I actually wrote my Master thesis on digital citizenship (or rather, on the philosophical question of whether such a thing as “digital society” exists), although without any specific focus on MMOs.
If you believe it may help you, you can have a look at my thesis. Feel free to contact me through PM in that case.
Don’t worry about dungeons. If you play your personal story, you will periodically get in-game mail that tells you that you have reached the appropriate level for each respective dungeon. The first of these happens during the story step at level 31. Which is also shortly after you unlock your elite skill slot.
Also bear in mind that “endgame” is not what Guild Wars 2 is all about. Yes, there is content geared for maximum level characters, but most of it is already accessible at lower levels (you will just perofrm suboptimally if you do so).
Arguably the WORST way to play this game is to race yourself to level 80 in one weekend, because most of the PvE content (which is over half of the game) is best experienced at the appropriate level (mostly because the rewards you receive will be appropriate for that level).
For the record, there are only four zones in the game that are specifically intended for level 80, and only 2 of those do not include a lower level range.
Also, be aware that when you enter a zone (or even a specific part of a zone) intended for a lower-level character than your current level, your character will be “leveled down” for as long as he/she is in that area. This is a very fluid system, and may change as you wander through a zone.
My advice is to just explore the game at your leisure. Everything gives experience (crafting, gathering, reviving defeated players or NPCs), so you will get there eventually. Try out everything (crafting, exploration/map completion, personal story, WvW, jumping puzzles) and stick with the things that you like.
But try to enjoy the game before you make level 80. There is magical “instant fun” only accessible at max level. That starts at level 1.
The whole point of Guild Wars 2 is that PvE is not merely a stepping stone for PvP, but you know, about 70% of the actual game.
Getting to maximum level (lvl 80) is NOT the start of some so-called “real content”, and leveling up a character is NOT a chore to be rushed through as fast as possible.
Leveling up a character is meant to happen all by itself while you explore the world, do the personal story, craft items, play the Fractals of the Mists dungeon and maybe try out some WvW. Choose your own mix of activities that appeals to you, and enjoy the ride.
Of course, there are lots of things to do at level 80, but you can already start doing those things a lot earlier. Examples include PvP, WvW, dungeons and Fractals of the Mists. (Being maximum level just makes you better suited at doing those things.) There is hardly any content that is “level 80 only”.
If you are of the mindset that you need to race every character to level 80 in order to access the “best parts of the game”, then maybe this is not the game for you.
I would like to quote a developer on this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/first#post999247
@raubvogel:
You can turn on “fast-cast AoE targeting” in your options menu. It will not give you an auto-attack on grenade skills, but selecting the skill will automatically cast it centered on your mouse cursor.
I also have some of my own suggestions to add to this wish list:
- All kits change into an “unequip this kit” button when activated. Except Med Kit. Please bring Med Kit back in line with all other kits.
- Engineers have VERY limited weapon options, and weapon kits and toobelt skills only partially compensate for that. Compare with the Elementalist, who has MORE weapon choices, and MORE weapon skills due to attunements. While the Engineer can compensate for the attunement bonus with kits and toolbelt skills, the number of regular weapon skills is still very low.
I would suggest the addition of one more mainhand-only weapon: the mace (because it still fits with the overall mechanic theme of the profession). This would give Engineers a number of weapon combinations equal to that of the elementalist, and create some more variety in engineers with no weapon kit equipped.
In effect, the combination would go up from:
Rifle
Pistol-Pistol
Pistol-Shield
to:
Rifle
Pistol-Pistol
Pistol-Shield
Mace-Pistol
Mace-Shield
This is nearly a doubling of possible weapon combinations, which would put the Engineer on par with the Elementalist, but still well below the Ranger, Guardian or Thief (who have no profession gimmick that gives them extra skillbars), and still nowhere near the Warrior (whose profession gimmick partly consists of his extremely wide weapon choice).
Have you reported this to ArenaNet with a support ticket, or on the Technical Support forum? Perhaps they can help determine whether this is a technical issue that could affect more people, or whether it is merely an unfortunate bug unique to your computer.
Oh, and the game does NOT start at maximum level. Take your time to get to level 80. It’s not a race.
@Aye:
The first elite skill will cost 10 skillpoints. It is the 2nd tier elite skill that costs 30.
I have one tip for the OP.
This is not a linear game. There are many things you can do:
- Personal Story
- Gathering & Crafting (it gives experience)
- Exploring the world and completing all the marked challenges
- Doing Dynamic Events
- Dungeons
- World versus World
- Player versus Player
- Jumping puzzles (most are well-hidden)
You are not REQUIRED to do any of these, but you are encouraged to at least TRY OUT all of them, and spend your time doing the things you like most.
The Ritualist profession from Guild Wars 1 has already been included in Guild Wars 2. It has just been renamed into “Engineer”.
The GW1 Ritualist used to summon stationary spirits who attack enemies.
The Engineer has turrets.
The GW1 Ritualist used to hold the ashes of dead heroes to gain new powers.
The Engineer has weapon kits.
The GW1 Ritualist used to have weapon spells that give boons to himself or others.
The Engineer can drink or throw elixirs, and equip an elixir gun.
The GW1 Ritualist used channeling magic to deal lightning damage to enemies through the power of the dead.
The Engineer has explosives.
There is nothing left of the Guild Wars 1 Ritualist that has not been used in the Guild Wars 2 Engineer, except the flavour. And most of that flavour can be given to the Necromancer anyway.
@BioFringe:
I thought that the 7-day no-change period is a hard cap, meant to limit players from switching more often than ArenaNet wants / can handle.
Also, it is not possible to play WvW until 7 days after you arrive on your new home server.
I believe very much that these two conditions are part of the same bit of program code, and that they apply regardless of the number of characters on the account.
@Haysty:
I second what Xhyros said: Look into the “guesting” option. You can select up to two servers other than your home server, and visit any and all areas of that server (and play with people from that server), EXCEPT WvW.
I recall that an ArenaNet representative recently said on this forum that a server change is free, as long as your account has no characters. So if you delete all characters, you should be able to switch to the server you want.
HOWEVER, you can only change servers if it has been at least 7 days since you last changed servers. So if you assigned yourself to your current server 5 days ago, you need to wait 2 more days before you can switch servers at all.
ALSO, it is possible that the game will not even allow a server switch to a server that has the status “full”. This status fluctuates over time, based on the actual number of players logged in on that server. (I’m not 100% sure about this, however.)
Here’s my suggestion.
Build arrow carts instead of flame rams. Arrow carts are actually useful when placed at supply camps (i.e. to repel attacks), and players may even be grateful to you for providing them.
Crests (and their lesser variants “Medallions” and “Seals”) are equipment upgrades.
You can put them on armor instead of runes.
You can put them on weapons instead of sigils.
You can put them on accessories instead of jewels/gemstones.
They do not “overwrite” the inherent bonuses of the armor/weapon/accessory itself.
Statwise, Crests are better than gemstones, but inferior to jewels. However, some stat combinations (such as Crest of the Soldier) are not available on gemstones or jewels.
Compared to Runes, Crests provide a bonus that is “spread out” more (over three stats), while runes provide a bigger boost to a focused stat (or two).
Why avoid signets? They are quite useful if fully traited, and their passive bonus is especially useful at lower levels.
Signet of Fire inflicts decent burning damage on a short cooldown and offers a passive boost to precision.
Signet of Water is more useful past level 40, when monsters start dealing out more conditions, as its passive ability removes a condition from you (on a 10 sec cooldown). The active ability is a short chill effect, which is useful if you want to keep foes at a distance.
Signet of Air is a passive speed boost. Great for jumping puzzles and running around in cities, as well as PvP. The active ability (small area blind centered on a single target) is less stellar.
Signet of Earth provides a passive bonus to toughness, which is great for survivability at low levels, as it reduces incoming damage. The activated ability is an immobilize effect, which is useful in emergencies, when you want to run away from something.
Fully traited (30 trait points in earth), signets become even more useful. I don’t use them in WvW (except Signet of Air), and I don’t play sPvP, but in open world PvE, dungeons and fractals, I rarely have less than two signets on my utility bar.
(Signet of Restoration, the healing skill, is a different story. It provides an underwhelming heal, but also has the passive effect of giving small heals each time you use a skill. There is an entire debate on whether it is better than Glyph of Elemental Harmony for the healing slot. Check this forum for a thread with “Signet of Restoration” in the title. It may have dropped off page 1 by now.)
Actually, asura view skritt as an epidemic that needs to be exterminated. Back when they lived underground, this is exactly what they did. It was only after the other surface-races started objecting to the asura genociding an intelligent race that the asura stopped doing it (at least outside of their own lands).
Still, asura view skritt with disgust, so I would reckon that no asura would ever fall for a skritt’s charm.
I think it’s just a maintenance update. This requires a re-downloading of various executable files.
So if there are no patch notes, just assume that there is no new content.
Although I never used the off-hand focus all that much, I have recently discovered that it can be tremendously useful in the Uncategorized Fractal, specifically against the harpies with their knockdown attacks.
I also know about its usefulness in WvW, although I found it hard to use effectively there.
It just shows that you should never disregard a skillset out of hand, as every skill will have its use in specific circumstances.
I believe that the disappearance of the Gargoyles and Mergoyles is a conundrum that one or two researchers from the Durmand Priory are researching. I don’t recall where exactly I saw these NPCs, though.
Skeletons and zombies are replaced by the Risen. This makes sense, because most of the undead seen in Tyria during Guild Wars 1 are minions of the Undead Lich, who was defeated in the end. (In fact, most of them even drop trophy items that refer to Orr – decayed Orr emblems and the like.)
The areas you mention that have Mantids and Mandragora are not actually accessible in Guild Wars 2. The Far Shiverpeaks are much further north than Frostgorge Sound, and the Charr Homelands visited in Guild Wars 1 are currently marked on the map as the “Blood Legion Home” – quite far north from Ascalon.
Finally, Incubi are a subtype of Fleshreavers. These are still in the game, but quite rare.
Your build is not too far from my own.
My traits are the following:
Fire 0
Air 0
Earth 30
Water 30
Arcane 10
In addition, my armor stats are 50% Cleric (Power/Toughness/Healing Power) and 50% Carrion (Power/Vitality/Condition Damage).
I have two separate trait/skill builds I can switch between:
1. The signet build.
I use this build for PvE, as it has tons of survivability, self-healing and excels at condition removal. Additionally, there are many ways to gain a good number of different boons, to tie in with the Water 25 minor trait that gives 2% bonus damage for every unique boon on me.
Earth traits selected: III (Armor of Earth at 50% health), II (Signets recharge 20% faster), XII (Signets retain passive effect on cooldown).
Water traits selected: III (Signets inflict vulnerability), X (Ice Bow, Signet of Water and Mist Form grant regeneration), XI (remove a condition whenever you gain regeneration)
Arcane traits selected: V (grant a boon upon attunement switch)
Healing Skill: Signet of Restoration
Utility skills: Signet of Earth, Signet of Water, Mist Form
Elite skill: Glyph of Elemental Power
2. The cantrip build.
I use this build for WvW, as it has just as much survivability as above, except that it trades in the regenerate-boon for stun breaks from cantrips. This build uses cantrips defensively, to escape fights where I’m outmatched.
Earth traits selected: III (Armor of Earth at 50% health), V (5% extra damage against enemies in close range), XII (Signets retain passive effect on cooldown).
Water traits selected: II (Cantrips grant vigor and regeneration), IX (Cantrips recharge 20% faster), XII (share Auras with nearby allies)
Arcane traits selected: V (grant a boon upon attunement switch)
Healing Skill: Signet of Restoration
Utility skills: Signet of Air (for speed), Cleansing Flames, Mist Form
Elite skill: Glyph of Elemental Power
I hope this may give you some ideas.
It’s not armor. It’s a type of sylvari NPC town clothes that is currently unavailable to players.
To respec, just talk to the profession trainer, and choose the dialogue option that does not open their shop. You will get a another dialogue box to confirm the expenditure, and after you confirm, your trait points are all freed up.
It works just like the armor repair NPCs, really.
@Tosha Daydreamer:
Air skills on staff can have their purpose.
1. The auto-attack can be nice against multiple opponents, but has multiple drawbacks. It draws aggro from additional enemies that happen to be in range, and its damage per enemy is rather low. I tend to not use it.
2. A blinding attack with a long cast time. Still not impressive, but borderline useful against a hard-hitting single opponent that you are fighting as a party (champion, or in dungeons or fractals).
3. A knockdown attack with a long cooldown. This one is useful against non-champion monsters, because it interrupts. Good skill, but waiting for the cooldown is just not worth it.
4. PBAoE swiftness. Mostly utility value (i.e. catching up if you are behind the party, running from monsters, preparation for a difficult jump). No real combat value.
5. Static Field. This is what you do it for.
A monster that tries to enter or leave the AoE will be dazed. In addition, it’s a lightning field, meaning that any projectile finishers will inflict vulnerability. In parties with many auto-attack projectile finishers (thieves, rangers), one application of this skill can give a difficult enemy a large stack of the vulnerability condition. Although it’s only worth it in group play (or large-scale events).
Of course, given this rundown, you will not want to stay in air for long, and switch out to different attunements soon. I usually start a combat out in air for the static field, and switch back to it at the end, for the area swiftness.
Is it worth leveling an elementalist to 80?
Yes.
If you use a staff in dungeons, you should be aware of the following ways to stay alive:
1. Your skills have range and have a relatively slow attack speed (especially staff auto-attacks). So stand in the back, do not let enemies get close to you. Also, make sure someone else pulls, so you don’t get all the aggro.
2. Many of your AoE skills in Fire, Air and Water are combo fields. Learn what these do, and deploy these for maximum effect by letting other players make combos with their finishers. Also, Earth has 3 combo finishers, so you can even combo with yourself.
3. Never stand still, except to cast channeled spells that require you to stand still. Just moving around (while still trying to keep distance) will prevent many enemies from hitting you.
Also, use your dodge to avoid enemies’ more dangerous attacks. Generally, the more the enemy uses to “signal” its attack, the harder it will hit. Don’t get hit.
4. Use all of your attunements as necessary. Do not limit yourself to “I’m a fire mage, so I only ever use fire skills”. Instead of weapon switches, elementalists get 4 attunements. this means you have 20 skills to choose from.
It’s fine to have a preference for 1 or 2 attunements and to spend most of your time in those, but there will be times when the other attunements will be needed, so you had better know those skills.
5. Glass cannon builds (i.e. those build with none to very little Toughness, Vitality, Healing Power or Boon Duration) generally do not work well in dungeons, because the enemies just hit too hard. That Power/Toughness/Vitality gear is usually a lot better than Power/Precision/Critical %, because even if you deal fewer damage per hit, you get to spend more time actually producing hits, rather than spending time downed or defeated.
It is possible to do well with a glass cannon build in dungeons, just not advisable. The main reason is that a character without any real defenses will have to rely on other group members to not go down. Some groups can handle that better than others, and some players will not tolerate players that need help to stay on their feet all the time.
A high skill level with the elementalist (i.e. being good at not getting hit) also helps in succesfully running a glass cannon build.
6. Do not underestimate Boons. Know which skills and combos at your disposal give which boons, and what each boon does.
7. Use consumables (such as food prepared by a Chef, or oils prepared by a Huntsman) for additional bonuses to your abilities.
@Kraggy:
If you want to reset your trait points, do NOT buy a new book.
Just talk to the profession trainer, and pay a small level-based fee (maximum 3s50c at level 80) to have all your trait points reimbursed, so you can choose a new trait build.
(continued from above)
That leaves 3 sylvari firstborn still unaccounted for.
Also, so far two sylvari secondborn have been identified:
- Cadeyrn (background: http://www.arena.net/blog/dream-and-nightmare)
The founder of the Nightmare Court and one of its champions. He is encountered in the Twilight Arbor dungeon, where he is killed by Caithe and the players.
- Canach (who could only be encountered during various stages of the Lost Shores event arc so far)
He is involved with the Consortium and was in charge of their exploration of Southsun Cove, which was the main cause for the karka attack on Lion's Arch. He was arrested by the Lionguard, but managed to escape. The Consortium has deflected all blame to Canach, effectively using him as a scapegoat. Canach's current whereabouts are unknown.)
Known firstborn:
- Aife – Luminary of Dawn
- Niamh – Luminary of Noon
- Kahedins – Luminary of Dusk
- Malomedies – Luminary of Night
- Caithe – Member of Destiny’s Edge
- Faolain – Grand Duchess of the Nightmare Court
- Riannoc (deceased)
- Trahearne
- Dagonet
Their locations in the game (spoilered for personal story content):
If you have a sylvari character, the Luminary of your Cycle is found in your home instance.
Riannoc died several years go in the past, but a sylvari personal story step (around level 24) allows you to witness his death in a vision.
Caithe is found in the House of Caithe instance in The Grove, and also appears in various personal story and dungeon instances.
Faolain may be encountered in the Twilight Arbor dungeon.
Trahearne appears throughout the personal story (as soon as level 11 for sylvari), and may also be found in the Caer Aval instance in Straits of Devastation.
Dagonet can be found in the park at the center of Divinity's Reach, between the asura gate and Queen Jennah's throneroom. If you speak to him as a sylvari, you will address him as "Firstborn".
After you reach level 80, you will continue to gain experience, and will continue to “level up”. However, each time this happens, you ONLY receive 1 skill point. Your ability scores no longer go up, and you no longer receive trait points.
The Mystic Forge can be quite expensive to experiment with. I would advise you to look up what it can be used for on the Guild Wars 2 wiki (or perhaps to ask specific questions on this forum).
Link: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_forge
Also, every time you complete a skill challenge, you receive 1 skill point.
(Bear in mind that you might also need skill points to buy ingredients for high-end Mystic Forge recipes. Which explains why there is no ceiling to the number of skill points you may earn through experience/leveling.)
The last game update cleared a bug that removed all NPCs’ headgear in dialogue cutscenes. This is appreciated.
However, I would very much like the option to display my character’s headgear in dialogue cutscenes.
Would it be possible to have the dialogue cutscenes respect the “hide/unhide” checkbox on the headgear slot, instead of the forced “take off your helmet” policy?
@FinalPatriot:, in response to your question about changing weapons in WvW (originally directed at Intigo):
One thing that can be inconvenient in WvW as an elementalist is not having a weapon switch option. The problem is that dagger/dagger and staff are good for entirely different things.
Staff skills are excellent for raining down death on attackers from atop walls, as well as putting down combo fields for allies to use when you are with a large group. However, staff skills are exceptionally bad when facing (human) enemies directly, especially if they outnumber you.
Dagger skills, on the other hand, are excellent for dealing with opposing players from close up, but are not effective during sieges.
My personal solution to this is to wield dagger/dagger whenever I am in a place where there is a chance to suddenly be attacked by enemies, and to (manually) equip a staff when I am inside a tower/keep that is under attack, or among a large group of allies, and to manually re-equip the daggers as soon as I intend to leave this protection.
Occasionally, I get stuck in combat mode with a staff equipped. That is the time to run away. Air 4, Earth 3, 4 & 5, and Water 4 may help here.
Soldier (Power/Toughness/Vitality) is unfortunately a combination of stats that is not available on jewels.
The closest you can get is with a Crest of the Soldier, which offers a slightly lower (but still decent) boost to Power/Toughness/Vitality. It cannot be crafted or bought, but you can find it randomly in chests, or buy it on the Trading Post. (Last time I checked, prices were about 20-30s apiece.)
My personal (limited) stance on stats is that you EITHER want a lot of +Precision, so that you have a critical rate of 50% or better, OR no +Precision at all, because a low critical rate is simply not worth the stat points.
I’m taking the second road with my own elementalist. Instead of trying to rely on criticals, I am going for Power (for reliable damage) and Toughness (for damage reduction), with secondary but still significant boosts to Vitality, Condition Damage and Healing Power.
For example, the stats on my armor are about 50% Cleric’s (Power/Toughness/Healing) and the rest Carrion (Power/Vitality/Condition Damage). For runes, I use Rune of Melandru for Toughness and condition mitigation.
I have not yet settled on sigils on my weapons, and I am also still undecided on my jewelry, because ascended items only offer a limited set of stat combinations.
A semi-reliable way to get rares is to save up the greens you find, and to throw them in the mystic forge. In my experience, it has about a 25-33% chance of upgrading 4 greens to a yellow.
Oh, and I don’t use BL salvage kits on the rares either. In my opinion, a BLSK charge is only worth it for the 100% chance to save an upgrade, which means I only ever use it on exotics with superior runes/sigils.
1. How exciting someone finds a profession is always a matter of personal taste. For me, however, the elementalist is easily my favourite.
2. The learning curve is high, because you need to be familiar with up to 20 weapon skills (5 skills x 4 attunements) to be able to get the most out of your skill arsenal. And those skills change if you decide to try a different weapon set.
(The good news is that elementalists have no weapon swap ability in combat.)
3. If you want to level effectively, invest in either toughness or vitality, with a side helping of power. Elementalists have low health, and being able to take a few hits while you take down (NPC) foes can often be the difference between winning or losing.
Additionally, if you want do use dagger/dagger, make sure you are good at dodging and combat movement, because over 80% of your skills will be melee range, and the rest will be dedicated to getting close to your foe.
4. For “solid” pvp/wvw builds, I shall refer you to other posts in this thread.
Personally, I have Earth 30, Water 30, Arcana 10, with my armor split between Cleric’s (Power/Toughness/Healing) and Carrion (Power/Vitality/Condition Damage), and a full set of Melandru’s runes.
I like the Earth Magic traits for the various boosts to Signet skills, as the grandmaster trait allows you to keep the passive effect even after activating the signet. Even for Signet of Restoration alone (the healing skill), this works like a charm. The trait that activates Armor of Earth when you reach 50% health is also great.
The Water Magic traits are very versatile. I either use them for various ways to remove conditions, or for boosting my cantrip use (reducing cooldown, giving boons).
The Arcane traits are mostly there for the Elemental Attunement major trait (number V), which gives you boons upon attuning.
But this is just my build. I play for fun, and don’t play PvP all the time.
The patch notes say that Lionguard Lyns will remain open (in her current form) until late February, and that we had better spend all our Captain’s Commendations before then.
Saving up sounds like a bad idea.
General tip for dodging:
Make sure you stand in the area where an attack will land when the attack animation starts, but dodge away before it lands.
Ettins are especially easy, because they have a long “tell”. Just stand in front of them, and dodge away the moment you see the yellow glow on their club disappear (which is when they start swinging the club down).
For a comparison between the professions and what to expect of them, see this post by game designer Jonathan Sharp
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/first#post999247
I hope it may help you decide.
After level 40, I switched to dagger/dagger. The advantage of daggers is that you deal more damage and have better healing skills, but the disadvantage is that you have to allow enemies to come into melee range.
Dagger/dagger is feasible, but risky if you can’t dodge very well. (When I decided to switch to it, i had gotten good enough at dodging and using the evasion and gap-closing skills of the daggers to actually enjoy it.)
Staff never worked for me when playing solo, mostly because it is a relatively slow weapon with few ways to keep enemies away from you, and little defense. I use it in groups, like dungeons or fractals, and I only really got into it at level 80. I know some people like this playstyle solo, but I am not one of them.
Scepter/dagger is a versatile combination. Scepter works at medium range, while dagger off-hand works at close range. Earth 2, Earth 3 and Water 4 are decent defensive skills, and Water 3 & 5 provide healing. Fire 4 is a decent combo field, while Fire 2, Fire 3, Earth 4, and Earth 5 are all blast finishers. Earth 1 is one of the best auto-attack skills the elementalist has access to (and it’s a combo finisher as well).
While the scepter skills are somewhat lacking in raw damage (or in the case of Fire 2 & 5, accuracy) compared to staff or mainhand dagger, it is quite easy to stack might on yourself, and bleeding/burning on foes. The effectiveness of this weapon set increases with high condition damage (which the Earth Magic traitline provided for me).
All in all, Scepter/Dagger is in my opinion the most balanced option, because it provides you with offense, defense, medium range and close range. You don’t excel at any one of those things, but you don’t limit yourself to only one playstyle either (like how dagger/dagger limits you to close range, or how staff limits you to area attacks).
Remember, these are just my personal experiences and preferences. Feel free to disagree.
My impression is that jumping puzzle chests reset at the same time as the daily achievements. However, you can’t just wait next to the chest. You need to leave and re-enter the entire zone.
However, sometimes they don’t seem to reset if you did them close to the reset moment. In my experience, this is the exception, however.
At levels 20-40, I put all my trait points in Earth (toughness) and Fire (power), and I used scepter/dagger. For additional toughness, I equipped Signet of Earth for its passive effect, and I played mostly in earth attunement to benefit from the 5-point minor trait for even more toughness.
Another utility skill I used was Arcane Shield to use in emergencies (which I mostly used pre-emptively while charging Churning Earth).
My third utility skill was offensive. Signet of Fire, if I recall correctly, but I’m not sure if I would do that again if I were to restart playing an elementalist.
I used Glyph of Elements as my elite at level 30, until I could afford to buy Tornado.
My tactic was to max out my toughness, to be able to take hits better, while I was learning how to avoid getting hit. What is important is never to stand still, and to dodge the enemies’ most powerful attacks.
If you are having trouble getting dodge counts, try fighting Ettins. They have very long attack animations, and give tells quite long in advance.
The trick is to stand in the area of their attack when they START the actual attack (i.e. when the tell ends, and the actual attack begins), and to not get hit by it because of dodging.
Please note that only “evade” counts. Skills that make you dodge across the battlefield(giving “evade” popups) count. Skills that make you invulnerable (resulting in “invulnerable” popups) do NOT count. Not getting hit just by regular moving (which gives no popup) also does NOT count.
The main reason to put that many points in water is because of the 25-point minor trait, which gives you 2% extra damage for every boon active on you.
Putting 30 points in Arcana gives you access to many minor and major traits the grant boons (especially on attunement switch), as well as increased boon duration and reduced cooldown on attunement switching.
By using this combination, you can have a playstyle with rapid attunement switches, which all grant boons, often facilitated by combo finishers, that may provide you with even more boons (most notably might). And yes, there is a trait that also grants you 2 boons every time you activate an aura.
Please bear in mind that the goal is NOT to get to 80 as fast as possible.
Story, crafting, dungeons, exploring ALL give big chunks of experience AND suitable equipment (for its intended level range), and will all help you towards reaching the level cap. Grinding towards level 80 without enjoying the game content that gets you there is the WORST way to play this game.
- When to play personal story:
Especially at lower levels, you should consider playing the personal story at the level that it is recommended for. The XP reward is 1/3rd of a level, and the item rewards are suitable for that level.
Especially after level 70 (or earlier if you don’t particularly enjoy it), you could delay doing personal story until you are 80, as there are many story entries all centered on one area of the world map.
- When to play dungeons:
As you progress through the personal story, you will receive in-game mail to notify you for which dungeons you are eligible. The first one will come at level 31, after completing the level 31 story step. The others are level-dependent.
- When to complete maps:
Exploring PvE maps is best done when you are in the appropriate level range for that map, because the rewards (like karma vendors) will be suitable for your level, and the difficulty will be at its most balanced.
When there is a dynamic event going on nearby, don’t hesitate to join in (even if nobody else is there; not all events are group events). This is a nice way to earn some coin, karma and experience.
Things to do at level 80:
- World versus World
- Fractals of the Mists
- Dungeons (explorable mode)
These are all ways to get better (exotic/ascended) equipment, because you either collect tokens that can be used to buy it, or may find loot that eventually allows you to craft it, either with your regular crafts, or in the Mystic Forge.
Furthermore, you could complete exploring the world map, to get around to doing the things you never got around to before.
Ways to get rich(er):
- Visit the Trade Post, learn what items are valuable, and sell these when you find them.
- Complete map explorations and dungeons (first time completion awards coin).
- Remember that you may salvage Globs of Ectoplasm from any rare (yellow) item of level 68 and higher, if you use a good salvage kit. The value of the item is usually based on the value of ectoplasm.
- Walk around in Orr and kill things.
Finally, there is a new patch going live in less than 12 hours. Read up on the patch notes, because it has been announced that there will be a new reward system for playing PvE.
Every profession can play PvE well. Some tactics just won’t work for some professions.
The trick with the elementalist is learning the many skills you have at your disposal, and their interactions, so that you can swap attunements when you need to. When you unlock all your weapon skills and attunements, you will have 20 skills at your disposal (4 attunements x 5 weapon skills) + healing, utility & elite.
The hard part is making sense of all these skills, and developing tactics. Meanwhile, you don’t have a lot of armor, and you don’t have a lot of health. Dodging and moving is essential.
The most common mistake new players make (especially those who played Guild Wars 1) is to just stand in one spot and activate their skills. It is vital to keep moving, and to use the dodge-ability at the right time. Enemies’ powerful attacks are usually telegraphed in advance, giving you time to anticipate.
I’ll also add that you may also want to look into the mesmer, because it basically uses tricks and illusions to do the same things the thief does: single target damage. However, the mesmer can do a lot more than that, and is also quite hard to master.
This link is a good comparison of the eight professions:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/first#post999247
Mainly because it is made by an ArenaNet game designer, and also reflects how they WANT the professions to work.
Apparently, you like to deal damage.
I may be biased towards the elementalist, but it is very possible to have “mobility and burst” as an elementalist if you go with dagger/dagger. (Your range is only a little bigger than melee, though.) If you wield a staff, on the other hand, you get area of effect attacks at range, but will have difficulty against melee foes.
However, elementalist is rather hard to learn to play well, and does not have a lot of health, especially at lower levels. Mistakes will kill you. The signature ability for the elementalist is to be able to swap between 4 attunements, which gives you access to 2x the number of weapon skills any other profession has.
Thief is a good profession for dancing around the enemy and dealing damage, but has trouble when faced with multiple enemies. One of the thief’s signature moves is short-duration stealth to deal sudden, large amounts of damage. One of the thief’s main weaknesses is that they have fewer options once their initiative runs out, meaning that they are less powerful if a fight goes long.
I really can’t comment more on the thief, because I never played one above level 20.
All professions play differently, and what some people find fun, others find tedious.
Choosing a profession is a matter of personal taste. Asking others what professions they like to play may give you an impression of what they like in a profession.
What is far more important, however, is what YOU like in a profession. Then, people can give you suggestions about which professions in the game may give you enjoyment.