been playing a bunch of 0 arcana builds. The shortened base attunement cooldown is amazing. Also dagger/focus full glass seems to work pretty well. Focus is too good for staying alive. On a few occasions I was able to bunker long enough for help to arrive, with my squishy 0 water/arcana zerker build.
dunno about the runes that aren’t available in pvp, but ogre is best for doing damage. and the rock dog it summons does a lot of damage too
divinity gives less damage but gives more defense.
divinity’s defense advantage is greater than ogre’s damage advantage, but that’s without considering the rock dog
yes. the combat is very fun to play
as for watching? I don’t know. I’m not much of a spectator in general
you DO lose some survival power
you can’t be a bunker and still kill guardians. There’s a trade-off there. Either you can live while being attacked by multiple players at once but you can’t kill anything tanky, or you can kill all of the things but die when taking too much fire
“Ele is not Ele without Elemental Attunement”?
Well, I guess I don’t play Ele, then.
What am I playing?
why would the ele be running from the thief though? dunno about you guys, but when I’m playing ele and have a thief on me I try to burst them. arcane shield, lava font, arcane wave, lightning flash, electric discharge, fireball is some pretty serious burst
lava font might be on cooldown, but the other stuff shouldn’t be
Is the Ele really that bad? I wanted to roll one, but all the posts here really put me off.
nah, people come to forums to complain more than anything else. the people who are upset are the ones who post the most
I think ele is pretty great, and I’m having loads of fun destroying people in pvp
and in pve ele has the best damage output bar none
Hi all,
In my honest opinion Elementalist is now unplayable in WvW and in pvp.
In 1 vs 1 there is no way to kill a guardian or a warrior, i have to wait 14 seconds to make a combo with fire field (with 30 points in arcana), and when the combo goes well there aren’t other options to damage seriously the opponent which is still alive.
Physical resistance is ridicolous against heavy classes( i have 3000 armor, not bad for a light class). I’m not leaving water and arcana too, i had to spent 20 points in water to have cleansing wave and 30 in arcana to have a good mobility and cooldown times reduced as low as possible. The situation changes against light enemies, but for me and my experience (5 months only ele) this class is the worst of the game in most of the situations. I use S/D. Sorry for my bad english.
I kill warriors and guardians just fine
try incorporating some offense into your build. of course you won’t be able to kill them if you don’t do damage
I think it’s fine. lightning whip has tons of range for a “melee” attack. if your melee opponent is crippled or chilled, you can kite them while hitting them with it. and it hits a huge AoE
dragon’s claw needs to pierce though. fire autoattack would actually be good if it did, instead of stopping at the first target hit making it have no AoE capability
and impale (earth 1) needs to be faster
Specifically, toughness from signets and other traits seems to be ignored for calculating the bonus condition damage
Obsidian Focus works with Stone Shards, but Zephyr’s Focus does not
too bad torment sigil doesn’t exist in PvP (why?), else I’d totally do this and see how far I can get with a single attack
YES, elementalist is fun
I mean I don’t care if I die a lot as long as if I have that satisfying part where I can actually get kills and fast.
sounds like ele should be perfect for you
yeah it’s kinda dumb. I was playing an earth shield focused build earlier, and I love how well you can chase with it, and how much damage it does, but it takes away control. It’s weird.
lol at people who feel like arcana is a mandatory trait line
being addicted to evasive arcana is one thing, but that’s all it is: being addicted to it. it’s not at all mandatory, and it isn’t better than other trait linesArcana is absolutely better than every other trait line simply because the majority of traits effect the Elementalist regardless of attunement or build.
- way too much more text to quote *
having traits that work regardless of build doesn’t really matter since, you know, you’re only going to have one build while using these traits
if you want to be a bunker, then sure, max out your water and arcane and get all those defensive traits. but ele can do things other than that. healing off all damage taken isn’t the only way to win. There’s also killing the other guy before he kills you.
And yes, the fire/air/earth/water trait lines apply more to their respective attunements. So what? You’re going to be spending some time in each of the attunements anyway. And most of the good ones are not at all exclusive to that attunement even then. Or may even have no relation other than a thematic one
Anyway I’ve been taking traits that help me survive, yes, but that may not help me survive indefinitely. Like diamond skin can help a ton for the first several seconds of a fight giving me a huge headstart on my opponent. Even when it does inevitably break and stop working, I’ve already gotten enough of an advantage that I’ve basically won. But mostly taking traits that let me kill people better. Arcana is pretty weak for dishing it out.
lol at people who feel like arcana is a mandatory trait line
being addicted to evasive arcana is one thing, but that’s all it is: being addicted to it. it’s not at all mandatory, and it isn’t better than other trait lines
Even in PvE it has its uses: ignores Defiant, for example.
whoa, really?
SERIOUSLY?
if so, that’s pretty awesome. you could totally run venomshare and get everyone to stagger their attacks and chain stun the boss. between two thieves, you could perma stun
arcane abatement is the only adept water trait worth taking
so wait, updraft doesn’t give you the tempest defense bonus? that’s pretty stupid
yes
- – - – -
didn’t record or anything because I’m wearing full greens (+exotic staff) and had no buffs (not even bloodlust sigil), but I killed it in about 13 seconds
lava font -> meteor shower -> lava font -> tornado
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pretty sure the ones that don’t explicitly mention an element work in all attunements
buffed from
69 + 3.5% healing power
to
69 + 5% healing power
and moved to grandmaster
lol
what a joke. That is not grandmaster material.
elementalist 5 point minor trait is stronger than this
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Mostly like this:
Where is your lava font?
full zerker + persisting flames + blasting staff + lava tomb
that is how you play ele. take advantage of all the time you spend downed
I use tornado to throw people off of capture points
as someone who didn’t use any initiative traits beyond the 15 in trickery, this is a pretty huge buff. dunno how you don’t notice the increased base regen
Auto cleansing fire every 40 secs is not all the conditions ever…. is far from all the conditions ever.
yeah I know, but that’s not the only condition removal I have. I also take ether renewal. between that and the auto cleanse, I don’t have to worry about conditions at all.
but literally every weapon set has some condition removal, so that case of having only bleeds wouldn’t be too bad even if you only had the auto cleanse
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too good for an adept trait
don’t want to take 20 arcana? get one of the other amazing 20 point traits instead, then. like rock solid or burning fire. if you want a trait, you gotta spend the points. all there is to it
your loss
meanwhile I’ll be doing tons of damage and still removing all of the conditions ever with my 30 in fire
maybe you think ele sucks because you don’t even stop to try out the offensive trait lines
Arcane wave change wasn’t even in the patch notes
This is obviously something that they didn’t test at all.
bah, this means I can’t stealth underwater anymore
nah it’d be good in every trait line
electric discharge (air 15) would be especially awesome. what with the boosted stats. especially if you also have fresh air
no change, but allow the elementalist to continue to swap attunements and get the accompanying bonuses
this would be enough of a buff for me
since you are past lv 50, you are high enough to take the blasting staff trait, so I can recommend staff. 20 in fire, mostly just for the power, and 20 in arcana for blasting staff and elemental attunement
easiest way to kill things is to lay down eruption (earth 2) under your target at max range, and then swap to fire and wait for a moment, and then drop a lava font under it and hit it with flame burst before the eruption.
if it’s something that is already attacking you, you can do the same thing, except without the waiting part, and immobilize the target with shockwave so that it doesn’t run out of the eruption area
or if your attackers are melee, you can fight in melee range, running around the edges of your lava font area and dodge rolling through it. and since you have three dodges (thank you, burning retreat), you can do this for a long time. Speaking of burning retreat, it’s very useful to get accustomed to turning around right before using it, so make sure you have the turn-around button bound to something you can reach easily.
Frozen ground (water 4) also helps immensely with kiting melee attackers inside your AoEs
ranged attackers are almost even easier to deal with than melees. just drop lava font+flame burst under them and they will just stand there in it, while you can turn on magnetic aura and go have a cup of tea
Fire and earth (mostly fire) are the main damage attunements, but I’ll make a pit stop in air and/or water when switching between them even if I don’t need the utility they offer because skill 2 in each of them does good damage.
oh and probably the most important thing is to make sure all your keys can be reached comfortably. I never touch the F-keys. My attunements are 1-4 (and 1 is also bound to middle mouse, since 1 is hard to reach, as I use ESDF to move). so yeah, find a key setup that works for you. I found the default to be unplayable.
Part of me wants to try a 30/30/0/0/10 staff build in full zerker gear. But the other part of me thinks that would not be an elementalist, but a trebuchet with boots (also, a rallybot). I doubt the fun would last long.
haven’t tried it in WvW, but 30/20/0/0/20 staff is great fun in PvP. I don’t even take elemental attunement anymore (what good is regen or 1 stack of might on the glassiest build in the game?), opting instead for final shielding. And then I also take arcane shield. so I’m super squishy but packing two arcane shields, and they do tons of damage when they explode. makes me feel like not only a walking trebuchet but also a walking bomb. especially since I take arcane wave too. I’m always thoroughly amused when I get jumped by a glass thief only to see him drop instantly
dunno about the other guy, but I’m very much aware of the internal cooldown. The weakness it applies lasts longer than the cooldown even before any condition duration boosts, so you can still apply permanent weakness and such.
since the cooldown is apparently separate for each individual target
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oh sure, I know that was the most popular, but that was for defensive D/D
it’s the offensive builds that take points in fire. burst builds have also been around for a long time. less popular, but they’re there
0/0/10/30/30 is pretty much the only build in existence that wasn’t changed at all (well you might be affected depending on what you took for 10 and 20 in water), so I would suggest experimenting with different builds
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It’s not that bad but I favor S/D so meh. For me doesn’t beat 8 conditions remover on 15 secs cd which you can safely cast by going around a coner or behind an object. Or I also pair it with armor of earth if I really can’t afford to get interrupted.
or 20 in earth
ER+rock solid is so good
Whens the last time i used anti toxin spray, or .. LOL … Tornado. Or even Glyph of Elemental power? When I say use I mean ‘seriously’ use for pvp and consider it good and that i would want to use it again.
I’ve started taking Tornado in pvp. It’s pretty good with a full zerker build
haven’t tried glyph of elemental power, but I’m thinking it’s probably actually pretty good. you can get permanent weakness on your opponents with it, or huge uptime on chill. and it’s a stun break. which doesn’t really have good synergy with the rest of the skill at all, but hey
So 20 points into Fire and 30 Into Earth solely for the condition removal. Have fun working with those remaining 20 points.
nah I’ll usually just be taking the 20 (30) in fire
But more importantly, even if I’m taking 20 in fire and 30 in earth, that still gives me 5 other traits, not 2. earth and fire do give out traits before hitting 30 and 20 points respectively
Anyway, you have three trait lines that offer condition countermeasures. What more do you want? seriously
btw “or” =/= “and”
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This patch doesn’t change the necessity of a an Elementalist to put points into Water and Arcane.
yes it does
I don’t need cleansing wave when I have
Fire II – Burning Fire – Use Cleansing Fire automatically when you have a number of conditions on you. 3 conditions. 40 second cooldown. Moved to Master tier.
or
Earth XI – Diamond Skin. Conditions cannot be applied to you when your health is above the threshold. 90%.
And I don’t need points in arcana when I have acceptable attunement cooldowns already
(Also, arcane abatement is pretty good. If I take nonzero in water now, it’ll probably be 10 for that trait.)
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Am I the only one who sees these changes as a nerf?
yes
I’ve always thought that most traits in fire don’t justify taking 30 in fire. This might all change on Tuesday; I wouldn’t know at the moment. At least for me, I haven’t seen any successful build that goes deep into the fire tree since air gives far more personal dps. I don’t really count hiding behind the zerg since pretty much anything goes in that case.
And yes I love persisting flames too. Before anyone cared about it, I loved to wreck hotjoins with 30/20/0/0/20 glass cannon staff.
Yes, the fire traits aren’t that great (yet), but the air traits are even worse, barring bolt to the heart, which can be gotten with only 10 in air anyway. And no way does air give far more personal dps. Yes, the combination of precision and crit damage gives more damage than power alone, but that’s mostly evened out by three things: things that auto crit, things that can’t crit, and condition duration. I’d say they’re pretty much the same. Except that air’s grandmasters are kind of useless for staff
As for hiding behind the zerg, I wouldn’t know anything about that. I’ve been avoiding zergs of any kind since 2012
30/20/0/0/20 staff is what I do too, yes
Well that’s why I made a broad statement “outside of PvE”. The fire traitline is rarely used if ever outside of PvE.
seriously? 30 fire seems great for PvP
power is the best stat in the game, the grandmaster is great, and Burning Fire is about to be OP
I take it all the time, at least
no health + no stun break =
The only good thing it has going for it is the fact it is a blast finisher
That’s not true. It can also be traited to give AoE blind
what
how?
leeching venoms is EXTREMELY STRONG with a bar full of venoms. I can’t even imagine not taking it. the idea is literally unfathomable. especially with a build that has healing power. There’s so much synergy there it’s crazy.
also, the damage doesn’t really scale at all with power, so “condition build” means nothing
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mm yes, probably. Staff ele is very versatile at supporting
give your allies all of the boons, heal them, disable enemies
you can even throw a weapon at them that they can use