Evoker - Scepter Harevoker Roamer
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Strike damage and Control
Designed for: WvW Roaming
Overview
An Evoker take on the Fresh Air archetype for WvW roaming. This Evoker build is meant to deliver quick bursts with very little downtime while maintaining a safe distance and avoiding enemy pressure via mobility and control.
Skill Bar
Skill Variants
Utility
- over - Armor gives you better sustain, but LF helps you disengage from fights or chase targets who've escaped to the highground.
Template Code
Specializations
Variants
- isn't necessary for the build as we have , but it's still a good trait because of the Ferocity boost. can be better sometimes as it gives you stronger burst vs low HP targets, but in solo roaming where you have to work alone to bring the targets to low health first, we believe that Fresh Air's consistent damage boost is usually better. Bolt to the Heart remains a viable alternative though, especially when roaming in a group.
- could also be considered for the last slot. While the build doesn't have a lot of CC skills, it still gives you some extra sustain via
Weakness, and it can significantly increase the damage potential of your elite skill.
Equipment
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
x6
x18
Second set: you may have noticed a Focus on the second set, this one's for the tryhards. While Elementalists can't swap weapons in combat, they can still stack Bloodlust on random PvE mobs before fights using the second set then switch back to the first set once they're ready to PvP. The Bloodlust stacks will remain active without the need to sacrifice a sigil slot on the PvP set. It's enough to put 1 weapon into the second set as they'll inherit the missing one from the main set. If you have no intention to stack Bloodlust before fights then you don't need the 2nd set! It's not mandatory.
Equipment Changes
Runes
- - bit cheaper option with better survivability.
Sigils
- with could boost your damage, but it's very greedy. The build already has no shortage of damage but the sustain is quite low, sacrificing even more sustain for extra pressure is generally not necessary nor recommended.
Relics
- - converts some of your outgoing damage into healing, offering passive survivability.
- - if you want more damage.
Consumables
Food
There are plenty of viable choices:
- - passive damage mitigation and great stats.
- - highest damage non-ascended option.
- or - armor ignoring damage/healing procs plus extra Precision which is one of the most important stats to have.
- You might slightly overcap crit chance with this, so replace a Marauder piece or two with Dragon's.
- - defensive option with more evasion.
Utility
- or , whichever is cheaper (note that the sharpening stone lasts twice as long).
Usage
Evoker basics
- Evokers gain access to a new skill slot, this is where you select your familiar. Here we chose Hare for ranged burst damage.
- Using skills gives you charges - at maximum charges you get to use the base special ability of your familiar - .
- Trait procs count for building charges too! Including the on-dodge abilities of .
- Zap itself is building charges of a different kind. After every 3rd use of Zap, you gain access to an empowered version of the skill: .
- While your familiar cannot be targeted, it is an entity present in combat. It means that the hare itself is executing Zap and Lightning Blitz, you only command it to do so. If you command it to Zap while Lightning Blitz (LB) is active, Zap will override and cancel LB! The hare can't multitask.
General
- Use before mounting up up so you can start combat with a fully charge Zap.
- The build's all about swapping in and out of every few seconds, made possible by which drastically reduces the CD of Air. You no longer need to score critical hits to get back into Air, as opposed to Fresh Air builds of other specializations.
- Swapping to Air triggers which you should immediately follow up with a for instant burst damage. Entering this attunement also grants you Ferocity from , which is why most of your heavy hitting skills should land while attuned to Air.
- If you're playing with , swapping to Air for finishing bursts is even more important.
- Ideally you should start every burst combo with . Not only does it deal great damage, it also marks the target which increases the damage done to them. While the skill has no cast time, it does have a delay.
- While landing Zap inside Air does a bit more damage due to trait synergy, it's not required. Usually it's better to just fire Zap as soon as it's available, because you don't want to waste any potential future charges by sitting on this skill. If you keep spamming Zap every few seconds, you're going to keep your damage boosts active which is the most important thing here.
- is a one button burst combo, you can use it on its own or in place of Zap in other combos. But bear in mind that LB has a cast time, whereas Zap does not!
- Speaking of one button burst combos, your elite almost always finds good value. It unleashes the empowered version of every familar's attack, all at once at the target location. It's good for bursting multiple targets, CCing them, or even healing your team.
- Hare will do for burst damage.
- The Toad will CC targets and limit their movements by locking them inside a stone circle.
- Otter will heal and create a water field you can blast for even more healing.
- Fox adds some extra damage.
- While is a defensive skill first and foremost, it can also be used to keep pressuring targets even while you're being focused. The blur will cancel out the incoming attacks, and you can keep casting while it's active.
- This build can self-stack
Might by blasting the fire field created by the Fire Jade Sphere and . Do not prioritize Might stacking, but do take advantage of the incidental opportunities which arise. Your blast finishers are:
- The first dodge you perform after swapping to Earth attunement
- is an excellent skill for setting up burst, use it right before swapping out of Air into another attunement.
- A common tactic is to cast and burst enemies before it falls on them. This presents a no-win situation for many builds: they can either facetank your burst but dodge the tooth, or dodge your burst and facetank the tooth.
- Try to aim slightly behind your target whenever you can. This skill passes through targets while doing damage, explodes on the ground, then returns to you once again damaging targets it passes through. The goal here is to hit the target with all 3 parts of the skill, not just the explosion damage.
- Because of the slow travel time it's also best used in melee.
Notable burst combos
These are some potential combos you can use based on the techniques outlined above. The quicker you pull these chains off, the better.
From Fire:
- ⇒ for more Might (it also does good damage in melee). The transmute, Dragon's Tooth and Zap all have a delay, ideally you'd get into Air by the time these went off, but it's fine if only Dragon's Tooth lands in it
- - optional: right at your target before you finish casting Phoenix to make it near instant. You don't have to do that if you were already in melee.
- - swap to this while casting Phoenix
- to avoid taking damage in melee, but it's not required
From Earth:
- Optional: if you're in melee range of an enemy you may throw in a which can proc if it hits something.
- + + then swap to during the channeling to make the projectiles land in the right attunement.
From Water:
- - the trident does more damage to Chilled enemies which is important. Shatterstone should secure that but can do the trick too.
- Swap to while casting Water Trident, preferably even before the 2nd strike of Shatterstone goes off so that it may benefit from Air's damage modifiers.
Survival
- Swapping to Air is just as important for defense as it is for offense. When you're outranging your opponents or trying to survive, the
Superspeed procs upon entering air and the
Blind of can be life savers.
- makes it easy to kite most specs via
Superspeed. Avoid melee range whenever possible! Don't stay in melee unless the target is blinded, CC'd or you're about to burst them.
- is great at avoiding crucial skills by blinding enemies, and it also shuts down Power-based specs in general with the Weakness. Being an instant cast skill this can also be used while CC'd. fills a similar purpose, although that one has a cast time.
- is a source of spammable
Chill which you can even place behind your back while running away. Chill is great at building distance and swapping to Air gives you
Superspeed which makes it even easier to run away.
- Swapping to Water, dodging for healing/cleansing then dropping Shatterstone on top of your target before going back to Air is a common defensive rotation.
- Needless to say other CCs can also be used for shaking off pursuers.
- is your most powerful defensive cooldown, granting blur. It's instant cast, shields you from incoming attacks, and even lets you cast other skills while active (like your healing skill) without the fear of interruption.
- Blur is not a full fledged invulnerability however - it does NOT cancel the damage from conditions that are already on you.
- You can safely rez allies or stomp enemies while blur is active!
- and provide excellent protection against enemies who use projectiles. These however do not work against unblockable projectiles, and some ranged builds - such as this one - are mostly unaffected by projectile reflects and blocks.
- is the build's best condition cleanse which can also be used while stunned.
- Condition cleansing in the build is rather scarce. You're limited to Magnetic Wave, a dodge roll in water, and the occasional proc. Your best defense once again is not getting hit in the first place.
- offers protection against all kinds of pressure, including conditions that are already on you. In that sense it's stronger than Hare's Agility, but you must keep channeling this skill to maintain it.
- The first strike of Blinds enemies while the snare is useful for keeping distance.
Related Builds
- Evoker - FA Harevoker - sPvP version.
Ratings
Comments
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