Elementalist - S/F Fresh Air Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Direct damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on February 12, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

S/F Fresh Air is a WvW roaming build which focuses on burst damage whilst avoiding damage by utilizing superspeed, projectile hate and invulnerabilities to make up for its squishiness.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Focus

Utility

Template Code

[&DQYpKhEeJS4XARcB9gD2AJAA6wBQAVABlwCWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Marauder

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Scepter
Marauder

Focus
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

Stats

• The ratio of Template:Marauder and Template:Berserker gear can be changed based on personal preferences. More experienced players can replace some Marauder pieces with Berserker ones.

Runes

• Rune of Superior Rune of Strength
• Rune of Superior Rune of the Pack

Consumables

Food

There are plenty of viable choices:

• - passive damage mitigation and strong offensive stats.
• - armor ignoring damage and a bit of extra healing, a suitable budget option.
• - defensive option with more evasion.
  • Budget version:

Utility

• or .

Usage

General

• 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, 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 Superior Rune of the 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.

• 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 a downed enemy or want to take a camp (ball up the NPCs in a corner beforehand).

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
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.

• 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 ehat of battle without any hinderance.

• Regeneration applications remove conditions.