Guild Wars 2

When I got first into Tyria, I decided I want a class that can deal ranged damage and is good at dungeons (not interested in pvp). After reading many players swearing by elementalist, I decided to roll one. At level 7, I can sum my experience in just two words: this sucks.

After studing forums, my first choice was D/D and I was immediately disappointed by very limited range of all spells. I looked like I played a melee caster, which was exactly opposite of what I wanted. Every fight included insane kiting and trying to stay in very limited range of my spells and at the same time avoiding enemy melee because of next-to-nothing defense. A veteran mob could two-shot me very easily.

Then I changed to S/D build. While it offered me an improved range, its damage was not good enough. It took me too long to kill an opponent, not to mention that spells like fire 2 were entirely unusable because they cannot hit moving targets.

Last weapon I tried was staff. Now, it was much more enjoyable than other weapons. Decent range and good damage, but I could feel it lacking mobility and utility. Besides, many people here mention staff as less than optimal choice for an ele.

And my question is: From what level can I expect improvement, or rather how can I learn to play when even soloing is hard? Right now I don’t see a choice – I don’t want to play necromancer or mesmer and everyone says that rangers, while good at 1-79, are unusable in dungeons.

I saw an improvement in my elementalist around level 7-8 because the d/d mentality just “clicked” on.
That’s because I was playing a d/d ele though…
I enjoy staff and scepter too and use both in dungeons. There is nothing in this game that is too difficult, especially leveling a character. If it is hard, you are doing some things wrong. You should really see improvements by level 35 as you will have a few traits. Level 7 is way too early to judge a class. To really get a feel for the class you should level it to at least 20-30 before judging it.

I’m tired of hearing people complain how this game isnt like WoW or EQ or anyother traditional game. This game was made to be different, and they did a very good job at doing so. If you expected to be playing a game like those you were led blindly into this game. Enough of my ranting now for your questions.

I’ve played the ele since early release, and from my experience I would say the turn around point for me with the ele was level 30. The thing about this game is your not the traditional caster. It broke traditional roles and play style which to me is amazing. You HAVE to be constantly moving and doing rotations between your attunements to play to your full potental. In GW2 you cant pick the ele, and expect to be this nuke that sits in one spot while drop stuff from the sky lol. While we maybe squishy we have the ability to compromise with our huge varient of skills. For example the 3 skill on dagger in lightning attunment is a bursters worst enemy. Shocking aura will daze anyone that hits you with melee preventing the full burst and leaving them completely vulnerable for a set amount of time. So once you start to get the time under your belt and understand the fact you are not a traditional mage you will have the most fun you have ever had playing a game. I know from personal experence and a LOT of time played.

You can bleed and burn right off the bat with either D/D or S/D.

You need to use the weapon skills with their secondary effects like fields + finishers (tooltip on skills) , play with utility skills and traits. You cannot get much of the last two before level ~15-20 when you can get your first 10 points into trait line.

Every single skill may not be that powerful but the secret is in using them in combos, building conditions\damage on foes and later boons\buffs on you. After lv 20 it gets better.. this is for every single class. Get used to dodge mechanic – it is important.
I suggest you do not put points in water during leveling or at least not before later levels. Else you may spoil your style and decrease damage potential making fights longer at levels below 30-40.
Heck, do not put points in water traits till like at least 70 if you ask me. Managing with lower hp pool will teach you to avoid and negate damage better and points in vitality will just improve it, otherwise it may be hard to remove points from that line if needed to. I managed to ding 80 without single point in water and I never felt weak. Your call though…but bear in mind healing does not scale well till near endgame.

Your mistake is the sentence in the beginning of second paragraph. Look for tips not weapon builds. Unlock all your skills on all your weapons+ underwater ones and keep a copy of every single weapon combination in your inventory to swap on the move.

Also, learning skills and their usages takes time. Experiment!

Here is interesting info:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Tips-and-Tricks-by-Elementalists/first#post1176969

It provides some info on usages you can overlook in the beginning. Or look for threads like this.

I like both staff and scepter/focus for my play, never gotten on the d/d bandwagon as I’m a bit like you, an ele shouldn’t be an in your face melee. that said I do often get into s/f battle very close to what I’m fighting, especially in pvp, but I don’t have to be as worried about being out of range when dancing around during the fight, and yes, I move constantly, mostly in circle around my target.

In pve your staff is best choice early on and you will find it easiest to use. s/f is my fav and you have to really think and move with it. The advantages are all the defensive skills it offers(the drawback is you won’t be doing damage most of the time with those.) S/F is not a quick kill, it is better suited to DoTs while offering you survivability while they kill. D/D hits hard and has some good survivability(if you count running away, though this also lets you chase down a running enemy)

Right now you are in early play, an ele really doesn’t start to shine until at least lvl 20 and possibly lvl 30 because you really need your utilities to shine. so I suggest you level up with the staff, and then you can start expanding to other weapons around lvl 20 or so.

As for the Dragon tooth(fire 2 on scepter) not being good, its best combined with a slow, stun, root or knockdown to keep them in place while it hits. This skill is very easy to hit npc mobs, a challenge to land on a real player but if you know your skills well its much easier than most think. Also, it will make them dodge, meaning they aren’t hitting you and your DoTs are ticking away on them You would be surprised how many players will get in its range if you run under there while they are chasing you also. almost like they dodge out of its way and then forget its still not dropped yet lol.

Luinil.5948:

Then I changed to S/D build. While it offered me an improved range, its damage was not good enough. It took me too long to kill an opponent, not to mention that spells like fire 2 were entirely unusable because they cannot hit moving targets.

S/D left a real bad taste in my mouth when I first made a elementalist. At 70 I randomly decided to pull out my scepter and was actually pretty impressed. I don’t know if it’s good scaling, points in arcane or me ‘getting’ how elementalist works(Alright, I KNOW it’s those last two and possibly the first), but it wrecked everything. It is still ‘half melee’ though because of moves like Fire Grab, your might stacking combo and just landing dragon’s tooth in general. But then you’ve also got two blinds and a toughness buff so you may not feel the need to kite as much.

Though I will say they really should just make dragon’s tooth either a targeted aoe or, ideally, have it follow the target. I don’t think it’d make it overpowered for pvp or anything, it’s still a really telegraphed attack.

Luinil.5948:

At level 7, I can sum my experience in just two words: this sucks.

The elementalist is best described as an lemming-entalist until about 30. That’s pretty much the general rule of thumb for all of the professions though. Once you get to 30 you will actually have a good idea of how they will be at 80. One of the things that ANet did really well was create a game with smooth leveling from the 30-80. So hang in there. Also, if you like range but want some serious all-around survivability try the necromancer.

Thank you for convincing me to stick with it. It took me three days of reading, theorycrafting and practicing to learn elementalist. Now I have L24, S/D, Signet of Air, and it works. Survivability still on the lower side, but this can be fixed with talents and more skill from my part.

I’m glad it is starting to work out for you. I can definitely say that it gets easier with time, and at higher levels. Once you are able to put more points into Arcana (and Water), you’ll notice a big improvement. Also putting 10 in air can be nice if you use D/D because your auras (you have 3 on relatively low cooldowns) grant swiftness and fury (trait I). At level 80 I usually just use D/D in Dungeons and I find that I have very good survivability. Lots of healing, dodging, loads of boons, decent damage, and able to maintain 20+ stacks of might at all times.

P.S. Here’s a tip: get the Conjure Frost Bow utility skill, because it is extremely useful for certain fights in the first dungeon (AC; Ascalonian Catacombs; level 30/35 for story/explorable). I wouldn’t bother using it while out leveling in Tyria though. I usually use Lightning Flash, Mist Form (or Signet of Air; swap for Conjure Frost Bow on certain fights), and Armor of Earth. I also use Glyph of Elemental Harmony for my healing slot, and Glyph of Elementals for my elite slot.

P.P.S. The build I mentioned (0/10/0/30/30) can also work for S/D and/or Staff. You can just change a couple traits without having to retrain, so you can even carry different weapon sets in your bags. Air: I [Zephyr’s Boon] or III [Quick Glyphs] —- Water: III [Soothing Disruption], V [Cleansing Wave] or IX [Cantrip Mastery], and XI [Cleansing Water] or XII [Powerful Aura] —- Arcana V [Elemental Attunement], VI [Renewing Stamina] or VII [Vigorous Scepter] or VIII [Blasting Staff], and XI [Evasive Arcana].

Zephyr’s Boon is really good for D/D since you have 3 auras, especially if you use Powerful Aura (shares your auras and the swiftness/fury from Zephyr’s Boon with nearby allies), which can be good in dungeons. For soloing I would typically use Cantrip Mastery and Cleansing Water (can also be good if you need extra condition removal or survivability). And if you use S/D or Staff, since you don’t have quite as many auras, you may want to swap out Zephyr’s Boon for Quick Glyphs.

P.P.S. You may notice that with D/D you really only have 2 auras (Shocking Aura; Air #3, and Frost Aura; Water #4) on your weapon skill bars. The reason I say that you have 3 is because when you use Ring of Fire and switch to Earth Attunement, then use Magnetic Grasp (#3), which is a Leap Finisher (combo finisher), it grants you Fire Aura.

P.P.P.S. One last tip. You may already know this, but using a Blast Finisher in a Fire Combo Field grants area Might (3 stacks that last 20 seconds, or longer with boon duration runes / points in arcana) to you and your nearby allies. Elementalist is the best at this because we have two great Fire Field skills (Ring of Fire; Dagger Fire #4 / Lava Font; Staff Fire #2). Although, with Staff you will mainly rely on your allies to use blast finishers in it (you can use Eruption; Staff Earth #2, and then switch to Fire and use Lava Font; Staff Fire #2 right on top of it, then when Eruption finally triggers it will Blast Finish inside the Fire Field — and of course Arcane Wave if you use that utility skill; I swap out Mist Form or Lightning Flash for it sometimes). With D/D though, and especially S/D, you have several Blast Finishers that you can use. My typically might stacking combo with D/D is Ring of Earth, Earth Attunement, Magnetic Grasp, [Arcane Wave], Earthquake, Churning Earth. And with S/D it’s the same except I use Dragon’s Tooth before Ring of Fire, then use Ring of Fire where the tooth is about to land, and use Phoenix in the Ring of Fire before switching to Earth (and of course, not use Magnetic Grasp since that’s a Main Hand Dagger weapon skill). Oh, and Arcane Wave doesn’t trigger a global cooldown, so you can use it at the same time as another skill. Also, it only matters that you begin casting/channeling Churning Earth in the Fire Field (Ring of Fire). In fact, the Fire Field will usually disappear before you finish casting Churning Earth, but you will get the Might stacks anyway.

Anyway, good luck, and I hope you love the Elementalist profession as much as I do!

Luinil.5948:

After studing forums, my first choice was D/D and I was immediately disappointed by very limited range of all spells. I looked like I played a melee caster, which was exactly opposite of what I wanted. Every fight included insane kiting and trying to stay in very limited range of my spells and at the same time avoiding enemy melee because of next-to-nothing defense. A veteran mob could two-shot me very easily.

.

~BLINK~ Which class, are you sure you didnt click on the wrong one at creation.
Ok i have altitis and 8 character slots so i was going to make an Ele eventually and last night did. 80 ranger 80 guard 80 thief 30 -40 mes war necro so ok not new to the game but D/D ele is awsome at least at low levels ok its not a warrior but facerolling the key board just isnt fun.

Spider event 6 waves 4-5 spiders at a time np, veteran wolf ok a tough fight but a win, yes standing in the one spot facetanking the mobs is not the way to go and if you prefer a root and nuke style a D/D Ele isnt going to be your thing but the damage they can put out is fantastic.

S/D is more sustained damage more than anything. Properly utilize dragon tooth and phoenix (and earthquake) in your fire field to stack might so that your damage output increases significantly. S/D damage output is better than D/D, you just have to get into the groove of properly utilizing your attunements.

But yeah, low level as an Ele is rough, like Zonzai said the class doesn’t really shine until around level 30. At the end of the day class just may not suit you man.

Yeah, I’m an altaholic, and I didn’t fall in love with my Ele until the mid 30s. The base version is just too squishy, the human skill takes a while to build up, it’s definitely the hardest class in the game to fully grasp, but once it all clicks, it can be a whole lot of fun to play with.

I definitely would not suggest this as a starter class though, Warrior would probably be best for that, or perhaps Guardian.

When I was leveling I played S/D at first. I always kept coming back to three utility skills: Signet of Air, Mist Form, and Glyph of Storms (Earth). The extra AoE blinds from the Signet/Glyph can help mitigate damage, and Mist Form helps in a pinch. That worked until I met foes who exclusively use ranged weaponry, so I tried S/F. Focus trades mobility for projectile reflection & condition removal (Magnetic Wave), projectile dispersion (Swirling Winds), a daze (Comet), a second Mist Form (Obsidian Flesh) and burning skills in fire. The Focus skills are good in certain instances, however, for the purposes of leveling, I felt that focus was not up to par with the other choices of offhand dagger or the staff.

If you would prefer the Staff I say go that route and utilize burning retreat/lightning flash if you require the mobility. It’s a tricky weapon to master, but if you time your combo fields properly (Practice laying down Eruption [Blast Finisher] first then Lava Font [Fire Field]) it can completely change how you view ranged play on the Ele. The staff lacks damage in Air, but it attempts to make up for it in ranged control. The staff really shines in team play and is boss in dungeons.

If you’re comfortable with survivability on the staff, for your other 2 utilities, you can use Arcane Blast as an opener, as it is the highest Ele ranged skill at 1500 and always crits. Arcane Wave is another blast finisher (you can use it to trigger combos inside any AoE field you lay [except Meteor Shower and Ice Spike]). Signet of Fire increases your precision if you take it on your bar, and if you are close to taking down a foe you can activate it for a 9 second burn.

If you’re uncomfortable with survivability you can use Signet of Earth which improves toughness and/or just fill your bar with Cantrips. Once you start learning an enemy’s movements and are comfortable with survivability again, switch one Cantrip back out for Arcane Wave.

One thing I wish I knew as well at the earlier levels-- using minor weapon sigils, artificer potions, and cooking buffs will augment your survivability and damage output. A few I recommend are damage (Sigil of Bloodlust), crit on next swap (Sigil of Intelligence) and refill endurance so you can dodge more (Sigil of Energy). But remember: Cooking buffs, sigils, and potions are not the be-all end-all to playing the Elementalist.

I find it funny how ppl say that the ele is good… only if you play it a specific way. Most people have seen the ele for what it is, extremely lacking in damage and survivability compared to all the other classes in GW2. Sure D/D might do damage comparable to other classes (whom aren’t speced for damage). But you have to basically stay within melee range as the squishiest object on the planet. Don’t want to face instant death? Use a scepter, but oh wait the damage is freaking terrible, worst weapon damage in the game terrible. Staff is the only reasonable weapon, but even this has its issues.
I realize that Anet had said at one point that the ele was working as intended, but they seriously need to look at how it compares to the other classes.

Utility skills can matter a lot.

Arcane Blast — DPS and an unimportant combo finisher

Arcane Wave — AoE DPS and an important blast finisher

Glyph of Elemental Power — multiple strong uses

Glyph of Elementals — hugely beneficial, mainly but not only for DPS and tanking

Glyph of Storms, used in Earth — great defense and some DPS. Particularly good with scepter/dagger, since if you follow the (air)/fire/earth sequence and find yourself with a distressing number of remaining live enemies, Glyph of Storms can protect you for quite a while.

And you might want to mix up your weapon choices a bit. E.g., focus is strong if you’re facing a lot of archers, riflemen, or cannon, but not so great otherwise; staff has a bit of projectile defense as well.

FWB.1704:

I find it funny how ppl say that the ele is good… only if you play it a specific way. Most people have seen the ele for what it is, extremely lacking in damage and survivability compared to all the other classes in GW2. Sure D/D might do damage comparable to other classes (whom aren’t speced for damage). But you have to basically stay within melee range as the squishiest object on the planet. Don’t want to face instant death? Use a scepter, but oh wait the damage is freaking terrible, worst weapon damage in the game terrible. Staff is the only reasonable weapon, but even this has its issues.
I realize that Anet had said at one point that the ele was working as intended, but they seriously need to look at how it compares to the other classes.

This. D/D is a fantastic spec and major props to Anet for making easily the best implementation of a melee mage that i’ve played. The skills are well-designed, and the balance of control/damage/mobility is just right.

That said, the ranged weapons are some of the worst implementations of a ranged mage i’ve played. Staff is pidgeon-holed into AOE/support and is hopeless at 1v1, scepter is clunky and focus lacks mobility and is a weird mix of overpowered and very underpowered skills… with the exception of D/D, Ele skills/weapons are just really badly designed and playtested. Ele comes off to some as hard but the truth is that many of the skills are just designed poorly.

eg: Playing my Ele in WVW is an exercise in frustration, as i’m constantly forced to manually switch between D/D and staff depending on the situation. There’s no good reason why staff has to be exclusively AOE skills (bar 1) and no reason why Dragon’s Tooth has to require so much setup just to apply its damage.

A good example of some ranged mage classes from other games i consider well-designed: WOW’s frost mage, DAOC’s spiritmaster, theurgist and sorceror, GW1 mesmer and the Rift mage, especially the dominator, chloromancer, and stormcaller souls.