My friend and I are aiming to have a different race with a different profession occupying each character slot. I’ve been interested in playing an elementalist, but the only race left to play as is a Charr. Obviously, an elementalist Charr isn’t very ‘lore friendly’ but I’m determined to persevere.
I’ve seen many elementalists building heavily into increased damage (e.g berserker enchantments) and while this may make them a brutal damage dealer, they often require someone to support them and aren’t very capable of soloing. I’m all for playing a support character but I don’t want to become a sitting duck should I become cut off from allies.
So, I was thinking of perhaps building into both damage and defense, a ‘battlemage’ if you will. I understand that I would take a damage penalty in exchange for the extra tankiness. I understand that I’m already at a defense disadvantage with wearing light armor.
So I was hoping that a more experienced player could tell me if this build could have some potential. Thanks in advance
Oh and don’t tell me to play a guardian if I want to be a battlemage. Their spell diversity is nothing compared to elementalists and this is about finding a lore friendly, solo capable solution to a Charr elementalist.
The PVT DD build (see DaPhoenix’s posts) is a bit like a battlemage (If only for its mobility/melee-range-based playstyle). 30 in water gets you a ton of condition remove/healing ability. Then again, might wanna wait for the patch before jumping on it XD
So you don’t think there’s any feasibility in a staff/conjured melee weapon elementalist with enough toughness to simply tank the damage. I’m experienced enough to know that it’s a bit of a pipe dream, but it would be so cool
I have been theory crafting a 20/25/0/10/15 build using quick glyphs, inscription, the +20% to vulnerable enemies in water attunement, and the +10 conjured weapon charges. The arcane points could go into earth for the free earth armor at 50% hp or be used for arcane shield at 25% if you wanted to move them around.
My thought was to might stack with the scepter/fire field combo, summon a lightning hammer, then switch to water and get regen from inscription/elemental harmony, vulnerability from crits, chilled from glyph of elemental power, +20% dmg from the vulnerability (I’m not sure that it works for summoned weapons, but I hope so), and whack away at things. My elite is an elemental and I have the glyph of lesser elementals as well – 2 ice elementals help with healing and drop ice fields for the hammer’s 3rd chain blast finisher/blind to give you an aura.
The build so far at lvl 44 is pretty squishy though. It is totally balanced out for me with the fun of just smashing things with a hammer. The auto attack damage is pretty high all by itself. I would say it’s a pve only build.
Asuran -Engineer, Elementalist, Necromancer, Mesmer, and underlevel Ranger
Honestly? No idea. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone build around the conjured weapons and I haven’t tried myself. Could be interesting, though I think the consensus from others is that most conjured weapons are useless save Fiery Greatsword and FrostBow (in some situations). I could be wrong, I’m going entirely off of memory here. Looks like the poster above me is trying to figure it out, though.
So you don’t think there’s any feasibility in a staff/conjured melee weapon elementalist with enough toughness to simply tank the damage. I’m experienced enough to know that it’s a bit of a pipe dream, but it would be so cool
Honestly? No idea. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone build around the conjured weapons and I haven’t tried myself. Could be interesting, though I think the consensus from others is that most conjured weapons are useless save Fiery Greatsword and FrostBow (in some situations). I could be wrong, I’m going entirely off of memory here. Looks like the poster above me is trying to figure it out, though.
I’m not sure if summoned weapons utilize weapon stat boosts so I think that’ll play a big part in whether this build will work out. It’s early days but so far I’m finding this build to work surprisingly well. Assuming I remember to put on the earth shield and stick to my combos, the small damage penalty isn’t terrible and I can see a marked improvement in my ability to take damage (obviously still not great but I’m not getting 2 hit). However, the build does rely heavily on my ability to quickly change from staff to fire axe should an enemy get close. And you need to make every charge on the weapon count before it runs out.
IMO conjures are very situational. I’d rather spam away with my regular attunement skills rather than using the charges in the conjured weapons. They feel so clunky to use.
But one thing I realized is that the 0/10/0/30/30 can be very flexible and it’s a strength you might want to utilize when coming up with you build.
It can go full offensive with Air VI, Water II, IV, VI, Arcana I,V,XII or build for tanking with lots of healing/condi cleanse with Air I, Water III, V, XI, Arcana V, VI, XI. The water trait line is just so perfectly designed for this flexibility. Same goes with Arcana in a way. Most if not all options in these trees are very useful in any mix you can think of.
“The boss you just killed respawns ten minutes
later. It doesn’t care that I’m there.”
Honestly? No idea. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone build around the conjured weapons and I haven’t tried myself. Could be interesting, though I think the consensus from others is that most conjured weapons are useless save Fiery Greatsword and FrostBow (in some situations). I could be wrong, I’m going entirely off of memory here. Looks like the poster above me is trying to figure it out, though.
So you don’t think there’s any feasibility in a staff/conjured melee weapon elementalist with enough toughness to simply tank the damage. I’m experienced enough to know that it’s a bit of a pipe dream, but it would be so cool
ax sucks
shield is situational; but potentially useful (as you said); you can group mobs together for the team to aoe/cleave down
hammer is awesome (im actually confused as why i see no one using it in dungeons…); every third hit in the chain is a blast finisher and a blind (meaning you can keep slow attacking enemies blinded and spam finishers in combo fields) – plus it has great synergy with staff (which seems to be the most popular weapon in dungeons; i prefer D/D) as you can give it to someone to spam into your fields
ax sucks
shield is situational; but potentially useful (as you said); you can group mobs together for the team to aoe/cleave down
hammer is awesome (im actually confused as why i see no one using it in dungeons…); every third hit in the chain is a blast finisher and a blind (meaning you can keep slow attacking enemies blinded and spam finishers in combo fields) – plus it has great synergy with staff (which seems to be the most popular weapon in dungeons; i prefer D/D) as you can give it to someone to spam into your fields
Oh don’t get me wrong, I know the axe is not an optimal conjure weapon, as soon as a better weapon is available I’m taking it. As of now, this still by no means a perfect build, but it’s showing more promise than I thought it would.
The reason being conjured hammer is slow in attack and dungeon mobs hit much harder than open world mobs.
You can’t stand tanking for too long lets alone spam Hammer auto attack 1. That’s just my view though.
I still prefer to chain though my attunements to DPS and support.
im a squishy ele and dont really have a problem with meleeing enemies… but then i do have perma vigour (to twitch dodge) and am constantly on the move (meleeing doesnt mean you have to take hits well; just that you have be able to avoid them)
