What build to learn Ele Mechanics?
You talking for spvp? or just leveling? or did you boost to max level and you’re looking for a wvw build or dungeon build?
Relevant.
Either way, the elementalist is hard due to the extra skills and utility that can easily be forgotten when you aren’t in the correct atunement. So to play any of the weapons well, you’ll have to practice a bunch until its easy to use all your skills at the right time. (Don’t expect to almost ever achieve perfection if you are a casual like me, but its very fun)
For traits, ele has lots ot choose from, but its the same rule for all classes. Go as offensive as you feel comfortable going, and build enough defense to stay alive. If you are playing a very bursty build in pvp, make sure you understand what should kill you, and how to counter. For instance, S/F fresh air has very very little defense, but they have enough skills that can protect themselves with. I survive better than most zerker builds because of that fact.
Good luck, and I’ll try to check this post again if you get more specific in your request, I can say a lot more. I’m a bit of a nerd.
I’d say D/D to learn ele mechanics. You’ll get a fair amount of condition damage, direct damage and a wealth of fields/finishers to use.
Each set of weapon set has different combinations of skills that have to be used to get the most out of those particular weapons.
I would figure out what kind of elementalist you want to be, which typically falls into two categories: dps or bunker. (which is more for pvp).
If you want to bunker, you are looking at either staff or dagger/dagger. Dagger tends to be more for brawling and staff tends to be more for supporting a team or WvW zerg.
If you want to dps, you are looking more at staff or scepter/focus.
Metabattle has builds for each.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
Well I will be pvping from the start which is how I’ve learned all my classes, I feel it is the best way to learn quickly as it has the highest learning curve and is the most competitive.
While it’s debatable, I would recommend daggers if you plan on fighting mostly alone or in small groups or staff if you want to fight in zergs. Both have different playstyles you have to learn, but their respective strengths lie in each of those areas.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
Hey again,
Since it sounds like you have some experience with the other classes. The world is open to you.
Options:
Staff burst – There are a few varieties of this, and with all builds its good to customize it to your liking. However, the build generally excels at controlling a point with damage. Trying to stay alive from other roamers.
Best Part: Sometimes you CAN down an entire enemy team. (very rare, and impossible in higher tiers, but really fun when you take out 3-5)
Worst Part: Dying instantly to good thieves and quickly to other roamers. Play your team, you’ll need help staying alive.
S/F Burst – Great Roamer, can 1v1 almost any spec. Excellent single target burst. Again, many varieties, but some have been seen in the highest level of competitive pvp. Super squishy.
Best Part: Killing thieves in stealth with pheonix, and turning team fights with a quick kil or rez with your invulnerability.
Worst Part: Not seeing that Ranger that just two shot you. Knowing, if you had just seen him coming he’d have died before he knew what happened. But, now that just happened to you.
Celestial – Now I’m putting these together. You can use any weapon set or build here. Most popular are 6/6 water/arcane, d/d or staff. The build has excellent sustain, and fights are usually drawn out, but hang on long enough, and the pressure you’re putting out (through dmg/heals/cc) is making a very noticeable difference for your team. Hard to be taken out 1v1.
Best Part: Coming back from the brink, and killing someone who overexposed themselves trying to land the kill on you; now you are stomping the last enemy, as the snowballing is great.
Worst Part: Watching your teamates getting taken out 1 by 1 early on, and feeling like you can’t help. Running away, but not feeling like you can do anything before the more organized enemies respond.
Full Bunker:
Now these builds range from Condi, with more dmg, or straight up “you can’t kill me”. Again, all weapons work. This isn’t very popular at the highest tier of pvp, but it can feel invaluable playing a lower bracket. You will go many games with 0 deaths, and feel like a boss to the end. I personally like some cleric builds more than condi, but they can both work.
Best Part:Can’t die. You might not be the most invincible class in the game, but when played well, you are very hard to take down. You can hold a point for a long time, and have the mobility to change points if you cant. (unless you play s/f, but that is almost pure cheese)
Worst Part: You can’t kill anyone. Except for ppl so bad you could kill them with fireworks and perplexity. (thief video reference) Although, you might land the killing blow quite often as you are always present in the fights. (rarely need to run)
I myself love s/f fresh air burst. I usually play with 2/2 water/arcane, but I once played 6/6/0/0/2 by accident, and did pretty well considering I still had blasting staff slotted… XD Elementlist builds are flexible up to the highest level, and still at least 2 builds are effective today at the highest level. (S/F burst and d/d celestial) I’ve been watching an ele named Zoose some, he has some good info on S/F. (he also reached the semi-finals in the latest tournament)
Good luck finding a build that works for you. Some traits can radically change how a weaponset feels. (like fresh air for s/f) So, I usually watch a few videos of higher tier play, find something that looks cool and try it and then mold it to my tastes. You can also make fresh new builds, but I wouldn’t recommend that for earliest stage of learning ele.
Overall try D/D celestial elementalist meta build, easiest to work with and more forgiving than anything else to learn elementalist with, in sPvP, as for PvE, doesn’t matter really.