Elementalist Builds

[eager orchid]

Post and Discuss your Elementalist builds here!

[wraith sage]

What is the meta secondary for ele, ive been using the /r pet early on but now at lvl 14 it just feels like it causes more irritation with the lack of skill on the pets part, wondering what the real "meta" is E/mo seems very strong, but E/me deffinately has so many pros.. What do you guys think?

[heady current]

E/Mo reigns supreme. Easiest to use and most efficient selfhealing/protection.

[unkempt birch]

If you were to mix with /Me, i think Me/E is better than E/Me. E/Mo certainly shows as one of the strongest by far

[wraith sage]

great answers, hard to beat the dual aoe attacks alone, with healing as well i figured it was the true meta, thank you guys for the solid input

[heady current]

My ele setup: Great AoE damage and good single target dps. Blind and a knockdown to counter your biggest (Vanguard) threats; physicals. Ample self-healing and protection, with enough enchantments to cover for Shatters. Attributes are flexible enough to accomodate weapon requirements. All in all, top 3, and probably the best, solo-build in Pre-Searing.

[dire fiber]

this is what i use daily for my char runs. has blind for those aweful hunters. and some healing. i use a bow to pull sometimes or depending on the group just bomb with (4) then (3).

[stark root]

blind is actually a good idea for hunters...ive never used it lol

[heady current]

Ignite Arrows still deals dmg through Blind though, but it does stop that pesky Sundering Attack spam damage

[dire fiber]

i will take 6dmg from a hunter anyday 🙂

[rain bolt]

8 energy storage gives you the +1 energy for aura of restoration 7 energy storage gives 0

[dire fiber]

that it does. but i dont rly use it for that. i use for hp combo of the nec skill

[tight lake]

What’s your guys rune setup look like for the most part? Just 5x Survivors or?

[heady current]

Yeah, Radiant seems redundant with Energy Storage and the armor ones don't do anything if you have the Vanguard buff so Survivor's only useful ones left...

[stark root]

same, pretty sure mines all surv

[dire fiber]

on my ele i run all survivors insigs, fire+1 on head vitae x2, vigor and energy storage+1 on my size 9 feeties

[frosty wren]

any1 have an E/Me pre build? kinda want to see wat the healing rate is with ether feast

[sharp fable]

could we revive this conversation, please?
that looks really interesting to me. how do you rank up agains the altar though. do you survive long enough to nuke them all?
edit: a word

[stark root]

i changed up my e/mo build for leaderboards, since firestorm was banned. ill have to get a screenshot of the loadout this afternoon.

essentially, iirc, i dropped a few points in fire/e-storage to put in smite for symob of wrath.

havent gone through a new rune/insignia setup though, but would probably be about the same

[sharp fable]

sounds plausible to me.
any experience on the E/N idea?

once firestorm is available, I get the feeling that damage is no longer an issue, so deathly swarm might be overdoing it

[stark root]

e/n sounds interesting, but a long cd for 1 hit iirc

[heady current]

E/N could be nice, but I would take it for the Blood Magic skills (Blood Renewal and Life Siphon), not the Death Magic ones tbh. Firestorm is already best (damage) skill in pre

[spark heron]

What is recommended in terms of weapons when going e/mo? Are staffs viable or is wand and focus strictly better?

[heady current]

HCT Heal staff with +18% ench mod for breeze, shielding hands and aura of resto, shouldn't cost too much. And for flare/firestorm; the best fire set you can afford, wand/offhand can be better than staff, but the ones that are, are quite expensive, so most people opt for a fire-staff

[spark heron]

i.e. the one currently in auction? 14 7 18 +1 18% fire?

is a good inbetween?

[heady current]

Yeah pretty much as good as it gets affordable staff wise

[sharp fable]

I run excactely that and it's going just fine 👌

the +18% ench can be real handy though, especially when not only farming charr but doing catacombs clear for exp for instance.
damage is not really lacking, so the +1 Fire is more cosmetic than anything in my opinion.
but then again, my gameplay is mediocore at best

[spark heron]

mediocre sounds right around my alley

[heady current]

Well a heal staff is cheap, if you don't mind swapping to cast for aura/breeze/sh

[sturdy shore]

i have a lot of fun with this build. should i take energy insignia or life ?

[eager orchid]

Use the command /skillbar followed by your template code.

[potent mountain]

Does the initial armor (5 or 7) makes a difference with vanguard bonus ?

[heady current]

No, everything written in white is overrode (overridden?)

[potent mountain]

so its cape at 15 ? whatever if you got 5 or 7 ?

[dusky jetty]

the vanguard buff gives you a fixed armor value that is only affected by weapons mods, so for example if you have a shield with +9 vs charr you will get the fixed value + the 9 extra armor vs charr, but the base armor value of the shield does not add up. so as a level 10 ele you have 15 armor, regardless of the armor you are wearing and regardless of the insignias you put on there, but if you use the bandit shield (+10vs charr)) you will have 25 armor vs charr

[potent mountain]

Crystal clear - thanks 😉

[narrow hornet]

@drifting schooner THIS 👍

[wintry umbra]

So hit lvl 16 and started doing my quests. I played E(/R) with a pet but chose the E/Mo now and I feel like my altar clear was way better when I still had a pet.
My imp won’t take the aggro as my pet did and now I’m getting railed by archers, chaots and monks.
This will be my perma 19 farm character and it really sucks right now.
Cleared the altar in like 2 minutes tops before, now it’s like 5 minutes.
Any recommendations?
I’m playing the same build as posted by TJ. Flare/Storm/Glyph/Aura/Blind/lightning/Breeze/Hands.

[dusky jetty]

You might have to change up your enchant placement if you have problems. You want to go hb -> aura -> hands, so your hb doesnt get shattered and when recasting hb try to place another ench on top of it

[tight lake]

Punished for abandoning your good boy.
But also, Deset is 100% right.

[heady current]

Really? I always keep aura at the bottom because it has the longest recharge

Keeping HB on is nice tho, 10e recast can be expensive

[wintry umbra]

😭
Im heartbroken aswell. At least I still got my impy.

I think the problem was that I still was lvl16. Now at 17 my survivability increased a lot.
It’s really noticeable.

I added some insignias and runes aswell, as I have been a little bit more vigilant with my echants/cover enchants.

[dusky jetty]

hb or aura first is debateable, if surviving is the issue then hb has a higher prio

[wintry umbra]

Yeah, I think deset has a point here. HB, Aura, Hands is great. At least for the initial Smokeskin+2nd boss/patrol pull.
HB is still healing after I’ve been stripped of my enchs but only lost like 1/4 of my hp.

Aura will be the first ench sooner or later anyway, since it’s longer active. But you don’t really need to be as vigilant about cover enchs when all patrols/groups are dead anyway. The remaining bosses are no problem at all, even without HB.
My time decreased a lot.
Thank you for your input.

About insignias/runes: do you guys prefer hp or nrg? I feel like I don’t need that much hp anymore, so I’m considering slapping only radiants/attunements on my gear.

[dusky jetty]

I personally prefer HP on ele, since i dont really run into energy issues

[wintry umbra]

Yeah, I can imagine that. I think I’ll wait till lvl 19 to see how much more EStorage I can get. Plus I don’t really have great weapons atm, so I’m missing like +10 energy or something from that aswell.
Right now energy is the limiting factor when it comes to speed since I need to recover energy before the next pull.
Bloodbane/Ashpyre have too much heals (when pulled together) and I can’t spike em down because of energy issues atm.
But I think this will change once I get better gear/the remaining points in EStorage.

[dusky jetty]

you should end up with either 8+1 or 9+1 ES, depending on how much you want to put into heal

also getting used to weaving in glyph might be a gamechanger for you here, since you have alot of 5e spells but want to ideally use it on 2 10e spells

[wintry umbra]

Yeah, working on that, too. Not rly used to that, never played ele before, only now in pre.
Thank you so much for your input. I appreciate it. 🫶

[dusky jetty]

also the quest sword+shield is a good setup for ele, if you dont have alot of money to spent on high value items

the crysta has +5ar whiole casting and you can put a defense mod on it and the bandit shield has 10ar vs charr. so you get 20 armor extra from your weapons 😉

[fierce kestrel]

Alright people, I need stat spreads for ele/r stat

[tight lake]

Computing... computing...

12+2 FM, 10+1 ES, 4 WS

4 WS will give you the +5 regen breakpoint

Basically keeps you in line with E/Mo Healing Breeze, with the benefit of it not being strippable and you get extra DPS from pet

Runes:
Head- Survivor X Fire Magic
Chest- Radiant X Vigor
Gloves - Survivor X Energy Storage
Legs- Radiant X Vita
Boots- Radiant X Vita

and I know you have a casual 36/36 weapon set laying around.

[fierce kestrel]

If only lol!!

I just have the one fire wand 🙂

[tight lake]

How humble of you 😛

[fierce kestrel]

This is the meta build? Or are there other builds out there?

[tight lake]

For E/R yeah, not really much you can improve on it.

Unless you wanna drop ES to like 9+1 and then dump stat WS to 6 for +6 regen and then slide the rest into BM for some memes

If you do that though I'd cut the vita's for attuns

[fierce kestrel]

Just trying to optimize for survivor 🙂 just seeing what’s out there

Been playing with the blind though and it has been instrumental for early levels with the charr

[heady current]

Blind's surprisingly good I agree!

[tight lake]

I think it's fine, but if we're talking about finalized stats, it's one of those cases where its utility drops off pretty sharply as you level.

It is good though for Griefblade

[ionic bloom]

Im playing as a level 18 Ele/R (havent handed in secondary prof quest because id lose my bear) is there a better pet option or do i just keep a hold of my bear 😄

[daring edge]

bear has the cool factor but is the slowest attacker because of his random attack skill

[ionic bloom]

whats a good alternative, moa/melandru stalker?

[fierce kestrel]

You can get a boar or a wolf?

[next basalt]

Where can I find build guides for elementalist in pre-searing and for questing through the game?

[tight lake]

Can scroll up through here and take a look at builds

[lofty phoenix]

Hello everyone, a newby playing the reforged and found out about Presearing.
I've doing the standard run of the mill Ele/Ranger pet. I understood the bit about the special Salvage Kit that only drops on the Charr Bosses, but for the life of me, what I can't figure out is which pieces of Insignia/Runes I should keep. I know this game is very liberal in the sense of anything can work, but I'm looking for quality of life improvements to the gear. Can anybody point me to what should I keep?

[heady current]

In order of importance I would say;

1. Fire Magic +1 rune (on the head piece you can get from https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Professor_Yakkington for another +1, for a total +2 Fire Magic)
2. +30 hp Vigor rune
3. Energy Storage +1 rune
4. Survivor/Radiant insignias (personal preference)
5. Attunement/Vitae runes (also personal preference)

[warped crow]

is staff better than wand/focus?

[tired acorn]

So.. at level 19, you can do what a build of 12+2, 8+1 and then 6 WS as a E/R?

or maybe I do 12+2 FM, 8+1 ES, 4 WS, and 4 BM and 1+1 Air, like 2 air gets 4s of blinding flash

and it doesn't get better than that unless you invest past like 5-6 air so that's not worth it

but 2 air might be though it'd cost me a rune

2 energy or 10 health for 1s extra blindness?

[upbeat willow]

bane signet has a 2 seconds knock down.
in my opinion its much better than blinding flash.

[heady current]

Pretty sure Bane Signet is a 1s kd no? I like both tho; Bane Signet and Blinding Flash, vs the vanguard foes. Very fun to kd and/or blind on Sever Artery or Hammer Bash

[tired acorn]

yeah well I'm not going secondary monk and totally relying on enchantments for healing that get stripped constantly

[upbeat willow]

You can protect both AoR & healing breeze with shielding Hands.

[tired acorn]

not worth it vs Ranger who just has an unstrippable HOT

ultimately it's just 1 kinda wasted rune I guess and a leftover point in the build

[heady current]

Urite, I always mess those up

[upbeat willow]

I'm not saying ranger isn't a great secondary for ele. I've played both and found E/Mo to just be stronger in both healing and uptime.

[heady current]

You can stop shatters with a well-timed RoF as well, depending on your dodging skill and cooldown tracking ability. But that's pretty tryhard for presearing haha

[plain stump]

Just the 2-3s cast time on troll makes me prefer healing breeze more

[tame nacelle]

How early on should I go E/Mo if I want prot spells

[plain stump]

You can complete all the secondary skill quests without turning them in, and keeping them in your quest log until you're ready to cash in the exp
This way you only miss out on the 250exp for completing the monk quest and becoming a monk secondary

[tame nacelle]

But if I lock in the 2ndary I miss out on all the follow up quests? Or is that not true

Do I have to select E/Mo to be able to use healing breeze and shielding hands?

[plain stump]

You can only do the follow up quests for the secondary you lock in, which include shielding hands for secondary monk

Healing breeze you can buy at the skill trainer once you hit level 10 and have the monk secondary locked in

[tame nacelle]

Gotcha, so then it would be wise for me to do the initial secondary quests, and then go through and lock in monk. I’d probably lose what, 1k xp overall?

That would be a few hamnet runs extra when I’m at 16

[plain stump]

You can keep the 4 other secondary quests as (completed) in your quest log, you don't need to turn them in for exp to be able to lock in monk

[tame nacelle]

Oh! Okay that’s even better

So I’d only lose the 250xp, not bad

Thank you for the help!

[upbeat willow]

Wait until 16. You should be able to survive just using Troll Unguent and using your pet+imp to tank while you stay pure ele until 16.

[surreal bloom]

What is the best build for ele in pre?

[plain stump]

[stiff wadi]

it slaps

[frosty wren]

wats the attributes look like? for the necro skills u need some in blood and death

[stiff wadi]

4 blood, 6-8 death, rest fire

breakpoint +2 lifesiphons

its not ez tho u can die, i have to reroll cauise at 14 got trapped by wars and misclicked map

teamate stood there

it is fun tho

using deathly swarm as a sort of substitute to chain lightning

@frosty wren

[frosty wren]

ya i like death swarm because it carries with the target before transfering

plus i like this better since blood renewal is an "oh crap" button as u run away

[stiff wadi]

jjust

if ur doing ldoa dhuum on it

hook it up with some gear

and survivors

to make life easier 4 urself on a squish build

[frosty wren]

im guessing u got nothin in estorage?

[stiff wadi]

just

extra pts

as level up

ive got an hourglass staff so energys not an issue

i did have all attunements, on reroll im doing all survivor until l20

or 19 idk maybe its an imp farmer 4 me

[frosty wren]

ok so far im lvl 7 E/X (with the start necro skills for secondary) just been putting pts into fire and estorage

[stiff wadi]

pop 2 minions

before pulling/firestorming the shrine

when ur hiogher lvl and doing that

[cedar flicker]

Working on my E/Mo build. Comparing different scenarios for lvl 19 (w/ fire imp) vs. lvl 20 (solo). Any suggestions or feedback? TIA

[fierce kestrel]

You highlighted the &. Other than that what is the question you are asking with the data?

[cedar flicker]

Oh you can ignore the highlight. I have to choose one of these scenarios and I’m having a hard time deciding which one to go with - looking for feedback/recommendations from others who have experience playing E/Mo as lvl 19 and lvl 20.

For instance, in scenario #1 and #4 I’m prioritizing Energy Storage 9 to utilize full benefit of Tiger’s Roar max offhand but the tradeoff in scenario #4 is Fire Magic 13 instead of 14. Perhaps that trade off isn’t worth it just for Tiger’s Roar.

[fierce kestrel]

Well it all depends on what the purpose is for. If it’s for speed alone keep the imp if it’s for long term survivor and what not just go with survivability and lvl 20

There’s no way you can achieve the same speed as an imp plus character even if fully tuned with pcons

[cedar flicker]

Sounds good. Not going for survivor so I’ll stick with lvl 19 for imp. Scenario #1 looks like the best fit then. Thanks.

[upbeat willow]

E/Mo level 19
-14 fire
-8 storage
-5 healing
-5 prot

[heady current]

I would run 8 healing prayers for the breakpoint on breeze

[upbeat willow]

you think that's stronger than AoR +1 energy? its only 1 more tick of healing breeze.

i guess its prob just preference in the end

[heady current]

Wait, you can't have 14-8-8 at lvl 19? (12+1+1 fire, 7+1 estorage, 8 healing)

[upbeat willow]

sadly no.

[heady current]

Ah my bad. My E/Mo has been 20 for a while now

[rocky heart]

E/R. lvl 20.
Maybe not the best, but I like the balance of heals with Trolls, pet for tank, fire damage and blind vs hunters.
ps. 1 attribute should be +1, forgot to get +1 head.

[crystal echo]

What are best insignias to run on Ele?

[tropic laurel]

id say survivor, but accounting for dungeon at 18+ i could see an argument for pyromancer due to greater inflag changing the sword/axe and hunter lords damage to fire

would likely still go survivor tho. feel like success in there is not about how tanky you are, rather how well you prepare and play (you can ofc be let down by poor teammates)

[naive horizon]

Is E/R better/safer than E/Mo at the moment? I've noticed an increase of E/R lately and I'm not sure which to choose now

[tropic laurel]

theres a lot of ench hate in the dungeon at higher lvls and troll ung can't be stripped. otherwise its an extra body from the pet?

both are decent choices

[naive horizon]

Thank you!

[remote bough]

I’ve been hearing people talk about e/me with backfire. Wonder how many points it’s worth investing into domination.

[tropic laurel]

mumbles something about shaman lord health and backfire damage breakpoints
sounds like there's science to be done:p

[remote bough]

Yeah idk where you find shaman lord full HP but that’s a good thought.

I think taking some energy storage away is fine because I’ve never had energy issues. Although healing becomes difficult as aura of resto is the only thing that heals pretty much. Other than investing points into inspiration as well.

[tropic laurel]

don't really know either tbh. wiki still missing their armor values

[errant jay]

hey, any El/Mo can tell me what stuff need and what weapon need pls ?

i run this build

[tropic laurel]

runes: fire (hat), estorage, vigor, 2 open slots
insignia: pyromancer

wep sets are a bit 'what you prefer' but id recommend

• caster wep (martial), moa sword with a vs elemental mod is solid and east to get, alternatives include +5e, hsr10, ench 20
• defensive offhand, bandit shield works well until you find something better, youd be looking for a min of 8ar with a charr or fire mod of 8 to beat it.
• staff for high energy?
• wand for 20/20?

Kinda depends what you like and what you can get

[errant jay]

hmmmhm ok ty !

[frosty wren]

is there a certain build that can solo the new dungeon or atleast have devona tank most of it?

[tropic laurel]

SoS devona will go a long way, but besides the W/D build that requires a huge amount of micro, nothing really has popped up

[junior kestrel]

how can i improve this staff? except for the hct 19% ofc 🙂

im e/mo so i think the 19% ench is quite good for breeze and stuff

[cedar flicker]

I was thinking about this for my E/Mo - which mods to put on my staff.

Maybe replace Enchanting 19% with Elementalist ES+5, which gives +15en and lvl 5 energy storage for boosted aura and glyph skills.

Then use your attribute points to set:

• Fire Magic 12+2=14
• Healing Prayers 8
• Protection Prayers 7

or FM 11+2=13, PP 5, and HP 11 for +8 health regen from healing breeze.

Can set Air Magic to lvl 2 (use air rune if needed) for blinding flash skill, which can be useful to make charr miss next couple attacks.

[humble horizon]

is Monk the best secondary class right now?

[tight lake]

Mesmer is for ele probably atm

Ele damage is kinda ass in the tunnels atm from experience, and Backfire/Empathy slap

Plus Ether Feast

[opal kraken]

How do you balance your BM healing?

My E/N just died to a pack of pvl 7 bandits north of piken