Beyond L20

My E/Me recently hit L20, and with areas that are still far too difficult for me (my entire party [which consists entirely of henchman and M.O.X.] drops dead almost instantly) appearing before me left and right, I was wondering: how do you gain power beyond L20? Additional skill points don't help me.

My tactics are as follows: I play a fire-spec E/Me (maxed fire, remaining points into energy), liberally use Aura of Restoration, Glyph of Energy (or whatever that ability is that reduces the cost of your next two spells), Fireball, Meteor, Firestorm, and Meteor Shower depending on the size and difficulty of the pull, I move away and cast Inferno when I'm being crowded ...

Is there something I can do to improve my playing style, or is there a way to gain power beyond L20?

EDIT: It is likely also worth noting that I am still questing in Factions, though I've gained access to Tyria.

Is your armor max? (that would be 60 for elementalists)
Always bring 2 monk heroes/henchmen with you (talking about 8-man areas)
The best way to gain more power is improving your and your hero's skillbar which means getting and using more skills that work well together though what you described sounds pretty much fine for normal mode storyline quests/missions but you need to change in some occasions (example: fire does almost zero damage against destroyers).. Would you mind saying in which area of the game you currently are?
Also since you recently hit lvl 20 you may don't have an elite skill yet, you can only bring 1 elite skill with you at a time but they can really make a difference...

Thanks for a quick response.

Yes, my armor skill is currently maxed (although two of them are from NPC exchanges, so I can't really enchant them much). I've been bringing two healers when I can, and I always bring a spirit henchman.

I'm currently doing the Closer to the Stars quest where you have to kill the four Celestials. I tried it once and died just before I killed the fourth one (probably messed up the order and got a bad combination of skills against me).

And I don't even know what elite skills are.

Closer to the stars is a difficult mission you need to take it slow to win and elite skills have a gold outline and they are just a bit more powerfull then regular skills you shouldent need them till you really beat closer to the stars GL and in my opinion leave dragon for last

Wiki is your friend!

Killing the four celestials.. That sounds like Nahpui Quarter mission, yes the last one is always the most difficult since there are extra enemies from killing the rest celestials. I'm not 100% sure but i think that if you kill the last celestial without killing his group the mission is over so you can just run in and kill him without worrying about his group. On a side note since you are playing with hero+henchmen you should "call a target" so all of them focus hitting that target leading to killing it faster which is generally better than letting henchmen run around and hit whatever they want (calling a target is done by attacking or using a skill on said target while holding Shift tapped)...

you might wanna get rid of mox truthfully...since from the sounds of it you don't have any skills unlocked for him to use...he might be hurting you more then helping...just my 2 cents on that..

On a side note...Elite skills esspecially for fire eles are mostly /meh in factions (and proph for that matter) you may however look up Double Dragon...Since it might just be your best option atm for its +2 fire magic...Also...you might not have done the 2 15 attribute point quests in factions (i missed them at first too) you can look those up on wiki as well...

just my input between my friend dragging me on missions have fun and i might add more in a bit...

Also, make sure as soon as u can afford it to rune/insignia yourself and all your heros that u use often. If u have a necro hero make a minon master, all those extra bodies of the minons can soak up alot of damage.

There's also Elemental Attunement in the Undercity. Doesn't help with exhaustion, but aids spammability.

Indeed forgot that was core...sorry was rushed at the time...Dual Attunement used to be what I ran pre-nf either that or echo nuker...

So yeah Elemental Attunement is probably a better bet then my double dragon suggestion...

If you can get more heroes get them because they can be flagged this makes it easier to pull small groups of enemies and kill mobs piecemeal.

In closer to the stars I would always want to take a minion master that way I can blast through it easily.
Spirit spam also works well here.

Otherwise I suggest going slowly and killing the guards but not the celestials that way you get no mini celestials spawning.

Then go back to the start and kill the four celestials this should be easy as they have no supporting minions.
Its slow but if your having problems it might work for you.

Other problems in Factions are the affected since these do a damage spike when they die killing them quickly and with area affect damage can work against you.

Its all a question of fighting battles where you want to and at your own pace.

You have M.O.X as hero, so you have all 4 parts of Guild Wars. If you play alone, first start playing the Nightfall campaign with your character, since you get more heroes there. Pause playing Factions and Prophecies for a while. Heroes are NPC players like henchmen, but as customizable as your character. With good builds, they are way more powerful than the pre-made henchmen.

Since you already gained access to Factions from your Prophecies character, you should be able to enter Nightfall as well. The quest for it is available in Lion's Arch.

And before that, make a short detour to the Eye Of The North expansion. When you explore that hole near Lion's Arch or Kaineng Center (with the proper quest from Lion's Arch or Kainent Center), you get to the first EOTN outpost - Boreal Station - where you immediately acquire a lvl 20 Elementalist and lvl 20 monk. Proceed to the next outpost and enter the Hall of Monuments, you get a lvl 20 Mesmer hero there. All these should help you a lot better. Always take 3 heros, so you only need 4 henchmen to fill your group.

Always take two healers in your party. One melee. And the rest ranged characters for different kinds of damage dealing. The KI for ranged NPCs is way better than the KI for melee fighters (like M.O.X.). As soon as you have a necromancer hero, dump the melee NPC and make the necromancer a minion master. If you want to know how it is to play with a minion master, take the henchman Su on the Factions main land, who is available from a some selected outposts in Factions. Unfortunately she is very rarely available.

Actually, you only need all 3 campaigns for MOX, eotn is not necessary. In any case, the OP has nightfall and I'd suggest he go there to get heroes, and if he has eye of the north to go there too.

It sounds like you are mostly having problems with getting a good build going.
Make sure you have a full bar, that means have 8 skills on your bar, in the tutorial area it does not matter that much, but as soon as you get to the "real" game you really want to play with a full bar.

Do not take both Meteor and Meteor Shower, it may seem like a good idea but in reality it doesn't work so well, both skills have a long recharge time, so it will mean that for the most part you will be down 2 skills and you don't want these two skills that cause exhaustion at the same time .

If you have to choose between the 2 skills, I would suggest going with Meteor, Meteor Shower is better when you have a coordinated group which will get the enemies set up in such a way that you will get the most use of it.
In overall play, it does not work so great because, you will be stuck casting the skill when the fight has started and mostly only get the skill done when most of the enemies have already died.

Fireball is a okay choice for most builds, good, cheap, aoe, somewhat spamable damage

Firestorm is a iffy skill, enemies like to run away from under the "shower" most of the time, running straight to you.

Use Fire Attunement , it gives you energy each time you cast a fire magic spell.

Drop Inferno, when enemies come for you, you want to get distance between you and them, not fight them toe to toe, because you will lose.

Factions is a bit limited on what you can take to do good aoe damage, because you dont have Rodgort's Invocation,Mark of Rodgort,Incendiary Bonds, Liquid Flame, or even Phoenix, which would be a good replacement for Inferno.

You also don't get Nightfall's Glowing Gaze for energy management.

You will have to work with, things like Bed of Coals,Breath of Fire, lava arrows for multihit spamable skill.

Factions doesn't really give you a good fire magic elite,because 2 of them you have to get close to the enemy to use, and the other one Mind Burn is not so great and can become a nuisance, so you will probably want Elemental Attunement.


On the Closer to the Stars part, start at the monk and go to the necro, ele and finally the mesmer, when at the mesmer flag your heroes above the slope a bit further back and switch to a flatbow and then hit the mesmer boss when you can do it without aggroing the 2 enemies walking in front of him, after you aggro the boss,hit the boss with everything you have and ingore the other enemies, if your heroes/henchmens have followed your attack, the boss should die pretty fast.

If you still need help with the mission,let me know I can run it for you and get Masters, if you wish.

Get decent hero/self builds*, upgrade your heroes armours/weapons & watch out for aoe spells, sad thing is when YOU cast aoe spells the monsters know how to run from it, but your h/h will stand in the middle of enemy aoe spells like idiots until you flag them away, maybe update that for 5th anniversary? Give h/h an iq above 5

*Not to savvy on Ele's, maybe someone here could give you a build or two or you could check http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page for builds (although on pvx the hero build section mostly always includes pve skills so I gave up on it, maybe it'll give you a few ideas though?)

Read this basic ele thread found in the Campfire section Elementalist sub forum. It covers the elites and some basic builds.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/b...t10314574.html

Do not worry about getting heroes right now, as you most likely do not have the gold to equip them properly with runes and insignia or skills. A poorly equipped hero is not a lot of help.

To obtain a minion master necro for the Nahpui Quarter mission, just bring Su (Grave Henchman) along. She has minion master skills.

Read the wiki page on this mission, which includes a map of the shortest route, although doing it in reverse order is recommended (start at 4). http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Nahpui_Quarter_(Mission)

Factions is harder than Prophecies, especially when you first reach the City and reach level 20. The mobs are designed with level 20 characters in mind with fairly complete skillbars. I suggest getting hold of some elite skills as soon as you can - look on the wikis for a list of Elementalist elites.

Really though, you have to learn how to improve your game. Once you hit level 20 all you can do after that is do the two attribute point quests and improve your armour and weapons.
As for runes and such, I recommend just stacking Survivor's Insignia on your armour. Use a Fire Magic rune at whatever level you're comfortable with (don't let your health go below 500).

As for henchmen, I recommend the two monks and the rit if one is available. If you're suffering then stacking on a bit of extra defense isn't too bad.
Cynn isn't too bad, good firepower in Normal Mode. Earth henchmen are useful as they generally pack decent utility. Su is a sort of Minion Master (always nice) but doesn't pack very good minions and won't have many of them. I recommend not bothering with the Air Magic henchmen (not very good) and Melee henchmen in general.
Keep hold of MOX and try to improve his build. Again, rune him up and try to make sure his max health isn't below 550. Avoid putting anything with -health on him until you have some experience and money to back it up.


If you really feel you've hit a dead end, then try doing some stuff in Prophecies (Tyria). It has a much smoother difficulty curve and allows you to get a feel for professions before requiring you to run something half decent. Things start getting tougher in the Crystal Desert (party size of 6, level 17 henchmen, level 20+ enemies (Hydras)) but mobs generally aren't overwhelming.

If your going to Nightfall for some of the heroes, also get Glowing Gaze and the fire elite Searing Flames.
Its energy costly, but a very good fire elite.
To compensate for the high energy cost, use Glowing Gaze, Fire Attunement and Glyph of Lesser Energy.
Since your secondary profession is Mesmer u could also use Mesmer skills that give u energy.

If u get (some) Heroes in Nightfall, it might be better to upgrade Melonni and not MOX (both r Dervish).
MOX' big size might block your view more.
Imo, MOX is nice until u get other/better (melee) heroes.

Massive amounts of quality responses here so I'll just add a few details and recommend what you should read on the wiki about that.

Character development beyond level 20 - a comprehensive list:

-Getting full 200 Attribute Points, only then you're a true level20 - search wiki for Attribute Quests;
-Getting max base armor (for ezample in Kaineng Center) and some +1 runes for your used attributes and one Vigor rune you can afford. Filling all the remaining empty upgrade slots on your armor with insignia, support runes and getting Superior Vigor are much less important at this point.
-Warriors, Rangers, Assassins, Paragons and Dervishes should also get a max damage weapon at this point, for casters it's quite irrelevant.
-Getting an Elite Skill - read about Signet of Capture
-Getting an optimal skillbar - a lot has been written about it above
-Getting some PvE only skills and getting a few ranks in titles that power them up.
-Get more skills to be able to adjust your build to the tasks and enemies ahead and/or play more different builds.
-All thats left is perfecting everything. Slowly maximizing the titles that power up your skills, getting good insignia and Sup vigor and getting a few fully modded weapon sets to be able to swap into when needed. Those include efficient casting, enchanting, defensive and emergency high energ sets for a caster.

Everything that I have read on this thread is very helpful.

Also, I would recommend, Pain Inverter as the PvE Skill. Its a skill that will take you a night to get but what a difference it makes.

In Boreal Station there is an NPC that will make MAX armor for you. The armor is not fancy but its cheap, its maxed and it can be "rune'd up".


Just a side note on Pain Inverter.
Last night I was trying to complete Gate of Pain Mission in Night Fall. I am a monk. The group wanted me to run as a healer monk but I did not. I ran as a Smitter and I had my new found Pain Inverter. I dropped one foe every time my Pain Inverter Charged in less than 6 seconds. All I saw from one end of my monitor to the other was -80 -80 -80 -80 -80 -80 -80 -80 Foes name here -80 -80 -80 -80 -80 -80 -80 and it was dead.

I was STOKED.

Note, on the armor help, by the time you can go to Boreal Station, you can also get armor in Kaening, so it's mostly which one you like more and where you would rather play.

Edit:Removed unhelpful parts.