Guild Wars 2

First off I enjoy the elementalist so i decided to make it my next alt to 80, All the attunement swapping and I quite enjoy the support the staff provides.

I’m wondering what’s the best way to go from 1-80 without having too much pain, as I have died a couple of times and often take long to kill anything. What’s the best weapon to level? I heard D/D is pretty good, I also need to know what traits I need to invest in first and if there’s any skills you recommend. I’ve played to 80 with a necro, where I used minions and conditions and a warrior where I just HB everything.

So let’s say a simple leveling guide would be great like for example, use D/D. Pick these traits from level x to y. These utilities help out solo play, on higher levels you might need this and these are the skills rotations, etc. etc.

Any advice appreciated.

Currently level 21

I would look at dapheonix’s d/d guide and just trait as much of it as you can at each level.
Concentrate on survival and get used to moving constantly as a cloth melee.
Gear for vit and toughness. Heal a lot, attunement swap constantly.
Learn your self combos. With daggers you will start with fire4 combo field then attune to earth for e3 and e4. Arcane Wave is also a blast finisher so try using that as one of your utilities. That combo string will give you a fire shield and 6 stacks of might.

On hitting gendarren fields recently I started to feel pretty squishy. Went water/earth spec just for the stats and it made a world of difference, though perhaps I just needed one of them. Anyway my advice is not to worry about traits until you unlock the second tier, spec for stats and don’t hesitate to respec if you need to.

d/d is what a lot, maybe even most ele’s run now a days, although I’m seeing a lot more s/d in WvW and play it some myself too. However, d/d really doesn’t shine until you get those trait points and learn how to perma lots of boons during fights, and even some when you’re just out and about (an ele who can’t perma swiftness doesn’t deserve to ele).

I was old school ele, so the learning curve was rough for every class from day 1 of release, ours especially. There’s lots of great guides now that the game is a few months old, I suggest reading some (I know I have been on mesmer and thief, the next two alts I’m working on).

Although some disagree, my preference is dungeons for leveling, plus you’ll want the exotics when you hit 80 so it’ll be nice to have all those tokens stored up by then, imagine hitting lvl 80 and immediately being able to exotic out all your gear, and have enough gold to skin over with tier 3 cultural… dungeons only viable way to do that…

downside of course… the grind… for me that’s not a problem, I usually only have a few hours a day to play at best, so it’s nice to feel like I’ve really accomplished something in a short amount of time.

Up until lvl 35, map out all the starting areas and the 25-35 areas.
After that, do all 3 explore paths on AC daily. You do not need to have done story mode to get into explore, just someone in your group must have. Those 3 paths net you a fair bit of tokens for the dungeon, about 3g or more, should jump you up at least 3 levels no matter what level your at (each dungeon path completed gives 70% towards next level, plus all the exp you get from the kills) and will take you about an hour and a half to complete in a good group. After that, hit those map completions again.

As far as wep sets, d/d is amazing the higher you get, need to be able to spend those trait points for it to really shine. Up until that point, as boring as staff is for some people, its a great way to learn about combo’s and finishers, the lifeblood of any ele. Scepter/dagger is another viable option at earlier levels, and a little more exciting gameplay than staff… but d/d once you get to lvl 40 or 50 and on is a favorite of most.

I leveled using S/D. This is a great guide and has an overview of how to approach a mob(s) and the attacks to use. Not only that, it explains the methodology, which is super useful. Especially on how to stack might. You’ll start downing mobs quickly while minimizing downtime. http://www.thehealthygamer.com/2012/09/06/guild-wars-2-elementalist-scepter-dagger-leveling-build/

One thing is certain, it isn’t about “one correct” attunement to stick with or “one” setup or “one” weapon set. You’ll find you are most efficient by switching attunements during fights and playing smartly.

One thing for certain, Ele is a hugely complex class and you’ll hear tons of opinions. That said, I need to read up on D/D and how to use effectively. It’s just hard to go back after getting used to S/D.

And even after the last patch, they have updated our description. I got the idea we were a true dps mage class instead of utility so keep that in mind.

my favorite facepalm… when someone in your dungeon group, before you’ve even started a section says…

“just stay in fire.”

lol to those who don’t ele… and epic facepalm when it’s another ele… those are the guys I hunger for in WvW

15 water and 10 arcane at least
Edit: 15 water for the minor, and 10 arcane for the boons on attunement change