Air Magic

[Efflixi]

I was wondering why Air magic is liked so much. Does that 25% pen really make a big difference? Or do people want the blinding effect.
An explanation on the advantages of air magic would be very helpful, thanks beforehand. :)

[hakkafusion]

b/c Air magic are the most damaging non AoE spells.

[GammaRay]

Very true. If you crank up your Air Magic, it does HUGE damage (close to or above 100 in some cases) and the armor penetration helps make it count. A steady flow of lightning damage will chew through a warrior's defense. ^_^

EDIT: Let's not forget that a number of air magic spells also have knockdown.

[Delbiter]

lightning is very damaging i had 380 hp (warrior) at the time when i was fighting some monsters and i though i could easyly beat them but 5 seconds later i was killed and 20 seconds later all the others in my team.
Then i went back and the same happened and i saw it were lightning skills.
so it would mean lightning VERY damaging

[Raved]

2 Reasons:
-Blindness: this is awesome in pvp and pve alike
-Best single target damage spells (due to 25% pen): uber in pvp and sometimes in pve (UW and fissure for example, area's where you try to pull as little foes as possible)

[Efflixi]

I didn't expect the 25% pen make that much of a difference but I gues it does, i should give air magic a try then. :)

[PKMG StaR]

Even in PvE air magic becomes very powerful. After ascention your pretty much forced to fight 3-4 monsters at a time which means that AOE is less effective. Add in the fact that almost all monsters have armor over the 60 base and like to move around (they like to go kamikazee on your monk mercs) and air magic is very useful beyond PvP.

[Jarek]

What does Blindness do exactly? Make the target unable to attack/cast spells for x seconds?

[um104]

well, i just want to start off by saying that Air Magic is not the most common type of magic, but Fire is. this is for 2 reasons: everyone thinks they're a pyro, and in the beginning of the game, the first Ele spells u get are Fire spells. now, back to the Air Magic. I dont use blindingness, but the 25% armour penatration REALLY helps. of course, i wouldnt know different, since i've only been an air elementalist and will always be, but i can see the difference. lets take this example: PvE. you (lvl 13) and your friend (lvl 15) are fighting a lvl 18 boss will some henchies w/u just for back-up (they sucked). Your friends a warrior, and he claims he can do "major" dmg. so, you, just to show off, let off your array of Air skills, and in 3 seconds the target foe is down from full health to no health. (neither ur friend or you henchies touched the boss).
personally, i like Air magic because it focuses on one guy, namely the monk. it also has knockdown, which im not a big fan of, and it has blinding, but im not that big of a fan of that.
also, Air magic has 4 elite skills, which makes it tied for the most elite skills w/the Elementalist. it's tied with water skills.
its all in the eye of the beholder... that is, if the eye's not blind.
Air Elementalist Extrordinare
--um104
PS. blindess gives the person who is blind a 90% chance to miss ALL attacks, either melee, ranged (arrows), or ranged (magic). this does not include skills.

[Rukia]

so , an aeromancer out there care to give an air build for us pyromancers ? :)

[hakkafusion]

air build is easy, there is not many spells.. an advice is just to find the major damage one, and decide how you'll cast all of them in 1 round to be most effective =)

[Rukia]

ok , i thought of an air build (using skills i have at the moment).
tell me your thoughts.

1. Lightning Strike
2. Lightning Orb
3. Chain Lightning
4. Gale
5. Aura of Restoration
6. Air Attunement
7. Ether Renewal
8. <Insert secondary proffesion skill here>

would you think it would be viable or maybe some enchantments should be dropped. From the air elite skills maybe glimmering mark or mind shock.

anyway i am a noob when it comes to air since i never played an aeromancer.

[Rukia]

Ok got Mind Shock today , obviously great pvp spell. so I would remake the build as:

1. Lightning Strike
2. Lightning Orb
3. Chain Lightning
4. Gale
5. Aura of Restoration
6. Mind Shock
7. <Insert secondary proffesion skill here>
8. <Insert secondary proffesion skill here>

looks pretty good to me, what do you guys think ?
I was thinking if Elemental Attunement is needed for an air build. Sure its a great enchatment but air spells are not that expensive (compared to fire for example). Also I am trying to evaluate how good glimmering mark and thunderclap are. I dont like lightning surge at all since you cant really time that 3 seconds. i want to have knockdown rdy any time and gale is perfect for that.

feel free to add your constructive comments :)

[Akfeka]

I'd be careful having three spells that cause exhaustion. I really prefer to run with just one, or maybe a second that I don't spam very much. That way I don't have to spend 2 minutes standing around after an intense battle waiting for my max mana to come back.

I'm not wild about mind shock, either. In my experience, ether prodigy is a pretty rockin' elite spell, especially if you are bringing two enchantments (ie. aura of restoration and air attunement.) Since you have mind shock, that means you are past ascension, right? If you don't have ether prodigy, it can be grabbed from any of the forgotten elementalists in the missions in the desert.

I'm also a real big fan of air attunement. You might consider that, especially if you find yourself running out of mana quickly.

Finally, you might look at enervating charge. The weakness it causes can be an extremely valuable strategic tool, in both PvP and PvE.

In my opinion, one of the the best things about air magic is that you get high damage spells that recharge relatively quickly with low enough cost that if you have the right set of spells, you can just keep going and going. Not running out of mana means mad damage output.

[Rukia]

thaks for your reply Akfela. yeah, that build was not that good :)

at the moment my build is :

1. lightning strike
2. lightning orb
3. chain lightning
4. windborn speed (thinking of testing whirlwind instead but windborn speed is pretty nifty :P)
5. gale (obviously not spamming it, just for interruption when needed)
6. elemental attunement (i love it!)
7. monk spell
8. monk spell

i guess eventaully i will be running (for pve) with ether prodigy once i get it. but for pvp i really like mind shock.

12 air (+3 , major rune + head)
8 energy (+1 minor rune)
10 healing prayers

[moonos]

ist there a energy storage spell that recovers your mana quickly? sort of canceling out exhaustion?

[Rukia]

ist there a energy storage spell that recovers your mana quickly? sort of canceling out exhaustion?

ether prodigy (giving you temporal energy regeneration , not cancelling exhaustion though)

[Graphite]

ist there a energy storage spell that recovers your mana quickly? sort of canceling out exhaustion?

I dont think you can cancel out exhaustion but you can use xxxx attunement or elemental attunement to help give buck xx% amount of mana back when a skill is casted.

[Lao Tzu]

i was looking into a very simular build to those in this thread and was wondering if anyone had any advice. i havent played guildwars much yet cause im on dial up and am waiting for cable to get into it.

im elementalist/monk and was looking at something like this:

ele skills:
1. elemental attunement
2. enervating charge
3. lightning strike
4. lightning javelin
5. blinding flash ~or~ gale (dunno what would be better)
monk skills:
6. orison of healing
7. healing breeze (not sure if needed if i have orison)
8. resurrect

i think this would be good, id focus on damage and basically would only heal myself or party members that are about to die.

my attributes would be
air 12
healing prayers 12
energy storage 3

i could cancel a point or two in healing prayers if energy storage but am not sure yet if an extra 9 mana is that big of a deal.

also what about items? can they raise your skill above 12? or should i expect to get +1 items so i dont have to spend so many points getting level 10+?

thanks for any help.

[Lao Tzu]

still wondering...

[Satan Minion]

Uh, well I'll type up an Air Build and post it pyro.

[Miss Schizo]

This is something that most people don't realize, but from what I can tell Air attunement and elemental both stack for a combined effect. Just thought I would mention that to give you an idea of what to do with that extra slot that you didn't know how to fill.

[Satan Minion]

They stack?! Holy !@#$ That's is awesome...

[Graphite]

i was looking into a very simular build to those in this thread and was wondering if anyone had any advice. i havent played guildwars much yet cause im on dial up and am waiting for cable to get into it.

im elementalist/monk and was looking at something like this:

ele skills:
1. elemental attunement
2. enervating charge
3. lightning strike
4. lightning javelin
5. blinding flash ~or~ gale (dunno what would be better)
monk skills:
6. orison of healing
7. healing breeze (not sure if needed if i have orison)
8. resurrect

i think this would be good, id focus on damage and basically would only heal myself or party members that are about to die.

my attributes would be
air 12
healing prayers 12
energy storage 3

i could cancel a point or two in healing prayers if energy storage but am not sure yet if an extra 9 mana is that big of a deal.

also what about items? can they raise your skill above 12? or should i expect to get +1 items so i dont have to spend so many points getting level 10+?

thanks for any help.

If your going to help heal other people equip "Heal Other" and "Healing Breeze" that should do it. Equip Chain lightening and Lightening Orb (Great DMG). I believe attributes max out at 15 because I have

15 air magic
4-5 earth magic (can't remember exactly, I just use it for wards agaisnt melee)
12 Energy storage

When my air magic is at 15 it doesnt have the arrow to add any more attribute points to it so I am assuming it is maxed out.

Here is my Air Ele Build

1. Lightening Javelin (DMG/INTERRUPT MAGIC SPELL)
2. Lightening Orb (DMG)
3. Lightening Strike (DMG)
4. Enervating Charge (DMG/WEAKENS ARMOR FOR XX SECONDS)
5. Chain Lightening (AOE DMG)
6. Air Attunement (REFUND MANA)
7. Wards Agaisnt Melee (PROTECTION FOR XX SECONDS)
8. Resurrect

Its pretty good, does me well in Hall of Heroes and PVP. I am going elite air magic hunting tommorow or Friday and Ill make the final change then.. Just need to collect a major/superior vigor rune, Right now I have a minor energy rune and a major air rune also a minor vigor. My staff also adds +32 Health. I might get Necro/Mesmer secondary to complete my warrior killing, armor penetrating elementalist build.

[Feynt]

Yeah, well remember as an elementalist primary you get a gem which boosts an attribute (in your case probably Air), as well you probably have a major rune boosting your stat even more. The maximum attribute is 12, unmodified).

To the dilemma above, I suggest Blinding Flash instead of Gale. Gale does a pretty good job of interrupting, but it causes exhaustion which you'll want to avoid if you're helping with party healing. Blinding Flash is a long term party helper however, keeping both melee and ranged units alike from hitting people for upwards of 10 seconds (if you have 15 Air that is. 9 seconds is still a long time in a fight).

[Aire]

Air attunement and Elemental Attunement stack for a 80% return of the energy. However remember you are using both an elite and another slot for that.

@Lao

Your build seems to be a mix of a healer and a nuker. You're not pulling off a huge amount of damage and you're not using much energy. Elemental Attunement seems like a waste considering its only affecting 4 skills. Try taking Ether Prodigy and Blinding Flash, but be careful as Prodigy causes exhaustion...

All i can think of for now

/Aire :)