Quote Originally Posted by Hazezon View Post
I beg to differ, but everyone has their own style. My personal success with gale does reflect on everyone else's experience, but it is one of my favorite skills that I know how to use well. Ask anyone who runs elites with me. Gale is particularly useful to fight the abomination on the 2nd tindirin map (to escape red zones) and alargan on the 3rd (to slingshot away from his pull). In the end, you have to choose a set of skills that you know how to use, and learn how to take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of others in your group to run elites well. However, I will agree that candylicks' build is well rounded if you are new to elites.
Few things here. I agree gale can be useful but not just to accelerate from a red zone but also as a tapping skill to blow back the straggling mobs to your tank. We have one guild mage who uses gale and it's a pleasure to run with for this exact use of gale. However, gale seems to be most popular and useful in KM3.

The lack of shield in elites I disagree with. You will either have a mage who (1) dies a lot or (2) doesn't die but also doesn't do very much inside the map because they don't have a shield and stand way back most of the time.

My build isn't just for new mages in elites, it's what the majority of us elite PvE runners are using or something close to it.