To start with, you probably icked the hardest class to play atm, as well as not very rewarding, not initially. You have two choices, keep on playing it or reroll a Warrior :p Should you decide to keep on playing ele: if you die a lot, downzone yourself, don’t go to higher zones, go to parallel ones – you still progress but it is easier. and it lets you practice in a slightly more friendly environment. Trick is, many people come into GW expecting to be able to plow through everything. And that is not the case really. There is nothing wrong with dying, take it step by step:
Try different weapons, make sure you unlock all your weapon abilities for easy switch if neccesary, read the tooltips, try to set up a small ‘rotation’ for yourself for single target mobs, and for aoe situations. See if it works, think of how to improve it.
Check the evasion mechanics available to your prof.
Use signets with CC utilities, they help a lot when playing an ele.
Stick 10 points into Arcana traits for the little life savior bubble – it makes a world of difference, buys you valuable seconds to finish off what’s about to kill you.
Try focusing on one atonement at a time, get a good hang of what abilities it has in different weapon combinations, once you’re familiar with them, start swapping between two, then three, then four.
Make sure you have comfy key-binds – it’s such a dynamic prof, this is, in my opinion, game breaking.
Invest 10 points in Earth atonement – toughness does make a difference.
Highest dmg, from my experience, comes from dual daggers, yes you need to be at close range but mobs do die substantially faster, coupled with some cc utilities you will very soon start seeing dead mobs everywhere.
Swap to staff for DEs, you’ll feel like a god – great for morale :p
Once you get somewhat comfy with swapping stances, at least two, try to create combos .
Be cautious when you pull, take one mob at a time until you are comfy with it, then try more.
When downed, use your escape ability to get away from the mob that’s attacking you – it’s not always possible but quite often is, try to line of sight it to start with, if there are other people around, try heading for where they are.
Make sure to use you elemental asap – the earth one is fairly tough for current level mobs and really makes it easier to go about – don’t use it all the time, keep it for the oh kitten situations, chances are it will take aggro off you, from at least a mob or two, giving you some breathing space.
Conjured weapons are good, well some – buy the skills – I found the axe is pretty good damage, I use it a fair bit, especially when I accidentally pull more then I intended. Blow the cds on it, then drop it and proceed to whatever else.
Go around low level zones grabbing all the skill points you can – you get free xp while at it, karma from events along the way, and of course the ability to unlock as many skills as possible, to give yourself more choices.
When pulling, it’s often good to do so with your ground targeting abilities – simply cos the target will be static until it gets damaged by them, then try to build a slowing/freezing/blinding path between you and the mob(s) – now granted, most will not even live long enough to go half way through, but it’s good practice for tougher creatures. If you have misplaced a ground effect, try to kite mobs back onto it or simply through it. If you get overrun, sometimes it’s just best to pop all the slowing/crippling blinding you can, send in your ele if off cd, and leg it
In the direction you came from preferably :p
Make sure to invest in some condition dmg boosting gear. Burning, bleeds, it’s all affected.
I am not the best Elementalist out there, but I find the class really enjoyable and challanging, I go through trial and error and I do see improvement every day I play. Feels very rewarding despite being most definitely the lowest single target dmg dealer out there, something I hope will be rectified along the way.
Hope that helps
