Guild Wars 2

I recently used my level 80 boost to take an elementalist to the cap. Of course, I didn’t have much experience with the class prior to this, so I’m having a little trouble. So far I really like the d/d playstyle and I would like to keep the dagger mainhand at least. Unfortunately, I’m having a tough time due to the lack of range as some enemies seem far more difficult to handle at melee range. On my thief I just weapon swap, but ele doesn’t give me that option.

Any advice? Builds? Weapons? Runes/sigils? Strategies? Like I said, I’d prefer to run a d/x build, probably a fresh air variant as I’ve been enjoying that. Teach me some new tricks!

Well for starters, ditch that offhand dagger. You want either dagger / focus or staff for open world content if you’re a beginner. Warhorn if you have it. To avoid a TL;DR, here are some things you should know about elementalist:

1. Don’t run a condition build
2. Earth traitline and reflects are your best friend for solo content. Magnetic aura, obsidian flesh, aftershock, and swirling winds is pretty much manditory to learn how to use. 90% of ele deaths are from pew pew in all game modes. Not sure why you have trouble with melee, i always found ele to be very strong in close range
3. AoE overloads are your only defense against pocket raptors
4. You are the absolute bottom for survivability, but zerker is still the best choice. Once you are experienced, you will be able to solo anything easily with 11k hp

I play a lot of D/X in open world. The most important skill you can learn here is to max-melee. At 300, your melee range is longer than other melee classes. Use that and stay moving to avoid taking too many hits.

Also, if you’re really taking a beating and using a fresh air build, remember that you can rotate into earth or water instead of fire after overload air.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll give focus and warhorn a try and see if that doesn’t open things up a bit. I think a little bit more defense would let me stay on offense better, instead of dropping back to heal or retreating. And you’re right, those projectile attacks are eating me alive without good access to magnetic aura.

I was in the same situation as you, OP, but I’m figuring it out. In open world, I run d/f or d/wh, but when in groups (Silverwastes, HoT meta events) I normally use a staff. I’m actually running Fire/Air/Tempest, which is super glassy, but at range I survive just fine and my DPS is insane. (My ele got me Master of Overkill!)

I would say start off with Earth/Air/Tempest traits and D/W or D/F (I prefer warhorn). Running earth instead of fire and full shouts for utilities gives you a lot for sustainability and protection and will make your life a lot easier. Once you’re comfortable with it then I would switch to air/fire/tempest!!

For pretty much most open world content, including HoT, I run D/W Fresh Air if I’m feeling like melee-heavier that day, or Staff if I want to go ranged. Fire, Air, Tempest is my setup and, as others have said, movement and dodge is helpful to overcoming the ele’s inherent squishiness and staying alive.