Squishy Ele - can't beat final boss for Caladbolg

So I'm trying to finish that special Caladbolg quest to get an ascended weapon for my Elementalist. I got all the collection pieces, downed Rhianoc, downed Traeherne (with difficulty). But now I'm completely stuck on the final battle with "Remnant of a Hero" (where you fight a clone of yourself). Mechanics are similar to last two fights, but the boss hits harder and - unlike the other two - regenerates its health. So you can't use a strategy of whittling him down, no matter how many times you die.

My problem is that my Ele is pretty squishy - even in a full set of Knight's gear that I acquired for solo PvE purposes. I've been using a Fresh Air Dagger-Horn build. It has a lot of damage output in air attunement, but dies fast if you even sneeze on it. The Remnant of the Hero absolutely wrecks me whenever I get knocked down and hit with those telegraphed fields on the ground. Guides say you should go for the break bar, but I've never really understood how an ele can destroy break bars effectively. Frost Bow requires me to stand still too long, and I wind up getting wrecked. Horn's air ability only removes a small portion of the break bar - when I can get it to hit.

I could whine to my guild mates and ask them to help me down it I suppose. But it would be nice to solo it.

Is there a way to do this? Should I be running earth attunement instead for durability?

Help please.

I have not tried this en elementalist, but I'd suggest hitting up metabattle and taking a look at the wvw and pvp builds: those focus a lot more on survivability, and might help clue you in to how to handle all that.

The Remnant combines the abilities of both Rhiannoc and Trahearne, with the majority of the threat coming from Rhiannoc's skill set, in particular his modified version of the Guardian's Zealot's Defense (sword flurry that fires projectiles in a straight line). As a Tempest, you can counter that with Sand Squall (Warhorn Earth 4), Imbued Melodies (Tempest Grandmaster Trait), and "Aftershock!" (Utility, Shout) to reflect the projectile back at him. Use Gale Song (Tempest Adept Trait) as a free Stun Break if you get knocked down, although you do need to dodge those attacks as much as possible. You can also consider swapping out Fire specialization for Arcane (assuming you haven't already), and use Renewing Stamina, and Final Shielding for more defensive capabilities, and Elemental Surge to make up for lost damage. If you are still having trouble with sustain, buy some Scoops of Mintberry Swirl Ice Cream from the Trading Post for some life steal.

Try using more reflects and mobility skills, leave damage exclusively to your wep skills. CC is always good to have, but eles really have hard time with it, not sure how to work around that without giving up on damage or survivability...

@"Irensaga.6935" said:So I'm trying to finish that special Caladbolg quest to get an ascended weapon for my Elementalist. I got all the collection pieces, downed Rhianoc, downed Traeherne (with difficulty). But now I'm completely stuck on the final battle with "Remnant of a Hero" (where you fight a clone of yourself). Mechanics are similar to last two fights, but the boss hits harder and - unlike the other two - regenerates its health. So you can't use a strategy of whittling him down, no matter how many times you die.

My problem is that my Ele is pretty squishy - even in a full set of Knight's gear that I acquired for solo PvE purposes. I've been using a Fresh Air Dagger-Horn build. It has a lot of damage output in air attunement, but dies fast if you even sneeze on it. The Remnant of the Hero absolutely wrecks me whenever I get knocked down and hit with those telegraphed fields on the ground. Guides say you should go for the break bar, but I've never really understood how an ele can destroy break bars effectively. Frost Bow requires me to stand still too long, and I wind up getting wrecked. Horn's air ability only removes a small portion of the break bar - when I can get it to hit.

I could whine to my guild mates and ask them to help me down it I suppose. But it would be nice to solo it.

Is there a way to do this? Should I be running earth attunement instead for durability?

Help please.

If you're dying on knight then there's no point in running knight at all. You're still dying, they arent.

FA tempest has a good uptime of stability+stun breaks so getting knocked down shouldnt be problem at all. It also has decent uptime of improved protection (40% dmg reduction as tempest) which should be one of your main damage mitigation tools (arcane shield is also great for this). And the most important one, CC, focus has very strong cc in air and water, as well as invuln in earth, which makes it a perfect weapon for such fights. Shocking aura also works as a decent break bar damage.

Your problem is that you're trying to tank damage (and probably swapping to water every time your hp starts to decrease) which is very very wrong, especially on ele. Use your active defenses, CC while break bar is up and burst as soon as possible. And dont forget to move all the time, some NPCs cancel their skills when you walk through them, or miss projectiles because they fly too slowly or something else, it's also easier to avoid aoes that way. Also forget about icebow, it's just not worth it in any case, you'll have better time with hammer or shout/arcane skill.

That doesnt have to be this encounter, it works in 99% of the cases. Also, forget about knight gear and get berserker or marauder.

For what it's worth, the fight isn't easy in the first place. On my Guardian I ended up just circle-strafing and burning him down with scepter-spam.

I did this with staff ele / tempest, here's what worked for me (and what just generally helps me survive with ele).

Glyph of elementals is your friend, pop an earth golem and that'll give you enough time to then use frost bow, unload your other CC, and all your big attacks & overloads. I find Glyph of Elementals very useful for when I need to solo some champs or bosses.

Also I always have the Arcane trait with Final Shielding, which deploys an Arcane Shield when your health drops, that really helps with the squishiness of ele against enemies and bosses that hit hard, it gives you enough time to heal, and allows you to take a bit more risks getting in close to overload, or to stand and finish a cast on meteor shower or frost bow. You could have Arcane Shield as a slot skill too, to use while Final Shielding is on cooldown or as an emergency get safe and heal backup.

Taking Air Signet for the movement speed boost can be helpful on those bosses where you need to keep moving about to avoid attacks too. I also have Superior Sigil of Energy on my staff so I can quickly get a bit of endurance back by switching attunements, that helps keep me alive a lot too.

I know different things work for different people, but hopefully some of that will help you get around the squishiness of ele.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdn0XC9Xi1NAmNA0RgFBALIAUAOACbgLQN0t1ObztA-jhBFwAEOBAIV+lWPAq9H1fuqEEwDAAA-e only exotic armor because I don't use this character for fractals.

Is what I use for general purpose soloing stuff.2x condition removal (fire 3, earth 4)2x anti-projectile (air 4, earth 4), overload earth can give you another reflect3x hard CC (water 5, air 5)1x invuln (earth 5)~200HP/s of passive self healing, switching the master tempest trait to Invigorating Torrents would increase that as well as providing more dodges but overloads are less reliable when fighting things with a lot of CC, fire 5 can provide a bit of healing via elemental bastion and water 3 is a bit of heal as wellwater 4, air 3, earth 3 also gives you a bit of soft CC is you are a bit short on CCs for the breakbar but water 5 and air 5 should have that covered for this particular fight

For the Zealot's Defense attack you can simply outrun it if your anti projectile skills are unavailable. You should already have permanent or near permanent swiftness from the overloads.

@killermanjaro.5670 said:

Taking Air Signet for the movement speed boost can be helpful on those bosses where you need to keep moving about to avoid attacks too. I also have Superior Sigil of Energy on my staff so I can quickly get a bit of endurance back by switching attunements, that helps keep me alive a lot too.

@Khisanth.2948 said:

For the Zealot's Defense attack you can simply outrun it if your anti projectile skills are unavailable. You should already have permanent or near permanent swiftness from the overloads.

Movement buffs dont stack. Only the one with highest intensity will have effect. Considering that ele has very easy ways to get swiftness and swiftness gives more speed than air signet, air signet is a completely worthless skill.

Thanks for the input. Gonna sit down and mess around with my traits and skills and see how some of the advice plays out. Maybe test run the rotations on some HoT maps where the enemies hit harder.

@steki.1478 said:

@killermanjaro.5670 said:

Taking Air Signet for the movement speed boost can be helpful on those bosses where you need to keep moving about to avoid attacks too. I also have Superior Sigil of Energy on my staff so I can quickly get a bit of endurance back by switching attunements, that helps keep me alive a lot too.

@Khisanth.2948 said:

For the Zealot's Defense attack you can simply outrun it if your anti projectile skills are unavailable. You should already have permanent or near permanent swiftness from the overloads.

It provides the boost passively, without requiring active management. For some players that is a significant boon.

I did it with sw/d weaver a while back with grieving armor and viper trinkets, traited water and arcane for condi cleanse and boons, Weaver for extra hp and the middle trait that gives you stability upon using a stance skill.So basically a pvp build but with more aggressive gear set up, utilize twist of fate and arcane shield for evades and blocks. Primodial stance for more damage and more access of stab.Don't have any burst aside from earth 5 but the condi is enough to grind the boss down.

@steki.1478 said:

@"Irensaga.6935" said:So I'm trying to finish that special Caladbolg quest to get an ascended weapon for my Elementalist. I got all the collection pieces, downed Rhianoc, downed Traeherne (with difficulty). But now I'm completely stuck on the final battle with "Remnant of a Hero" (where you fight a clone of yourself). Mechanics are similar to last two fights, but the boss hits harder and - unlike the other two - regenerates its health. So you can't use a strategy of whittling him down, no matter how many times you die.

My problem is that my Ele is pretty squishy - even in a full set of Knight's gear that I acquired for solo PvE purposes. I've been using a Fresh Air Dagger-Horn build. It has a lot of damage output in air attunement, but dies fast if you even sneeze on it. The Remnant of the Hero absolutely wrecks me whenever I get knocked down and hit with those telegraphed fields on the ground. Guides say you should go for the break bar, but I've never really understood how an ele can destroy break bars effectively. Frost Bow requires me to stand still too long, and I wind up getting wrecked. Horn's air ability only removes a small portion of the break bar - when I can get it to hit.

I could whine to my guild mates and ask them to help me down it I suppose. But it would be nice to solo it.

Is there a way to do this? Should I be running earth attunement instead for durability?

Help please.

You only get prot if you run Earth, which you shouldn't. But this is perfectly soloable in full glass, especially on Tempest. Lots of stunbreaks available.

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

@steki.1478 said:

@killermanjaro.5670 said:

Taking Air Signet for the movement speed boost can be helpful on those bosses where you need to keep moving about to avoid attacks too. I also have Superior Sigil of Energy on my staff so I can quickly get a bit of endurance back by switching attunements, that helps keep me alive a lot too.

@Khisanth.2948 said:

For the Zealot's Defense attack you can simply outrun it if your anti projectile skills are unavailable. You should already have permanent or near permanent swiftness from the overloads.

It doesnt give you anything if you have swiftness, which you have all the time.

@steki.1478 said:

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

@steki.1478 said:

@killermanjaro.5670 said:

Taking Air Signet for the movement speed boost can be helpful on those bosses where you need to keep moving about to avoid attacks too. I also have Superior Sigil of Energy on my staff so I can quickly get a bit of endurance back by switching attunements, that helps keep me alive a lot too.

@Khisanth.2948 said:

For the Zealot's Defense attack you can simply outrun it if your anti projectile skills are unavailable. You should already have permanent or near permanent swiftness from the overloads.

Not without actually manually maintaining it. You need to cast skills and swap attunements to upkeep swiftness - the signet is slot-and-done.

I did it w/ staff on a support tempest (granted it took a while because of the lack of dps);

water is a relatively useless element- aoe rings will often take too long to place and theyre your best heals (especially if you don't use a mouse) and you don't get much healing out of water weapons that aren't staff anyway. there's not really any reason to switch to it unless you want to overload it which isn't too useful really (though if you running focus, you will want it for a cc), on the other hand, the water shout tempest gets grants ice aura - THAT is useful.

there is a pattern of attacks. knowing this pattern will be key. his guardian greatsword 2 attack is THE biggest hit, it's pretty much going to kill you if you take it's full force- learn the rough pattern to predict it, or specifically, learn to be out of range when this attack happens. Don't do anything except RUN if he starts this attack in melee range to you, dodging immediately away helps too.

there are some major ele attacks that root you in place - staff fire 5 is the biggest offender - do not do these attacks unless you can guarantee a safe cast time. it's pretty much impossible to hit off a meteor shower without dying so just avoid it. (not totally impossible, but you need all the time possible to cast it- when he does his guardian gs attack its the only time he stays rooted and often you'll spend half of that time running away rather than being able to cast meteor ending up in being killed as soon as his attack finishes).

arcane traits are your friends here- take arcane sheild on 50% health for sure (it's also a free stun break), having that arcane sheild in your utilities isn't a bad idea either- it's a stun break + 3 blocks.

as for it's cc bar...well, ele has a very difficult time breaking it. if you aren't running one of the above posters suggestions (focus on offhand) then don't try to break it, no other weapon or utilties combined ele has will have enough cc to break it and especially not consistently. if you do run it though, yeah, cc is definitely viable.

@Tanner Blackfeather.6509 said:

@steki.1478 said:

@SlippyCheeze.5483 said:

@steki.1478 said:

@killermanjaro.5670 said:

Taking Air Signet for the movement speed boost can be helpful on those bosses where you need to keep moving about to avoid attacks too. I also have Superior Sigil of Energy on my staff so I can quickly get a bit of endurance back by switching attunements, that helps keep me alive a lot too.

@Khisanth.2948 said:

For the Zealot's Defense attack you can simply outrun it if your anti projectile skills are unavailable. You should already have permanent or near permanent swiftness from the overloads.

Ill give you challenge. Try to play as tempest in this battle without getting swiftness ^^

I did it with a lot of kiting using Staff. Most of my fight was running. It was hard but doable! Good luck have fun

@"Lexi.1398" said:I did it w/ staff on a support tempest (granted it took a while because of the lack of dps);

water is a relatively useless element- aoe rings will often take too long to place and theyre your best heals (especially if you don't use a mouse) and you don't get much healing out of water weapons that aren't staff anyway. there's not really any reason to switch to it unless you want to overload it which isn't too useful really (though if you running focus, you will want it for a cc), on the other hand, the water shout tempest gets grants ice aura - THAT is useful.

That is not actually true. In terms of healing over time ...Water Blast 310 HP / sGeyser 138 HP / sHealing Rain 39 HP / sOverload Water 291.4 HP/s

"Wash the Pain Away!" 215.7 HP / s

The total healing from Overload Water is as high as the heal slot skills. If that is not useful then I guess you never get hit. The cast time does require you to be aware of when it is a good time to use it and when it is not. A weakness shared by Ether Renewal.

as for it's cc bar...well, ele has a very difficult time breaking it. if you aren't running one of the above posters suggestions (focus on offhand) then don't try to break it, no other weapon or utilties combined ele has will have enough cc to break it and especially not consistently. if you do run it though, yeah, cc is definitely viable.

Staff has air 3, air 5(place it between yourself and the enemy then kite them across if necessary), earth 4(same as air 5)water 4 is a soft CC, earth 1, 2, 5 and overload earth all provide some form of soft CC

@Khisanth.2948 said:

That is not actually true. In terms of healing over time ...

The total healing from Overload Water is as high as the heal slot skills. If that is not useful then I guess you never get hit. The cast time does require you to be aware of when it is a good time to use it and when it is not. A weakness shared by Ether Renewal.

Staff has air 3, air 5(place it between yourself and the enemy then kite them across if necessary), earth 4(same as air 5)water 4 is a soft CC, earth 1, 2, 5 and overload earth all provide some form of soft CC

Yeah, staff has decent heals - it's other weapons , as i said, do not. (my issue with staff heals though is it's largely aoe rings, i use a track pad and have to have auto place ground targets on current target on so i don't take 2-6 seconds placing any given ring. maybe i should have been more specific ^^) And i didn't find overload water worth it for staying in water - a large dps loss for a relatively (as in relative to the dps loss and damage you gain) paltry heal.

And yeah, i managed to break his bar maybe twice the entire fight - hard ccs have a long cd and ele needs to put absolutely all of it's cc in to break it. minding the timing it takes aligning every cc off of cooldown + moments where you can land the cc...it's very difficult to do. air 5 is a big offender here due to it being a small ring on a fight where both you and the enemy move around a lot - very easy to miss even if youre not me + have to learn his attack rotation to know when kiting is possble, and the soft ccs barely nibble at the bar.