Elementalists?

This is the only female mage I have not made yet, figured I'd give it a shot.

Dave, I'm curious about your build. Other than that, is there anything I should know about elementalists before I jump right into making one (some build recommendations from others would be nice too)? Was also thinking about getting the awakening, which I know many don't do.

I'm obviously set on avatars, since I'll be using my battlemage's rares (not worrying about emblems if that wasn't obvious), I won't be bothering about getting good stats past magic sealed thingies.

Elementalists have a slow early-game and progressively get better as you level, due to better damage and faster charging, moving speed, and moves. It might be frustrating to play them at first. They have high damage with their bursting spells and pretty good AoE + 1v1 damage depending on the build. There are issues with the lack of grabs, invincibility frames, squishiness, and the prevalence of interruptions (which cause you to stop charging spells and put the spells on cooldown).

With that in mind, here is some basic information:

T1s: Low cooldown, filler moves. Includes Florae Circle, Lantern Firebomb, Frosty's Head, and Pluto. The tiers correspond to prerequisites for higher tiers. 10 of these for T3s. You should max at least one of these.

T2s: Low-mid cooldown spells used defensively (and offensively in some cases), used to push enemies around. Often, you use these skills for SP dumping once you max out your chosen T1s and T3s. This includes Ice Wall, The Void, Fire Pillar, and Sun Burst.

T3s: Mid-High cooldown spells used for burst and is probably your highest source of damage. Whichever ones you choose should be maxed. This includes Arctic Burst, Lightning Strike, Halloween Buster, and Black Hole.

T4s: This includes your EX skills (Shining Ice Fence [60] and Flame Void Volcano [70]) as well as your awakening. Not many eles call these T4s, but I put them together because they trigger certain responses from anti-EX skill/awakening rooms. The EX skills do great damage and slows down enemies incredibly with Shining Ice Fence.

Buffs: Your chosen buffs should be Magic Festival, Elemental Burn, Disenchant, and maybe Ancient Memory if you have extra SP. All eles should max burn and DE, as they give Int that is constantly maintainable. I personally recommend max magic festival due to the cooldown reduction, faster charge time, faster casting speed, and general smoothness of play with it on (it feels terrible without it I believe).

Passives: Memorize allows you to charge for less time and cast faster. Mobile Cast allows you to move as you charge your spells. Both should be maxed. You should also max some of the masteries (the ones you choose, generally, but you might only have enough for say, two). You may max magical crit if you have the SP for it. You should not max the awakening passive (Elemental Focus) because you're disenchanting the focus marks to get additional INT, plus you can only put two focuses per enemy and they override each other.

Others: It is inadvisable to max ancient library because it has a high duration-cooldown ratio, and it doesn't give that much INT anyways. I also recommend against maxing shururu because we have a lower cap than witches and you need that precious SP to up your damage on your spells.

In short:
Must maxes:

Mobile Cast
Memorize
Elemental Burn
Disenchant (AFTER you awaken)
Whatever T3s you pick up (max black hole or else)
One or Two T1s (I recommend Florae Circle for 1v1 damage or Pluto for piercing through high mob density/ranged attacking)
Masteries for your T3s
Both Flame Void Volcano and Shining Ice Fence (EX skills)
1 Phase Shift

Suggestions:
Max Magic Festival
Max at least one T2 (I prefer Ice Wall, you can also go with Sun Burst or Void)

Extras:
10 Void for EX Void
1 Aerial Lantern Firebomb as a replacement for bombs (fire source)
1 Leap for outer and things like that

Potential Skeleton Build Recommendations:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two Element + Awakening:

http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...oBz6gbz60Fz7IK
Choose two elements and max their T3s and masteries, and max a T1. I suggest florae or pluto. Then max at least one T2 and then max Magical Critical Hit and other things or just another T2.

Full Build Example:
http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...IB0JQD0JUB0JYD
That would dump SP into magic critical hit. The Black Hole TP was also a dump, since I am still assessing the usefulness of newer TP passives.

Three Element without Awakening:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...0Fz7IKw6wC0JUB
Add to a T2 or mastery.

Full Build Example:

http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...PDrALQkgLQlQE=

My Builds (aka non-optimal):--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ice/Dark w/ Awakening:

http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...PDrALQkgLQlAI=

Fire/Light/Dark w/o Awakening:
http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...HDrQPQkgLQlQE=

To be edited because I don't want to somehow not post this.

Any mistakes pointed out and opinions given are appreciated. Feel free to ask questions. I probably missed something because SP logged me out before saving my post...

Edit:

Tips/ Weird Stuff:

-Fully charge every single attack you are able without being interrupted while doing so (let go if you're about to get hit)

-Charge up your strong cubes(T3/T4) before you enter a room, and release it once you enter it. Then use T2s and T1s to clean up.

-Use T2s to move your opponents and do damage

-Ice Wall, Shining Ice Fence, and Astral Storm are the only elementalist skills that can't be charged.

-Use disenchant on enemies that have the focus mark on them. Aim to hit two enemies that have two focuses on them or four enemies with one focus on them, because the max number of buffs DE can disenchant is 4. This will give you 200 INT.

-Use Void in conjunction with Black Hole, and use disenchant whenever you black hole

-Ice Wall can block the explosion of room 2 in Goblin Kingdom

-You can leap over the bot explosions during his scripted attack (nenbots) in Rangelus's Guerillas in the boss room like every other class

- You and summoners are the ONLY subclasses that lack a grab and invincibility frames (I think Kasijas might invince frames during one of his attacks, not sure)

Awesome, that was very helpful! Thanks a lot.

I'm probably going to go with this.

Well, may as well post my build:http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...PQlAHQlQHQlgM=
Dave pretty much explained everything else in his post. My build has 3/4 T2's maxed to try and cover for my lack of spammable T1 skills. Personally I max Sun Burst in EVERY build as well just because I like it so much but it's always a preference thing. I don't have Arctic but I did in my build up through 70 and I will say that it's excellent for clearing rooms, especially once you get some levels put into it.

Hm, starting to debate whether or not I should switch max Pluto with max Florae. They're both at 10 right now and I guess I'm still experimenting around, but at least at the start, I didn't use Florae as much as I used Pluto, preferring Pluto because it's ranged, while Florae is close-up. I was being told against using Pluto because Florae's "one of the most important skills" but that's honestly all I've been told.

Can't max em both in my build, so... are there any pros and cons to using one over the other? Which would you recommend, personally?

I'm also debating on Ice Walls vs Sun Burst. :I

EDIT: Current pre-awakening build here, time to see which ones suit me better.

The reason florae is so useful is you can set up mine field-like areas and do damage while staying off enemies X-axis. The "mine fields" are useful for mobile bosses (think Headless Horseman/Shred) as well as some other more specific circumstances (Screaming Cave 2nd/3rd rooms.) I won't really say much on pluto since it sounds you're pretty well aware of the pros/cons of that skill.

Sun Burst and Walls are both really good skills, I have both maxed on mine, but they're used for different things. Sun Burst does more damage, has a MUCH shorter CD (5.5 compared to 16.5 seconds)and, once the EX is learned, has comparable range to Ice Walls while still retaining a bit of utility since it can knock enemies down. Ice Walls does slightly less damage, has a longer CD but has far more utility. It pushes enemies much further away and can be used to dodge explosions (gob 2nd room/heiz boss,) preventing shockwaves from knocking you back (gob 3rd room/priest guys in noire) and helps a lot in GT as it deflects all of Floo's punches.

You can't really go wrong with either of these choices though as all of the skills are very good so in the end it's all just preference.

Jim mentioned most of the stuff in his post, but one aspect of pluto that's pretty great is the fact that it has 100 percent piercing through mobs(i.e it doesn't splash/explode on mobs, but instead always goes through them).

The question about ice walls vs. sunburst is really a question of DPS vs. utility, I think. A single cast of sunburst outdamages a single cast of ice walls and you can cast it more frequently, while ice walls has this nice defensive and offensive mixture.

Leveling sunburst ups its damage and size (easier to hit/ easier to hit more mobs) while leveling up ice wall increases its slow (doesn't have a level, but instead an attack% decrease and movement speed % decrease), cast speed, HP, damage(not as much as sunburst), and duration.

Since it's preference, it's probably better for you to play with them all pre-awakening and decide which one you like best, since you can't really go wrong with them.

Edit: You forgot phase shift.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pandamonium

Edit: You forgot phase shift.

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loloops

The cast speed was really my only issue with Ice Walls; I got interrupted out of it FAR too often because of how slow the cast time is. :I But I'm glad to know that that gets improved as it levels.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MariaColette

loloops

The cast speed was really my only issue with Ice Walls; I got interrupted out of it FAR too often because of how slow the cast time is. :I But I'm glad to know that that gets improved as it levels.

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Max cast speed for Ice Walls is 19 last I checked (not usre since it's been a while). Honestly, there's little reason to get above that as ice walls isn't really a damage skill, it's utility.

For T1s, get florae for sure. Your choice is then between pluto/lantern for the second. Pluto has a piercing and lantern is faster damage. Other consideration is how c2 sets work (light/dark and water/fire sets only). If you plan on getting even a 3 piece set, you'll benefit more with pluto.

For T2s, 5 pillar is enough for PvE. Sun burst is a great panic button and can also be used for extra DPS while using florae. Ice walls is perhaps one of eles best skills, as I said before, getting whatever the last breakpoint for cast speed is is best. Void is a solid skill and it combos well with black hole/shururu, but has fallen out of favor with a lot of people. I like it and have it in my build, but not getting it is a reasonable option.

For T3s, BH OP. Damage isn't that great, but it sets up a whole bunch of skills well (pluto, void, LS, sun burst, lantern, florae, EX walls, EX pillar). Get it, max it, love it. AB is a solid skill, I personally never liked it much though. I'd ask the other eles for a better opinion of it. LS is strong and has an 100% stun. It's pretty cool and doesn't afraid of anything. HB I've never used in PvE. Some people like it, but I can't comment.

Phase - 1 is good
Mana shield - Some go 1, max if you want a little more defense.
Disenchant - Max or delete your ele. Combos with elemental focus for free INT.
Ele Burn/Festival - At lower levels these aren't that effective, but at max they are absurdly good.
Mobile Cast/Memorize - This makes eles eles. Get them.
Masteries - Get for any element your heavily invested in.
Quick rebound - Put the point in.
Magic crit>Ancient memory>Ancient library - Extra points for extra damage.

Here is my build currently:
http://arad.ofli.es/plan/elementalis...PQkgLQlQHQlgE=

Only things I'd probably change is shifting more points from ice walls(22->19) to Magic crit(5->8). TP can also be moved around. I haven't really decided what I want to do with those.

I'd argue that if you were going to get Ice Walls that high, you might as well max it. I'm not sure about the cast speed capping out as I haven't tested personally, but the higher max HP and duration are invaluable in parties for blocking projectiles/shockwaves/hitstun from those, particularly in outer world/ otherverse/ outerverse etc.

Edit: level 11 Ice Walls is not fast enough aaaaaaa

Both pluto and florae benefit from c2 sets, but florae even more so: a combination of Earth's Wrath and Force of Nature increases the amount of florae balls by one and negates the higher cooldown on one of those sets, leading to overall more florae damage. Pluto is a bit more friendly in parties, due to its range (as party members redirect aggression from monsters, so they can't just run into them that easily).

There are also the c3 sets to consider:
Bright Ice Crystal boosts Light + Water
One of the sets boosts Fire + Dark
The last set boosts all four elements

Buster's a great skill for quick damage (charge and let go at desired target), even if LS outdamages it. With the EX, it has pretty nice damage, and it launches everything just a tiny bit, giving you some time to charge up your next spell.

Arctic's gotten quite a bit better with the introduction of freeze levels, and is more of a room-clearer/large mob damager than a 1v1 skill (even though it performs quite admirably at it!). If you were just going with primal powerful c2, I'd recommend Fierce BH/ Force Buster/Force LS/ Force Arctic/Fierce Arctic, or utilize some of the sets such as 3/3 FoN and EW for maximum 1v1 DPS.

Some observations I had not noticed were that my first build was more party friendly/AoE oriented, while my second build was 1v1 oriented. I've found that it's true, but have been able to utilize both builds in the Tower of Despair due to my 3 piece Infinite Warden + Force Arctic and my 3 pieces of Force LS or so. Of course, on average the second build is easier to use, but my first build has the advantage of ranged x axis attacks (for those APCs that don't require melee range)

To add onto what Chris said~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pandamonium

increases the amount of florae balls by one

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omg that's a thing?

... I think I'll go for max Florae then. That is, assuming I even get that far.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MariaColette

omg that's a thing?

... I think I'll go for max Florae then. That is, assuming I even get that far.

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EX florae does it too. So, five balls! Actually, I think Bright Ice Crystal does it too for 3 piece. So 6 balls of fury with 3/3 BICand FoN! (albeit at an increased cd)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pandamonium

EX florae does it too. So, five balls! Actually, I think Bright Ice Crystal does it too for 3 piece. So 6 balls of fury with 3/3 BICand FoN! (albeit at an increased cd)

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6 piece for BI.