need some help with ab

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:18 am

Hey I just started ab ing and I use an ele/mo. If any of you have any ideas or builds that work could you let me know.

Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 7

Hello, I'm new to the guild and have never ABed for Kruzicks before but I did ab A LOT for luxons and would be more then willing to AB with you but i dont have an ab build for a ele/mo build of my own but this build here is from an old guildie of mine. It is based on an earth elemental and is great to use against touchies (r/n):

SKILLS
1. Obsidian Flame: An absolute must for any Earth Mage, allows you to bust through any kind of armor and do full damage most of the time. Only magic resistance (like Mark of Protection) can stop this. Therefore it is lethal against classes lacking magic resistance spells, like elementalists, rangers and mesmers. DO NOT USE if someone drops an Urn of Shielding - you're wasting your valuable exhaustion points! Drain their shields with other nukes.

2. Dragon Stomp: Another high-damage spell, which is great to throw at a large group of packed enemies. The best targets include folks trying to "defend" a cap point, and a MM's minions when they bunch up. Also useful to temporarily stun someone who's engaging you at melee range, i.e. to interrupt a skill or signet they're trying to use.

3. Iron Mist: This spell may seem useless at first, but there are many scenarios in an AB where slowing down a particular person is very awesome. The slow-down is 90%, which is almost a complete stop - and can last 18 seconds if you have a superior rune of earth. Good scenarios include:
*Folks moving to take your cap points. Even if they look like they could probably kill you, you can set them back 18 seconds (and start running toward your allies) by casting Iron Mist on them. They'll usually follow you out of sheer spite that you would cast such a thing on them. Monks won't be able to heal their advancing capture group, and warriors/assassins won't be able to catch you. Mesmers may have the proper "anti-" spells to remove this hex, so try to use it on people who probably don't have the counter spell.
*Folks trying to melee you, when there isn't a friendly melee in range. Generally you want to avoid using this spell when many allies are in the area, because they'll waste 18 seconds attacking the guy you just made invulnerable. The exception is if you have an Air Mage around - he can continue blasting right through the Iron Mist, which grants invulnerability to all but lightning.
*Folks trying to escape - warriors will just use Healing Signet on themselves if you hit them with this, but if someone is very low on health and might not have a way to heal themselves, hit them; wait until the spell wears off (but stay in range); and finish the job.
Count down 18 seconds in your head and you can usually time a Dragon Stomp to land right after the spell wears off, minimizing the time they have to regen naturally. Works GREAT with Necro/Mesmer DoT hexes.
*The Saltspray Dragon - this is a pretty powerful creature that you don't want fighting your guys. He can use Ride the Lightning occasionally, but if he's following an enemy and is near the roost, hit him with this while he's near you, and he'll be rooted after he uses Ride the Lightning on you. You should be able to escape to a safe range unless many enemies are also chasing you.
*TOUCH RANGERS! That's where the "Anti-Touchiness" aspect of this build comes in! A touchie that can't move is useless, and can't even heal him/herself.

4. Glyph of Energy (NOT Glyph of Lesser Energy): I chose this as the Elite Skill because this build has two skills which you will be using as your main assault, Dragon Stomp and Obsidian Flame, which cause Exhaustion. I tend to use Glyph of Energy before every Dragon Stomp, so that at least one of my exhaustion skills is practically free, energy-wise and exhaustion-wise. This elite version of Glyph of Lesser Energy makes a 25-energy spell with Exhaustion (such as Dragon Stomp) FREE, except the 5 energy cost of the glyph. So when you cast Dragon Stomp, you are taking full advantage of the glyph and you can stay in battle much longer without getting exhausted. Meanwhile, you can continue casting Obsidian Flame occasionally so that you're also using your exhaustion at a moderate level. A good elementalist always has a little bit of exhaustion, but never too much. Having NO exhaustion means you're not living up to your full abilities - spells that cost exhaustion are like that because they're better than other spells in their damage, armor penetration, or energy cost aspects. With the sheer damage and full armor penetration of Obsidian Flame, at a 5 energy cost and 5 recharge time, it's no wonder it causes exhaustion!

5. Eruption: Along with Churning Earth, these are your mass-confusion, mass-damage spells. You won't necessarily kill anyone if they have a monk, because their area heals counter this damage. However, it will drain the monk's energy from doing other things, like targeting a specific person for heals, or buffing, or removing conditions. Eruption's special effect of Blind is useful to confuse most players, but its usefulness is limited against AI (like minions).

6. Churning Earth: It does the same damage as Eruption, at the same mana cost and recharge time. That's a perfect indicator that you should fire this off at the same time as Eruption. It'll take a big chunk of your energy, so make sure your target is intent on doing battle so they will take the brunt of the damage before running away. It also helps if you get lucky with your weapons' chances of halving cast time, since this decreases the chance you could be interrupted during this 3-second cast. Churning Earth will also knock down anyone using Charge, Armor of Mist, or other speed buffs. You can use this to devastating effect when the Charge buff is on a group of players who just captured a shrine that buffs them with it - hit the lead player, and everyone behind them will get knocked down when this spell hits them.

7. Sliver Armor: OK, I'm not normally one who thinks about my own safety, but Sliver Armor is a way to cover yourself while hurting someone nearby. Generally, when I am approached by a melee class, I either cast Sliver Armor on myself, or Iron Mist on them. I also use Sliver Armor to fend off rangers' arrows. The short casting time makes it difficult for them to interrupt the cast.

With Sliver Armor, timing is everything. It doesn't last long, so make sure you use your time wisely. If you think you're going to kill someone, stay and cast as many spells as you can while you're nearly impervious to physical attacks. If you have several warriors knocking on you, they're going to be really hurting from the damage component of Sliver Armor, too!

One final hint for Sliver Armor: weak classes like Mesmers and other Eles can't take many blasts from Sliver Armor's damage component, while warriors can. If you have people attacking you with Sliver Armor on, run up to melee range with a weak caster person, and you could really do some damage if you throw in a few spells with that -- every time you get attacked, the player gets thumped for around 37 damage!

8. Earth Attunement: Since Elemental Attunement is out of the question because of Glyph of Energy, and because the Glyph is useful with all your inevitable Exhaustion, Earth Attunement helps make the combo of Eruption and Churning Earth a little more bearable.

ATTRIBUTES:

Maximize Earth Magic and Energy Storage. The rest really doesn't matter because you aren't using any other skills.

ITEMS:

A wand with +20% chance to half-cast Earth spells is great, and having lots of energy is good, too. Superior rune of earth is necessary to make sure your spells are very effective. Consider also a superior rune of energy storage, but you'll lose some more health. The archmage suit of armor helps recoup some of that.

VARIANCE IDEAS:

You could put your remaining points into Air Magic and try to carry a lightning spell, or maybe two, and get rid of Churning Earth/Eruption. Then you can maximize the usefulness of Iron Mist without having to depend on another player who has Air Magic, or just making it a mediocre spell that slows down people (what good is it if they're invulnerable to all your nukes?)

You could also swap out the defenses, or exchange the elite skill (if you're feeling really aggressive) for something like Unsteady Ground. But Glyph of Energy is kind of necessary to keep casting those exhausting spells, or you will REALLY be the Exhausted Defenseless Wizard.

Damiatrix Joined: 21 Aug 2006 Posts: 589

Eric,

If you need to try out some different skill sets to find ones that fit you we can ab to your heart's content. I'm sure that Jim would agree here. Or we can run some one on one skrims--I have ele/mo and we can try to challenge each other....might be very useful for me, too, actually. Just some other suggestions in case you've had visions of beating up on your leader, already Smile

LOL~~Maia

Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:43 pm

Dravin thanks for the info. I will try to work some of that into my build.

Maia thanks for the offer I will take you up on it.

Guest

Hey, Eric, I'm normally available for AB.. While I prefer my tank, I have effectivelly used my Elementist, Ritualist or Monk depending on make up of our team.

Just give me a shout