User:Raine Valen/Learn 2 Play/Elementalist/Fire

Your Objectives as a Fire Ele

Blow Everything Up

This is the reason people run fire. Nothing else has the kind of damage potential that this attribute does, no matter how much one might like to claim that they do. No matter how good a warrior is, they're not going to do 30 DPS passive to everything in the area. They don't have ward-range 100+ damage spells. They don't have AoE 100+ damage knockdowns. When it comes to producing lots of big yellow numbers, fire eles are the way to go.

Blow Everything Up More

That's right, there's more. While roasting an entire cap point is nice, roasting an entire cap point while throwing around 80, 90, 100 damage spells on top of that is even better. What's better than tones of damage? More damage!

• Note: The difference between Bowing Everything Up and Blowing Everything Up More:
  • Casting Searing Heat on a HA map is Blowing Everything Up. Throwing a Teinai's Heat on top of that is Blowing Everything Up More.
  • Dropping a Meteor on a Monk is Blowing Them Up. Immolating them while they're knocked down is Blowing Them Up More.
  • Tossing a Rodgort's into a balled-up midline is Blowing Everything Up. Searing Flamesing them as they burn is Blowing Everything Up More.

Support The Team

Because you're an Elementalist, it is almost required that you carry utility skills. Be it Weapon of Warding to assist your backline, Song of Concentration to assist your Ghostly, or "Fall Back!" to assist your bad AB allies, you should be assisting something.

Your Tools

Fire Magic

If you're not using Fire Magic, you're not a fire ele. This is where you get both your Blow Everything Up power and your Blow Everything Up More power. While the attribute does have the occasional utility skill, that's not what it's for. If you're not using Fire specifically to burn as many things as possible, you're doing it wrong.

• Fire Attunement:
  • If are not enchanted with this, you are not being effective. Period. This should be up 100% of the time. Every time you cast a spell without this, your Energy will hurt for it.
• Searing Flames
  • This is my second favorite Fire Magic skill. It has a huge range and it does huge damage. It's the shining example of what the attribute is for - nothing Blows Everything Up like Searing Flames.
  • Searing Flames is expensive. In order to use it to its full potential, you'll need very strong energy management. Searing Flames eles always run Glowing Gaze, and many also carry Glyph of Lesser Energy to help offset the cost.
• Savannah Heat
  • The difference between this and Searing Flames is the difference between Sloth Hunter's Shot and Needling Shot. While Searing Flames is like Needling Shot, not that impressive in one shot, but devastating when used constantly, this is Sloth Hunter's: fire once and do huge damage, repeat every so often.
  • Because of the nature of this spell (it does more damage as things stand in it longer), it greatly benefits from a snare or knock-down. For the former, Deep Freeze is wonderful. For the latter, Meteor is amazing.
• Meteor
  • This is my single favorite fire magic skill. Good Meteors win games. Meteor basically reads, "Target foe takes 100 damage and cannot defend themself against your next two spells." That means an unprotted squishy at ~50% health is usually a guaranteed kill. Because it's a knockdown, it can also be used defensively - if IWAY wars are training your monk, drop a Meteor on them. If some sin runs in for the spike, Meteor them. If something's Blowing Up in your AoE, Blow Them Up More with Meteor. The path to victory is paved in meteors.
• Liquid Flame
  • This skill has two uses. Firstly, it can be used as a spike skill because of the insane amount of damage it does. Following up a Meteor with this is a spectacular way to Blow Them Up More - very few other things hit this hard. The second use is as a pressure skill, due to the conditional AoE. If you use this on a wanding Mesmer, the other team's midline Blows Up.
• Rodgort's Invocation
  • On a scale of 1 to "Fuck this, I'm quitting HA", Rodgort's is a 13. Every time you cast this spell, someone cries.
  • To be really degenerate, follow this up with a Searing Flames. It's an assload of energy, but Glyph of Lesser Energy says "Who gives a fuck?".
• Immolate
  • I personally like this spell's low recharge. It's perfect for casting between waves of Searing Flames (the burning on it is great), or for Blowing Stuff Up More as they stand in a Savannah Heat.
• Searing Heat/ Teinai's Heat
  • These are the two non-elite skills of choice for Blowing Everything Up. Whether it be a HA altar, an AB srine, a JQ quarry, or just a mob of poor, unfortunate individuals, coating the map in Heat is a great way to make things die.
• Flame Djinn's Haste
  • It's an IMS that also does 100 PBAoE damage. What's not to love?

Non-Fire Magic.

Okay, so your Blowing Everything Up needs are met; what now? Well, you're also supposed to be Supporting The Team, too, right? Well, Fire Magic is bad for that. So there are skills from other attributes that you should carry in order to help you fulfill your roles.
These skills are varied, but may include some of the following:

• Aura of Restoration
  • Covers your Fire Attunement, and returns Health and Energy whenever you cast a spell.
• Steam
  • If you're running a skill that causes Burning (which you probably are), this does decent damage and inflicts a noteworthy Blind, for all of 5 Energy.
• Deep Freeze
  • It's a Water Magic spell that makes people stand around, which is very good for things like Savannah Heat.
  • Deep Freeze costs a crapload of energy; use it with Glyph of Lesser Energy.
• Grasping Earth
  • With any spec in Earth Magic, this AoE snare holds people still long enough to get an extra 30, 60, or even 90 damage out of a Searing Heat. It's cheap, casts quickly, and can be used both defensively and offensively - a great addition to any bar.
• Ward Against Foes
  • It's like Grasping Earth, but irremovable. Putting one of these someplace where people have to walk through it is a great way to set them up for a serious nuking, slowing runners, or even for allowing a strong retreat.
• Weapon of Warding
  • There is no wrong place for this skill; why not you? Adding this to any team makes it stronger.
• Weapon of Shadow
  • See Weapon of Warding.
• "Make Haste!"
  • Makes your squishies kite better, which is always nice.
• "Fall Back!"
  • Make Haste on your whole team, and it heals. It costs significantly more and doesn't last as long, and the uptime isn't nearly as good. But it's a decent way to move people in HA and AB.

How to Blow Everything Up

Selecting a Target.

This is the easy part. There is one, and only one, thing to consider when deciding where to lay down an AoE spell:

• Positioning.
  • How many people will burn if I do this? Burn as many people as possible, period.

Blowing Everything Up

Okay, so you've picked the spot to lay down the fire, so how's the best way to do it?

• Watch for interrupts.
  • If there's a Ranger or Mesmer camping you, don't bother trying to get an AoE spell off. If you can cancelcast, try it with a cheaper spell to pull the interrupt. Otherwise, it's best to wait until they move on.
• If you're not in danger of interrupt, go ahead and light it up.

How to Blow Everything Up More

Selecting a Target.

This part takes a little more consideration. When deciding where to stack your degenerate amounts of damage, you want to take a few other factors in mind.

• Positioning.
  • The only thing you really need to worry about here is how far you will have to overextend in order to cast. Don't put yourself in danger if it can be avoided.
• Health.
  • If you've got a high-damage spell like Rodgort's or Liquid Flame recharged, you may be able to finish off a target. If you can, do. Keep Meteor in mind when making this decision; you may not be able to kill that monk in one shot, but Meteor gives you two.
• Armor.
  • Elemental Damage is very much mitigated by armor. Aim for squishies first and Rangers last.
• Enchantments, Hexes, and Conditions.
  • Any target with a Protective Spirit or Spirit Bond isn't going to take much damage from you; you'd typically be much more effective blowing something else up.
    • Protective Spirit will appear as a large, white, swirling force field with two converging halves of a picture above the character's head when cast, and a dimmer force field every time they are hit. Protective Spirit will reduce your damage to 10% of that character's maximum Health, which will usually be between 50 and 60 damage. Your spells always do more damage than this, and so this will always reduce your effectiveness.
    • Spirit Bond will appear as a round, white face above the target's head, then quickly disappear. Switch targets immediately; this fucks you thoroughly.
    • Notably, Cracked Armor appears as a white cloud around the target's ankles. Cracked Armor turns hard targets into Squishies, so it is an important possibility to consider. Keep in mind, though, that Weakness looks exactly the same, and doesn't help you in any way.

Blowing Them Up More.

Once you've picked something to melt, melt them.

• Continue to watch out for interrupts.
• Aim for balled-up targets for things like Rodgort's or Liquid Flame.
• Meteor things for kills.

It really isn't hard.

Things That Will Stop You from Blowing Stuff Up.

• Prots.
  • Unlike physicals, there are only a few prots that concern you.
    • Protective Spirit.
      • It's a big, bright, loud white swirly with a Hindu-esque picture on top. It's really, really hard to miss.
      • This Prot kills your damage. If you can't get a kill with a couple of spells, it's best not to bother.
    • Spirit Bond
      • When you see a white, circular face appear above your target's head, it's best to move on.
      • This Prot will, basically, reduce any damage you do to zero. It lasts for ten incoming attacks, or eight seconds. For ten attacks or eight seconds, you won't be able to kill your target.
      • If you see this Prot, again, it's best to switch targets.
    • Reversal of Fortune
      • It's a yellow/white/blue pointy, spinny horizontal circle.
      • It converts the next spell you cast to a healing spell (well, most of it, anyway), which sucks for you. If you see a monk casting this frequently, wand your targets. Wanding ends RoF, allowing your spells to go through for full damage.

• Offensive defense.
  • You are a caster, and so caster hate is effective against you.
    • Ranger Hate.
    • Distracting Shot
      • Your spells are easy dshot targets; cancelcast or get obstructed to avoid it.
    • Savage Shot
      • Not only does it interrupt your spells, but it hurts.
    • Mesmer Hate.
      • I'm not going to list every mesmer interrupt, but let it suffice to say that you will be owned by a good mesmer.
    • Diversion
      • Wait this hex out, or lose a skill for a minute. It only lasts six seconds, so it's usually much more advisable to wait it out than it is to lose the skill.
    • Backfire
      • This will damage you with every spell. It hurts a lot; get protted or cast very sparingly.