Thanks, that is super helpful. I didn't phrase it very well, but what I meant is that I was focusing on unlocking my air and earth traitlines first. I was doing a quasi-fresh air d/d build of my own devising. I usually open with fire, then swap to air for the speed boost, then swap to earth to finish the fight. I will often summon my greater fire elemental because if I do go down I find that they tend to burn down the targeted mob fairly quickly so I can get back up. It's saved my butt a few times. However, I will try earth elemental instead. I tried staff, but really didn't care for feeling so stuck in one place. I enjoy that on dagger I have three skills that can help me move around if I need to get out of an enemy's AOE as I don't always get my dodge triggered quite right (currently set to double tap space bar, haven't figured out a better keybinding for it).