Guild Wars 2

Let me preface this by saying that I played WoW for about 6 years off an on. I played a mage for the majority of that time, and was competent enough to play very well in both early and later year raiding. So I chose the elementalist profession thinking it would suit my playstyle.

I just did my first dungeon in GW2 (AC story), and let me tell you, what a disaster. I guess I don’t fully understand my role, or anyone else’s role in dungeons, and am looking for a little help figuring it out. The group was pretty terrible last night, and it seemed so dysfunctional. It really did seem like an “everybody for themselves” mentality, and it’s just not what I am used to.

So what I’m asking is, how am I supposed to effectively play an elementalist (I like to shoot things) in a PvE group setting? Am I going to have to get used to playing a more nontraditional ranged dps class that pops in and out of auras to heal the group? Should I really be kiting mobs the entire dungeon? Am I failing at my class because our group killed a boss by dying and running back from a waypoint countless times until his health bar reached 0?

tl;dr: How do I play a primarily damage dealing elementalist (if that is such a thing in this game) in a group PvE setting?

Thanks

Any class built like any other MMOs “dps” will either be entirely ineffective, or extremely hard to play.

Also, the dungeons in this game are meant to take the place of the most challenging content (raids) and all be playable at endgame. With a totally disorganized group, especially at or near the level of the dungeon, they can be rather brutal.

Just looking at stats it seems like putting points into fire and air early on will give you the best damage, HOWEVER, a dead elementalist does 0 damage. If your group is relying on you for heals, they suck. Elementalists specced into full healing at 80 can heal a decent amount, but not even enough then to save people who don’t dodge or use their own interrupts/etc.

Best advice I can give is try different builds till you find one that works to both survive and dish out damage. Learn what combo fields do, how to create them at useful times/locations, and how to finish them. Watch some walkthroughs for dungeons you’d like to try (especially if PUGging) so you know what to expect (for example, was that boss you corpse-run-zerg-killed the one who goes crazy and spawns adds when hit with any CC? knowing mob behaviors can really change things…..).

As an old wow player myself lemme tell you this: Forget everything you learned in wow. GW2 is almost nothing at all like wow. Elementalist is nothing at all as mage.

Forget it all, start over.

I can’t tell you how to play, because that’s entirely up to you.
I can, however, tell you how I play. And maybe give some insights.

For PvE, I run a balanced gear setup with stats mainly focusing on direct damage and critical hits.
I have 2 armor pieces, my weapons and 2 jewelry parts dedicated to defensive stats while still having power (Power, Toughness, Vitality). I have around 1400 toughness with 10 points in earth, and 1500 vitality with 30 points in water.
I focus on supporting my group by cleansing conditions, giving boons and healing.
I use the scepter / dagger combination, and use Fire 2 -> Fire 4 -> Fire 3 -> Arcane Wave ->Fire 5 -> Switch to Earth Attunement -> Earth 4 -> Earth 5 to give everyone 18 stacks of might.
Between the might stacking combo’s I go to Air Attunement or stay in earth to deal some damage, and use Water Attunement near allies to heal them and clear conditions. Going back to fire only when I know I can stack up some might again.
My current build is: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhImmblR5gjEAkHnYCLjChIKYRRxM4A;TgAKaM0IoxujjG5ODLmiA
I would go a bit more offensive while keeping 30 points in water, but I use this same build in WvW so until they add dual trait setups I’ll stick with this.

The problem with this build is that it’s all done in melee range.
If you want to go ranged you’re pretty much forced to use the staff.
When I used staff I had pretty much the same gear setup, but with 30 points in air magic. Taking 10 away from Earth and Arcane. Taking the 2 glyph traits and using Glyph of Storms rather then Arcane Wave.
You can still support your team with combo fields, CC and healing / condition removal. But since I mostly ran with a group that had very few finishers I switched to Scepter / Dagger so I could do it myself.

I hope you’ll enjoy Elementalist as much as I do, and wish you good luck!

You can develop roles in dungeons, certainly, with a Guardian or Ele being assigned to condition removal during particularly onerous parts of specific dungeons, or a Mesmer being assigned to make sure to use Feedback for particularly painful turrets, for example, but you will have to more or less abandon the notion of “roles” in the sense held by traditional MMOs. You can heal as an ele, but you certainly can’t be a healer. No one can put out enough regular healing in a way that would make that role possible. There are informal aggro mechanics that can be manipulated, but no one really has the tools to reliably “tank” in the traditional sense (so yes, you and everyone else will need to be kiting, dodging, etc. actively). So, group organization and role coordination means something different in this game. Everyone needs to be doing damage, everyone needs to be bringing some tools for personal survivability (since no one is really strong enough to “save” someone from major mistakes), and everyone needs to know how to manage their own character with dodging, using combo fields, and watching bosses in order to identify and avoid major attacks. Everyone thus needs to be more self-reliant than in traditional MMOs, but that doesn’t mean acting without coordination. The lines between tradition roles are just blurred and overlapped, and more flexibility is required.

Also, AC is a far more painful dungeon than some other ones if you don’t have someone along who knows what to expect and help coordinate actions, especially when playing it at the early levels. Having a bad group will only exacerbate this.

One of the biggest mistakes people make in dungeons is believing in the “trinity” most MMOs have. GW2 has roles (damage, support, control) but to do dungeons everyone MUST be able to be their own tank and healer. Glass cannon works solo, but most upper-teir dungeoneers will refuse to bring a full glass cannon into their dungeon.

Balance is key.

As an ele, you can do a lot of different things due to the attunement swapping, so your role during PvE is to do whatever is needed.

Do damage whenever you have a spare moment. Switch to water and heal people whenever you can. Switch to earth and apply protection to everyone, and possibly knockdown the enemy or apply conditions, switch to air to give speed when running around. Lay down combo fields. Do combo finishers. Remove conditions with water, spread boons with Auras, etc etc.

Most ele builds can do most of the things listed above, so an effective ele will be doing as many of those things as possible, whenever they can be useful. (eg. don’t heal when everyone is full.)

It’s also part of a skillful group play for your team mates to receive your support correctly. (eg. low health allies should stand still long enough to receive your healing, group should clump together before a fight to receive protection boon, etc.)

There are no roles.

Think of your class as a swiss army knife. You have tools to support your friends (heals, combo fields) and you have other tools to control NPC’s (cripple, chill, stun, knockback).

Every class can DPS and there are no DPS meters (woot). In the end, all players must use thier tools to succeed at the encounter.

If you want to focus on DPS in dungeons, then Scepter/Dagger is probably the best choice for you. With Ring of Fire and all its blast finishers, you can get huge amounts of might. NPCs tend to move less often than players, so Scepter doesn’t face the same hurdles it does in PvP. The #2 Earth skill will also help your survivability somewhat.

Be prepared to kite no matter what role you’re in. If you’re focusing on DPS, then yeah, you’re going to be squishy, so be prepared to kite even more. Taking huge damage dumps on enemies isn’t going to save you since most enemies in dungeons can take a large amount of beating.

Combo fields combo fields combo fields. They’re super-important and can accomplish many things. Coordinate with your group to put out and make use of combo fields in an effective manner. With S/D, you have a lot of blast finishers. If you choose staff, then you have a lot of fields and should become familiar with the Eruption→Geyser combo.

If you find yourself dying too much to contribute meaningfully, then reconsider the direction you’re going in. Speccing for healing and toughness with a bit of vitality is a successful strategy for elementalists. In PvE, I run a 0/10/10/20/30 build and can leverage my healing and mobility to do a fair bit of tanking while still dealing respectable damage.

Really, in most dungeons, being able to stay the course and keep the fight going for a longer period of time is a more successful strategy than trying to finish the fight as quickly as possible. Preventing a wipe by keeping fights going while waiting for teammates to return is an important skill, especially in tricky fights like Lt Kohler (that will one-shot anyone who messes up a dodge).

The most important thing to remember is that you need to revive downed party members before they become dead. Any party member can and should do it. Make it a priority. The only thing that should be placed before the revival of downed teammates is your own well-being (because being downed while reviving a teammate doesn’t do anyone any good).

Thanks for the posts. I’ve been trying to find some guidance along these lines myself but most of what I read applies to pvp. Most ppl seem to have the idea of ‘do whatever you want in pve’ so getting tips on pve and dungeons has been harder to find. Specifically the notes about balancing stats among different armor pieces – my stats seem to be all over the place and I haven’t specifically tried to get armor for particular stats.

i played AC story with my warrior over and over before they nerfed the experience.
exploreable mode with a pug can be insurmountable but i have done them a few times.

i took my ele into ac story at 30 in a pug with whatever gear i could scrap together from the market and such.
scepter focus which was more like warrior mace and shield so that is what i used.

So my self made roll was to damage and stack might.
plus protect the group from rangers and other projectiles.

with a couple of rangers with water fields i also got some compliments on my healing.

that was my first run through AC with the ele. less than 5 deaths. no broken armor.

Dungeons are hard. there were a lot of people, at the time, complaining that they were too hard for any class.

So whenever i hear how hard dungeons are… I just have to say that learning to play an ele in spvp is a hell of lot harder but I got a hell of a lot better at the game in general from dungeons and again after doing spvp.