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 September 23, 2023 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.

Being a core Elementalist build this is also available for F2P GW2 players who want to get into roaming.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Focus

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Ether Renewal - better condition cleansing, but the long cast time makes it easy to interrupt.

Arcane variant

There's an even more bursty version of the build with even less sustain. This is a high risk/reward variant:

• Take Elemental Surge on Arcane.

• Replace Armor of Earth with Arcane Blast.

• Swapping out Signet of Air for Arcane Shield could also be considered.

Template Code

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Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Amulet
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Scepter
Marauder

Focus
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Focus
Marauder

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Note: if you don't want to invest into Ascended Dragon's stat pieces, Exotics from the Trading Post will do just fine. The trinkets are relatively cheap, here's a list of them from the official wiki.

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

Stats

• A full set of Marauder gear would also work, your burst potential will be lower but your crit chance higher. Use Mighty infusions with this.

Infusions

• Mighty Infusions are more popular than Precise on most other builds with similar stats. If you want to use this set of gear on other characters as well or you already have a set with Mighty infusions that'd also work just fine. In that case however you might want replace a Dragon piece or two with Marauder to make up for the lost crit chance.

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.

• Arcane variant-only: Arcane Blast should usually be used while in Earth Attunement for the Immobilize, which makes it harder to avoid your burst. Alternatively cast Arcane Blast while still in Air Attunement then switch over to Earth before the projectile hits - this will root the target and you can get back into Air without skipping a beat as Arcane Blast is always a critical hit. With 1.5k range this is also your best ranged option.

• 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

• Conjure Fiery Greatsword's purpose is twofold.
  • Mobility: Fiery Whirl and Fiery Rush are excellent movement skills that can help you disengage from fights if your defensive CDs ran out, or if you want to get to the other capture point as soon as possible.
  • Cleave: Fiery Whirl and Firestorm are excellent AoE skills. Use these whenever you need to cleave a downed enemy or want to take a camp (ball up the NPCs in a corner beforehand).

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. Optional: Fire Shield ⇒ Transmute Fire for the Might if you haven't used it already to cleanse conditions and think you can afford to sacrifice an otherwise defensive CD for a damage boost.
2. Dragon's Tooth
3. Optional: Autoattack 1-2x to stack Might and Burning for trait synergy. This could maximize your damage but slows down the combo a bit. With this Phoenix and Dragon's Tooh should hit about the same time, this could deal massive damage BUT also makes it easier to negate your entire combo with 1 dodge. If you skip this step and land Phoenix while DT is still up in the air then it could force enemies to commit more defensives or facetank at least one part of your combo.
4. Phoenix - optional: Lightning Flash right at your target before you finish casting Phoenix to cut down on the projectile's travel time.
5. Arcane Blast
6. Air Attunement - swap to this just before Phoenix is about to hit the target. Note: swapping out of fire triggers an explosion from Pyromancer's Puissance, dealing considerable damage. Swapping to Air while in melee range of the target therefore adds more damage to your combo.
7. Lightning Strike

From Earth:

1. Rock Barrier
2. Dust Devil
3. Arcane Blast - projectile must land right before attuning to Air to get the Immobilize.
4. Hurl then swap to Air Attunement during the channeling to make the projectiles land in the right attunement.
5. Lightning Strike

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 or even Arcane Blast could help (when used on Water).
3. Air Attunement just before Shatterstone and Water Trident hit the target.
4. Lightning Strike

Survival

• One with Air makes it easy to kite most specs. Avoid melee range whenever possible! Don't stay in melee unless the target is Blinded, CC'd or you're about to burst them.

• Shatterstone is a source of spammable Chill which you can even place behind your back when running away. Chill is great at building distance.

• Needless to say other CCs can also be used for shaking off pursuers.

• 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.

• If you need to cleanse a lot of conditions do the following chain:

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 if necessary for another cleanse.

• Blinding Flash is great at avoiding crucial skills by blinding enemies, and it also shuts down Power-based specs in general with the Weakness.

• Standing inside Dust Devil can buy you some time if melee catches up to you. Of course it also works as a ranged attack.

Related Builds

• Weaver - Fresh Air Roamer - Weaver elite spec version.

• Catalyst - Fresh Air Roamer - Catalyst elite spec version.