Guild Wars 2

hi, newbie PVE question is coming
what do i have to do under water? what weapon skills should i use? because i cant literally deal any damage to mobs.
it is ridiculous but i spam water1 because it has the highest damage (according to tooltip). i use water 2-3 and explode it, then i go for fire use 4,5,2 then water again and do AA because water1 makes more damdge then Fire1. I am 48 now and i have masterpiece weapon smth about 44-45 level. i am in full masterpiece with power-precision (44-46 lvl) and i hit hardly more than 100 with my attack, earth1 does 3 times per 12 so what am i doing wrong?

I tend to stay mostly in water too (and use the Fire signet for some extra crit/burning) Water 5 does a load of damage if you can get them against a wall.

I guess just try to take advantage of your fields. None of my stuff works underwater (i use conjure and glyph of storms) so i just use arcane abilities :P

Oh and earth bleeds use condition damage so your power/prec doesn’t help it.

Ele is utter garbage underwater. In my opinion ele is more of a supportive profession uw, as the damage is really pathetic if compared with warrior and engineer.

I tend to swap around the elements to get the boons, and as said before, you should take advantage of the combo fields. You should check gw2 wiki for more detailed information on combo fields and try to memorize as many as possible.

In pvp you should probably never take anyone on underwater as an ele, unless you are absolutely sure you can win. A good combo for a get away is earth 5 → water 5, as it will stealth you away while making a gap between you and your opponent. There are other useful combos you should utilize for your benefit.

Whirlpool is pretty great underwater if you can keep pulling them in, it seems underwater eles are just about constant sink/float.

Use the Water Element. It deals a ton load of damage, especially the 5th skill (Forgot what it’s called but the dmg is over “9000”)

emikochan.8504:

Whirlpool is pretty great underwater if you can keep pulling them in, it seems underwater eles are just about constant sink/float.

I agree. Whirlpool should be used with consideration though. I have got myself killed a few times by a stabbed warrior doing his Tsunami Slash on me. In general Whirlpool is awesome.

Cowrex.9564:

Use the Water Element. It deals a ton load of damage, especially the 5th skill (Forgot what it’s called but the dmg is over “9000”)

True, if you can nail it that is. I often find myself either missing with Water 5 or getting dodged. It is very efficient when hit though, and pairs well with Earth 5 for stealth.

breaks the radar

I tend to stick in water or air. I swap to fire, spam all its cooldowns and then return to either water or air and shuffle through them. Swapping to earth is usually for the sink although the blind field is nifty too.

Water is really good if you traited for Water cooldowns (I tend to do that when I use a staff) which lets you do the icewall more often. The AoE sink+regen is a good tool too but to help get off the 5 charge, I usually just follow it after icewall or you can use it to get away from stuff.

Air skills are pretty good too, because they are relatively fast. Earth is fast too but it’s partly bleeds. If you have Signet of Restoration, you can heal pretty good with Air 1 and for better damage, just get in the target’s face. The AoE shock is fast and recharges fast, but most importantly it has your only float. Also, a cube cage of electricity is just cool.

I generally start in water, then spam everything in fire, then combine Air Bubble and Lighting Cage to force a stun, then use the sink and blind in earth, and then repeat as cooldowns allow.

I’ve only done low levels, but earth works fairly well if they are up close. I can see why water would be the best though

I am leveling an ele and got her to level 30. There are NO underwater elite skills I can use! I guess y’all already know this, but what the heck? What utilities do y’all use to cover this deficiency? I kept on going over my elites because I couldn’t believe there wasn’t even one I could use underwater. Why can’t we use the glyph of elementals? Necros can summon minions. Why can’t we use conjure fiery greatsword? Guardians can summon a greatsword, hammer and shield as utility skills. This is really strange, for lack of a better word. Is there any update coming for a 10 point underwater elite?

Edit: are there ANY underwater elites at all? The 30 point elite is not and my racial elites are not. Am I missing something?

Astral Projections.7320:

Edit: are there ANY underwater elites at all? The 30 point elite is not and my racial elites are not. Am I missing something?

tornado becomes whirlpool underwater.

trident dmg is way too low, but we have tons of cc skills (air: float, stuncage – earth: sink, blind – fire: blind, cripple – water: impassable wall, chill).

Am I the only ele that prefers fighting under water? I am a water atune-dps conjured weapon build so once i go into the water my dps sky rockets. I use arcane abilities under water because conjures don’t work, but regardless I can pump out pretty insane damage.

thx for helping, everyone.

While the damage underwater for us is really bad outside of water 5, there’s definitely no shortage of powerful CC tools.

I usually find myself starting in fire. Burn through all your cooldowns and set up your 2 skill which is a fire field. Then switch to earth use 2 skill for bleed and damage and spam the 1 spell. Since it is a combo finisher: projectiles, and fire 2 is still up you can apply burning the entire time you fight. After that switch to water explode your 2, and i dunno repeat i guess.

Fighting underwater sucks.

I usually just stick to Earth and bleed out opponents with skills 1 and 2. Most underwater enemies are slow and don’t attack very quickly, allowing you to run circles around them just blasting their faces with gravel. If you get in a pinch, Earthen Anchor will also give you an opening to run.

Conditions tend to be my bane underwater, so I usually bring Cleansing Fire as a safeguard against that.

Ele’s are extremely good in WvW underwater.

I mostly use Earth/Water Trident.. start with earth to layer on the bleeds, then swap to water for the regen/heals and longer range

every attune besides water has some sort of CC. I just switch attunements to lock down my target, while sneaking in some dmg.

Air 5 (cage) + air 4 (float) = enemy floats into cage and gets stunned.
Fire 4 – Fire snare
earth 4(i think) = sink
Water 5 (advance to close range) + 3 ( ice, move back, detonate)
Then restart the roto. That usually keeps my enemy locked down.

Water combat is pretty different for Elementalist. Unlike pretty much any other Ele combat, Fire is definately not your go-to attune for damage. I pretty much exclusively use Fire to lay down fire fields or get cripple on the enemy / vigor on myself, I never stay in it at all for damage. Water is your go-to for upfront damage, and Earth is your go-to for condition damage. Water is also your go-to for combo finishers, though you’ll need to get your fields from other attunes.

I like to approach underwater combat like this…

Start in Fire as you approach the enemy, and as you approach hit them with blind, cripple, and a few basic attacks. Once you get into melee range, cast #2 to set down a Fire field, then immedietly switch to Water and double-activate Ice Wall (set and detonate). Do it fast enough and you get 2 blast activations to give yourself 6 stacks of might. Throw in Arcane Blast before using Ice Wall if you want another 3 stacks. Then immedietly do Water #5 to dash forward and hit the enemy as well as getting a Fire Aura for dashing through your fire field (if you’re fast enough). Then you can throw out Water #2 for burst damage and either stay in Water (basic attack actually does decent damage and #2 has a low cooldown) or swap to Air / Earth for more available skills. Definately swap to Earth if you’re going for condition damage, though if Fire is off cooldown (depends on your traits) you might consider swapping Fire first, then laying down another Fire field so you can get into Earth and try to get some burn off your Earth #1 projectile finisher in a fire field.

covenn.7165:

Ele’s are extremely good in WvW underwater.

I like them too. I’m not really killing anyone myself but if there’s that guy trying to get away with a few of us after him, I can easily make sure he doesn’t escape.

You know what delights me? Finding a group of enemies stacked up on one another underwater near a wall, say in Bay for example.

covenn.7165:

You know what delights me? Finding a group of enemies stacked up on one another underwater near a wall, say in Bay for example.

Yeah I always feel awesome when I get to hit water 5 in optimal conditions.

I don’t normally run fiery greatsword elite, but I fiddle with it once in a while for the movement capability. It is pretty funny when you get to whirl into someone against a wall with it, its like water 5.

Then I’m like “YEAHHHHH BUNKER DPS EAT IT”

I’d say that ele’s underwater is pretty powerful. Three hard cc’s (sink x2/stun), an aoe cripple and a variety of combo fields / finishers.

Water is your most damaging attunement (it makes sense for water to be stronger… underwater)
All of your attunements provide similar utility but if I had to pick one then Air would win.

Protips:
You can juke people with air 3.
You can area stealth with earth 5 + blast finisher
You can give your group 9 stacks of might with fire 2 / arcane wave / water 3+3
Water 5 does RIDICULOUS damage.
Fire 5 gives vigor to everyone.
Don’t use air 4 and air 5 together, that’s overkill. You cancel air 4 with the stun before it’s even finished…