Elemantalist Useless?

Hey let me just say hey since it's my first time on this forum. I however did visit the website a number of times to see some builds for an Elementalist/Ranger.

Alrighty to my point, when I first got this game maybe like 3 weeks ago, I heard a great deal that this game had alot of equal aspects to it. So I decided to pick not what seemed the toughest but what actually appealed to me. This happen to be the Ranger at first but I picked Elementalist in the end. I started playing and really loved using this character. However I later learned that you can use a second profession and I saw a partner of mine had a pet which Ranger's can only have. I understood that Elementalists didn't really focus on melee and always needed help so I picked Ranger for the pet. When I reached about level 13 I discovered the arena at Yak's Bend, at this point I was all fire with just the charm animal skill on from the Ranger side. This proved to not work out at all. I immedietly noticed that my pet would die, I would lose my skills, my staff does almost nothing even if it is a high damage so I have to rely on Flare to even remotely hurt my enemy which just drains my energy. Fire storm people can just move away from, etc.

Here is a list I made of what usually happens when facing a certain class:
Necromancer: Absorbs energy and health.
Warrior: Take every hit I dish out.
Mesmer: Hex.
Elementalist: Usually withstands attacks some how, makes me wonder....
Monk: Constantly heals, I only dish low damage and they get the upper hand. When I need to rest.

That's just a summary of everything, i'm just being nce But point is I have tried all of the elements, even tried mixing elements but nothing seems to do. I tried the build on the Guildwars website for E/R it does work a little but i'm usually killed anyway. People actually insulted me today by going after my partners first like I was a mere fly then killing me last If you guys have any tips at all, please give it. Keep in mind i'm level 20 now

P.S: Sorry for the long post.

I know what you're saying.

I'm an elementalist primary, with necro secondary. I'm only 17, but whenever i'm in pvp, i juts get rushed by a warrior and killed.

Elementalists are supposed to be the nukers of the bunch, dishing out more dmg than can be dealt with.. but i've found that i'm rarely able to dmg an attacker enuf to dissuade him from marching right up to and pummeling me.

And AoE's just seem pointless in PvP, they always just move out of the way.

I'll be paying close attention to this thread to see if somebody suggests a more effective way of thinking about the elementalist skills.

Armor. Do u have decent armor. since ur 20 u should have 30+ armor. and if ur a fire ele then have fire maxed out or really close to max. other skills. such as fireball. just like flare but take a little longer to cast but does more dmg and dmg to nearby foes. other than that i dont know. ive never went to any of the arenas. focusing on PvE

Post your build and I'll try to see if I can help.

You know theres more elements than just fire right....I have an E/Me20 and I only use fire for PvE. for pvp air is great, and water and earth are very specialized elements. Basically, fire is disadvantaged in pvp and thats why you keep dying. With air and its weakness causing attacks i can match a w/mo.

Actually I found mark of trogdor+flare to be rather good until I discovered air magic.

If u take earth into PvP u can cast so much armor stuff on you. Earth has alot of protection stuff than what it does attacking. unlike fire. fire is all attacking and no protecting. so yeah imortal flame made a good point. try the different elements and see if they give u any better luck.

Yes I got to Forge and bought every piece of the 60 armors. My fire is at 14 now and as for my build I was experimenting a bit so currently it's:

Flare, Fire Attunement, Fire Storm, Incendiary Bonds, Searing Heat, Aura of Restoration, Glyph of Lesser Energy and Serpents Quickness (PvP I have Res. Signet)

In PvP it is all about air magic, blind.. gale.. lightning orb.. evac. charge..

If the warrior lives through that he will think twice about charging up again.

yes, air is supposed to be the best, i just tried air but missed my fire, fire just takes so long to cast and its expensive. Earth is cool but again can be expensive, all the sweet spells cause exhaustion. Obsidian Flame should be equipped and used carefully at all times in my opinion. I have 13 in earth and deal 100dmg with this. The spell disregards armor and regardless of what they have on, 100 HP WILL be nicely removed from the enemy!

I use earth primarily in PvP though i am still adjusting to PvP.

Earth is so defensive can someone tell me how i can best assist my team using earth in PvP? Fire is almost pointless cept for flare, phoenix and the like. Wards maybe.

I have 15 attributs in Fire and 13 in Earth, secondary is a monk with 6 attributes there my energy is like 64

Elementalist can kick ass.

Make a air ele with Blinding flash and enervating charge, also air attunement and elemental attunement.
cast both attunement spells to regen almost 100% energy (more if your monk help you).
When the battle start press tab to circle the ennemies and alternate blindness and enervating charge. After 8 sec the entire opposing team will be either weakened for 20 seconds (66% less dmg) of blinded for 10 sec (90% miss) - Based on 16 of air magic.
Then keep blasting all your other spell.
Make sure you only have one spell wich is draining you, Chain lightning in my case.

That works for me.

Of course Elementalist need some sort of weekness (armor).
The Geomancer armor has much better protection against melee.

Everytime someone attacks you keep casting blinding flash or enervating charge and then run to your monk.

i don't know much akilles, but i would say boost yoru energy storage and tone down either fire or earth... that will solve your energy crisis, and allow you to flex your earthly power a lil more.

Again, i haven't gotten to lvl 20 and the serious pvp stuff, but my impression of fire is that its excellent against creatures... lots of AoE and Crowd control stuff, probably the biggest bang for your buck... which is great when your just trying to wade through a bunch of NPC creatures as fast as possible... but PvP requires something with a little more finesse, which is why Air is so popular... its fast, its cheap, it penetrates armor.

However, if anybody can find a good way to make fire effective in pvp i would love to hear it!

Lol I've seen koreans using meteor shower with their mass minnion build at a bottleneck.


You're like WTF MOVE.

Anyway PvP is all teambased don't expect to make any difference alone, if it looks like you're not doing anything then it's not just you it's your whole team.

Eles for PvP are usually used in spike goups (they all hit with air nukes at the same time)

And aftershock groups.

In the Yak's Bend arena, I had fun sneaking up on people and smacking them with a phoenix and lava font, then when they ran away from lava font, I chucked a fireball at em. Then, I followed up by spamming flare with whatever energy I had left. It was fun, but perhaps not too effective in some circumstances.

Here are my suggestions for you -

Fire Ele-
I would put fire magic at 14 (12 +1 +1), Wilderness survival at 10 I think, and Energy Storage at whatever is left. (throw in a minor energy storage rune in too, for kicks. XD)

Now then, I would use these skills - (keeping in mind that you are an E/R)
Flare
Pin Down
Healing Spring or Troll Unguent
Dryder's Defenses
Phoenix
Inferno
Storm Chaser
Elemental Attunement

You are now akin to the "walking bomb", except I would refer to you as the "sitting bomb", unless something goes terribly wrong and you become the "running bomb", hence the inclusion of Storm Chaser. Alright, now to list your role. Also, everyone else, feel free to add suggestions.

Your job is to attract warriors, =). You can fare pretty well against other classes, but primarily your strong point will be in slaughtering warriors. Of course, for this to work, you will have to grab a bow for pin down. Alright then, to the explanation of - Flame's Sitting Bomb. XD

Alright, at the start of the match, for simplicity we'll say an arena match. You tab around until you find yourself a good warrior to pick out of the crowd. Most likely, other long distance fighters will be focusing on your team's monk or person with monk secondary. First off, you are going to want to flip on Elemental Attunement. It lasts a good 45 seconds, so you don't need to worry about that. Now, start spamming flare at your victim. Note that you want to be at max range before you begin spamming flare, and try to seem conveniently out of your teams reach. He'll probably look at you and think, "Hmm, low armor...low damage spell...he dies!". (Yes, this build does focus on the inner workings of your opponent's mind. o_O). He'll now charge at you, weapon in hand. Now, you will pull out your bow and throw a pin down at him, then immediately switch back to your rod/wand/staff set and throw down a healing spring or a troll unguent. You need to be quick at this point, because due to your low marksmanship, he will only be crippled for 3 seconds, however, that should be enough time.

Now, return to spamming flare at him until he is about to hit you with that blasted weapon of his. But of course, we can't let you take damage, now can we? Flip on Dryder's Defense, and immediately start setting up a Phoenix. At 14 fire magic, Phoenix will do quite a bit of damage. Then, follow up with an Inferno, to do quite a bit more damage. Now then, here is where I need a bit of help with this build. Unless one of your teammates conveniently decides to help you, this warrior most likely isn't fully dead yet. All I have is Storm Chaser to make a quick exit to keep you out of trouble, and maybe pull him to your teammates, who will then finish him off. Also, Dryder's Defenses only lasts for like 8 seconds or so, which doesn't allow for much more attacking after Inferno, but it is the only evade/block stance that isn't linked to expertise.

This build has a few weaknesses in them, I know, but maybe someone else here can tweak it around and make it teh 'UBER SITTING BOMB' or something.

Your major problem is fire in pvp. Like some said above, use it in pve where monsters just stand they’re looking at the pretty colors... The other three offer a huge deal more then plain damage dealing. Here are two suggestions you might try:
Air
Chain Lightning\
Lightning Surge = sweet damage combo.
Lightning Orb /
Whirlwind - Handy for taking down assist warrior trains.
Substitute what ever else in here. Also you might want to think some wilderness survival. This line has some really handy things in it.

Water
Water Trident - This is great fun to knock people down with either offensive or defensive.
Maelstrom - A unaware player will get mauled by this...
Ice Spikes - Ranged AOE slow spell.
Frozen Burst - PBAOE slow. Helps outrun enemy trains or gets that tank off you. 3/4 second cast time really helps.

The point is if you expected to walk in the arena and destroy people solo your going to be VERY disappointed. Use the air to assist teammates in giving large damage spikes. These are hard to heal. Water is more of a defensive line to help keep people off your healer and to annoy the hell out of the other team. Earth is a little harder to use. You have to be very careful on energy management and using the skills at the right time.

My last advice is do things to help your team. If you’re the only person damaging a target or your way out front, you need to figure out what’s going on. Also killing people isn’t the only thing you can do. Eles have so many knock down spells that can save your healer or make their healer miss a critical heal. Sometimes killing someone doesn’t mean direct damage.

game is about teamwork, if you wanna play a fire elem you need a team that know how to work with a fire elem.

specifically, the got to know what to expect from you and you from them
if you ever go into a mission before everyone on the team has told everyone else on the team whats on their skill bar then you are setting yourselves up for failure.

AoE is useless in the arenas, but when you go to the tombs, an area of effect spell can be deadly. Actually, even in the arenas you can firestorm someone at melee range and warriors will either take the damage or leave you alone. Obviously from your class descriptions, you aren't too far into the game, though, since you're pretty far off.

The problem isn't that elementalists suck. The problem is that you don't know how to play it.

I use a Fire/Earth combo, but I concentrate on earth. This is especially effective against melee characters. Ward against Melee and Ward against Foes and then some offensive skills. If you can actually get the other teams warriors to get close to you, Inferno, Phoenix and Lava Font can be very effective. AOE skills can be effective for clearing bottlenecks or supporting your warriors when they've got the enemy occupied.