WvW as an Elementalist

While I normally feel very squishy as an elementalist in PvE, in WvW I felt much more comfortable in my role. I wanted to get some input from others, as well as share tips between other elementalists on contributing to WvW.

I mainly stayed with staff, and held to the middle of the group. When defending the garrison, I stayed on the walls, usually moving to the front line, dropping Meteor Shower, Lava Flow, and Eruption on any range I can reach, then backing up and dropping Geyser and Healing Rain on wall units being hit from range. I keep Arcane Wave in my first slot skill, since casting it within the Geyser/Rain area procs a PBAE heal that makes for a quick healing splurge.

My biggest problem was trying to stay out of the line of fire while attacking. Trying to find proper places to place those ground AOEs was difficult due to line of sight over the ramparts, and most of the time I'd only get in one or two hits before the target moved out of my attack area, or I was forced back by ground fire. Any tips on how to provide better contribution taking down the attackers?

Out of all my characters, the elementalist feels the most effective in WvWvW. I am running the same build pretty much. Staff with Arcane Wave, the precision signet (10% crit!) and the revive/rally slot skill. My traits are all air (precision). I love the run speed increase which gets up to 25% passive and with the heal plus the Staff 4 ability (Windborne Speed) I am always running full speed. I didn't know about that arcane wave with the rain and geyser. I have just been using it for big damage bursts. I will definitely be using that more for healing! The best defense for getting out of bad spots is switching to Air and using your staff 5 AoE lightning stun (Static Field) then the knock back (gust) if you are getting beat on by melee. As for dodging ranged attacks on walls? I try to lay down a meteor shower, then run away, set up at another spot on the wall and drop a lava burst. Then switch to water, put down the staff 4 (frozen ground) for up to 10 seconds of chill if they just stand there and start dropping the staff 2 ability, Ice Spike which does amazing combo damage and is on a 3 second cooldown. I think it is the same for any class, you can't stay in one spot too long, especially as a heavy hitting ranged AoE DPS. We are the ones that get the red target over our heads. Also, if you jump on the ledge of a wall you will get more line of sight to place your AoEs.

I think you've both covered it fairly well. The only thing I would add is I've slotted Glyph of Storms and the Mist Form as two of my utilities in WvWvW. The Mist Form I use as my "easy escape get out of jail free" card when siege and all hell breaks loose around me - it's also my go to ability when I get pulled from the ramparts because I was standing there too long. It breaks stuns and makes you invulnerable for a few precious seconds. Glyph of Storms is nice as a faster casting slightly smaller meteor shower. While this isn't specific to elementalists, if you're in for a long defensive battle you might want to seriously consider deploying a piece of siege. The catapult can change the tide of battle if used effectively, and if you're going to be somewhere for awhile (and you have access to the necessary supply) a treb has a ridiculous range. As a matter of fact, in some of the stress tests trebs could be built inside a keep and used to shell the other keep in relative safety. Unfortunately, they take 100 supply to build so they are still relatively rare.

nice to meet other ele's. i feel very noob. so i don't have much to provide. just wanted to introduce myself to the other eles. my prime spec is fire. and my secondary spec is water (you can take the healz out of the game, but you can't take the healz out of the girl). i do plan on focussing on WvW and my ele is my main. if you need any jewel crafting and/or tailoring pls let me know. hugs and biscotti [or oreos if you prefer], Rox

A lot of elmen run dagger builds , and most overlook the focus , but i`ve been playing around with it and its a great offhand . all the ablities are def in nature like earth attune where it insta removes 3 cond from you etc . and puts up a shield . if you are feeling squishy, give it a try

As a staff elementalist you are choosing a more supportive role, doing a lot of fields and supressing fire. I choose Arcana all the way to 30 to get Arcane Shielding, Blasting Staff and Evasive Arcana. The shield popping at 25% life saved my skin many, many times. Blasting staff makes my lava and static fields HUGE. And finally evasive arcana makes my dodges deadly and also blast finishers to my fields. So, if I cast a rain it has a huge area and can be blasted 3 times for fresh, awesome area healings . Also... I leave damage to my staff. On my utilities I have mist form and teleport for survival. I'm always torn between Armor of Earth and Arcane Wave. But I usually go with Wave for the blast finisher since I can gain a lot of protection by healing while attuned to earth (Glyph) having incription (Air VIII) traited.

» Edited on: 2012-09-03 07:09:02

I have a very support build for WvW. I use a staff and Water attunement for the 2 regens and the aoe slow skills and my staff also has a chance to cripple on hit. I use Glyph of Storms ( the afflictions it causes are nice for CC), Glyph of Renewal, and Signet of Earth ( for survivability and the immobilize). I like to run Take Root as my elite skills as it can spawn healing turrets. Im only level 30 right now,, but I have 10 points into water magic with trait slot I (Aquamancer's Alacrity) which is all my water weapon skills recharge 20% faster. I also have 10 points into Arcana and use Elemental Attunement (Trait Slot V) mostly with Air attunement to get to places faster (I already have a regen aura with my points in Water Magic). When we are attacking/defending I use Trait Slot II (Arcane Resurrection) for the extra buff right after they are revived. Arcana is amazing for the attunement recharge reduction to throw down some quick damage/CC and get back to Water for some regen. My gear is mostly +power and +vitality because I really don't need condition damage and have enough room in my tiny bags for 2 complete sets of gear (WvW and PvE). Also, in PvE I use double daggers, +20% damage Water Trait and shield proc Arcana Trait with mostly Arcana skills and have no issues solo questing. I actually survive better than when I was running an all Earth attunement build. Arcana is amazing for the

» Edited on: 2012-09-03 11:57:21