This post will mainly focus on ele and guardian, but mesmer and necro will be mentioned as well.
Ele
Ele is arguably the primary staff user of any class in GW2. It does a fair amount of damage through its aoe skills while also providing decent heals through its Water 3/5 skills.
The problem I have with staff skills on the elementalist is mainly to do with the autoattack (A/A). While we have a fair balance of skills across our attunements, all our autoattack skills on our staff are hopeless. The only one that is even slightly useful is on the fire attunement, while the other 3 attunements lack both utility and damage. They are slow in casting and hopeless with any form of utility compared to other classes (Warrior sword bleed, Guardian greatsword might stacks, Mesmer staff random boons/condis etc.). Earth attunement’s short amount of the Weaken condition just doesn’t do enough to make it worthwhile to stay in earth attunement.
My suggestion is to make 2 of the 4 attunements (Fire and Earth) forward AoE skills similar to guardian’s (but with less width in AoE and a longer range) and with Water’s A/A buffed for at least double the current damage to make it even half way viable since the heal from that skill is so weak (to put it in perspective, a guardian dodge roll will heal 10x the amount, empower will heal so much more as well). Air attunement’s A/A should bounce up to 5 targets to put it in line with other skills.
What this will do is to give eles a lot more freedom in movement while using staff. Especially in melee range, where eles are currently hopeless at, even with a d/d weapon set, due to previous nerfs. It’ll also put eles in line with other classes in terms of melee/range balance, since we’re currently pigeon holed into being ranged or melee with no chance to switch weapons other than when we’re out of combat.
Guardians
The staff weapon on guardians is currently guardian’s primary support weapon (secondary being the Hammer for CCs). The problem here is the unreliable heal on Staff 2 skill, and empower being a 2.5 second channeling skill, so heals from a guardian’s staff is quite low and could, in my opinion, be higher. Especially with such low DPS.
My thoughts on the matter is to nerf the A/A skill by around 20-25% damage and add a heal effect to 5 allies in the region, with a base 50 heal. This won’t affect PvE much since guardians only use staffs to stack might and for swiftness stacking. This will affect WvW a lot more since many (bad) guardians use staves in zergs, and this will give them a lot more utility with less damage, forcing them to either swap weapons for DPS, or stay in staff in a supportive role.
Guardian’s “Orb of Light” skill is currently also not a reliable skill for healing allies. My suggestion would be to make it a ground casting AoE light field healing any allies standing in the area for a base 100 heal/pulse as well as damaging any enemies in the area for a base 200 damage/pulse. Considering how rare it is outside of WvW for people to combo finish water fields for healing, this will allow for parties with no water fields to continue to heal themselves. I feel it also synergises with the theme of guardian’s staff skills around support and AoE damage.
Mesmer
I haven’t really played much mesmer, but in keeping with the general theme of staff skills, I feel that mesmer’s staff weapons should have more AoE casting. Mesmer currently lacks a lot of AoE damage compared to other classes so despite its huge supportive capabilities, it lacks the ability to contribute damage in the way of large mob fights in PvE (like in certain temple events or boss encounters such as marionette) and lacks the ability to gain loot in WvW due to lack of tagging.
Again, due to the fact that I haven’t played much mesmer, I wouldn’t really know the best way to bring this about. Perhaps someone with more experience with mesmers can give their insight.
Necromancer
Necromancer staff skills are at a really weird spot right now. They are “on trigger”, mainly condition damage, meaning that they’re basically useless in PvE. In PvP and WvW, unless specced for condi, also does little damage compared to their other AoE skills with their scepter and off-hand dagger. This is with the exception of “Putrid Mark” that does a decent amount of damage.
The current use for marks is to drop them on a stack of mobs/players, so their “on trigger” mechanic is often not used at all since if you dodge roll over them, it both triggers it, and removes it, basically nullifying your skill. My suggestion is to have them active as soon as they are placed and pulse for a certain amount of time. This brings it more in line with other AoE skills.
I also feel that necro’s staff A/A could be a little easier to use if it bounced off targets. I feel the damage is in a good place, but rarely is there a good opportunity outside PvE to actually use the A/A.
Thoughts and criticisms appreciated.
Beastgate | Faerie Law
Currently residing on SBI