Guild Wars 2

My elementalist is only level 9 but I’m struggling with keeping him alive (although I haven’t died yet). I calculated the average damage taken from 1 hit by an enemy and its 18-22% of my life. That means in five hits I could go down and that’s just from fighting only 1 enemy. Is the elementalist supposed to be this weak or do I need to put everything into vitality and toughness?

yep and almost yep
You’re designed to get hurt very hard, you have to invest at least a bit in T and V, (exept for speed clear donjon obviously).

But on the other side, you have high regeneration … but not so much in low level.
Abuse of elemental pet and lightning hammer for the leveling phase, it really helps

In the early levels, try to upgrade armour and weapons whenever you have the opportunity and prefer defensive stats. Don’t forget to get trinkets from Karma vendors. A +4 to Vitality look trivial to a veteran, but it is a lot for a low level character.
Is this your first GW2 character? If you do not know the special attacks of foes, Ele is pretty unforgiving because it has the lowest health and lowest armour. Using a weapon with range like scepter and staff could make it easier than employing a dagger as a weapon.

When I was low level I used a staff, staff was my friend along with scepter, and I upgraded armor every chance I got. Kitting is key, dodging is key. Eles get hit hard, and when we do, we take a beating.

But our DMG is big numbers, nuking, we hit hard aoe wise, which is why I love playing ele. Stick with it, learn the dodge, learn to kite, its well worth it.

When you do hit that level 80, and throw on some zerk gear and D/D or Staff, your ele is going to do some pretty nice dmg, and you’ll be seeing big numbers.

Learn the battlefield, your surroundings, try not to ball up the foes. There are a lot of players starting out at your level, group up with them, level up together, it makes some of the longest battles that seem days, and makes them a lot faster for you.

That’s what GW2 is all about, community, and with that, there should be no problem for you. BTW check some guilds, they can help in many ways and a lot of us, know a few tricks of the trade. Have fun…

Don’t listen to the others about vitality/toughness. What you need to be focusing on is

a) timing your dodges/interrupt skills on your weapons
b) learn and get used to blasting yourself might, as it’s good burst and increases the damage of all of your attacks with each blast.

Trust me, you will find that there is more to be gained by maximizing your output rather than trying to minimize input with passive stats.

Also keep in mind— there is essentially no consequence on this game for deaths as it is, so take advantage of that while you are learning to play better! You will eventually learn the attacks of whatever it is that you struggle with.

My Elementalist has been pretty much a Dagger/Dagger throughout her life, perhaps you could try that? Like others said try and update your equipment ASAP.