Returning Player asking for help with Professions

Hi, I used to play GW2 before HoT (then my computer died on me and I went to console for a few years) and I used to play Guardian. I've read that Chronomancers and Weavers are popular for fractals so I decided to try both classes out and I enjoy playing as Elementalist more (I didn't yet get Weaver or Tempest) than Chrono but I feel like I die too quickly when playing Solo. I've read that the core Elementalist is not good for Solo atm, so does Tempest/Weaver improve this? Should I change my build (right now it's pretty much full Zerk) or should I stick with Mirage/Chrono for Solo PvE? Thank you for any advice, it's greatly appreciated! :)

Hello, welcome back !!

• General opinion, if you want a build that can stay alive just visit metabattle.com and go to "Open World" section builds.
• Both of them sure are popular in fracs, with either support or dps they're fine.
• With all that expansions and living world going on, yes core build is not useful as it used to be, they're fine actually but to able to survive "easy" in higher zones elite specs probably needed.
• For solo play as a mesmer i suggest mirage instead of chrono cuz it's ridiculous in survival, dps (condi ofc) and fun to play, check out this thread here for gameplay videos and build also metabattle has them as well.
• As an ele thing will get a bit more challenging but stick with tempest cuz it easy to play, ton of AoE and mid-ranged fighting abilities, you can kite enemies around while dropping Air Overload and done. Weaver however deal more dps than tempest but also comes with more complexity control but provide more fun time than tempest due to more buttons to smash. Me personally i will stick with tempest for solo play and weaver for fracs...something like that.

Fractal builds can be a lot different than open world solo builds. In fractals you are expected to be supported by others while in open world soloing you need things to be more defensive or you must be able to kill things real fast. Especially for low health squishy classes. You can get used to using pure dps builds eventually (i use raid dps builds in open world and it works really well) but until you do some more open world specific builds it not a bad idea. Metabattle open builds is indeed a good resource for it.

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Open_World/Soloing

As for fractals all these classes are really good. Chrono is great dps or good support (although it has lately become real tricky to be good at it at 5-man groups). Weavers are good dps. And Guardians as dragonhunter are actually a great DPS class as well and does fine in open world.

You can check fractal builds here : https://discretize.eu/builds/By checking both resources you can find sth that you like and generally works for both modes.

Although any elementalist is more squishy than most (unless you specifically build for survivability and accept low dps), imo it is good experience to play them. It's a crutch to use a tougher prof just to avoid the problem. By sticking it out you will learn to properly avoid damage, which is all part of learning to play the game. It's fine if you're not inclined to put up with the learning curve but to me, I'd rather have challenges that give me real experience than just steamroll over the content.

Thank you for the replies! I tried Tempest (although incomplete as I am lacking the hero points) with Marauder's armor. I enjoy the depth of Ele with the attunements, but I felt like I died straight away when an enemy jumped on me. Think I'll stick with Guardian for now and spend more time on Ele in summer when I have the time to invest into the learning curve :D