User:Boromonokli/sandbox

All around elementalist guide for first time no-unlock leveling, from character creation, through the shiverpeaks, with an empty xunlai.

I recommend to go with a full henchmen group whenever you can. My favorites for this purpose are:

• 4 party areas: Stefan, Orion, Alesia. (2 eles are decent damage early on, Stefan's a good frontliner, and you can supplement Alesia's healing with your own, while preventing damage)
• Little Thom, Dunham (Lina if you are in the Crystal Desert)

1: Get basic skills. Do first skill quest, go to wizard's folly, level on elementals, you need around level 3-4, do Aziure's quest, do Ralena's quest. You should have:

• Flare
• Aura of Restoration
• Fire Storm
• Glyph of Lesser Energy
• Blinding Flash
• Lightning Javelin

That's all the spells you can get in pre-searing. Do your monk secondary quest (Mhenlo, Ashford Abbey, Catacombs), then enter the academy. Most of the spells you can get here aren't useful for you, you want healing breeze, heal other, and heal party.

Once in Post-searing, do the skill quest at Ambassador Zain. Do Supplies for the Duke, Sowing Seeds, Shalev's Task, and buy Healing Breeze from the skill trainer. Your spells should be:

• Flare (not really, but you have litte else at this point)
• Lava Font (Point blank, but spammable)
• Glyph of Lesser Energy
• Healing Breeze
• Heal Party
• Ice Spikes (Or Frozen Burst)
• Shard Storm
• Resurrection Signet

Do The Great Northern Wall, then do Protecting Ascalon and In Memory of Paulus. Now you should have Resurrect as well, which is one of the worse hard resurrection spells, but it's all you can get now.

Take a break and look at your build before doing Fort Ranik: You have two healing spells (change Heal Party to Orison if you feel like it, party healing isn't that big this early), two fire spells (not the best, but Lava Font has OK dps potential), and two water snares (one AoE and one single target), tied together with Glyph of Lesser Energy and Resurrect(ion signet if you choose that). You can do a lot of things: Heal in a pinch, snare dangerous foes (axe charr), and do Damage over Time with Lava Font (or fire storm if you sacrifice spammability for range), and you have Flare, which is terrible, but you'll get Fireball soon enough.

Now, you can either go through Pockmark Flats or do the Fort Ranik mission. I recommend the latter, less problems this way. Switch Lava Font for Fire Storm for this mission to deal with charr on the hilltops. You can snare the key charr (usually martyr or overseer) right after casting your AoE Damage over time spell of choice to force him to suffer the full effect of your spell.

In Frontier Gate, grab all quests, and go to Pockmark Flats (don't bother with the footman in eastern frontier, you can do his part while going back, or whenever you feel like it). You can take Caravan in Trouble right away, as the reward is Fireball. Once done, continue to Serenity Temple, where you can do two elementalist quests if you feel like it (or need the earth magic spells).

Once done with those, proceed to Ruins of Surmia. You should have switched Flare with Fireball, otherwise, your build should remain the same. If you have enough collector trophies, you can try getting better armor from collectors, or better weapons.

Ruins of Surmia is pretty straightforward. You lay down your DoT, snare, and pump in a fireball for maximum damage. Coupled with Stefan and Orion, you should make quick work of anything you come across. If you can, you should get the flaming scepter mages, as they will help at the end of the mission.

In Nolani Academy, you will have two choices: Go to Grendich Courthouse, or continue with Nolani Academy. Either way, once done, you will be able to buy Immolate to replace your Lava Font/Fire Storm with, and Enervating Charge to supplement Blinding Flash.

Now you have a few more (decent) build options. Since you aren't using damage over time spells with Fireball and Immolate (a decent spike combo), you can ditch your water magic spells for more direct anti-melee though Enervating Charge and Blinding Flash. You can buy Restore Life if you like it more than Resurrect.

Either way, you should do Nolani Academy to get to Yak's Bend. If you were still in starter armor, now is a good time to make sure that you have at least collector gear from Post Searing Ascalon, or barring that, crafter armor and weapons.

Yak's Bend and the Northern Shiverpeaks

Now it's a good time to add Little Thom and Dunham to your henchmen party, and do whatever quests need doing in the Traveler's Vale, especially skill quests. Do take a side trip to the Iron Horse Mine as well, for the monk skills (which you won't be using, but they can't hurt), and for the Rangil Ironbow quests.

Borlis Pass and the Frost Gate are pretty straightforward. The only problem might be the Road to Borlis Pass, where you have to be cautious when pulling the Stone Summit Ravagers. Other than that, it's your chosen build with no real need for variations. Heal Party starts getting good around these parts.

Beacon's Perch is a good place with little interesting skills for general PvE. Both Ice Spear and Lightning Strike only get good when you have a reliable way to get Exhaustion on your elementalist (read: when you get Gale, and later Ether Prodigy).

Getting to Kryta is also easy. Snares will help you very little, but weakness and blind is a good way to hamper those ettins. They deal out weakness too and have decent armor, but you should be able to overpower them if you take them one at a time. In Scoundrel's Rise, you will have an easy time dealing with the undead, who happen to be weak to fire.

In Gates of Kryta, expect heavy pressure from the poison applying archers and mesmers, but other than that, they tend to group up nicely for your fireballs. Spike down Skeleton Monks and keep Alesia alive, or well, everyone alive, stay out of the swamp, and you'll be safely in Lion's Arch in no time. The bonus is a bit dangerous if you are low level, so you might want to put it off for a while, unless you aren't the only player in the group.

With all the above done, you should be in Lion's Arch.