Earth Elementalist build help (not rate)

[sensesfail]

Can anyone tell me a good build for an Earth Elementalist? I'm planning on making one for pvp but I'm not sure what skills and what stats to allocate. If it helps, my sub is mesmer.

Thanks!

[Diast]

Can anyone tell me a good build for an Earth Elementalist? I'm planning on making one for pvp but I'm not sure what skills and what stats to allocate. If it helps, my sub is mesmer.

Thanks!

Im not sure abou pvp, but if you want some advice about pve I can help you out there.

[sensesfail]

thats fine too. thanks

[Warskullx]

For PvP you are probably going to go heavy protection with earth. Earth isn't the greatest damage wise, but has some very nice abilities. Ward against foes and ward against melee are a godsend. The armor bypassing skills are quite nice also

I like to pair earth up with protection myself

One of my earth builds
Obsidian flame
Eruption
Ward Against Melee
Ward Against Foes
Mend Condition or Mend Ailment
Aegis
Flex Slot (protection)
Rez or Flex slot (protection)

Obsidian flame is my only real offense, however if you consider that it does 100+ damage when pumped and that is completely bypasses all armor and magic resistance (great way to hurt those warrior monks) it makes a good offense. Eruption does some ok damage, but is really for the AoE blind. Ward against melee again helps against all those warrior monks and ward against foes helps everywhere. Mend condition is a phenominal PvP spell and Aegis is incredibly useful. In the flex slots I put another protection spell to help allies and if there is aren't many rez capable people I take rez myself.

Possibilities for flex slot:
Protective Spirit
Shield of Regen
Shield of Deflection (if you find the thing)
Shielding Hands
Guardian

[Torry]

Stoning was given knock down if weakness.

So a fun sequence can be Stoning + Aftershock= 220ish damage in 2 seconds.

I did try Enervating Charge+Stoning+Aftershock, but the mana cost was way too high. I did not bring Attunements at the time.

I'd suggest maybe Axe Rake and then Stoning+Aftershock.

Obviously, Elemental attunement (saving 50% of mana) would help a LOT on above.

you may also try Whirlwind + Aftershock for AOE 200 damage. However, I am not so happy about Whirlwind range.

Ward of Melee is a great spell. Note that it can't be debuffed, making it very valuable in pvp.

Armour of Earth give you the armour of a warrior. It now has competition from Armour of Mist (35 armour+33% run speed) but that is a 2 sec cast and only last up to 18 secs. You how also got Ward against Harm or whatever from water.

[Nasuradin]

Earthquake 90 dmg Aftershock 90 + 60 more when earthquake knocked everybody down, + crystal wave, 88 dmg ignores armor/spell protection, obsidian flame, 100 dmg ignore armor/spell resist. I can usually get all of that off around 45ish mana doing this without atunement. I use this in pvp, but I have tried it in a guild war once in beta, a group of warriors were crowded around the guild lord, they ignored me untill they found themselves running away from being shaken to near death... my party or my stoning and obsidian flames finished a couple off.

of course the earthquake and aftershock dmg may differer depending on resistances though, but I found it odd why nobody mentioned earthquake, since aftershock is named well, aftershock.

[Warskullx]

Earthquake costs 25 mana and causes exhaustion. If you want an easy knockdown combo Whirlwind and Aftershock tends to work far better. Any earthquake build is burst damage. You simply can't keep that spell up.

[Forbiddian]

Let's go over some advantages/disadvantages (of the Quake>Aftershock combo):

+1: The mana cost in manageable compared to many other combos out there.
+2: It knocks them down, so you have time to pull your combo off (and knocking down your opponents all at once is invaluable for team play).
+3: It's virtually unresistable and a VERY good response if you're the targetted player (pretty common for Ele's to get targetted).
+4 It breaks up global positions VERY quickly, and with team play, many of the drawbacks can be beaten.

-1: You have to be VERY close to pull it out. If you're not targetted, it's a LONG walk to the front lines where you can't do anything (if you weren't running the combo, you'd use that time to break out some damage/disruption spells, not running your easiest target into the middle of the machine gun lines.
-2: It's a reasonably large engine (skill-wise). It requires 3-4 skills (for the basics) that you wouldn't use if you weren't running the combo. The more dedicated builds have some pretty crazy specs required, and many Earth Elementalists take it as a given when they're picking skills that this combo WILL land. A lot of builds I see run Attunement, Quake, Shock, Wave, Stoning, and Obsidian Flame. That means you have an ignored secondary class and no backup plan.
-3: It. Doesn't. Guarantee. A. Kill. Contrary to apparently popular belief, if you're alone and some Elementalist nukes you with this. You ARE NOT dead. You have 100-150 life left. Also contrary to popular belief, you can now heal yourself, etc. etc. and get back in the fight. The Elementalist sacrificed all of their blue to knock you down that low and effectively took themselves out of the fight for the next 10 seconds (at the bare minimum).
-4: It costs a TON. If you miss, if you fail to get a kill through some unforseen series of events (a Mesmer randomly selects you and casts Power Spike (or any counter) on your Aftershock... oops).
-5: This is really just a branch of 3 and 4: Even if you pull it off, you lost almost all of your mana. If you managed to scrape your way through hell and maybe got a kill, you have nothing left and you're free to kill whenever your opponents feel it's necessary.




So, before you pick Earth Elementalist, ask yourself:

As I charge the enemy lines like a Warrior without armor on, how much will the extra stress on the Monks hurt my team?

As I charge the enemy line, could I have done something (like spell casting) during that time that would have helped my team more than having this whole combo go out?

As my combo gets countered/blackened out/Iron Misted/Backfired, etc. etc. could I have done better with a more flexible set of skills?

I just knocked down their whole group and slaughtered my opponents like animals before they could even get up... how cool is that?




My personal opinion is that Elementalists must have a strong secondary profession. The fact that your armor is so weak and that all your opponent's rangers and mesmers will be gunning for you every game means that you need a gameplan a little bit more flexible than rushing the enemy lines. An engine that'll hog over half your skills and yet be basically useless if you get slowed or countered is NOT my idea of flexibility.

There are some Elementalists who believe that they were gifted large mana pools to be able to hold back trump card nukes to draw on when necessary.

I'm a bit more pessimistic (I play a Mesmer normally) and believe that Mesmers can throw a wrench in any game plan, so you should always try to have a second option (which isn't always possible). If it's impossible, don't give them new ways of stopping you. Personally, I packed Iron Mist in the Betas and that skill should be nerfed. Triple-enchanted Warrior/Monks or Warrior/Elementalists rendered 100% useless with a breath. Who cares that they're immune? Kill them after you're done.

[Aire]

Or you could run something like:

Stone Daggers
Stoning
Earthquake
Aftershock
Crystal Wave
Armour of Earth
Earth Attunement
Elemental Attunement

Earthquake costs only 4 and a bit energy :D, Aftershock 2, Stone Daggers 1

There's no trouble with that. Just you have to keep the enchantments up, and you've got no healing

/Aire :)

[Silent Reader]

I found it odd why nobody mentioned earthquake, since aftershock is named well, aftershock.

actually i always thought that aftershock was designed to be after the earthquake spell. However recently i started thinking "what if the meaning was literal?" There is an ele spell called shock. this spell knocks down. Aftershock works best when the enemy is knocked down. so what if aftershock was truely designed to be cast after shock?

[Diceclock]

I believe any Earth Build should have Obsidion Flame. It's a fantastic Killshot-spell, on a fantastic recast timer for an Elementalist.

But again remember kiddies, sustainable damage beats flashy damage every time.

[Diast]

I believe any Earth Build should have Obsidion Flame. It's a fantastic Killshot-spell, on a fantastic recast timer for an Elementalist.

But again remember kiddies, sustainable damage beats flashy damage every time.

the fact is the earth elem was meant to be used with WARDS. Wards keep the enemy close, and useless. Then your AoE spells really start to take off with eruption (Blinds), eq, aftershock, and crystal wave.

[Diceclock]

Yeah works great now when 80% of the population are no-talent mash & bash Warrior Monks. That won't last. As soon as they fix the Balthazaar's exploit, they'll switch.

But if your enemies are at range, all the wards and "adjacent" spells quickly lose their luster.

[Nasuradin]

actually i always thought that aftershock was designed to be after the earthquake spell. However recently i started thinking "what if the meaning was literal?" There is an ele spell called shock. this spell knocks down. Aftershock works best when the enemy is knocked down. so what if aftershock was truely designed to be cast after shock?

As much sence as that makes too, if you actually take a step back and look at the two spells, what do people call a small earthquake after the initial earthquake has struck? an aftershock.

not to try to sound insulting but it seems as if you were reading too much into it, to belive that aftershock was to be used "after shock" :)
you know, like when you ponder a riddle and you think about it so hard, the obvious answer is oblivious to you and you try to find some greater understanding.