One of the most popular guildwars character is known as the Elementalist. They are highly feared in many PvP matches when teamed with an almost “pure” Elementalist group. They rule the world with Area of Effect (AoE) attacks, cause massive concentrated damage, pierce armor with spells, and can shield themselves from many attack methods. Simply put: fear the Elementalist.
So are they the most powerful character type? No. However their skills are very rounded such that they can cause different types of damage and receive different types of protection. You may say they are a ‘jack of all trades’ Warrior/Monk archetype.
What skills will you have at your disposal?
The five skills are:
It is important to remember that you cannot master all these skill types. It is best to keep your energy storage attribute high, and pick two of the elements and stick with them. If you do not plan on having a secondary as a monk you may want to think water/fire or earth/air. The two combinations play off each other because one requires more energy then the other. If you spent a good deal of energy on fire based attacks you may not have any left for an earth spell, but you will for an water spell. However choosing water/earth will be challenging due to your lack of high potency offensive spells, and you may find yourself running more in battle or having to partner up with a warrior to shield you from constant attack.
The Nuker Party
A nuker party will devastate groups of warriors, and pockets of ranger attacks. Nukers rely heavily on fire based area of effect damage. Warriors may charge in and surround the Elementalists, but when 5 firestorms, and a meteor shower hits they will fall to the ground quickly.
How do you beat a nuker party? Split up and attack from all angles, try to make the Elementalist break formation and beat them down. They cannot AoE a party if they are not all in one area, so their spells will be ineffective. A group of hammer warriors will interrupt them badly and cause the AoE attacks to cancel out. A ranger with interruption, or mesmer with backfire will blunt the attacks of a nuker party as well because nukers will have a very long casting time.
The Spiker Party
The spiker party is a large party of Air Elementalists usually assisted by a monk primary. This party requires more unity and coordination but can be highly destructive. A party “caller” makes called shots on a target, and all Elementalists attack simultaneously. An Air attack is quick, effective, and hard to avoid. The only advantage being that an enemy party of two or more folks will know what’s coming when the heavens rain down fire on one of their buddies. The spikers will target attack and eliminate one person at a time, but that person will die almost instantly (armor or no armor).
The spiker party will be hard to defeat because its hard to interrupt a fairly instantaneous attack. Using a mesmer’s air mantra (or something like that) will give additional armor to lightening strikes if cast fast enough. A second method may be to use a party of archers to target attack the spikers and quickly cause harm using ignite arrows or poison attacks. Poison works well if you hit each Air Elementalist because they’ll start thinking of their own health rather then beating yours down. Rangers can also use a number of spirits like Quickening Zephyr to cause air spells to take more energy to cast (it speeds up recharge, but air spells already have fast recharge so it won’t buy them much). A spiker group is only effective if all members have energy enough to cast lightening attacks at you in unison.
The Mixed Elementalist Party
This party type works well because all elements can be thrown at the enemy, and earth and water elements can help keep the party alive. This allows some party members to AoE attack archers, while others fire and air attacks at incoming running warriors. The meteor shower can also knock down potential casters (or hammer wielders) before any nasty damage (or healing) can be performed. This party has fewer weaknesses then other concentrated elemental groups, so defeat will require a more creative approach.
Finding the weakness
The second largest weakness in an Elementalist is their armor. A hammer, axe, or sword is the downfall to most Elementalists. Elementalists can defend themselves from one other primary type of element (pyromancer armor will save you from fire damage for example). If you can identify their armor, you can utilize the elements NOT protected by that type. Such as an icey bow, or ebon war hammer.
The most feared character to the Elementalist is the Mesmer. The Mesmer can nullify an Elementalist with a single spell: Backfire. They can destroy an Elementalist with a few extra skills: Mana Burn, and Spirit Shackles. A good domination Mesmer will have you on your knees with a nice backfire spell. When an Elementalist takes 90 points of damage from casting a single spell they’ll think twice about it next time. That’s when you hit them with Mana Burn and cut there energy in half (while causing damage), an ether feast to cut it lower, then spirit shackles to remove all remaining energy. An Elementalist with no energy is like a naked warrior running through a battlefield. When they resort to using their staff simply hit them with Empathy and they’ll be unable to perform attacks without taking damage. They’ll cry like a little girl within minutes.
A good secondary profession
This is completely up to the individual, but here are some of my impressions from creating and seeing Elementalists in action. A primary Elementalist with high energy storage will make a good spell caster in general. That means a necromancer, mesmer, or a monk are great secondary professions.
The Elementalist/Necromancer has many advantages. They can use their blood magic to heal themselves and not have to concentrate so much on water/earth for protection. They can use death magic to raise minions and try to avoid front-line battle.
The Elementalist/Monk has many advantages. They can heal a large group of people because of there vast energy reserves, and energy regeneration. They can play the “hidden monk” and only take healing spells and not be immediate targets like a monk primary. They may also choose a fire based skill set and protection skill set from the monk to keep the balance (and not need use of a water/earth skill).
The Elementalist/Mesmer has many advantages. They can use inspiration magic to regain lost energy (as if the Elementalist doesn’t have enough!) and cast more high impact spells. They can also combat other Elementalist with a domination magic, or use illusion magic to bring down the enemies health before nailing them with air based attacks.
In Conclusion
The Elementalist is a master caster, and combined with another secondary spell casting profession will make a solid back line for your party. They will be able to keep the pressure off your warriors by allowing the warrior to be the hot target for a collection large groups and then nail them with AoE attacks when the warrior meets contact with the enemy. They can also keep the warrior from too much battle using a Ward Against Melee attack when a single warrior is bombarded by large groups of fighters. An Elementalist can fit into any group, including a large group of other Elementalists.
They will supply weakening attacks by lighting up enemies with bolts from the sky to lower the enemies hit points before a warrior or ranger has to take a stab at them. Overall the Elementalist makes the rest of the party’s job just that much easier.
What skills will you have at your disposal?
The five skills are:
- Energy Storage: Every point in this skill will get you +3 energy. This allows the Elementalist to rock the enemy with many small damage spells, or stop them in there tracks with a few extremely powerful spells. This skill makes the Elementalist unique, and gives them a large advantage against secondary Elementalists you may encounter in PvP or normal play who can not outcast you in battle.
- Fire: By popular demand the fire skill is by far the most universally accepted skill. The ever popular “fire Elementalist” a.k.a “nuker” causes high impact of damage across a wide area of land. Most fire spells are AoE attacks with a good mix of burning (immolate) and short blast (flare) attacks. An Elementalist with meteor storm must be feared.
- Air: Most air magic spells are single target medium potency spells that require little energy to cast, also known as a “Air Elementalist” or “Spiker”. When using air attunement skills (to recoup some energy after cast) they can cause you to almost cast constantly without breath. Air spells are feared by warriors because of there armor penetrating destruction. Many skills will cut through 20-25% of the armor on a warrior upon impact. Many air spells have a small chance of missing so hitting a running warrior is easy, unlike some AoE fire attack where warrior can simply get out of the way.
- Water: A defensive magic, unlike air and fire. Water is a greedy little skill set that protects the Elementalist well and sometimes gives them speed increases. This means you, as a Water Elementalist, can run away when the battle gets hot and get to safety. You only need to run faster then your slowest party member to gain an advantage. Water spells are typically low costing energy but maintain a low level of damage. Water mixed with either air or fire gives you your ‘protection monk’ type abilities that will work to keep your hide alive.
- Earth: Another defensive magic, similar to water but most defensive spells are AoE so you can protect your entire party if they stay close. The AoE defenses come with a disadvantage though: energy cost. The offensive earth spells tend to cost you a good deal of energy (eruption’s AoE attack is 25 energy) so using Earth Attunement may help with these skills as well. The offensive strikes usually cause more damage then water at the cost of more energy then water. However, like the water skills, there are more defensive spells then offensive in this arsenal. A good mix with fire or air.
It is important to remember that you cannot master all these skill types. It is best to keep your energy storage attribute high, and pick two of the elements and stick with them. If you do not plan on having a secondary as a monk you may want to think water/fire or earth/air. The two combinations play off each other because one requires more energy then the other. If you spent a good deal of energy on fire based attacks you may not have any left for an earth spell, but you will for an water spell. However choosing water/earth will be challenging due to your lack of high potency offensive spells, and you may find yourself running more in battle or having to partner up with a warrior to shield you from constant attack.
The Nuker Party
A nuker party will devastate groups of warriors, and pockets of ranger attacks. Nukers rely heavily on fire based area of effect damage. Warriors may charge in and surround the Elementalists, but when 5 firestorms, and a meteor shower hits they will fall to the ground quickly.
How do you beat a nuker party? Split up and attack from all angles, try to make the Elementalist break formation and beat them down. They cannot AoE a party if they are not all in one area, so their spells will be ineffective. A group of hammer warriors will interrupt them badly and cause the AoE attacks to cancel out. A ranger with interruption, or mesmer with backfire will blunt the attacks of a nuker party as well because nukers will have a very long casting time.
The Spiker Party
The spiker party is a large party of Air Elementalists usually assisted by a monk primary. This party requires more unity and coordination but can be highly destructive. A party “caller” makes called shots on a target, and all Elementalists attack simultaneously. An Air attack is quick, effective, and hard to avoid. The only advantage being that an enemy party of two or more folks will know what’s coming when the heavens rain down fire on one of their buddies. The spikers will target attack and eliminate one person at a time, but that person will die almost instantly (armor or no armor).
The spiker party will be hard to defeat because its hard to interrupt a fairly instantaneous attack. Using a mesmer’s air mantra (or something like that) will give additional armor to lightening strikes if cast fast enough. A second method may be to use a party of archers to target attack the spikers and quickly cause harm using ignite arrows or poison attacks. Poison works well if you hit each Air Elementalist because they’ll start thinking of their own health rather then beating yours down. Rangers can also use a number of spirits like Quickening Zephyr to cause air spells to take more energy to cast (it speeds up recharge, but air spells already have fast recharge so it won’t buy them much). A spiker group is only effective if all members have energy enough to cast lightening attacks at you in unison.
The Mixed Elementalist Party
This party type works well because all elements can be thrown at the enemy, and earth and water elements can help keep the party alive. This allows some party members to AoE attack archers, while others fire and air attacks at incoming running warriors. The meteor shower can also knock down potential casters (or hammer wielders) before any nasty damage (or healing) can be performed. This party has fewer weaknesses then other concentrated elemental groups, so defeat will require a more creative approach.
Finding the weakness
The second largest weakness in an Elementalist is their armor. A hammer, axe, or sword is the downfall to most Elementalists. Elementalists can defend themselves from one other primary type of element (pyromancer armor will save you from fire damage for example). If you can identify their armor, you can utilize the elements NOT protected by that type. Such as an icey bow, or ebon war hammer.
The most feared character to the Elementalist is the Mesmer. The Mesmer can nullify an Elementalist with a single spell: Backfire. They can destroy an Elementalist with a few extra skills: Mana Burn, and Spirit Shackles. A good domination Mesmer will have you on your knees with a nice backfire spell. When an Elementalist takes 90 points of damage from casting a single spell they’ll think twice about it next time. That’s when you hit them with Mana Burn and cut there energy in half (while causing damage), an ether feast to cut it lower, then spirit shackles to remove all remaining energy. An Elementalist with no energy is like a naked warrior running through a battlefield. When they resort to using their staff simply hit them with Empathy and they’ll be unable to perform attacks without taking damage. They’ll cry like a little girl within minutes.
A good secondary profession
This is completely up to the individual, but here are some of my impressions from creating and seeing Elementalists in action. A primary Elementalist with high energy storage will make a good spell caster in general. That means a necromancer, mesmer, or a monk are great secondary professions.
The Elementalist/Necromancer has many advantages. They can use their blood magic to heal themselves and not have to concentrate so much on water/earth for protection. They can use death magic to raise minions and try to avoid front-line battle.
The Elementalist/Monk has many advantages. They can heal a large group of people because of there vast energy reserves, and energy regeneration. They can play the “hidden monk” and only take healing spells and not be immediate targets like a monk primary. They may also choose a fire based skill set and protection skill set from the monk to keep the balance (and not need use of a water/earth skill).
The Elementalist/Mesmer has many advantages. They can use inspiration magic to regain lost energy (as if the Elementalist doesn’t have enough!) and cast more high impact spells. They can also combat other Elementalist with a domination magic, or use illusion magic to bring down the enemies health before nailing them with air based attacks.
In Conclusion
The Elementalist is a master caster, and combined with another secondary spell casting profession will make a solid back line for your party. They will be able to keep the pressure off your warriors by allowing the warrior to be the hot target for a collection large groups and then nail them with AoE attacks when the warrior meets contact with the enemy. They can also keep the warrior from too much battle using a Ward Against Melee attack when a single warrior is bombarded by large groups of fighters. An Elementalist can fit into any group, including a large group of other Elementalists.
They will supply weakening attacks by lighting up enemies with bolts from the sky to lower the enemies hit points before a warrior or ranger has to take a stab at them. Overall the Elementalist makes the rest of the party’s job just that much easier.
