Level 80 and still don't have a clue what I'm doing

[StormyFae.2761]

LOL! I'm not a big gamer (I'm an old lady) but I liked GW and just recently started GW2 and got to level 80 on my elementalist (did not use the boost). I liked leveling up but now I'm kind of lost. I got a mount from doing the Crystal Desert thing (after dying about 50 times during it) but all the level 80 stuff is no fun because I die too much. I probably need better armor/weapons/whatever but I have no clue what I should be looking for or where to get it. I've just been using whatever I pick up that is better than what I already have. My coat is defense 287 and my shoes are defense 97 and everything else is in between. I don't understand crafting. There is so much more to this game than GW1 and I'm very confused. I just need someone to tell me what I need to be doing now and how to stop dying in level 80 areas so it will be fun again. ThAnKS!

[Donari.5237]

I fear that the biggest problem is that you are an Elementalist. They take a lot of reflexes and active, proactive play because they are the squishiest profession. (I am not yet an old lady but am a 53 year old one, so I speak from bitter experience of eating way too much dirt at game launch on my ele). So you may want to consider a different profession, despite the time it may take to level -- Necromancer is one of the tankiest, most survivable ones -- or see what you can do to toughen up your Ele.

To that end, you should decide if you want Power or Condition Damage as your main go-to for dealing death. Many will say Power is best, but both Ele and Necro inflict a lot of conditions so I'd recommend working towards that. Look for exotic tier gear with condition damage as its main stat for armor and weapons (it should be very cheap on the TP, if you filter for it including stats, and look at the named items that have the exact same stats as the stat names, so "John's Fancy Trousers" will be just as good as "Rampager's Fancy Trousers" and cost half as much if that). Then on your trinkets go more for Vitality as a way of boosting your survival -- Toughness apparently isn't as useful as it sounds, though I couldn't say why, that's just from reading the forums over the years -- with anything else attached that looks useful.. Make sure to put upgrades in all your gear, again a lot of rune and sigil sets are very cheap on the TP. Broadly speaking any one gear piece is as good as any other of the same type and rarity, the specific stats change but the overall balance is supposed to be about the same.

After that take a peek through the trait lines available, mouse over each thing they give you, think about how x might synergize with y and whether they complement the weapons you prefer to use. Probably go for ranged weapons, too, such as staff or scepter, a little distance from the enemy gives you lots more dodge time.

Then go somewhere lower level with a lot of renewable mobs such as the minotaurs in south Wayfarers. Kill things, watching what your weapon and utility skills do, remembering to change your attunements as needed. Sure you can camp Fire all the time, but if you "stance dance" and dip into Earth for protection, Water for heals, and Air for ... hmm. Probably crowd control? I don't remember core Ele any more, wow ... then you'll survive longer. Ele has a lot to memorize as to what does what since each attunement tosses a different set of weapon skills at you and their function can vary so in one the 2 skill charges you at the foe and in another it rolls you back. Once you have it memorized, though, you have a lot more skills to rotate through than most other professions.

As you increase your awareness of what each button does depending on what attunement you're in, move up to harder mobs, bigger groups. Practice practice practice! And be aware that both HoT and PoF assume the player has gotten pretty good with their profession and can handle smarter, more complex mobs (PoF also has an insane aggro radius so it's very hard to ever not be in combat until you know the patterns).

I hope that gives you some orientation and helps get your feet under you.

[Zavijah.2695]

Ele is definitely harder to play Solo, however let's talk about gear.

Send me a message in game, it could be a case of crafting you either berserker exotics (what everyone will tell you to get) or marauder exotics (more health, less power - what I use, and I am not interested in end game pve team composition and for now at least - doesn't sound like you are either yet)

[antorios of boxius.1043]

You can look over the stats on the exotic armor the trading post offers. See how you want to build your toon, with what $ gold you can afford to spend on armor. At level 80 you should be able to get something decent to improve your play from what you have been used to at this point, Chest armor is 314, boots 133, head and shoulder are both 73, pants are 194, hands are 133. Look for these stats when looking at different armor, that is the Light class armor stats, Identify those first , then look over what the armor offers, power, healing, vitality, etc. Also check how much Karma you have, in ORR you can buy armor at some of the vendors using Karma!!!!!!! Find these vendors in cursed shore and malchors leap. GL!

[Bobzitto.8571]

You picked a class that requires quite a bit to master. It's among the squishiest, so you can expect to die a lot as you get used to the difficulty spike that comes with the expansions. As you are new to level 80, make sure you upgrade your gear to full exotic (some stat combinations are cheap, some are more costly) if you haven't already. If you want to have an easier time as you get the hang of elementalist, you can play around with Soldier stats (+ Power, + Vitality, + Toughness). This will make you substantially tankier but will lower your damage significantly. If you want to have a better balance, use Marauder stats (+ Power, + Precision, + Vitality, + Ferocity).

The crafting system may seem daunting at first, but there isn't a lot of secret to it. You gather materials around the world, and these vary from Tier 1 to Tier 6 according to the level of the content you are doing, with Tier 6 being a rarer variant in endgame. This is valid for both trophies (claws, bones, blood, etc) and regular mats (ore, wood, cloth, leather). Aside from those, you have materials that appear in endgame as new stat combinations are released. The first thing you need to do after leveling your professions (as an Elementalist, you should prioritize Tailoring and Artificing) is decide what gear stats you want to use, and see what you will need for that. You can use the wiki to help you. If you don't want to think too much about it pre-endgame (Crafting lvl 400/500), you can follow a guide at https://gw2crafts.net/.

Finally, look for a build that suits your playstyle. The thing with the elementalist is that you'll simply have to get used to switching between elements if you aren't bursting an enemy down quickly, or are facing a harder foe. This means getting used to your skills in all 4 elements and knowing when to use what. If you want a more defensive build, try playing the Tempest elite with either Water or Earth and a third traitline of your choice.

Now, if you want to be truly brainless in the expansion zones, there's only one solution: reroll to necromancer or ranger. If you're playing on NA, feel free to add me and I can help you out :)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Level 70-80 maps in Core Tyria are easier than Season Two L80 maps which are easier than expansion/Living Story Seasons 3 and 4 maps.You might consider working your way through the easier maps first.Also, I'd recommend leveling another Profession, even if you go back to Elementalist after, as the more you practice in the game, the better you will become.

Good luck.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

This get a lot easier once you have a competent build. Once you get a full exotic set with the same stats (I prefer berserker), things become a whole lot easier.

[lezbefriends.7516]

Get a build from Googling ‘GW2 Metabattle’ and wear the gear it says you need. There.

[joneirikb.7506]

To argue a bit against the metabattle build idea, most of them tend to focus on as much damage as possible, if you're not feeling confident about your own play it can be a good thing to start your gear a bit more tanky (replace some trinkets with Soldier stats isntead of Berserker for example) and slowly change them out as you get better with your class and feel more confident in your own survival.

As someone mentioned above, Elementalist might be one of (if not the) hardest class to start on, it depends so much on "Atunement-dancing" for all its defenses and most of its damage. One of my friends loved Elementalist from GW1 and was dead set on playing it in GW2 but ended up giving up and rolling warrior instead for the first couple of years, before going back to Elementalist eventually once they felt more secure in the game.

Regarding gear, people refer to gear by the "Rarity" and "Level" mostly, as all gear has the same amount of stats within those. So instead of listing defense stats, you could say that "My chest piece is a Green quality level 76." Or shortened to "Green76" or just "MW76" (MW = Masterwork). Generally what you should aim for as a new level 80 is "Exo80" Exotic quality gear, color Orange, at level 80. The second thing you should be looking at is what Stats you want for your "build" before you start buying random Exo80 gear.

---

An alternative way to gear up: If you have a good bunch of Karma saved up while leveling, go visit the Orr maps, the Temple's have NPC's that sell gear for Karma, and you can pick up complete sets of Exo80 Armor for just karma. They have several of the base core stat sets like Berserker and Soldier etc.

If you want to stick with Elementalist and learn it the hard way, A good start would be to:

• Buy weapons on the TradePost, for example a Berserker Exo80 Staff or Daggers depending upon.
• Go to Orr and buy a full armorset for Karma with Berserker stats (Grenth Temple)
• Buy Soldier Exo80 Trinkets for Karma at same npc (Grenth Temple)
• Buy a cheap rune-set on the TP to fill in the armor pieces, focusing on power damage (Rune of the Pirate should be cheap)
• Buy a cheap set of Superior Sigils for your weapons of choice (Superior Sigil of Accuracy and Vulnerability should be cheap and help)

Just be forewarned that the karma vendor takes 42000 Karma per piece iirc, so it's going to eat up a lot of karma. all 12 armor+trinket pieces are going to hit 504000 karma. So you might have to wait with some parts (trinkets) or buy some for gold at TP.

Crafting is the least cost efficient way to get gear, you'll spend quite a lot of money just to level the crafts, before you can craft what you need. And it is more of a long term thing in order to work on Legendary or Ascended gear. Neither of which you really need right now.

Link to the NPC that sells all the gear in Orr: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Keeper_Jonez_Deadrun

(Sorry, that got longer than I intended)

[Ojimaru.8970]

Even at level 80, might I still suggest checking out this guide to give you a better idea on the basics of an elementalist? You will certainly want to tweak it based on your Elite specializations, but the core basics hold true.

[derd.6413]

try to get your hands on some lvl 80 exotic gear. can be crafted or bought of the trading post (some can be bought from karma vendors in orr even). for some basic builds metabattle is usually a good place to start

[Cyninja.2954]

Roll a necromancer.

Not kidding, get a feel for how the game plays on a different class.

That said, necromancer and ranger are very beginner friendly and will make getting better a lot easier.

[Taygus.4571]

I'd recommend leveling necromancer. It's a much sturdier class. It can take a battering and it's very easy to learn. Minions can also help if you're reflexes aren't fast.

Ranger is also pretty easy and you might enjoy the search to unlock the pets.

I notice you mention the defense of your armor, but not the actual stats or if you're using orange (exotic) armor.

[MachineManXX.9746]

I would also recommend the Necromancer. Elementalist is just hard to play good. Not forgiving at all.

Necro with minions (also called Minionmancer) is very forgiving. Selecting trait lines (Blood Magic, Death Magic) that support your minions, which in turn support you, make you nearly unstoppable.

Gear does play a role in how well you perform, but it's not as big a role as some might think. The profession you choose and how it is traited will make a significant difference. I hope you keep us updated. I am interested in how you proceed and how things turn out for you.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

A newer player comes in here with their main complaint being "I die too much", and everyone starts handing out advice for meta glass DPS builds. Please stop trying to derail someone who is struggling with story and open-world PvE on the weakest (survival-wise) class available.

The entire game is not a proving ground for fractals & raids.

To OP: You can buy Exotic gear off of the Trading Post. I recommend a mix of Carrion armor for health, Rabid's trinkets for toughness, and a Rampager weapon for damage. This is a very basic gear that is available to everyone, and requires no extra effort while still offering okay damage and defense, and will work with almost all Elementalist builds except for support builds (which you won't be playing solo anyway).

Also, try to favor condition builds, stick mostly to Earth attunement, and use Scepter/Focus.

[Khisanth.2948]

@"joneirikb.7506" said:An alternative way to gear up: If you have a good bunch of Karma saved up while leveling, go visit the Orr maps, the Temple's have NPC's that sell gear for Karma, and you can pick up complete sets of Exo80 Armor for just karma. They have several of the base core stat sets like Berserker and Soldier etc.

If you want to stick with Elementalist and learn it the hard way, A good start would be to:

• Buy weapons on the TradePost, for example a Berserker Exo80 Staff or Daggers depending upon.
• Go to Orr and buy a full armorset for Karma with Berserker stats (Grenth Temple)
• Buy Soldier Exo80 Trinkets for Karma at same npc (Grenth Temple)
• Buy a cheap rune-set on the TP to fill in the armor pieces, focusing on power damage (Rune of the Pirate should be cheap)
• Buy a cheap set of Superior Sigils for your weapons of choice (Superior Sigil of Accuracy and Vulnerability should be cheap and help)

Just be forewarned that the karma vendor takes 42000 Karma per piece iirc, so it's going to eat up a lot of karma. all 12 armor+trinket pieces are going to hit 504000 karma. So you might have to wait with some parts (trinkets) or buy some for gold at TP.

Karma isn't a good choice for the armorBuying from the TP is only 6g 95s 19c for instant buy and 4g 66s 42c buy orders. That is 3 dailies and maybe one or two stampedes(for the coffers to sell). 252000 karma will probably take longer to accumulate.

You can also greatly reduce the price of the exotic amulet and ring if you use the lv78 instead of lv80. There is a small lost of stats but you pay for around half the price even after factoring in the need to get the Exquisite Ruby Jewels.

For the upgrades Major Sigil of Force and any of the Superior slaying sigils would also be a good choice. They each give +3% damage.

[StormyFae.2761]

Wow, you guys are great! I didn't expect to get so much help. I've taken notes on everything and it has made me more excited to get back into the game. I chose Ele cuz that was my fave in GW1 and felt comfortable with it. But it is different in gw2. I really enjoyed leveling so it won't be a bad thing for me to roll another char and go with necro or ranger. I will keep my notes for when I return to the ele and feel I will have a much handle on things now. Again thanks for being so generous and taking time to help out an old elementalist!

[Cyninja.2954]

@StormyFae.2761 said:Wow, you guys are great! I didn't expect to get so much help. I've taken notes on everything and it has made me more excited to get back into the game. I chose Ele cuz that was my fave in GW1 and felt comfortable with it. But it is different in gw2. I really enjoyed leveling so it won't be a bad thing for me to roll another char and go with necro or ranger. I will keep my notes for when I return to the ele and feel I will have a much handle on things now. Again thanks for being so generous and taking time to help out an old elementalist!

No problem.

Also please realize the advice to try a different class is literally only so you can get accustomed to the game a bit more. There is nothing wrong with elementalist (except that the class can be a bit challenging to master) and once you get a bit more aclimated with the game, its mechanics and the active combat you should definitly give your elementalist another go.

Just until then, some classes are way easier to play like warrior, ranger and necromancer.

[whoeverxwins.1279]

It's not just you. The difficulty in the expansions is much different than in core Tyria. Dodging becomes VERY important, even for less squishy classes than the poor elementalist. Watch out for those Area of Effect rings and orange hit shapes - you'll get clobbered if you stand in them. That said, necromancer is much easier, especially a power or condition minion build. Add Reaper elite spec to it and you are stronger the more mobs come at you. Enjoy!

[Skotlex.7580]

I am a little surprised this thread has gone on this long without anyone mentioning the wiki. Here you have a listing of all attribute combinations and how to get them:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats

Items acquired through drops are purchased at the trading post, and generally are the cheapest ones available (2~3 days worth of dailies alone should be enough for all your armor, for instance).

That said, others have mentioned that depending on your play ability, you may need to look for more defensive stats (and generally, every elementalist wants at least some vitality to offset their low HP).

Because dealing condition damage only needs one stat (condition damage, or at max expertise, which isn't that needed) versus power which uses three (power, precision and ferocity), going for condition builds allow one to build a much more tankier character.

Shaman could be a good starter set available on the TP, it offers condition damage, healing power and Vitality.

That said, others have mentioned traits and utilities. Using glyph of minor elemental summoning + glyph of elemental summoning will grant you a temporary pet that helps relieve some of the pressure. Another option, which isn't as popular, is conjure magnetic shield, it's what I use when I find myself outnumbered, and helps me get through (sure, the damage is less, but my survivability increases significantly).

As for traitlines, you'll want either water, earth, or both for survival. Water because it improves your healing, and earth has some good defensive bonuses. Though if you want to use glyphs it might be better to slot in air for the related cooldown trait.

Generally speaking, start out as tanky as required to survive encounters, and as you get better you can update to more offensive stats.

[mercury ranique.2170]

When I started playing I came from GW1 where Ele is my favourite (although I do most solo things with a spirit spammer energy build). I was playing with a friend and we ran into many issues. The main reason is that we where used too much to be turrets. That is why I switched to engineer back then. I reckoned that bringing my own turrets would be better. There are two elements to your issue.1: Pick the right class for you.2: learn how to play

elementalist has the steepest learning curve as it is very unforgiven and gives you less room to learn to play. In gw2, movability is very important. Dodging is important, but also being on the move all the time. With a class like elementalist making a dodging mistake is lethal.

My learning curve was as following.1: elemtalist till level 402: brought engineer to level 803: guardian - main till PoF4: switched back to engineer/holosmith

The engineer helped me a lot to learn the basics without being to close to the fire. The guardian brought me into the melee range and this helped me a lot to understand the advantages of melee range, while still having enough protection whenever I trip over my fingers.The holosmith is less forgiving, but has a lot of dps, while still being able to protect myself when I trip and goof up.

[Witch of Doom.5739]

@StormyFae.2761 said:Wow, you guys are great! I didn't expect to get so much help. I've taken notes on everything and it has made me more excited to get back into the game. I chose Ele cuz that was my fave in GW1 and felt comfortable with it. But it is different in gw2. I really enjoyed leveling so it won't be a bad thing for me to roll another char and go with necro or ranger. I will keep my notes for when I return to the ele and feel I will have a much handle on things now. Again thanks for being so generous and taking time to help out an old elementalist!

You and I might be secret twins (I'm an old lady too) -- Elementalist was my favorite in GW1 as well, so that was the first character I made in GW2. After playing it a while, though, I deleted it, and went to a Necro for my main with a Ranger as my second-most favorite character. Necro with minions is my favorite solo play style.

I'd recommend reading up on crafting too, and see if it's something you like. I love it. Leveling up and crafting ascended gear takes time but it's one of my favorite in-game activities.

[Ashantara.8731]

The profession is not the problem, avoiding damage is. GW2 requires you to not stand in AoE damage and to have decent reflexes in general.

Here is my Ele build, and I die rarely on it:

• Armor: Berserker (Scholar)
• Weapons: Sword/Dagger (Assassins stats w/ Bloodlust+Strength)
• Trinkets: Amulet+Rings+1 Accessory: Marauder, 1 Accessory: Berserker, Backpack: Berserker+Valkyre, 18 x +5 Power infusions.
• Build: Fire 1-1-1, Earth 3-2-3, Weaver 3-2-1.

It is tanky while still dealing lots of damage. It beats playing Tempest, in my opinion.

[StormyFae.2761]

An alternative way to gear up: If you have a good bunch of Karma saved up while leveling, go visit the Orr maps, the Temple's have NPC's that sell gear for Karma, and you can pick up complete sets of Exo80 Armor for just karma. They have several of the base core stat sets like Berserker and Soldier etc.

I've got 74K karma. So does one simply walk into Orr and buy the armor? I haven't had much luck getting around there.

[Linken.6345]

@StormyFae.2761 said:

An alternative way to gear up: If you have a good bunch of Karma saved up while leveling, go visit the Orr maps, the Temple's have NPC's that sell gear for Karma, and you can pick up complete sets of Exo80 Armor for just karma. They have several of the base core stat sets like Berserker and Soldier etc.

I've got 74K karma. So does one simply walk into Orr and buy the armor? I haven't had much luck getting around there.

With that little karma save it you need it for alot of other stuff mate