Three ele builds for different areas of GW:EN

I attempted to use some of my preferred Ele builds in GW:EN, only to end up dying regularly in a few spots. With more foes immune to burning and/or resisting fire, some of my favorite fire builds (SF included), have proven to be nearly useless in certain areas of GW:EN. As I've changed up my builds, I've come to a realization that there may not be any one ele build that works well across all of GW:EN. Different areas have widely different kinds of foes with different resistances and immunities, making it more likely that eles may need to swap up builds depending on the particular region or dungeon that they are exploring.

Asuran region
This territory features multiple kinds of foes capable of dealing high damage at close range. Primarily this includes dinosaurs like the Tyrannus, Ferothrax, Raptors and Ceratadons. There are also the Quetzal (tengu) warriors & redhand simians that can dishout some hefty dps if they gang up. For the Asuran regions, I've found this earth build seems to work extremely well:

E/Me
Earth Magic: 15 (11 + 3 + 1)
Energy Storage: 11 (10 + 1)
Inspiration Magic: 10

[skill]Mantra of Earth[/skill][skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Stone Striker[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Sandstorm[/skill][skill]Churning Earth[/skill][skill]Stone Daggers[/skill] and then a Rez sig or possibly a Ward (melee, elements or weariness)

Several foes in the asuran area have increased movement skills, making Churning earth slightly more useful here than it might be elsewhere. I wear armor w/ Geo insignias for this build which combines well with the Stone Striker skill. If you draw heavy aggro (like during a Raptor gankfest), energy stays near full via the Mantra.

Ebon Vanguard / Charr region
For an ele, the charr aren't overly hard to deal with. However, when facing many at a time, their attacks can certainly add up. Some of the other dangerous foes include Burning Spirits and Flowstone Elementals. If there's a common theme here, it's fire damage. Certain charr warriors use conjure flame, their casters use fire skills, the charr seekers use conjure flame & ignite their arrows, and the elementals use fire as well. The build I've been using for this area is this:

E/any
Water Magic: 16 (12 + 3 + 1)
Energy Storage: 13 (12 + 1)

[skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Water Attunement[/skill][skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Ward Against Harm[/skill][skill]Deep Freeze[/skill][skill]Ice Spikes[/skill][skill]Glowing Ice[/skill][skill]Ice Spear[/skill]

The ice spear is used specifically vs. foes that come into close range. It can be tempting to spam this at any foe, but it's usually best to stay in the ward as much as possible.

Norn region
With many cold-based creatures, fire damage is useful here. You can use a build like SF. However, against certain foes burning can be problematic (for example, Avalanches using Frigid Armor or in certain quests & dungeons like Raven's Point where you face Destroyers). Another problem are the wisps that use Vow of Silence, making them untargetable. If you know you're not going to encounter (m)any of those, then a good old SF build might still be your best bet. I've racked up a lot of Norn rep in the Varajer Fells and Drakkar Lake areas using an SF build. Another option is an old-school nuker build with Meteor Shower. However, if you're looking for something a bit different to use for this area, consider this:

E/any
Fire Magic: 16 (12 + 3 + 1)
Energy Storage: 13 (12 + 1)

[skill]Fire Attunement[/skill][skill]Conjure Flame[/skill][skill]Mark of Rodgort[/skill][skill]Intensity[/skill][skill]Liquid Flame[/skill][skill]Savannah Heat[/skill][skill]Fire Storm[/skill][skill]Breath of Fire[/skill]

Regarding Mark of Rodgort - this is here simply to add some extra damage via burning. As pointed out above, burning may not be reliable against all foes in GW:EN. For those encounters against foes that are immune to burning (Destroyers, Avalanches, etc), simply don't use this. If you know ahead of time that you'll be facing many of those foes, swap it out for something else. One option might be using a ranger secondary and running Winter.

This build is able to unleash a vast amount of AoE fire damage in a short amount of time by casting MoR -> Intensity -> Liquid Flame -> SH -> Firestorm -> BoF. You can opt to spread out the AoE skills to cover a large battlefield, or concentrate them at a pinch point for maximum overlap with lethal results. This build doesn't utilize a spam skill; the wand or staff attacks with conjure essentially act like a free (but slightly weaker) flare that you can use to help polish off the stragglers that survived the massive alpha-strikes of AoE damage. This also works well to keep the burning going on foes hexed with Mark of Rodgort. Give it a try. At the very least, it's fun to see a wand or staff attack hit for over 50 dmg in those rare cases where you manage to land a critical hit.

I'd have to disagree, SF still pretty much works as it did in the 3 previous campaigns with the Destroyers/Fire Eles/Magma Oozes being the only exception.

I just switch out Vekk and my bar's from SF to Mind Blast and bring along a ranger with Winter whenever I face an area of burning immune enemies

I don't think wards are terribly useful in parties of heroes and henchies due to the fact that H/H's will kite when under any pressure, leaving the safety of the ward even while flagged.

Here's the Earth build my elementalist runs:

Earth Variant: Elementalist Monk
Attributes: 16 Earth, 13 Energy Storage
Skills:
[skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Magnetic Surge[/skill][skill]Energy Blast[/skill][skill]Stone Daggers[/skill][skill]Sandstorm[/skill][skill]Churning Earth[/skill][skill]Earth Attunement[/skill][skill]Resurrection Chant[/skill]

Very reliable damage output with two armor-ignoring high yield nukes. Sandstorm and Churning Earth provide heavy AoE damage. It works great everywhere.


Side Note:
I just started using Vekk with a Blinding Surge / Enervating Charge build.

Air Variant: Elementalist Mesmer
Attributes: 16 Air, 12 Energy Storage, 6 Inspiration
Skills:
[skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill][skill]Blinding Surge[/skill][skill]Enervating Charge[/skill][skill]Energy Blast[/skill][skill]Auspicious Incantation[/skill][skill]Lightning Hammer[/skill][skill]Air Attunement[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Wow, what a lifesaver -- he virtually shuts down all melee and ranger offense, dramatically lowering mass-mob difficulty. Just make sure to keep his energy levels up with BiP or BR.