Elementalist Profession Guide
For those who had played in Guild Wars, you know that elementalists are the benders of nature’s forces. They are the ones who melt away your health as they pound away at their foes with sheer power. By controlling the elements of fire, air, earth, water and arcane they work to control the fields of war. Of course they do not always have to be full out damage dealing monsters, elementalists can vary in combat style since each element is meant for different rolls.
Elementalists make up one of the three scholar professions in Guild wars 2. Being that they are very powerful, their defense consists of only light armor to keep them from being over powered. Of course just like mentioned above, they aren’t restricted to only one aspect of battle. They have an attunement system that allows them to access other elements to play other parts. Unlike other classes, elementalists are unable to switch weapon sets during battle to add diversity, so to make up for that they are capable of flipping between the four accessible elements hot-keyed to the F1, F2, F3 and F4 keys. Each of course has its own purpose.
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Fire- Pure Damage (No holding back)
When you think of fire, it is destructive. It incinerates anything and anyone that stands in its path with no regret. It is sheer power to destroy all players that stand in your way. It shines brightest when in group fights where your skills hit more targets dealing incredible amount of damage to others. If you do not finish someone with your skill alone, don’t worry, the Elementalist happens to have the ability of burn that slowly whittles down their health. However do not rely solely on this to finish others because it does not last forever and only takes out a small portion of health being that it is meant to finish off, not serve as a main source of damage.
Air- Bursting with great amounts
Unlike fire, air is meant for bursting in a different manner. As you know, Guild Wars 2 allows for healing on every character to make it that no single person or group depends heavily on a support. When it comes to this element, you will send out large bursts of damage over longer periods of time to demolish health without hope of healing. Besides the large spikes, the air skills give the player the swiftness boon accompanied with other effects that are meant for crowd control.
Water- Flowing power to Support
Most of these elements can be understood by their natural roles. Water is a flowing source and is calming, brings serenity and is the source of all life. Because of this, water controlled is meant to be supportive. It does not serve as a direct method of support such as healers or tanks but it does have its small effects that help the outcome of battle through its effects. Some skills such as Geyser will heal allies while other skills such as Cleansing Wave will heal and remove conditions.
Earth- Strong Defense that holds us up
Since we have sheer damage, bursting damage and supportive play styles the only thing left is defense. While Guild Wars 2 does not have what we would call a born tank character, the element earth allows Elementalists to take that role upon their selves. These skills are meant to protect nearby allies both during combat as well as fleeing from a lost battle.
Normally classes in Guild Wars 2 want to focus in to build a single thing such as thieves building heavy stealth combined with bursting damage. This class varies greatly being that it is much more fluid and allows for more diversity. However, for an Elementalist to be successful he/she MUST switch between the different elements to be truly useful. They cannot focus just on one element because of many reasons. One may run in with fire to crush the defensive line, however if they push back you must hold meaning a switch to earth is required. If a player has just managed to jump out of battle with little health but is still needed, an elemental switch to water heals you up to continue. For you to be able to perform to your maximum potential, switches must be frequently made.
Now that you understand the aspects that make an Elementalist what they are, we will now delve into what else in held in their arsenal. Elementalists can use the following combinations:
-Two Handed Staff
-Duel Wield Daggers
-Scepter + Dagger
-Focus
With these, the Elementalist becomes a jack of all trades in the sense that they can be in every part of battle. Below you can find the trait lines that add on to your methods of battle.
Fire Magic
+10 Power per point spent
+1% Expertise per point spent
Improves – fire element, grants might, burning
Earth Magic
+10 Toughness per point spent
+10 Malice per point spent
Improves – earth element, toughness, signets, protection
Air Magic
+10 Precision per point spent
+1% Prowess
Improves – air element, critical hit, swiftness
Water Magic
+10 Vitality per point spent
+10 Compassion per point spent
Improves – water element, regeneration, condition removal
Arcana
+1 Concentration per point spent
+2 Intelligence per point spent
Improves – all elements, AoE attacks, attunements
Of course there is also the traits line that each character has a total of 5 of. Each again of course is meant to boost your ability to play as a certain roll when in battle. I will also list those below:
Fire:
Adept Flame Barrier You have a 20% chance to cause burning whenever a foe attacks you in melee. Only triggers when attuned to fire.
Master Sunspot Inflict damage at your location when you attune to fire.
Grandmaster Burning Rage Deal 5% more damage to burning foes.
Adept Lava Tomb Create a Lava Font when downed (can trigger every 30 seconds.)
Adept Burning Fire Cleansing Flame [sic], Signet of Fire, Conjure Flame [sic], and Conjure Fiery Greatsword inflict 3 seconds of burning.
Adept Ember’s Might Deal 5% extra damage to burning foes.
Adept Spell Slinger Cantrips grant you 3 stacks of might when used.
Adept Burning Precision 30% chance to cause burning on a critical hit.
Adept Internal Fire Deal 10% more damage while attuned to fire.
Master Pyromancer’s Alacrity All your fire weapon skills recharge 20% faster.
Master Conjurer Conjured weapons have 10 more charges.
Master Fire’s Embrace When you activate a signet, you gain a fire shield for 3 seconds.
Master One with Fire Flame Barrier’s chance to burn foes goes up the longer you are attuned to fire.
Grandmaster Persisting Flames Fire fields last 30% longer.
Grandmaster Pyromancer’s Puissance Each fire spell you cast adds might for 5 seconds.
Air:
Adept Zephyr’s Speed Move 10% faster while attuned to air.
Master Electric Discharge Strike your target with a bolt of lightning when attuning to air.
Grandmaster Weak Spot 60% chance to cause vulnerability on critical hits.
Adept Zephyr’s Boon Auras grant fury and swiftness when applied.
Adept Zephyr’s Focus Your endurance regenerates 100% faster while channeling skills.
Adept Quick Glyphs Glyphs recharge 20% faster.
Adept One with Air You move 5% faster every 10 seconds you are attuned to air. Maximum of 25% bonus movement speed.
Adept Soothing Winds 5% of your precision is converted to healing.
Adept Bolt to the Heart Deal 20% more damage to foes with less than 25% health.
Master Arcane Lightning Gain 3% more critical-hit damage for 10 seconds when you use an arcane skill.
Master Inscription Grants a boon associated with your current attunement when you cast a glyph.
Master Aeromancer’s Alacrity All your air weapon skills recharge 20% faster.
Master Air Training Deal 10% more damage while attuned to air.
Grandmaster Tempest Defense Surround yourself with a Shocking Aura when disabled (fear, stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, launch, float, sink.) This effect can only trigger once every 90 seconds.
Grandmaster Grounded Deal 20% more damage to knocked down and stunned foes.
Earth:
Adept Stone Flesh Gain 1 toughness per level while attuned to earth.
Master Earthen Blast Damage foes and cripple them for 3 seconds when attuning to earth.
Grandmaster Enduring Damage Deal 10% more damage when your endurance is full.
Adept Obsidian Focus Gain toughness while using a channeled skill.
Adept Signet Mastery Signets recharge 20% faster.
Adept Earth’s Embrace Gain Armor of Earth when health reaches 50% (90-second cooldown).
Adept Salt Stone Deal 5% more damage to bleeding foes.
Adept Elemental Shielding Gain protection for 3 seconds when applying an aura to yourself or an ally.
Adept Stone Splinters Deal 5% more damage when you are within melee range of your target.
Master Strength of Stone Deal 10% more damage while attuned to earth.
Master Serrated Stones Bleeds you apply last 20% longer.
Master Geomancer’s Freedom You recover from crippled, immobilized, and chilled 33% faster.
Master Geomancer’s Alacrity All your earth weapon skills recharge 20% faster.
Grandmaster Rock Solid Grant stability (2s) to nearby allies when attuning to earth.
Grandmaster Written in Stone Maintain the passive effects of signets when you activate them.
Water:
Adept Soothing Mist Regenerate health while attuned to water.
Master Healing Ripple Heal nearby allies when attuning to water.
Grandmaster Bountiful Power Deal 2% more damage for each boon on you.
Adept Aquamancer’s Alacrity All your water weapon skills recharge 20% faster.
Adept Shard of Ice Arcane and signet skills cause vulnerability when activated.
Adept Soothing Disruption Cantrips grant you regeneration and vigor.
Adept Piercing Shards While attuned to water, your spells deal 20% more damage to vulnerable foes.
Adept Cleansing Wave Remove a condition from you and your allies when attuning to water.
Adept Vital Striking Deal extra damage when health is above 90%.
Master Stop Drop and Roll Dodge rolling removes burning and chilled. (Cooldown: 10 seconds)
Master Icy Mist Deal damage and inflict chill and vulnerability to nearby foes while in mist or vapor form.
Master Cantrip Mastery Cantrips recharge 20% faster.
Master Soothing Wave Mist Form, Frost Bow, and Signet of Water grant 6 seconds of regeneration.
Grandmaster Cleansing Water Remove a condition when granting regeneration to yourself or an ally.
Grandmaster Powerful Aura Auras are applied to nearby allies.
Arcana:
Adept Arcane Fury Grant yourself fury for 2 seconds on attunement.
Master Lingering Elements Attunement bonuses linger for 5 seconds.
Grandmaster Trait elementalist.png Arcane Precision Skills have chance to apply a condition on critical hits.
Adept Arcane Mastery Arcane skills recharge 20% faster.
Adept Arcane Resurrection When you revive an ally, you and the revived ally gain an aura based on your attunement.
Adept Arcane Retribution Gain Arcane Power at 75% health.
Adept Final Shielding Create an Arcane Shield when health reaches 25%.
Adept Elemental Attunement When attuning to an element, you and all nearby allies gain:
Fire: might
Water: regeneration
Air: swiftness
Earth: protection
Adept Renewing Stamina You have a 33% chance to gain vigor on critical hits.
Master Vigorous Scepter Endurance recharges faster while wielding a scepter.
Master Blasting Staff Area attacks with staff are larger.
Master Windborne Dagger Move 15% faster when wielding a dagger.
Master Arcane Energy Arcane and signet skills restore 25% endurance when used.
Grandmaster Evasive Arcana Create an attunement-based spell at the end of your dodge. Each spell can be triggered once every 10 seconds.
Fire: Flame Burst.
Water: Cleansing Wave.
Air: Blinding Flash.
Earth: Churning Earth.
Grandmaster Elemental Surge Based on attunement, arcane skills cause:
Fire: burning for 5 seconds
Water: chilled for 3 seconds
Air: blindness for 5 seconds
Earth: immobilized for 1 second
A final thing that some would be very interested in is the Conjured weapons that Elementalists can control. These are weapons that players summon to give themselves or others a powerful tool for fighting. To make it simpler, they serve almost like kits that dropped for anyone’s use. Just like in Fps games where people will drop guns, elementalists do the same with these. Each of course can be used at any time; however they may serve even better in particular situations.
Flame Axe (Lava Axe)
Lave Axe – Throws an axe at your opponent.
Explosive Lava Axe – Ground targeted AoE.
Burning Retreat – Same as on the staff, evade backward putting down a fire wall.
Ring of Fire – Same as on the dagger, damage and burn nearby foes.
Flame Leap – Leap at your foe and apply 15 seconds of burning.
Earth Shield (Magnetic Shield)
Shield Smack – Melee hit.
Crippling Shield – Throws your shield in a line in front of you, crippling enemies.
Magnetic Surge – Run at an enemy and daze them.
Magnetic Shield – Pull nearby enemies to you.
Fortify – Become invulnerable for three seconds.
Frost Bow (Ice Bow)
Water Arrow – Shoots an arrow that heals nearby allies on hit.
Frost Volley – Shoot multiple arrows applying vulnerability.
Frost Fan – Shoots arrows in a frontal arc applying chill.
Ice Storm – A regular AoE attack.
Deep Freeze – Locks the enemy in a block of ice.
Lightning Hammer (Lightning Hammer)
Lightning Swing, Static Swing, and Thunderclap – Deals damage, the third attack blinds.
Lightning Leap – Jump at an enemy.
Wind Blast – Knocks an enemy back.
Lightning Storm – AoE around you.
Static Field – Static Field that isn’t ground targetable.
Fiery Greatsword (Fiery Greatsword)
Flame Wave – Shoot fireballs from range.
Fiery Eruption – Applies burning to nearby foes.
Fiery Whirl – You swing the sword around dealing damage while charging forward.
Fiery Rush – Charge an enemy and put a firewall down.
Firestorm – AoE ability.
The Elementalist is a multipurpose character that can be found everywhere. Remember to utilize their diversity in roles and never stick to one method of fighting. Diversify yourself and be unpredictable to be the best. Good luck and thanks for reading!
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