Guild Wars 2

I just started an elementalist and I really enjoy pretty much every skill they have, but I’ve noticed a little more recently (I’m level 12 now) that once the mob closes to me (if they do), I barely have time to glance down at my health before it’s nearly half gone.

I’ve played a mesmer (to 57 so far) and I don’t recall losing health that fast. Is there something inherently weak about the elementalist, or does it just have that much less health than other classes? Or am I just doing something wrong? I haven’t settled into a groove yet, because I enjoy swapping weapons and attunements, but even still, I seem to get hurt fast and die often if I’m not extremely careful.

(I do tend to run around and stay mobile, so it isn’t that I just stay put and let the mobs beat on me.)

Thanks.

We have the lowest base defense of all classes. So yes, probably are going down a bit faster that you’re used to from mesmer.
That said, you should be able to kill most stuff before it hits you. And if you can’t, pretty much all our spells (except some big AOEs) can be cast on the move.

Vayra.3290:

We have the lowest base defense of all classes. So yes, probably are going down a bit faster that you’re used to from mesmer.
That said, you should be able to kill most stuff before it hits you. And if you can’t, pretty much all our spells (except some big AOEs) can be cast on the move.

I wouldn’t use most, maybe some stuff will be dead before it arrives. Though with a D/D or even S/D most likely you will have to run up melee range for optimal DPS anyways.

Ellisande.5218:

Vayra.3290:

We have the lowest base defense of all classes. So yes, probably are going down a bit faster that you’re used to from mesmer.
That said, you should be able to kill most stuff before it hits you. And if you can’t, pretty much all our spells (except some big AOEs) can be cast on the move.

I wouldn’t use most, maybe some stuff will be dead before it arrives. Though with a D/D or even S/D most likely you will have to run up melee range for optimal DPS anyways.

I play S/D for pve. Only some of the tougher mobs (or if I pull many at once) survive to actually hit me in melee range.

D/D
Burning Speed, Ring of Fire, Arcane wave. Most things will be 1 or 2 hits away from death.

Arcane wave is just amazing.

Vayra.3290:

We have the lowest base defense of all classes. So yes, probably are going down a bit faster that you’re used to from mesmer.
That said, you should be able to kill most stuff before it hits you. And if you can’t, pretty much all our spells (except some big AOEs) can be cast on the move.

10805 base HP: Guardian, Thief, Elementalist
15082 base HP: Mesmer, Engineer, Ranger
18372 base HP: Warrior, Necromancer

Theres no different in armor between classes of the same armor-type, and even between them it isn’t that significant. IIRC, the difference between full exotic light and exotic heavy at 80 is somewhere around 294 toughness.

Yes, Arcane Wave was a point very well spent!

And wow, crazy that the Guardian’s base HP is the same as a caster!

Another thing I wanted to ask, if this would help, is…how useful is the healing signet that heals you on each skill use? It sounds good, but I don’t want to waste 3 skill points if it turns out I’m better off with the default healing skill. I did that with my Mesmer (for the healing mantra) and I never used it much, because it wasn’t as good as it sounded.

The Glyph of Lesser Elemental is a godsend for Eles in open-world PvE. Pop it and you should have plenty of time to hide behind your little rock buddy. That + the Glyph of Elementals elite skill are on my bar 90% of the time when I’m out and about.

Also, you should probably try to get gear with at least some Vitality.

Not to sound like a jerk, but you can(and should =P) test those things on spvp. You can play around with your build and have acess to all non-racial skills, and some golems to stand around and get hit.

Now to the answer: If you use Staff it’s not so good(You should use the water field and blast finished from arcane wave to heal that way). Other than that, with the amound of skills you can use with S/D, and especially D/D it’s a godsend. I lvled all the way to 80 using it with DD. It will also help counter the small amount of health we have, since you will be using skills so fast that the heal will stack up, switching to water so you can use the heal skills if you get to ~50% of health.

It’s also really good in PvP. I had people telling me how annoying it was to kill me, since they rarely got my hp lower than half, even during 1v2. Of course, if they get a really glass cannon build after you, you’d better evade else get dropped like a sack of potatos.

Also, what Blaine said. Although you start really feeling it at higher lvls, playing with some nice vit really helps you out.

Kthr.2781:

Not to sound like a jerk, but you can(and should =P) test those things on spvp. You can play around with your build and have acess to all non-racial skills, and some golems to stand around and get hit.

Now to the answer: If you use Staff it’s not so good(You should use the water field and blast finished from arcane wave to heal that way). Other than that, with the amound of skills you can use with S/D, and especially D/D it’s a godsend. I lvled all the way to 80 using it with DD. It will also help counter the small amount of health we have, since you will be using skills so fast that the heal will stack up, switching to water so you can use the heal skills if you get to ~50% of health.

It’s also really good in PvP. I had people telling me how annoying it was to kill me, since they rarely got my hp lower than half, even during 1v2. Of course, if they get a really glass cannon build after you, you’d better evade else get dropped like a sack of potatos.

I don’t find the PvP tests that useful for seeing how well it will help me now, because when I’m leveled to 80, it heals for so much, and I’m wearing special PvP gear, that I can’t really tell how that will translate into me doing the same thing at level 15.

Interesting about Healing Rain + Arcane Wave. I have a lot to learn about combos, apparently.

Ele has the combination of lowest armor + lowest hp. So yes, you’re getting hit harder in relation to every other class. You can build a little bit better in toughness/vitality.

In pve, I generally use both elemental glyphs, and they tank pretty well if you’re having trouble (use one at a time to better stagger them). Also consider blink, and perhaps signet of air which helps for escaping tight spots.

I also recommend playing as d/d or s/d, staff doesn’t seem to have the same mobility for pve.

Also, what’s a good trait line to spec into early? Like I said, I haven’t settled on using just one element primarily yet, but I’ve put my first 5 points into Earth both for toughness and to help my burn and bleed effects.

John I had the exact same issue as myself leveling my ele, I played dagger dagger so I was always in the enemies face. I HANDS DOWN recommend putting 10 points into arcane first and picking up Elemental Attunements trait I believe it’s number V. What this does is everytime you switch your attunements you get a buff for each one. If you are fighting mobs and you start taking damage, switch to earth, it will give you protection (take 33% less damage) then swap water which gives you regeneration. Air gives you swiftness (godsend while leveling) and fire gives you might. This increased my defenses tenfold. Protection is amazing compared with regen earth and water work well for defenses, and all you have to do is swap to the attunements

After that I personally put 15 points into water next, that’s just my preference, I picked up cleansing wave in water (cures a condition everytime you attune to water) then at 15 you get a self heal everytime you swap to water+ plus the regen from attuning to water (elemental attunements ability). Then I focused on my damaging abilities, with this spec I was able to take on 8-10 mobs at a time d/d without an issue from the constant heals. I specced pretty defensively for awhile while leveling since our damage is plenty to get he job done in PVE. (My opinion)

I don’t know if anyone has told you this yet, but you are going to want to be swapping attunements every chance you get. You don’t want to just sit in fire and use your fire spells then fire auto attack until they are back up, you want to cast your fire spells swap to another attunement, swap to the next one and keep going till your back at fire (or whatever you start at, I start in air personally).

Thanks, that’s very helpful. I do enjoy switching attunements but I probably don’t do it enough yet. Some of the air skills seem a bit weak, damage-wise. I tend to use fire and earth, although I tend toward earth because a fire mage is just such a cliche at this point.

What are your thoughts on the healing signet? Is it worth it, or is the default skill good enough?

In my eyes, ele’s are the most powerful class in the game. It just takes a high level of skill and knowledge to excel with it. I just got mine to 80 and i do ok in pvp and dominate in pve. I’ve seen my guild mates run train on kids and its insane. If you ever have played EVE online its a learning curve similar to that.

JohnJSal.8634:

Thanks, that’s very helpful. I do enjoy switching attunements but I probably don’t do it enough yet. Some of the air skills seem a bit weak, damage-wise. I tend to use fire and earth, although I tend toward earth because a fire mage is just such a cliche at this point.

What are your thoughts on the healing signet? Is it worth it, or is the default skill good enough?

I wouldn’t buy t right now with your points, dagger and dagger ele is the only time it is worth anything IMO, and glyph of elemental harmony offers some really good options. During a fight do you need more healing? Use GoEH in water for the extra regen, will you be at a good hp level after your heal and there are still more mobs? Use it in Earth for the extra protection. Want more damage? Use it in fire for might. Air for swiftness. It’s too good to pass up IMO. Offers tactical choices for us. Like said above, we have the lowest armor level and lowest health, but eles can be very tanky, our tankiness comes from 2 things protection and heals/regens, the more ways you can get those buffs, the easier your life will be and more you can focus on damage.

From the sounds of it you are using staff?

I don’t like the healing signet – Its one heal per action, not one heal per damage interval.

That is, Dragon Claw will trigger it once, not three times. The big draw of Signet of Malice for thieves is that it triggers per hit, per mob. Catch 3 mobs with pistol whip, you get 24x the healing.

Prefer Glyph of Elemental Harmony with Inscriptions (20 air). Cooldown reduction for glyphs is under Air too, so it has a 20 second cooldown and can either be 20 seconds of regeneration or 20 seconds of swiftness.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

JohnJSal.8634:

Thanks, that’s very helpful. I do enjoy switching attunements but I probably don’t do it enough yet. Some of the air skills seem a bit weak, damage-wise. I tend to use fire and earth, although I tend toward earth because a fire mage is just such a cliche at this point.

What are your thoughts on the healing signet? Is it worth it, or is the default skill good enough?

I wouldn’t buy t right now with your points, dagger and dagger ele is the only time it is worth anything IMO, and glyph of elemental harmony offers some really good options. During a fight do you need more healing? Use GoEH in water for the extra regen, will you be at a good hp level after your heal and there are still more mobs? Use it in Earth for the extra protection. Want more damage? Use it in fire for might. Air for swiftness. It’s too good to pass up IMO. Offers tactical choices for us. Like said above, we have the lowest armor level and lowest health, but eles can be very tanky, our tankiness comes from 2 things protection and heals/regens, the more ways you can get those buffs, the easier your life will be and more you can focus on damage.

From the sounds of it you are using staff?

I’m not really settled on any particular weapon yet, although I tend to use S/D or D/D more than the staff right now, unless I know I’m heading into multiple mobs. I feel pretty safe with the staff in fire attunement, so I tend to bring that into my personal story, not knowing what I’ll face. Otherwise, I’m still experimenting with all the skills, because they all seem pretty fun.

cero.1209:

In my eyes, ele’s are the most powerful class in the game. It just takes a high level of skill and knowledge to excel with it. I just got mine to 80 and i do ok in pvp and dominate in pve. I’ve seen my guild mates run train on kids and its insane. If you ever have played EVE online its a learning curve similar to that.

Or to illustrate the above:

One of the most powerful skills on staff is Eruption (Earth #2) – get used to comboing with it by placing it and then casting a field over it. Either use it to buff allies at range or buff yourself by casting it where you’re standing.

I play mainly D/D but by improving your reflexes and practising your ground targeting you’ll be so much better when you do need to use a staff (it happens). Also get used to using D/D against groups of mobs as it lays the foundation for when you decide to pvp later.

And also, always chill tougher opponents. The reduction in attack frequency directly translates to your survivability. You can even chill them to slow down their attacks, then cast lightning hammer and do the AoE blind chains which now, thanks to the chill effect, makes them perma blind and unable to hit you for the duration of the chill effect.

And my advice when leveling is to get to know all weapon sets intimately. D/D is great for dueling and roaming, but staff definitely has its uses in PvP, especially WvW.

Some great tips here, marking this thread so I can review it later. I’ve just started an ele after life as a warrior, and it’s a big change (which is what I was looking for.)

OMG we have a Warrior convert! NIIIICE! Good luck man, remember we’re all here for you, we fight with each other like a real family does but at the end of the day it’s because we love our class so much!

Gaudrath.6725:

And also, always chill tougher opponents. The reduction in attack frequency directly translates to your survivability. You can even chill them to slow down their attacks, then cast lightning hammer and do the AoE blind chains which now, thanks to the chill effect, makes them perma blind and unable to hit you for the duration of the chill effect.

And my advice when leveling is to get to know all weapon sets intimately. D/D is great for dueling and roaming, but staff definitely has its uses in PvP, especially WvW.

Ok, this may make me sound like a total noob, but a lot of the condition effects seem worthless. I mean really, applying chill or invulnerability or whatever else is great, but the durations are always like 2 seconds. I barely have time to do anything else before the duration is over! What am I missing about this?

Chill is a great condition for kiting and slowing down an opponent, 2 seconds of chill is enough for a group member that is getting pounded on to great a gap between themselves and the boss. All these effects stack, so other players applying chill will stack the chill to higher numbers. Blinds are usually short duration but hey are huge. A 2 second blind is all that’s really needed as it stops the next incoming attack. Immobilize for PVE and bosses is a great ability to allow for movement changes between teammates. Teammate A can get away while low life while the boss is immobilized, while teammate B can move in and Set up a combo (like churning earth, which is better on mobs tht aren’t moving all over.

What is your main focus PVP or PVE? It would be easier to explain things with examples if we knew your focus

Ah yes, perhaps that’s the difference. I’m mainly interested in PvE and simply playing the profession well while leveling by myself (and doing events). I know leveling is probably the least interesting aspect to many people, but I actually enjoy the process of learning and using the profession mechanics, so my focus (and the reason I asked this question) is to figure out how to play the profession well while taking on 1-3 mobs at a time, by myself.

Learning special tactics for group events would be great too, because I do events, but mainly I just want to know what I might be doing wrong because I lose health so fast and die fairly often. I stay mobile and I even got gear with vitality and toughness, but I still feel like a piece of paper in combat.

JohnJSal you are not doing anything wrong by dying fast, in fact I started a thread on this very topic when I first picked up the ele and started leveling and playing. I was getting one shotted by Amrit bottle throwers at lvl 7 and had a rough time till lvl 20. After 20 with elemental attunement it became much easier to level, and by the time I was 30’s and up with extra healing, I stacked some toughness power gear I was destroying groups of mobs.

Edit: found the link here
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Feedback-brand-new-ele/first#post468703

BlueprintLFE.2358:

JohnJSal you are not doing anything wrong by dying fast, in fact I started a thread on this very topic when I first picked up the ele and started leveling and playing. I was getting one shotted by Amrit bottle throwers at lvl 7 and had a rough time till lvl 20. After 20 with elemental attunement it became much easier to level, and by the time I was 30’s and up with extra healing, I stacked some toughness power gear I was destroying groups of mobs.

Edit: found the link here
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Feedback-brand-new-ele/first#post468703

Interesting read. That’s just about how I feel right now. In fact, I just logged off with the though “Okay, maybe I’ll try a ranger or a necro…”

I REALLY like the mechanics of the elementalist, but I just died about three times, even after trying some tricks like switching to water for some healing and regen and using Healing Rain + Arcane Wave (which DID help, but still).

I’ve never enjoyed playing classes in any game where I end a fight with less than half of my health, and that’s what happens every time with the elementalist. I also don’t want to HAVE to switch to water in every fight just to stay alive. I like having that as an option if I get into trouble and pull too many mobs, for example, but for that to be a required tactic in any fight is just ridiculous.

So I don’t know. I don’t want to give up yet, but at the same time there’s no reason for me to continue playing a profession that frustrates me every few minutes and makes the game not fun anymore.

I suppose I’ll try it a bit more though. I’m not even 20 yet, but just GETTING to 20 is too much of a chore.

Well mate it’s only going to get easier. The thing is our attunements are meant to be used frequently. Elementalist class actually has one of the best survivability in the game. Right next to guardians. I play bunker in pvp and I can take on multiple people for a long time, the thing is I am jumping into water attunements every chance I can to heal myself, and chill, then jumping right out into another attunement. The attunements are meant to be used on every fight, the elementalist class is IMO the most rewarding class to learn and play, it’s complex and takes a bit to play well, but when you get there it is a great feeling. Your survivability is going to get better song worry about that. In fact I just read back on that and remembered the difference it’s like night and day now. Just have to keep moving and swapping through your attunements. Sounds like you picked up a good combo with healing rain plus arcane wave, just wait until you get some trait points that give you protection and some healing abilities it will be a lot better.

Mobs will stop one shotting you, and hitting you hard trust me. I run explorer mode dungeons and fractals and I am always the last one standing and usually the only reason I die is because I either get over confident, or I am trying to rez someone.

Edit: I completely agree with Creslin give D/D a shot, you get a few really good cc’s to help you keep mobs on their backsides.

JohnJSal.8634:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

JohnJSal you are not doing anything wrong by dying fast, in fact I started a thread on this very topic when I first picked up the ele and started leveling and playing. I was getting one shotted by Amrit bottle throwers at lvl 7 and had a rough time till lvl 20. After 20 with elemental attunement it became much easier to level, and by the time I was 30’s and up with extra healing, I stacked some toughness power gear I was destroying groups of mobs.

Edit: found the link here
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Feedback-brand-new-ele/first#post468703

Interesting read. That’s just about how I feel right now. In fact, I just logged off with the though “Okay, maybe I’ll try a ranger or a necro…”

I REALLY like the mechanics of the elementalist, but I just died about three times, even after trying some tricks like switching to water for some healing and regen and using Healing Rain + Arcane Wave (which DID help, but still).

I’ve never enjoyed playing classes in any game where I end a fight with less than half of my health, and that’s what happens every time with the elementalist. I also don’t want to HAVE to switch to water in every fight just to stay alive. I like having that as an option if I get into trouble and pull too many mobs, for example, but for that to be a required tactic in any fight is just ridiculous.

So I don’t know. I don’t want to give up yet, but at the same time there’s no reason for me to continue playing a profession that frustrates me every few minutes and makes the game not fun anymore.

I suppose I’ll try it a bit more though. I’m not even 20 yet, but just GETTING to 20 is too much of a chore.

I actually found the lower levels to be dumb easy, but I was D/D. I would just rush in with my fire skills, and the mobs would be dead quickly. Churning earth is also great damage…and you can lightning flash while you are casting it.

I would say give D/D a shot.

Also…Ele really is meant to switch attunements frequently. You shouldn’t really resent having to switch to whatever attunement, that’s just the playstyle of the class.

You say that you really like the elementalist mechanics, that’s good, just have some patience and it will get easier, then you can really enjoy the mechanics. (PM me if you need any specific help and I can run you through combos and such as well as builds and advice.)

I would agree with Creslin, give D/D a try.

Also, I would add that as an Ele, you are going to be severely punished for two things.

1) Standing still. You MUST NOT DO THIS. Be moving and dodging all the time. I call this dancing.
2) Not changing attunements. You should be rotating your attunements in many cases almost as soon as you can.

I had the same problem you did when I reached my later teens on the ele. But once I tried D/D and learned to ‘dance’ and pop that Ring of Fire/Arcane Blast combo things started to ‘click’ and it got a lot easier.

PS: It never got easy for me, just easier.

When I started playing Elementalist, it went something like this:
Levels 1-12: This is really fun! Look at all these weapon skills I get!
Levels 13-30: I do good damage, but WHY AM I DYING SO MUCH.
Levels 31+: Oh. That’s how you play an elementalist. This is really fun!

I’ve been doing only PvE, and when I’m lazy and fighting trash mobs I’ll just stick to Fire attunement. I spec’ed pretty heavy into Fire though, so most non-veteran mobs fall pretty quick to Burning Speed > Ring of Fire > Arcane Wave > Drake’s Breath > Fire Grab.

The real fun though is when you go up against something tougher. It feels awesome when you know how to dance through your attunements and can take down veteran mobs 4 levels higher than you just because they can’t touch you.

I’m in the same boat as OP, but i’m RTFM and from what i’m seeing it’s important to get the boon stacking traits asap.

Until then, I’m feeling squishy but at least understanding why.

Well, I just came back from another play session of basically just killing mobs (of equal level) and testing out some combos. I was using S/D, but I do like D/D too, so I’ll try that as well.

This time, I switched attunements like a madman and it was not only fun, but I did seem to kill them faster than either sticking with one element or just switching to a second one. I used all four all the time, and it’s just the right amount of complex playstyle that I think will keep the profession interesting to play (and hopefully keep me alive!).

One thing I’m learning and really need to focus on is that I can create combos myself. I always assumed combos were more for group play, and with my mesmer I never bothered with them, and didn’t seem to need them anyway. But with the elementalist, it seems like I can create a lot of combos myself, whether AoE blast, or healing, or whatever else. I need to study the skills a little and experiment a bit more.

plasmacutter.2709:

I’m in the same boat as OP, but i’m RTFM and from what i’m seeing it’s important to get the boon stacking traits asap.

Until then, I’m feeling squishy but at least understanding why.

Yeah, this seems to be another aspect of the elementalist that I didn’t realize at first. They rely on the boons you get, either from your healing skill, or the Arcana major trait, or combos, or wherever else. They help a lot, especially regen and protection. I’m looking forward to having 10 points in Arcana for that trait.

JohnJSal.8634:

Well, I just came back from another play session of basically just killing mobs (of equal level) and testing out some combos. I was using S/D, but I do like D/D too, so I’ll try that as well.

This time, I switched attunements like a madman and it was not only fun, but I did seem to kill them faster than either sticking with one element or just switching to a second one. I used all four all the time, and it’s just the right amount of complex playstyle that I think will keep the profession interesting to play (and hopefully keep me alive!).

One thing I’m learning and really need to focus on is that I can create combos myself. I always assumed combos were more for group play, and with my mesmer I never bothered with them, and didn’t seem to need them anyway. But with the elementalist, it seems like I can create a lot of combos myself, whether AoE blast, or healing, or whatever else. I need to study the skills a little and experiment a bit more.

There ya go mate Gratz, sounds like you are getting it

The eles survivability and tankiness comes from protection and healing. Maximizing those uptimes will keep you alive and killing things.

Great to hear, John!

Also, if you’re looking at combos (which I am shamefully just learning to use well), you should know that a couple of the elementalist skills are combo-able even though they are not labeled as such in the tooltips. I don’t remember the main hand scepter skills, as I haven’t used it in a while but here are a few I just found out about recently:
Main hand dagger in earth’s Magnetic Grasp is a Leap Finisher.
Off hand dagger in earth’s Churning Earth and Earthquake are blast finishers.

Here’s sort of a fun progression I’ve been using just now:

Air: 2, 3, 4, 5 > Fire: 2, 3, 4, walk/roll back so they cross the fire twice, 5 > Earth: 4 if they’re close enough to knock them down, 3 if blind would be helpful at this point, maybe 1 for some bleeding, and if necessary > Water: 3, 5 for healing and a bit more damage

It’s very rewarding to do all this in the space of about 3-4 seconds. It feels much better than when I just ran around creating clones of myself. (Not that a staff mesmer wasn’t a blast too)

Edit: Oh yeah, this is S/D

cznrhubarb.5946:

Great to hear, John!

Also, if you’re looking at combos (which I am shamefully just learning to use well), you should know that a couple of the elementalist skills are combo-able even though they are not labeled as such in the tooltips. I don’t remember the main hand scepter skills, as I haven’t used it in a while but here are a few I just found out about recently:
Main hand dagger in earth’s Magnetic Grasp is a Leap Finisher.
Off hand dagger in earth’s Churning Earth and Earthquake are blast finishers.

Good to know! I was wondering why those earth ones weren’t part of some kind of combo!

cznrhubarb.5946:

When I started playing Elementalist, it went something like this:
Levels 1-12: This is really fun! Look at all these weapon skills I get!
Levels 13-30: I do good damage, but WHY AM I DYING SO MUCH.

This is so funny because it was the same for me. When I created my elementalist a few nights go, I played for a few hours straight and was learning all the skills, and I was like “Oh my god EVERYTHING they can do is awesome and does a ton of damage and looks cool, etc. etc.”

And then the next night when I hit around level 11-12, I started taking a ton of damage and dying and suddenly went from “This is amazing” to “What the hell just happened to me overnight?”

Another thing that can help. Keep your gear up to date. Just buy some blues/greens every 4-5 levels from the trading post, selling your old gear to a vendor. The cost is minimal and it can really make a difference.

Berial.4860:

Another thing that can help. Keep your gear up to date. Just buy some blues/greens every 4-5 levels from the trading post, selling your old gear to a vendor. The cost is minimal and it can really make a difference.

This. ALWAYS keep your gear up to date. I made that mistake during my first go at the elementalist, also kept dying a lot and doing no damage. During early levels it makes a huge difference.

Berial.4860:

Another thing that can help. Keep your gear up to date. Just buy some blues/greens every 4-5 levels from the trading post, selling your old gear to a vendor. The cost is minimal and it can really make a difference.

Yeah, I definitely try to do this often. In fact, I figured this might have been part of my problem when I first started having trouble. I hadn’t really upgraded from my level 1-2 gear and there I was level 12. Of course, even after upgrading I had some problems, hence this thread

The staff combo sequence I use is this:

Fire(3,2) -> Earth(4,2,5) (I also use 3 if the enemies have ranged weapons and/or 5 if mobs are in line) -> Air(5,4) (I might also use 2 to push a mob into the field to shock it) -> Water (2,4) (might use 5 if there are allies nearby) -> Back to Fire.

Rinse and repeat…oh and watch all of the boons stack up lol!

It was the same for me, at the start I was just amazed at all the cool skills (“I can pound stuff with a giant fire spike and send a fiery pheonix to blow’em up!”), then I started dying.. alot.

I would suggest dagger/dagger, when you get to level 30 respec into 20 arcana. The reduced cooldown on attunement swapping makes everything just smoother. My “rotation” for mobs is something like: (air)Ride the Lightning → updraft → Shocking Aura →(fire) Burning Speed → Flame Breath → Ring of Fire → (earth) Earthquake(combo with Ring of Fire for might stacks) → Ring of Earth. I improvise in other spells but this is my bread and butter for just killing hoards of mobs. :P Fire Grab is a nice bonus whenever of cooldown. Ligthning Hammer is also good for just killing stuff with almost perma-blind, though very faceroll-ish.

You can take on alot of mobs at the same time like this if you pay attention to when to dodge and when to go into water to slow them down, kite around and heal yourself. You can pretty much solo any melee champion, constantly kiting around. Churning Earth with it’s long cast time is good to use with Lightning Flash(teleport, 900 range). If you see a bunch of mobs, initiate combat with a Churning Earth, teleporting into them just before the spell goes off.

Also I suggest getting a Sigil of Battle in one of your weapons, since every attunement change counts as a weapon switch, you get alot of might stacks this way.

Lifeson.4352:

It was the same for me, at the start I was just amazed at all the cool skills (“I can pound stuff with a giant fire spike and send a fiery pheonix to blow’em up!”), then I started dying.. alot.

I would suggest dagger/dagger, when you get to level 30 respec into 20 arcana. The reduced cooldown on attunement swapping makes everything just smoother. My “rotation” for mobs is something like: (air)Ride the Lightning -> updraft -> Shocking Aura ->(fire) Burning Speed -> Flame Breath -> Ring of Fire -> (earth) Earthquake(combo with Ring of Fire for might stacks) -> Ring of Earth. I improvise in other spells but this is my bread and butter for just killing hoards of mobs. :P Fire Grab is a nice bonus whenever of cooldown. Ligthning Hammer is also good for just killing stuff with almost perma-blind, though very faceroll-ish.

You can take on alot of mobs at the same time like this if you pay attention to when to dodge and when to go into water to slow them down, kite around and heal yourself. You can pretty much solo any melee champion, constantly kiting around. Churning Earth with it’s long cast time is good to use with Lightning Flash(teleport, 900 range). If you see a bunch of mobs, initiate combat with a Churning Earth, teleporting into them just before the spell goes off.

Also I suggest getting a Sigil of Battle in one of your weapons, since every attunement change counts as a weapon switch, you get alot of might stacks this way.

You can’t spec 20 into anything until you are level 40.

As a side note, are you serious though about attunement swapping counting as weapon swapping for sigils? I thought we just couldn’t use those sigils because we couldn’t weapon swap. If that’s true, you have just made my night.

Yes, attunement swapping counts as a weapon swap for the purposes of sigils.

cznrhubarb.5946:

Lifeson.4352:

It was the same for me, at the start I was just amazed at all the cool skills (“I can pound stuff with a giant fire spike and send a fiery pheonix to blow’em up!”), then I started dying.. alot.

I would suggest dagger/dagger, when you get to level 30 respec into 20 arcana. The reduced cooldown on attunement swapping makes everything just smoother. My “rotation” for mobs is something like: (air)Ride the Lightning -> updraft -> Shocking Aura ->(fire) Burning Speed -> Flame Breath -> Ring of Fire -> (earth) Earthquake(combo with Ring of Fire for might stacks) -> Ring of Earth. I improvise in other spells but this is my bread and butter for just killing hoards of mobs. :P Fire Grab is a nice bonus whenever of cooldown. Ligthning Hammer is also good for just killing stuff with almost perma-blind, though very faceroll-ish.

You can take on alot of mobs at the same time like this if you pay attention to when to dodge and when to go into water to slow them down, kite around and heal yourself. You can pretty much solo any melee champion, constantly kiting around. Churning Earth with it’s long cast time is good to use with Lightning Flash(teleport, 900 range). If you see a bunch of mobs, initiate combat with a Churning Earth, teleporting into them just before the spell goes off.

Also I suggest getting a Sigil of Battle in one of your weapons, since every attunement change counts as a weapon switch, you get alot of might stacks this way.

You can’t spec 20 into anything until you are level 40.

As a side note, are you serious though about attunement swapping counting as weapon swapping for sigils? I thought we just couldn’t use those sigils because we couldn’t weapon swap. If that’s true, you have just made my night.

Yes, but remember that the sigils tend to have internal cooldowns of around 10 seconds. So we don’t get any more benefit than other classes due to our more frequent swaps.

Servanin.5021:

10805 base HP: Guardian, Thief, Elementalist
15082 base HP: Mesmer, Engineer, Ranger
18372 base HP: Warrior, Necromancer

Theres no different in armor between classes of the same armor-type, and even between them it isn’t that significant. IIRC, the difference between full exotic light and exotic heavy at 80 is somewhere around 294 toughness.

One thing I saw recently surprised the heck out of me. I was checking stats without armor for info to respond to another thread. My 80 ele’s base power (no traits, no gear at all) was 916. I then checked my 80 Necro in the same fashion. With no gear, the Necro was at power 1306. Traits were 30 points, for plus 300 Power. Assuming the trait is adding just 300, that would make power = 1006, 90 higher than the Ele’s.

Has anyone else noticed this, and does else anyone think it’s odd?