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GW2: Elementalist Thread

I use a staff for group play mainly due to not finding anything that provides a good healing option that is better. For single play I have enjoyed the wand (?) and focus. I also picked up the Frost bow spell last night. Holy... that thing is amazing, and a friend can use it as well.
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Goggalor: "Freedom of speech is not freedom of asshattery."

reply to Savious
Ah dang it, you must have been typing this when I started the other thread... anyway I can copy over to yours and delete my thread?

reply to Savious
BTW here's a post about using staff to achieve a ton of swiftness. Sav, you said over gchat you get 45% with daggers, how sustainable is that? Which skills?

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There are a bunch of ways to get Swiftness as an Elementalist and when you're low level it's really useful to be able to move around rather quickly between events and everything.

You need: A Staff and (optionally) Arcane Wave

Glyph of Elemental Harmony gives 10s Swiftness when casted in Air attunement.
Windborne Speed (Staff #4, Air) gives 10s Swiftness.
Static Field (Staff #5, Air, Combo Field: Lightning) -> Arcane Wave (Blast Finisher) gives 10s AoE Swiftness. This can also be done with Eruption, but it's just not nearly as smooth and then you run into issues with attunement cooldowns (which would lower your Swiftness uptime).
25, 30 and 40s CD respectively. Over 125s you have 120s of Swiftness. Remember, they all stack in duration so just keep casting them all the time.

reply to Savious
same here i like using staff,

btw if you have in the memory of the sky (orange staff) it heals you whenever you kill someone

when you do is put 15 traits into arcane (whenever you switch to air attunement, you get speed), cycle that with staff swiftness and the glyphy of elemental harmony, you can essentially never run out of swiftness by cycling them.

reply to puppy
I don't use swiftness, it was the trait bonus from air, tier 1 (both slots) and signet of air.

Traits 25%+10%
Signet 10%
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Jobbie told me to keep my signature the same. This is me rebelling.

reply to Savious
I started with Air for my traits, but have since moved to Arcane. I prefer to change between elements often and felt pigeon-holed by selecting one as a primary due to losing the boon when not in that particular element. I have seen woodenpotatoes use dual daggers, and they look pretty fun. I may switch over from a staff once I get a good pair.
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Goggalor: "Freedom of speech is not freedom of asshattery."

reply to Savious
there is a 15 % speed increase when using a dagger when you have 20 in arcane.

for me since i used a staff, i oped for the staff aoe increase instead.

btw, for all my traits, i rather have them recharge faster (20% in fire/air/water) then i can throw out more attacks.

reply to stvnbrs

reply to Savious
I use scepter main hand and dagger off hand. Then went 10 in water, 10 earth and am now going 10 in fire. I have great survivability and pretty good heals. I used armor of earth, mist form, and arcane blast. Fire rotation is fire slash, arcane blast then fire tooth and phoenix. This gets you a quick 9 stack of might. Its pretty fun and I'm not near as squishy as I was the first 10 levels or so. All in all I am really enjoying this game as I really liked the first one.

If you are casting all those fire spells then what spells are you using with those water/earth traits (and what talent did you pick up in those lines)? Do you pre-cast the earth armor before soloing mobs?

you dish out all aoe as fast a possible while switching attunement.

btw i'm a staff user.

reply to Savious
Anyone making the elementalist their main or still playing their eles?

I think deep in my heart I keep making alts because I really want to be a flashy spellcaster, but from personal experience (and a ton of QQ in the forums), you just have to do a ton more work to close to the same dps (and survivalability) as other classes. The spec that does "well" is using the thunder hammer skill, since it does great pbaoe and blinds.

I still have my ele as my main. I use scepter main hand, dagger off. Went 10 arcane, 10 fire, 10 lightning. I love switching around abilities, and arcane plays this well. I made an engineer alt and will play around with that off and on.
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Goggalor: "Freedom of speech is not freedom of asshattery."

reply to Savious
Just saw this trait in elementalist air magic line:

One with Air:

You move 5% faster every 10 seconds you are attuned to air. Maximum of 25% bonus movement speed.

Whee! Just run all over the map and get the POIs and teleport spots first then go do hearts!

Last nite I remade my elementalist to be an Asura one, and got her to level 10. Using scepter/dagger mainly. For the first time I noticed that in the earth attunement, there's a (single target) blind that blinds for 10 seconds, and only 15 second cooldown. Had a lot of fun leveling her.

I think this is one reason I'm stuck below 30. You just get so much more sense of accomplishment at lower levels :P

Still, reading all the QQ threads makes me think the only class that is flashy enough for me in GW2 might require too much from me. Good thing Panda is here for mindless spamming of 1+2 and telling me where to go quest! That sounded sarcastic but honestly, a lot of the time my gaming is just mindless, I don't need to have an olympic challenge, I just want to pew pew and mobs to die.

I think I've found my main with the Elementalist, at least for awhile.

I started a Mesmer, and while I like it...lot of work for very little output, imo...at least upto level 20 so far.

If you think Elem is complicated, the mesmer is much more so...it's three spells before you see any dmg, and you have to make sure your combo fields are right.

Elem is a blast, literally. Using the fields, you can give yourself 3 / 6 stacks of might within 2 casts, and wreck some serious ass.

I've leveled mine to 15 within a day, and really enjoying it. I think I'll be hanging around with this one for awhile.

Primarily going sceptre / dagger, but staff is pretty good, too.
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I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.- Edward Everett Hale

My Blog - Raising Connor

Yar I've read mesmers really really need their traits to start doing well.

Like I said, I really love big flashy spell effects, and honestly only elementalists have that, so I'll play this for a bit. With my altitis though, a bit might mean just a day, but hey as long it's all fun and games

reply to Savious
BTW quite a few posts I read reminds new elementalists to keep their gear up to date, so visit your TP every 5 levels and don't forget the sigils/runes/etc as well! Since this is a more fragile/less forgiving profession (maybe underpowered, who knows), we can't suck up the gear difference like other professions can.

My new level 10 elementalist got a whole new set of gear (some of which she sewed herself with tailoring) last night.

Made it to 16? last night, still going strong. Getting the S/D combo down.

I usually do this:
- start in fire, lay down the fire field
- phoenix (+3 stacks of might)
- dragon tooth (+3 more stacks, slowass spell they need to drop it faster)
- fire grab
- if mobs still alive, switch to earth and do that slam that knocks them down
- cast curling earth (love that spell, but way slow and getting hit while doing it after the mobs get up from the slam)

btw a tip I read is that you can cast cast curling earth, then teleport into the mob just before you finish, then the spell will go off where you are.

Definitely a lot more work though. My warrior would just rush in and hundred blades or dual axes, done :P

Edit: Going up the air traits to get the +25% speed, but I kind of hate the fact I can't see a number. I'm pretty sure I am going faster, but since I've been zipping along with ride the wind and elemental harmony (+10 sec swiftness if you trigger it while attuned to air), it's hard to tell.

I love swiftness. My toon in WOW feels so slow now, makes it hard to play slow toons like the guardian.