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Any tips for an absolute noob Ele?


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I hate the term noob/newb(??idk what people use anymore) but wow I cannot help but describe myself as that at the bare minimum.I've had this game for many years (3-4 I believe) and have only played a handful amount of times that I just recently completed one cycle of daily login rewards. I've played way more now than I have any time in the past. I hit level 80 and completed the personal story late last week.My problem is... I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I initially wanted to get 100% world completion to start. Then I realized I can get gliders/mounts from the expansions which I had recently purchased, which would help with world completion immensely. THEN I realized I need to finish one point of the HoT story to make my EXP bar stop spamming me every time I kill an enemy telling me that "your current ability is fully trained and ready to master" in order to start using Mastery Points. I can't even enter the tangled labyrinth or whatever it's called because it is blocked off. From there, I decided to start season 1 (aka watched the cinematic) and purchase LW S2.At this point I'm super frustrated. I don't know if my gear/weapons just suck, or if I'm just not doing something right. I beat Aerin today in chapter 1, but that battle alone killed me-- no exaggeration-- about 10+ times (or so it felt like it, I stopped counting). I'm an Ele, and I've recently started enjoying using 2 daggers as my weapons (not that they've really helped me anymore than using a staff would). I don't know if story mode is only solo or not, but I prefer doing things solo just because that's how I enjoy things. I'm a super casual player, but I'd at least like to make it through the game without dying 3 times per battle and 5-15 times per boss.One thing I never really took a shot at was Crafting. Would that help me more? If so, what's the best way to get started and how long would it take until I can get weapons and gear that would actually keep me alive more than 15 seconds?Builds are another thing I never really looked at, I just kinda chose what appealed to me most, whether it helps me more or not.So yeah... sorry it's such a long post but I've been so on and off with this game and I'd REALLY like to get into it. It's a beautiful world with seemingly great content, so any tips on what I should do to better my experience would be super appreciated! :)

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@"AquarIan Z.4351" said:I can't even enter the tangled labyrinth or whatever it's called because it is blocked off. From there, I decided to start season 1 (aka watched the cinematic) and purchase LW S2.

Entering Tangled Labyrinth has nothing to do with anything of this. LS2 is also unrelated except for being a continuation of the story but it is unnecessary for unlocking masteries.

For Heart of Thorns you start "Prologue: Rally to Maguuma" and finish "Torn from the Sky". The starting location for the Prologue is the red fort in Silverwastes. Completing "Torn from the Sky" will also give you 1 mastery point which you will need to unlock Basic Gliding. Just fill your exp bar then apply the point to Basic Gliding.

For Path of File you start and finish "Sparking the Flame" which will also unlock the raptor.

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@Khisanth.2948 said:

@AquarIan Z.4351 said:I can't even enter the tangled labyrinth or whatever it's called because it is blocked off. From there, I decided to start season 1 (aka watched the cinematic) and purchase LW S2.

Entering Tangled Labyrinth has nothing to do with anything of this. LS2 is also unrelated except for being a continuation of the story but it is unnecessary for unlocking masteries.

That wasn’t the point at all, but how do I even enter the labyrinth then? To start Torn From the Sky I have to enter an instance in there according the map, but like I said it’s blocked off... I can’t seem to figure it out :/

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@AquarIan Z.4351 said:

@AquarIan Z.4351 said:I can't even enter the tangled labyrinth or whatever it's called because it is blocked off. From there, I decided to start season 1 (aka watched the cinematic) and purchase LW S2.

Entering Tangled Labyrinth has nothing to do with anything of this. LS2 is also unrelated except for being a continuation of the story but it is unnecessary for unlocking masteries.

That wasn’t the point at all, but how do I even enter the labyrinth then? To start Torn From the Sky I have to enter an instance in there according the map, but like I said it’s blocked off... I can’t seem to figure it out :/

Normally you should have continued from the Prologue instance but the entrance to Torn from the Sky is above the labyrinth. The entrance is at ground level while the labyrinth is underground. There is an entrance to a small area just west of the vista at the amber fort.

PWgFxDr.jpg

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@AquarIan Z.4351 If you feel you are not geared up enough I would suggest maybe looking for a low level fractal team and get geared up from doing fractal's.It might take you some time to get the gear but you will feel more confident if you have a descent set of gear to work with, I would tell the group you are in that you are not very experienced so they know and I am sure some kind souls will help you get what you need to gear up using fractals.

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@gdubze.6015 said:@AquarIan Z.4351 If you feel you are not geared up enough I would suggest maybe looking for a low level fractal team and get geared up from doing fractal's.It might take you some time to get the gear but you will feel more confident if you have a descent set of gear to work with, I would tell the group you are in that you are not very experienced so they know and I am sure some kind souls will help you get what you need to gear up using fractals.

Terrible advice. Fractals provide no extra or special gear which can't be gained easier somewhere else. The only thing fractals provide is gold, which can be gained everywhere in pve and way easier/more than in T1 fractals, as well as a decent chance of ascended loot chests at fractal level 4 (not 1).

Telling someone who clearly struggles with his class and likely build to go to fractals to improve is pretty useless.

@AquarIan Z.4351 said:I hate the term noob/newb(??idk what people use anymore) but wow I cannot help but describe myself as that at the bare minimum.I've had this game for many years (3-4 I believe) and have only played a handful amount of times that I just recently completed one cycle of daily login rewards. I've played way more now than I have any time in the past. I hit level 80 and completed the personal story late last week.My problem is... I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I initially wanted to get 100% world completion to start. Then I realized I can get gliders/mounts from the expansions which I had recently purchased, which would help with world completion immensely. THEN I realized I need to finish one point of the HoT story to make my EXP bar stop spamming me every time I kill an enemy telling me that "your current ability is fully trained and ready to master" in order to start using Mastery Points. I can't even enter the tangled labyrinth or whatever it's called because it is blocked off. From there, I decided to start season 1 (aka watched the cinematic) and purchase LW S2.

A good appraoch is to just play the story. If you have everything unlocked, this would mean:

  • vanilla campagin (whih you recently finished)
  • Living World Season 2, check some guides if you get stuck. Some of the missions here are mechanic heavy
  • Heart of Thorns campaign
  • Living World Season 3
  • Path of Fire campaign
  • Living World Season 4

@AquarIan Z.4351 said:At this point I'm super frustrated. I don't know if my gear/weapons just suck, or if I'm just not doing something right. I beat Aerin today in chapter 1, but that battle alone killed me-- no exaggeration-- about 10+ times (or so it felt like it, I stopped counting). I'm an Ele, and I've recently started enjoying using 2 daggers as my weapons (not that they've really helped me anymore than using a staff would). I don't know if story mode is only solo or not, but I prefer doing things solo just because that's how I enjoy things. I'm a super casual player, but I'd at least like to make it through the game without dying 3 times per battle and 5-15 times per boss.

Going to be upfront, this is very likely a class and player skill issue. Elementalist is quite a difficult class to play/master due to its innate reliance on blasting fields and knowledge of the game mechanics. You have following options:

  • give a diffferent class a try, the easier more straitforward ones would be ranger, necromancer, warrior
  • improve your gear (exotic gear is quite easy to purchase off the trading post and is absolutely sufficient for content which is balanced for rare gear or below)
  • check outside resources like metabattle for good open world/story builds (https://metabattle.com/wiki/Open_World). Read through the recommendations and how to use skills. Either copy a build or adapt your build with the new gained knowledge

Chances are very high your self made build is just not very good paired with lack of understanding of the class. That's usually the reason why players struggle in story content.

@AquarIan Z.4351 said:One thing I never really took a shot at was Crafting. Would that help me more? If so, what's the best way to get started and how long would it take until I can get weapons and gear that would actually keep me alive more than 15 seconds?

Short anser: No.

Longer answer: There is no need for any gear beyond exotic, which can be easily purchased off the trading post. If you have issue with content in exotic gear, the issue is not with the gear quality.

@AquarIan Z.4351 said:Builds are another thing I never really looked at, I just kinda chose what appealed to me most, whether it helps me more or not.

See what I wrote about metabattle and reading up on builds. Don't feel discouraged, you have one of the far more difficult classes at hand. Stick with your elementalist if you are enjoying the class, but give a different one a try should things not get easier.

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@gdubze.6015 said:@Cyninja.2954 I think you are missing the point! im sure they already have an exotic set and that will be soldiers from the level 80 boost without gold its hard to get gear! Team content is easier to complete than solo and will take less time to do it

First off, TC didn't mention level boosting and from the context of his post he leveled without boost.

Which would not matter since gear is clearly not the issue in this case. Even if it was, exotic gear from the trading post is sufficient for any and all pve needs for TC.

You can suggest he try fractals, but it would not be to get gear which fractals below T4 would not reliably provide anyway.

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@"AquarIan Z.4351" said:...At this point I'm super frustrated. I don't know if my gear/weapons just suck, or if I'm just not doing something right..... I'm an Ele, and I've recently started enjoying using 2 daggers as my weapons (not that they've really helped me anymore than using a staff would). ....Builds are another thing I never really looked at, I just kinda chose what appealed to me most, whether it helps me more or not.

Your build would be a good starting point towards having a better experience - build and gear really make a difference. If you could take the time to fill out your current build (weapons, gear, traits, runes, sigils, utilities...all of it) using this site. When you are done, click GET QUICKLINK at the bottom of the page, and put that full link into a post in this thread. That way other people can look at your current build and make recommendations.

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@"AquarIan Z.4351" said:Any tips for an absolute noob Ele?

My tips, in this order:

  1. Find the Elementalist build you enjoy playing the most (I had to try my hands on sword/dagger Weaver to finally have fun with my Ele; not a fan of Tempest).
  2. Avoid AoE damage by stepping out of it when it forms underneath you and by dodging. It's the most important mechanic that will ease the difficulties in playing an Ele significantly.
  3. Make sure you have the right stats to deal tons of damage. What will save your life, besides avoiding damage, the most is to dispose of your opponent as quickly as possible.

P.S. The build I play I've listed in the comments of this page. It deals high damage while also having "safety buttons" for difficult situations.

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@Khisanth.2948 said:

@AquarIan Z.4351 said:I can't even enter the tangled labyrinth or whatever it's called because it is blocked off. From there, I decided to start season 1 (aka watched the cinematic) and purchase LW S2.

Entering Tangled Labyrinth has nothing to do with anything of this. LS2 is also unrelated except for being a continuation of the story but it is unnecessary for unlocking masteries.

That wasn’t the point at all, but how do I even enter the labyrinth then? To start Torn From the Sky I have to enter an instance in there according the map, but like I said it’s blocked off... I can’t seem to figure it out :/

Normally you should have continued from the Prologue instance but the entrance to Torn from the Sky is above the labyrinth. The entrance is at ground level while the labyrinth is underground. There is an entrance to a small area just west of the vista at the amber fort.

PWgFxDr.jpg

omg! I could've sworn I looked everywhere haha, thank you so much! :)

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I'm just gonna share with you the build I like to use for open-world/story on elementalist: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgEsEWGBThRxuYnYJd512A-zRZYBBBuFNoMxwZUGBmAVUAqMA-e

You need tempest and air for the build to work, as it essentially revolves around spamming air overload, meaning you need fresh air. You can play around with the third trait line, I personally like arcane as it offers a lot of boons (helps maintain might if you're not using dumplings), defensive utility with traited arcane shield and another cleanse/heal via evasive arcana, plus it reduces the cooldowns on your attunements, which is particularly quality of life with the recent rework to the tempest trait line. Water does, however, provide sustain and higher damage so it's also a good option. Marauders gear is a good option to increase your health pool without reducing your damage too much, I like to aim for around 15k health minimum in open-world just to avoid one-shots, particularly useful on tempest as you have low health and armour. Assassins is better than berserkers for open-world due to no banners/spotter - 80% base is optimal, but not feasible with the marauders. Ferocious winds might be better than zephyr's boon in the air traitline, idk I just like to have perma fury.

The gist of the build is spamming air overload and swapping to fire for burst skills then back to air. It's more intricate than that but you can figure that out for yourself by playing it if you want to. I'd really recommend tempest if you're struggling. You have good survivability and high, spammy aoe burst. You'll probably be kissing the floor a lot more if you play weaver, and core ele just gets outclassed by tempest and weaver

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