Guild Wars 2

So I made an ele recently and the one thing that stands out to me is the absolutely HORRIBLE amount of damage this class takes. I swear everything in this game can like 3 shot me with a weak attack. I’v never played a class soooo weak in defense. The damage isn’t that great either but hey I could make do with it if I could possibly not die when i get touched by mobs. The tiniest poke kills me. So how is this class played?

ele is the hardest profession to play, welcome to the world of eles

Attunement dancing, that is, swapping attunements fast to get full benefit. This is not like the other classes, you cant stay in 1 element or you will fall.

Having a good amount of protection buff up. And putting vitality / toughness in your gear. Gearing toward damage requires a good deal of skill and knowing all the abilities first.

Start by fighting 1 or 2 less mobs then you are used to as well. Don’t play like a warrior, think of yourself as a sheet of glass.

daphoenix has a good guide over:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-11-25-12/first
The first few posts should get you going, no need to play dd if you don’t want to but that thread is bias towards dd

Elementalists require thinking and proper playing, you can’t play while sleeping, you aren’t a Guardian/Warrior. This has the benefit of making the game more fun and enjoyable, at least for me. Take it easy and learn the prof and you will have some very exciting fights

dagger/dagger is hard to master but it feels right when it all come together. the other weapon combinations don’t make as much sense but i suspect all of the combinations have pretty good ability.

but not having any hitpoints is a bear. got stick and move. stick and move.

OP, if you are talking about PvE, yes you are going to be extremely squishy at the very beginning.

Trust me though, that changes once you get a little bit higher level and can start crafting armors that involve Vit, Toughness, and healing power along with your offensive stats.

In late game / PvP, Ele’s are one of the toughest professions to take down. Give it some time, and practice your skills. Ele’s are also not like some other professions where you can be almost brain dead and survive. You’ll need to practice hard for a while. Once your skills improve, and suddenly it all clicks you’ll feel like this:

TxJBxT.9370:

So I made an ele recently and the one thing that stands out to me is the absolutely HORRIBLE amount of damage this class takes. I swear everything in this game can like 3 shot me with a weak attack. I’v never played a class soooo weak in defense. The damage isn’t that great either but hey I could make do with it if I could possibly not die when i get touched by mobs. The tiniest poke kills me. So how is this class played?

That’s funny, because elementalist is the profession, I found, to have to highest survivability. If you trait right, you can get tons of boons on you every time you swap attunement and use cantrips. Go dual dagger, 3 cantrips and trait for getting more boons.

Jericho.4521:

OP, if you are talking about PvE, yes you are going to be extremely squishy at the very beginning.

Trust me though, that changes once you get a little bit higher level and can start crafting armors that involve Vit, Toughness, and healing power along with your offensive stats.

In late game / PvP, Ele’s are one of the toughest professions to take down. Give it some time, and practice your skills. Ele’s are also not like some other professions where you can be almost brain dead and survive. You’ll need to practice hard for a while. Once your skills improve, and suddenly it all clicks you’ll feel like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdkdQtlF-RU

i Just laughed so hard at this post i had to comment i honestly feel like neo in pvp and pve xD eles survivability is insane if u spec right and practice at it lol im always the last one standing in dungeons saying " You guys dead already?) lmao xD

The utility skill Glyph of Lesser Elementals and the elite skill Glyph of Elementals both help a LOT in PvE. Use them in Earth and your elementals will be able to tank a massive amount of damage for you.

Arcane Shield is also a powerful defensive option. I like saving it for spells with long channel times like Meteor Storm or Churning Earth. Any time you want to get a spell off and there are enemies around, you can usually just pop Arcane Shield to make it through the cast time. It’s also good for running around the world, since attacks blocked by Arcane Shield don’t knock you out of out-of-combat run speed.

You also need to learn how to kite like crazy. In certain personal story missions, you may end up spending more time running while frantically throwing ground-targeted abilities where they’ll hit the swarm chasing you than actually casting spells.

Alright. Anyone have a lvling build? I’m lvl 12.

use a sceptre dagger is my best advice for leveling. go 10 into arcane first then water so you get the gain buff depending on attunement and from water remove a condition when attuning to water.

Our base hp is a bit silly i am jealous of every other class due to passive defence or base healthpool which allows them to take a boss hit and living on 25% where as ele you arent as lucky as them.

Sure we have great healing so normals mobs are easy but cant really outheal a instant kill from a boss autoswing. And dont comment learn to dodge because anyone who isnt a machine cant dodge 100% of the time.

At 80 get lots of vitality.

For bosses we have an awesome shield skill, the Let The Guardian Guy Get Hit. It lets you solo those things all by yourself! :p

TxJBxT.9370:

Alright. Anyone have a lvling build? I’m lvl 12.

I leveled with D/D and Staff. Staff for dynamic events to tag more mobs and stay at range. D/D I just Burning Speed / RoF / Eq / Churn Earth / Shocking Aura (Unless facing knockback / interrupt mobs) then dont do the Churn, but Switch to Water as you may have taken some damage by now.

I suggest 10 in Water or Arcane to start your trials. 10 in Water with a Remove Conditions on entering water will make those Risen a lil bit easier to deal with (if you are in Sylvari lands). The extra vitality is also nice to have. Then I would do 10 in air, for Air 1 trait, Aura’s grant fury / swiftness. Again this is just the way I played. So many ways to level an Ele. You can actually level with staff pretty well. 20 Arcane + Air for crits and do Arcane trait 8 for Large Area of Effects with Staff. If you dont go air for crit and go Fire for raw damage, just do 10% dmg will in fire so your lava font does more with the increased aoe size to tag more monsters. This game isnt about fully killing a monster, but tagging those being killed by others.

Dynamic event chains are your friend. Find them, use them, and use other players (sounds dirty!) But thats how you can level faster. Tag Tag Tag. Your the slowest on the playground and must catch everyone else, so we cheat a little and throw a rock or 2 at their targets!
Bad analogy I know, but Im in a funny mood!

Best of luck!

TxJBxT.9370:

Alright. Anyone have a lvling build? I’m lvl 12.

Crafting. Seriously crafting.

TheGuy.3568:

TxJBxT.9370:

Alright. Anyone have a lvling build? I’m lvl 12.

Crafting. Seriously crafting.

Waste that money if ur not gathering urself waste that money man. its easy to lvl to 80 really if u need help ask the community on places where events happen one after the other just hit 60 little while ago in bloodtide coast love that place <3 lvled me from 45 easily to 60 :P and still lvling thier !

For anyone who likes to use the additional support characters (i.e. elementals), Go for ’Hounds of Balthazar and Glyph of Lesser Elementals (Earth). Then pull in mobs and go water often……spamming health on your support and AoE is like watching fireworks on a christmas tree.

I do that with my Earth Elemental. It’s incredible how much damage he can tank if I’m supporting him with Water heals. And you can still deal decent damage by switching to Fire, dropping Flame Burst and Lava Font, then switch to Earth and drop Eruption for a huge stack of AoE damage, then switch back to Water and continue healing.

You can juggle Glyph of Lesser Elementals and Glyph of Elementals between battles too so you’re not stuck waiting on the cooldown from one battle to the next.