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Elementalist - S/F Fresh Air

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Focused on: Direct damage and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:
TBD


Overview

Scepter/Focus Fresh Air is one of the harder elementalist specs to master, but allows for high pressure roaming.

Archival note: replaced by Build:Elementalist_-_Core_Support as our default F2P Ele build.


Skill Bar

Scepter/Focus
Utility


Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

  • Renewing Stamina is an equally viable alternative to Arcane Abatement.

Specialization Variants

Fire over Water:

  • Pyromancer's Puissance which makes 25 Might Might easily accessible at a loss of some healing on Water Attunement. Absolutely Any skills used while in Fire Attunement will grant Might Might, even Utility.
  • Condition cleanses can still be achieved via Smothering Auras, Sunspot giving a Fire Shield that removes 1 condition on Fire Attunement then with Transmute Fire will remove 2 more, can be followed by another Fire Shield. Burning Fire also passively adds up 3 conditions to be removed upon having said amount on self.
  • Burning Rage boosts any damage by 10% to Burning Burning enemies. All Fire skills can apply it as well as Arcane Blast, ideally even doing one Flamestrike before Air Attunement can increase damage by good margin alongside extra Might Might.
  • Rune of Strength is highly recommended if using this specialization to keep Might Might longer and 5% damage increase, however if able to follow the right circumstances before leaving Fire Attunement, waiting to activate the second Fire Shield into Air Attunement with Rune of Fire can increase the damage by 10% (20% if paired with Burning Burning.) on it's duration for a bit less Might Might uptime.


Equipment

Scepter
Focus
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet


Equipment Variants

Rune

  • Rune of Strength - a reliable damage bonus at the cost of potentially lower burst damage.


Amulet

  • - better damage, way lower health pool. Take Rune of Divinity to compensate, but even then the build is going to be more unforgiving to play so beginners may struggle on Berserker.

Usage

General

  • Avoid 1v1s whenever possible, keep moving between capture points to outnumber fights and burst targets down.
  • Much of this build's damage comes from swapping to Air Attunement, as this triggers Electric Discharge, followed by Lightning Strike. To capitalize on this, you should generally swap out of air immediately or soon after casting Lightning Strike into any other attunement, get a Fresh Air proc and jump back into Air Attunement.
  • Recharging Air: to take advantage of Fresh Air you need to score a critical hit. The fastest way to do it on attunements with slower skill is to start channel 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 Blast should usually be used while in Earth Attunement for the Immobilize 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
  • The build's most dangerous above 90% HP where the Rune of Scholar and Aquamancer's Training bonuses are active. These bonuses are active in any attunement, but to maximize bursts most of your hard hitting abilities should go off while attuned to Air to benefit from Aeromancer's Training and Fresh Air.
  • Glyph of Elemental Harmony is best used either while in Earth for the Protection Protection or Water for the Regeneration Regeneration which cleanses a condition via Cleansing Water.
  • 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: AoE in the build is rather clumsy, except for Fiery Whirl and Firestorm. Use these whenever you need to cleave down a downed enemy.


Notable burst combos

These are some potential combos you can use based on the techniques outlined above. The quicker you pull these chains off, the better.

From Fire:

  1. Dragon's Tooth (optional, easy to avoid so use it only when the target is CC'd or downed)
  2. Phoenix - optional: Lightning Flash right at your target before Phoenix Goes off
  3. Arcane Blast
  4. Air Attunement - swap to this just before Phoenix and Arcane Blast are about to land
  5. Lightning Strike


From Earth:

  1. Dust Devil
  2. Arcane Blast - Projectile must land right before attuning to Air to get the Immobilize Immobilize
  3. Hurl
  4. Air Attunement
  5. Lightning Strike


From Water:

  1. Shatterstone
  2. Water Trident + Lightning Flash right at your target before the trident goes off
  3. Arcane Blast
  4. Air Attunement just before Shatterstone and Water Trident does damage
  5. Lightning Strike


Survival

  • One with Air makes it easy to kite most specs. Avoid melee range at all costs!
  • CCs can be used for shaking off pursuers.
  • Abuse spots on maps that break teleport skill pathing when the enemy team has Thieves, Revenants, and other such specs with teleports. Use the terrain to your advantage in general, it's very important for builds as squishy as this one.
  • 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 gives invincibility for a short while, and can be used to survive bursts or to create a window where you can pressure targets in the heat of battle without any hindrance.


Counters

  • Stealth, as most high-damage abilities in this build require a target.
  • Heavy condition pressure.

Related Builds

  • Freshweaver - a more powerful version using the Weaver elite specialization


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 7 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
4 stars
Ethan gave this build 4 stars • November 2024
As a core build, this is easily a 5, and should be used by F2P players, however it can be very underwhelming in situations where you are playing against elite specs. It's damage is very highly telegraphed and by now most players, even in silver, know what to expect from your animations. The damage can stick well against low sustain high damage roamers like wb or mesmers, however condi mesmer is a nightmare and against enemy teams that have a support, you don't do much. The only spec currently able to pull off fresh air is Catalyst, but that's just cause Cata is better at everything than other Ele builds. Again, if you are F2P, this is probably the strongest option aside from terrormancer necro, guard support or signet mesmer so do with this what you will. Bonus for having higher cleanse than other FA builds while carrying the same relative damage.
5 stars
Emilon gave this build 5 stars • July 2024
Very underrated build! I'd go as far as saying it's one of the best core builds atm. Great bursts, low downtime, lots of defensive options. It's not even that hard to learn.
4 stars
Hanz gave this build 4 stars • October 2023
Updated it for the relic patch, actually saw a few eles switching to this in ranked after Cata nerfs. I don't think core is better overall, but it could do a bit more damage and has better cleansing. Reduced recharge on Fire skills isn't bad either. It's surprisingly good once you get the hang of it.
3 stars
Ssendink gave this build 3 stars • May 2019
Decent build for f2p players, but lack of all
4 stars
ShaoAZ gave this build 4 stars • March 2019
With all the changes the core specs got, it's hard to say if Freshweaver is actually better than this one if played with Fire. With more control over skills at a loss of a rather telegraphed burst of weaver, core gets to be more volatile and organized, which is arguably putting the player in a better place for any type of situation. IMO water should not be used any longer as long as a focus is involved, the might , damage increase and cleanses in Fire are way more accessible and efficient for dueling.
5 stars
FalkonLink gave this build 5 stars • May 2018
This build has given me quite a bit of success. After a few matches I swapped out S/F for D/D to see if it would make a difference and ended up far more successful.
5 stars
Walle gave this build 5 stars • January 2018
This build has given me the most success with ele so far I still find ele squishy that's why I only put good but obviously that's just the current shape ele is in. I really enjoy playing this build

Comments

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