Which of these traits are good for pve?

Which of these traits are good for pve?

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Posted by: Peter.9236

Peter.9236

So, here’s my planned traits for when I get them unlocked, would be cool if someone could point out all the bad ones which are not worth using (eg. a load of the arcana ones look cool but there’s a massive lack of spare points so I’d need to get rid of some others) and possibly offer a few tips

I’m a staff based ele and mainly stick with fire, though i’ll use water to keep alive and air for running around. Any suggestions would be appreciated :P

Fire (6 levels):
Internal fire (10% extra damage)
Pyromancers alacrity (20% reduced recharge)
Blinding ashes (blind foes that you burn)

Air (3 levels): (extra levels after 1 mainly for the ferocity + precision)
Bolt to the heart (extra damage when enemy on low health)

Earth (0 levels) (don’t use it much)

Water (3 levels):
Soothing wave (regen when critically hit)
Is it worth having any points in this? The skills seem quite useful but I’m not sure by how much.

Arcana (however many levels are left after sorting out the above ones):
Blasting staff (extra staff range)/final shielding (make a shield when your health drops low enough)
Elemental attunement (get boon when switching attunements)/arcane retribution (5 attacks do critical damage when health drops)
Evasive arcana

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Posted by: Acotje.5689

Acotje.5689

For staff your base build is 64000 (fire: Internal Fire, Pyromancers Alacrity, Persisting Flames. Air: Bolt to the Heart, Arcane Lightning)
Last 4 points depend on your situation.

66200(adding Air: Tempest Defence. Earth: Stone Splinters)
66020(adding Air: Tempest Defence. Water: Vital Striking)
66002(adding Air: Tempest Defence. Arcana: Blasting staff)
(Tempest Defence builds are mainly for Speed Runs in Dungeons where bosses will be frozen with Ice Bow #5)

For most Open World and PUG runs
64202 for bigger AoE’s
64220 for an extra 10% modifier

To keep up Arcane Lightning, run with Arcane Brilliance(heal) and Arcane Wave. Use one of them every 15 seconds, if possible in a Fire Field for Might and Fury.

Ice Bow should always be on your bar for Dungeons and even in open world its great damage and tagging.

Other skills worth taking:
Glyph of Storms(for Vulnerability(Air) and Blind(Earth)
Lightning Flash(Mobility)
Signet of Air(Mobility)
Arcane Shield(Blocks)

Hello darkness, my old friend.

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Posted by: Emergencee.8259

Emergencee.8259

Is you’re not going to run conditions, swap out blinding ashes for pyromancer’s puissance. It gives you might for every fire skill you use, which is useful if you’re not taking advantage of earth attunement.

I personally find water attunement points super helpful and use 4 for mine. Soothing wave and cleansing wave in particular are nice for running dungeons or for some of the world bosses because both you and some nearby folks shake off a condition and regain some health, so you spend less time in fear/poison/etc and more time doling out damage. Saves your heals as well for when you really need them.

That said, it really depends on what you want to be doing. If you’re not into group activities or if you just want more damage per second, you’re probably better off skipping water.

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Posted by: Thaddeus.4891

Thaddeus.4891

Here a list of trait you should hunt for as a staff Ele:

Fire :
- Lava Tomb : This will help you rally, which is a good thing on a Ele
- Internal Fire : Part of the meta
- Pyromancer’s Alacrity : Part of the meta
- Persisting Flames : THE important trait for a Staff Elementalist. It don’t looks like it, but its a 50% dmg increase on your Lava front, allow a perma fire field for blasting might and allow you to provide between 60% to 100% fury to your group. Best trait for a staff Elementalist.

Air :
- Bolt to the Heart : Part of the meta, most Ele PvE build use it, not just staff.
- Arcane Lighting : That give you 150 ferocity (10% crit dmg) and if you know what you are doing, you can maintain it constantly.
- Air Training : This trait go perfeclty with the Glyph of Storm/Icebow combo for one of the best burst in the game.
- Tempest Defense : This give you 20% damage during 5 sec when you Deep Freeze a boss with your Icebow. With Air training, this is the core of the Glyph of Stome/Icebow combo burst. But it work mostly with organized group, pug can screw up thing by throwing cc on cooldown like idiot.

Earth
- Stone Splinters : Part of the meta. You should stay close to your team to provide are receive support from them (like boons). So that’s a free and easy to maintain strait 10% dmg.

Water
- Vital Striking : That the exact same bonus as the 6th bonus from a scholar rune. It’s a powerful bonus but can be hard to maintain, especially if you don’t play for a long time.

Arcane
- Blasting Staff : Larger AoE will help mostly for Lava Front and Meteor Shower. It will make it easier to hit stuff and hit larger numbers of mobs more frequently. Especially good in open world where mobs will move more.

Blinding Ashes have a 5sec internal cooldown, it won’t really help you much, especially since you don’t have that much control over it and won’t put that much fire on target anyway (except if you have burning precision).

Soothing Wave will give you a bit more sustain healing, which is a good thing when you are learning the profession. See that as a good learning wheel.

Elemental Attunement and Evasive Arcana are not really good choice for a staff Elementalist.

If you are looking for more surviability trait take a look at Renewing Stamina in Arcane. That will give you a better return on investment. With almost perma vigor from that trait + skill 4 of staff in fire you will almost alway be able to dodge incoming attack, which is the most powerful defence you can have as an Elementalist. Again, on the long run this should be a training wheel/solo/situational trait for you as you get better with Elementalist.

Thaddeauz [xQCx]- QC GUILD

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Posted by: Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867

Sounds like the OP is looking for a complete PvE guide !

Zelyhn.8069 [rT]
Retired elementalist theorycrafter

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Posted by: Peter.9236

Peter.9236

Haha thanks for the replies guys, and I’ll check out the guide sometime later, it’s a bit of a long read :P As to skills for learning, I’d ideally like to avoid that, it’s better to go all out and learn how not to die the hard way

I’ve just gone through all the skills mentioned and I’m surprised I didn’t notice a few, just got one question about the ice bow combo thaddeus mentioned. Would it be freeze the boss, then lay down skill 4 and a fire storm for max damage? If so, is it also worth dropping the bow for a meteor shower after that since it’s cooldowns aren’t amazing?

As to signets, I’ve got rid of the mobility ones and rely on the air attunement for that now. I use arcane brilliance/arcane wave/glyph of storms/frost bow/fire sword. Wasn’t so sure about arcane wave since I got it at such a low level, but then someone told me about the combo blasts

Which of these traits are good for pve?

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Posted by: Peter.9236

Peter.9236

Actually, looking at Thaddeus’s post, I’m 4 points too short, and that’s where Acotje’s suggestions start to make sense haha.
Which would be the worst two out of tempest defense, stone splinters (dunno how far 600 is in the game), vital striking and blasting staff?

I’m going to guess tempest defense and possibly blasting staff would be the ones to get rid of for general use :p

(edited by Peter.9236)

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Posted by: Thaddeus.4891

Thaddeus.4891

Stone Splinter > Vital Striking because 600 range is super easy to maintain, 90% hp not as easy.

Glyph of storm should be use in fire. If that’s what you are doing then switch it to signet of fire. The Glyph of storm must be use in Air to max out vulnerability. The burst rotation is this at least for me.

Earth 2 – Fire 2 – Switch to Air – Arcane Wave – Arcane Brilliance – Conjure Frost Bow – Glyph of Storm – Icebow 5 – Icebow 4 – Icebow 3 – Fire 2 – Meteor Shower …

I like to take Air Training and Tempest Defense together to max out my burst on Icebow. That way I don’t mind making my burst on Air, which is the attunement I need to be for Glyph of Storm. That max out my burst, but decrease my standard dps because I don’t have Arcane Lightning.

When I don’t need the additional vulnerability from my glyph then I switch thing up a bit since I don’t need to make dps while on Air and I can stay on Fire. I change Air Training for Arcane Lighting and the burst rotation change to

Earth 2 – Fire 2 – Arcane Wave – Conjure Icebow – Icebow 5 – Icebow 4 – Icebow 3 – Fire 2 – Meteor Shower.

In that situation you want to alternate between Arcane Wave and Arcane Brilliance every 15sec to keep your Arcane Lighting up all the time, you don’t want to use them both at the same time.

I always stay 6/6/2/0/0 and switch trait depending on the situation. If you don’t need Glyph of Storm and you are not sure about freezing the boss (pug) you can take Arcane Lighting and Zephyr’s Focus for extra dodge after your meteor shower, but personnally i prefer to alway have tempest defense just in case.

Thaddeauz [xQCx]- QC GUILD

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Posted by: Peter.9236

Peter.9236

Alright thanks for the tips, I’ll keep on stone splinters and experiment with switching between tempest defense and blasting staff, as while I’ll use the ice bow for bosses, I generally only use it when things become a damage sponge, and by that stage I’m usually in a big party anyway so an extra 20% for a couple of seconds may not make such a massive difference