Guild Wars 2

This thread is about leveling:

I have an Elementalist at level 19 (almost 20) and, although fun, have been struggling getting a handle on it. I followed some of the great advice here (D/D approach, S/D approach, Staff approach) but still often feel I have to work my butt off when soloing (everything things feels like butter in a group) and die frequently to veterans and groups. So, while not soliciting direct advice, I’m wondering if others can share insight on how their ele’s evolved over the leveling progression. Do I have things/milestones to look forward to? Is it always going to be a major challenge to solo level? When did Elementalist “click” for you and why?

Thanks in advance. Also, if you think this is a redundant thread, I would be very grateful if you pointed me in the direction of something similar.

Ele clicked for me after I was level 80. I levelled to 80 with a staff, and using arcane blast/wave with signet of fire, and did most of orr solo with it. When I had a root around on the forums, and saw that dual daggers were pretty good, so I tried them out… and they clicked almost straight away and I was able to take on 3 or 4 risen mobs, without dying, which I wasn’t so good at staffing

Hope it clicks earlier for you, because ele is really fun to play!

I think that when my elementalist “clicked” for me was around lvl 25-30ish.
Before that I had been using staff (still only use staff actually) and had put my first traitpoints only in fire thinking: Thats the way it usually goes, right? :P And I noticed I too just kept dieing alot and started to get a bit bored with it. So I went back and resetted some traitpoints to Arcane and Water, just fun, might aswell try I thought. And thats kinda where I got my “Ahaaa~~” feeling.
First thing I noticed was that it got a bit easier at staying alive, second thing I noticed was the boons from that first Arcane trait (the one that gives boon upon attuneswitch, you all know) actually made a difference when switching attunement. It gave a whole lot more meaning upon switching attunement (ex: I actually got more into “defensive stance” when switching to earth with the protection boon). I personally think those 10 arcane points made me easier to learn from experience when and what skills to use in which situation and to practise dodgeing.
Third thing I noticed was that it was very VERY good using the Lesser Glyph of Elemental for the earth-summon when I finally got it. It did help with summoning something beside you when you needed something to tank for you or finish something you started faster.
And well…that’s it. Then it just kept clicking

(note: Do remember to update you armour and weaps to your lvl, even if its just blues. At lvl 50ish I got kitten dieing like a fly for I dunno…10 times before I remembered to look at my armour and realised I was still running around with lvl 30ish armour…lol nab me >.>)

I started leveling ele with d/d and it “clicked” at around level 8. Just felt confident in my approach to fights and I have been fighting pretty much the same since then.

Well, D/D always felt fairly comfortable to me. However, between 30-35 when I downed my first Champ is when I felt that my Ele came into his own. At that point all the way to 80 he felt just as powerful and durable as my Guardian but far more engaging and fun.

So, I would say stick in there for another 10 levels (they go fast, I suggest you always have a food buff up for the exp gain) and you will be rewarded.

When I discovered the defensive power of a Cantrip build.

Prior to discovering it life was pretty much hell. The damage seemed super weak and I had to work at everything to kill and stay alive. S/D worked out okay at first (using Air/Earth rotating blinds and CCs swapping to fire to burst AOE) but it was still pretty miserable.

Once I learned about and discovered that Conjure Cantrip build the whole thing came together around 40. I was able to do 20/0/0/10/0 and make a pretty decent Conjure build revolving around Cantrips and conjure Lightning Hammer. That gave me perma blind and I was able to pretty much walk through content. After that it was just adding on. 10 in Earth for a free Cantrip for Armor of Earth at 50. Another 10 in Water at 60. Rest into Lightning from there for more damage. Had all the survivability I could ever want and all the damage I could need.

This translated well later on to a staff based game play with a Staff Cantrip build.

I’ve played Ele since early beta, but it pretty much clicked for me in BWE1. Just great all round, complex but not as stressful as my defilemancer mage in Rift. I think it took me all of 10 minutes to decide that I was going to main an ele. For me leveling after release was a breeze, mixing zergbusting in WvW with good knowledge of the class made everything fairly easy.

I think it was around level 15 that he Ele really clicked for me. Forgot what event it was on but it was a mass mob event with the centaurs and I was soloing it with d/d.
I will let you know now that that working hard for the reward never ends with the Ele. Too keep the damage rolling out and have a bit of survivability we have to constantly be rotating our skills and re positioning ourselves while doing it.

The first time I pressed Air Number 4 on off-hand dagger.

My ele clicked for me in pvp in the Betas
My ele in pve clicked when I looked at the traits and started lvling the defensive ones, tried out all the weapons and got good synergy with the ones I liked. So around lvl 5 I knew I wanted to play daggers, and lvl 20ish I knew which traits I wanted (needed) first.

Just remember to buy some cheap but new gear every 5 lvls or so, if possible get the stats you would like.

I almost gave up way back before release, after BWE2-3 I was sure that the profession wasn’t was expected, it was far too fragile compared to the GW1 counterpart for me.

I was looking for something able to deal decent dmg while still no dieing in 2-3 hits like your typical mage archetype, initially I had many builds with fire traits and more, I was clueless about the thief and mesmer burst, actually the mesmer wasn’t nearly as strong as now during BWE1.

Anyway after many tears ( many many many tears ) and countless number of deaths, I stumbled upon elemental surge and arcane skills, from there I was able to develop a winning build based on this trait hence 30 in Arcana XD.

But after the unjustified nerf to the arcane skills ( nerf on dmg and CD), I decided to give EA a try and from there I obtained my current set up, sometimes I go full zerk ele, it is fun to see those big numbers and kill people from distance but then I get frustated by the constant rain of HS on me that I go back to my defensive build, unfortunately stealth gives too much of an advantage as burst oriented build and unless you can absorb the initial burst..you’re done for.