Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone,
Do you guys have any neat tricks that you have discovered on the ele? Here are a 2 that I found. Feel free to post more on this thread to help out our fellow elementalists.

Ultimate Area Might Combo
This combo can easily stack up to 18 area might. Have a scepter and dagger (focus can work but it is more difficult) with arcane blast. Lightning Flash is nice to have but optional

1. Start in fire attunement and drop a Dragon’s Tooth
2. Run or Lightning Flash to your Dragon’s Tooth point of impact and use Ring of Fire
3. Use Phoenix and Arcane Blast on your Ring of Fire
4. Most things should be dead by now, if not follow up by switching to earth and using Earthquake with Churning Earth for good measure

With the new Persisting Flame trait this also gives about 55s of Fury and Pyromancer’s Puissance trait stacks might up to 21.

The Lava Font Chills!
Or immobilises or blinds. You will need a staff, the Elemental Surge trait and Arcane Power for this.

1. While in fire, use Arcane Power and cast Lava Font
2. Quickly switch to Water and watch as your target gets chilled

You can modify this with different combinations and weapons. For example, Arcane Power a Shatterstone and switching to fire will cause enemy’s to burn! Feel free to try out other different combos. The alternative is to use Glyph of Elemental Power but this will give different set of conditions.

I always bring arcane blast to dungeons.

One neat little trick is that when you go dd and use air 5 then fire 3 on an enemy you will land right on top of them.

Attunement switching counts as weapon switching so sigil of battle is great.

With staff, you can use earth 2 then lay down a field on it for buffs. I use this combo for area swiftness and might in dungeons or with water for extra healing.

Edit: you can use staff earth 5 then immediately after 4 to stack a lot of crippled time

earthquake—> start churning earth—> arcane wave with elemental attunement as soon as they get up from earthquake —>CE finishes

Nice for catching a group of players and getting a hit with CE somewhat safely.

fire grab + cleansing fire before the grab hits

Burning speed/Churning Earth/Fiery Rush + lightning flash on top of enemy

This thread just yells “NERF US”.
Here’s some from me: fiery great sword 3 or burning speed when chilled/crippled in melee range. Fiery great sword 4 without a target -> flash back.
Also here’s a tip: tornado increases your stats and gives you a ton of crit chance. I’ll let you figure out some good uses for that :P

Wryog.5073:

This thread just yells “NERF US”.
Here’s some from me: fiery great sword 3 or burning speed when chilled/crippled in melee range. Fiery great sword 4 without a target -> flash back.
Also here’s a tip: tornado increases your stats and gives you a ton of crit chance. I’ll let you figure out some good uses for that :P

Don`t all stats gained in tornado get removed though?
Vaguely recall the stability getting nerfed eons ago.

They get removed when tornado ends/gets canceled. Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough. Also I’m not only talking about stability.

Btw Tornado retains boons and other buffs so a strategy is to activate Magnetic Wave before Tornado to get projectile reflect. You may also stack other boons such as swiftness to get a swift tornado or one with protection. My guildmate once stealthed me and I walked into a WvW zerg before using Tornado for some fun havoc.

I play D/F and this is how i like to fight at close range :

Do all the following thing until the “4.” step while spamming “1” air at your target.
1. Use Arcane Shield when you are at 60% hp or below. Lower is better, to let your opponent think that he has almost got you.
2. Use Shocking Aura before the last block of Arcane Shield.
3. When the Arcane shield explode, move back to let your opponent to start to heal. He should have something like 10 to 40% hp.
4. Interupt him with Comet (5 water) or Gale (5 air)
5. Use burning speed and Arcane Wave if you use it.
6. Take your bag.

If you are playing D/D, for the 4th step you will have to use lighting flash and Updraft (5 air).

I m using the 4th Arcana trait, so i have a little backup in case i missed the timing for shocking aura.
I have not much burst with D/F, so i win my fights by interupting the heal of my opponent.

Magnetic grasp ( dagger earth 3 , 1st cast) will immobilize for an easy burning speed hit.

Also magnetic grasp’s jump ability is slow. Usually it’s better to start casting 2 instead while running to the immobilized target.

arcane wave = blast finisher
arcane blast = projectile finisher.

more than one person messed it up in this thread…

Razor.6392:

arcane wave = blast finisher
arcane blast = projectile finisher.

more than one person messed it up in this thread…

I guess it’s kinda weird that an ability with the word “blast” in its name isn’t a blast finished. I guess that’s anet’s style. We’re also playing a game called Guild wars 2 which is made by arenanet and it has neither arenas nor gvg. The names they make up usually are connected to the last thing you’d think about
Back to the topic. RTL gets a 40s CD if it doesn’t deal damage, not if it doesn’t hit. So watch out for a dodge roll/block up when you use it and never use it when blinded.

Lightning flash can be used during any animation. To do this, start your skill then use Lightning Flash before it ends.
Some good examples:
Churning Earth, teleport at anyone trying to escape death
Gale, increase this bad boys range by double.
Heal, get away from your foes, during your heal
Frost Bow 5 Deep Freeze (my favourite), teleport at your foe and ice block his face, good to boost the range of this or guarantee a hit (very slow projectile when ranged).
Flaming Greatsword 3, Double the damage by porting back
Flaming Greatsword Summon, This cuts your movement ability (lame) so teleport while doing it.
Fire Grab and Cleansing Fire, start Fire Grab (even if they aren’t on fire) then teleport at your foe casting Cleansing Fire just before the Fire Grab hits (if it doesn’t lag out) and presto you have hit them with a burning Fire Grab.

Other neat tricks:
GS Warriors, the ones that start with rush. When using S/x, move at your foe, use Dragons tooth then teleport to them, if they us rush they will charge straight at you and your DT.

One PvE trick:

Fiery Greatsword 4 leaves a fiery trail behind you that ticks damage. If you run against a wall (without target) the trail stacks into one point and ticks 20+ times. Use that for mobs/bosses pulled against a wall or damage gates in wvw with it.

Tired of walls? Do it without a wall with lightning flash. Cast fiery rush (again without target) and then immediately port with lightning flash into (or right before) your enemy. You’ll stop at the end of your teleport.

pmnt.4067:

One PvE trick:

Fiery Greatsword 4 leaves a fiery trail behind you that ticks damage. If you run against a wall (without target) the trail stacks into one point and ticks 20+ times. Use that for mobs/bosses pulled against a wall or damage gates in wvw with it.

Tired of walls? Do it without a wall with lightning flash. Cast fiery rush (again without target) and then immediately port with lightning flash into (or right before) your enemy. You’ll stop at the end of your teleport.

Also doable with Fire 3 on the dagger

BTW, is this going to be compiled into a master list or something?

Wryog.5073:

This thread just yells “NERF US”.
Here’s some from me: fiery great sword 3 or burning speed when chilled/crippled in melee range. Fiery great sword 4 without a target -> flash back.
Also here’s a tip: tornado increases your stats and gives you a ton of crit chance. I’ll let you figure out some good uses for that :P

This thread TEACHES those who don’t get combos, how in the WORLD can it yell “NERF US”?

Because devs have a talent for nerfing fun :P
Seriously, it shows some things that might seem overpowered like the fiery greatsword 4+lightning flash behind to stack the fields thing. I doubt they wanted to make the ability like that.

Wryog.5073:

Because devs have a talent for nerfing fun :P
Seriously, it shows some things that might seem overpowered like the fiery greatsword 4+lightning flash behind to stack the fields thing. I doubt they wanted to make the ability like that.

Yeah I doubt that they did. I would post a screenshot of just how nasty it is, but I don’t want it nerfed.

Let’s just go back and delete any mention of fiery greatsword 4 throughout our post history. Then speaking of it will be forbidden, and it shall become a dark secret of the GW2 elementalist sub forum in a vain attempt to combat the nerfs. Really though, retaliation slaughters it.

Mist form ftw ?

Scorael.8952:

Btw Tornado retains boons and other buffs so a strategy is to activate Magnetic Wave before Tornado to get projectile reflect. You may also stack other boons such as swiftness to get a swift tornado or one with protection. My guildmate once stealthed me and I walked into a WvW zerg before using Tornado for some fun havoc.

So if I run an aura build, I can stack protection, fury, swiftness, and an aura for the duration of the tornado?

Cast Phoenix just behind your target to get 3 hits out of it.

You can use glyph of renewal in fire pre-emptively even without a target and resurrect yourself if you go down in the buff period.

Fast cast ground targetting is your friend, also you should bind keys so that it isnt a nuisance to activate with just the keyboard.

Some tricks that I found with my staff ele.

AoE –
Hitting a key bind twice of a target area spell will also land the spell at your mouse location (there’s also an option in the setting menu for a one click AoE cast)

Heal –
Glyph of Elemental Harmony: creates a boon at the end of its channeling. Depending on which boon you need, you can swap attunement at the last second.

Fire -
Burning Retreat: offensive use (super effective against melee target)- while holding aggro, dodge roll into your target, then hit burning retreat. You could also use Arcane Wave for might stacking while retreating.

Earth –
Shockwave: this skill could CC a lot of enemies if you’re not locked onto a specific target. When a mob charges at you, try to funnel them before hitting shockwave. (For the Charr themed Fractal, you’ll find mobs for this practice while roaming in the fortress. Landing a Frozen Ground also helps) Doing so will immobilize the maximum amount of enemies. (I’m not sure if there’s an enemy cap with this skill)

Navzar.2938:

BTW, is this going to be compiled into a master list or something?

Perhaps we can get it stickied.

jaif.3518:

So if I run an aura build, I can stack protection, fury, swiftness, and an aura for the duration of the tornado?

Not the duration of the tornado (unfortunately). It will follow its default duration.

Sorry I cant reveal certain secrets and tricks but i will say that if u search some of my old posts i have revealed a select few.

Scorael.8952:

The Lava Font Chills!
Or immobilises or blinds. You will need a staff, the Elemental Surge trait and Arcane Power for this.

1. While in fire, use Arcane Power and cast Lava Font
2. Quickly switch to Water and watch as your target gets chilled

You can modify this with different combinations and weapons. For example, Arcane Power a Shatterstone and switching to fire will cause enemy’s to burn! Feel free to try out other different combos. The alternative is to use Glyph of Elemental Power but this will give different set of conditions.

Sorry to rain on your parade perhaps, but Elemental Surge doesn’t quite work how you describe. The particular condition that Elemental Surge causes is actually set when you use the ability, so if you are in fire attunement when you finish casting Arcane Power it will cause burning whenever you use the Arcane Power charges, no matter what attunement you are in when you use them. The same applies to the other conditions that Elemental Surge applies as well as the conditions from Glyph of Elemental Power.

dukevonart.2691:

Sorry to rain on your parade perhaps, but Elemental Surge doesn’t quite work how you describe. The particular condition that Elemental Surge causes is actually set when you use the ability, so if you are in fire attunement when you finish casting Arcane Power it will cause burning whenever you use the Arcane Power charges, no matter what attunement you are in when you use them. The same applies to the other conditions that Elemental Surge applies as well as the conditions from Glyph of Elemental Power.

You jumped too fast, arcane power takes your current attunement into consideration, unlike glyph.

dukevonart.2691:

Scorael.8952:

The Lava Font Chills!
Or immobilises or blinds. You will need a staff, the Elemental Surge trait and Arcane Power for this.

1. While in fire, use Arcane Power and cast Lava Font
2. Quickly switch to Water and watch as your target gets chilled

You can modify this with different combinations and weapons. For example, Arcane Power a Shatterstone and switching to fire will cause enemy’s to burn! Feel free to try out other different combos. The alternative is to use Glyph of Elemental Power but this will give different set of conditions.

Sorry to rain on your parade perhaps, but Elemental Surge doesn’t quite work how you describe. The particular condition that Elemental Surge causes is actually set when you use the ability, so if you are in fire attunement when you finish casting Arcane Power it will cause burning whenever you use the Arcane Power charges, no matter what attunement you are in when you use them. The same applies to the other conditions that Elemental Surge applies as well as the conditions from Glyph of Elemental Power.

This is wrong thankfully! Elemental surge causes a condition according to what attunment u are in when the cast time of the skill is over. Meaning that if you start to cast Lava font and before it finishes switch to water, it will cause freeze.

I use this trick all the time! Do this:

Arcane power +Phoenix behind target + blink + switch to earth ! the phoenix will hit target and immobilize him for 3 sec instantly

Since you arrive at the same time as you are finished casting phoenix you can do earthquake REALLY fast and lands about 1 sec after the teleport (whilst the enemy is still immobilized) and then switch to lightning for the burst, like this:

Earthquake + Lightning attunment + lightning Strike + RTL

Since phoenix immobilizes the first sec (out of three) on its way out you are ensured all 3 times will hit if the first do. Also it leaves the 2 sec immobilize for earthquake wich is will require an extremely good reaction time for the enemy to avoid. So by using Elemental Surge and Arcane power the burst combo with blink and phoenix is MUCH more reliable! as is the knockdown and air burst!

Also a good way to use this is simply if u have the opportunity to open with churning earth, your blink will immobilize them making it so the cannot dodge at the last second!

:)

Fuzzion.2504:

Sorry I cant reveal certain secrets and tricks but i will say that if u search some of my old posts i have revealed a select few.

http://i.imgur.com/zuJrbpM.jpg

Step 1: Earthquake.
Step 2: Conjure Fiery Greatsword on opponent.
Step 3: Signet of Earth to hold said person.
Step 4: Un-target the opponent and use Fiery Rush (4) while standing close.
Step 5: Lightning Flash back to apply two layers of the fire trail on your opponent.
Step 6: Arcane Wave + Electric Discharge + Fiery Whirl.

Can be hard to pull off, especially if the opponent has a stunbreak ready. Before trying this combo, you can use Updraft and try landing a DT + Phoenix to make the person use a stunbreak, increasing your chance of success. It really hurts.

haviz.1340:

You jumped too fast, arcane power takes your current attunement into consideration, unlike glyph.

Stalefish.7615:

This is wrong thankfully! Elemental surge causes a condition according to what attunment u are in when the cast time of the skill is over. Meaning that if you start to cast Lava font and before it finishes switch to water, it will cause freeze.

Ha! shows that I need to play around with these more, the quoted above are correct. My apologies for not knowing my stuff :P. Thanks for the correction.

(…still kind of confused why I didn’t realize this after testing prior, feels like it was stealth changed in some patch, but that’s probably just me.)

Hmm, makes me think. Wielding the FGS in earth attunement, with Elemental Surge and Arcane Power. You can catch someone with the whirl, then precisely Fiery Rush them Lightning Flash style.. could be saucy!

Apparently it is a waste (referring to the above post about FGS), since immobilize replace each other too fast to be of real use.

However, a few interesting tricks using Elemental Surge + Arcane Power.

Churning Earth anti-dodge

Step 1: Activate Arcane Power.
Step 2: Cast Churning Earth.
Step 3: Activate Arcane Shield to avoid blinds (just a precaution).
Step 4: Lightning Flash onto your opponent one second before it goes off.
Step 4: Your opponent becomes immobilized and can’t dodge in the last second before it detonates.

A nice way of making sure your opponent has to use special means in order to escape, or take the blast.

This is another version of OP’s Lava Font trick. Let’s call it..

Lava Bath

Step 1: Activate Arcane Power.
Step 2: Cast Lava Font so your opponent gets the first tick.
Step 3: Shift to earth attunement immediately and cast Eruption.
Step 4: Cast Shockwave.
Step 4: Insert next action..

If you manage to make your opponent being hit the first time the Lava Font ticks, the opponent will remain immobilized for the entire duration of Lava Font, taking its full damage (all will be crits) plus Eruption, with an additional immobilize from Shockwave for a continuation of the combo. Total immobilization time: 7 seconds.

The interesting thing about the combo is this; if you merely condition cleanse to get out of the initial Lava Font + immobilize, it has the benefit of re-applying immobilize once per second for five seconds (Lava Font = 4 secs. Eruption = 1 sec) not adding the Shockwave that will be easier to land, which would make it tricky to escape the predicament. Aiming for high damage you can easily expect 5000-8000 damage (depending on opponent) from the Lava Font alone, another 1000 from Eruption (not counting the stacks of bleed) and then add your next course of action to that damage… if lucky.

@Malcastus
If you are crazy enough, you can change out the arcane shied for arcane wave or blast to apply another 1 second imob, for 2 seconds of leeway, or a backup for condition cleanse

Healing Rain → Tornado

It’s great when everyone is bunched up such as recovering from a fight in WvW cause if the enemy rushes you for Round 2 not only are you healing but then you can kick out Blinds as well.

Malcastus.6240:

Step 1: Activate Arcane Power.
Step 2: Cast Churning Earth.

Doesn’t churning earth cast little mini cripples that would eat up your arcane power crits?

@Solo: It doesn’t. Only damage skills trigger the effect.

I wish that Elemental Surge would work like GoEP does. Currently if you want the immobilize, you need to be in earth. Rockbarrier → Hurl would be interesting in keeping one from dodging Churning Earth.

TGSlasher.1458:

@Malcastus
If you are crazy enough, you can change out the arcane shied for arcane wave or blast to apply another 1 second imob, for 2 seconds of leeway, or a backup for condition cleanse

Yup. I just put Arcane Shield in there for a stunbreak and a wee bit of defense.

Solo.9027:

Malcastus.6240:

Step 1: Activate Arcane Power.
Step 2: Cast Churning Earth.

Doesn’t churning earth cast little mini cripples that would eat up your arcane power crits?

From what I have heard no, it used to be a pain in the rear, as the first cripple would eat all 5 charges and give 1 imob. Might need more testing but I think this is now fixed. Also, if the cripples did eat the arcane power, you could just use the skill away from your opponent (they usually aren’t silly enough to stand in it) then port. If you have a thief around you can start this from stealth.

RTL and Mist Form are tranformations and, as such, will take you out of/back into your weapon set. This has a couple uses.

Will proc on-swap sigils on entering, or if the ICD runs out during the duration, on exiting. Use RTl/Hydromancy for an escape that chills foes around you, and keep it in mind when considering how you want to come out of mist form.

Will not proc attunement swapping benefits. Unfortunately you do not get air-15 to proc by casting either. These apparently only activate on entering an attunement different from the one you left.

Some good stuff. Indexed for future reference.

If you play staff ele, one way to get someone to be hit by eruption is to use earth 5 for a immobalize, then cast eruption on the person, then cast static field around so that they cannot escape the blast.

Arcane Shield is excellent to use with Meteor Shower, since it takes some time to cast.

Glyph of Elemental Power makes all those staff AoE skills cause cripple/chill, making it much easier to land subsequent hits.

Also, cast a Healing Rain, dodge into it while switching to Earth and give the folks in it healing, regeneration, condition removal and (if using Elemental Attunement), protection.

ThiBash.5634:

Glyph of Elemental Power makes all those staff AoE skills cause cripple/chill, making it much easier to land subsequent hits.

Also, cast a Healing Rain, dodge into it while switching to Earth and give the folks in it healing, regeneration, condition removal and (if using Elemental Attunement), protection.

Stop with this non-sense, how somebody in his right mind can suggest that a RNG utility deserve a spot on your bar?From 25% chance we now get “all aoe skills”..what?

Arheundel.6451:

ThiBash.5634:

Glyph of Elemental Power makes all those staff AoE skills cause cripple/chill, making it much easier to land subsequent hits.

Also, cast a Healing Rain, dodge into it while switching to Earth and give the folks in it healing, regeneration, condition removal and (if using Elemental Attunement), protection.

Stop with this non-sense, how somebody in his right mind can suggest that a RNG utility deserve a spot on your bar?From 25% chance we now get “all aoe skills”..what?

Assume that it´s wvw, and there´s a big blob of red name heading your way, but luckily you´re in a big blob of green names.
You cast glyph and single lavafont. 25% chance to cripple, hits 5 peoples, statisticaly speaking atleast one of those 5 should be crippled. But it pulses, so that´s 4 people crippled. Then how about the earth 4? It´s a pulsing cripple with damage conmponent, so it benefits from the glyp and thus has 11 pulses, that all have guaranteed 2s cripple and 25% chance to inflict a 7s cripple, it´s going to hit a lot of people, at maximum 11×5 so chances are that lot´s of those people will be crippled. Nearly every skill has a chance of hitting 5 or more people (static field will hit everything that moves through it, shockwave hits everyhing it goes through), you can expect atleast 1 person cripple out of every 4 people hit.
But what does cripple help? Well, the one who gets crippled moves slower than the rest, starts to get separated, aoe damage doesn´t get divided between him and his allies anymore and his bound to die. Alternatively he can use his cooldown to condition cleanse/heal/use mobility skills etc. but that means he can´t use them at later stage anymore and is more propable to die.

Small scale…meh, there´s better things to take, but large scale it´s a solid utility that creates lot of pressure on the enemy.