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

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 21, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

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

Scepter/Focus

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Ether Renewal - better condition cleansing, but the long cast time makes it easy to interrupt. This could however allow you to run Sigil of Superior Sigil of Air instead of Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing for more damage. Replacing Armor of Earth with Arcane Shield is worth considering with this heal, as the blocks from Arcane Shield could be used to protect Ether Renewal.

Elite

• Conjure Fiery Greatsword - 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 Elemental Surge on Arcane.

• Replace Armor of Earth with Arcane Blast.

• Swapping out Signet of Air for Arcane Shield could also be considered. While Arcane Shield has a longer CD, it protects you from followup damage and could even be used to shield Ether Renewal. It even works offensively, the shield can negate incoming attacks while you're bursting targets.

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Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Scepter
Marauder

Focus
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Focus
Marauder

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

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

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Air 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. Worth considering if you're not using Precise infusions.

• 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 Air Attunement every few seconds, made possible by Fresh Air which recharges Air whenever you land a critical strike.

• Swapping to Air triggers Electric Discharge which you should immediately follow up with a Lightning Strike for instant burst damage. Entering this attunement also grants you Ferocity from Fresh Air 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 Arc Lightning just before leaving Air Attunement. 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 Flamewall. Do not prioritize Might stacking, but do take advantage of the incidental opportunities which arise. Your blast finishers are:

• Dragon's Tooth
• Phoenix
• Comet
• Magnetic Wave

• Tornado is mainly about Dust Charge. 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 Phoenix 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 Arcane Blasts, everything else is the same.

From Fire:

1. Dragon's Tooth
2. Fire Shield ⇒ Transmute Fire - both the transmute and Dragon's Tooth have a delay, your goal is to get into Air by the time these go off
3. Phoenix - optional: Lightning Flash right at your target before you finish casting Phoenix to cut down on the projectile's travel time.
4. Air Attunement - swap to this while casting Phoenix. Note: swapping out of fire triggers an explosion from Pyromancer's Puissance, 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.
5. Arcane Blast
6. Lightning Strike

Note: if Air isn't ready by the time you get to step 3, you need to recharge it somehow with a Fresh Air proc. This is greedy but you could sacrifice an instant utility skill like Lightning Flash or Signet of Air and hope for a crit. That's the most seamless way because it doesn't risk messing up your timing, but a Flamestrike cast or two could also get the job done. With the Arcane variant this is much easier as you can just use an Arcane Blast to recharge Air.

From Earth:

1. Rock Barrier
2. Dust Devil
3. Optional: if you're in melee range of an enemy you may throw in a Magnetic Wave which can proc Relic of Fireworks if it hits something.
4. Stone Shards + Hurl then swap to Air Attunement during the channeling to make all the projectiles land in the right attunement.
5. Arcane Blast + Lightning Strike
6. Blinding Flash to avoid taking damage, but it's not required.

From Water:

1. Shatterstone
2. Water Trident - the trident does more damage to Chilled enemies which is important. Shatterstone should secure that but Freezing Gust could also do it.
3. Air Attunement 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.
4. Arcane Blast
5. Lightning Strike

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.

• One with Air 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.

• Blinding Flash 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. Signet of Air fills a similar purpose, so does Dust Devil although that one has a cast time.

• Shatterstone 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.

• Magnetic Wave and Swirling Winds 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.

• Magnetic Wave is the build's best condition cleanse which can also be used while stunned.

• Obsidian Flesh offers protection against all kinds of pressure.

• Swapping to Fire procs a Fire Aura from Sunspot and gaining an aura removes 1 condition via Smothering Auras. 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 Transmute Fire. Smothering Auras removes 2 conditions when you transmute an aura.

• Do the following chain if you need to cleanse a lot of conditions quickly:

1. Fire Attunement - cleanses 1 condition as you gain an aura.
2. Transmute Fire - cleanses 2 conditions.
3. Use Focus #5 Fire Shield, removing yet another condition.
4. Transmute again for another 2 cleanses.
5. Phoenix 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.