I have played the Elementalist now for a second day (still unlocking skills on weapons, currently the Focus as the final weapon) and I have to say that I am starting to get a favourite range: not too close, not too far.

Switching to main hand dagger this morning showed me how limited the range with this weapon is. You pretty much have to run up close to the enemy, which is a bad idea, once warrior e.g. start knocking down stuff. Water with Vapor Blade was the element which I liked best there: the skill offered a good range and the vulnerability stacking was nifty. But as a final verdict: I liked to be a little bit less marked with a “hit me” sign.

The staff, which I have talked about before is an OK weapon, but using the #1 skill most of the time, while #3-#5 recharge is not as engaging as the midrange: Scepter + Dagger or Focus. The range of your Scepter skills is decent, which provides you with the ability to kite on the mid-line of bigger battles and you have a much better battlefield awareness than standing up font and being distracted by all the flashy skill effects around you.

Conclusion on Best Range to Play an Elementalist

Mid range is the most fun, as it requires active game play with fast recharging skills plus a good overview over the battlefield.

I started a new Norn Elementalist this beta weekend and discovered something worth talking about – the speed of the skill unlocks of weapon skills.

For most professions, this probably works pretty fast: They have a starter weapon, they unlock three skills – they get an off hand weapon (reward for first storyline quest, bought or found) – and they unlock the next two skills.

Due to the nature of the profession, the Elementalist has not only to unlock those five skills, but a total of twenty skills across all his four attunements.