Elementalist - Core Support

Welcome to the Builds Archive. See the ones that gathered dust, were orphaned by their original writers, or became obsolete by balance patches. We keep the orphan builds together and salute the veteran builds that held a position in the good, great, or meta categories. Click here to view current builds.

Focused on: Support and Utility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

TBD

Overview

An F2P support Elementalist build for sPvP. This build sacrifices the benefits of the Tempest elite specialization for more personal survivability.

Archival note: fell out of use after nerfs to Arcane Resurrection, significantly cutting down on its ability to rez allies which made it viable in the first place.

Skill Bar

Staff

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• Glyph of Renewal over Armor of Earth - another tool to rez your allies with, and on Fire you could even revive yourself!

Template Code

[&DQYaOREVJRd1ABcB6wBPAZAA6wBPARwBlgCWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Equipment

Staff

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Equipment Changes

Rune

• Rune of Speed - better combat mobility / kiting potential.

Usage

General

• Under General Options / User Interface enable "Thick party health bars" and "Always show health bars". These will make it much easier to keep track of who needs your support.

• Mist Form is your main panic button, only to be used if you'd die otherwise. Lightning Flash is panic button #2 but can be used more freely, even as a mobility skill between capture points.

• Avoid getting locked into 1v1s, always be in team fights. You depend on your allies just as much as they depend on you! Tempest's job is to keep party members alive through support, and these allies must peel for you in return (if the enemy team gets to focus you without allies counterpressuring them you'll probably end up dead).

• It's possible to steal a capture point by knocking enemies off with Gust then keeping them out with some of your area denial skills such as Static Field or Unsteady Ground. The same skills are also good for creating some breathing room when you're being focused by the enemy team.

• Being a support build doesn't mean you don't have any pressure - Lava Font and Meteor Shower both do decent damage which could be useful in situations where there's nothing to support or you have to contribute some cleave damage (for example vs downed targets).

Support and sustain

• Cleansing Water turns every source of Regeneration into a source of condition cleansing, including every skill in the right side of your skill bar.

• The 2 most important sources of Protection are the following:
  • Armor of Earth which in general is one of your best defensive cooldowns.
  • Attuning to Earth Attunement. This is instant and applies AoE Protection, so try to attune near allies whenever possible.

• Water Attunement is where most of your support comes from:
  • Swapping to Water in the middle of a dodge roll near an ally already pumps out a decent amount of healing via Water's share of Evasive Arcana and the trait Healing Ripple. Don't idle in Water too much because you should fit as many Water swaps into a fight as possible.
  • Water Blast is an okay filler when you've got nothing better to do. Make sure that you do not have an enemy targeted (and that auto targeting is disabled in the options) when using this skill, as you should either aim this at your feet or at an ally.
  • Ice Spike has value as a Blast finisher. Blasting Frozen Ground applies AoE Frost Aura, while blasting any of the Water fields on this weapon does AoE healing.
  • Geyser is a decent AoE heal and a Water field. Read more about its other applications below.
  • Healing Rain is yet another Water field and hands down the best source of AoE condition cleansing in the build.

• Fire Attunement doesn't leave you defenseless either - Burning Retreat is usable even if you're Immobilized and evades incoming attacks, on top of being a mobility skill!

• There's a lot of combo potential in this build:
  • Precast a Water field on Water Attunement ⇒ Ice Spike ⇒ Earth Attunement ⇒ dodge, enhanced by Evasive Arcana ⇒ Magnetic Aura + Transmute Earth = 3 blast finishers in one field.

• Ether Renewal is perhaps your best personal healing / cleansing skill. You're however rather vulnerable during this channel, so it's recommended to use it right after swapping to Earth for various reasons. One, attuning to Earth grants Stability via Rock Solid and two, Stone Heart reduces incoming damage drastically to minimize the chance of getting killed. Another thing you could do under pressure is Lightning Flash away to nearby highground to further reduce the chance of interruption.

• Tornado is valuable in plenty of situations. To mention a few:
  • Running away from a fight with Dust Charge.
  • Scattering enemies who are trying to rez or stomp - Tornado's even capable of tossing around downed targets!
  • Taking pressure off your team through Dust Tornado and CC in general.

Reviving allies

• Arcane Resurrection turns Geyser into a rather potent rez skill, and even spawns its own Geyser when you begin to revive someone.

• The two Geysers (weapon skill and trait proc) stack in effectiveness!

• If you're about to die, dropping this AoE at your feet restores downed health for you later, making it easier for allies to get the rez.

• Mist Form turns the caster invulnerable, allowing you to rez without getting interrupted or killed.
  • Note: Mist Form must be activated AFTER starting to revive an ally, otherwise it won't work.

• In general it's best to start reviving allies either while attuned to Air (for the Shocking Aura proc vs melee players) or Earth for the extra tankiness and anti-projectile of Magnetic Aura when facing ranged opponent.

• (If taken) Glyph of Renewal is a very potent ranged rez with a secondary effect that can be customized to fit a bunch of different situations. In general you should just focus on getting the rez as soon as possible regardless of attunement, but if you're able to swap to the right element beforehand this glyph becomes even more powerful. Couple of things to note:
  • The attunement bonus depends on which attunement you've started channeling this skill on. Swapping from Air to Fire in the middle of it for example is going to proc the Air bonus.
  • Whatever attunement you're using, consider swapping to Earth for the stability while channeling to make it easier to pull off.
  • Air Attunement teleports the ally to your location. It's great if you're in a safe spot, you may even consider teleporting to the highground beforehand with Lightning Flash.
  • Water Attunement brings them back with max HP, which is probably the best option if you only have to rez one ally and you're not in a safe spot.
  • Earth Attunement is for reviving multiple allies as it is an AoE rez.
  • Fire Attunement is mainly for your personal survivability. Even if you don't have an ally to rez, you could use this glyph on Fire and give yourself a 15 second window of immortaility, as using this skill in Fire revives the caster when they go down!
  • If you're absolutely certain that a teammate is going to die in 2 seconds, you may consider using this skill on their location in advance to bring them up a split second after they go down. This is a bit risky however, as if they don't die (or don't die inside the range of the skill) you're going to have to cancel cast with a weapon stow, which send it on a short CD of 5 seconds thus might not be available when they actually go down.

Stacking swiftness

• Stack Swiftness for your team before the game starts!

• For this you must begin on Earth Attunement. Drop Eruption on the exit gate - whilst channeling this skill, swap to Air Attunement and place Static Field on top of Eruption.

• Finish the chain with Windborne Speed.