E/R -> how to heal myself?

Hi Guys.

I'm a lvl17 E/R and my offense is incredible, but my defense is not If I can rely on a monk for a bit healing, I'm fine, but if there is no healer I'm often in trouble.

I try to use Aura of Restauration but I have to take a few pauses in casting in the middle of the fight because I run out of energy. I use this pauses to use "Apply Poison" and poison most enemies, when I'm finished I got enough energy to start it all over again. But Aura of Restauration can't heal me in this time - so I'm in trouble.

The Troll Unguent heals pretty good, but it takes an awful long time to cast If there are enemy rangers nearby I often get interrupted - that is pretty sad.

What possibilities do I have to heal myself? Am I really limited to these 2?

Currently I'm focused on PvE because of my level. 17 is bad for PvP because I haven't found an arena where I could fight Yak's bend is closed for me and Lion's arch is full of lvl20 guys that kick my ass

As far as I know those are the only 2. Troll Unguent isn't bad. Perhaps you may want to change to a monk when you can. Howevr, there may be another reason why you are finding it hard to stay alive.

I have noticed many elementalists (I used to do it too) attack people from afar, and once charged, continued attacking, using short-range area of effect spells instead (like Lave Font). I wonder if this is what you are doing. This is not a good idea. If you are charged, run. Very soon, the monster will give up, and you'll be able to cast spells, including Troll Unguent in peace.

This plan isn't perfect - it only really works as long as warriors stay alive, but it should make a difference.

Quote: Perhaps you may want to change to a monk when you can. I like Ranger very much. It is a great seconday for me. Maybe sometime I will try a E/Mo to check if they are good healers, but I'd like to stay as E/R, because my offense is insane

Yeah I have the same build and there are no healing abilities other than what's been mentioned and for Restoration...well it takes too much time to cast some of the fat spells that would actually help you and as said they can be interupted.
Agreed the offense at base looks REALLY disgusting (in a good way), but you definitely need some type of def/healing to protect you against Ranged or Close combat - having said that, Ele's are never meant to withstand much punishment regardless of spells/healing. The suggestion of taking Monk as a secondary might be you best best.....but I can say from 1st hand experience that when running with the henchies, Alesia performs 300% better with my E/R build over my Wa/E build.

What do you mean by 'interrupt'? As long as they don't knock you down, your skill still works.

Archers are a harder nut, but if you run far enough they will leave you alone. This will probably take you out of battle though, so you may find it better just to attack archers first.

I know that there are skills like dodge or deflect arrows (I think that's what they're called) that may help.

Elementalist spells like Meteor Shower may help to quickly kill archers.

Understand that I have never played a Ranger, so some of my suggestions may be utterly useless.

How long does Troll Unguent last? That may give me an idea.

Hope this helps.

Yep, you're pretty much stuck for healing options, but that doesn't mean you have no options. Both Elementalist and Ranger have some great skills for reducing the damage you recieve in the first place. You can gain evasion abilities, increased armour, spells that that slow or blind enemy warriors, or spells that increase your speed to help you get out of danger.

Utilise the good skills available to you, and you'll find healing (self or from monk) is a lot less of a problem.

Don't forget about healing spring

The Elementalist/Ranger combo illustrates the "glass cannon" concept perfectly.

As the OP said, the 3s cast time on Troll Unguent leaves you open to 3s of punishment and any interrupts the may have. On top of that, it's a heal over time, so you have to use it before you're in any real danger.

Aura of Restoration is ok, but hardly reliable.

Healing Spring is a nice supplemental heal, but anything that attacks and hits you while using it will interrupt the 2s cast time. Again, you can't rely on it as your sole method of healing.

First: Understand the combination you've chosen doesn't have a lot of good options for self healing.
Second: Instead of looking for healing, try switching your specialty. You mentioned you use Phoenix, so we know you use fire, but many newer players make the mistake of never trying out the other elementalist lines.

In the early game, it's true that fire is the clear winner in damage output. As you move through the game, pure damage is less important. Fire offers nothing to your defense. Earth is a natural choice for a defensive character, and it has some decent attack spells but they're only available far too late in the game for most people to realize how good they are. (This is a poor design decision- skill availability in the early game shapes the way so many newer players view skill balance, and introducing good skills later on leaves them sorely underexposed.)

Again, earth is a decent choice, but not the only one. Water gives you a few different armors, a Ward, and Snares. Maelstrom is probably my favorite PVE elementalist spell- cast this in the middle of a group of caster mobs and they wont cast a thing for the next 10 seconds. Just make sure your team doesn't pull their aggro out of Maelstrom's radius. Snaring your enemies also gives you a chance to get away, and that might be all you need to get that heal up.

Look at alternatives to pure healing, because your particular combo doesn't have much.

(Add Ether Renewal to the list of heal spells, but it's elite, only available in the desert and beyond, and is vulnerable to enchanment removal. Servicable, but not reliable.)

hi,

i have the exact same build, e/r (lvl 20, ascended, finished game, 500K+ xp) and although i've considered switching my secondary, there are some skills i really like from the ranger side.

yeah, the healing abilities really suck, so always stay well back out of trouble. the 2 ranger skills i always bring along are dodge (+33% spd) and troll ungent. dodge will get you out of trouble from any melee or attack, and few monsters can keep up w/ you. once you're out of harms way you can quickly cast the ungent to bring your health back up. if you really need to run, you can bring storm chaser for those long distance sprints =)
also, never wait to long to run, i never use aura anymore. i tried Mo as a secondary for a short time, but w/ the intro skills you get when you're a lvl 20 E don't quite cut it in the desert as opposed to the ranger dodge skills. when i have the time i'll probably go back and acquire some higher lvl monk skills which may work better.

btw, w/ dodge and knowing how to stay out of trouble, 99% of the time i'm the last one standing when things go wrong in pve (especially fow or uw), so i always bring a res sig along.

@Scaphism:
Mhm, yeah, I'll try to assign a few points earth magic.
Kinetic Armor sounds awesome, but it's a shame that there is a "ward against melee" but no "ward against ranged attacks"

Maybe I can rethink my role... With "ward against melee" I can greatly help my tanks... But "melee" doesn't help against casters and rangers

@saphir:
dodge is linked to expertise - so it's mainly unusefull for me...
But what about Dryder's Defenses? It does sound good - but what exactly are "attacks"?
Does "attacks" mean melee and ranged physical attacks or every kind of attack (that causes damage) or really every kind of attack that harms me...?

All other good stances are linked to expertise that's mean.


My Problem is, that I can stay out of the fight most of the time and normally hardly get hurt. So it hurts me to cut down my offense just for rare cases... Allthough I maybe can be very important in these rare cases when I can stand long enough to cast a few more high damage spells...

I'll try to find Dryder's Defenses - that one could be great. But in the mean time I'll assign a few points to earth magic... The skill db says, it is located in Marhan's Grotto, but I can't find information on where this town is ( http://www.guildwarsguru.com/content...tto-id1334.php )

Any ideas?

I'd say look into switching to Earth magic. Good wards, a few strong spells, and the supremely powerful defensive elite Obsidian Flesh. What's not to like about +20 armor and being untargettable by spells? Sure, you can't heal, but if there isn't a warrior on you, this makes you a tank. It's not mana expensive, and you can keep it up about half the time. Maybe combine it with Kinetic Armor to cover the melee?