Guild Wars 2

i am currently a 36 ele using a staff my points are http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcsc9cz9qaV0a0om
gear is pretty much green (masterwork) with power/precision…with a few crit damage pieces mixed in…. now i was using D/D and it was going pretty well until 32 then i started getting rolled trying to do a puzzle in gendarren fields…i feel very squishy and its annoying sometimes….challenge is good but getting rolled over and over isnt fun
any spec advice/attunement i should be using while leveling etc would be helpful

I’d invest 10 points in Arcana to get Elemental Attunement, so you swap to water/earth faster and gain regeneration/protection. Ah, and use all the attunements, don’t stick in one. Hope it helps

At that level it’s more important to be able to dodge and position yourself correctly than any trait build. That said, you’d want 10 in Air for Zephyr’s Boon if you play D/D and the IV trait in Water is a terrible idea, get something else. You need to grab points in Arcana fairly soon, the V trait being a good place to start.

Staff usually has an easy time kiting everything. D/D less so, but it deals great damage if you land Burning Speed. D/D relies much more on dodging and weaving in and out of melee range to be efficient.

I’m leveling my ele alt too atm. It’s 38 now.
Running D/D with 10 in arcana and others in air/water. The main thing for my toon right now is Signet of Resotoration. I pretty much cast anything all the time so i get constant heals. With reduced cooldown on attunements all i do is burn all cooldowns on attunement then switch to another and so on.
If i need some extra healing i switch to water. Other than that i do some small chains (standard opener: air 4,5,3 fire 3,4,5,2 then heal(water) or finish e’m off (earth 2,4,5)) and run cantrips for even more survivability. In extreme cases i pop out water/earth elemental (elite).

I’m pretty sure you can make something similar with staff, except you have to keep at distance.

I’m pretty squishy aswell, but you can achieve very high survivability if using hit’n’run tactics.

There’s no good reason to play only one weapon set. That is especially true at lower levels.

I can’t see your skill setup through the link for some reason. Use your earth elemental to get agro or water elemental for more healing if needed.

Puzzles often require ranged skills and scepter will fill in nicely too.

The jumping puzzle in Gendarran Fields features veteran enemies, as well as small rooms. The staff is a very bad weapon choice in tight spaces (especially against tough foes) because it works best at range, and has a slow attack speed against single targets. I’m guessing it’s the ghost pirates with pistol attacks that are tearing you up?

My advice is to equip daggers when going into tight spaces with little room for maneuvering (like caves). A little extra Toughness could also help (even though your Water traits give decent Vitality). Have you considered equipping Signet of Earth as a utility skill (for its passive effect)? Or other defensive skills like Arcane Shield or Mist Form?

Ah, in that situation a scepter dagger can be a great setup. In melee range, Ring of Fire-Dragon’s Tooth-Phoenx-Fire Grab-Earthquake-Churning Earth gives 4 blast finishers for might, a huge frontal aoe with Fire Grab. If taking too much damage use Arcane Shield. Next, Rock Barrier for 200 toughness. If health is ok, move into Air for Ride the Lightning for the aoe immobilize, maybe Blinding Flash on one mob, Lighting Strike, then into water to heal up and Frost Aura.

I have not tried this in there, but it is a very effective Pve use of S/D in small area combat or if mobs can be pulled into melee range.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

The jumping puzzle in Gendarran Fields features veteran enemies, as well as small rooms. The staff is a very bad weapon choice in tight spaces (especially against tough foes) because it works best at range, and has a slow attack speed against single targets. I’m guessing it’s the ghost pirates with pistol attacks that are tearing you up?

—i wasnt using a staff at this point…and yes it was the pistol pirates…. i went from full to dead in like 4 seconds…wich in turn led me to switch to staff because i thought D/D was bad or i was or W/E

My advice is to equip daggers when going into tight spaces with little room for maneuvering (like caves). A little extra Toughness could also help (even though your Water traits give decent Vitality). Have you considered equipping Signet of Earth as a utility skill (for its passive effect)? Or other defensive skills like Arcane Shield or Mist Form?

i dont use elementals because i dont like the cooldown for as long as there up…im using signet of fire…though im thinking of switching to the passive heal one (under the healing utility section) the AoE arcane blast…for derps and combos and the single target arcane missle….i dont know what else i could/should use in rep[lace of that

for my elite skill im using the grenth one…though it seems a bit lacking