Elementalist

“
Fire, Air, Earth and Water. I can deal death with any of them.
— GuildWars2.com Elementalist

Elementalists have harnessed Tyria's natural forces. Their powers of destruction are drawn from an affinity with the four elements that make up the world. They conjure air, fire, earth or water to assault their enemies. As a scholar profession, elementalists wear light armor.

[edit] Abilities

The elementalist has the unique ability to attune to different elements using special skills. There are four attunements, representing the elements of fire, water, air, and earth. Fire and water attunement are unlocked on new elementalists, while air attunement unlocks at level 3 and earth attunement at level 6.

When one of these attunement skills is activated, the weapon skills of the player change based on the equipped weapon(s) and the chosen element. Because these attunements can be freely swapped even while in combat, effectively giving access to four different weapon skill sets, elementalists do not have access to weapon swapping like most other professions. They also have much lower health in comparison to other professions, so they have to make up for their lack of durability under fire by managing their attunements and skills carefully and avoid putting themselves in dangerous situations.

Elementalist trait lines are also rather unique in that each of the lines directly improve one of the attunements . For instance, Fire Magic trait line mostly improves use of fire attunement spells.

[edit] Skills

See list of elementalist skills.

[edit] Skill types unique to elementalist

Arcane — Spells that use non-elemental magical energy which cast instantly, often dealing critical damage.
Auras — Auras are temporary defensive effects which cause harm to attacking enemies.
Cantrips — Defensive charms which activate instantly and break stuns.
Conjures — Summon useful items and potent weapons in the elementalist's hands as well as in a targeted area for allied use.
Glyphs — Utility skills which provide their effects based on current attunement. For example, Glyph of Elementals will summon a fire elemental in fire, an ice elemental in water, etc.

[edit] Traits

The elementalist has the following trait lines:

Fire Magic increases Power and Condition Duration, and aside from largely affecting Fire Attunement skills, has traits which grant might and boost conjured weapons and cantrips.
Air Magic increases Precision and Critical Damage, and affects Air Attunement skills, auras and glyphs, and emphasizes single target damage.
Earth Magic increases Toughness and Condition Damage, and focuses on Earth Attunement skills, additional defensive abilities and signets.
Water Magic increases Vitality and Healing Power, and, while increasing effectiveness of Water Attunement skills, grants additional capability of condition removal and cantrips and auras.
Arcana increases Boon Duration and Attunement Recharge Rate attribute, which reduces recharge time of attunements. Traits in this trait line focus on use of arcane skills and grant bonuses for wielding certain weapons.

See list of elementalist traits.

[edit] Equipment

[edit] Armor

The elementalist is a scholar profession and thus wears light armor.

[edit] Weapons

Two-handed
- Staff — Can cast different area effect spells with direct or lasting effects.

Main-hand
- Scepter — Casts various single and multiple target, medium range spells.
- Dagger — Emphasizes close range, heavy damage spells.

Off-hand
- Dagger — Provides powerful close range abilities suitable for offense as well as abilities designed for defense.
- Focus — Provides supportive spells in form of energy shields, disabling snares and defensive area effects.

Aquatic
- Trident — Long range magical weapon for manipulating attuned elements underwater.

Although the elementalist has access to only one weapon set during combat, they effectively have the ability to switch between four different skill sets by changing attunements. There are five possible weapon sets, giving a total of twenty when changing attunements. While underwater, they have access to the trident only, offering four skill sets when changing attunements.

It should be noted that sigils that trigger on weapon swap (like Sigil of Battle), also trigger when the Elementalist swaps attunements.

[edit] Crafting

The following crafting disciplines can create items that are useful to the elementalist:

Weaponsmith — Daggers
Artificer — Focus, scepters, staffs, tridents.
Tailor — Light armor.
Jeweler — Jewelry.
Chef — Food.

[edit] Personal story

In the biography step of character creation, elementalists must decide which of the four elements they prefer the most. The choice determines the starting head armor.