Guild Wars 2

Hi folks,

I’ll begin by saying I mainly SPvP & WvW. I have an 80 Mesmer, Guardian, Warrior, Necro & Thief currently. My Elementalist is level 42, however with the latch patch I’ve moved into playing SPvP much more often.

As it stands, Elementalist is the one class I really want to play out of all I have. Though, it’s the only one I can’t seem to do well on at all. I know there’s a difficult learning curve, however.. I’m looking for tips from you guys to point me in the right direction.

I like to think I’m fairly competent in PvP with the rest of my characters and can do well when I put the effort in. Elementalist on the other hand leaves me frustrated, because when I do try.. I still seem to get close to no results.

The only thing I’m capable of doing on Elementalist at the moment is escaping fights and healing. I feel like I’m forced to go full heal/survivability or full damage. I’ve tried mixing the both, but can’t seem to grasp it at all.

So yes, could anyone give me some tips you think would help a newbie Elementalist?

Appreciated.

Same here. I rolled an Ele this week, ‘cause really it’s the only class left, that I find really interesting.

However I seem only to be able to either do fantastic damage, but be downed the moment someone looks at me, or go full-heal and troll 3 people for a while, but do no damage at all.

Also: The more recent builds I find seem to use dagger and raw power, which mystifies me. How do you not die instantly when you have to get so close to the opponent? Thieves have stealth and evades for such situations…

Is there no way to do all-right damage and survive a while longer?

I have found success in hotjoin pvp and solo arena pvp by running d/d strength runes and a zerker trinket (start with knights or soldiers if your not comfortable with a low hp pool). Running 0/4/0/4/6 taking:
Zephyrs boon and bolt to the heart in air
Cantrip mastery and cleansing wave (think thats what its called) in water
Invigorating precision (vigor on critical hit) Elemental attunement (boon on attunement swap) and evasive arcana. Apologies for any incorrect names.
The true challenge with ele and why its such a loved class with a dedicated playerbase is because the class is difficult and requires skill. No build will give you experience so just practice and experiment in hotjoins and tweak the build until it suits you. Elementalist is a naturally difficult class that you wont get the hang of immedietly. As for why your dying or forced to run away think of what is happening. Are you dying to conditions? Try taking ether renewal or cleansing the conditions before fighting. Dying to raw damage? If you are taking that much damage with tanky stats they are probably glass and you should turn on then try to kill them before they kill you. A good combo to get you started would be air: ride the lightning, updraft (target is on the ground), shocking aura, fire: burning speed (can be combined with lightning flash when your comfortable to stack the flames under them), ring of fire, get some distance between you and the enemy; 500 units or the distance of a norn lying down on the ground, fire grab, then either go into water and use frozen burst for the blast finisher or earthquake (groundpound!) in earth to stack might.
Goodluck. Post back with any other issues so that we may adress them!
Edit: i run mistform, arcane shield and lightning flash on utilities. Tornado skill 3 can keep enemies off a point long enough for allies to come or for you to de/cap it.
Try trlling us what your running so far in terms of weapons traits, runes, sigils and trinkets. ^^

Azingly.2064:

I have found success in hotjoin pvp and solo arena pvp by running d/d strength runes and a zerker trinket (start with knights or soldiers if your not comfortable with a low hp pool). Running 0/4/0/4/6 taking:
Zephyrs boon and bolt to the heart in air
Cantrip mastery and cleansing wave (think thats what its called) in water
Invigorating precision (vigor on critical hit) Elemental attunement (boon on attunement swap) and evasive arcana. Apologies for any incorrect names.
The true challenge with ele and why its such a loved class with a dedicated playerbase is because the class is difficult and requires skill. No build will give you experience so just practice and experiment in hotjoins and tweak the build until it suits you. Elementalist is a naturally difficult class that you wont get the hang of immedietly. As for why your dying or forced to run away think of what is happening. Are you dying to conditions? Try taking ether renewal or cleansing the conditions before fighting. Dying to raw damage? If you are taking that much damage with tanky stats they are probably glass and you should turn on then try to kill them before they kill you. A good combo to get you started would be air: ride the lightning, updraft (target is on the ground), shocking aura, fire: burning speed (can be combined with lightning flash when your comfortable to stack the flames under them), ring of fire, get some distance between you and the enemy; 500 units or the distance of a norn lying down on the ground, fire grab, then either go into water and use frozen burst for the blast finisher or earthquake (groundpound!) in earth to stack might.
Goodluck. Post back with any other issues so that we may adress them!
Edit: i run mistform, arcane shield and lightning flash on utilities. Tornado skill 3 can keep enemies off a point long enough for allies to come or for you to de/cap it.
Try trlling us what your running so far in terms of weapons traits, runes, sigils and trinkets. ^^

I believe that’s very much similar to what I use at the moment.
I feel forced into using X X X 6 4 (spare traits I move around alot) at the moment.
Condi clearing is fine, I just feel like I’m constantly being forced into Water Attunement to heal and then I don’t do any damage within that.

I guess it’s a case of continual practice..

I feel like evasive arcana is a great tool to have at your disposal. Despite it bring ‘standard’ its really worth to have it with you. Dodging an ability when your in water will grant you a heal. If you dodge in earth when theres a fire field nearby then you gain might. I love signet of restoration right now. I dont have to focus on healing. I stay alive by casting spells and doing damage and i try to kill them before they kill me. If thry engage on me i will fight back with all i have (save for tornado as that is for large scale fights where we dont do so good and for defending points) if i know im going yo die THEN i gtfo and only then. Its much to do with practice. The way i see it, if they have enough damage to kill me before i can fight back then it means they are glass and if i get the jump on them they die. If you ate experienced with other classes you know what their weAkness is. I mained thief before ele and now i have no issues with them as i know when they will try to backstab me and that to burst me they must be just as easily bursted.
You are right in that its a matter of practice. You will eventually know what you can fight and what you cant. Remember, to avoid sitting in water to stay alive put the pressure back on them with damage OR use arcane shield and continue to put pressure on them. The only time they will stop attacking you is when you force THEM on the defensive or they die so make something happen.
Sorry for kittened sentences its late D;
EDIIT: OMG NOW I KNOW WHERE KITTEN COMES FROM!

Watch lots of video. WvWvW or Spvp, doesn’t matter. I can’t stress enough how important this is for the harder classes like Thief and Ele. Specifically, watch for skill combos, attunement priorities, and when to use important cooldowns.

This is what I run for D/D SPvP as a fairly new player and I have a fine time with it usually. Some games when I run into a very good thief or ranger I’ll be forced to just run from them, but almost any other matchup is possible.

If water attunement isn’t on cooldown and you aren’t full health, you’re doing it wrong. The heal from F2>2>5 with dodges as necessary (proccing EA for more heals) is quite huge, and it removes enough condis that you shouldn’t need to worry too much about them.

Focus on the capping, not the kills. If you wait around a corner where the guy can’t see you until he leaves, you cap the point faster than if you charge in immediately and fight him. And you live, so that’s good too.

The hardest part of Ele is remembering everything you have available to you. This is what’s keeping me from learning S/D and Staff, because the crowd control that lets them survive is just so hard to keep track off.

Pteor.6421:

Watch lots of video. WvWvW or Spvp, doesn’t matter. I can’t stress enough how important this is for the harder classes like Thief and Ele. Specifically, watch for skill combos, attunement priorities, and when to use important cooldowns.

This is what I run for D/D SPvP as a fairly new player and I have a fine time with it usually. Some games when I run into a very good thief or ranger I’ll be forced to just run from them, but almost any other matchup is possible.

If water attunement isn’t on cooldown and you aren’t full health, you’re doing it wrong. The heal from F2>2>5 with dodges as necessary (proccing EA for more heals) is quite huge, and it removes enough condis that you shouldn’t need to worry too much about them.

Focus on the capping, not the kills. If you wait around a corner where the guy can’t see you until he leaves, you cap the point faster than if you charge in immediately and fight him. And you live, so that’s good too.

The hardest part of Ele is remembering everything you have available to you. This is what’s keeping me from learning S/D and Staff, because the crowd control that lets them survive is just so hard to keep track off.

Well.. I had a level 20 or so Thief back from when I first started that I crafted to 80 maybe a month or two ago. I bought FULL zerk gear and jumped in WvW. I picked it up right away, even to this day I’ve barely died. They have tons of escape, survivability and ofcourse damage. Elementalist on the other hand.. I’m really struggling to better at.

Wvw is a whole other story. Most classes outperform elementalist in terms of dueling unless the player is very skilled; like serane. This is because the map is huge and there are no real ‘safe sones’. You are pretty much on your own if you are jumped by someone forcing you into a fight or flight situation. The latter which is difficult due to the massive landscape but a ridethelightning is very usefulto escape. This is why thieves are so powerful (i mained theif before ele) . Their stealth allows them to wait and kitten the situation whether to go in or not. If they decide to go in and try start losing they can simply use their stealth and blinks to escape and jume the enemy. Warriors can just charge and spin away. Unfortunately ele only really has ridethekightning and lightning flash the former which is used for fightig meaning you dont have the luxyry or being able to escape ifthings arent going so hot for you.

I followed a couple suggestions here. Watched videos. Slow-motioned some of those to see the combos. Went D/D.

Still downed a lot, however I kill a lot too And most of all – D/D is really fun!

I’ll go back practicing and trying builds now – I’m sure I’ll have more questions soon