I tried running a few air builds on my Elementalist in PvP the past few weeks. (I've also tried countless times to make PvE Air builds, but you can guess how that turned out.) I've found I can't actually make a build that overpowers my favorite Fire build.
Damage against damage, Air Magic simply seems to recharge too slowly, do too little damage and simply lacks any useful utility. The armor penetration does not help.
Why should I bother using an Elemental Attunement Air build, for example, which uses Lightning Orb and Lightning Hammer as primary damage dealers when I can use that same build in Fire, with Rodgort's Invocation and Fireball/Phoenix? The Fire build does more damage in most cases, can hit multiple opponents, applies a condition in burning, has the same cast time, and isn't interrupted mid-cast if your target dies. The Air build (in this example) doesn't seem to have any advantage.
I tried creating a utility Air build in the form of Thunderclap or Gust, something along those lines and noticed it lacked any sort of real stopping power against most classes.
I can understand Water magic and Earth lacking the potency of Fire, as they serve different purposes. But Air? I mean come on. Most of the skills are simple single-target damage spells. Shouldn't those skills actually out-damage Fire spells in most cases?
When exactly did Air Magic start to suck? Is the attribute simply limited to chaining Thunderclap with Lightning Orb now?
Is it just me, or does Air Magic suck now?
Plague
Avarre
Thundro
Ive been using an air ele for PvE for quite some time aswell for PvP in some cases. This is my build:
Air magic 12 + 4 = 16
Energy Storage 12+1 = 13
Elemental Attunement<Elite>
Air Attunement
Lightning Strike
Enervating Charge
Lightning Orb
Lightning Hammer
Blinding Flash
Ressurection signet
It's use is simple yet effective: keep double attunment up, keep target blinded stacked with weakness and keep hurting it with everything you got.
Double attunement returns 80% of the energycost which means you can basicly keep it up indefinitly.
Beat all 3 campaigns with it.
Air magic 12 + 4 = 16
Energy Storage 12+1 = 13
Elemental Attunement<Elite>
Air Attunement
Lightning Strike
Enervating Charge
Lightning Orb
Lightning Hammer
Blinding Flash
Ressurection signet
It's use is simple yet effective: keep double attunment up, keep target blinded stacked with weakness and keep hurting it with everything you got.
Double attunement returns 80% of the energycost which means you can basicly keep it up indefinitly.
Beat all 3 campaigns with it.
Cebe
Air Magic may not deal the sort of damage Fire Magic can, but it has some fantastic utility. For 75% of the dungeons out there I've used Air Magic, due to the large amounts of physical damage dealers you can come across pretty often. Blinding Flash + Shell Shock + Epidemic is a beautiful combination of skills, and when mixed with Elemental Attunement, Air Attunement, Lightning Hammer and Lightning Orb you just keep spamming...like you're on an energizer battery.
@ OP. Don't use Thunderclap, it's a very risky and fragile spell. Gust is also not that great in my opinion. It's "ok" in some situations, but the fast-recharging blind skills Air Magic has are worth their weight in gold.
@ OP. Don't use Thunderclap, it's a very risky and fragile spell. Gust is also not that great in my opinion. It's "ok" in some situations, but the fast-recharging blind skills Air Magic has are worth their weight in gold.
Etta
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Thundro
It's use is simple yet effective: keep double attunment up, keep target blinded stacked with weakness and keep hurting it with everything you got. Double attunement returns 80% of the energycost which means you can basicly keep it up indefinitly. |
FelixCarter
Air Magic was originally suppose to cause mass damage to an individual target while Fire Magic was originally suppose to cause medium damage to a wide group of targets.
Air Magic was for Spikes.
Fire Magic was for Pressure.
But as more campaigns were introduced, Fire became more damaging in the line of elements. But that's all that Fire does now: damage.
Air still can do some damage, but nothing compared to Fire. I mainly use it for blinding, knockdown, and cracked armor nowadays... Sometimes it can still make a good spike, but you have to prep it correctly.
Air Magic was for Spikes.
Fire Magic was for Pressure.
But as more campaigns were introduced, Fire became more damaging in the line of elements. But that's all that Fire does now: damage.
Air still can do some damage, but nothing compared to Fire. I mainly use it for blinding, knockdown, and cracked armor nowadays... Sometimes it can still make a good spike, but you have to prep it correctly.
NeHoMaR
Air magic is good for PvP; constant blind, knock-downs, and the highest damage in game. Now, in PvE air is the only element not doing AoE damage, that's the problem, and that's because I never use air in PvE. Excluding areas where the maximum amount of enemies are 3 or 4 at the time, I don't see why not just use fire instead. If you feel really repetitive about using fire, change to earth, or even water (note I am talking about PvE)
glountz
Air magic is quite good in HM or Elite Areas, where blindness and weakness spam grants your team a better survivability. Armor penetration against highly armored mobs is not to forget, also.
Holly Herro
It's just you.
Ensign
Air has pretty much always sucked. It was only ever really any good for blind, and still is to some extent - though the options aren't what they used to be and people are prepared to deal with it. Gale used to be awesome, now it's merely an ok utility skill (mostly used to protect Ward). You have some ok speed boosts, but that's really it. All of your DDs are awful, always have been, only minimally acceptable for spiking. You pretty much run an Air Ele if you want a blind bitch, otherwise don't bother.
Aera
I think we all agree Air Magic is a utility attribute, like blinding and helping on spikes. There's more to GW than just killing stuff...
Ensign
It's a utility attribute like blinding and blinding, maybe with a little blind thrown in. It's a one trick line, though that trick is still pretty damn good.
Omniclasm
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Aera
I think we all agree Air Magic is a utility attribute, like blinding and helping on spikes. There's more to GW than just killing stuff...
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Nemo the Capitalist
hmmmmmmm we always have to kill something i thought we protected people do!
dont neglect the monks with dismiss conditions
dont neglect the monks with dismiss conditions
Abnaxus
Yestarday I tried Murakai dungeon with my friends (3 rangers).
Never done before, so we didn't know what kind of enemies we had to fight.
First try, I used 1 savannah and 1 warder. We got several party wipes when fighting the groups of enchanted, eventually we managed to finish the dungeon with a lot of DP.
Second try, I set the eles as blinder, shell shock, enervating, I was BHA+epidemic, the other 2 splinter barrage.
Cracked armor + weakness + blind spread over all foes. Cracked armor is great against all heavy armored enemies, and air spells have an additional 25% ap.
We literally breezed, completed the dungeon in less than 1 hour with +10 moral boost.
Never done before, so we didn't know what kind of enemies we had to fight.
First try, I used 1 savannah and 1 warder. We got several party wipes when fighting the groups of enchanted, eventually we managed to finish the dungeon with a lot of DP.
Second try, I set the eles as blinder, shell shock, enervating, I was BHA+epidemic, the other 2 splinter barrage.
Cracked armor + weakness + blind spread over all foes. Cracked armor is great against all heavy armored enemies, and air spells have an additional 25% ap.
We literally breezed, completed the dungeon in less than 1 hour with +10 moral boost.
draxynnic
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Omniclasm
So...how many GvG's have you won without killing anything? There's not more to GW than killing, thats the ONLY thing in this game, theres just different ways to accomplish it.
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Omniclasm
Quote:
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Originally Posted by draxynnic
No, there's killing and not getting killed. Blind and weakness help with the latter.
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The sole purpose of staying alive and keeping the rest of the team alive is so that you can kill the other team. So technically, not getting killed is part of killing.
Captain Arne Is PRO
Storm Djinn's Haste is only the best skill in the game!
draxynnic
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Omniclasm
That depends on how you look at it. The only reason you are staying alive is so that you can kill the other team. If there is nothing left to kill, you no longer try to stay alive, look at the lava map in the Arenas. Once you win, most people go stand in the lava.
The sole purpose of staying alive and keeping the rest of the team alive is so that you can kill the other team. So technically, not getting killed is part of killing. |
rohara
air is the least used element on my ele. aside from playing the blindbitch in pvp (which is boring and i don't want to do it), air magic is pretty "meh". however, air magic is fun with thunderclap and shock arrow =D which isn't ideal for most situations. i use storm djinn's when i run with my ele as well, but that's about it!
when i want/have to play a utility ele, i'd much rather use water or earth. putting blind on the physical damage dealers isn't my idea of fun. i'm like "haha yr blind!" and their monk is like "haha dismiss/draw/RC/any of the 6546541 condition removal skills in the game!" and i'm like "QQ why do i bother?".
i'd rather throw down a ward or slap a blurred vision on them anyday. or both! makes me feel like i'm actually doing something. hex removal is cumbersome at best, and wards...well there's nothing they can do about those once they're up.
when i want/have to play a utility ele, i'd much rather use water or earth. putting blind on the physical damage dealers isn't my idea of fun. i'm like "haha yr blind!" and their monk is like "haha dismiss/draw/RC/any of the 6546541 condition removal skills in the game!" and i'm like "QQ why do i bother?".
i'd rather throw down a ward or slap a blurred vision on them anyday. or both! makes me feel like i'm actually doing something. hex removal is cumbersome at best, and wards...well there's nothing they can do about those once they're up.
thor hammerbane
Haven't played pvp in about a month, but Lightning Surge+Lightning orb seemed to work fine. Air magic has plenty of useful skills for spiking, but not too many good elites.
immortius
I've been using the dual-attunements air build in PvE since EotN came out, especially nice when combined with Mindbender for infinite energy fuelling continuous fast-cast lightning orbs and hammers. Of course that is just PvE.
bungusmaximus
Quote:
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Originally Posted by rohara
when i want/have to play a utility ele, i'd much rather use water or earth. putting blind on the physical damage dealers isn't my idea of fun. i'm like "haha yr blind!" and their monk is like "haha dismiss/draw/RC/any of the 6546541 condition removal skills in the game!" and i'm like "QQ why do i bother?".
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R!ghteous Ind!gnation
Air = Utility > damage
Fire = Damage > Utility
Cold = Snare + some prot > damage
Earth = Protection > damage
Fire = Damage > Utility
Cold = Snare + some prot > damage
Earth = Protection > damage
Viruzzz
Fire is a pure damage element. really doesn't have anything else. KD in the form of meteor (/shower) and thats it
Air you get good damage, KD, weakness, blind, 2 very crippling conditions to anything using physical damage, and armor penetration helps against high armor targets (usually the same ones that deal physical damage)
Air you get good damage, KD, weakness, blind, 2 very crippling conditions to anything using physical damage, and armor penetration helps against high armor targets (usually the same ones that deal physical damage)
cebalrai
Mesmer/Ele
13+ fast casting
Air Attunement
Shell Shock
Auspicious Incantation
Lightning Hammer (use after Auspicious to recharge your whole bar)
Invoke Lightning
Chain Lightning
Lightning Javelin
Blinding Flash
Makes a hella good spike with the blazing-fast casting speed...
13+ fast casting
Air Attunement
Shell Shock
Auspicious Incantation
Lightning Hammer (use after Auspicious to recharge your whole bar)
Invoke Lightning
Chain Lightning
Lightning Javelin
Blinding Flash
Makes a hella good spike with the blazing-fast casting speed...
LONGA
Try the shards of Orr dungeons you will see how good can air Ele come up with support from other classes
Esan
Listen to Ensign, people. Air has been useless as a damage attribute ever since Chain Lightning got nerfed way back when.
cebalrai
I dont think air magic is problematic in itself. I think that if there is a problem, it's in the game. This is kind of the same reason why mesmers stink in pve. You could use utility and tricks in pve, but simple brute force is just quicker and better.
Don't fix air magic. Fix PvE.
Don't fix air magic. Fix PvE.
twicky_kid
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ensign
It's a utility attribute like blinding and blinding, maybe with a little blind thrown in. It's a one trick line, though that trick is still pretty damn good.
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Age
Air is my favourite attribute as it doesn't cost to much in energy costs.There is nothing wrong with it as as I know in PvP they use it for spiking on melee types to help protect castors.That could be said for PvE as well.There are some fine Elite out of Nightfall Invoke Lighting and Blinding Surge.I mostly use 2 good PvP builds with evoke with a Sup Air rune.Air Eles aren't nor any Ele is about doing damage it is about supporting a team.
What bugs me as Monk standing back is all the Fire Eles which are male for the most part going up with the Warrior and start tanking and they are the first to die as they have a Sup Fire Rune that is not what the Ele was designed for don't forget you got 60al armour.There are a few good Air Elite out there everyone know Thunderclap is bad.
Look through here to see some good elites
What bugs me as Monk standing back is all the Fire Eles which are male for the most part going up with the Warrior and start tanking and they are the first to die as they have a Sup Fire Rune that is not what the Ele was designed for don't forget you got 60al armour.There are a few good Air Elite out there everyone know Thunderclap is bad.
Look through here to see some good elites
dont feel no pain
Its just you, Cracked Armor/Blind/Weakness SPIKE DMG!! FTW!!
bhavv
SuperDave
I pretty much stick to air magic in Alliance Battles. Blind does wonders to keep those wiki-ninjas off my ass. But hardly use it elsewhere
bhavv
Owning in PVE with Air and sreenies:
I stopped at 100 kills to do the destroyer mission, destroyers die very fast indeed. I completely refused to use aspect of the Raven I did a far better job with my bar ^^. The great thing about this build isnt just the damage, but also how much protection the air skills on the player bar offer. Party members will rarely take any damage beyond 25% health as long as Weakness and Blind are spammed correctly and you stay in the ward.
LoL! Try harder or quit GW.
I stopped at 100 kills to do the destroyer mission, destroyers die very fast indeed. I completely refused to use aspect of the Raven I did a far better job with my bar ^^. The great thing about this build isnt just the damage, but also how much protection the air skills on the player bar offer. Party members will rarely take any damage beyond 25% health as long as Weakness and Blind are spammed correctly and you stay in the ward.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Plague
I've also tried countless times to make PvE Air builds, but you can guess how that turned out, I've found I can't actually make a build that overpowers my favorite Fire build.
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Vanquisher
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Esan
Air has been useless as a damage attribute ever since Chain Lightning got nerfed way back when.
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Wildi
I'd like to see Chain Lightning become a viable alternative for air, I think there's no reason why Chain Lightning shouldn't have a 2 second cast time
Dark Paladin X
Often, air spiking build are used in PvP, although I rarely see them in PvE (most players would expect terratank or SF nuker).
I agree with cebalrai, air magic shouldn't be fixed, PvE should (not to mention the constant nerfing of farming).
I agree with cebalrai, air magic shouldn't be fixed, PvE should (not to mention the constant nerfing of farming).
bhavv
Air magic and Chain lightning *are* fine as they are? But yes a 2s cast time on chain lightning would help. I dont even need to use it on my heroes bars, its deactiated most of the time.
I wish I could make a video of how much it pwns, I guess you'll never know untill you try it.
I wish I could make a video of how much it pwns, I guess you'll never know untill you try it.
Molock
Quote:
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Originally Posted by FelixCarter
Air still can do some damage, but nothing compared to Fire. I mainly use it for blinding, knockdown, and cracked armor nowadays... Sometimes it can still make a good spike, but you have to prep it correctly. |
Air is now more of a anti-melee element..