Guild Wars 2

I always play mage-y type characters on MMO’s but just can’t get the hang of elementalist in this game. Talking about PvE only. Haven’t really tried PvP yet.

Anyway, I have a level 16 ranger, a level 17 mesmer, and a level 16 elementalist – all of them sylvarri. On my ranger I have 11 deaths. On my mesmer, I surprisingly only have 5 deaths (considering that I always feel very very weak damage-wise when I’m on my mesmer), and on my elementalist – I have 31 freaking deaths.

It seems like whenever there’s more than 1 mob – I die.

I generally use a staff on fire attunement. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. It’s like one moment I’m alive – and then the next moment I’m not.

Here’s what I’m rolling with so far: http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/elementalist#0.0-2.19.15.0.0-5.0.0.0.0

Help? Any tips?

wow 31 deaths.
staff imo should only be used in events/dungeons where you can sit back and launch aoe from a distance. but fo solo play its not vialble since your target is moving towards you most of the time.
Switch to Double dagger or scepter/dagger. Give you high mobility with alot of firepower for moving targets (its fun too) and remember to always dodge and move, but be aware of your surroundings – don’t want to aggro another pack of undead.

pyronix.4081:

on fire attunement

There’s your problem right there. Don’t try to work with only 1 attunement, use all 4 of them. Switch often to keep your opponents CC’d and the damage rolling.

You have the advantage (over all other classes) of 20 weapons skills at your disposal. Make the better of them.

When using Staff, I like to start in Earth, drop a bleeding AoE on the mobs, pop a projectile reflect bubble, then switch to fire for some burning and maybe a meteor shower, then to air for blinds and static field – a push back as well if needed, going into water if my health is dropping, an so on. There’s no fixed rotation, but you need to use all of your abilities.

And of course, there’s the usual kiting/dodging, and just keep moving. Most of your abilities can be used while moving, make the best of it.

Dodge, kite, move, use control effects.

Stop thinking of attunements like different weapons and instead think of it just as 20 skills with cooldowns.

That is a lot of deaths for only being level 16. It sounds like you are used to standing still and attacking the enemy, since the other two professions you mention have built in “tanks.” Either elementalist isn’t for you, or you need to learn how to dodge.

I would stick with staff. Get the mob to stand in your lava font and circle around them and dodge through them so they stay in the circle. Using burning retreat when you run out of dodge rolls and then repeat. When there are multiple mobs start off with meteor shower and, if none of them are ranged, try to gather them up so they are in a bunch and then follow the above strategy. When there are ranged mobs focus on them first while kiting the melee mobs.

You can do it all with just sticking with fire, and if you are having trouble it can be overwhelming to try to switch elements. Once you are comfortable with killing mobs without relying on the CC of the other elements once you bring them into play you will be able to handle anything.

I use a staff. here is what works for me. start fire put a lava font right on the enemy’s feet. while the lava font charges up and burns him, use ability number 3 (sorry i forgot the name) its a DoT. so he should be burned by the lava font, and he should be burning with the DoT when he starts running towards you. use burning retreat and place it in such a way that the enemy has to cross it to get to you. Then switch to lightning use ability number three to push the enemy back as soon as he crosses the line of fire. Use static field and place it between you and the enemy. He will cross it and get stunned. You could also switch to earth, or water, if the enemy is not dead by this point. With Earth, you can use ability number four to place a wall of earth that cripples the enemy if they cross it. with water, you can also use ability number four which is a field of ice that slows the enemy down. Once the enemy is slowed, you can use ability number two to bring the ice shard down on the enemy which inflicts vulnerability.

You can use all these abilities in any order you wish. The point is to switch between the elements so you always have something to slow down or cripple the enemy. always run away as you’re doing this to keep as much distance as you can between you and the enemy. if the enemy gets to you, dodge roll, and use one of your slowing abilities. If going against ranged enemies remember that the earth element has a reflective shield a.k.a. ability number three.

Hope this helps.

Use all of your attunements. Comparatively to other professions the elementalist is one of the most unforgiving when limiting the use of the options available to you. It’s not simple to play and more difficult to master than the other professions. Check out video of people playing the ele on twitch.tv or youtube. You’ll see how they frequently are changing attunements to meet the needs of a situation as encounters play out.

I had the same problem. then I switched to dagger/dagger when I was on my own. The air and earth skills with this set give you a lot of crowd control for when your surrounded. Also I make heavy use of elementals to distract enemies.

Staffs are more for group play.

Be sure to switch freely between elements when you’ve used all the skills for one so they have time to recharge and you don’t lose your momentum. You have to keep your enemies down and taking damage. You also have to keep moving. The elementalist is too fragile to just sit still with one element equiped.

Hope this helps!

Hi guys… thanks so much for all your suggestions. You’re right in the fact that I RARELY switch elements and I’m used to playing mages in MMO’s where you get skills to push back/cc mobs without having to move an inch.

Anyway, after having read all of your comments above, I think the elementalist isn’t the right class for me. It seems too much work having to switch attunements all the time :P Kudos to all of you who manage to do this.

Yeah I’m giving up on the elementalists, it’s twice the amount of abilities to worry about as everyone else. And they’re 1/4 as good.

Other classes have 2 weapon sets, but either one is effective in it’s own right.

Elementalists have 4 weapon sets and not a single one of them are effective in it’s own right, hell 2 of them combined still isn’t that effective. You have all 4 and they’re still not where near other classes sets.

Spec straight-up earth. Mix with water and a little bit of fire.

Earth gives you decent AOE and survivability. Gear for condition damage/vitality/toughness/power.

I like to use Cantrips because those give you nice buffs and more survivability.

I use this build
http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=321020002b00lglm0000auu0t1315161d1glk

This was my dungeon build but i found it useful in regular pve aswell. For the healing slot i use Prayer to Dwayna and utility Prayer to Lyssa both human racial skills.

My gear is healing/condition based. i have no problem pulling 5-6 mobs at a time rotation starts in earth goes into fire and then water if healing is needed. @ 80 attuning to water gives around 2k hp plus the regeneration effect via traits. geyiser heals for about 2k and healing rain 5k while waterblast splash is about 450-500 hp. The armor im using is green level 80 shaman and staff aswell this should net you about 18,5k hp

Oh and for the mobs you don’t even have to move just stay still and take the beating since you mitigate so much damage with your healing. As for the direct damage it’s not that good however condition damage does loads.

What helped me and as many people have stated (this is kinda the TL;DR):

1) Use dagger/dagger or scepter/dagger. Staff as a weapon is optimised for grouped play ie DEs or dungeons.
2) Use multiple atunements. The main power of the elementalist comes from switching atunements. While you should try to stay in fire most of the time to damage while leveling – water, lightning and earth will help you deal with difficult situations you encounter – e.g. switch to water for a quick heal then to earth for armor and blind and then back to fire.
3) Kiting is essential. If you go fire/earth in traits you can usually nuke one mob before you take too much damage, but one veteran or multiple mobs it is essential that you kite effectively.
4) Gear according to your playstyle. If you have trouble staying alive try to get your hand on gear with toughness and vitality. If you spec in traits for fire/earth you will usually get enough power there.