Guild Wars 2

Hi all!

I’m so excited to finally play this game, lol, and I always play the mage class. I love glass cannons, and so far I’m level 20 and have experimented with a Scepter/Focus combo and the Staff. I think I prefer the Staff, because I’m going a pure Air trait build, so that I can get as much Crit Chance/Crit Damage as powerful. I’ve been stacking all +Power items too, and I use the spell that makes my next five attacks critical quite often too. So that seems to be my strategy so far.

1. Should I try out a different weapon combination? I don’t see myself using D/D, simply because that’s SO close to the enemy. Out of all the weapon combo’s, which does the most damage?
2. Should I stick with my CC/CD build, or should I go pure fire to get even MORE +power? Or should I mix the two?
3. Am I able to switch weapons? I see a button that allows it, but when I click it in game, nothing happens.
4. About how many levels should I replace my equipment?
5. I really REALLY like the Air skills, both for Staff and Scepter/Focus. Should I just stick with them, or use Fire instead? Which does more single target biggest number hitting skills?
6. Should I pay attention to movement speed? I like using the Lesser Elemental while attuned to air, so I move 10% faster I think with it on. And then I also use the fourth skill for staff air, so I move an additional 10% (these numbers might be a little off). And then I also have a new boon that let’s me move up to 25% faster, because every five seconds it adds +5% movement speed (until 25%). Do all these stack? Where do I find out my current movement speed in game? Is movement speed important for an Elementalist?

I just want to put up the highest possible numbers I can lay down on enemies, thanks.

Just so you know, each skill has a different factor for the amount of crit damage it does. Staff skills are not known for high crit damage compared to some other weapon skills. More likely than not, you will find the Elementalist will not compare well with mages’ dps in other games.

Hmm okay. I was thinking about playing a Thief too, (with a Shortbow), or a Ranger (with a Longbow/Shortbow). Do either of these classes have better DPS than an Elementalist?

Responses in BOLD below

destroywhatdestroysyou.4301:

1. Should I try out a different weapon combination? I don’t see myself using D/D, simply because that’s SO close to the enemy. Out of all the weapon combo’s, which does the most damage?
Single-target/small-aoe: Scepter/Dagger. Max range/largest-aoe: staff. PBAoE/sustain with signet heal: D/D.

2. Should I stick with my CC/CD build, or should I go pure fire to get even MORE +power? Or should I mix the two?
For your level, anything is fine, feel free to experiment. At higher levels you’ll want to mix all 3 stats (after 60(?) all gear has 3 stats anyway). I’d suggest trying 10 trait points in arcane for the “V” trait to get boons on attunement swap, access to protection/regeneration/swiftness/fury should make up for any loss of dps from the air line.

3. Am I able to switch weapons? I see a button that allows it, but when I click it in game, nothing happens.
Nope. Not in combat anyway. Elementalists have 20 skills on each weapon set, that’s already double what other classes have even with weapon swap. Each set has all the tools you need: heals, damage, CC, etc.

4. About how many levels should I replace my equipment?
About every 10 levels unless you feel like you are dying easy and having a hard time killing, then try every 5-7 till you get used to timing dodge and heals.

5. I really REALLY like the Air skills, both for Staff and Scepter/Focus. Should I just stick with them, or use Fire instead? Which does more single target biggest number hitting skills? Learn to use every skill in every attunement, not just randomly or on cooldown, but when necessary or useful. Generally fire hits harder and air hits faster, but there are too many exceptions to list easily, so just play around with it.

6. Should I pay attention to movement speed? I like using the Lesser Elemental while attuned to air, so I move 10% faster I think with it on. And then I also use the fourth skill for staff air, so I move an additional 10% (these numbers might be a little off). And then I also have a new boon that let’s me move up to 25% faster, because every five seconds it adds +5% movement speed (until 25%). Do all these stack? Where do I find out my current movement speed in game? Is movement speed important for an Elementalist?
The lesser elemental randomly grants swiftness, +33% move speed, which is the cap move speed and over-writes the passives from traits. Passive movespeed bonuses don’t stack, the highest one takes precedence. With 10 points in arcane, you can get permanent +33% speed by swapping into air, using the healing glyph, then using staff air #4 and repeating on cooldowns.

I just want to put up the highest possible numbers I can lay down on enemies, thanks.
This isn’t WoW. Stop thinking of it as a DPS race. At early levels it’s easy to go glass cannon, as the early mobs were toned down quite a bit in damage since beta (ah, the days of getting 2 shot by deer….) but at higher levels you’ll need to be really freekin good not run full glass and not die all the time. Dead elementalists dps sucks…..

destroywhatdestroysyou.4301:

Hmm okay. I was thinking about playing a Thief too, (with a Shortbow), or a Ranger (with a Longbow/Shortbow). Do either of these classes have better DPS than an Elementalist?

Short answer: yes. Longer answer: maybe, depending on builds.

destroywhatdestroysyou.4301:

Hmm okay. I was thinking about playing a Thief too, (with a Shortbow), or a Ranger (with a Longbow/Shortbow). Do either of these classes have better DPS than an Elementalist?

The trinity of tank, dps, and healing does not exist in this game. You will never hear “heal me” anymore, thank our lucky stars, for example. There are some glass cannon builds which you can find in the forum or simply experiment with for yourself, but because each character regardless of class is primarily responsible for their own healing and will regularly gain agro against dungeon bosses, they will not be the big dps dealers you may be familiar with in other games. That is what I was meaning to say.

So, I didn’t mean to discourage you from the class. These are things to keep in mind simply when building your character. The penalty in this game for min maxing dps is a lack of vitality (health) toughness (armor) and the ability to trigger traits that aid in these areas. The more experienced in the game you get, the less crititcal these areas become, presumably. No guarantee there. There are some glass cannon builds out there that are running with 12,000 hit points. I prefer to stay around 17,000. In sPvP I built an Elementalist with over 21,000 lol. What part of the game you enjoy playing has alot to do with what you need too.

Dodging is the #1 defensive tool. Constantly moving is #2. That will go a long ways towards increasing your survivability and reducing the hit points your character needs.

Having said all this lol, there is no single recognized dps class. A warrior is probalby the most straight forward class for dps. I have seen a glass cannon ranger do some remarkable things in the hands of a good player. A well played messmer can do some amazing damage. Even the guardian which is well recognized for being a more defensive class can get some good dps numbers. Necros I have heard can be king out in WvW.

There is simply no class you can hold out and say, “high dps (name the class) lfg” No one wants those. There is so much more a character has to be able to do.