Guide to playing as an elementalist

From Guild Wars Wiki

Note: This article is geared towards new players. Please keep its contents to those which new players can reasonably understand and use.

[edit] Overview

The Elementalist commands the four elemental forces: earth, air, fire, and water. With magic derived from the very foundations of nature itself, Elementalists can inflict more damage in a single strike than any other profession. There are as many types of Elementalists as there are elements and ways to combine them. Some Elementalists choose to study two or more elements to maintain broad discipline, though many prefer to focus on one unique element. Earth magic triggers quakes and volcanoes, envelopes foes in solid rock, and can add to the strength and stamina of allies. Air magic is driven by the power of storms and lightning, granting allies greater speed or targeting specific foes with a focused, high-damage attack. Fire magic is often considered the most purely destructive form, inflicting searing pain and damage on multiple enemies. The magic of Water is highly manipulative. Water magic summons ice and mist to slow enemies down and blur their vision, inflicts freezing cold damage, and even protects allies from other forms of magical attack.

[edit] Basic knowledge

A good elementalist needs to understand the game elements described in these articles:

• Game mechanics:
  • Exhaustion
  • Area of Effect
• Attributes:
  • Energy Storage (Primary Attribute)
  • Air Magic
  • Fire Magic
  • Earth Magic
  • Water Magic
• Equipment:
  • Elementalist armor
  • Staff
  • Wand
  • Focus Item
  • Caster Weapon
• Party roles:
  • Nuker
  • Shutdown
  • Utility

[edit] Understanding the Profession

[edit] PvE

In PvE, Elementalists often focus on Area of Effect (AoE) damage to kill as many enemies as possible. Fire magic is the most effective line for AoE damage, but Earth, Water and Air each have their own AoE spells. While they may deal less damage, they often have other useful effects such as knock-down, snaring or interrupts.

A few noteworthy "nukes" include:

• Searing Flames - the basic deal-damage-to-target spell, Searing Flames works best with groups of nukers
• Savannah Heat - every bit as powerful as Searing Flames, this spell will cause tremendous damage over time (DoT) to any targets caught in its radius
• Rodgort's Invocation is the epitome of nuking; tremendous damage and a lengthy burning effect, all rather spammable with a fast recharge (if you have good energy management)
• Meteor Shower, a Prophecies-only spell, combines knockdown with powerful AoE damage.
• Sandstorm - a long lasting, large range Earth nuke that deals double damage to attacking foes.
• Maelstrom - this Water nuke interrupts spellcasters every time they are hit by the spell.
• Deep Freeze - a nuke that also slows down enemies for 10 seconds, even with 0 points in Water Magic.

Other, more advanced, roles the Elementalist can perform in PvE include using wards to protect the team, applying defensive conditions on enemies, tanking (with the right build) and/or snaring foes so they can be attacked more easily by the team's melee characters.

[edit] PvP

In PvP, Elementalists are mostly a utility class - basically, an Elementalist with only damage spells on his bar is ineffective. A few damage skills (preferably with high spike damage or lots of pressure potential) mixed in with more flexible skills (such as condition application or wards) is the way to go.

Some Elementalist builds focus on damage, but still, they don't sacrifice utility. Savannah Heat "nukers" are popular in Heroes' Ascent, because they stack high AoE damage potential with a great protection or speed buffs.

As is true with most professions in PvP, Elementalists usually don't bring self-heals.

[edit] Playing in a Party

• Glyph of Lesser Energy can fuel target-other buffs (such as Great Dwarf Weapon).
• Wards can mitigate damage party-wide.
• Try to have a resurrection of some sort in your build.
• Know what your party members are up to, so you are able to help them either by snaring large mobs or single targets, causing AoE damage to large mobs, casting wards, or whatever you are supposed to do with your build.

[edit] What to Avoid

• Ignoring exhaustion.
• Considering Energy Storage a form of energy management. Elementalists need energy management skills just as much as other caster classes.
• Using ADoT spells on moving targets.
• Wasting AoE spells on single targets.

[edit] Play Styles

You have:

• The fire main, Nuker or close-up spiker using skills like Flame Burst.
• Earth Magic - Use defensive nukes like Eruption and Unsteady Ground (flexibilty is the key, as you can both nuke and defend with the same skills).
• Air Magic- Use armor penetrating skills like Shell Shock to undermine the target's defense. Gale is a useful utility spell that can snare and disrupt alike.
• Water Magic- to snare enemies and deal cold damage.
• Playing a secondary ritualist to use party buff skills, like Weapon spells or party heals.

[edit] Echoing

Due to the slow recharge of some very powerful nuking skills, some Elementalists choose to use the Mesmer skills Arcane Echo and the elite Echo which allows an E/Me to repeat his/her strongest spells upon a target. Using both the echo skills, area of effect spells like Meteor Shower and Rodgort's Invocation can be cast up to three times in seconds. Using this tactic, the Elementalist can potentially triple their damage per second (DPS). The elite Elementalist skill Glyph of Renewal also allows the caster to instantly regain the skill they just cast. Either of these methods delivers high damage output in a very short amount of time, but may also drain the Elementalist's energy in a very short amount of time if proper energy management tactics are not taken.

[edit] Nuking

In PvE game-play, the Elementalist can usually be found filling a heavy damage role called a "nuker". The role of a nuker is to inflict large amounts of damage over a given area in a short period of time weakening or killing whole groups of enemies. This is typically done using Fire Magic, which lends this role its nickname, but other elements are being used with the introduction of some new skills like the elite skill Sandstorm. An efficient nuker will usually remain behind a set of tanks while casting spells from a distance. In PvE, a nuker may effectively take out an entire group at once just by understanding the effects of their skills on the enemy AI. Nuking is also effective in Alliance battle due to the large amount of enemies.

[edit] Spiking

Spiking is the art of focusing a lot of damage on a single target during a very short period. For example, an Elementalist who uses Air Magic to deal a large amount of damage to a single target concentrates its power inflicting more damage on a specific target with 25% armor penetration against that target.

[edit] Snaring

Snaring the enemy is a strategy often used by Elementalists in PvP for defense and to immobilize the enemy for spikes. Water magic is extremely effective at slowing the enemies' movements with hexes. Skills such as Ice Spikes can apply a speed reduction to multiple foes at the same time. This allows teammates ample time to get out of the way, or to spike the ensnared foes.

[edit] Healing

Elementalists with secondary professions such as the Ritualist can support party healers by firing off powerful party heals like Protective Was Kaolai, the costs of which can be mitigated by Glyph of Lesser Energy and other energy management skills.

[edit] Energy Management

Energy Management is the way an Elementalist tries to prevent their energy dropping to 0. This meaning they cannot cast any more spells and making the Elementalist useless. Different methods of Energy Management:

• The Necromancer skills Blood Ritual and Blood is Power can be used by allies to increase energy regeneration for a period of time.
• Some Elementalist skills like Glowing Gaze, Glowing Ice, Glowstone, Shock Arrow and Mind Blast can return energy to the caster depending on certain conditions.
• An Elementalist can combine Aura of Restoration or Elemental Lord (or both) with Elemental Attunement and one of the element-specific attunements (Air Attunement, Earth Attunement, Fire Attunement, or Water Attunement) to gain back 100% of the energy used to cast the spell (over 100% in some low energy spells if using both Aura of Restoration and Elemental Lord) and thus never run out of energy. This allows the Elementalist to spam even high energy cost but short recharging spells to deal huge amounts of damage to foes or a group of foes in the case of AoE spells.

[edit] Choice of Secondary Professions

Monk, Ritualist or Paragon is often used to provide a reusable Resurrection skill.

• Warrior: Uses Adrenaline, so it is not useful as secondary profession, unless you want to use it for shouts and stances.
• Monk: Healing Breeze is sometimes used as a heal on split-oriented elementalists, Rebirth can be used to avoid party wipes in PvE.
• Necromancer: The Sunspear skill Necrosis can be used in combination with Searing Flames or other skills which inflict burning for a low energy, spammable direct damage skill.
• Mesmer: Arcane Echo and Echo are often used to cast multiple copies of powerful spells such as Meteor Shower. Mantra of Earth in conjunction with Stone Striker and Stoneflesh Aura and/or Armor of Earth can be used to effectively mitigate most if not all damage due to high AL.
• Assassin: In PvE, Assassin's Promise can be used to spam energy-efficient but slow-recharging ADOT spells. Shadow Form, in conjunction with Death's Charge and High Damage Fire or Earth spells can be used for Solo farming bosses or even certain areas in the Domain of Anguish.
• Ritualist: Death Pact Signet can be used in emergencies to quickly resurrect a key party member, such as a Monk, with high Energy. Flesh of My Flesh can be used as a general purpose hard resurrect without the drawbacks of Death Pact Signet.
• Paragon: Song of Concentration and "Make Haste!" are required HA utility skills.
• Dervish: Mystic Regeneration is a powerful heal when combined with several Elementalist enchantments (such as Attunements). Dwayna's Touch and Featherfoot Grace provides a decent amount of healing, condition immunity and mobility on a split.

---

Guides for all Professions
Core: Warrior • Ranger • Monk • Necromancer • Mesmer • Elementalist
Factions: Assassin • Ritualist        Nightfall: Paragon • Dervish