be controlled by the elementalist at all.

-Fiery Greatsword. My favourite elite, can dish out decent damage, but as with the other conjures it puts you in a bad spot in pvp (locking you out of other skills you may need).

-Tornado. Very fun to use, very situation to use as well. Some say that using tornado makes you weaker, I agree with them, however the knockbacks it offers can be very helpful to getting foes off the point.

Continued
Popular Ele traits, it’ll be really fun to weave in things like Evasive Arcana.
-Arcane:
Evasive Arcana is used by a very large amount of elementalists.
Renewing Stamina (gain vigor on crit hits).
Elemental Attunement (a very good trait, buffs when attuning to elements)
-Fire: Lacking
-Air: Bolt to the Heart (20% extra damage to foes below 33% hp)
Electric Discharge (15 point, lightning bolt on switch to air)
Zephers Boon (gain fury and swiftness on aura use)
-Earth .. .?
-Water: Cleansing Wave (remove condition on change to water)
Healing Ripple (15 point, gain health on change to water)
Soothing Disruption (gain vigor and regen on cantrip use)
Cleansing Water (remove condition when applying regen)
Powerful Auras (auras are applied to allies, trait buffs as well)

The elementalist mindset vs Mesmer (and any other class if you’d like to add. The more, info the better)
I don’t play Mesmer all that much, from what I can tell the Mesmer’s mind set is that of deceit and cowardness, preferring to fight with their minons and avoid the battle themselves. When pressured they can usually get away from you, heal up and come back fresh while their foe struggles to fight off the illusion, wondering weather to “pop” them or weather that will cover them in a crap tonne of confusion.

The elementalist mind set is more planning the engagement, working out who you are fighting and what strategy best to use against them. With the focus in hand, I will usually wonder if it would be best to go full out with my damage, or to temp the foe with a daze to try and waist his stun break. Do I start with my invulnerability, or test the foes power first. Do I go in guns blazing or utilise the terrain around me. Do I start with my weaker conditions pretending to be a condition spec, tempting a removal to get my immobilise off or can I tell the enemy has no removal.

The spec I run is low on arcane so swapping is slower, therefore I have to think or what skills I have for the situation. If you open with projectiles I will consider air and earth to be my starting points. If you rush with melee or ranged non projectiles then earth and air are not as strong here. A lot of calculation goes into how I play my elementalist.

Any particularly notable Eles in the GW lore besides Zojja?
Cynn a Guildwars 1 elementalist who joined up with the “Destinies Edge” of GW1.
Cynn is a bit of a princess but with a decidedly dark streak. She’s often cynical and flippant when dealing with authorities or situations that seem hopeless. She’s highly intelligent, and magic comes easy to her. Because of her experiences during the Searing, Cynn has developed a rather cavalier attitude toward her own death. Consequently, she tends to bite off more than she can chew, and often gets herself and her friends into trouble.

How do you “view” the standard Elementalist? (For example Mesmers have an upper-class air of “better-than-you” royalty about them. Thieves are secretive and shady. Warriors are Spartacus. Necros are creepy, ect.)

On a personal level it would be how you view your character. Mine I see as noble, arms on waist, nose in the air. The colours she wears reinforce this, Rich Purples and Bright Yellows with a gear set that looks expensive (even before I had the phoenix gear)

As a whole I see the elementalist to have a “nonplussed” attitude toward the current weather. Raining? master of water, what you gonna do? Wet me?. Standing in lava, base element is fire. Rock about to fall on your head? Just turn that into a metor and direct it at the nearest foe. Winds are heavy, sorry, that one was me.

I also think that eles could possibly have a fear of melee enemies getting too close to them, when they aren’t on the attack. This is backed up by the large access to auras and the auto stun aura down the air line. Of course, that is just speculation.

It could be possible for an ele to change personalities dependent on their attunement. Entering fire enforces rage and damage output. Air increases speed and spells the mean destruction for that “One” foe (the one the peeves you off the most). Water enforces a caring nature, to heal and cleanse yourself and your peers. And Earth hardens the skin, reflects attacks and offers ways to crush or pulverise your foe. To stick to the one skill tree would in theory bring about that side of the elementalists nature whereas going down the arcane line would bolster all of those natures but not bring overload the one nature.

Finally I would say that eles are confident in their abilities. There are not so many random effects such as an engineer and no access to weapon blocks like guard / warriors. Each spell suits its purpose, missing is not an option. When things go downhill, the ele still has many a tool up its sleave to get the hell out.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• Popular Ele combos?

Any combo really. As a staff ele, combos can add such power to your normal attacks that you’d better try to land as many as possible. A Stoning Fired through a Fire Field does more damage than a Fireball, while Eruption with Water Fields can double the heal. Just about any combo the Ele can make on their own is super useful.

• Popular Ele utilities/Elites?

Glyphs. Why settle for half a skill bar that changes on attunement swap when you can switch your entire skill bar? The ever popular Glyph of Elementals has massive utility, and the most often used Fire Elemental is actually the least useful of the bunch. The Ice Elemental even throws down a combo field!

• Popular Ele traits

As you mentioned, Evasive Arcane…it’s just THAT useful. However, Elemental Attunement (boon on swap) is also very good, as are 15 points in Water for an instant heal + regen + regen2+ condtion removal every 10 seconds…

• The elementalist mindset vs Mesmer (and any other class if you’d like to add. The more, info the better)

Mesmers are sneaky. They’re not direct. While they try to boggle the mind, the Elementalist is much more blunt about it. Fireball in the face. Let’s blow up that gate! Also, I’d say that despite the lore associatiing Mesmers with performers and artists, it’s the Elementalist that’s the more creative of the two. They not only have to learn a lot more spells, but they have to know what to use when, and how to adapt the Elements to their current situation. However, I think that in general, Mesmers have more self-control. Basically, if Mesmers are the Order of Whispers, Elementalists are the Charr Iron Legion.

• Any particularly notable Eles in the GW lore besides Zojja?

Well, there’s of course Cynn from Guild Wars 1. Orion (also GW1) apparently reached a bit of fame as well.

As for Guild Wars 2, you have Isgarren, the current owner of Wizard’s Fief.

• How do you “view” the standard Elementalist?

Intelligent, creative and rash, but also noble and well-educated. Of all the caster professions, they strike me as the least willing to use technology.

You guys rock! A lot of really great info here that will definitely help me make the story so much better… And for some reason I always thought Australia played on the EU side, sorry about that.

@TGSlasher & cheshirefox: Elementalists are so versatile that I think I’ll be using 2 for the story. I’d be honored to use Sophea/Korra if I am allowed. Mind giving a bit of insight as to their personality?

Sophea Personality: (And yes you can use her for your story.)
While she looks like an innocent girl, there is blood on her hands. Working your way to the top isn’t easy and any whom get in the way must be removed from your path. On her travels to the mists, all the enemies seemed to be no match to the element weaving power of Sophea. Although only a Novice or Adept Elementalist, she still wields her power to the fullest and knows what spells will suit the situation. Being attacked by multiple foes will earn them a burning, single foes will find that the air can be quite punishing and when a fellow friend is in danger a water spell or too does not go astray.

While her helping others comes naturally to Sophea, her current level of power or knowledge of the elements does not lend itself well to being able to fully support her allies. As such the spells she cast are usually of a selfish manner, more due to the fact that she doesn’t have the power to “share” those abilities. She has worked hard to get the most out of auras, even learning of “Aura Share” but going down such path would require too much use of her power and she would find herself nearly useless in all other aspects. So her path is to protect through power, kill the foe before they try to kill you or your kin.

Sophea may look like a noble and may even have boosted dignity over other personality traits, though she is not afraid to tell a Charr the “hard truth” or charm her way through a bad situation. There is no “hope to be a Master” within her bones, she wants to enter the “Hall of Heroes” and if she becomes a Master elementalist along the way, then that is what it will take.

Its a shame that Sophea may never reach the Hall, as over the last 200 years the doors to the Gods have closed, though Sophea does not know it yet. Still she strives to reach the goal of her ancestors before, the Lord Richard I and Lord Richard II both finding their way to the Hall. Strange the way that a family of “Ranger Mesmers” bloodline can bring about an Elementalist. Perhaps that limits her powers, though these are strange times, the way of dual master has come and gone and the power of the Dragons awaken.

Sophea and gang screenshots:

Sophea wearing Phoenix in PvP (blame gw2 hero view for low res)
http://i.imgur.com/ZmSs7Uu.jpg

Sophea PvE:
http://i.imgur.com/N6TXbas.jpg

Sophea blowing stuff up:
http://i.imgur.com/ZF5lYRj.jpg

Sophea Sladorian:
http://i.imgur.com/tg066Jk.jpg

Slasher Sladorian:
http://i.imgur.com/zxgcc0c.jpg

Well … can’t embed with !url! or [img]url[/img] from imgur so you’ll have to follow link sorry

Kreb Loine Kloth of the Deathe Wall Clan,

Kreb pwns all noobs. There is no challenge Kreb has come across yet. This game is 2ez. That is all.

How goes the story?

Hey guys, just a quick update.. Story should be up by this weekend. Woulda been sooner but this past month has been (EXTREMELY tumultuous. (Mes forums rocked my socks with kindness though.)

I visited the thread to review the information I had gathered and noticed your post TG, so I figured I’d give ya a heads up.

• Sophea is actually one of the main characters in the story (prolly gonna incorporate the Charr too). I’ma try REALLY hard to nail her personality down.

• The scene is going to be more WvW-oriented, a larger scale battle with 5 different main characters (Mesmer, Ele, Ranger, Engineer and …. not sure of fifth)

Oh speaking of which, could anyone explain some popular Elementalist WvW tactics?

Tactics depends on weapon choice and skills chosen. Have you determined that yet?

Looking glyphs, cantrips, and conjured weapons. Since it’s story rather than game I can expand how many utilities I use… And I since I don’t have to worry about balance issues, the Ele can use more than one weapon. Scepter is going to be main focused but I definitely plan on including some d/d and staff play

HAIKU (6-5):
I rolled an elementalist for wvw.
I bought a programmable mouse.
I programmed alt+f4 into the mouse.
I die in the ruins.
They cry on forums about me.
I laugh to no end.