Guild Wars 2

Yes I made a thread for you! Thanks so much your guide helps a lot I just need help in combos what skill use after other besides earth 4 afther fire 4 at d/d if anyone else besides him knows you’re really pro daphoenix thanks for the guide.

I’ll answer.

Combos
Fire 3 and 4 are Fire Combo Fields.

Finisher
Earth 3 is a Leap Finisher now fixed again (this is not mentioned in the tool tip unless it was updated with the latest patch)
Earth 4 and 5 are Blast Finishers

These are the only combos you have within the weapon skills.
There are other skills that will create fields available to the elementalist in dagger dagger spec. These include:

Combos Utility/Traits
Util: Fire Axe 4 same skills as Fire 4 and a Fire Combo Field
Util: Lightning Hammer 5 same skill as staff air 5 and a Lightning Field

Finishers Utility/Traits
Util: Arcane Blast is not a blast finisher, it is a 100% Projectile Finisher
Util: Arcane Wave is a Blast Finisher
Util: Fire Axe 5 is a Leap Finisher
Util: Frostbow 2 is a 20% Physical Projectile (its a multi his skills with 20% chance per projectile to apply the finisher effect) (I think this is incorrect and it is actualy 100% per projectile as 100% flaming ice bolts of justice are cool and the ingame tool tip says projectile finisher without 20%)
Util: Lightning Hammers 3rd skill in its auto attack chain is a Blast Finisher
Util: Lightning Hammer 2 is a leap finisher
Elite: Fiery Greatsword Elite skill 3 is a Whirl Finisher
Elite: Tornado is a Whirl Finisher for its full duration
Trait: Evasive Arcana dodge in earth attunement is a Blast Finisher

Back to the basics.
Combos Basic

Fire 3 or 4, then earth 3 will grant a fire shield, and if you are using Daphoenix or my build then you will get fury and swiftness from Zephyr’s Boon

Fire 3 or 4 then earth 4 or 5 will grant you 3 stacks of might
Fire 4 then earth 4 then earth 5 will gran you 6 stacks of might

To use one of these combos you must be within the fire field at the start (earth 3 must be in the field or at least pass through the field on travel). Therefore, if you use earth 5 you must start the skill in the field, you will then see “area might” or similar in a heart then you can use the lightning flash to teleport at you foe. The blast finisher for earth 5 churning earth does not need to “explode/blast” in the fire field, it counts as long as you start the skill in the fire field..

If your using Daphoenix’s earlier build with 30 arcane and Evasive Arcane instead of 20 arcane and 10 fire then you can dodge whilst in earth inside a field to get a combo. For Evasive Arcane to be counted as a finisher the end of your dodge must be within the field, not the start or middle but the end animation.

Your max might rotation is now, fire skills bla bla, fire 4, switch to earth, dodge into the field so you will end within the ring, earth 4 then earth 5 and teleport if you need to or if you want to damage your foe. This grants 9 stacks of might.

Earthquake (earth 4) and Churning Earth (earth 5) have long cooldowns, ring of fire is quite short, so your next rotation you can go fire bla bla, fire 4, earth 3 so you are in or pass through and net yourself some boons and a fire shield.

If you are fast enough or you foe is standing inside the fire field you can use earth 3 for the boons, then (dodge into the field if arcane 30) earth 4 then earth 5 and teleport to foe. This will net you fury, swiftness, a fire shield, protection from switching to earth and 9 stacks of might.

With the 20 arcane and 10 fire your net might will be 9 if you used the teleport, 6 for earth 4 and 5 in fire then 3 from lighting flash and the fire trait.
Those are all the combos for your weapon set

Combos Utilities
This is up to you, if you use dapheonix’s build you wont need to worry, if you have your own variation then you experiment around with the different finisher from the utilities.

For e.g. if you drop a cantrip and take arcane wave you will gain 12 stacks of might from that fire 4, earth dodge, earth 4, earth 5 and arcane wave during earth 5 before the teleport then teleport.
(note, arcane skills can be used at any time like cantrips and not interrupt your skills in progress)

I guess I need way more practice I can’t even tank a necromancer I really got SAD >:(

Got better by buying a razer naga mouse but still q.q And thanks so much for answering!

Actually, necros are one of the better classes for taking down tanks thanks to their strong boon teardowns, so don’t feel too bad about that.

Eles have a lot of condition removals xD removals you know xD

And by combos I mean like how do you play what do you start with usually and blah blah Dx

@TGSlasher
thank you for answering with such an indepth response. You put a lot of things I didn’t mention in my guide =P.

@Cachodm
I’m honored that you made a thread on me, lol. I really don’t know how to answer that question without giving a superlong response. I think the best way to learn is just to experiment yourself randomly and see what works.

I think the most important aspect of playing a d/d elementalist is to build a foundation to improve upon. A good elementalist in my opinion must be able to form strategies quickly, and be quick with the keyboard. All the other essentials are just related to those 2 basic foundations. I think as you keep playing the elementalist, you’ll start to developing a rhythm to the class, and realize through trial and error whats good and whats bad to do (you’ll realize once you start dying too much :]). Just reading my guide isn’t necessarily helpful unless you had some understanding of the class by tinkering around, I sort of made the guide toward somewhat experienced elementalists. The guide does help point you in the right direction though and has lots of information =P.

The best way to become a more effective player is:

1. Always ask yourself if you could have performed something better
-I always watch myself play in my own videos, and sometimes it can be frustrating as I can see myself making mistakes and not notice downed enemies half the time. I use those videos to learn from those past mistakes, and work on playing better in the future.

2. Do I dodge roll randomly, or am I dodge rolling to actually dodge/set up an attack/reposition?
-I notice that lots of people just dodge because there bar is full and they can. Make all your dodges have a reasoning behind them, and a purpose. I also notice that people use an extremely large amount of wasted movement when playing as a d/d elementalist. Every movement step, spell, and timing counts toward becoming as efficient as possible. Don’t waste those resources if you don’t have to. If you can just stand still fighting against NPCs and get the job done just fine, then stand still. If you need to kite melee mobs, do so.

3. Think
An elementalist has more skills than any other classes (not going count engineering kits here). You need to understand that no scenario is going be perfect, and that there is always going be variability in the so called skill “rotation”. I have a general idea of what skills I will use, but some skills are always going be on CD, while other ones are available. You need to understand how to cope with a situation like these, in order to become more efficient. There’s always going be interuptions in your plan, as enemies will CC you, dodge, run in circles, and confuse you so nothing works perfectly as planned.. Re-adjusting yourself to a situation is extremely vital.

4. Act quickly
You need to think things through, but if you can’t develop a strategy, make it a habit to always cast spammable spells / run in circles and confuse your enemies. I noticed a good number of d/d elementalists I’ve fought pause for a second to realize that “fire3” is on cooldown, and they can’t use it right after an updraft/air5. Instead, you should use “fire2” instead and close in on the enemy.

5. Knowing when to flee / understanding the situation
Too many elementalists die because they think they are invincible. You are not invincible, you will die under pressure of good opponents. Don’t get overconfident, you can easily get killed in 2 seconds by a burst thief. Always assume the worst case scenario

6. Learn to look at everything on the screen
This is really important. Its like multitasking. For instance, playing an elementalist effectively is almost like watching T.V., playing a video game, texting, skyping, reading a paper, and eating at the same time. If your good at that, then you should be naturally good at playing an elementalist. If you are not, well you need to work on multitasking =P. Basically everything I attunement swap, I quickly look at my skillbar and see what skills are available to form my next move (Also make sure I’m not dazed/locked out of my skillbar from CCs). At the same time, I’m looking at the screen for enemy movements / positions, and I am occassionaly looking at how many # of conditions are on me, and especially for the immobilization condition. Also I look at my own avatar (am I on fire, slowed down by chill /cripple, immobilized, knockeddown, etc?).Then every few seconds I’ll look at my attunement CDs, and utility CDs too.
It takes a great deal of time to learn how to multitask effectively, and its naturally easier for some people and harder for others.

7. A good internet and a good pc
Because you can’t play that well when you have a 1 second delay and your computer’s FPS is below 30.

Sometimes watching w.e videos I make is a better explanation of writing out how to play in my opinion.
The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. A video? Dunno, forgot what the saying was.

I’ll respond to my guide’s comment stuff later, I haven’t really been on that much lately because I’ve been kind of busy :S. I hope this answers your question, I think TGS already hit on most of the technical points (theres also my guide too). I felt like hitting the learning curve points=P.

Thanks for answering my internet is good my dodge rollings are bad I guess I need to learn how to and how do you usually use your skills Ox

@ CachoDm – “What is better full divinity pvp runes, 2 water/2monk/2divinity or 3monk/3 water?”

I’m currently using 6 divinity, the water and monk runes got nerfed in pvp a bit. They now confer 20% boon duration when using them together. Previously I ran 2 water / 2 monk / 2 earth

Another good setup is 2 water / 2 monk / might or regen the ones with 20% might duration, or the ones with 20% regen duration as these bonuses are good for this build. 2 water / 2 monk / 2 Earth runes are ok as well, for protection duration, especially if you are using armour of earth and/or auto armour of earth in the earth trait line. I used to be able to hold 18-20 sec of protection with those runes, before the nerfs rolled in

I’d suggest reading through dapheonix’s guide, there is some good stuff and he is updating it when he can.

We all started out as noobies, and all you can do from there is get better, the build wont make you better, its how you can use it. Last night for example I was having a bad day, and got torn apart by my friends thief build. I re-adjusted to the situation and could beat him 90% of the time.

Another good tip is to play some of the other classes for a couple of matches, the ones that beat you, go through there traits and skills, read up on some of their builds. This will help you to know who can do what in what situation, as well as some of the tells. for e.g. does that warrior have 5 signets? probably a 100blads, keep an eye on him. Necro with the sig that puts all conditions on you, probably a condition mancer, save some condition removal. Thief has basilisk venom on, hes ready for a fight and you will be turned to stone, keep a stun break / mist form (if you use it) ready. This is also good to learn their “tells”, like in poka. You can learn the animation of certain skills and timings of others. For example, engineers big old bomb, use it on training dummy’s and learn its range and timer, certain classes heal skills (except guardian ridiculous block heal) and then you know when to use your interrupts.

There are also some 5v5 spvp servers, these are much better then the 8v8 zerg feast ones. You can’t fight 8 people by yourself so you will never get better that way. And if you follow your zerg then sure you will learn the skills by again you wont get better that way either, 8v8 zerg throwing crap at each other, its hard to know whats going on. Some 5v5 servers are used for 1v1 duels, this is a good way to learn 1v1, but watch out, some people run op 1v1 builds and will always beat you.

1v1ing with a friend or guild mate of a class or build that beats you is good too, if he/she tells you what they did to counter you, or what you could have done better then that’s great.

The easiest way to learn the ele’s skills is to play it in PvE. This will get the basics down, you can learn the basic skills and their cool downs, what can combo together and what works well together. But remember your traits will be different so until 80 some things will be out and you’ll need to adjust when you get back to pvp.

I have a question in regards to combos.

I am a relatively new player to guild wars and elementalist is my first job!

I am desperately trying to connect the combo fire 4 + earth 4+ earth 5. However due to the long earth 5 casting time, my ring of fire usually disappears before my earth 5’s casting finishes.

Am i doing something wrong? The moment i press fire 4 I immediately switch to earth attunement so hmmm.

I think im not sure even if it disappears u still get it not sure

Try air 3+4+5+fire3+4 I like using that xD only combo I could do haha

u still get it….infact the longest combo i can do since evasive arcana fix is:

Fire:
3-4
step forward
Earth:
Roll back (tiggers evasive arcana trait)
4-5
While channeling 5
armor of earth (to survive)
arcane wave
fire attunement

makes 17 stacks of might….. (most of wich will fade in few seconds but its fun u.u)
It works only in PvE or against AFK players in www .-.

its quite easy also….

CachoDm.4639:

I guess I need way more practice I can’t even tank a necromancer I really got SAD >:(

Good necro cannot be beaten by ele most common bunker multiboon traditional builds, not a chance on a million not a player on this earth :p

There is only a way to beat the good necro using ele, i am not going to disclose it here so you will have some fun trying to identify it, that is if you want use your time in doing it

TGSlasher.1458:

To use one of these combos you must be within the fire field at the start (earth 3 must be in the field or at least pass through the field on travel). Therefore, if you use earth 5 you must start the skill in the field, you will then see “area might” or similar in a heart then you can use the lightning flash to teleport at you foe. The blast finisher for earth 5 churning earth does not need to “explode/blast” in the fire field, it counts as long as you start the skill in the fire field.

Ivano.2604:

CachoDm.4639:

I guess I need way more practice I can’t even tank a necromancer I really got SAD >:(

Good necro cannot be beaten by ele most common bunker multiboon traditional builds, not a chance on a million not a player on this earth :p

There is only a way to beat the good necro using ele, i am not going to disclose it here so you will have some fun trying to identify it, that is if you want use your time in doing it

Frost bow it in the face and burst it using your non tanky Beserker Ammy.

Ivano.2604:

CachoDm.4639:

I guess I need way more practice I can’t even tank a necromancer I really got SAD >:(

Good necro cannot be beaten by ele most common bunker multiboon traditional builds, not a chance on a million not a player on this earth :p

There is only a way to beat the good necro using ele, i am not going to disclose it here so you will have some fun trying to identify it, that is if you want use your time in doing it

I’d say the opposite… with the good condition removal on an Ele a good necro wouldnt be able to beat a good ele….

Papaganoosh (SPvP Officer, The Unnamed EU)

http://www.the-unnamed.com/spvpapp – recruiting skilled players for TPvP

Can you plz tell me your new build for elementalist

Can utell me your new build for elementalist

Dapheonix I still use your build for my ele and yes you are awesome!

:D

I use the same build still, post nerf

+1 drew :P

daphoenix.4283:

:D

I use the same build still, post nerf

+1 drew :P

How hard do you think the D/D ele got hit on a scale of 1-10….

I’m at 72 now (and I have all my PVT gear, ive been doing nothing but AC since 35 haha)

But with the PVT gear from AC, is there still some way to output moderate damage with accessories? Do you think I should wear all stat gear?

I’ve been following your extremely well written guide since I started the game (because why do homework when someone else has already done it all after all)
It saved me a ton of questions, and for that you have my thanks.

If I am going to go for solaria/lunaria + ascended triforge…. I wonder how long it will take…

Araito.5869:

daphoenix.4283:

:D

I use the same build still, post nerf

+1 drew :P

How hard do you think the D/D ele got hit on a scale of 1-10….

I’m at 72 now (and I have all my PVT gear, ive been doing nothing but AC since 35 haha)

But with the PVT gear from AC, is there still some way to output moderate damage with accessories? Do you think I should wear all stat gear?

I’ve been following your extremely well written guide since I started the game (because why do homework when someone else has already done it all after all)
It saved me a ton of questions, and for that you have my thanks.

If I am going to go for solaria/lunaria + ascended triforge…. I wonder how long it will take…

Not long. Get Syzygy, not triforge. Do a few fractals, get rings. Do some guild mission get new earrings.

Thanks for all this. Phoenix, Slasher, you guys rock. I was struggling with my first ele and these threads turned it around for me at lvl30.

I have been dying less and been able to melt face out of zergs in PvE. I’ll check out some PvP action soon.

The Phoenix Elementalist Guide is indispensable. For srs.

Changing up the timing on your dodges even when you’re using them preemptively can really make some big changes in a fight.

We have a bit more leeway in our dodges thanks to the availability of vigor, but they’re still limited.

Ever be chasing someone down and wait a few seconds before using some sort of cripple/chill because you know they’re about to dodge? Other experienced players do that too. Locate situations where you feel they’re waiting for you to dodge and then…don’t dodge. Then dodge a little later. Even experienced players go by a lot of feel as for when it’s the best time to use certain abilities.

Ever been playing street fighter and expected a certain fireball rhythm from your opponent, then been smacked in the face because they did it in a way you weren’t expecting even though you easily could have avoided it on reaction?