Guild Wars 2

I love the Elementalist play style and effects, but PvE is a real pain at lower levels (one hit deaths all the time are frustrating). Do Elementalists get tougher as they level up? Is there a recommended leveling spec to help alleviate this?

I’m only level 10, though it has been the hardest profession to get there by far. I play D/D or Staff usually.

Yes if you gear and trait for it? I am not sure what kind of response you are looking for, but anecdotally, I can survive a group of enemies PVE solo quite easily when I started using armor with toughness in it.

Yes, if you don’t wear glass cannon gear and take a few defensive traits.

At early levels you die super quickly, but Drake’s Breath also basically oneshots mobs. This balances out the further you get levelwise, but if you keep neglecting defensive stats it’ll cost you. I find it a bit odd that it is so easy to have a build that does not perform well at all in dungeons (and even while leveling). This isn’t even an Elementalist problem. I have a Thief and he got oneshot all the time, too, before I equipped several Soldier parts. Going all or mostly offensive stats should definitely make you squishy, but getting oneshot by many mobs basically makes those builds/gear combinations unplayable.

Ele gets less squishy if bunker traited with inquest gear. However the moment you stop moving and some1 has a chance to unload their burst on you… you are dead. However if you can survive that, than you cant die and cant really kill anything.

Thiefs never get one shoted except by some bosses and other thiefs. I play full berserker thief and its EXTREMLY survivable compared to ele’s. 1 pistol whip regens almost half of your hp and its spammable.

Personally I feel the game caters to warriors/guardians. They can wade in and kill it while every other class has to hop around the mob like a bunny with it’s behind on fire while simultaneously trying to hit it. So, unless you don’t mind getting carpel tunnel syndrome by trying to hit all your movement keys and skills and specials in a mad rush every time you engage more than one mob at a time (which is made inevitable by the way they make the aggro work and the spawn areas) …roll a warrior or guardian. I know I know….it’s a disappointing answer but you’ll see that answer “roll a warrior” on just about every class forum (including the thief one) if you dare to say anything about being squishy. That and the typical “learn to play” or “I’ve never had any problems and I soloed bosses on -mine-” type answers (to which I grant a HUGE grain of salt whenever I read them).

Short answer: Not really.

Less short answer: Not really, but there are some things you can do about it with defensive gear, traits and utilities (at the cost of much needed damage).

No not really, until you’re 60+ and can spec/gear for a decent amount of toughness. D/D is your best bet for PVE but you will still need to give up 1-2 utility slots for cantrips or glyph of storms (earth) just to perform at a similar level as other classes using auto-attack.

Ele’s are still pretty badly balanced. The only people disagreeing aren’t playing the other classes.

Not until level 40 or 60.
At level 40 you can switch to the Lightning Hammer build, the Hammer’s auto attack blinds nearby foes and thus greatly increases your survivability; use a Staff as your regular weapon for DEs. Or you can go 15 Water for the heal every time you swap to Water, and 20 points in Arcane Power to reduce the attunement cool down to ~10 seconds; with enough Precision gear Arcane Power VI becomes also powerful, especially in dungeons.
At level 60 you can add Evasive Arcana to the latter option which is another significant boost to your survivability.

I’m a level 80 elementalist and basically our game ends at BloodTide coast. You can continue further if you’ve got friends/guild members to keep you from getting hit and revive you when you get 1 or 2 hitted. You’ll lose money on harder maps due to frequent armor repair and telephoning when defeated. Some players insist on tanking, but you’ll do so little damage that it is a real joke.

LightningLockey.5938:

I’m a level 80 elementalist and basically our game ends at BloodTide coast. You can continue further if you’ve got friends/guild members to keep you from getting hit and revive you when you get 1 or 2 hitted. You’ll lose money on harder maps due to frequent armor repair and telephoning when defeated. Some players insist on tanking, but you’ll do so little damage that it is a real joke.

My ele has map completed PvE open world mostly solo; the game definitely does not end at Blood Tide.

Not saying it was easy, not comparing it to other classes; just saying it can survive/farm Orr (Half exotic/rare) and Frostgorge (Full rare).

I should add that I did all this using a staff, which popular opinion seems to indicate is not as good a solo weapon as daggers.

My experience at level 33 is that it does become less squishy. In fact, simply going back to a low-level zone with my ele makes him feel squishy again. One thing I attribute this to is the elementalist self-heals – they seem to be competitive at level 80, but scale down with level such that at low levels they often don’t feel like they’re doing anything at all.

Lightning hammer is also viable before 40 – having the trait to extend the number of charges helps, but it isn’t necessary. It’s probably the point at which you can switch from using sceptre/focus to staff, however, since sceptre/focus gives you the tools to deal with a close-in solo battle if your hammer isn’t currently available, while staff is better saved for use with friends or with lightning hammer backup.

Having lightning hammer as an option and knowing when to use it is a big boost to your survivability – the area blind on the end of a fast three-hit chain means against some opponents, it’s possible to take on packs without being hit at all.

“At early levels you die super quickly”? scratches head
unless you are trying to stand in front of a crowd of mobs auto-attacking, that’s not the case. If you move carefully, you should not have problems until late game…

As someone who just recently dinged 80 on my ele, after playing a few other classes, yes.

Yes and hell yes does it get better… But only if you spec water and arcane… Honestly I couldn’t even imagining pvping or pve’ing without 20-30 points in water and 20-30 points in arcane… The difference is completely night and day. One HUGE thing that I found out while playing SPVP and PVE and WvW was that The most important stats for me are 1) healing power and 2) toughness on gear, in fact I put 30 points into water and never put another stat or piece of gear into vitality, running with 13k health and I RARELY am downed in any dungeon, and I destroy people in SPVP and WVW. Healing power is huge for an ele, I should mention now I’m D/D.

I had the EXACT same problem as you while leveling 1-25 complete squishy, like 1 and 2 shotted from mobs squishy. I immediately put 10 points into arcane for the trait elemental attunements which makes a Huge difference because getting protection very time you swap to earth and regen every time you swap to water is massive to survivability.

So yes it does get better, I can Ride the Lightning into a group of 8 mobs and wreck the. All now in frost gorge (Orr is a little different) and in pvp I have no fear.
BUT and a huge but, ONLY if you spec for it.

Edit: There are probably Typos and Errors grammar wise, by I’m typing this From a phone at work and can’t fix them right now.

I’ve specced for damage and conditions for pve, which includes some toughness, and I’ve only learned the extreme importance of water traits in pvp (I actually used arcana for pve, so I knew how good it was beforehand).

And… yeah, it was tough in later areas. Overall manageable, with some really crazy unfair areas. You pretty much had to have elementalist mastered or near mastered by this point, and play piano with your keyboard while taking advantage of every single skill and even any hidden synergy you could think of. I wouldn’t mind that, if that was the true difficulty of the game.

But fact is, warriors and guardians breeze through those very same areas without needing to master their own professions. What gives?

This is when we get to know that the elementalist is truly an underpowered profession outside of a singlet rait build, even among the better players. When a very competent player can just barely go through orr with an elementalist while use Hundred Blades/ Symbol of Wrath + Whirling Wrath + Leap of Faith on everything and instant win or at least take at least half the HP of everything with a warrior/ guardian, there’s clearly something not balanced here.

And I was specced in fire/ earth. I don’t want to imagine and fire/ air elementalist. A burst profession that can’t burst? That must be pretty sad. :P

I really hope this thread doesn’t become another class comparison thread.

DiogoSilva.7089:

And I was specced in fire/ earth. I don’t want to imagine and fire/ air elementalist. A burst profession that can’t burst? That must be pretty sad. :P

My 30/20/0/0/20 didn’t do too bad in Orr.

I actually specced fire/air ankittenhinking of putting spec towards earth now because I’m feeling the squishiness as of lvl 59…
I plan to put 20 in earth, 20 fire, 20 air by the time i reach 80… im just gonna have to gear up with vitality and healing power on items and get power and precision from my traits…
hopefully it works out so i can actually tank for the first few seconds to land my AOEs.

i’m 80 and farming orr with 16k life and 1321 toughness. No problems farming really. It was only a problem when i was using a staff it was more of a support weapon.

Since going D/D or S/D things die so fast that I can even go chain pull or kill groups of 5-6.

I must agree. While the normal difficulty mobs (lvl 1-3 heart quests) are fairly easy. The bosses (champion bandit lvl 4) kill you in one hit, even at lvl 5. They use a pistal and shoot it so fast you endurance gets out sooner or later. Veterans similar. The champion pinesoul was incredible hard to survive (immobalize + one shot kill).

I must admit that after level 10 with a few points in trait, better rings (selfmade lvl 10 requirement), better armor, better weapons, it starts getting easier. It’s still not a piece of cake but i can solo harder mobs now (veterans).

But without all the cursing/learning period i had on other characters. Without the knowlegde out of that my d/d ele would probably have died 50+ times already. Elementalist requires you to know how the game works, and quickly understand the pro’s/cons of a skill set. Also requires you to build up some rotation and predict the mobs. (will it stun/daze/interrupt or not – quite important for skills like churning earth).

I say ele is now slightly (not much) underpowered to other profesison. The reason is basically because the moment they do a global boost and people find builds where you can quickly shift tru a lot of those skills, the damage boost really adds up so fast that ele quickly (could) become overpowered. Very hard to balance (devs own words) and they are right. I like the latest tweaks though.

Some call Evasive arcana op. I strongly disagree. Ele is punished with the overall worst surviving stats (hp/thoughness). Having strong ‘dodge’ tools is what keeps us alive. And to make the combo finisher work be must place a field EXACTLY where the dodge will end, etc. If you wanna heal a lot you must time attunement switches very well otherwise you have a 15 second (or lower with traits in arcane) cool down on element switching with is 5 second longer then normal weapon swap. I say ele suffers enough elsewhere to justify this strong (grandmaster after all) trait.

Some advice:

Get crafted Vit rings asap. I think at low levels the hp you get from them make a lot of difference. Can make diff between one shotted and survival. Also get gear as best as possible from drops (armor) with either power, condi damage, thoughness, but preferable vitality as stat. Don’t bother with precision. Healing power is good also, but vitality outshines it imo. (at leasst for now.)

I have a lvl 45 ele also, but i wan’t to play from scratch again so I will get better with dagger/dagger and other stuff. Ele you can only learn by practising hard.

use the focus. i was doing level 15 content at level 10.

Ele is a great class for learning how to strafe and dodge roll. It will make all your other classes seems easy. The class somewhat corrals you into being a glass canon. It exels at this role. If you dont like it, you can chose a different build or class. None of my other classes at 80 can touch what ele can do damage wise…but they dont get one shot by balista either.

The class just isn’t very well balanced yet. It’s behind the curve at low levels and even at the 80 with exotics level, it’s still a little behind the curve. The only build with any traction at end game level is full tank, with defensive traits.

It’s a fun class, but they totally ballsed up the balancing in the nerfs after BWE3.

Don’t think it will be less tissue paper.

I’m still having trouble finding the cannon in the “glass cannon”.

I have really tried to enjoy this elementalist class since its the only class I really like to play but this class has less fire power than someone’s bear pet which is harder to kill and can kill me faster than I hit. Its really a sad state that this class was great during beta but has turned into having abysmal skills that are lack lustre for me and a lot of others.

CHOAM.7852:

LightningLockey.5938:

I’m a level 80 elementalist and basically our game ends at BloodTide coast. You can continue further if you’ve got friends/guild members to keep you from getting hit and revive you when you get 1 or 2 hitted. You’ll lose money on harder maps due to frequent armor repair and telephoning when defeated. Some players insist on tanking, but you’ll do so little damage that it is a real joke.

My ele has map completed PvE open world mostly solo; the game definitely does not end at Blood Tide.

Not saying it was easy, not comparing it to other classes; just saying it can survive/farm Orr (Half exotic/rare) and Frostgorge (Full rare).

I should add that I did all this using a staff, which popular opinion seems to indicate is not as good a solo weapon as daggers.

Well that appears to be my problem, I can’t afford exotics and have been only able to get a few rares. The problem is dieing and armor repair drain my money too quick. I guess what I’m going to honestly have to do is buy gems and sell them for gold to get anywhere with my (frail)mentalist from what your suggesting.

LightningLockey.5938:

Well that appears to be my problem, I can’t afford exotics and have been only able to get a few rares. The problem is dieing and armor repair drain my money too quick. I guess what I’m going to honestly have to do is buy gems and sell them for gold to get anywhere with my (frail)mentalist from what your suggesting.

I didn’t have a full rare set until after I was level 80 for a few days. I crafted my set from farming materials. I don’t know if that’s a viable option for you.

No edit button… but you can also do the dragon in Sparkfly and Blazeridge for Greens and Yellows; the loot will scale up to your level-ish. Sell what you can’t use on TP, buy what you need.

LightningLockey.5938:

CHOAM.7852:

LightningLockey.5938:

I’m a level 80 elementalist and basically our game ends at BloodTide coast. You can continue further if you’ve got friends/guild members to keep you from getting hit and revive you when you get 1 or 2 hitted. You’ll lose money on harder maps due to frequent armor repair and telephoning when defeated. Some players insist on tanking, but you’ll do so little damage that it is a real joke.

My ele has map completed PvE open world mostly solo; the game definitely does not end at Blood Tide.

Not saying it was easy, not comparing it to other classes; just saying it can survive/farm Orr (Half exotic/rare) and Frostgorge (Full rare).

I should add that I did all this using a staff, which popular opinion seems to indicate is not as good a solo weapon as daggers.

Well that appears to be my problem, I can’t afford exotics and have been only able to get a few rares. The problem is dieing and armor repair drain my money too quick. I guess what I’m going to honestly have to do is buy gems and sell them for gold to get anywhere with my (frail)mentalist from what your suggesting.

-farm dragons or orr
-get gold equipment for CHEAP or from drops
-go to dungeons

i mean i could get an exotic set in 1 week despite farming the place with the worst drops in the game…..i.e. frostgorge…and i did that in all blue.

Also i m not so good but with DD you often won t get almost touched by opponents….so who cares if its squishy as long ans you aren t oneshot (thing that will happen when you are all blue )

You can face tank 1-3 mobs in cursed shores using staff wearing green berserkers gear.
You can! If i could be arsed i´d upload a video to shut up everyone who says otherwise.
Taking more enemies than that might be a bit harder than with other classes, but nowhere near as hard as people seem to think.

Pve balance is just fine, more than fine actualy, ele can do great in pve.

And pvp balance i´m not touching even with a kittening long pole.

maybe but i can tank (well its not the right term because you won t be damaged) 1-8 with a knight set and D/D…

i mean ._. ther’s quite a disparity in that..i mean not an experienced players….but a staff player havng issues with 2 mobs getting 6-8 without a problem JUST switching weapon…

LordByron.8369:

maybe but i can tank (well its not the right term because you won t be damaged) 1-8 with a knight set and D/D…

i mean ._. ther’s quite a disparity in that..i mean not an experienced players….but a staff player havng issues with 2 mobs getting 6-8 without a problem JUST switching weapon…

I can face tank 1-3 mobs, aka not take a single step from the location i start casting from.

If you actualy bother to dodge and move with staff, i can easily take as many as the game has ever thrown at me.

The only rare I have is my staff, exotic crafted armour now too, but I survive well as an ele. Dungeons such as Twilight Arbour and Sorrows Embrace I was the only one who didnt die against the exploding poison spiders or any of the 5 golems.

If survivability is an issue switch to focus off hand its skills are almost purely defensive, destroy projectiles, KD’s and a few seconds of invulnerability.

Also water 15 heals every time you switch to water along with regen from cantrips at 10. This means you can heal whilst in mist form and if you need your self heal still switch to water for an extra boost.

Arcane 10 can give a boon with every attunement switch including regen with water and protection with earth.

I am by no means a great player but I can fight my way through Orr on my own without too much trouble, as long as I am careful and pick my fights.

I don’t move well. But even as a stand-still player, I’d say “one-shot” is exaggerated. There’s time to defend and/or heal.

Now, if you’re ganked by too many mobs and can’t escape, there are problems. I die a lot, given how I play. But soloing, including in Orr, is pretty straightforward as long as you don’t often have to fight more than 2 mobs at once. (When I have to fight 3 mobs I make heavy use of my cooldowns.)

I play alternatively with staff, scepter/dagger, and scepter/focus. Given that I’m immobile, I’ve barely tried dagger mainhand.

And to add to what I just posted:

1. Mainly I had green armor and jewelry. I’ve begun to earn my rare/exotic stuff, but I’ve done so in the Cursed Shore.

2. I’ve generally used exotic weapons in the Cursed Shore.

Strang.8170:

LordByron.8369:

maybe but i can tank (well its not the right term because you won t be damaged) 1-8 with a knight set and D/D…

i mean ._. ther’s quite a disparity in that..i mean not an experienced players….but a staff player havng issues with 2 mobs getting 6-8 without a problem JUST switching weapon…

I can face tank 1-3 mobs, aka not take a single step from the location i start casting from.

If you actualy bother to dodge and move with staff, i can easily take as many as the game has ever thrown at me.

Im full exotic and find that hard to belive. Mobs hit for 2k+ and with berserker gear you have about 11k hp. 1-2 mobs sure, but anything more seems kitten dangerous. Considering mobs have interupts and knockdowns you will be moving or looking for a WP to respawn.
Go fraps your “easy” skills in grenth room. Run in and do all your fancy jumping all over the place. I could use some entertainment watching others porting to waypoints.

It is impossible to tank even one monster as a (frail)mentalist. For the most part I’ve got a knight set of armor on and if I’m in Straights of Devastation can barely survive 2 monster encounters and surviving a 3 monster encounter (other then running) is just a kittening miracle.

Going past the Straights of Devastation a 2 monster encounter is just plain death. A one monster encounter is just barely survivable. I’m trying to build up to Gossimar armor but can’t afford it even though I can craft it.

Well today is my last day at playing the elementalist. I have the mule parked at Divinities Reach as of now and tomorrow, my first day off, I’ll create a Charr warrior so I can actually start enjoying this game. The (frail)mentalist has been a huge mistake to get into and I’ve really tried to play it since the game launched as it is the only class I wanted to play.

Eh.. tanking 1 mob is easy for all classes. 1 mob gets me to half hp at best and if doesnt have distance closing ability i can sometimes kill it before it reaches me. Than again im max lvl with all exotic..

@bond
Are we talking about the room during the event, or when it´s just contested?

Also what mobs would you like me to face tank? And if it´s more than 3 or 4 of one specific mob, could you point me to where…they´re pretty mixed up bunch in there.

Bond.4813:

Im full exotic and find that hard to belive. Mobs hit for 2k+ and with berserker gear you have about 11k hp. 1-2 mobs sure, but anything more seems kitten dangerous. Considering mobs have interupts and knockdowns you will be moving or looking for a WP to respawn.
Go fraps your “easy” skills in grenth room. Run in and do all your fancy jumping all over the place. I could use some entertainment watching others porting to waypoints.

It is possible to “face tank” 3 -6 mobs. Just get your Greater earth element out and let him do the REAL tanking. Needless to say , face tanking without CD and buff is downright impossible . By the way I have 5 piece exotic .
PS: I found it is hard to pull more than 4 mob in orr. The mobs are far apart and they reset after you pull some distance.
While there are places where mobs move in group , they are generally weaker in dmg and lower in hp so these 6mobs I boasted of isn’t the type that hit for 2k per hit (more like 800).

@strang
Whatever floats your boat. Agroing that room and than trying to kill it i dont see you coming out alive without droping agro on them first.
As for face tanking.. again.. whatever you want. And yes, i am aware there are some kitten weak mobs.

@kok
Yes i know that with elemental its rather easy to kill a LOT of mobs at same time.
Well i pass through orr randomly when im on orich hunting and kitten some mobs are annoying. I dodge a LOT but when i get hooked and pulled im losing 30% hp at min. When i pull 3-4 mobs im mistforming and flashing away.

with DD you can:

earthquake/churning earth (avoid interrupts with armor of earth)
roll back
burning speed/ring of fire /fire grab
rtl updraft
frozen burst heal and if the mob group is still alive just summon your earth elemental….

there are even better strategies (this is easy >.>) but with this you can dish huge aoe damage so the number doesn t matter.
And this with a defensive build, you die if you finish your evasive skills/endurance….

With staff I (myself i know may people are better) i can just SLOW opponents contrl them but not kill them .-. before they can attack

Good tactic i didnt think of. Props to byron for it However i still dont see you surviving incoming dps from before earthquake and after it. Almost certain ud be forced to heal before you got to E5.

Bond.4813:

Good tactic i didnt think of. Props to byron for it However i still dont see you surviving incoming dps from before earthquake and after it. Almost certain ud be forced to heal before you got to E5.

as i said i m not so good (infact using combos properly would result even in deady damage), this is just the easiest tactic i could figure out but i can say you this

it works in orr also because you KD opponent and while they recover you start E5 and while charging you can use your armor of earth without interrupting the skill…
So you suffer lessdamage because opponent have really few time to hit you AND because you also have damage reduction, if something go wrong you still have plenty tactics to breathe and heal yourself….

It works really well in dungeons also…

The thing is you have to gather up creeps for earthquake. If 2 are ranged you will take loads of dmg before you gather em close enough to KD all of them. And that armor will end and when it does you will get hit badly. 1 cc from a mob is deadly when you have several mobs on your kitten since it means each gets at least 2 hits on you.

uh well it doesn t happen ._. dunno why but i really play lot of solo events in orr and i seldom die….maybe its because i run in exotic knight set >.> or for any other reason…

Or maybe because i roll towards opponent when they are close…

I obviously don t gather opponent running for minutes…i just kill groups i find….

Video of various face tanks and of clearing the grenth room coming up as soon as i figure out how to use movie maker and youtube…never done that before :/

I’ve mainly used scepter-dagger to lvl pve by myself. I think the real trick is switching attunements and using dodge effectively. The hardest part for me is taking on too many mobs at once or some skill point challenges.

Strang.8170:

Video of various face tanks and of clearing the grenth room coming up as soon as i figure out how to use movie maker and youtube…never done that before :/

+1
Also add in fails you had. Gotta see those

Not sure if this works…i´m complete noob at doing any of this kitten.
Didn´t really have fails, other than people interfering and me dying due to alt tabbing to check if the video capture worked. Well… not that i´d have kept them anyhow, atleast before seeing you post :/

And i stand corrected. Well done. Wouldnt ever think of blinds through storm. My issue would be using 70s long cd’s to pull those fights out. And you agroed 6 mobs at a time in grenth room. And why arent u using trait to expand staff aoe?
If my computer could handle fraps id show u what thief can do in 10s. Pull entire supply camp veterans (but need to LOS ranged mobs so they come to u) and melt em.