Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I started an Ele lately and got him to lvl30 today. I usualy play melee so i went D/D thinking it would be ideal for my playstyle. Sadly it isn’t, i die quite alot to single same lvl enemys and even more vs 2-3.

So i have started using staff for grinding out the levels. When would you more experienced Ele’s say D/D is good in PvE?
Maybe im specced wrong atm 10/0/0/0/10

I want to play WvW when i get to lvl50+ and was hoping to get used to the D/D skillsets now, i don’t want to have to reprogram myself away from staff at later levels.

Any and all advice welcome.

D/D is awesome in PvE. But you do have to keep in mind that an Elementalist in melee range wil always be squishy. You should never be face-tanking a mob. Ever. To aid this, I very much suggest respeccing to a 0/10/0/0/10 spec and pick up the Zephyr’s Boon (Air) and Elemental Attunement (Arcane) traits. This will give you the ability to achieve near permanent swiftness and fury uptime, allowing you to position yourself at your own will during combat by by following the frost aura -> Air Attunement -> Ring of Fire + dodge backwards -> Magnetic grasp (creates fire aura combo). In between use your DPS/control skills.

I usually start a fight with Burning Speed + Arcane Wave + Fire Grab for a seriously hard-hitting opener that also happens to be a nice combo. If the mob isn’t dead after your usual attunement rotation, you can always run away with swiftness or Burning Speed, charge up Churning Earth and use Lightning Flash to teleport right into your enemy to deliver the final blow.

Coupled with an elemental pet, I actually kill stuff easier on my elementalist than my warrior. I certainly die less thanks to some amazing escape options and mobility.

On top of that, always turn off Combat Target Assist (or something like that) in the options. That way you can deselect your target, hit Ride The Lightning and zip off into the distance. This will pretty much keep you alive whenever you get in over your head (seriously, I haven’t died once in general PvE thanks to this amazing escape skill after turning off this option).

Or if you really can’t make D/D work for you, switch to S/D temporarily for a safer (ranged) option with more control abilities instead of straight up DPS.

One top of the above, use + vitality equipment and to keep your gear up with your level as you get stronger. I’d suggest masterwork within 5~10 levels or fine within 5lvls. It will make a big difference on your defenses/hp.
You should also take advantage of your mobility. Never stop moving and keep your enemies frozen/crippled so you can kite them. If you’re using churning earth, but then you should knock them back/down then maybe shocking aura, or just make have them crippled/frozen and enough distance to get the skill done before the mob reaches you.

Even if though you’re melee, your attacks have 300 range, with is 130 more than standard melee. That means you can stay slightly outside of their range and keep hitting them.

Thanks for the advice guys, gonna get a respec now

Gear for survivability (healing/tough/vit) where possible. Arcane/water are good choices but 10 air for Zephr Boon is nice. Use the elemental elite, earth seem to grab more agro but the frost one is a great tank. I would use the elemental utility too.

Get a Major Sigil of Battle at level 39.

I can bombard you with heaps of info but I’ll just add on to what these guys have said.

A major sigil of battle gives you 2 stacks of might when you swap weapons. What you might not know is that even though ele’s can’t swap weapons, swapping attunements counts as a weapon swap.

If you like you can spec 0/10/10/0/0 for earth attunement’s equivalent of zephyr’s boon. It grants protection. 10 points in earth also gives 100 toughness.

Basically you need to learn how to chain skills together and that you need to change attunements all the time.

Been running D/D since lvl 2 or 3 (unlocked all the skills for everything else of course, at lvl 7 on lvl 2 mobs because aoe killing them in 2 sec is much easier then grinding same lvl mobs to unlock skills).

I would suggest 10 in arcane for boons on attunement swap. Then as mentioned 10 air for zephers boon. Once you reach tier 2 traits I would try to go for 15 water, or keep 0 10 0 0 10 and build to 15 water. 15 water is a heal on swap to water as well as regen and soothing mists.

When in combat, just kite the melee while you destroy the ranged guys, then group the melee and drakes breath + flame grab + fire 4 + earth 4 + earth 5 them.

Also, don’t be stingy, buy some weapons / gear, you can pick up some cheap stuff on the TP. I would suggest every 10 lvls or so, unless you get lucky with drops.

i did all my post 40 leveling using d/d…
the basic combos of ride the lightning, updraft, burning speed, blah blah blah works pretty sweet.

For low arcane stuff it may help to have a conjure available like the ax. lots of burning takes care of mobs pretty well. It helpped me in a few situations… However the ice bow is fairly powerful in pve. It was dropping mobs before they got to me. much like a classic caster.

i went with 20 air and the rest in water as soon as i could. I had to have one with air when it was working so my arcane was low.

now there is a the signet of air which is better.. and i guess actually works.

most stuff is nearly dead after that initial opener…
i did not upgrade my AC level 35 armor until i hit 50 or so… I did upgrade my weapons though.
The ele’s “don’t get hit” tank is really good.

although when i started my d/d leveling i starting doing my personal story and just soloing stuff in general. So how well that works in groups and such… i can not say.
I think… in dungeons i would prefer something with the focus in my off hand.
Might still go with dagger focus as i like that playstyle too.
I tried using staff but its a different beast and i found that if i stopped using d/d for a while i got rusty and had to spend some time getting my combos smooth again.