1. An overview of the Elementalist and D/D

Why play an elementalist

• The elementalist is essentially a class of versatility; the jack of all trades. We have more skills to utilize than any other class out there and therefore a much higher learning curve comparatively. The 4 elements – fire,water,air, and earth- allows us to overcome any situation thrown at us based on these unique attunements. For instance, fire brings out heavy AoE and burning damage, water brings out group healing abilities and survivability, air brings out single target focused abilities, and earth provides defense, and heavy AoE damage through bleeding.

• While an elementalist does have some of the greatest potential in healing, utility, DPS, and tanking capabilities, there are its drawbacks. A user who plays as an elementalist has to work much harder to deliver the same results that other classes can perform. Playing an elementalist is not for everyone, it is for those that want a class that requires creativity on the spot, and the ability to execute complex combinations with relative ease. When played to a very high degree of skill, an elementalist can outperform all other classes.

Weapon types

• Staff-has the longest ranged AoE and DPS potential. It is the weapon of choice when playing with a large group of allies such as large scale events, and large scale WvWvW battles. In addition, staff provides the highest amount of AoE healing to a team, and provides the most number of elemental fields for combination effects (discussed later in this section). However, it has some of the poorest 1v1 and solo capabilities since the AoE damage is very easy to dodge, and staff elementalists tend to be very weak at close range combat situations.

• Dagger/Dagger (D/D) – This is the weapon set of choice if you want high mobility, point blank DPS bursting, and high survivability. It is commonly considered one of the best weapon choices for an elementalist for solo gameplay, whether it be in WvWvW, PvE, or sPvP. The mobility you get from this weapon setup is considered to be one of the highest among all classes, second only to thieves and on par with warriors without sacrificing any DPS whatsoever. The survivability you get from this weapon setup is also the greatest of all the weapon setups as well, and the amount of punishment this setup can deliver is not something to joke about. D/D is also the most versatile weapon setup an elementalist possesses, it can be used in almost every situation imaginable.

• Scepter / Dagger (S/D) – This weapon setup is a hybrid of the D/D and staff. It provides long ranged DPS support through the air attunement, and the highest burst combination of all weapon setups through fire attunement. Mobility is second only to the D/D setup. S/D is best used for long range single target DPS damage, as the staff is more focused on long range AoE and D/D is focused primarily within melee range. A few drawbacks to this setup is that the burst is fairly easy to dodge and the DPS pressure that comes from this setup is rather weak comparatively to D/D.

• Scepter / Focus (S/F) – This weapon setup provides the same long ranged DPS and single targeting bursting that S/D gives. However, it is by far the lowest in mobility of all the weapon setups. It is commonly used in situations that require long ranged DPS and team support. The primary use of this weapon setup is in WvWvW, as the 4th ability in the air attunement negates any projectiles within a point blank area field. This protects your team, and can be chained with other S/F elementalists in order to achieve chain invincibility vs. projectiles. S/F is also great in solo situations in PvE as well, as it provides invulnerability in sticky situations with the 5th ability in earth attunement

• Dagger / Focus (D/F) – D/F has very little mobility, and is primarily focused on melee combat. The drawback to D/F is that it is easily countered by enemies that consistently kite, as there are less gap closers in D/F than with D/D. D/F does have much more a fair bit more tankiness to this setup, but the loss in mobility means you cannot escape losing battles. Another drawback for D/F is that it cannot chase enemies that well either. D/F is used only in closed in / small fighting locations, specifically with areas that have walls / obstacles to promote close ranged combat.

So why play as a D/D elementalist?

As stated above, the main underlying reasons to play as a D/D elementalist are the following:

• Superior AoE abilities and decent DPS
• Superior Tanking and Healing
• Superior Mobility
• Superior line of sight abilities

Your first question might be, “what do you mean by superior line of sight abilities”? A D/D elementalist possesses a hefty amount of PbAoE (point blank AoE) spells. PbAoE spells are superior to normal melee attacking abilities because the hit box range is much higher than a normal melee attack, and does not require your character to be directly in front of you to hit them.

PbAoE skills are the following: Fire 3 and 4; Air 4 and 5 (its still PbAoE, just no damage); Earth 2,4,5. Evasive arcana (arcana trait 11)

So why do I care about this PbAoE stuff, and how does this help me?

To put it bluntly, all abilities that are not PbAoE / do not have AoE targeting rings require your character to face your opponent to work. For instance, a ranger cannot shoot backwards unless he’s facing that direction, a warrior cannot hit you with hundred blades unless his character is facing the right direction, etc. This means, you have free reign on confusing your enemy as much as you want when using PbAoE skills, because quite frankly you don’t care what direction your facing to hit them as long as your within close distance to them. This means you can weave inbetween the enemy’s avatar constantly with perma swiftness on and land dozen of hits before your opponent even gets a chance to land a single hit as they have to re-adjust the direction their character is facing constantly. (Also turn off melee assist in options)

PbAoE also allows you to hit multiple enemies at the same time as well, by controlling where you cast skills relative to where you cast them (generally you cast them inbetween multiple enemies)

Is there more to this “superior line of sight” aspect?

A D/D elementalist is the only class that fully utilizes terrain to its maximum effect. Earth 5(churning earth) and lightning flash(teleport) is one of the strongest ambush combos out there among any class. Furthermore, all earth abilities bypass obstacles, meaning you can hit an enemy behind a wall by using earth 1,2,4, and 5. In addition, almost all of your abilities can be shot around corners, if you stand behind a tree, and a ranger if shooting regular auto attacks at you, he cannot hit you. However, you can use skills like water 2(cone of cold) and fire 2(drakes breath) to shoot right through the tree (as both of these abilities are AoE) and take him out, without ever getting hit once. You can even take this further, and shoot him through a solid wall as long as the wall is not too high. Or you can pop a churning earth below ground, and hit an enemy that’s standing around 600 units above you on a cliffside right next to you. There is no limit to creativity here, and the number of players / fully geared pro PvP players you can take on is highly dependent on the terrain at which you are fighting at, and how good you are.