Guild Wars 2

Ok so i am new been playing for around 9 days just bought the game yesterday so i could post and talk to people in game since the free account doesn’t really allow you to use anything but Say chat channel for more then a few minutes. I am a level 80 fire elementalist and tried my first dungeon and found i was woefully unprepared.

So i have started trying to read up but every guide i have found is very steeped in jargon and assumes a base level of knowledge i have managed to not acquire in my leveling process.

My first question i seem to die in about one hit during a dungeon is there a respec i can do so that this does not happen maybe earth elementalist or do i just need to get better gear though all the gear i have seen in guides focuses on offensive stats.

I notice in builds they have abilities i do not have, is this like guildwars one where i need to seek out and learn these abilities? The most common one i see is frost bow.

When i started i had a set of spells that very quickly transformed into new spells but since about level 10 i have had the same set of fire spells will they transform again? are these 5 spells the only ones i get ever?

I know that these are probably very simple questions that i should know the answers to but i have not been able to ask questions in game or post on the forums until i had purchased the expansion.

Reading this i get the impresion that you’re pretty confused about the game.
First of all, you’re not a “fire elementalist”. There’s no sush thing as Earth elementalist, air elementalist or water elementalist either. You’re just an elementalist. You have to switch your elements all the time
Just begin fire means that you’re just Power, no healing spells from the water aspect, or protective spells fom the Earth, and no controll abilities from air.
If this is the case, please try and fix that first and foremost.

As for you’re getting one shot, it may be something to do with that you have “abilites others do not have”. Seems to me that you’ve just not unlocked them in you’re hero panel, wich you have to do! Preferibly all of them, or the ones you really really need.
Put stuff in your water speclaizations and you may not get one shot directly, or get better at dodging.
Another thing you can do is to get equipment (armour is the most important one, things like rings and amulets can wait until you think that you want to continue with that style) with vitality or toughness on them, although this will also mean you’re going to lack in pure damage and critical hits.

As with “you’re changing skills” may just be that you’re changing weapon. I can see no other explanation (i guess you mean the five first, the others ones you can change easily, just click on the Arrow above the skills and chose)
With each weapon you get a diffrent set of skills.

Ask anything else if it seems like i’ve misunderstod your questions, or you need more help. Good luck.

If you’ve only been playing for 9 days it’s not at all surprising that you don’t know these things. This seems a bit redundant now you’ve made this topic, but you can always ask in-game or on here about anything you don’t know. Most people are really nice, and even some of those who might seem dismissive will be trying to help (like people who tell you to google it, look on the wiki or to do whatever you want – all of which probably mean there isn’t a single, simple answer).

Likewise if I say anything below which you don’t understand please ask.

Avoiding damage

Dungeons are harder than most Player vs. Environment (PvE) content, in particular a lot of enemies do much more damage. Making sure you have a full set of exotic gear with matching stats and with runes and sigils on it, will help. Including defensive stats (toughness for more armor, vitality for more health) will also help, although some attacks will still take huge chunks of your health.

What helps more, and the reason most guides don’t bother advising defensive stats, is what’s known as active defense. This includes skills that block, interrupt, reflect or otherwise prevent attacks hitting, but particularly involves dodging effectively.

On the surface dodging is simple – you push a button and your character rolls out of the way, and any attacks that were about to hit them miss. The tricky part is learning how to time it well because if you dodge too soon or too late they’ll still hit you, and if you waste your dodges on an attack that wouldn’t have done much damage you can’t avoid the ones that will kill you.

I found frost wurms (and wurms generally) helpful for practicing dodging because they have a very obvious animation building up to their attack (and they won’t do much damage).

Skills

You don’t need to go out and find new skills. There are, broadly speaking, 2 types of skills and you can unlock both fairly easily.

The first 5 on the left-hand side of your skill bar are weapon skills which are determined by which weapon/s you have equipped. A staff (or other 2-handed weapon) will fill all 5 slots, a main-hand weapon (like a sceptre) will fill the first 3 and an off-hand weapon (like a focus) will fill the last 2. You can see all the available weapon skills on the Build tab of the Hero Panel.

The second half are utility skills, which are unlocked by spending Hero Points on the Training tab of the Hero Panel, and then equip them on your skill bar. You earn points every few levels, and get others from Hero Challenges out in the world.

Once you’ve unlocked skills (and specialisations, which are sets of passive skills) you go to the Build tab to pick which ones to use. Unlike weapon skills you can use any combination of utilities and should experiment with different ones to find ones you like, and because some are very situational and it’s useful to know they exist even if you don’t use them often.

Ya i have found the wiki and game to be pretty confusing. What do you mean by switching elements all the time? I guess i do not know how to switch elements is it in the hero panel? as for changing abilities i use a staff and pretty much always have i think but you maybe right i might have started with a different weapon.

For dugeon stuff it just seemed like pure chaos me and two other guys were trying one of the dungeons i dont remember which one i think it was maybe twilight arbor. I say it was the three of us because we would get a 4th and 5th player we would wipe once and then they would leave. After around four hours we had only managed to kill two bosses the rewards did not seem well balanced for the incredible difficulty in them.

It seems like not all attacks are telegraphed with a signal on the ground of where its going to land. Particular were these dogs that just pounced and you die sometimes not even taking me to a downed state but straight to death.

Ok i found the utility skill thing and i well got all of them but now i have way more skills and abilities and path things then i know what to do with. But i sort of understand the build pages i was reading earlier better.

Where do i get exotic gear and what is exotic gear? blues?

Dungeon running is one of my favorite things to do in the game, and I would encourage you to give it another try. But before you do, it definitely sounds like you might want to do a few things first.

1. Get more practice playing your class (like maybe working on your personal story). Check out sites for build ideas like the elemental section of the forum or MetaBattle. People rely on you in group-play so get to know your skills, utilities, and builds a bit better.
2. Get better armour. Rare (yellow) gear is sufficient for dungeons. You can buy some cheap off of the trading post. I suggest something with toughness and/or vitality to help you stay alive while learning.
3. Watch a youtube vid of the dungeon path you plan on running before you go so you know what to do.
4. Try an easier dungeon to start with like maybe CoF p1 (Citadel of Flame path1). People still run CoF p1 so you should be able to find a party without much difficulty. Just let them know its your first time. Most people will be polite enough to provide some guidance as you go. If they kick you, you probably dont want to run with jerks in the first place lol.

To answer your question, you can get exotic gear from npcs in level 80 maps with karma; from WvW npcs with badges; from pvp track rewards; from dungeons using dungeon tokens; or buying it off of the TP. I got most of mine with dungeon tokens from running CoF p1 and p2 most days.

Dungeon merchant: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon_merchant

As I said dungeons are harder than normal PvE, but once you get the hang of it they’re not that hard, and the rewards will seem a lot more reasonable. (Although if the rewards are your main motivation you should be aware that other than dungeon tokens which can be used to get unique weapon and armor skins there is nothing you can get from dungeons that you can’t get elsewhere.)

Elements

As an elementalist you have 4 sets of weapon skills, one for each element. You switch them by pushing F1 for Fire, F2 for Water, F3 for Air and F4 for Earth.

The exact effects vary between skills, but broadly speaking Fire skills are focused on pure damage and causing burning, Water skills are focused on healing you and your allies and freezing enemies, Air skills are focused on control effects, like giving you a speed boost and paralyzing or knocking down foes, and Earth skills are focused on defensive effects like boosting your armor and adding shields.

For best effect you need to use all of them at different times. This does mean elementalists are more complicated to play than other professions (who just switch between two weapons), but it also means once you get the hang of it they’re a lot more versatile.

Telegraphs

Not all attacks will have a marker on the ground, that’s usually only for Area of Effect (AoE) skills. But all high damage attacks have some type of signal that they’re about to happen, often a ‘wind-up’ where it looks like the enemy is building up to something. For example the wurms I mentioned earlier will circle their heads and ‘suck in’ air, then spit out a rock.

Exotic gear

There are 6 different tiers (or levels) of item rarity, and each has higher stats than the last. In order they are;

• Common – white text
• Fine – blue text
• Masterwork – green text
• Rare – yellow text
• Exotic – orange text
• Ascended – pink text

Ascended is the best but it takes a long time and a lot of resources to get, so it’s not worth worrying about at this point. Exotic gear is relatively cheap and easy to get, the simplest way is to buy it from the Trading Post with gold, but you can also get it from the temples in Orr with karma, or if you’ve done any World vs. World you can buy it with badges of honor. All equipment with the same level requirement and rarity is equally good so you can also mix and match pieces bought with different currencies if you don’t have enough of one for a full set.

Exotics are good enough for everything in the game except a few exceptionally difficult areas (specifically high levels of the Fractals of the Mists dungeon and the new raid) so it’s a good investment.

Dungeons seemed ridiculously difficult it wasn’t like any dunegon i have ever done before. I mean i was like 30 levels above the dungeon i was in and it was still crushing me. In fact i had a level 22 monster kill me in a zone. Which is why i came here because obviously if a 22 can kill a level 80 i am doing something wrong. I guess the problem i had with dungeons is we couldn’t tell what we were doing wrong. Was there a special attack we had to avoid was there a period of invulnerability there just wasn’t any indicators fight would start i would die within casting my first few spells and it would go down hill from there. I tried waiting but aggro didn’t seem like something that mattered or could be controlled.

Elements

That is interesting i probably missed a tool tip or something when leveling and so have never switched out of fire assuming that it was similar to guild wars one where i would have to go out and get new skills not that i played much guild wars one. I assume you have to be out of combat to switch elements.

Telegraphs

How do i know the range or if the attack is targeting me? is there an assumed range or default range in which the attack is going to occur?

Exotic Gear

Ok interesting 6 tiers of gear and exotic is near the top i only have around 20 gold i imagine these things are in the thousands so where do i go to get gold? I haven’t used the Trading post as i couldn’t being a free account. And didn’t really think about it since buying the game until you brought it up.

What are Fractals of the mists? I assume Ascended gear is what everyone is chasing at the moment? Is it raid only gear? Will i be able to join raids in exotic gear?

Are you going into the dungeon alone? They’re meant for a 5 man team.

Switching “elements”, I get the feeling you and other posters are confusing some terms. They’re not talking about your traits in the hero panel, but rather the attunements that are on your F1-F4 skills. You need to use all of those to be a good ele.

Exotic gear is very easy to get, although it would take some time to explain exactly where you get it. One of the easiest is to use the wiki to look up karma merchants.
This may get you started: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_set

Ideally you’d talk to someone in game, as there are a lot of ways to gear up.

It really does sound like you could use a helping hand in game, cause there’s only so much you can learn by reading forums and guides. Try going to your Contacts and LFG panel then try advertising your party in the looking for group.
Maybe put something saying “new to game, looking to learn ele” and knowing how popular eles are surely someone will be willing to help.

also if you’re a bit lost on your keybinds check your options to change them or learn what does what as the default.

One more thing is depending on the area your in your level is equalized/scaled down to match that area. So while being 80 helps you have everything unlocked, it doesn’t matter if in reality you’re 20 or more levels higher than that creature, if you’re in a level 30 area you are also as squishy or doing as much damage as a level 30 or whatever the cap is there. (you can still level in that area even if it’s below you too) Some people don’t realize this at first.

good luck!

Lots of good answers in here. What I haven’t noticed though is anyone telling you that elementalists are pretty much the hardest profession to play without dying a lot because they are super squishy. You need to really dance around in your F1-F4 attunements and make full use of your utilities, as well as know what each of your 20 weapon skills per weapon set will do (each attunement has its own five skills on the hotbar, and sometimes in one form your 3 skill flings you forward at the foe whereas in another it flings you away).

Master elementalist and everything else (except maybe Engineer or Revenant, they have their own keyboard piano playing required) will feel relatively simple.

I’ve stopped trying to run dungeons. Unless you have enough in a guild or friends, I find dungeons pugs no fun. I find most pugs just zerg through it and expect you to know what to do. Or just roll along with it for xp.

For the most part the community here is great. It’s just that dungeon aspect I don’t find fun.

Okay so i do not understand what you mean by my level is equalized. After playing again last night i definitely had never switched stances the F1-F4 keys opened up a new world of playing i am not good at it but think i did better.

After a pretty decent wait i got into a dungeon Crucible of Eternity i think is the name? anyway we got to a boss and i could not avoid the AoE stuff. The guy in my party says it doesn’t matter if i dodge at the right time but couldn’t explain why it doesn’t matter?

Last night i decided to raise my tailoring following this guide i got from 1 to 395 and spent around 10 gold my friend said that this was a gross misappropriation of funds. Is gold that hard to come by? What am i going to need gold for in the future? Also i cannot buy a lot of what is on the Auction House its locked out and i do not know why. An example is i needed an extra silk patch to try and get to 400 tailoring and could not buy it as it was locked out. I am no longer a free account so i do not know why.

If elementalist is the hardest class to play is thief easier i don’t see a lot of them and am interested in making one as my alt. Please note i don’t really care about PVP at all and am mostly looking at PvE.

If you’re in a level 10 area (such as Queens Dale) you’re back brought to level 10 (“down leveled”), so you don’t one shot everything in sight. This is the reason you can get your behind handed to you in the level 35 dungeon even though you’re level 80.

It takes a few days for you to get access to the trading post when you buy the game.

Thief is also a really hard class to survive on. If you want easy pick warrior, guardian or ranger. Those are much easier to get a hang of.

Also, are you sure you have all exotics? Those make so much difference.

@DigitalDragon: Do you let the others know you’re new? If not then ofcourse we expect you to know what to do.

Well for dungeons i stopped telling people i was new mostly because people will just leave and it already takes a long time to put a group together for a dungeon. I try and keep my mouth shut and follow. Hmmm trying to pick classes that would compliment my friend they already have a ranger and a mesmer and a guardian which is why i went elementalist first. What makes Thief difficult?

As for gear i am doing dungeons to get exotics? i mean i dont know where to get them with the stats i need i was told Crucible of Eternity i hope that is right. Has the stuff with the right stats on it. Also lasers suck.

Well the person who leave when they see a newbie are the same people who leave when the group wipes once or when someone messes up anyway.

Thief has almost no defenses/condi clear/heals – even less than ele. Atleast on ele when you’re hit hard you can heal/condi cleanse/apply protection or an aura, if you’re hit hard on Thief it’s too bad so sad. As a thief you should avoid getting hit in the first place with stealth, blinds and evades which in my opinion is more tricky than ele. That’s just my opnion atleast, I gotta admit that I really don’t like thief while ele is my main so I may be biased. If it looks like a fun class to you give it a shot, I always say that fun should come before easy and safe – you’ll learn eventually.

You can also get exotics on the trading post, with karma or with WvW badges. Are you aiming for Berzerker’s? Then you can also do Citadel of Flame for tokens (and Arah, but that dungeon takes ages). Citadel of Flame path 1 is the easiest path in the game.

Good information what is condi? its obviously short hand for something but its Greek to me. It would be nice if there was like a notation what classes were very high skill . If its more tricky then trying to survive as an elementalist then i will probably pass since i just get crushed right now.

I only have about 11 gold and as i stated before i cannot seem to buy things that are not base crafting mats on the trading post even though i purchased the game. Is there like some sort of mastery i need to unlock before i can do that?

Where would i get exotics with karma? i have around 37k but i understand that its a low number when it comes to karma and may not be able to afford one. I don’t know what you mean by aiming for berzerkers i was just told Crucible of Eternity had the gear i would want.

Does anyone have an answer to my dungeon question about dodging? I will repeat it again here basically i was told that it does not matter if i do not clear the AoE rings on the ground if i dodge at the right time. I do not know why that would be is it just bad information?

I can answer a few of those questions:

1. Condi is a condition build meaning you use armor that has condition damage and trait your skills to maximize that damage
2. no idea why you cant buy things off of the TP if you have bought the game. But buying rare gear off the TP is a good way to get yourself ready for dungeons. You can get most rare armor pieces for as little as 30-40 silver (look for the cheapest prices) so its in your budget (soldiers is a good learner’s set)
3. you need a lot more karma than that for a full exotic set. I suggest you do 2 things: Firstly start running CoF p1 and p2 daily for tokens (Citadel of Flame is easier and shorter that Crucible of Eternity). Then use those tokens to buy zerk exotic armor at the npc. Secondly, do the pvp dailies each day and select one of the reward tracks that unlock zerk exotic armor (like the CoF or CoE or Arah reward tracks). If you do not like pvp, find the pvp daily room where no one fights (that is where I often go as I hate pvp). By doing the pvp dailies each day and running CoF p1 andp2 each day will get you a full set of exotic armor and some weapons in a week or so completely FREE.
4. Rule of thumb: if you see red circles – dodge!! lol (if this is about the boss Alpha in CoE then you need to count to 2 or 3 BEFORE you dodge or you will dodge too soon. The timing for Alpha is important).

1. Do i have abilities that do condition damage? how do i know? what is the benefit of maximizing condition damage?
2. Ya i spent half my gold 10 on getting my tailoring up thinking i might be able to make gear that was exotic or better but i have yet to make something that is better then what i have found tailoring is 395.
3. Ya i am not really into PvP at all i tried the map a couple of times and was quickly disinterested in knocking down walls and getting crushed by people who play all the time. By Zerk armor is that short for Berserker? i feel like i am missing something critical when people refer to it i haven’t found anything that is listed as berserker armor in the wiki armor types for my race. I want to know what it looks like etc.

4. Ok so i understand that red circles are bad and i should dodge what i do not understand is if i cant get out of the circle even through dodging. Why would i dodge why does it matter? There was one boss in CoE that we stacked in a corner and had AoEs spammed all over us i died and they did not how and why?

1. Yes, you do. For example, when you equip a staff and use skill #3, it will burn your enemy and burning inflict condition damage. Other condition damage include poison, bleeding, fear, confusion, etc. Each skill has its description when you mouse over it, you will know whether it will cause condition damage.
2. When you reach Tailoring 400, you can craft exotic gear.
3. Go to a bank, and on the last tab shows the wardrobe, that you can preview all the gears. Berserker is just a combination of stat (in this case power, precision, and ferocity), not tying to a specific look.
4. Dodging allows you to evade an attack, it is that simple. Red circle means there will be a damaging event, you either run out of it or dodge it to avoid that.

1. Do all conditional damage just do that extra damage over time?

2. So i was very close before i ran out of materials cool.

3. Ok i think i get it its similar to WoW greens like of the Wolf, or of the whale but instead its Berserker. So i could get like a silk helm of the berserker or whatever its actually called.

4. Still missing something fundamental here. If i dodge but do not get out of the red circle wont i still take damage? i am still in the circle after all.

1. Yes.
2. Yes, hang in there.
3. Correct
4. It depends on what kind of damaging event occurs in the red circle. If it is a single hit, dodging will avoid that. If it is a continuous damaging event, e.g. poison, electric field, you must get out of it.

4. So your saying that dodging negates an attack regardless of if you are out of its range? Example big ogre raises his hammer i dodge into him not going out of range i will negate the attack? Is there a way to tell if its going to be an ongoing or is that just experience with the bosses?

Moondancer.3874:

3. Ya i am not really into PvP at all i tried the map a couple of times and was quickly disinterested in knocking down walls and getting crushed by people who play all the time. By Zerk armor is that short for Berserker? i feel like i am missing something critical when people refer to it i haven’t found anything that is listed as berserker armor in the wiki armor types for my race. I want to know what it looks like etc.

4. Ok so i understand that red circles are bad and i should dodge what i do not understand is if i cant get out of the circle even through dodging. Why would i dodge why does it matter? There was one boss in CoE that we stacked in a corner and had AoEs spammed all over us i died and they did not how and why?

3. It sounds like you were in WvW. You can get exotic gear with badges earned in WvW but what I was referring to is PvP (WvW and PvP are completely different game modes). In PvP there is a reward track that you choose, then, after you select a rewards track, you go to a PvP room to fight a small group of people. If you are like me and don’t like PvP, you can select the room called “Dailies room, no trolling” (or something like that, I forget the exact wording). There is no fighting in this room, people only go there to do the dailies and to collect the track rewards – no fighting required (easiest way to get exotic gear by just standing around…literally).

4. I am pretty sure your confusion is in regards to fighting Alpha in the dungeon CoE. When fighting Alpha, you can stay in the red circles and take no damage but its all about timing. You probably saw red circles, dodged, and then took damage…..that is because you dodged too soon. With Alpha, when you see red circles, you count “1…2…3…dodge” , and then you take no damage even if you are still in the red circles.

3. well i dont think so i am pretty sure WvW is a different tab this was a mode were like bomber guys spawned and blew up walls and archers spawned and there was a middle area where everyone was fighting but for no real reason and then our leader got attacked and we lost.

4. is this a unique mechanic to this one fight? so any other fight if i do not get fully out of the way of the attack it will hit and kill me?

OMG! ;D So i’ve been reading this and it seems you really missed a lot of things that I don’t even know where to begin xD
I would like to be slightly mean (but in a good way of course) so don’t take it personally.
As I understand you came from world of warcraft, so i’ll try to relate to that a little.

The first piece of general advice I would give to you is: TRY OUT ALL THE BUTTONS!
That might seem a little bit mean but ehh x.x it seems to me like you didn’t try experimenting enough on what each of your skills does. Like you say you’re a “Fire” elemental, but you have 4 shiny colors for each element on F1F2F3F4, did you ever try out the other skills to see what they would do?

Similarly, if you go to your character screen and push all the buttons you might have noticed that there is a page with LOADS of abilities. It’s like a pick and mix. You pick the 3 candies that you want to use for the rest of the day. Try them all and pick the ones you like. If you’re dying there are so many skills in there that might help you to survive. Its like i’m going out to battle and I get to pick one of 3 outfits: My dinner dress, my army suit and utility belt or the fireman’s fire suit. Yep. Totally going to pick my dinner dress, that will help me to get a date with the monsters xP. Later on when I die I probably regret it but hey, at least i tried and discovered that it didn’t work.

The second piece of advice I would give to you is: Try to have a little bit of common sense. I don’t mean that in a horrible way like stupid, I mean like for example, if a huge rock is coming your way, what would you do? Let it hit your face? xD.
To answer your question about some times not dodging, let me put it like this: If somebody was throwing a huge rock at your head that would kill you straight away, would you dodge?
If someone was throwing sticks or small pebbles at you, would you die if they would hit you? It’s the same thing in this game.
The second thing about dodging is that it’s all about timing. If someone threw a punch at me. If I was fast enough to dodge, it doesnt matter where his fist was going at the time, because he just missed me.

Now let me connect the 2 points I just explained to you: “Try the buttons” with “Common sense”: A big ogre throwing a rock at me. I know where the rock is going to hit. I don’t have any energy to dodge. Should I just accept my fate and die horribly? NO! I’m too pretty to die :O! If you tried looking in your abilities page you would notice that there is some abilities that can stop that rock! TRY THEM!
I will give you one example: One of them I can change into mist. I change in to mist, the rock goes through me and I don’t die!

The other thing I would suggest to you is perhaps to try out a different class if you feel that you need a change. Each class has it’s own “theme” as you might imagine.

For example, Elementalist is based on the 4 elements, each element having it’s own purpose. If you are in fire you get damage and if you are in air you get speed. etc.

If you were to switch to another class such as the guardian, well, you can probably imagine what a guardian does by it’s name: It’s a somewhat tanky class that has lots of options for reducing damage and protecting allies. The other classes have themes that fit their names quite well actually.

Ok so i am not trying to be mean but your post is not useful in really any manner. I come from playing a huge number of MMOs Everquest, FFXI, WOW, Tera, Star Trek Online, EVE, Rift, SWOTOR, and nothing is like this one or prepared me for this one. Nothing in this game seems to be intuitive to what i have come to understand about MMOs

The game is obviously built by explorers of which i am not. I am more of a social and achiever style of player then explorer. I want to know enough to get by. Which is how i ended up in the situation i am in. Nothing in the open world requires anything close to the tactics it does in a dungeon which is when i resorted to coming here. I developed a First Order Optimal Strategy that works through a large portion of the game at least what i thought was getting 1 to 80. When i hit a dungeon i found i was so far behind its been a momentous task of unlearning what the game already taught me.

When it comes to dodging this is how i came to the conclusions i did about it. One i dodged a few attacks in the beginning but still got hit by them. Two i encountered mobs that put down AoE markers. Three i concluded dodge was intended to be used for these situations. This is common sense when it comes to game logic. What your talking about is common sense in life which has absolutely nothing to do with game logic.

I just found out about utility abilities only after reaching level 80 and coming here and now i have far more then i know what to do with trying them all isn’t even feasible because they are obviously supposed to work together but the combinations are pretty infinite. Its something i should have picked up over time but without being able to communicate with other players do to being a free account and the fact that i did not really need to go in there to progress lead me to this situation.

Honestly i do not want to redo the content i just had to do which is why i have not tried out any other classes it was recommended i do all the starting areas first and then slowly move up the level chart in zones so i havn’t actually been fighting in a zone that is above level 40 before i got to 80.

Also question i tried PvP for the first time yesterday and well i got the same map 5 times in a row and it well wasn’t very engaging it was like a mini version of Alterac Valley where you have a race to kill the others leader. Did i just get unlucky and get that map a bunch of times? Is there more to it i know there is WvW but that doesn’t particularly interest me.

Also i assume there is pvp specific gear i am missing which is why i got destroyed so much is there a PVP specific stat that only functions in PvP like a lot of other games have?

There are two PvP game modes: stronghold and conquest. You can set a preference for one or the other in the main PvP panel. What you’ve been playing is stronghold, which is focused on seiging the enemy fort and killing their lord. Conquest has some variations depending on what map you’re on, but it’s mostly holding capture points and defending them from the other team. Npc’s aren’t as important, and you don’t build anything.

Your PvP gear is totally separate from you regular gear. When you enter the lobby, a new helmet icon will appear on the top of the screen – click on it to set your PvP build. Except for a couple items, everything is free so pick whatever stats you want. You will need to have the weapon type in your inventory, but it’s individual stats don’t matter – everyone’s weapons will be equalized. This site will give you an idea of what meta PvP builds are (select elementalist, then conquest): http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

I hope this helps. Good luck!
PS – I’m super impressed you got all the way to 80 without switching attunements or equipping any utility skills. I doubt I’d have the patience.

So it seems that the conquest mode is locked? does anyone know when it unlocks? Stronghold only has one map?

It seems super limited and a little bit boring it also seems to sort not promote conflict most of the maps were just a race to the others you might run into one person like me who doesn’t know whats going on and tries to attack the enemy. Like i said i ran it about 5 times and am like ok is this all there is? is it because they want to push you toward World V World i haven’t tried that yet and might see what that is like tonight.

Well its easier to when you don’t even know it exists. I did have some utility skills equipped but they were racial i think? like i could summon a wolf guy and put down a turret thing but nothing like i have now. And no traits i think they are called equipped.

Another new question After getting the expansion i unlocked the Tempest specialization it doesn’t look all that appealing to me do i need to get more masteries to unlock more specializations?

Hmm. You should be able to do both modes. You might just need to check both boxes, then uncheck stronghold. Haven’t actually played stronghold since beta; interesting observations.

WvW varies a lot depending on what server you are on and if anyone else is logged on. If you see a commander tag, run to it and join the crowd of players. I’m not really a wvw player, but sticking with a group is probably your best bet.

I’m still impressed. Not much variety there, and traits are pretty significant.

Tempest is the only specialization available to you, as an elementalist, for now. They’ve discussed adding more someday, but it’s not the top of the list at the moment. I don’t play ele much anymore, but I know my brother really likes the tempest. You can equip it in the PvP lobby and attack the practice npc’s to get a feel for it.

Masteries are a whole new area and not actually related to elite specializations.
You might not be ready for HoT content yet, but when you are:
As soon as you get exotic gear, I would recommend starting the HoT story and getting just far enough to unlock mastery tracks – then the XP you’re earning at the level cap will be going somewhere. Keep in mind that enemies in HoT are harder than anywhere else in the open world – it might take you several tries with your playing experience (you can take a friend with you to help – if you’re in a party on the same map when you start the instance they’ll get an invite). Select pact commander mastery to earn first if you’re heading back into the rest of Tyria. If you decide to stay in HoT, start earning gliding.

Since you’ve played WoW maybe these comparisons will help.

Condi=DoTs

Attunments (air,fire,water,earth) for an elementalist are like a warrior’s stances in WoW.

Build is like your talents (also called build by many people) in WoW, and your training is like unlocking points for your talent build.

Your tempest specialization requires more points and these can be earned by doing hero points in the world and primarily in the new Heart of the Thorns maps. Once you have these points you can use them in your training tab and then pick what you want in your build tab.

WvW is kind of like a giant Alterac Valley. It’s a huge open map where large amounts of players PvP. Standard PvP in GW2 is more like WoW arena.

Gear in PvP is normalized and you get to choose what you want. Your amulet will determine your stats and you also get to pick your runes and sigils. Everyone is at the same level for Stronghold and Conquest. WvW uses your actual gear but lower level players are upleveled to 80.

It definitely has a lock on the conquest mode it is not selectable on the right side when you in the PvP lobby only stronghold can be checked. I am still not able to use the Trading post to buy and sell things even after buying the game i am not sure what i am doing wrong but i can’t buy anything other then basic crafting materials.

I did unlock masteries after a bunch of deaths in HoT took me about 2 hours maybe more to get the first part to get that unlock done as soon as it let me select one i was out of there far to difficult. I did the first tier of pact commander and switched to fractals because i want to be able to do them at some point it also seems like it might be easier to get a group for them.

Specialization is just a weird thing to call it then if it is literally your only choice.

Moondancer.3874:

It definitely has a lock on the conquest mode it is not selectable on the right side when you in the PvP lobby only stronghold can be checked. I am still not able to use the Trading post to buy and sell things even after buying the game i am not sure what i am doing wrong but i can’t buy anything other then basic crafting materials.

I did unlock masteries after a bunch of deaths in HoT took me about 2 hours maybe more to get the first part to get that unlock done as soon as it let me select one i was out of there far to difficult. I did the first tier of pact commander and switched to fractals because i want to be able to do them at some point it also seems like it might be easier to get a group for them.

Specialization is just a weird thing to call it then if it is literally your only choice.

Masteries are different then your elite specialization (tempest).

Masteries give you new abilities and bonsuses like gliding or the ability to talk to new vendors.

Masteries use mastery points. Your elite specialization uses hero points.

Moondancer.3874:

Where would i get exotics with karma? i have around 37k but i understand that its a low number when it comes to karma and may not be able to afford one. I don’t know what you mean by aiming for berzerkers i was just told Crucible of Eternity had the gear i would want.

I suggest you decide what stats you want first then, if you don’t know what you’re going for. If you have issues with dying for example, I wouldn’t go for Berzerker as that’s glass cannon gear.

You can do Fractals without the Mastery by the way.

Moondancer.3874:

It definitely has a lock on the conquest mode it is not selectable on the right side when you in the PvP lobby only stronghold can be checked.

You need to be at least rank 20 in pvp in order to queue for conquest matches

Moondancer.3874:

I am still not able to use the Trading post to buy and sell things even after buying the game i am not sure what i am doing wrong but i can’t buy anything other then basic crafting materials.

I think it takes up to 4 days to unlock the tp

First of all welcome to GW2 and please don’t be disheartened, there is a steep learning curve but I think you will find it worthwhile once you are more used to the game.

As No One mentioned, I think there is a 3 or 4 day wait between upgrading from a free to a full account and being able to access everything including the Trading Post.

The first think I noticed was that you mentioned you had had the game 9 days and had reached level 80, this makes me think you have fallen foul of the assuption that, like in many MMOs, the action begins at max level. This isn’t the case in GW2 and is possibly why you are now finding it confusing, you haven’t really had the time to learn how to play the game and your class to the best advantage. It isn’t a major problem but I would suggest that you might want to go back into the Hero Panel and read just what abilities you have access to and then try out different ones. I would also suggest that you try all the different weapons you have access to and then decide whether you still like the staff the best.

Having come from WoW myself, one thing i can say is that this game is far more reactionary, not just in dodging, but in skill use. From what I remember of WoW you learn your rotation and just made sure you pressed the right button at the right time when the cooldown ended. In GW2 you might have a skill that spends most of its time off cooldown waiting to be used just when needed, particularly anything that interups the enemy or gives you an extra dodge (staff skill 4 in fire attunement sends you backwards and also means that you can dodge even if your dodge isn’t recharged, just becareful of back rolling off cliffs).

You say that you have hardly done any areas above level 40, you might want to go explore the world a bit while you test out different weapons and builds. It is a big world and there are plenty of events that you can take part in and if you make mistakes or the build doesn’t work for you then the people in open world tend to be more tolerant and less antagonistic than in dungeons.

Having mained a Rogue in WoW, the thief is very different. There is no permant stealth ability, you are having to go in and out of stealth all the time. Dodging and kiting are the only things that keep my thief alive.

You should now have either 5 or 6 character slots so I know you said you didn’t want to re do all the areas again, you might find it worth while trying the other classes and you might find one you prefer. You don’t have to do all the zones in order, as long as you are at least minimum level for a zone you can go there, you might find some fights rather hard at that but not impossible, and running away is normally an option if you realise you have taken on more than you can manage. You can also always go to areas below your level and still have a good fight and learn how best to play your chosen class.

Hope you have fun and don’t worry too much, learning anything new takes time and I think many of us that have been playing since launch forget what it was like to be new and confused.

Sorry for the long post, I hope you find something of use in it and it doesn’t bore you to death.

Thanks for all the help guys i now have a full set of exotic berserker gear. And a pair of rings from fractals that are also berserker i guess i got lucky from the chests. I learned i can cast most of my spells while moving which btw is not normal for an MMO but something the elementalist forum let me know about.

As a new player in dungeons i just keep my mouth shut now and try and follow another squishy class around and stand where they stand. I die a lot and hope that i learn something from it and do enough damage to try and offset my death.

People get mad at me a lot but i just dont say anything mostly because trying to pay attention to chat and play and not die is ridiculous.

I just skimmed through the thread, so sorry if this is already mentioned.
Your armor. You play a really squishy class, and berserker gear makes you to what is known as a glass cannon. The idea behind berserker, or zerker as many call it, is to max your damage on the cost of protection. You have to use your dodges, utilities, weapon skills and so on, known as active defenses, because with zerker gear it doesnt take that many hits to kill you. So you dont want to get hit at all.
Gear with toughness, vitality, traits that adds to this and so on, is passive defense. You can take more damage, more hits, but you dont do max damage. But you dont do any damage at all laying around on the floor either.
This isnt easy, it is a lot to take in and getting used to, and you have taken one of the hardest way to learn it, with an ele in zerker gear. And then trying to learn dungeons, where you kinda have to learn about what other classes can do too, what buffs to give and when, all this with strangers and youre not saying anything.
This is just my opinion, I dont try to be rude or anything, but why dont you try to take one step at the time? I think you have chosen one kitten of a job.
Good luck and I really hope you pull it off.
Maybe try some other prof so you dont get too tired with your ele?
I would

edit: wording

Well i have started leveling a thief which i am told isn’t much better but i am liking it as well. I always play a hybrid in most MMOs but since that doesn’t really exist in guild wars i decided not to try another cloth character but apparently Thief is the same but harder because its melee.

From today’s patch notes (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-December-1-2015/first#post5813371):

• Removed rank restriction from Conquest game mode.

So it looks like you should be able to play conquest now.

Message me in game, 600hrs on ele. Love to help you figure out a style good for you