03 JUN
2012
Playing With The Elements: Beta Weekend As A Master Of The Elements
BY:
WILFINLOCK |
ELEMENTALIST,
PROFESSIONS
I’m assuming you’ve all been convinced to play an Elementalist by my comrade Tentral in
last week’s article. If not, go read it. If it doesn’t get you excited to be a master of the building blocks of the world, I fear there may be no hope for you. Anyway, since we’ve got another Beta Weekend Event coming up, I thought I’d give you all a few quick tips on making the most of your new found power in a small amount of time.
Experiment!
Once you’ve unlocked all the skills on one weapon, equip something else. Spending another half hour playing with skills you’ve been using all day doesn’t gain you anything. Using that time to familiarize yourself with a whole new set gives you insight into a completely different play style. Jump around and see if you prefer the mass destruction and conditions of the staff, the quick close range combat of dual daggers, or something completely different.
This goes double for PvP. Not only can you try all the weapons out, you can play with the utility skills without using the precious skill points earned on your PvE character.
Switch attunements!
As we learned last week, the Elementalist’s greatest strength is their versatility. Sure, a staff-wielding Elementalist could do nothing but throw around fireballs all day. Or, he could blind his foes with a lightning surge, freeze the ground to stop their advance, cause some earthquakes to keep ‘em off balance, and THEN send a fireball their way. I don’t know about you, but I would rather bring four weapons to a fight than just one. So don’t get tunnel vision. Switch it up!
Remember that you are one of the best classes at filling multiple roles!
When playing in a party, it’s important to remember the core elements of Guild Wars 2 combat: Support, Damage, and Control. No profession can compete with the Elementalist’s ability to fill all three in a single battle. Let’s look at the options available to you should the staff be your weapon of choice. Does your party need more support? Grab water attunement and create area of effect healing geysers! Remove conditions and get your pals some regeneration with Healing Rain! Heck, even the auto-attack for water has a splash healing effect for allies near your target. Or, you can keep your pals from getting hit in the first place with the swiftness boon granted by windborne speed.
Controlling your enemies is as easy as inflicting hampering conditions. An Elementalist wielding a staff is incredibly well stocked in this regard. Earth attunement allows for crippling through unsteady ground, crippling and immobilizing shockwaves, and your auto-attack weakens your foes. Rob your enemies of sight with blinding flash or stun them with static field from air attunement.
Damage is hard not to cause as an Elementalist. Give a group of foes vulnerability with ice spikes and burn ‘em up with an AoE lava font. Bleed them with a shockwave and get some splash damage in with fireball.
Whatever your group needs, you are. This isn’t even taking into account utility and elite skills or any other weapon sets. Your bag of tricks is nearly endless.
Get out of the way!
This doesn’t apply to just Elementalists, but it bears mentioning everywhere. Dodge! Do not stand in one place. The best damage mitigation is to not get hit in the first place. Also, it bears mentioning that an Elementalist need not rely solely on the dodge move. Use burning retreat to evade while leaving a trail of fire to discourage pursuit. Or turn into an invulnerable mist state with mist form. Just don’t stop moving!
Have fun!
This is the most important thing I can say. As we’ve mentioned before, you are Captain Planet. You are the Avatar. You are Gandalf if you want to be. Let yourself go mad with power. After all, you have quite a lot of it. Not everyone gets to burn their foes to a crisp, freeze them to the core, send lightning coursing through them, and smash them to pieces with the very ground under their feet. Enjoy it. Get a little crazy.
