Guild Wars 2

Does anyone else think there Elementalist has low survivability/armor/health? I am not sure if I am playing the profession incorrectly, but I have a hard time fighting mobs my level. I die constantly, making it difficult to level by myself. I am almost to the point of switching professions so I am not constantly eating the floor!

I switch between all four elements. I have used all the weapons (the profession is able to use) and still have no luck. I found the staff and the dagger/dagger to be my best option. In addition, I have tried multiple traits for increased damage/healing/toughness/vitality.

Is anyone else experiencing the same issues? Please provide any feedback or tips on what I could do to increase my survivability.

Thanks!

I run D/D heavily into fire / Earth and dont die that often — usually because I kill before they can kill me.

Ring of fire or Burning speed + arcane wave does insane amounts of damage. When you get overwhelmed pop into earth and do an earthquake > ring of earth > churning earth.

Also, the 10 point skill ‘Earths Embrace’ is very helpful!

For gear I stick to power / vitality / condition damage stats.

Currently I run an Elementalist with base armor stats of Power/Vitality/Toughness, which is available in PVP zones and Orr from Karma Merchants. Furthermore, for increased durability I use a Focus Off-Hand for several of the control abilities it offers, not to mention self-buffs.

Focus can provide you with reflect, invulnerability, knock down, stun, daze, slow, condition removal, and burn.

Give it a try.

When you’re leveling, its best to get a good mix of vitality and toughness to help you stay alive.

The real problem is when you’re 80 and the best craftable set bonuses (such as berserker) provide no toughness or vitality. You basically have to go full glass cannon if you want to take advantage of the 6 piece bonus. That’s kitteny IMO. I think there should be a middle ground other than wearing 4/6 DPS and 2/6 survivability gear. Perhaps including SOME toughness or vitaility in the berserker sets would solve the problem? What say you, arenanet?

i normaly dont have so much survive problems, but you have run very much -.-
and use your skills wisely for expamply if you have blind an enemie you dont have to evade from him just let him get that “hit” so you have still can jump away from his next attack ^^ another tipp is use some defence skill like arcan bubble or windseal(aoe blinding) they help more then the most ppl think ^^ i always have that 2 with me ^^

I find they survive in PvE just fine provided you don’t pull an army of mobs and kite/dodge well.

For your given weapon set, be sure to learn all of your stuns/chills/cripples for each attunement, (for example, w/ staff there is a free dodge in fire, a chill in water, a knockback and stun in Air, and a cripple and immobilize in Earth). Between all of them, you can kite almost indefinitely without getting touched (and if you do, go water and heal). Multiple mobs can cause some difficulty however, but I think that’s intended.

Also, I think every elementalist should get 10 trait pts in Arcane for elemental attunement. It’s a free AOE boon for your group every time you switch elements, which if you’re playing correctly, is very often. I also (personal preference) drop at least 5 pts in water so that I passively regenerate health when attuned to it.

I mainly use staff, and find ele to be very durable. With 15 points in water and evasive arcana I can heal 5-6k every 9 seconds just by going to water and rolling once.

I often pull 3-4 mobs at once in orr and just aoe them down while dodging like a crazy person(renewing stam).

In explorables I equip a bit of toughness/vit so I can survive the “haha screw you 15k hit” attacks that fly around. but most of that can be dodged anyway.

If I find my self in trouble I pulse-blind them for 10 seconds with glyph of storms and heal (or nuke)

We have a ton of great escape utility’s, personally I like cleansing fire, but mist form and lightning flash are also life savers.

Overall I think we’re just fine on the survivability front. We have a lot of tricks

Great! Thank you all for the advice. I will give it a try and see how it works.

I play a Scepter/Dagger Elementalist and survive just fine, because I put points in Earth/Water/Arcane. Even just putting the minimal 10pts in those trees will boost your survivability tremendously.

To expand upon what Bsquared, I feel that every Elementalist should also put 10pts into Water to get “Soothing Mist” (health regen that stacks) and condition removal. Even if you are built pure damage beyond those 10pts in Water & Arcane, you will notice a survivability increase. Also get Glyph of Storms utility skill. Even if you’re not specced into Glyph recharge, because using that skill in Earth attunement has allowed me to pull as many mobs as I possible can, and not die.

Quintal.6594:

I mainly use staff, and find ele to be very durable. With 15 points in water and evasive arcana I can heal 5-6k every 9 seconds just by going to water and rolling once.

I often pull 3-4 mobs at once in orr and just aoe them down while dodging like a crazy person(renewing stam).

In explorables I equip a bit of toughness/vit so I can survive the “haha screw you 15k hit” attacks that fly around. but most of that can be dodged anyway.

If I find my self in trouble I pulse-blind them for 10 seconds with glyph of storms and heal (or nuke)

We have a ton of great escape utility’s, personally I like cleansing fire, but mist form and lightning flash are also life savers.

Overall I think we’re just fine on the survivability front. We have a lot of tricks

Hmm, I have not tried the evasive arcana. I will try that and moving around more often to see if that helps.

Elementalist pve survival is exactly equal to your skill at running backwards in a circle while maintaining dps.

I would estimate that easily 90% of the mobs in the general environment are absolutely hamstrung by this tactic.

Also, circle size normally works inversely to mob size/mobility (with adjustments for reach and pbaoe abilities).

I have been able to solo melee-only champions since my first day as an elementalist. This is not bacause I have “skill” (I don’t) but rather because I can keep the q-key pressed while evenly moving my mouse to the right…..and oversized mobs can’t corener for anything.