Guild Wars 2

what kind of weapon set you planning on using as your main? from my experience don’t be afraid to be something other then a pure zerker (unless you love that)
Learn how to use ALL your skills and learn what skills complement each other for good combo effects and situations.
We may be squishy but we are pro at slipping between our enemies fingers when we want too.

Imo D/D is the easiest set to level with, though your mileage may vary — if something “clicks” for you, definitely stick with it.

A few quick thoughts:

1. Eles are very dependent on might stacking (bonus, anyone around you benefits too). Learn might stacking rotations will all your weapons — just ask if you’re struggling. Some of them can get pretty complicated to get the most out of.
2. Glyph of Storms in earth was my go-to early survival tool. I say it a lot, but it’s pretty huge to drop a persistant AoE blind on yourself while you channel longer skills.
3. Remember anything instant can be cast during channels without interrupting the channel — that includes attunement swapping.
4. Elemental Attunement would be one of the first traits I aimed for. Earth bonus in particular (protection) really helps early on with survivability too
5. Ele improves vastly with traits. Don’t get discouraged if you start to struggle in earlier levels. It really does get way, way better.

While leveling, make sure you have the ability to swap into ranged for a melee build or melee with a staff build. Lightning Hammer can be a staff ele’s best friend, & likewise a good ranged utility like glyph of storms or fiery greatsword go a long way.

If you do use conjures, make sure you’re still taking advantage of attunements. Just because your weapon skills don’t change doesn’t mean your attunements don’t change.

Make sure to learn all your combo fields and finishers and make use of them. Much of elementalists’ power comes from getting off 2-3 small effects in the global cooldown of what would normally be a single effect. I found Arcane Blast to be a great utility while leveling to get the best access to a blast finisher, at least until you get Evasive Arcana or another synergy engine for combos or other effect multipliers.

Forgot to mention… get a taste for coffee. Playing ele requires near-manic levels of ability management and awareness.

Also, never play ele on a full stomach.