Elementalist/? ---> Help please :P

After making a ranger and realising that they really aren't that good, I decided to make a Fire ele and I need a secondary profession to back it up. Keep in mind that I am level 8 and that I am NIGHTFALL ONLY (Sadly :@).

I'm a pretty big noob coming into guild wars as my highest level character was level 13 so please be paitent if I don't catch on to some new term or something like that.

Thanks in advance and hopefully this was the right section.


My current secondary profession is ranger by the way.


Edit: If anyone knows any Elementalist skills that would make spells/curses hit 0 damage on me or melle/ranged attacks hit 0 damage on me for a certian amount of time... or even both, that would be great.

Monk for a hard rez or Mesmer for Arcane Echo/Echo, imo.

As I said before... I'm pretty newbish to guild wars at this point so... What's a rez? and is Arcane Echo a build? Sorry lol.

Eh, I was a ele/ranger when I started too. I would say go ele/monk, or since you're nightfall ele/paragon. Monk and paragon both give you skills that can resurrect fallen teammates more than once (ele you can only get a res signet, which is mostly a 1 use deal) Paragon has the extra benefit of giving you skills that cause your spells to do more damage or cause burning.

Personally, I'm not going to make a recommendation as what one person likes another will think sucks. However, I am curious why you think rangers aren't that good. My main is a ranger and i've been playing it since the world preview event in 2004.

Res means resurrection. Skills like [skill]Resurrect[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill][skill]Restore Life[/skill][skill]Light of Dwayna[/skill] for monks and [skill]Flesh of my Flesh[/skill][skill]Death Pact signet[/skill] for rits and [skill]Signet of Return[/skill] for paragons

And Arcane Echo is a mesmer skill [skill]Arcane Echo[/skill]

Take your time and try out every skill you can. Its often a good deal more fun to discover a build or skill that you really enjoy to use rather than just run some build that others like.

You should really take a char all the way through a campain before you decide on it. Some proffesions really don't come into thier own untill they hit lvl 20 and have access to all skills available.

Honestly, don't worry about your second profession until you are level 20 or close. Keeping your points in Ele attributes is better imo.

Have monk prot you, then you'll take no damage, and if you do, you'll get healed. GW is a team game.

Terra tank build will give you decent damage reduction, but it won't make you invincible, and will be very limited in terms of dealing damage as well as managing agro.

Also, if you're talking about pre-searing, then it doesn't matter anyway, nothing there is representative of actual game, nor can you make any decent builds there.

Advice above is all good. Try not to judge a profession before you get to lvl 20. On the beginner island there are not many skills to your disposal and your "builds" (skills on your skill bar) are pretty rigid and cannot be changed much due to the lack of skills.

In regards to secondary professions, you cannot really ever go wrong with a Monk secondary due to the reusable resurrects.

To explain terminology in the above posts:

Hard Res/Rez = Reusable resurrect that you can use over and over, as opposed to a soft res which would be resurrect signet or Sunspear rebirth signet, in which you use it once and it cannot be used again until you kill a boss.

Protection Monks = monks that prevent damage by causing blocking of attacks or mitigating damage, as opposed to healing damage (Heal Monks) that is already done.

Terra Tank = Elementalist build using the earth magic skill line primarilry on Armor of Earth (increases armor level) and Stoneflesh Aura (reduces damage per hit). As the above post says, you are not invincible since if you enchantments get removed by bad guys, you are in a world of hurt real quickly.

Pre-searing = If you have Nightfall only, dont worry about this term, its a beginner area in Prophecies.

Aggro = When you aggro a bad guy, you get his attention. Term derived from the name of the white circle area on you overhead radar - Aggravation Bubble. When bad guys enter that white area you get his attention and he comes after you. You generally dont want to "aggro" more than one group of bad guys at a time, as your party can get overwhelmed quickly fighting 2 or 3 groups at a time. You can manage "aggro" by using a long bow (can shoot beyond your Aggro bubble) and get the attention on only one group and then run back to where your party is hanging out, thereby "pulling" the one group to you.

You are already secondary ranger? Once that's been set, you won't be able to change it until later in the game. Don't fret about the secondary, I would say for someone like you. Going /Mo to get a resurrection skill is nice, but it doesn't do any damage, which I am thinking you like. Focus on your ele skills.

If you are level 13 in Nightfall, you can at least get max armor (60 AL for ele I believe), which will reduce damage you take.

Have you been equipping your heroes with skills? Working on your heroes skills should give you an idea for what you want to do with yourself too.

Yes, if you think any class isn't that good, you are a noob. Each class is very good, just not necesarily at what you want to do.

If you want to use your Ele for damage, then pick Mesmer for Arcane Echo and possible energy management skills like Power Drain. If you want to run support, go with Monk or Ritualist. If you want to farm, go with Mesmer, Monk, Dervish, or Assassin.

three main things you should worry about at this point:

1) armor: try to buy the highest lvl armor you can (maximum for an ele is 60, and as stated above, once you hit lvl 13 in NF you can get it (costs some though))

2) Ele skills: pick an element (fire=all around damage, water=major slowdown on enemies, earth=defensive capabilities, air="spike" damage against single target) and roll with it. keep trying to get/buy skills for it, and invest attribute points into whatever element you pick, and energy storage.

3) Finding a good group: at this point, your heroes/henchmen probably aren't that good, so try to find groups to help you with missions/quests. a simple message in the chat like "Fire ele lfg (name of quest/mis)" will suffice.