Guild Wars 2

So I bought the game about 3 days ago. Played a ranger up to about level 13, I’d say the game was what kept me entertained, the overall class was kind of boring. Noticed on forums and such that thieves and mesmers were kind of the really distinct classes that everyone seemed to have. Built a thief, and got to about level 14 with it and it was kind of annoying. The overall class was so squishy.

I was missing a few things down in the tattamin foothills or something like that, the thing was crawling with spiders, ettin and centaurs and I couldn’t do it solo at all. I was 14 and the bandits were 14/13. Spiders were too fast and centaurs seemed really smart and were all over me no matter how hard i tried to sneak around. The stealth mode button seemed kind of useless since 3 seconds later they were on top of me again. Did some reading and in PvE dungeons where I can see myself probably doing most the fun stuff(thats the stuff I like) the thief would just let me down overall.

Noticed most the dungeon stuff people talk about guardians and mesmers? Maybe some warriors here and there but guardians bore me and mesmers seem to be a pain too in PvE solo which I do most the time.

So my choices for my first up to level 80 char are elementist and warrior. Am i going to be able to solo with an elementist? Am I going to be happy with my choice at level 80 with dungeons and an elementist? Can i dabble with PvP and WvW with it?

I’ve noticed most the elementist forums has a lot of builds and strat talk where as the other profession forums are qq and complaining every other thread.

Any tips for a beginner would be nice or pointers to builds, new to the mmorpg thing. I’ve dabbled with rpgs before like skyrim, diablo 1 2 and 3 and baldurs gate. This game is just amazing so far and fun.

Elementalists are pretty weak at low levels in PVE. They just don’t have much going for them to stay alive without a lot of kiting.

Your best bet is having early trait points in water and arcane. 10 in arcane gets you the elemental attunement trait which gives you a useful boon when you switch attunements. Easily our best trait overall. Points in the arcane line also reduce the attunement recharge time down from 15 seconds (with 30 in the line, it’s 9 seconds) so you’re not stuck spamming our weak #1 attacks as much. With 10 in arcane the recharge time will be 13 seconds instead of 15. It helps a lot more than it sounds.

After that, going into water will help you live longer. 15 points in water is suggested for leveling (or more, but i definitely recommend at least 15). 5 gets you a trait that gives you a weak regen effect when you’re in water, 10 gives you one that clears a condition when you switch to water, and 15 is the big one. The healing ripple trait gives you a decent amount of healing any time you switch to water.

Once you have 10 in arcane and 15 in water, you can make up your own mind from there. But that’ll make life a lot easier for you. At that point switching to water will clear a condition from you, heal you, give you soothing mists (the weak regen), and also the regeneration effect itself (elemental attunement trait from arcane gives you the regen effect when you switch to water). Then you’ll be able to keep yourself alive against the usual stuff without any issue.

Don’t have to follow this advice, could level to 80 no problem with any of a million setups. But if you’re not sure what to do and need a solid starting point, you can follow the above.

Don’t be thrown off if you start one and play for a few hours, then think “Elementalists are terrible!”. It’s just a low level thing.

Metamega.9025:

Am I going to be happy with my choice at level 80 with dungeons and an elementist? Can i dabble with PvP and WvW with it?

Short answer: Yes!

Elementalists may lack some things which other classes can do better, but they excel in one thing, maybe the most important of all.
They are fun to play.

They are by no means bad in solo PvE, they might die fast (even faster then thieves) if you build full glass cannon but they do have more healing possibilities to make up for it a bit. Their damage might be quite low but it’s mostly AoE, perfect for dungeons.

I’d say go level one and see if by level 15-30 you’re satisfied. If not then maybe try out yet another class. Warrior is definitely better then eles in most situations but are also incredibly boring to play.

If you are new to the game, put 10 point in water. your dmg might suffer a bit but you will be decently tanky. After you get 15 into water, you are good to go because switching to water is another heal + all the heal skill in water attunement. Ideal solo PvE weapon set would be Scepter/Dagger. If you are more comfortable with staying up close D/D is not bad either. Don’t try staff unless you find yourself doing big dynamic event most of the time. Staff is good but you want to be able to swap attunement a lot with the weapon.

I have a level 76 elementalist and I’m still running around in level 65 rares and I have no problem surviving in PVE, so the squishiness gets better.

You may feel very squishy compared to your Ranger. You have no pet to tank for you.

The fun thing with ele is that it’s such a complex class (mesmers as well) that every day I find something new I want to try or change. I’ve been playing ele since launch and mesmer shortly after. If you were immediately bored with ranger then I think warrior and guardian will not hold your attention. Thief is a boat load of fun once you hit lvl 80, especially in WvW (12k backstabs?!? yes please), but I just don’t find that it captures my attention because, at least for me it’s very “rinse and repeat” and I want a class that allows you to react to a situation… thief is more about molding a situation to fit your playstyle, Ele and Mesmer are about molding your playstyle to fit the situation.

Ele and Mesmer keep you coming back wondering if you could do this differently, or trait this slightly different, or put these two or three things together in a different way to change it up. “Just Smash A” builds and classes just aren’t for me, if they’re not for you either, then stick with ele till at least lvl 50 or 60, it starts getting oh so much better.

SlimGenre.6417:

The fun thing with ele is that it’s such a complex class (mesmers as well) that every day I find something new I want to try or change. I’ve been playing ele since launch and mesmer shortly after. If you were immediately bored with ranger then I think warrior and guardian will not hold your attention. Thief is a boat load of fun once you hit lvl 80, especially in WvW (12k backstabs?!? yes please), but I just don’t find that it captures my attention because, at least for me it’s very “rinse and repeat” and I want a class that allows you to react to a situation… thief is more about molding a situation to fit your playstyle, Ele and Mesmer are about molding your playstyle to fit the situation.

Ele and Mesmer keep you coming back wondering if you could do this differently, or trait this slightly different, or put these two or three things together in a different way to change it up. “Just Smash A” builds and classes just aren’t for me, if they’re not for you either, then stick with ele till at least lvl 50 or 60, it starts getting oh so much better.

Having played every class pretty extensively in sPvP (thus playing around with several builds of each with all skills/traits/runes/etc. unlocked. I completely agree with Slim.

Elementalist is, to me, the most rewarding and fun class to play. Mesmer is 2nd. There’s just so much dynamic to the professions that all others fall short in comparison. This is my opinion, and I’m sure if you asked this question in each profession’s sub-forum, you’ll get a different answer… but I almost guarantee that if you master your Ele, you will find most if not all other professions to be somewhat boring in comparison.

As long as you have a little room to work with, once you’ve got some experience playing elementalist (using dodge and kiting) you won’t have any issue in PvE. The traits for buffs on attunement are great and get better the more you swap attunements. Also, there are sigils for weapons that take effect on weapon swapping; attunement changing activates these effects but only for your main hand weapon.

One more question. What kind of stats should I be looking for on gear? With my ranger and thief I usually focused on precision and conditioning. Not sure what stats for GW2. Only rpg experience I have is Baldurs Gate 2, Diablo 1,2,3 and Skyrim. GW2 is very complicated.