User:Bubbinska/Eguiderewrite

'''Because I think the current article does not describe the aspects of Elementalist play effectively, I am re-writing the whole article. Please suggest things I may have missed or written poorly, or simply correct spelling or grammar errors if you see them. '''

An Elementalist's Place
Elementalists wield the powers of Air, Fire, Earth and Water magic to destroy their foes - Each element has a purpose, and the effective Elementalist knows each element's place and specific use.

Singularly, the Elementalist can serve one of four purposes, each with its respective element. These roles are Spiking, Snaring, Defense, and Nuking. This guide will outline the use and general strategies of each role, and their respective elements.

Specialty Skills and Unique Conditions
Elementalists have one type of skill unique to the elementalist profession:
 * Glyphs are quick casting skills that modify the next spell, not skill, used by the caster. Though they cannot stack, glyphs last for 15 seconds from when they were cast. Glyphs cannot be removed or stripped, and have no target. All glyphs have a 1 second casting time, and can be interrupted.

Elementalists have a unique spell cost, Exhaustion. When an elementalist casts a spell that causes exhaustion, the top 10 points of the elementalist's energy pool are “greyed out”, and cannot be used. Exhaustion expires at the rate of 1 point every three seconds. Exhaustion stacks, so a second exhaustion spell causes an additional 10 points to be deducted from the caster's energy pool. Exhaustion-causing spells are usually very powerful, but without careful management, an Elementalist can quickly become heavily exhausted, reducing its effectiveness greatly.

Target Priority
Target enemy monks and ritualists, as these characters have low armor but are very effective at extending the life of the opposing party. Move on to other casters and warriors. It is best to leave rangers for last unless you have armor ignoring spells, as rangers have higher armor against your attacks.

Energy Management
Though they have a larger supply of energy than other characters, Elementalists will still have trouble with energy, simply because they will be using high-power, high-cost skills, like Meteor Shower. The effective Elementalist must take spell costs into account when creating a build, and, where possible, use skills to keep energy supplies up. Remember that an Elementalist without energy is a truly frail thing, and so energy denial can be highly damaging to an Elementalist's fighting capacity.

Some Energy-Management Skills and Systems:


 * Attunements: Air,  Earth,  Fire and  Water Attunements are a simple way to assist with energy management. They are long-duration  Enchantments, providing an energy "refund" for every spell cast for that element. Elemental Attunement is an Elite version of these skills, providing a refund for all elements, and can be stacked with the specific attunements for an 80% cost refund, which combined with natural regeneration can keep an Elementalist casting for a long time.
 * Ether Prodigy: A more concentrated, and situation-specific skill, Ether Prodigy provides an additional 6 Energy Regeneration "pips", giving the user a regeneration of 10 "pips", or 10 energy per 3 seconds. This skill can cause you damage when it ends, however, so be mindful of your health bar.
 * Second Wind/Energy Boon: These skills are spells, and therefore cannot be removed, which gives them an advantage over the above spells in enchantment-unfriendly areas. Energy Boon is a set energy gain, that causes exhaustion, while Second Wind is a more risky skill to use, as it requires the user to maintain a set level of exhaustion. When used correctly, Second Wind can be used to gain a large amount of energy with little loss due to exhaustion, but this is not recommended.
 * Non-Elementalist Skills: Skills such as Offering of Blood and Mantra of Recall can be used as alternate Energy Management skills, though they require investment in another Attribute. Each skill offers distinct advantages over others, but they often have downsides.

Choosing a Role
Elementalists are most effective if they concentrate on a single Role, as mentioned above. These roles are primarily tied to a single element, but there are skills in some elements which may prove useful for other roles. Most Elementalists focus their attribute points into a single element and Energy Storage to maximize spell effectiveness, but some players prefer to use skills from 2 Elements which complement each other. Beware over-stretching your attribute points, as you can become ineffective trying to perform multiple functions.

Nuking
The most common and widely used build line in PvE, Nuking focuses on damage output over an area, generally at the battle's frontline, where enemies are clumped together. The effective Nuker chooses targets carefully and unleashes a steam of powerful AoE spells, causing devastating damage to enemies. Nuking is most generally associated with Fire Magic, but skills in other Elements can also be considered nukes, as they fit the high-damage, area of effect category.


 * Common Nuking Skills:
 * Meteor Shower, Rodgort's Invocation, Incendiary Bonds and Fireball are powerful directed area of effect spells.
 * Phoenix, Lava Font, Inferno and Flame Burst are excellent point blank area of effect spells.
 * Many Nukers use the Mesmer skills Echo and Arcane Echo to Echo chain their Nuke spells, allowing them to re-use their spells quickly.
 * Though from the Earth Magic line, Earthquake followed up by Aftershock can be considered a powerful nuke, and knocks down foes for powerful follow-up damage.

The rest of this article has been unchanged

Air Magic
Most air magic spells cause Lightning damage, and have 25% armor penetration. Air magic spells are most effective as spike skills against warriors or rangers with high armor.
 * Interesting Air Skills:
 * Lightning Strike, Enervating Charge, and Lightning Orb can be combined into an effective spike.
 * Thunderclap and Shock can be used to knock down targets.
 * Chain Lightning and Arc Lightning are the only multitarget spells available to Air elementalists.
 * Blinding Flash and Glimmering Mark cause blindness and can be used to suppress warriors, assassins or rangers.

Water Magic
Water magic is the bastion of hexes and snaring. Most water magic spells cause cold damage, and many cause the target to be slowed for several seconds.
 * Interesting Water Skills:
 * Armor of Mist and Armor of Frost grant additional armor.
 * Mist Form can make you impervious to the efforts of rangers, warriors and assassins.
 * Blurred Vision and Swirling Aura can help defend against attacks.
 * Maelstrom and Rust can be used to shutdown casters or inhibit signets.

Earth Magic
Earth magic has several powerful protective spells and more than a few spike and area of effect spells. Earth is more balanced than the other elements, providing both powerful offensive and powerful defensive skills.
 * Interesting Earth Skills:
 * Earthquake and Aftershock are a powerful Area of effect combination
 * Kinetic Armor, Armor of Earth, and Obsidian Flesh grant additional armor bonuses.
 * Ward Against Elements, Ward Against Foes, and Ward Against Melee provide defensive bonuses for all allies in the area of effect.

Runes and Armor
Because of the high cost of elementalist skills, it is very important to have the maximum skill level in your chosen attribute. For a flexible elementalist, purchase 4 separate Auras or Third Eyes: Then choose the armor set you prefer, then apply the following runes to the body armor
 * 1) A Fire headpiece infused with a Superior Rune of Fire Magic
 * 2) A Water headpiece infused with a Superior Rune of Water Magic
 * 3) An Air headpiece infused with a Superior Rune of Air Magic
 * 4) An Earth headpiece infused with a Superior Rune of Earth Magic
 * a Minor, Major, or Superior rune of Energy Storage.
 * a Major or Superior rune of Vigor

Suggested Strategies

 * Armor of Earth, Kinetic Armor and Aura of Restoration: at 16 Earth magic and 13 Energy Storage, these skills provide 146 armor (roughly 85% reduction in damage) and nearly 20 points of healing for every 5 points of energy spent. Further, Attunement spells can extend the longevity of the caster by increasing energy efficency.


 * Glyph of Energy and Glyph of Lesser Energy: these glyphs are great energy management skills, and can reduce or eliminate the cost of more expensive "nuke" or "spike" spells.


 * Elemental Attunement and Air, Earth, Fire or Water Attunement: when combined, two attunement spells can return 80% of the cost of completed elemental spells. An expensive spell like Meteor Shower under both Fire and Elemental Attunement has a net cost of just 5 energy.


 * Use the Shadow Stepping abilities of the Assassin secondary profession to be able to quickly get into a swarm of enemies after casting Earthquake, to use Aftershock and escape without taking much damage.