Aspiring Aeromancer; Weak as a little girl

[Kanraku]

From the beginning I've wanted to be an air elementalist, but I can't get any good air spells or air armor. I've gone as far as yak's bend searching for armor and skills and found nothing. Seeing as they want to make it impossible to start as an aeromancer, what should I do to survive for now?

[Keure]

Yeah, I can definitely understand - I wanted the exact same thing. I think there's a useful air skill at the Courthouse in the Diessa Lowlands, though.

I think right now you'll want to just do Fire - solid choice, though not a unique choice. If I recall correctly you should have Armor of Earth and Eruption by now - maybe invest points into Earth as a defensive option.

Everything else won't be really developed until you hit some of the towns and quests past Lion's Arch.

The other option is taking advantage of your huge energy pool and maximize the effectiveness of your secondary profession.

[Slade xTekno]

To survive for now, go for Fire. The game provides you with so many of those early on it's really a no-brainer. Just remember to keep that Glyph of Lesser Energy ready.

[Kanraku]

I already have 7 points in air, 0 in fire. Will I have enough refund points to bring fire back to 0 again once I get lightning skills? At what level can I start heading to Lion's arch and beyond?

[Slade xTekno]

Easily. You get 1 refund point every 250exp.

Dunno about the second part.

[Keure]

There is no set level for getting to Lion's Arch. Just keep doing the missions until you get there (probably the easiest way).

[Vermilion Okeanos]

usually people get to lion's arc by 12-13 if they do most of the quests.

[Raiddinn Beatdropper]

I used Air/Earth/Inspire from 1 to ascension, its very very doable, and I dont know why but I consider my char to have a better combination of power and versatility than pretty much all the others I have seen in action.

YMMV.

However, yes the beginning is rough, the air comes kinda slow, it gets better though when you can fill out your spell bar. Make 100% sure to get to grendich courthouse when you are able to.

Tsunamii Starshine

[wucc]

Its great to see another Elementalist that is air,as apposed to fire wich almost everyone uses. you can get much better air skills in the areas just past lions arch in the next big city, the name of it is not comming to me, i recently got lightning orb wich is very good. just stick with it a while longer and dont stray twards fire.

[Eclair]

I don't like air at all for PvE. Chain Lightning seems terrible for an exhaustion spell, and the only other skill that does any damage is Lightning Orb (non-elites) However, even against a single target this isn't enough to do a significant amount of damage. Fire just seems better than Air at almost everything. Meteor Shower,(exhaustion skill) does so much more damage than chain lightning, and knocks the targets down. In fact, constant lava fonts is already more damage than Chain Lightning. I'm wondering what skills you guys are using to PvE against the harder monsters?

Currently I'm using Earth, Earthquake + Aftershock + Crystal Wave + Obsidian Flame finisher is good stuff =)
Not to mention ward against melee or Armor of Earth is definately a big plus against the heavy hitters.

[Victor_Kurse]

I was making an Air/Water/Curse character and had pretty much the same problem - Lots of fire spells and few Air/Water spells. I was also going through my energy at an incredible rate. So what did I do? Switched to fire. So much for uniqueness. :(

Kurse

[Kerus Tel Veren]

Air is much better for PvP imo (not that Fire is bad), largely because Fire just absolutely dominates in PvE. Energy per damage, nothing else comes close, because the monsters are dumb enough to stand there while your Fire Storm + Meteor Shower + Lava Font just rips them apart. You can literally thrash entire groups of creatures without stopping for, well, every mission and area that I've ever done.

Come to think of it, I don't have any use for Water in PvE, and little use for Air. Earth can be handy, but Fire is just too powerful against dumb ai. Conversely, I dig Water and Air in PvP, and put Earth above Fire there as well...

I'd recommend using Fire to get yourself through the PvE, then look over your options more seriously for PvP once you reach that point.

[Eclair]

Around the ascension quests, fire becomes a lot weaker against the higher armored enemies. Also, the high cast times on many of the fires spells just make enemies interrupt. OMG, its almost impossible to get off a fire spell against the storm kin T_T

However, Earth really starts to shine here, because Both Crystal Wave and aftershock are 3/4s casts. Also, as I stated Earlier, Earthquake + Aftershock + Crystal Wave does damage on par with whatever fire spells you can spew out, at a much faster cast time. Not to mention Crystal Wave and Obsidian Flame IGNORES all AL, so full damage goes through (especially good against those enchanted swords/bows). Finally, good ol' armor of Earth makes my elementalist tank better than some W/Mos, with a total of 120 AL XD.

Air and Water both seem pretty worthless in PvE though.

[catharsis]

.. until you get lightning touch and start following up your water hexes with sickening damage :)

[Virtuoso]

All you will ever need in life...

Lightning Strike, Enervating Charge, Lightning Bolt, and Lightning Surge.

The target is dead before they even know what hit them.

-Virt

[Eclair]

Just how effective is lightning damage vs real players? I've played around with some lightning spells that do armor penetration in PvE against some higher armored monsters, and they don't seem to be doing the kind of damage I'd want in my PvP spells.