Need Some Basic Elementalist Tips

I wasn't sure if to ask this here or in the Campfire section, but that place seemed empty, so I'll ask here.

I recently played through prophecies (which is the only campaign i have atm) using a ranger for my first character. I like him, but I realized that I relied a lot on other party members to get me through missions since bow attacks were weak and I am not adept as interrupting and spreading conditions.

So I've been considering a new character and I came down to either warrior or elementalist. I decided to try elementalist. At the moment it is a fire build with Mesmer skills from the starting area, but I don't feel like I'm playing it right. I'm used to going right to the monsters and attacking, then pulling back and letting my henchmen do the work, but the elementalist does not seem to have the same skills to escape and survive like my ranger did (at least not at this point).

My intention with my second character is to be able to deal damage, but I find myself just trying to run away when something gets too close to me. I'm starting to think I should try a warrior.

I'm wondering what the basic method is for questing as a elementalist is?

Elementalists are backline characters. You'll be hiding in the back casting while the Warriors/Sins/Dervishes hold the melee. You'll only get 60AL armor (like all casters) so getting in the melee isn't a good idea. If you're still in pre, you'll just have to take the hits, but when you get out you'll have the War hench to aggro for you.

You're always going to be relying on party members. GW isn't like $cookieCutterMMO where you can do most things alone (Other than a few gimmicky builds that make people on Guru cry).

You should get a longbow...

Try to flag your henchmen,
take out your longbow to pull the mob,
run back through your henchmen, the mob follows until they get to the henchmen,
and voila - you're the backline - nuke away...

basically eles stay in the back....if you have henchmen you can take the warrior with you and flag them in front of you so they take the aggro away from you, however; most mobs will target casters (ele, monk, necro, etc) first and ignore the warriors....so learning to run away (we say kite ing)....is a very good skill to learn!
You will learn a few ele skills that can help in a hand to hand situation (spells that do damage to adjacent foes), but I think they are much farther on in the game.

Eles stay back and deal their damage from behind the melee characters. Also, except for certain mesmer skills you'll want to rely on ele spells.

Get as close as you can, so that your aggro bubble will be near the mob you want to attack. Call target without attacking (CTRL+Shift+Space) and let your henchmen take the aggro. Step back and start nuking. Enjoy

There are several methods you can use as a Elementalist.
- always take a melee type henchman with you (two if available) if you are soloing with just henchies. In Prophecies, this would mean warrior henchmen. If you are joining a group (PuG or Guild), hopefully there will be some melee classes in it.
- if soloing, attack a mob so as to get it's attention, and then "ping" (ctrl-click on spell or ctrl-space) one of the enemies that gets closest to your group. This will get the henchmen to attack this lead foe and block them somewhat.
- consider switching to a water based build. There are lots of skills in the Water Magic line that will cripple or slow down mobs.
- consider taking Ranger as a secondary and using Throw Dirt on any foes that get too close. There are also some Air Magic and Earth Magic skills that cause blindness.
- if you can, try to get into groups that have a Minion Master necro or Spirit Spammer ritualist. Next best would be to get Eye of the North or Nightfall where you can get your own Necro and/or Ritualist heroes.

In the early stages of Prophecies, there is generally no panic about dealing with mobs. Just make sure you have the best armor available at the time, and be sure to outfit yourself with appropriate Runes and Insignias. And keep in mind that death is merely a brief stoppage in play, not something to avoid at all costs.

Another 2nd profession to maybe had fun with is R/N using touch skills that steal life and cause blind. You would be limited with just prophesy skills, but it's something else to look into besides R/E, which isn't very common.

@SnowCloud

look at the Compass


see in the middle, the tiny white transparent ring? that is your aggro circle - meaning, if the edge of that circle touch the red dots, you initiated an aggro, so, you don't have to run into the mob/monsters/enemies in battle if you are playing elementalist, who is a caster/range/support/mid-line/back-line character.

Red Dots on the compass are the enemy.

see here for more details on the compass.

Spacebar
Selecting an enemy and pressing Spacebar (if you're using a default key configuration) will cause you to attack.

Call your target, otherwise the hench won't do a thing, read the wiki page on call. basically you use ctrl+1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (depending where you put your skill on the skill bar)

/rant it was a stupid nerf (IMHO) when Heroes Battle were still in play, now that they aren't there anymore, one wanders why it the AI isn't reverted. /endrant

There you go, no need to escape or run away, make your heroes/hench do the work.

also:
make yourself familiar with the map, there are corners and place where you can make the enemies ball up, it is most useful for elementalist to use skills that cause damage to adjacent and nearby foes. like Rodgort's Invocation, Fireball etc.