Looking for a diverse gameplay build
Bomber- rune of afflicted + lava tomb + glyph of renewal used in fire for self rally in next 15s, but it isn’t effiecent.
uh, I occasionally use air overload on my carrion/sinister ele
fire is primary damage, and water→earth for defense
I use rampager set with rune of speed, becouse its give you permanent 25% movement speed, so you don’t need air traitline nor signet of air, + its vitality rune, for trinkets celestial. My other set is berserker with rune of infiltration for stealth and soldier trinkets. Only core ele.
This is what I run as a commander in HoT open world, because it gives me access to a whole lot of different stuff to use depending on situation. Not dying as a commander is somewhat more important than doing a ton of damage.
Only thing it misses is mobility and a manual stun breaker which can be added by swapping out ulitily skills.
There is a similar topic here where several people posted builds for casual PvE and explained their reasoning, myself included.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
MadRabbit , how do you handle situations where you are the only one vs mobs ? I tried pure support-focused specs on other professions and I quickly got tired of it because lots of times there wasnt anyone (or too few ppl) to support.
MadRabbit , how do you handle situations where you are the only one vs mobs ? I tried pure support-focused specs on other professions and I quickly got tired of it because lots of times there wasnt anyone (or too few ppl) to support.
Staff isn’t pure support though and you can change your setup to adapt for solo. It also depends on the mobs, to be honest.
Like most trash in HoT can just be handled by bursting. Usually, solo, I keep the same gear stats, but switch to a Fire/Lightning/Tempest setup and use Signet of Fire/Gylph Of Storms/cantrip setup. You can use swiftness to assemble a group of mobs and stack Storms/Lava Font/Fire Overload or Meteor Shower/Lava Font/Fire Overload.
Groups of certain veterans can die in seconds and the protection during overload is enough to mitigate the damage during that time. Fire overload is the whole reason to take tempest in PvE, even if you aren’t support, because staff fire lets you chain stack multiple AoEs for a ton of AoE burst.
I also use ether renewal solo a lot, because it’s an incredibly powerful solo heal on a low CD. You lose all your condi removal when you drop shouts for more DPS focused skills.
Certain mobs are harder though. Like Shadowleapers, you can’t do that, because they disengage when you get in melee range. If you know you are going to fight them, you want to run Aftershock for a second reflect aura besides the one in Earth. Just fight them from ranged and if you trigger their backflip, popping a reflect aura will cause them to kill themselves. But if you don’t reflect or dodge on the backflip, you lose most of your hp on just a trash mob.
Snipers and bladedancers…don’t try and get close at all. Bladedancers can chain stun for a lot of damage if you get in melee range; they will telegraph it by sheathing their bow and pulling out their dagger. Snipers big ranged attack is easily avoided by constant strafing, but if you get close, it will trigger their kick mechanic which doesn’t have much telegraphing and can take away like half your hp pool or one shot you if it’s a champ.
Bigger, slower champion mobs like Arrowheads, Trolls, Crushers, Floppers and Husks (Husks are hard as an elementalist), it’s more about swiftness and vigor uptime and just slowly widdling them down. A lot of their mechanics can be avoided by just moving correctly. It mostly comes down to learning the mechanics, positioning correctly and not panicing and blowing your endurance bar faster than vigor can sustain it.
If you know you are going to try and solo one of those mobs, like a Fire/Arcane/Water setup with cantrips is better, because of the potential for 100% vigor and swiftness uptime and building mights stack in fire. I can do the Champion Arrowhead in AB with that setup; I would make a video, but my videos always end up kitten. Tempest is useless in fights like that, because it’s all kiting from ranged; getting close for an overload is instant loss.
Don’t try and solo elite or champ snipers, shadowleapers or bladedancers. Even on my daredevil with dodges and stealth for days, they are insanely hard. Most broken mobs in HoT and with good reasons. Just run away. Even fighting veterans solo is precarious
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
But…hey with that wall of text…Tempest are still bottom of the barrel when it comes to soloing classes.
Before I quit, the last month or so I just played my Daredevil for everything solo, because everything they did with that elite specialization was a winner and soloing with them is just a lot more obtainable than with my Tempest.
Even then, if I got stuck on a account achievement, I just logged in on my reaper. Even before they changed it so leeching bolts heal you in shroud, I was running a variation of the MM build everyone was running in PvP for the first month of HoT. I could solo 90% of the HoT content by face tanking with a three button rotation. Insanely overpowered, but also insanely boring. Daredevil, at least, gives me a reasonable challenge most of the time.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
^nah, ele is very good at solo play
here’s how I see it
ele/tempest has no innate defense, but the highest damage potential in the game.
However, you can trait/build in some defense and take a damage hit, and then your damage is the same as other classes, and you now have good defense as well
We would have to start a whole new thread to debate the intricaties of the elementalist as a soloing class.
What I will say from experience is that there is a number of situations where my elementalist’s ability to triple stack three powerful AoEs and just annihilate groups of mobs is very useful.
But in general, my Daredevil has way more flexibility in the sheer number of encounters she can tactically deal with.
And Reapear is just god mode. That’s my character I only log into when I am really kittened off at something and just want to delete it from the game.
I can’t speak much to other classes though, because I haven’t played them in a long time.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
Interesting. I actually have just the opposite experience. Ele is my destroy whatever the hell I want class.
I do have more experience with ele than with other classes though
Interesting. I actually have just the opposite experience. Ele is my destroy whatever the hell I want class.
I do have more experience with ele than with other classes though
That is interesting. If I still played, I would want to compare tactics, because maybe I am just approaching certain encounters the wrong way.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
What! You don’t play anymore? Too cool for GW2 now?
Hey this was enjoyable to read! Both of you guys seem to pop up often, and its good to see ele’s with some knowledge(though I am little puzzled about the lack of thinking ele can solo haha)
IMO i prefer knights armor and zerker trinkets in open world and it seems to be a breeze to wipe out anything. I have been playing ONLY d/d in open world with ele to give myself a challenge recently.
Staff is ez mode IMO. you can literally camp fire and if things get hard the amount of CC control on staff is unreal. Can’t access any OL because of the quick rotating during kite mode, but i still keep tempest there for when i get the chance to OL for the beautiful damage.
You can also just go full yolo tank with knights and clerics gear and just easy mode d/f everything to death with tempest. You can also rotate the two signet of elementals an almost perma upkeep a earth elemental too if you want something to face tank for you/rally you if you mess up.
What! You don’t play anymore? Too cool for GW2 now?
Playing Path of Exile’s latest expansion. Not a big secret I am not happy with the direction the game is going. Will come back to check out the next content patch or if they make any serious balance changes.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
Hey this was enjoyable to read! Both of you guys seem to pop up often, and its good to see ele’s with some knowledge(though I am little puzzled about the lack of thinking ele can solo haha)
IMO i prefer knights armor and zerker trinkets in open world and it seems to be a breeze to wipe out anything. I have been playing ONLY d/d in open world with ele to give myself a challenge recently.
Staff is ez mode IMO. you can literally camp fire and if things get hard the amount of CC control on staff is unreal. Can’t access any OL because of the quick rotating during kite mode, but i still keep tempest there for when i get the chance to OL for the beautiful damage.
You can also just go full yolo tank with knights and clerics gear and just easy mode d/f everything to death with tempest. You can also rotate the two signet of elementals an almost perma upkeep a earth elemental too if you want something to face tank for you/rally you if you mess up.
It’s more with the fact I am trying to solo content that isn’t intended to be solo and I get mixed results with elementalists. It just could be my personal playstyle which favors a lot of mobility which makes Daredevil better suited.
Knights works well. I still like Soldier’s a little bit better, because there is a few mechanics in HoT that can build up some condi stacks and if I trade all my condi cleanse for DPS, I feel I do better against that.
But it’s just splitting hairs. You just need some survivability to survive the overtuned mobs in HoT, but not much.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
Hey this was enjoyable to read! Both of you guys seem to pop up often, and its good to see ele’s with some knowledge(though I am little puzzled about the lack of thinking ele can solo haha)
IMO i prefer knights armor and zerker trinkets in open world and it seems to be a breeze to wipe out anything. I have been playing ONLY d/d in open world with ele to give myself a challenge recently.
Staff is ez mode IMO. you can literally camp fire and if things get hard the amount of CC control on staff is unreal. Can’t access any OL because of the quick rotating during kite mode, but i still keep tempest there for when i get the chance to OL for the beautiful damage.
You can also just go full yolo tank with knights and clerics gear and just easy mode d/f everything to death with tempest. You can also rotate the two signet of elementals an almost perma upkeep a earth elemental too if you want something to face tank for you/rally you if you mess up.
It’s more with the fact I am trying to solo content that isn’t intended to be solo and I get mixed results with elementalists. It just could be my personal playstyle which favors a lot of mobility which makes Daredevil better suited.
Knights works well. I still like Soldier’s a little bit better, because there is a few mechanics in HoT that can build up some condi stacks and if I trade all my condi cleanse for DPS, I feel I do better against that.
But it’s just splitting hairs. You just need some survivability to survive the overtuned mobs in HoT, but not much.
Ah never recognized that fact about vitality. Very good point. I always tend to worry about power only damage outside of pvp