Guild Wars 2

Melee mobs are really really easy , but when ranged mob comes I get owned pretty badly. especially if there are 2,3 of them. How to fight vs them?

Using D/D

Easiest way:
Staff
Dodge, magnetic shield and arcane shield untill you can pull them together, earth glyph of storms, nuke down.

The thing is staff damage is really really weak …

D/D is very weak against multiple ranged mobs honestly. If you are fighting in an area with lots of ranged I would suggest switching to staff. Earth 3 is massively useful in that context.

If you open with eruption——>shockwave——->earth 3 at max range then switch to fire and use fire 3 and just move out of their range and let them get dotted to death that is usually the safest way to go. You can lay down ground aoes as you back up for some extra damage. As with anything earth glyph of storms helps here too.

Masternewbz.4953:

The thing is staff damage is really really weak …

Damage is enough and you can survive.

You probably don’t have traits or a good staff. As a staff user, I find ranged mob very easy than melee mobs because most of them don’t move, which becomes the best bait for your GTAOE. Conditional damage is lot more powerful for staff skills, which may kill the same mob in 5 seconds while it takes 10 seconds with direct damage.

Do you use Staff with an off hand or a dagger?

Also toughness / vitality any good or should I Just focus on Power?

Staff is 2handed.

I would gear for power and/or condition. Elementalist survivability is more active than passive. The reason to spec into earth/water isn’t so much for the +vitality or toughness as it is for some of the survivability traits.

I understand your dilemma. The main problem is that with melee enemies we have a lot of cc abilities that help us kite our enemies but with ranged enemies we are mostly forced to take the damage. This singular aspect of the elementalist is ok with me as every class should have some kind of counter… It would be nice though if our own skills weren’t our counter. Ride the lightning right next to an enemy and being stuck in rtl form for a few seconds just gets you killed.