Elementalist - S/F Fresh Air Roamer
The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good
Focused on: Strike damage, Mobility and Control
Designed for: WvW Roaming
Overview
S/F Fresh Air is a Power-based WvW roaming build which focuses on burst damage whilst avoiding damage by utilizing 
Superspeed, 
Blind, anti-projectile skills and invulnerabilities to make up for its lack of sustain by staying out of harm's way.
The core version has its pros and cons when compared to other FA WvW builds: it's got better condition cleansing than any other FA build and the burst is higher than Catalyst's, but the damage is lower than that of Weaver and it has neither the boon variety nor defensive toolkit of Catalyst (namely the extra block and aura spam).
Skill Bar
Skill Variants
Heal
- - better condition cleansing, but the long cast time makes it easy to interrupt. This could however allow you to run instead of for more damage. Replacing with is worth considering with this heal, as the blocks from Arcane Shield could be used to protect Ether Renewal.
Elite
- - has a longer CD and no CC, but provides better mobility and AoE damage.
Arcane variant
There's an even more bursty version of the build with even less sustain. This is a high risk/reward option:
- Take on Arcane.
- Replace with .
- Swapping out for could also be considered. While Arcane Shield has a longer CD, it protects you from followup damage and could even be used to shield . It even works offensively, the shield can negate incoming attacks while you're bursting targets.
Template Code
Specializations
Equipment
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
x6
x18
Second set: you may have noticed a Focus on the second set, this one's for the tryhards. While Elementalists can't swap weapons in combat, they can still stack Bloodlust on random PvE mobs before fights using the second set then switch back to the first set once they're ready to PvP. The Bloodlust stacks will remain active without the need to sacrifice a sigil slot on the PvP set. It's enough to put 1 weapon into the second set as they'll inherit the missing one from the main set. If you have no intention to stack Bloodlust before fights then you don't need the 2nd set! It's not mandatory.
Equipment Variants
Runes
- - relatively cheap option with better survivability and slightly higher consistency thanks to the higher crit chance, but less burst potential than Scholar.
- - higher consistency, lower burst potential.
- - good budget option.
Sigils
- over Cleansing - better damage if you can affor to give up some condition cleansing.
- Replacing Energy with Air (while keeping Cleansing) could also be considered when playing with .
Consumables
Food
There are plenty of viable choices, including:
- - highest possible damage option, great stats plus armor ignoring damage/healing procs.
- - slightly more defensive version of the Cilantro Lime feast, offering damage reduction instead of the lifesteal procs.
- - non-Ascended version of the above mentioned feasts with the same stats minus the damage reduction and the procs.
- - very similar to the Cilantro Lime feast except it offers Precision and not Ferocity.
- or - armor ignoring damage and a bit of extra healing on top of increased crit chance, a suitable budget option.
- - defensive option with more evasion and a bit of
Might stacking.
- Budget version:
Utility
- or .
Usage
General
- The build's all about swapping in and out of every few seconds, made possible by which recharges Air whenever you land a critical strike.
- Swapping to Air triggers which you should immediately follow up with a for instant burst damage. Entering this attunement also grants you Ferocity from for a few seconds, which is why most of your heavy hitting skills should land in this small time frame. More on that later.
- Recharging Air: to recharge Air you need to score a critical hit. The fastest way to do it on attunements with slower skills is to start channeling the air autoattack just before leaving . Swapping attunements doesn't break the channeling and Arc Lightning is almost guaranteed to critically hit at least once.
- This build can self-stack Might by blasting the fire field created by . Do not prioritize Might stacking, but do take advantage of the incidental opportunities which arise. Your blast finishers are:
- is mainly about . This skill can be used to run away from fights, chase after enemies, set up burst with CC or deny damage through CC. It's not uncommon to only use Tornado for this skill alone before dropping out of the form.
- Try to aim slightly behind your target whenever you can. This skill passes through targets while doing damage, explodes on the ground, then returns to you once again damaging targets it passes through. The goal here is to hit the target with all 3 parts of the skill, not just the explosion damage.
- Because of the slow travel time it's best used in melee.
Notable burst combos
These are some of the most common burst combos used by FA players. The quicker you pull these chains off, the better.
If you're playing the default version of the build and not the Arcane variant then skip the s, everything else is the same.
From Fire:
- ⇒ - both the transmute and Dragon's Tooth have a delay, your goal is to get into Air by the time these go off
- - optional: right at your target before you finish casting Phoenix to cut down on the projectile's travel time.
- - swap to this while casting Phoenix. Note: swapping out of fire triggers an explosion from , dealing considerable damage in melee (after a short delay). Swapping to Air while in melee range of the target therefore adds more damage to your combo.
Note: if Air isn't ready by the time you get to step 3, you need to recharge it somehow with a proc. This is greedy but you could sacrifice an instant utility skill like or and hope for a crit. That's the most seamless way because it doesn't risk messing up your timing, but a cast or two could also get the job done. With the Arcane variant this is much easier as you can just use an to recharge Air.
From Earth:
- Optional: if you're in melee range of an enemy you may throw in a which can proc if it hits something.
- + then swap to during the channeling to make all the projectiles land in the right attunement.
- +
- to avoid taking damage, but it's not required.
From Water:
- - the trident does more damage to Chilled enemies which is important. Shatterstone should secure that but could also do it.
- as soon as you start casting Water Trident. If you're quick enough with the sequencing it's possible to make the 2nd strike of Shatterstone go off in Air atunement for a bit of extra damage, but it's not a big deal if it doesn't.
Survival
- Swapping to Air is just as important for defense as it is for offense. Even when you're running away you should try to get some Fresh Air procs just so you can abuse blinds and superspeed.
- makes it easy to kite most specs via Superspeed. Avoid melee range whenever possible! Don't stay in melee unless the target is blinded, CC'd or you're about to burst them.
- is great at avoiding crucial skills by blinding enemies, and it also shuts down Power-based specs in general with the Weakness. Being an instant cast skill this can also be used while CC'd. fills a similar purpose, so does although that one has a cast time.
- is a source of spammable
Chill which you can even place behind your back while running away. Chill is great at building distance and the damage could recharge Air.
- Needless to say other CCs can also be used for creating some breathing room or making sure that your burst won't be disrupted.
- and provide excellent protection against enemies who use projectiles. These however do not work against unblockable projectiles, and some ranged builds - such as this one - are mostly unaffected by projectile reflects and blocks.
- is the build's best condition cleanse which can also be used while stunned.
- offers protection against all kinds of pressure.
- Swapping to Fire procs a Fire Aura from and gaining an aura removes 1 condition via . In the 5th slot on Fire you'll find a skill which grants the same aura, but if you already have the aura it flips over to its chain skill . Smothering Auras removes 2 conditions when you transmute an aura.
- Do the following chain if you need to cleanse a lot of conditions quickly:
- - cleanses 1 condition as you gain an aura.
- - cleanses 2 conditions.
- Use Focus #5 , removing yet another condition.
- Transmute again for another 2 cleanses.
- at your feet for another cleanse, if necessary. Swapping to Water and performing a dodge roll or swapping to Earth for Magnetic Wave could add even more cleansing to the chain.
Related Builds
- Weaver - Fresh Air Roamer - WvW Weaver elite spec version.
- Catalyst - Fresh Air Roamer - WvW Catalyst elite spec version.
- Elementalist - S/F Fresh Air- Conquest sPvP version of the same core build.
Ratings
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