Pookey's Complete Elf Guide (2.0)

Alrighty, so I've been playing elf for quite a while after I made my first elf guide. When I made that, I'd only mained the class for about two weeks at most; I am now proud to call myself one of the few elf mains in the game (at least who are actually effective in using the class and its abilities).

This new guide is basically a 100% better version of the first, since I now know some new things about the class that I didn't before, I know some new tips and tricks, and the organization of the guide is guaranteed to be far better than that of the previous one.

Without further a due (or however you spell that phrase), here is Pookey's Elf Guide, 2.0.

Overview

Some basic information about elf that you one should know before one begins playing it as a main class.

Firstly, be prepared to die often. Elf is one of the "squishy" classes because of its leather armor and high skill requirement for damage output. In close-quarters combat, elf is often destroyed by its opponent due to its lack of armor, lack of damage output via wooden sword, and lack of ability to output quick damage via bow weapons.

However, its health pool is decent. With five steaks, it is one of the highest steak health pools in the game. Steaks are consumed very often, and when coming in contact with a number of adversaries, these steaks can quickly drain. Even so, you should have a maximum of three hearts drained from your health bar before consuming a steak; higher than that, and opponents can kill you much more easily due to the time it takes to eat steak in combat with a bow.

Elf's roles vary greatly--in fact it can fill every role in the game with some decency when skill is applied. Granted, nothing does every job and does them all very well, but this guide will cover the following abilities and how to perform them with at least a small degree of skill: general combat, flag defense, recovery, midfield, offense, and offensive support.


Arms, Armor, & Abilities

This will cover merely what the weapons and abilities are, what they do, and how to use them; this section will be far more organized than the previous guide. For the record, all of the Elements are bows.

Wooden Sword, Sharpness II

With low damage output, this sword's main function lies in its Elf Shield ability. Use this sword to block while sneaking (pressing Shift) to spawn a sparkly sphere around you, which, when struck by a projectile of any kind, will deflect that projectile back along its exact trajectory, except in the opposite direction. You can only hold your Shield for as long as your XP bar has XP in it. If your XP bar is full, this lasts almost exactly 5 1/3 seconds (correct me if I am wrong: the XP bar is made up of factors of 3). The cool-down for regenerating from an empty XP bar is roughly 3 1/3 seconds, while there is no cool-down for regeneration from remaining XP. It takes approximately 14 1/3 seconds to fully regenerate from an empty XP bar to a full XP bar. The cool-down between Shield usages while XP remains in the XP bar is about 1 1/3 seconds.* There is no cool-down between shield usages as of January 4th, 2016. About 1 1/3 minibars is required to activate the shield at all. These numbers are most likely flawed; I used my phone for a stopwatch.

Spoiler: *

Keeping the text with strikethrough in case changes are reverted for some reason.

​

5 Steak

One steak, when held in hand and right clicked, will heal four hearts on your health bar. Enough said.​

Pure Element

Spoiler: Old Pure Element info which I don't feel like deleting

This is an elf's main weapon. Three mostly-powered shots (i.e., the bow has three stages of drawback; the beginning of the third stage is considered a powerful shot) will kill any target; the pure damage is where the name Pure Element comes from. The damage does not scale down with less power, however; a non-power-shot will only do the damage of a regular low-power arrow.

The Pure Element is known by many to deal lots of damage only when the bow is fully charged for each shot (and, of course, if the shots actually hit their targets). The first shot is just a regular arrow; the second shot usually deals 6 hearts true damage (see later in this section); and every shot after that does the same as the second shot. However, the first shot does not have to be fully charged!

This process even works with different simultaneous targets. Meaning, you can lob an arrow at a person right in front of you, then proceed to deal 6 hearts true damage per full-charged shot to any other target (or you could proceed to take out your original target who is probably trying to kill you). yay, self-plagiarism

Here are some numbers for Pure Element damage. With a heavy, the damage combinations can vary between these two: 1 heart, 5 hearts, then a finish-off of the remaining 4 hearts; or 1 heart, 6 hearts, then the remaining 3 hearts. With a ninja: 4.5 hearts, then the entire 5.5 remaining hearts; or 3 hearts, 6 hearts, then the final 1 heart which would be taken regardless of a combination shot. There are different damage combinations due to unpredictability of regular damage in Minecraft, but you can count on a 3-shot combination to kill any target.

Consumes 1 arrow per usage.​

Earth Element

When this hits a target, it spawns a one-block layer of dirt, 3 blocks in radius (including the center, so 5 blocks diameter), above its victim. The dirt then crashes down, inflicting damage upon the victim; damage can vary depending on the victim's armor: 1/2 heart of damage is dealt to a heavy will full diamond armor, while 4 hearts of damage is dealt to a ninja with no armor. When this arrow strikes a direct hit on a player, a Slowness I potion effect is given to the victim for 1.0 second, exactly long enough for the spawned dirt to rise up and strike down upon the victim, assuming the victim is standing on flat ground.

When any dirt block from this element comes in contact with a player who is in mid-air, usually a soldier, the player will be forced to the ground and will receive damage from the dirt block. Sponge-launched players are an exception: the constant velocity adjustment from the sponges mostly negates the effect of this element.

Consumes 1 arrow per usage.​

Wind Element

When left clicked (used to punch with), this element will push you in the exact opposite direction of that in which you left clicked, with the force equivalent to that which it takes to propel you three blocks in the straight upward direction. In other words, looking down and left clicking puffs you upward three blocks.

Shooting an arrow of this element at an enemy has no effect other than pushing them in the opposite direction relative to where the arrow landed, i.e. if the arrow lands in front of the player, the player is pushed backwards. With a hit directly at the foot of a player, he or she will be launched three blocks into the air, though still opposite to the relative direction of the arrow. Hitting the block below the foot of the player has a very great effect: I do not know the exact number, but I estimate it to be roughly 9 blocks in the air that the player flies.

This element inflicts damage upon victims by causing them to suffer regular fall damage. (Initially, this did not happen, but at some point the change was made without announcement. I'm not complaining.)

Consumes 2 arrows per left-click usage (as of January 2nd, 2016), 1 arrow per arrow-shot usage.​

Water Element

A minimum-charged arrow will extinguish a block on fire or a player who is on fire within a less-than-1-block radius, i.e. the block that is on fire or the block that the player is standing on. This usually applies to the elf who fires the shot, in most cases due to being on fire from a pyro. When a powerful shot is fired, this radius of fire/player extinguishing spreads to four blocks, i.e. one center block, then four blocks in each direction outward from that center (9 blocks diameter). A power-shot will also provide a Resistance I potion effect (7.0 seconds) for yourself and teammates within that radius in all three dimensions (not just horizontally along the ground but also vertically, making a sphere of affected area). This affected sphere does not extinguish players or blocks on fire, however; players and blocks on fire are only extinguished on the same plane as that which the arrow landed on, i.e. the Y coordinate of a flaming player or block must be no higher or lower than that of the block which the arrow landed on.

This element does no damage do its targets.

Consumes 1 arrow per usage.​

10 Arrows

These are basically an elf's fuel for all of its abilities except Elf Shield. Arrows regenerate at a rate of 1 arrow per 3 seconds. There is a constant regeneration clock that perpetually ticks, however; every 3 seconds an arrow attempts to regenerate, regardless of how long ago you last fired an arrow, i.e. if you shoot one arrow (leaving 9/10 in the stack), it may not take 3 seconds to regenerate back.​

General Combat

In the Overview, I listed the different roles that elf can cover. These next few major sections, including this one, will be in the order in which they were listed in that sentence in the Overview.

Training with Pure Element

There are different skills and abilities that an elf must use in combat. Let us start with an elf's main form of attack, the Pure Element. This element, as covered, usually requires a combination of three shots in a rapid succession to kill a target. Too slow, and your enemy is able to eat some steak and force you to land more shots or strafe out of the way. Too fast--as in, rushing the shots and not aiming well--and you miss your shot(s), requiring you to restart your combination.

One may think that being a good shot with Pure Element inherently requires being a good shot as a long-range archer, since they both involve shooting a bow. The truth is quite the contrary. If you already play archer and would call yourself skilled with it, have you noticed that long-ranged shots on moving targets are actually often easier than short-ranged shots on strafing targets? If not, then it's true anyway, just accept it because I said so. Mid-ranged combat with elf is very much different from long-ranged sniping with archer. Yes, archery training does indeed help with learning how to shoot Pure Element, but in the end you may as well train solely with Pure Element if your end goal is to be a skilled elf (note: training with Pure Element does not help you train for long-ranged archer, unless you train with long-ranged Pure Element, therefore wasting arrows on targets who you are not likely to kill).

How does one magically become skilled with the Pure Element? Both practice (a lot of it), and these few tips:

Account for ping -- A target can move a lot between the time you release your mouse button and the time the arrow flies forward. This is one place where practice comes in: get a good feel for how far ahead of a close-range moving target you should shoot your arrows based on your average ping. For example, my average ping is about 100 ms, and my lead on a sideways-moving target who is about three blocks away would be roughly one or two blocks (note: the ratio of distance to lead-blocks does not scale up!).

Take your time! -- Although you will feel rushed while a target is charging at you with a sword, just take your time and make sure your arrows find their marks. If you cannot hit your target in the first place, there is no point in trying for a three-shot combination.

Predicting movement: Know your targets -- This is often tricky, and it is never guaranteed that you will succeed. There are three categories of targets, one of which you must decide if your opponent qualifies for, that can be used for judging movement. The first is Noob: these people are hopeless if you have any kind of an aim; three straight shots, and dead, little or no movement at all. Second class, Normal: these are the players who have some sort of a clue, but are not quite skilled; they will likely alternate back and forth in attempt to dodge your arrows, so simply exploit their predictability. Third class, Regular: these are what we call "CTF Regulars," those people who are representative of the correlation between being well known and having high skill; they are very difficult to predict, and you will often miss them due to their intentionally difficult-to-predict movements (see my archer guide for more info on judging difficult predictions [in it, I try to break down luck into some form of skill]). The possible fourth class would be called Veteran: the very highly skilled who are just plain impossible to predict and will mostly be a matter of luck.

Predicting movement: Exploit predictability -- As said about the Normal class, they will likely alternate left and right. However, the higher end of the Normal class will have a little bit of randomization. They may dodge left or right twice now and then, or sometimes they may not move at all. The direction of their face is often a dead giveaway: according to Minecraft mechanics, that is the way they will move if they walk forward. If they are a bit smarter and move side to side with the A and D keys, pay attention to the direction of their bodies: this also signifies the direction they are moving. These principles also apply to the Regular class, though only practice will help you with these more experienced arrow-dodging players.

Stay reasonable -- If a heavy is charging at you within melee range and you are still loading your bow for a power-shot, do not wait for the bow to fully load. Take your shot, run away (Wind Element helps), and ready up again. Bow-spam if you need to; it is far less annoying than the Punch II of archer, though it yields little knock-back, only enough to turn and sprint.​

Using Earth Element

The Earth Element, frankly, does not have many uses. In close-quarters combat, one rarely has purpose to use it, which makes the Earth Element more of a long-ranged weapon. Its best use is probably to slow down enemy flag carriers. When an offender steals the flag, if you are able, you can shoot that player and allow a moment for your core defense to catch up; this is especially useful if the pyro already succeeded in setting the enemy on fire, but simply did not get the hit off. (Now that it's after the New Year's update, I suppose I should use a plural hits.)

Although it was originally meant to be a part of what makes elf "counter" soldier, Earth Element is not much of a soldier counter in combat terms. However in teamwork terms, it can be fairly useful, often enraging to the enemy player--use with caution, do not risk your relationships. Not only can you slow down a soldier horizontally with the Slowness effect and the general slowing of taking damage, but you can keep a soldier grounded for at least a couple of seconds. This is all the time necessary for teammates with high-damage classes, especially pyro, to deal some damage to the flag carrier and thus contribute to the recovery (you can do the same if you have mastered long-ranged Pure Element shooting).

The final practical use of Earth Element is long-range offensive support. With the a five-block diameter and a Slowness I effect upon direct hit, the effect of the Earth Element is great for slowing down pursuers of your friendly flag carrier, especially when they are traveling down a narrow path.

Fleeing with Wind Element

Because shots are incredibly difficult to effectively aim with Wind Element, especially at long range, the primary function of this element is to evade attackers. In close-quarters combat, if you find that you are being beaten by your opponent and need a moment to eat steak, if enough open space provides it, fly away from your opponent (optimally to an impossible-to-reach building, tree, ledge, etc.) and eat some steak, then go right back at it. Be warned, this does consume arrows quite rapidly.

Water Element

After you have read the hard data of the functions of Water Element, there is only one useful tip to be given about this one. While you are moving, especially when evading a pyro while trying to steal or run away with the flag, you will only have time to lob a water arrow down at the ground to extinguish yourself. In order for a less-than-1-block-radius shot to be effective while on the run, you cannot shoot it directly down, but rather you must shoot it a little bit in front of you. Shooting directly down aims at the block on which you are currently standing, but in the next moment you will be on the next block. Therefore you must aim at that next block in order to be there when the arrow splashes, which will cool you off from the hot flames of fire.

Using the Sword

This sword has three purposes: batting away players, dealing with ninjas, and being an Elf Shield.

Batting away players is almost self-explanatory: since it does next to no damage to armored players, it is most useful in punching players away from you so that you can run away. The perk to this is that it is more useful than using your fist, since it deals more damage than a fist.

Ninjas, when slightly damaged (i.e. from an ender pearl, which is highly likely) are usually a three-hit kill.

Elf Shield is useful for a few things. The first of which is deflecting archer arrows. In no way is elf an archer counter; literally one in every five hundred shots that come your way will be a successful head-shot deflection, since most archers who play the game have an idea of what an Elf Shield is. However, arrow deflection can still be used defensively, helping an elf escape death by archer numerous times. The Shield can be used offensively in elf duels, though. With the shorter range, the opponent has less time to dodge the arrow; at a close enough range, a successful deflection is almost guaranteed, as long as your opponent does not expect you to block. Your Elf Shield is also your only hope in surviving a mage--if you are very lucky you may kill the mage while progressing closer and closer, blocking every spammed damage spell, eventually getting close enough to the mage to merely hope for a "combo" attack and pray that the mage gets cornered and misses the continued damage spell spam while you are not blocking but instead hitting with your sword. (One might infer that I despise mage fights as an elf, and a wiser one might infer that I despise mage fights no matter what class I am.)

Lastly, Elf Shield is used to fight pyros. When a pyro loads his or her bow, wait a short amount of time which your instinct tells you is right (this comes with practice; if the attack is sudden, the pyro will likely fire quickly, and if the pyro is camping at the flag, he or she will likely wait to see whether you are progressing toward the flag before taking a shot), then huddle down into an Elf Shield block and let the pyro fire right into the shield, not only keeping you alive but setting the pyro on fire. Since pyro is one of the squishier classes, this is once instance in which your sword is actually useful in PvP.

(Input by @Latios_Anti_Hax)
You can also use your Shield to deflect ninjas' ender pearls. In pursuit of your friendly flag carrier, this slows them down very significantly, not only taking twice as long for their pearl to regenerate, but potentially sending them farther back in the direction they came from. Still on the subject of ninjas, though it is often a matter of luck, you can use the Shield to deflect ninjas' flash bombs, both protecting yourself and possibly blinding the ninja. Do not count on it, though.

Use steak often. Enough said.

Flag Defense

This basically involves your General Combat skills, except your primary object of defense is not yourself, but your flag. Friendly players getting in the way of your shots can be annoying, but all you can do is position yourself as best you can for a clear shot. Using the Earth Element is also a part of core defense as elf. Frankly, though this is technically a role that elf can fill, it is probably the worst position for an elf. It is only recommended that you do this if you are bored and/or looking for a challenge.

Recovery

Again, one-on-one combat skills come into play here. With the increased mobility of the class relative to most other classes, an elf can somewhat easily travel a ways across a map and get in front of a flag carrier, from where the elf can do some bow PvP and kill the carrier, getting the recovery. Note the verbiage of "get in front of". When a kill requires three shots, you have no time to stay behind a flag runner and attempt to masterfully land three full-powered shots on your target, then catch up and dive onto the dropped flag before an enemy does. When the flag is dropped, you should fly to it with Wind Element, since it is much faster than running to it. If you can afford it, spam your left clicks and spend your arrows for increased speed. It makes a great difference when it comes to close-call recoveries.

Midfield

This is pretty much a combination of Recovery and Offensive Support, while random-killing with General Combat skills. Not much to see here.

Offense

Here are the steps to stealing a flag as elf:

1. If you are able, find a drop-in point, or otherwise a place to pause just outside of the flag room. This is mainly for Step 2 if you wish to use it.
2. Splash yourself with Water Element Resistance. Start a mental counter from 1 to 7, or 7 to 1 if you want to be difficult.
3. Run into the flag room. If you spot a pyro with a loaded bow, do not hesitate to block with Elf Shield. When dropping in from above, use Elf Shield no matter what; it protects you from both pyros and assassins.
4. Do whatever is necessary to get to the flag. You can use your sword to bat people away, and often times you can use Wind Element to push yourself through a mob of players toward the flag.
5. No matter what, use Elf Shield while you are waiting the short time to steal the flag, with the exception of punching players away. Once the flag is stolen, it is most optimal to fly your way out of the flag room, but running works too.

Now here are some tips for running the flag back to your base as elf:

• Cross rough terrain, such as rivers and buildings. Blackout is a great example of a map for the latter example.
• Wind Element is your best friend. Use its lack of fall damage to your advantage, such as on Medieval Siege, or diving into the underground on Castle Wars.
• Get creative with your routes, but do not try anything stupid which will waste Wind Element arrows.
• Do not engage in any fights unless absolutely necessary, such as recovery ninjas which are impossible to outrun, or assassins who come too close.

If your flag is already taken before you get back, seek a medic and other help immediately. An elf is almost hopeless in a flag stalemate without help due to its nature of one-on-one PvP, as opposed to a class like soldier which is both well-armored and mobile. Remember: flight not fight.

Offensive Support

Mash together everything you have learned thus far (Earth Element, Resistance giving, PvP, mobility, etc.), apply it to defending a flag carrier with your life, and there you have it: offensive support. But there is one extra thing about elf's offensive support: with its increased mobility, it makes for a decent hand-off man if the flag carrier is low on health. Then you can pick up the flag and fly your way to the capture (this mainly applies in matches, since in regular games people tend to want their captures).

Final Notes

I cannot emphasize enough: do not be discouraged by initial failure! And do not be discouraged by continued failure! This is a difficult class with a high skill curve. It may well take you a long time--I'm talking up to weeks or months here--before you can feel confident in your ability to three-shot a target, or believe you have a decent chance of stealing a flag, making it out of the flag room alive, and capturing it.

Speaking from experience, having mained this class for about three and a half months or so now, I know the difficulties of the learning curve, but I also enjoy the payoff now that I can call myself an accomplished elf. I am sure in my ability to kill a single target (RIP with most 2v1s though ), and most of my WHOLE 130 caps (yeah so what I'm neither pro nor a no-life ;-; ) have been with elf.

So... just keep at it for a long time until you get good at it. Believe me, the harvest you shall reap is definitely worth the labor of the planting. (yey poeticalness)

My fellow elves!
@Kookiess
@Keelerr
@EddKrumbs
@Kriz
@cptcliff (should've tagged you a lot sooner *facepalm*)
And all regular or aspiring elves whose names are not mentioned!

@wintergreen3 for helpin' me out with testing for numbers 'n' stuff!

@Shelbzb00 woops, 4got to tell ya I'm done c:

 

It was roughly 4 1/2 hours (with minor gameplay distractions). Psshh, ez. xD

Good. That means your brain is overwhelmed with the joy of learning to be pro elf.

 

Figured you'd Trump this text wall.

 

mcpvp guidez 4 nubs

 

Ahh thanks.

 

Yeh, it's not really for people looking to deedledee around with elf in-game and want to know what some of its stuff does. It's for aspiring elves who really want to know some real tips and how to play the class in whatever role they want to use it for.

 

Right, done that a few times before. I'll go ahead and add that in.

 

Easy version: shoot crap at ppl n fly around n stuff.
Actually useful version: see above.

I intentionally made the section headers big and noticeable so you could scan around and read only what you needed to, like if you wanted to learn how to elf cap.