Guild Wars 2

Im new to gw and have a level 14 char elementalist. Just moved on from plains of ashford and I find myself dying at least once every 10mins.

I’m mainly a dual dagger ele. The skills I tend to use are :
begin with Drakes Breath for the burning
Fire grab
Burning speed

Then i will switch to water if im hurt to heal and spam vapor blade

or switch to lightning if im not hurt and use whip/updraft to finish them off

I find this works OK against 1 or 2 mobs but any more than that and im instantly dead. Ive tried using all glyph summons but that hasn’t helped.

If there is a ranger and a warrior mob together i really cant survive for more than 1 min.

I honestly don’t know what im doing wrong. I’m switching as much as possible and moving around as much as my endurance allows but I still die constantly.

Do I just suck? and should i switch to warrior or something? Please help :S

If you want to faceroll the game then switch to warrior. If you are a nerdballer then stay ele.

Standard combo is RTL > Updraft > Switch to Fire > Burning Speed > Ring of Fire > Fire Grab. Atleast for me anyways, some people might fire grab before ring of fire. After that combo you could either Drakes Breath, or swap to Water for Aura/AoE Ice/Frost breath, or earth for root/earthquake/churning earth (bit too long channel usually tho).

I didn’t see anything about earth attunement or Shocking Aura. D/D needs to make use of its CC and Churning Earth is ridiculously powerful against enemies that never dodge it. Initiate on the ranged mob if there is one so they all gather up, turn on Shocking Aura → Updraft/Earthquake → Churning Earth → whatever you want.

Bring defensive utilities especially if the mobs have any CC that could mess up Churning Earth.

I honestly don’t like any earth skills on any weapon. I know they are useful but i cant seem to make myself enjoy using them.

Churning earth has a long channel and im usually dead before i can finish.

Lets say it like this… Test out every single profession and then choose.. Cause at this game its best if you like your character. Dont adjust your own attitude or focus yust to try to like a profession to much.

I just don’t understand why people come into threads like this and think that recommending to roll a warrior is at all good advice for someone playing a caster. It’s downright aggravating.

That said, here are a couple points to consider:

1. Make sure every piece of gear that is upgradable, is upgraded with a gem or some other augment. Armor is generally completely swapped out every ten levels so you will have time to make use of the augments. In addition, with master salvaging kits you will be able to retain the good augments for use in the next set.

2. D/D puts the class with the lowest base health very close to the enemy. Learn to move accordingly in fights or try a different weapon combo. D/D is cool with a lot fun abilities, but like anything else takes practice to master.

3. You are only level 14, you don’t have near all the abilities you could have at your disposal, and I bet you don’t even.have all tour item slots filled. Gotta give it time.

As far as leveling goes, pop Shocking Aura and/or Earthquake before channeling. Also, I found it particularly useful having Arcane Shield as backup incase the mob was capable of stuns/knockdowns/knockbacks to pop prior or whilst channeling.

AoE’ing a group of mobs on an Ele requires a little finesse, but it’s rather satisfying once you get it down.

Ah well.. At the other hand we have no subscription costs. If he still doesnt like it at lvl 80 he can yust make a new char

If he manages to make it to 80 and THEN decides he doesn’t enjoy the class, I’m certain making a new character will be the least of his priorities rofl.

edit, PS OP: Play what’s fun. Play each class till you’ve run them through all their weapon sets and decide then what you think. I did this for most classes and I like the DD ele best out of all for sure.

Yes I was hoping to get lightning flash and armor of earth to improve my defenses later.
Does anyone have any AOE combos for staff or scepter/dag that can help deal with large groups of enemies, as this is where i die the most.

Thanks for all your replies

Ele really isnt a great solo class, but it does do real well in group WvW sPvP.

Earth skills are prolly the best for AOE, if u can get off a churning earth at the start, most mobs will bleed to death while u run in circles.

Use earth armor while u are chanelling so u cant be stunned and reduced dmg.

Get a scepter for PvE…

Ele is strongest with AoE and Combo Fields that other classes can take advantage of best. In Wv3 you will have a lot of fun because your AoE and CC is great for controlling areas and/or facerolling those dumb enough to walk right into your AoE. In sPvP the Ele can be very strong using a couple different builds but if your not on the ADD or ADHD side of the house then you will be badly dissapointed. Lots and lots of work, very little payout should be the catch phrase for this class. Some say you need to have “Ub3r L33t sk1llz” to play this class, but from my experience that just is not true at all. What is needed to play this class well is a little bit of forethought into how you want to play it and then build for that. Practice a lot.

Anyway, I have been playing around on an Engineer lately and all I can really say is that that class is what the Ele should have been. They can do everything an Ele can do and quite a lot more.

zombyturtle.5980:

I honestly don’t know what im doing wrong. I’m switching as much as possible and moving around as much as my endurance allows but I still die constantly.

Do I just suck? and should i switch to warrior or something? Please help :S

No, but you could upgrade to Engineer. It’s what the Elementalist should have been. Hard-ish to play but does what’s written on the class description.

Try out the advice given here, or search for more…there´s plenty of it here hidden inside the ele is underpowered threads.
If you still don´t enjoy it, switch profession.

Easy as that.

What is needed to play this class well is a little bit of forethought into how you want to play it and then build for that. Practice a lot.

Anyway, I have been playing around on an Engineer lately and all I can really say is that that class is what the Ele should have been. They can do everything an Ele can do and quite a lot more.

Are you me?

And yeah, engis have combo fields as well and lots of combinations between kits and the toolbelt. Attunes are something that give you cooldown on your spells with a little buff yet the toolbelt is just extra fun stuff to use.

Not to mention they start with 50% higher hp base than ele’s. While also staying fun to play. Ofcourse it depends on your spec, you can easily go bunker and do easy stuff but that’s YOUR choice. Not a given like with eles. Grinding Glory on my engi now, when eles get some love i can make her look awesome immediatly while farming faster atm. And more fun as i can now do damage and survive at the same time.

I leveled to 80 on my ele with mostly d/d with some switching to staff if the quest or event required it. I had no problem doing the story quests at under 3-5 levels (started the 80’s at lvl 77). I used D/D because it’s the most enjoyable weapon set for me. When I got into a tough spot I used staff because of all the control the staff offers (Air 4&5, Water 4, Earth 4 & 5). D/D can be a pain if you over use your dodge. It doesn’t offer the healing scaling that other weapon sets have so its much less forgiving. But its aoe’s are awesome, especially for farming the cursed shore. You can tag everyone on a spawn ensuring a lot of loot. Try other weapon set’s, it might be that the weapon is not a fit rather then the class. If you want to stick with D/D i suggest going with Lightning flash, Mist Form and Arcane Wave switching Mist Form for cleansing fire if you are facing condi mobs.

Also, I never use lightning whip. I don’t get that close to mobs (it doesn’t seem to be actually 300 range to me). Fire auto attacks can get all 3 hits while being out of melee range. Its a small sweet spot but it exists. If you find your self locked out of attunements you are probably changing to much. Change when you should not when you can.

You should be using, at minimum, Churning Earth and Earthquake from your earth skills. If you plan on avoiding a whole attunement, then yes, you should give up on ele.

Once in earth there are a couple of different ways I like to get Churning Earth off. It will depend what’s available at that level.

Earthquake > Glyph of Storms while they get up (AoE blind that persists for a few seconds) > Churning Earth

Earthquake > begin Churning Earth channel > pop Arcane Shield once mobs get up (it’s instant, so it won’t interrupt your channel).

Keep in mind combos. Dropping Ring of Fire > Earthquake for instance is free might for you (and anyone near you).

Earth skills do tend to be clunky, but they’re extremely powerful if you’re willing to accommodate them. Lightning Flash, Arcane Shield, and Armor of Earth don’t break channels and will protect you from attacks/CC while charging Churning Earth, or you can start charging from out of range and teleport in when it’s about to explode.

Staff tends to rely more on kiting than brute force, I don’t like it quite as much for AoE killing. In that case I at least start off with the Eruption/Lava Font combo, Eruption does a ton of damage and free might stacks are always nice. I suggest bringing Arcane Wave for the extra blast combo, you’ll have fields everywhere.

Scepter I couldn’t help much with, as I rarely use it. Fire’s its only really good AoE. There’s a couple “while channeling” traits that might go well with Arc Lightning and Phoenix to give a ton of endurance regen, and the 2nd earth skill adds a chunk of free armor.

Jay wilson

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/69382-spvp-by-request-wis-prot-revisted/ is the best bulid for eles now stop QQING

Yes, that’s really helpful for the OP who is level 14.

I believe S/D Might combo goes RoF>Dragon’s Tooth>Phoenix>Arcane Wave>Earthquake. That’s 12 stacks right ther. Comet is a blast finisher as well so maybe you can work it in there. At lower levels, D/D is a bit rough due to lack of traits and skill points. Stick with Power/Vit/Toughness stats while leveling and max Fire traits when you can. Start’s getting easier around 25.

I switched from staff to scepter/dagger and I think it’s helped. I still die maybe a few times a night while leveling though.

And I do use all of my attunements. Earth 4 knocks mobs down, and is great for getting off your heal. Earth 5 does a lot of AoE damage but has a long cast time. Air 4 and 5 (which knocks down all the mobs around the target) can help dictate range or help you escape. I have the traits that give boons when switching attunements, so just switching into water puts regen on me. Then you have your 2 heals there. And fire has the combo starter 4 which I follow with arcane wave and fire 2/3 (finishers, I believe). But yeah, if the fight is any length I’ve probably visited at least 3 of the attunements. From what other people saying, that’s wayyyyyy more work than other classes have to do but it seems what they want us to do. Sitting in one attunement autoattacking, waiting for cooldowns, when you have 3 other stances makes no sense. I’m basically pushing many buttons if I’m in a long fight, switching around and using every ability like mad.

I also run around a lot at times. Stay mobile, dodge if you’re taking damage. And you have to babysit your health bar carefully if there’s more than 1 mob. Don’t start healing too late.

There are also utilities and traits that can increase survivability. The personal heal I use reduces incoming damage by 33% for a few seconds after, and if I need more of a shield I use the utility that reflects damage for ~5 seconds. The greater elemental does a lot of DPS and even tanks (but it also runs around aggroing every other mob or enemy supply crate in the area :/ ).

Thankyou for all your help. Will definitely be giving ele another shot and trying to make use of the skill combos you’ve all suggested

Well D/D is really risky for people who are yet not used to kiting and dodging vital skills, I’d recommend Scepter/Dagger, early levels you can burst down 1 and even a group of mobs with a single Fire Ring – D’Tooth – Phoenix – Fire Grab, remember to use them within the circle so you get might, switch to wind att to finish the leftovers if they’re not dead yet.

Arcane skills are your friends at early levels, I don’t know if any this has been suggested already because I only read the OP.

For Dungeons I’d personally recommend replacing Arcane Wave for Mist Form and switching over to staff for better aoe/support from safe range, but everyone has their personal preference on this subject.

GL, it’s a really fun class once you get the hangs of it.

Ele is fine at PVE when you can dictate the initial state of the encounter (ie: you get the opener). It sucks in PVE in every other situation — other classes are simply better insofar as their damage is easier to apply and they are way more sturdy.

My advice is for leveling an Ele is to go into WVW at level 10 and stay there until 80, ideally never leaving keep walls except when your zerg is obviously on an asset-acquiring roll and there’s plenty of XP/karma to be had simply through PVD (player versus door). Nuking from/onto a keep wall and supporting realm-mates who are doing the same is easily the pinnacle of the leveling Ele experience in terms of effectiveness.

Be prepared to die obscenely easily until you can get 20+ points in earth and/or water and level 65+ gear.

@mjharrison

Nope, if one enjoys pve, he can play pve, and do well in it as an ele.
Might be bit harder at early levels, wasn´t for me though nor did i have any trouble in any situation game has thrown at me as of this moment

Good for you, my response was for the OP, who very clearly posted that he is having problems in PVE.

But since you seem to have a prob with other people having an opinion: what level are you, and what other classes have you played? The forums are full of similar anecdotes about the relative difficulty of solo PVE as Ele and certainly my experiences with other classes from beta to now also clearly show that Ele’s are the worst at solo PVE in terms of killing speed, ability to solo vets/champs, and tolerance to random adds.

You should watch some D/D ele vids…you’ll notice that most players plays the class relying on stuns/mobility rather than damage, and fire spells are not the best….

Even if they are good as opener but asenemies comes at you you have to start using your stuns and dodges to avoid being hit at all.

Also if things goes bad summon your earth elemental and start to kite so the elemental can aggro some mob and you can concentrate on the remaining.

Yes most other classes just stands still and use 1-3 skills >.> but if you want to play ele you have to accept what you have untile we will be fixed..

D/D ele (and ele overall) is quite hard to play, i used to play him a lot in beta and switched to mesmer… after getting more skill in this game i returned to ele again and i feel much better but i die much more then with mesmer, you probably cant do anything about it, mainly in longer fights where you dont have time to heal/reset cd

mjharrison.3209:

Good for you, my response was for the OP, who very clearly posted that he is having problems in PVE.

But since you seem to have a prob with other people having an opinion: what level are you, and what other classes have you played? The forums are full of similar anecdotes about the relative difficulty of solo PVE as Ele and certainly my experiences with other classes from beta to now also clearly show that Ele’s are the worst at solo PVE in terms of killing speed, ability to solo vets/champs, and tolerance to random adds.

Level has been 80 for quite a while, ele being my primary, guardian and thief behind, with ranger on it´s early stages.

I´m not implying that elementalist isn´t harder to play than other professions, i´m saying that it´s not that hard. It´s no where near the “smash your face against brickwall” hard people let understand, nor hard enough to warrant need for a special way of levelling.
Soloing elementalist is easy enough to comfortably get you from 1 to 80, provided you learn how to play or seek advice on how to play. It´s perfectly viable and the efficiency is nowhere near as far from other professions as forums seem to suggest.

As for peoples opinions, i don´t have anything against opinions in general, but i do have something against yours.
Let´s see, levelling ele in wvwvw by sitting on walls hammering against opponent zergs. It´s pretty boring way of levelling. Maybe it can float your boat, but for most of the populace, i think, it gets pretty boring after a while. Secondly it offers no real need to play ele effectively, to learn how to switch attunements in any meaningful way, to learn and practice use of ones cc, support and survival skills, no real practice for actualy killing mobs. It completely shuts you away from the beautiful and diverse world we have t explore, and everything related to it. Not to mention that unexperienced ele definately is the most underpowered player there is, so having real confrontation with players apart form nuking away from behind walls leads to defeats, which further reinfoces the image that eles are worthless
In the end, if one does what you described, he´ll end up with lvl 80 toon alright, but no real experience on how to tackle mobs instead of players, how to actualy play your toon in pve setting, how to solo, or…well,how to survive in general. And that leads to lots of frustration when one tries to play his character after grinding levels, which in turn leads to people thinking elementalists are ridiculously underpowered.
Easiest way to get the hang of your profession is to play pve, from 1-80, learn the skills and kinks of your profession against easy ai opponents. If it´s too hard to figure it out by oneself, these forums are here to provide guidance, and there´s lot´s of it already out there. After learning the initial playstyle needed for the profession, one can then develop further and acutaly succeed with the profession, which is entirely feasible thing in pve setting at the very least.

Also, elementalist in BWE1 was a kittening beast for soloing, i could take a champion same level as i, with few veteran adds spawning around. Given that it was before ele nerfs, defiant buffs on champions and such, but still, i could solo group events with ease.