Guild Wars 2

I’m finding the time it takes to start damaging enemies with my ele my friend who is a ranger probably about half the time has killed it before enough of my rotations have gone out.

We are only around lvl 30, but the build up time seems far too long compared to my friend who is bursting them down too fast. I was running staff but the casting animations just felt horrendously slow so I’ve moved to S/D which seems faster.

Is S/D not good because focus is usually mentioned with scepter. I can’t get into D/D because it doesn’t really feel like what I was wanting out of the ele. I feel like the ele doesn’t contribute enough to the fight, in fact I was told that we worked well due to the support factor lol.

I appreciate things will change later, but what’s the best way to remedy the ele build up time when teamed up with others?

if something dies that fast you should probably switch to dagger main hand which is fastest ele weapon… you can also use arcane utilities for faster dmg initiation (+ trait to reduce their cooldown)… or stay with S/D, it doesn’t really matter while leveling, you don’t need focus skills outside of PvP or difficult PvE content…

Hi,

First that sort of comparison works only if you and your friend use the same type of gear. There is a big difference in dmg if one only uses what loot he gets vs someone who regularly gets an appropriate lvl gear.

Secondly, scepter autos are just horrid. The direct dmg is equivalent to tickling. Scepter builds at lvl 80 are either used for might stacking in pve or burst and run builds in pvp. Give a dagger mainhand a try, even at under 80, you can still combo and buff yourself and your friend, while autos in air/fire have good direct dmg to cleave anything. Scepter cleave is non existent.

Staff is particularly good if you are leveling with someone else who’d keep agro/mobs in one place (ranger can do that perfectly). Staff can feel static and slow (I used to hate it for that reason) but once I learned all the skills and how I can use them, I must admit, staff is pretty good.

Remember that while everyone has different preferences and might prefer one weapon over another, you can’t expect to do great with all weapons in all game modes.

If you are not enjoying any of the weapon skills, try out a conjure weapon. All of them are really fun to use. Lightning hammer does the best AA dmg with some fun CC and leap abilities mixed in. Fire weapons have weaker AA dmg but have good fire combo fields that your friend can use as well as you. Bow 4 is strong while shield is mainly for funsies.

I recently (last month) rolled up a Ranger I can see/feel while you’re having these problems. Ranger single target damage is pretty insane all around and can really drop targets fast and repeatedly. I use my Ranger primarily for world boss/silverwaste farm cause it’s so lazy mode easy.

Where the Elementalist really picks up is in it’s huge amount of AOE that it gets which is really great for farming multiple mobs in an encounter. For example if an event fires up, you can AOE things down with multiple abilities where often times Rangers use Longbow/Greatsword and really have 1 ranged AOE and then have to switch to melee to keep going. They can also pierce as well, which on some encounters works great, but many times it does not.

Personally I find two moves do the bulk of my work on Staff. If it’s a single target then something like getting quick in Lava Font is instantaneous damage. However if the target is running around constantly (like Centaurs) and/or targets are spread out so a single Lava Font won’t hit them then I like to use the bouncing auto attack from Air. This can help get hits on targets where the Ranger has to manually target each one or go to a lower DPS weapon like axe. Fire auto attacks are generally super slow and usually have put 2 arrows into something before an Elementalist gets off a single Fireball attack.

Dagger arguably provides faster attacks, but you don’t like being in melee. Most conjures are slow attacks, melee, have long cool downs, get stolen, have low auto attacks, and other various issues.

Scepter works as well, but if things are dying fast enough that you are struggling to get hits on targets you’re likely not going to have the time to pull off the Scepter combos to really make it shine. Focus is often talked about because people like the larger amount of survivability that comes with Focus and it’s ranged options compared to OH Dagger which is very melee heavy and has fewer defensive skills. Both are viable options but both are different play styles. Given that you dislike melee, I imagine Focus would probably work out better for you.

The main support you provide is fields. Elementalist is the #1 field generator. For example if you use Ring of Fire that’s a burning field, and his auto attack can combo to add burning onto the target. Staff has the most fields, so when you do Lava Font under a target you are hitting it for damage and your Ranger buddy is procing Burning as well. You can do a variety of fields that can help such as using Static Field to further stack Vulnerability on a target with his Rapid Fire on tougher (Veteran+) opponents. S/F doesn’t have many fields and can’t bring that much support as a result.

Thanks for the responses, I am semi-noob as I’m coming back to the game from a break. I have lvl 80 War/Necro/Ranger so while they are 80 I’ve got some perspective to other class playstyles. That and the person I’m playing with is next to me, we gear exactly the same stats and tend to upgrade gear every 10 lvls.

The main reason I went ele is because I wanted to do a class I never play in RPGs so the staff and arcane utilities seemed best suits for that mage feel. But the staff just feels very slow and more so next to a Rangers RF, I am at the point I have to use instant cast abilities to ensure I get credit for a kill lol.

I will try D/D even tho its breaking the main reason I went ele. So at later levels (50+?) does the staff become better due to mobs not being KO’d so quickly like in earlier levels?

Oh no my Rapid Fire hits for like 14k at 80 on higher level mobs it still gibs the crap out of things and that’s in Knights gear haha

Just generally you’re doing things that have vastly greater Hit Points (Champs, etc) and that’s less of a problem. While leveling in PvE you’re mostly fighting regular mobs that have little to no HP.

You shouldn’t be having a problem tagging mobs while running around, specially at higher levels with any class. You know why? You should be tagging mobs while he tags others. Ya’ll should just kill mobs separatly but nearby each other so you both get credit for kills. As a ele you have so many aoe abilities that tagging mobs, even low hp mobs, shouldn’t be a problem. And you should know that at 80, higher level areas have SO MANY MOBS!!! That its almost impossible to leave a road or town without attracting a zombie horde.