Air Elementalist/????

turtlepoo3000

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2005

24 Apr 2005 at 13:14 - 1
Air ele/??? (mesmer,necromancer,something else???)

Im now planing to have my first character in GW be an air ele but im not sure what to team it up with, with necro and 3 curses i could use rend enchaments and grenth's balance well for no lvl reduction for my ele skills...any opinions would help and are much appreciated

Nash

Nash

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Mar 2005

Sweden

The Cornerstone

24 Apr 2005 at 15:00 - 2
Sure, you can use Rend. You can also get Mesmer for energy steals or such. You can get Monk and use Resurrect with Glyph of Sacrifice too.

turtlepoo3000

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2005

24 Apr 2005 at 18:22 - 3
is rend enchantments worth taking necro as a secondclass? or should i go mes for some extra energy/caster shutdown?

FrogDevourer

FrogDevourer

on a GW break until C4

Join Date: Feb 2005

In your shadow

Servants of Fortuna

24 Apr 2005 at 18:42 - 4
Check out other threads and you'll find a lot of useful pieces of advice. The search button is your friend.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=2810

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
Blasty McBlasterson
Elementalist/Mesmer

Air Magic 12, +3 Rune, +1 Hat
Energy Storage 9, +1 Rune
Inspiration 9

Chain Lightning
Lightning Surge
Lightning Orb
Lightning Strike
Conjure Lightning
Air Attunement
Power Drain
Inspired Enchantment

turtlepoo3000

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2005

24 Apr 2005 at 21:54 - 5
But theres only one necro 2nd class there and it doesnt really have any feedback on whether its worth getting except for blood magic which wasnt what i was asking about

EDIT: nvm ill just try one random one out, its not like it'll totally screw up my character either way

JYX

JYX

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2005

25 Apr 2005 at 00:00 - 6
Nécros...(I typed that odd e by accident...but it looks so good i'll leave it in)...they've got a few good abilities, but not many that I can think of which'll benefit the elementalist more than another class could. Perhaps for maximum burnout, spike damage you're looking for offering of blood to push your sustained damage output beyond the expected limit...perhaps enfeeble to keep warriors at bay?...though to be honest, I'd rather entrust that to my teammates and get on with nuking.

An idea I've been playing around with, and I'm not sure if this will work. Plague touch to cancel out exhaustion and using it against an enemy monk. Most monk heals and skills are small and spammable (no more than 10 energy), you as an elementalist do spike and/or AoE damage and the inclusion of the purely self inflicted exhaustion is a sign of this. I don't know if it works like a normal condition...but it seems to me throwing in 3 obsidian flames, building up a -20 or -30 and using plague touch to transfer this to a monk is one DEADLY shutdown. It'll affect him for up to 90 seconds...and for the first 20-30 seconds he'll be seriously strapped for energy, unable to deal with subsequent spike damage. I mention this because conditions are usually woefully undefended against, no surprise...as the usual conditions of being "on fire" or poisoned are hardly the most threatening you have. Again, I'm not sure if the game allows this thing to work...but it'd be great/wierd/imbalanced if it did.

Air elementalists...I have a personal dislike for air elementalists. Fire for AoE, Water for disrupts, Earth for buffs...air for targeting single foes. But wait...dosen't a warrior do that?...sure... one of the things open to an air elementalist is the Lightning Surge and Lightning Orb combo. The effect is 165 damage instantly to a single foe before armor...although orb does have armor piercing. Now...it takes 2 seconds to simply cast Lighning Surge, the mean time there are sword waving builds (not necessarily warrior Freyas made an interesting if a little unwieldy mesmer build) can regularly up the ante to 60-70 dps to a single target. At 70 damage...it translates into 210 in 3 seconds...is that not spike damage at least in practice...if not in principle? Taking all that time to conjure up an orb and kicking it to someone seems redundant to me when a (yes lame) DPS build can push the same and easily top the kind of damage with a couple of swings of a sword.

Nevertheless...the recent surge of dual attunement builds has prompted me to try my hand at making my very own...this solves some very interesting issues. Before we start, let me warn you that I do not test the game, nor do I have a teambuilder running so the following is mainly raw theory...which I do try to make as sound as possible. This'll be long, so bear with me and please prompt me to make adjustments where due.

Note: Dual attunement builds are builds that use elemental attunement and the specific attunement skill of the line to ensure that any skill from a particular elemental line is cast at only 20% energy cost.

As correctly stated such builds are plenty in the search option. But thats dull...I want to give you something fresh and original because I'm so nice. Plus I can use this chance to see what problems there are here and to refine my understanding.

Firstly for a spammy single target air elementalist using akimbo attunement...you can now be a Mesmer primary without killing yourself for energy...fast casting can help chop a few fractions of a second off a cast. This, if you plan on mass spamming certain skills will up the DPS a fair bit. Now, spells have a 0.75 aftercast which Fast Casting simply will not help, so you want skills to be fairly long to cast and accordingly powerful so that Fast Casting will help without making you wait for any cooldown and thus shaft your DPS. In practise using Fast Casting...I'd say that 2 seconds is the maximum you want to push to. Luckily for us in Air...we have:

Quote:
Lightning Orb
Description: Lightning Orb flies towards target foe and strikes for 10-82 lightning damage if it hits. This spell has 25% armor penetration.
Energy Cost: 15
Casting Time: 2 seconds
Recharge Time: 5 seconds
Perhaps couple this up with an old favorite:

Quote:
Arcane Echo
Description If you cast a "spell" in the next 10-26 seconds, Arcane Echo is replaced with that spell for 20 seconds. Arcane Echo ends prematurely if you use a non-spell skill.
Energy Cost 15
Casting Time 2 seconds
Recharge Time 30 seconds
You have a casting time of 1.28 using level 12 fast casting using Lightning Orb, thats 2.03 seconds including the aftercast time. This fits in nicely with the Arcane Echo...with a little time to spare which you could use to cast Lightning Strike or something cheap 'n fast like that.

Quote: Lightning Strike
Description: Strike target foe for 5-41 lightning damage. This spell has 25% armor penetration.
Energy Cost: 5
Casting Time: 1 second
Recharge Time: 5 seconds Its small, seriously cheap with attunement (1 energy). Since you have a lull of perhaps up to one second between your two Lightning Orbs...I wouldn't want it to go to waste...simply spam this thing after your two Lightning Orbs.

Still...with all this abuse of system...you won't defeat a properly buffed up warrior. I'd say you're talking about 35-40 DPS here if we're being liberal...I don't quite have all my sums worked out...but its not far off. The point is that we're talking about sustaining it...Properly done...it means you're NEVER going to run out of energy. Ever. You can keep dishing out 40 DPS indefinately...thats fairly impressive...as even I-Weaponeers have to stop sometime...plus since you're using spells if you have good hex removal you're sorted...conditions like weakness or blind don't worry you.

Although with 80% reduction, lightning orbs cost 3 energy and lightning strike costs 1 energy...you want to spam these things FAST. This means that you want to have an energy recovery skill from the Mesmer line (cos you know...they're the best) that scales up depending on how much you spam. Enter:

Quote: Channeling
Description For 8-46 seconds, whenever you cast a spell, you steal 1 Energy from each nearby foe.
Energy Cost 5
Casting Time 1 second
Recharge Time 15 seconds 1 energy from each nearby foe?...I'm not sure how large the area is...but if you should be able to get at least 1 or two people here, if not three. Which means you'll be able to overall cancel out the effects of your three spells (lightning orb, echoed lightning orb, lightning strike). Another reason that I included lightning strike is because its cheap...and with Channeling theres a good chance you'll be gaining energy...whereas even a 3 energy Orb and channeling might still end up with a loss in energy. Overall, I think I balanced it pretty nice.

You'll be under fire from warriors and DPS guys...but thats to be expected. Perhaps a winddborne speed will make it better and you can kite them, but anyway, if your monk has protective or life bond or even both...then you should be in good shape. One protection you should take along though is to combat the inevitable hexes...normally a backfire will mess you up pretty bad and its going to be the staple move that will be cast against a spammer such as yourself...but using an inspired hex and then putting the backfire on the original caster (probably a hex spammer) will turn the tables quickly even if you do lose 100+ health. Simply start the Air Machine Gun again and he's in for a world of pain...

Quote:
Inspired Hex
Description Remove a Hex from target ally and gain 3-13 Energy. For 20 seconds, Inspired Hex is replaced by the Hex that was removed.
Energy Cost 5
Casting Time 1 second
Recharge Time 0 seconds Last Skill then. After you cast your two attunements, channeling and arcane echo you will have exactly 0 energy. Target a monk or another magic attack spammer and use Ether Lord. This will help you get your machinegun started quickly with no worries about energy. It will give you 27 energy in total and with Channeling you should stay up there for the rest of the game if lucky. It will emphasise the fact that you have much longer longevity than other DPS builds in a drawn out fight. Use Inspired hex, reverse the hex on the hexer and then use Ether Lord on the hexer to completely reverse a power lock situation. This is a brilliant support skill for this build as in theory you should not be using any energy at all...just make sure you don't have to recast any of your setup skills (attunements, channeling , arcane echo) any time soon.

Quote:
Ether Lord
Description You lose all Energy. For 5-9 seconds, target foe suffers Energy degeneration of 1-3 and you experience Energy regeneration of 1-3.
Energy Cost 5
Casting Time 2 seconds
Recharge Time 20 seconds So to sum it all up:

Quote:
Mesmer/Elementalist

Air Magic 12, +1 Hat
Fast Casting 9, +3 Rune
Inspiration 9, +1 Rune

Elemental Attunement {Elite}
Air Attunement
Lightning Orb
Arcane Echo
Lightning Strike
Channeling
Inspired Hex
Ether Lord I hope this post helped. It took me a bit to make. If anyone sees any problems please tell me so as most of the information is just from the top of my head. There shouldn't be any major terrible miscalculations in logic here. The intention here was not only to give turtlepoo3000 a good character, but also to get people to think about new and interesting combos (a mesmer nuker?...come on...) ...so if you just skipped to the end...go back and read it...its good :P

shalafifred

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2005

25 Apr 2005 at 00:08 - 7
you cant have runes on air magic if you are a primary mesmer, runes only go to primary class attributes

JYX

JYX

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2005

25 Apr 2005 at 00:10 - 8
fine...thanks overlooked that one...then pump fast casting even further to up the DPS

edit: made the correct adjustments to the build

Scaphism

Scaphism

Elite Guru

Join Date: Jan 2005

Idiot Savants [iQ]

25 Apr 2005 at 00:40 - 9
Ether Lord is still trash, even if you put a pretty hat on it.
Try Power Drain or leech signet- interrupts are always useful.

JYX

JYX

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2005

25 Apr 2005 at 06:23 - 10
no power drain...we need the dual attunement elite

leech signet has a 45 second cooldown...thats the definition of trash for an interrupt. Ether lord is right for the situation...ie a situation where we're not too bothered about having 0 energy...and also are going to have 0 energy anyway.

sure its a pretty hat...but its a VERY pretty hat...

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

25 Apr 2005 at 08:06 - 11
Ether Lord does *not* give you 27 energy. It gives you *9* energy, and only if you have an Inspiration of 12. At Inspiration 9, Ether Lord gives you something like 5.5 energy or something stupid like that.

It's that bad.

Also, while I like the idea of going with a Mesmer/Elementalist with dual attunements, you seriously have to crank your Fast Casting through the roof to actually benefit. You give up the +1 hat and superior rune by switching primaries, and you need to get to 9 Fast Casting just to break even on damage because of it. Basically you need to go all out with Fast Casting, up to 14 or so minimum, to even think about this as a viable strategy.

Otherwise, a very solid post. Thank you.

Peace,
-CxE

Scaphism

Scaphism

Elite Guru

Join Date: Jan 2005

Idiot Savants [iQ]

25 Apr 2005 at 08:36 - 12
Power Drain is not an elite, and as Ensign was kind enough to point out, Ether Lord, is indeed trash.

It's a different take on a popular idea, and it's pretty solid. But drop Ether Lord, please.

JYX

JYX

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2005

25 Apr 2005 at 12:15 - 13
err yeah it was 1am and i read it as energy drain

right...it gives you 9 energy? wtf kinda skill is that O.o;

as I said I don't have the correct numbers for this due to a lack of a teambuilder running. I'll go home tonight and find the optimal numbers for Air/Fast Casting that'll give the maximum DPS. Since we don't want Ether Lord anymore...I'm free to drop inspiration lower in order to boost the Fast Casting and Air...

I'll work out a detailed build later...

Zarconis

Zarconis

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2005

Atlanta,GA

25 Apr 2005 at 12:35 - 14
Would Ether Lord not be a viable option when you reach 5 Energy ?

tektonik

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2005

25 Apr 2005 at 14:07 - 15
Not really.

Channeling is kinda trash cept for monks and Pbaoe....those you expect to be around a lot of mobs. I think the range is that of wards maybe a bit more.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

25 Apr 2005 at 16:37 - 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zarconis
Would Ether Lord not be a viable option when you reach 5 Energy ? If you cast Ether Lord when you have exactly five energy, and if your Inspiration is at twelve or higher, Ether Lord will net you four energy over its lifetime. If you are not at exactly five, it becomes proportionally less efficient.

Contrast that with every other energy management skill in the Inspiration line, which give much larger energy swings on top of being much less conditional.

Ether Lord is not energy management. It's a skill that, if it's going to be useful at all, is for energy destruction, namely pinning someone at zero energy. Would I use it? Oh hell no.

Peace,
-CxE