C9 – Explosive Manic – Guide to the Elementalist
Author: Dulfy
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Do you love making things explode? What about throwing fireballs? What about dropping a megaton meteor on top of your enemies? If you answered yes to all of the above, then elementalist might be the right advanced shaman class for you!
Elementalist is an interesting class because it actually contains two build specs with vastly different gameplay style. One of them is more of a in-your-face agile close ranged type while the other one is a more of an aerial long ranged playstyle.
Ability overview
Lets start with a video!
Elementalist abilities showcase
| Level | Name | Tape | Upgrades (6 sp per upgrade) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Exceed Flare | Action | 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 38, 41, 44, 47, 50 |
| 20 | Mana Protect | Action | 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 38, 41, 44, 47, 50 w/ 4 SP per upgrade |
| 20 | Circle Shrine | Action | 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 |
| 20 | Circle Shade | Action | 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48 |
| 20 | Meteor | Action | 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 38, 41, 44, 47, 50 w/ 7 SP per upgrade |
| 20 | Wind Circle | Command | 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48 |
| 20 | Fast Casting | Passive | 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 w/ 7 SP per upgrade |
| 21 | Giga Bolt | Command | 21, 24, 37, 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48 w/ 5 SP per upgrade |
| 22 | Rising Shot | Command | 25, 28, 31, 34, 37, 40, 43, 46, 49 w/ 5 SP per upgrade |
| 22 | Flying Wind | Command | |
| 25 | Salamander | Action | 28, 31, 34, 37, 40, 43, 46, 49 |
| 25 | Ground Venom | Command | 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 |
| 25 | Mentalism I | Passive | 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43 w/ 5 SP per upgrade |
| 25 | Focus | Passive | 33, 41, 49 w/ 5 SP per upgrade |
| 27 | Mana pressure | Command | 30, 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48 |
| 27 | Speed Star | Action | 32, 37, 43, 47 |
| 27 | Dark Legend | Command | 32, 37, 43, 47 |
| 30 | Glacier | Action | 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48 |
| 30 | Ice Pole | Action | 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48 |
| 30 | Elec Bile | Command | 33, 36, 39, 42, 45, 48 w/ 5 SP per upgrade |
| 30 | Flying Dash | Command | |
| 30 | Guardian Spirit of Wood | Passive | 34, 38, 42, 46, 50 w/ 6 SP per upgrade |
| 32 | Ball Lightning | Action | 35, 38, 41, 44, 47, 50 |
| 35 | Siaphe | Action | 40, 45, 50 |
| 37 | Legion of Souls | Command | 42, 47 w/ 7 SP per upgrade |
| 40 | Circle Lightning | Action | 43, 46, 49 w/ 7 SP per upgrade |
| 43 | Manaclash | Command | 48 w/ 7 SP per upgrade |
| 45 | Deryl | Action | 50 w/ 7 SP per upgrade |
| 45 | Ifrit | Action | 48 w/ 8 SP per upgrade |
| 45 | Mentalism II | Passive | 47, 49 w/ 5 SP per upgrade |
| 45 | Meteor Crater | Passive |
At level 20, you receive a bunch of abilities. The two key ones are Circle Shrine and Circle Shade. These two abilities will convert your basic attack to magic based and definite your two types of playstyle. The Shade playstyle is more close ranged – Dark Emotion and Elec Swing both gets upgraded at level 27 and 33 respectively and will become some of your most frequently used attacks. The Shrine (or Air) playstyle is more long ranged, Lighting Bolt gets upgraded at level 21 and at level 27 you get Mana Pressure, an AoE you use while aerial to do massive damage + shockwave. These two circles have different graphics on your character as well: the Shrine places watery orbs in your hands while the Shade place a flame orb in your hands.
The other thing I should mention is that the Shrine/Air spec can become aerial, which is a really a hover while the Shade spec cannot jump but can slide across the field rapidly. None of them are really game-breaking but rather serve as an alternative means to travel through dungeons.
Lastly, just in case I havn’t made it clear, these two circles are either mutually exclusive abilities, meaning that if you take one, you can’t really take the other. These abilities should be max ranked whenever possible.
Circle Shrine will want to take Fireball, Dark Emotion, and Lighting Bolt – your shaman abilities to the max rank. Circle Shade users will want to take Ice Spear, Fireball, Elec Swing and Dark Emotion to the max rank.
If you choose Circle Shrine, you should definitely take Wind Circle. This will add an extra punch to your basic left mouse button attack, making it a lot more powerful and good for finishing off enemies. This should be max ranked whenever possible as well.
Mana Protect is a very useful ability that I didn’t really stress in my Illusionist guide and I want to stress it here because it is very useful. It isn’t going to be super useful in PVP due to the –50% effectivness in PVP but in PVE it absorbs a lot of damage with a low mana cost. The max rank of Mana protect only offer a 20% more absorption and lowers only 10% mana consumption so it isn’t really worth the 40 SP points. I would recommend getting rank 1 in it as the 30% damage absorption is very useful and will help you survive longer.
Exceed Flare is an instant cast short ranged AoE that knocks enemies in front of you back and apply a small DoT (damage over time) to them. You can take this or Illusion Flame. Illusion Flame can also hit enemies knocked down on the ground but does have a short casting time. It isn’t a crucial ability but rather it is used when you can’t get off one of your big AoEs so you can turn around and use it on the pack of enemies following you to deal some damage and slow them down somewhat.
Meteor is the signature ability of elementalists. It is a mega-AoE skill that drops a massive bomb in your enemies, causing massive damage. This gets upgraded at 45 to become even more powerful. Definitely max rank this but beware that it use skillstones (3 per cast). Keep in mind that this ability do have a pretty long cast time and can be interrupted by mobs.
Fast casting is a super nice passive abilities and will help you to get your Fireballs, Meteors etc. off a lot faster. It is only 5% at level 20 but goes up to 35% at max rank. Definitely max rank this passive. Note that although it says Illusionist spells, it works for Elementalists as well.
At level 21, you get Giga Bolt. Giga Bolt is exclusive to the Circle Shrine build and its one of the two biggest reasons to take the Circle Shrine route (the other one being Mana Pressure). It makes your Lighting Bolt into a super powerful ability that deals a lot of AoE damage. Definitely max rank Lighting Bolt and Giga Bolt.
At level 22, Circle Shade user get Rising Shot while Circle Shrine users get Flying Wind, the ability that allows them to go aerial (hover). Unfortunately, both abilities are fairly useless. Flying Wind doesn’t become useful until level 27 and 30 where you get Mana Pressure and Flyign Dash respectively. Rising Shot is one of those situational abilities and as such it is a waste of SP points in my opinion.
Level 25 is where you get 4 new abilities – Salamander, Ground Venom, Mentalism I and Focus. Both passives are fairly nice and should be max ranked to help with mana usage.Elementalists are famous for their mana consumption but with these passives I never once touched my mana potions.
Salamander is one of those straight line attack abilities that I like to group with Ice Pole and Circle Lighting you get later on. These abilities will attack your targets directly facing you and its useful for small group of enemies and boss fights. It does have a small cast time and can be interrupted.?
Ground Venom is an ability exclusive to Circle Shade but like Ground Vein it is fairly useless and doesn’t deal a lot of damage. I do not recommend taking it, it is a waste of SP points.
With level 27 you get three very useful abilities, one for Shade users, one for Shrine users and one for everyone.
Mana Pressure is the one exclusive to Shrine users and it is what makes going aerial worth the investment. This should be used on large group of enemies for maximum effectivness. Mana pressure will charge to the maximum damage rank while aerial and also send a huge shockwave when you drop it to the ground, knocking all non large enemies to the ground.Max rank this. This ability took me a while tries to get it. Once you are aerial, press F or hold down F to start charging. Aim your target cursor to the middle of the pack of enemies in front you. You can either release it prematurely or let it release itself for maximum damage. The nice thing about this ability is that it will damage enemies while it is charging, but you do run the risk of getting knocked to the ground by large enemies that can charge.
I like to follow up Mana Pressure with Lighting Bolt/Meteor as majority of the enemies are on the ground near you and it’s a perfect time & place for a properly placed Lighting Bolt/Meteor to finish mobs off.
Dark Legend is an upgrade to your Dark Emotion that basically knock enemies into the air one more time after the original Dark Emotion. You should definitely max Dark Emotion and invest in Dark Legend if you are a shade user. The final rank of Dark Legend isn’t much of an improvement to the initial rank so further investment into this ability is entirely up to you.
Speed Star is a very yummy ability. It decrease the cooldown of your skills by 10-22% for roughly 30 seconds. This means that you can use use your big hitters like Meteor frequently and definitely useful for boss fights. Max rank definitely.
Come level 30, you get your first pet ability called Glacier. She is nice for finishing off mobs that didn’t die to your AoEs and for boss fights where she can get up close to the boss while you try fanatically to dodge the boss’s AoE attacks. She is good until you get Ifrit pet at level 45 as that pet is better and have some AoE abilities once charged up.
Shade users will also received their Elec Swing upgrade called Elec Bile. Unlike Dark Legends, the max rank deals significantly more damage and it is not as costly as each rank only cost 5 SP points. You should max this ability whenever you get a chance if you using Circle Shade.
Shrine users will finally get a speedier way to travel at level 30 thanks to Flying Dash. However, this still makes aerial travel slow as it has a 5 second cooldown and aerial movement without it its very slow. What I like to do when mobs are chasing me is to jump in the air and then use Flying Dash to quickly move to a spot and then jump down to the ground. This give me a little extra distance from the mobs that I can use to get my spells off.
Ice pole, previously mentioned in relation to the ability Salamander is also available at level 30. Salamander does deal a lot more damage but Ice Pole has a chance to freeze your enemies, giving you time to add in other abilities to the mix. I recommend taking either Ice Pole or Salamander and train them to the max rank just so you have one of those straight line attack abilities.
Your also get a passive at level 30 that increase your movement speed called Guardian Spirit of the Wood. Its initial rank only grant you 1% movement speed while the max rank grant you a merely 6%. This is a rather waste of SP points and I didn’t not notice any movement difference with this ability to the max rank.
At level 32 you get Ball Lightning, one of my favourite abilities. This is not a long ranged attack but rather a short ranged one. As its description says, it is a ball that rolls very slowly for a short period of time but deals damage to everything around it. It can deals a lot of damage if the enemy are all packed together and its very useful. I use it whenever its off its cooldown as it will also slow down the enemies chasing me, giving me some space to throw a Fireball or something t the mix. Shade and Shrine users get different colored balls, matching the aura around their hands.
Now the damage difference between rank 1 and max rank (rank 7) isn’t too great so it is your choice whether you want to get max rank in this or just get the initial rank.
At level 35 and 45 respectively, you get two utility pets. Siaphe at level 35 will regen you and your groups’ MP while Deryl at level 45 will regen your party’s HP. I personally did not have much of a use for Siaphe as my mana regen with the passive are fairly sufficient but Deryl is very useful as your HP regen is pretty much non-existant in dungeons and she will serve as a small HoT (heal over time) healer, especially if you are cheap on health potions. As an additional bonus, Deryl will also enhance your casting speed. Definitely grab the initial rank of Deryl athough the next rank is Deryl isn’t too expensive.
Level 37 will grant Shade players Legion of Souls, which is an upgrade to Soul Chaser. I am not a fan of this ability as it is not better than Ice Spear even when you max out Soul Chaser & Legion of Souls. The movement speed debuff is nice for PvP I reckon so grab the initial rank for that purpose if you wish.
Approaching level 40, you gain the ability Circle Lightning. This one looks nice but has two issues: long cooldown and low gain on costly upgrade. Shrine users could probably get the initial rank of this as they are using Lighting bolt as their primary attack anyways but there are much better options like Ice Pole/Salamander for Shade users.
Manaclash, obtained at 43, is to my disappointment quite useless for such a high level ability. In a sense it is similar to the Illusionist Phantom Hand – looks great on paper but poor in practice. I do not recommend taking this skill.
Finally at level 45 you get your last ability – Ifrit. This pet is a lot better than Glacier and last a lot longer. In addiiton, it has an ability called Meteor Strike which is a massive AOE that can be activated shift + spacebar and then press S key). However, this ability does require some charging – which means that the pet has to hit quite a lot of mobs before it can activate this ability and there is no way to know if the pet is charged or not. As I mention before for Glacier, pets are nice to finish mobs off and in boss fights but you can solo fine without them.
The last two passives you get – Meteor Crater and Mentalism II are both very nice and should be max ranked.
Circle Shrine – Gameplay and Point Allocation
Here is my point allocation at level 50 for the Circle Shrine spec.
In terms of passives, definitely get Mentalism I & II and Focus to decrease your mana usage. Max rank in criticials is highly recommended to allow you to deal a lot more damage. You don’t really need points in MP increase due to your excellent mana regen so you can allocate all the points to max HP increase if you wish.
Fireball, Lighting Bolt,and Dark Emotion are your shaman abilities that should be max ranked. I went up to rank 6 in Mana Protect for 40% damage reduction. Ice Spear is nice in early levels but it really doesn’t do a lot of damage in high levels and consider the fact that you have to be pretty close to enemies to use it, it is not for Shrine users but has some use for Shade users.
Fireball is going to be your most frequently used attack, especially against small groups. Lighting Bolt with the Giga bolt upgrade will help you with small to medium sized group of enemies. Exceed Flare and Dark Emotions are there to use when enemies get too close for comfort as they are instant cast and work close ranged. Ball Lighting should be used in close ranged as well, although it is more effective in medium size groups where mobs are not so scattered.
Salamander and Circle Lighting are useful against medium sized groups when they are bunched up right in front of you and unlike Ball Lighning they can be used from a distance.
For large group of mobs. Mana Pressure when aerial and Meteor will be your friend. Drop a Lighting Bolt to finish off the survivors.
If you are low in health summon Deryl, Ifrit/Glacier will be useful in certain situations like defending something or boss fights.
Speaking of boss fights, Fireball should be used whenever it is up. Salamander/Circle Lighting can be used from a distance as well if you are directly facing the boss. Lighting bolt can be used if you can position it properly as it will do some nice damage if placed right under the boss. If the boss get too close, Ball Lighting will do the trick nicely and you can use Exceed Flare/Dark Emotion as well although they are not too effective. Don’t forget to use Speed Star to help with your cooldowns!
Circle shrine gameplay video
Level 50 Elementalist AoE gameplay
Circle Shade – Gameplay and Point Allocation
The passive allocation is pretty much the same as the Shrine build except you will want more points into max HP as you are much close ranged and have a higher chance to get hit.
For close ranged combat, Ice Spear, Elec Swing & Dark Emotion with their upgrades are going to be your most frequently used abilities as they will knock mobs off their feet and have short cooldowns. I like to hit mobs first with Exceed Flare to push them back a little and add a little burn damage before opening up with these three. After these abilities, you can drop a Ball Lightning to finish off the remaining mobs.
If you have mobs bunched up at a distance, Ice Pole is nice to slice through them and freeze them so you have time to close the gap and drop a Ball Lightning or use Elec Swing/Dark Emotion etc. Fireball is also nice to use at ranged.
For large group of mobs, skip ahead to get some distance so you can drop a Meteor on the mobs chasing you. You can drop a Ball Lightning immediately afterwards or follow through with a Ice Spear/Elec Swing/Dark Emotion after the mobs get up.
For boss fights, Ifrit will be useful to attack the boss while you dodge his/her AoEs. Fireball/Ice Pole at a distance, Ice Spear/Ball Lightning when the boss is near you. Dark Emotion/Elec Swings can also be used although they are not too effective.
Deryl is there for the health regen.
Elementalist – Circle Shade gameplay
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