If you are not interested in playing a free MMO I would say there is very little chance you are going to find this entry interesting.  However, if you have some free time and want to play a game for free, that is what the article is about.  

The base game for Guild Wars 2 has been free for a long time.  Obviously they want you to spend money in order to "upgrade" the game later, but even if you do decide to do that, it will end up costing $20 or so.  You are never required to do this though and if you wanted to play in perpetuity for free, you could so so.  There never has been, nor will there ever be, a monthly subscription fee.   A vast majority of their revenue comes from veteran players who spend real-world money on new outfits, which is a notion i still struggle to understand.   Whatever floats your boat!  as they say.  

So, moving on.  The Elementalist.

<center>  ![GW2ElementalistPainted-1920x1200.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXenkA9H49x3ebagfaosBuPS375NG2vcBZFmMfjB747bL/GW2ElementalistPainted-1920x1200.jpg) </center>

As the name suggests, the elementalist commands the elements of fire, water, air (thunder,) and earth.  This gives players an incredibly large arsenal of weapons towards opponents, but it comes at a cost.  

Elementalists are light armor wearers, and like all the other light armor wearers, this makes your toon very susceptible to incoming damage.  Combine this with the fact that if you don't specialize in outgoing damage (something that is determined via equipment choices,) and you won't be doing much damage, which is the whole reason for you being in a group.... this makes (IMO) the elementalist one of the most difficult professions in the game.  They call a player's inability to absorb damage being "squishy," and as an elementalist you are the squishy-est profession in the game.

That being said, if you are in a group or can manage to keep your distance, you deal arguably some of the highest damage in the game.  There has to be a tradeoff here folks.  It would be completely unfair to allow a huge amount of damage output without making there be some sort of Achilles heel.  Your "heel" will be the fact that if you can take 2 hits from an enemy of substance, there is very little chance you can take another.  

A vast majority of elementalist users (including this guy) focus primarily on fire because it deals the most damage for the most part and is easiest to use (as well as having a "retreat" skill built in.)  Especially if you are new, this is the best and easiest to focus on.

<center>  ![tempest_fire_overload.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVzvBbwJMuEqAmQ8uaWuZjmJsBCjDpYzJhMVpmKGw9Wan/tempest_fire_overload.jpg)
*I accidentally made this my desktop background while making this post*  </center>  

You are able to switch between the elements you control without changing equipment via the F1 F2 F3 and F4 keys and perhaps if you are more talented than I am you can master that as there are reasons to use most of them although "earth" seems to be relatively unused by most people.  

Have a look at this gameplay demo for an example.  skip ahead to 2 minutes in order to get to gameplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAKswYfSLeM

Overall, i would say that the elementalist is a VERY difficult choice for a new player and even though i have been playing this game casually for over 4 years, i very rarely bring mine into the fray.  It is fun though, and i would encourage people to use this as an "alt" character for certain specific situations.  LIke all toons in GW2, it doesn't take very long to level up to max level, so this is a viable strategy for alternate characters.  

If you do decide to join the game, please let me know.  It is free after all.