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My Favorite Profession - The Elementalist - by Bella

B

Bella

Guest


With the launch of Guild Wars 2 fast approaching, I got to thinking about how many people there may be who were unable to try out the game during the Beta Weekend Events. So I decided what better time to gush about my favorite profession, and recruit for Team Elementalist, than right now?

I won't pretend to know all the ins and outs of how to build the perfect Elementalist; I'm still learning that myself. But I can give you some good, solid reasons why you shouldn't overlook this multi-talented profession come launch day. Hopefully you will come away from this piece feeling a little more knowledgeable about and comfortable enough to roll an Elementalist. After all, with the ability to manipulate Fire, Air (electricity), Water and Earth - who wouldn't want the force of the elements at their fingertips to control at will?

Uploaded by arenanetofficial on Jul 18, 2011

The Elementalist is a light-armor wearing, magic-casting profession and its versatility comes from the four elements (referred to as attunements) that they command influence over. Combine that with the different weapon sets at their disposal and their ability to switch attunements during battle and the Elementalist’s adaptability to any given situation is virtually unequaled!

Each attunement offers no less than five skills. Let’s take a look at the attunements and their effects:

FIRE
– While attuned to fire, the Elementalist can cast heavy damage on single or multiple foes with skills such as Meteor Shower and Phoenix.

AIR
– My personal favorite! These heavy damage spells lets the Elementalist harness wind and lightning to target foes with focused, high-damaged attacks.

WATER
– Attune to water and you gain the ability to better control your opponent by slowing their movements with freezing cold while also offering healing support for yourself and nearby allies

EARTH
– Allows the Elementalist to defend herself and any allies from the enemy with seismic shock waves, volcanic eruptions or impaling the target on giant stone spikes. An Earth attuned Elementalist is a force to be reckoned with.

Each attunement has completely different skill sets available depending on which weapon the Elementalist is wielding. And although an Elementalist cannot switch between weapon sets during combat, they are able to switch between attunements allowing the Elementalist access to no less than 20 different skills sets during a fight! When one attunement is activated it will cause the previous attunement to recharge for 15 seconds and the remaining two to recharge for 1 second. However, these recharges can be further reduced via the Intelligence attribute.

Let’s take a look at the available weapon sets along with their effects:

TWO HANDED

Staff (two handed) – Currently the only two-handed weapon available to the Elementalist, the staff’s slower casting is useful for long range targets and multiple AoE spells.

MAIN HAND

Dagger (main hand) – Main hand daggers are very fast and focus on medium, close-range spells for defense.

Scepter (main hand) – A main handed weapon that specializes in close range combat for single or multiple targets.

OFF HAND

Dagger (off hand) – Off handed daggers specialize in medium range abilities as well as supportive spells.

Focus (off hand) – An off hand focus is powerful at close range abilities and a great initiator for cross-profession combinations.

AQUATIC

Trident – Long range weapon for underwater use, utilizing various skills depending on the active attunement.

Check out this link to see a listing of each weapons available skills.

FIELDS, FINISHERS AND COMBOS OH MY!

Taken from the Official GW2 Wiki
Combos, also called cross-profession combos or skill combinations, happen when skills interact with each other to create an additional effect. A skill must be a combo field or a combo finisher to be combined, which is an effect which is included in the skill description. For a combo to occur a combo field skill is used creating an area effect and then one or more combo finishers can interact with the field to create a combo. The largest number of combos are available through two characters of different professions working together but combos can also be created with two of the same profession or a single character.

The combo field, or initiator, is a skill that creates an area effect of a particular type. The type is a recognizable element or characteristic which determines the effect they cause on a finisher; for example, a Flamewall will allow some eligible finishers to inflict burning. Fields are either a circular field or a linear "wall". For circular fields, all finishers will combo if they activate while the character is inside the field. For linear combo fields, leap and projectile finishers will combo so long as they pass through the combo field on the way to their destination.

The combo finisher is a skill which causes movement through or within the initiator's field such as creating a projectile or spinning or jumping the player. An eligible initiator augments the finisher by adding damage or creating other effects. For example, using Cyclone Axe near a Flamewall throws fire projectiles in different directions. Finishers can only interact with one initiator at a time.
With Haste - GW2 Combos Explained
Published on Jul 27, 2012 by Haasth22

But did you know that as an Elementalist you have access to your own combos? Crazy eh? Here's a list of them put together by GW2 Elementalist over here at Guild Wars 2 Elementalist. Get out your pens and paper, you'll want to write these down!

Self Combos for Elementalists

Staff Weapon

Fire :
Lava Font and
Burning Retreat

Water:
Geyser and
Healing Rain

Ice:
Frozen Ground

Lightning:
Static Field

Create your chosen field above then switch to earth attunement for the finisher.

Projectile Finisher:
Stoning or
Shockwave

Blast Finisher:
Eruption

Combinations Effect:
Fire + Projectile
Adds Burning to your attack

Fire + Blast
Adds might boon (might increases attack power)

Water + Projectile Heals allies who attack the target

Water + Blast Heals nearby allies

Ice + Projectile
Adds chilled to your attack (66% run speed and skill recharge penalty to your target)

Ice + Blast Adds frost armour to allies

Lightning Field + Projectile
Adds vulnerability to attack

Lightning Field + Blast
Adds weakness to attack (Endurance regeneration decreased by 50%, chance to deal half damage is 50%)
The following video with commentary explains some examples.

Guild Wars 2 sPvP - Elementalist BWE2 - Combo Field Tactics
Published on Jul 19, 2012 by TheTOPvP

Many may shy away from the Elementalist, considering it “just”a caster class; however, I beg to differ and as you will see in the following video, when wielding Double Daggers, the Elementalist can get up close and personal for some in-your-face action.

Epic Elementalist PvP - Double Dagger - Guild Wars 2
Published on Jul 23, 2012 by JuvenileForestWolf

If you were as yet undecided about which profession to start with, or had no idea what an Elementalist was or could do, I hope I was able to enlighten you to this wonderful and extremely fun profession and perhaps, I'll see you in-game where we can burn, zap, drown and crush the enemy with our awesome elemental powers together!

I'd like to thank the following for their contributions: Arena Net, Guild Wars 2, Guild Wars 2 Official Wiki, GW2 Elementalist, Haasth22, TheTOPVP and JuvenileForestWolf

Bella
 
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