Guild Wars 2

Hi elementalists,

I am new to guildwars and considering making an elementalist as my main.

I made my elementalist lvl 3, so that I could get into that pvp mist zone, where you are jumped to lvl 80. This way I can test out their spells, but there are a lot I find it a bit difficult to get the right impression of the class.

I am here to ask for some guidance.
Like where can I find all the weapons in that pvp mist zone, to test out my spells?
Which builds are viable for pvp and which for pve?
Any recommendable guides and videos around?

While occasionally dubious in exact specifications, http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki is a good website to get some basic info on build ideas, but there is a lot of viable variation in things like runes and sigils, and even traits and utilities to an extent.

Elementalist has a lot of viable builds but I’d say the only one thats truly optimal right now is fire/water/arcana D/D. earth/water/arcana D/D and staff come close but fire is really overpowered due to extra power, damage modifiers, blind, and the ability to throw out a lot of burning.

For weapons, on the platform in the main area, there are vendors that sell basic weapons really cheaply, ele can only use dagger, scepter, focus, and staff. All of your build details are adjusted with the build template. You can test out your skills on golems in the heart of the mists. I reccomend going straight to queuing for unranked right away once you have the basic idea of the mechanics of your class. Once you understand conquest tactics such as roations (where you need to go in the match and when to help your team win) you should do ranked as its more serious. There are some good teamfight and rotation guides on youtube as well.

This short video guide was made by one of the top ele pvpers in the game and it will give you a brief but very helpful overview to how to play the class well, even if the game has changed a bit since this was published.

Anyway feel free to message me ingame if you have any questions, I’m always willing to help out new players!

Purely subjective POV or an Ele player:
For Dwayna’s love, do not reach for the optimized build when you are starting out!

To get a feeling for the class, do PvE first and get the flow for swapping your attunements for Fire, Air, Earth and Water. You will have the most fun with the class, when you develop a feeling for the rotations and combos yourself, not going for “macro like kill plan”.

Metabattle will help you to find the best build for PvP, that is true, but it also a very stale meta we are stuck in for over two years now. Your affection for the class will not develop there.

I dont mean that I just want to play the optimized build.
I care about fun.

Why I asked about builds, was because I want to have an impression of what kind of builds are used in serious pvp, so that I can check if I will like that type of playstyle.

For example I checked out that video link. It gave me a better view on ele and
although it seemed fun, it was a melee ele (right?).

I dont mind having a melee build as long as there is a good medium range/range build as well that I can play. So that is why I am sorta researching before I make a choice.

Because I am looking for a fun versatile class that has the option to fight on medium range or long range and is useful to a team (like can help out the team well with cc/heal/other protection or utility. Stuff like that.

Thanks for the links.

I would say don’t do pvp right away, unless you want to be a pvper, just because there dmg scaling in pvp compared to pve. Ur best choice would be wvw. Also know that as an ele u have a low hp, but make up for it in high raw dmg.

Yashuoa.9527:

Because I am looking for a fun versatile class that has the option to fight on medium range or long range and is useful to a team (like can help out the team well with cc/heal/other protection or utility. Stuff like that.

Thanks for the links.

I’ll be honest with you, because of the capture point nature of the game there won’t be any really good builds that can stay at ranged the whole time in every scenario. If you run staff ele, which technically is ranged, usually you’re playing it in a support/pointholder role, meaning you’ll have to be on a point face-tanking damage. So this would probably be a better build for you, but it won’t be played fully from range.

Theres also mesmer, but thats damage oriented rather than suppport, and you generally need to be very aggressive to play it well. Ranger has ranged damage but pretty much no support for their team, and they die easily when focused.

pvp = dagger dagger celestial amulet (stats) melee ele – water arcane fire traits

pve/wvw (other builds but generally) = staff ranged berserker (stats) fire air x (arcane or water)

Any advice in Utility skills? I fix 1 slot for Signet of Air but the rest don’t know what I should use. I need condition removal but Cleansing Fire’s cooldown takes too long.
Is Ether Renewal good? It has short cooldown and condition removal but I don’t sure about healing.

notavailable.4137:

Any advice in Utility skills? I fix 1 slot for Signet of Air but the rest don’t know what I should use. I need condition removal but Cleansing Fire’s cooldown takes too long.
Is Ether Renewal good? It has short cooldown and condition removal but I don’t sure about healing.

For r-skills I go mainly with arcane 4 daggers, staff I will use power and shield then take signet of fire/air (the 1 that gives 25% movement speed) then pop the shield and Power u start casting Meteor, if u don’t need the def, I would do lesser elemental or bow.

as a new player you also don´t have gold to fully fit your character. You need about 30 gold to do a usable LvL 80 set. I did go to 80 just with the things i found. (I had it easy with friends helping me paying full crafting for cook and jeweler with a crafting booster. I made 60 to 80 in less than one hour).
The first thing is you should get a feeling for the game. Ranges and moving.
Then you think what weapon you might like to play. For elementalist staff ist long range and dagger is close combat. Using dager requires a lot of training. So if you are temted to fight close up dancing araund a lot then its good to train dager from start.
Staff is the easiest, especially in PvE. In WvW its also very good. Its usually build araund fire. Scepter is special. Good range but there are not many builds that can be considered competative.
I personaly thougt i would play a staff ele doing long range and good support.
While i could handle puting fields well i turned away from staff to scepter/focus and to a totally non meta condition build i realy like and can handle much better. I stick to it traning to play. When i loose i do it 80% by not playing well. This game needs training and so i stick to one set to learn an be competative. I made a funny backup staff build for Zerg fighting and PvE but stick to my condi ele.

Wolfric.9380:

as a new player you also don´t have gold to fully fit your character. You need about 30 gold to do a usable LvL 80 set. I did go to 80 just with the things i found. (I had it easy with friends helping me paying full crafting for cook and jeweler with a crafting booster. I made 60 to 80 in less than one hour).
The first thing is you should get a feeling for the game. Ranges and moving.
Then you think what weapon you might like to play. For elementalist staff ist long range and dagger is close combat. Using dager requires a lot of training. So if you are temted to fight close up dancing araund a lot then its good to train dager from start.
Staff is the easiest, especially in PvE. In WvW its also very good. Its usually build araund fire. Scepter is special. Good range but there are not many builds that can be considered competative.
I personaly thougt i would play a staff ele doing long range and good support.
While i could handle puting fields well i turned away from staff to scepter/focus and to a totally non meta condition build i realy like and can handle much better. I stick to it traning to play. When i loose i do it 80% by not playing well. This game needs training and so i stick to one set to learn an be competative. I made a funny backup staff build for Zerg fighting and PvE but stick to my condi ele.

I wouldn’t say staff is long range, most of my uses with staff tend to be in stacks or mid range, but I would say u are right about the gold set, but I wouldn’t really worry about it that much. And really you should keep 1 main of each weapon in ur inventory so u can switch when needed, though u don’t need scepter that much, comparing I don’t find scepter skills that powerful compared to staff.