Guild Wars 2

I have played staff with my elementalist since lvl 70… I love it… I chose staff because the skills emulate and expand upon the build I used in GW1… I think the ele staff is the best designed weapon in the game… It’s a swiss army knife… giving all capabilities one could hope for.

The trouble with ele in this game is that we begin with the lowest stat potential…. being light class we have the lowest armor… and we also have the lowest starting HP… a glass canon ele is a truly vulnerable creature lol…. Most people then sacrifice damage potential to bolster survivability…. giving staff ele the reputation of a support class….

I set about to create a damage/support hybrid build for staff ele… to prove its destructive yet loving power… and came up with a truly elegant solution… The secret of the build was to spec offensively in gear… then pick up support and survivability from traits. Heres what i came up with:

Fire – 6: Spell Singer – Internal Fire – Pyromancers Puissance
Water – 4: Cantrip Mastery – Soothing Disruption
Arcana – 4: Renewing Stamina – Elemental Attunement

Armor: Berserker – Divinity Runes
Staff: Berserker – Sigil of Accuracy – Sigil of Strength
Back: Berserker
Amulet: Soldier
Ring: Berserker
Accessory: Rampager

This build was desiged to be executed at full asceneded level to reach max stats (These are approximate):

Power: 2300
Crit Chance: 48%
Crit Dmg: 200%
Cond Dmg: 200

Armor: 2000
Health:15,500
Healing Power: 250

These stats represent the starting point… and were all magically amplified through use of my skill rotation… Glyph of Elemental Harmony- Armor of Earth – Cleansing Fire – Essential (other slots filled to choice)…. The offense was amplified by generating might… the defense and support coming largely from cantrips and elemental attunement… here is the rotation.

(Armor of Earth – Cleansing Fire) – Eruption – Lava Font (same location) – Flame Burst – Metor Shower(alternate)- Frozen Ground (alternate) – Ice Spike – Static Field (alternate) – Lightning Surge – Shockwave (alternate) – Eruption……. and on……

This rotation cycles through the attunements allowing Ele to unload the most powerful skills one after another without waiting… interspersed with judicial CC and healing…. With this rotation… The Ele can generate 20-25 stack might and maintain it…. during combat… the Ele benefits from permanent speed… vigor…. regen… protection… and fury on all major hits….. The Ele also passes about 60% of this to the group passively.. simply by continuing the skill rotation…. and unloading Cantrips when available… well this is how it was before the patch…..

By removing protection from Sooting Distruption…. A Net has stripped away the defensive capabilities of this build… which were essential to survivability… Armor was kept low… to keep the agro down… allowing a wonderful tactical gameplay… but oc you can never fully avoid physical combat… and though discouraged… stacking is a real part of the game we all play… Having near permanent protection was not overpowered on this build… it kept the damage managable… esp in high level content and WvW… since the protection has been taken away… Too much time is now spent negating damage… and ultimately has spoiled the gameplay that this build offered…

Please understand… I’m not just making a case for my own build or idea… I think this problem is universal for Ele… I shared the specifics so you can see how this effected me… and to know that this request is made thoughtfully… by someone who is trying to think outside the box and create new builds…

Basically… Ele… esp staff Ele… needs more protection…. not less… we r a vulnerable class and already seem to have a miserly access to boons compared to other classes… Staff Ele has no skills that grant Protection… permanent Vigor is already available with only 2 points investment in Arcana… adding it to Soothing Disruption is redundant… Soothing disruption requires a 4 point investment in Water… a heavy price – and all u gain is regen from cantrips… most ele builds ive seen have points in Arcana…

If A Net didn’t want protection… how about something like retaliation? The replacement of protection with Vigor is useless…. considering how easy it is to get otherwise… I think if we dont have more magical ways to defend ourselves then staff ele will always remain a second class

Please find new ways to give Protection to Staff Ele… Magnetic Aura(?)… and It really would not be too much to add protection back to Soothing Disruption… and leave Vigor there as well… if its important…. for now I’m stepping back from my ele main ;’( and will focus on other classes for a while… I really hope that this request is heard… and that an upcoming update – brings protection back <3

Ele’s have the lowest survivability for a reason, because they do incredible amounts of damage. Using beserker trinkets and soldier’s armour you’ll still do more damage than a warrior, but have as much survivability too.

When did Soothing Disruption Ever give Protection? I dont remember it doing that.
Also, why do you use “…” so much? Ive seen ppl do it and they never tell me why.

If you’re playing your ele correctly, you’ll have more survivability in full zerk than a warrior in full ptv in zerg fights. Protection really isn’t needed when you have some of the best escape skills in the game, and you’re ranged. Positioning is key. Also, your Armor of Earth gives you stability and protection when you get caught, and Earth Attune gives protection as well if you’re specced correctly.

Ele Forum….

Zomaarwat.3912:

When did Soothing Disruption Ever give Protection? I dont remember it doing that.
Also, why do you use “…” so much? Ive seen ppl do it and they never tell me why.

Looking at the opening post you can see why he/she uses “…” so much. He/she does not know how to use comas and when to to end a sentence and start a new one. I an not being smart or offensive either OP, just being observant and btw I too struggle with the not knowing when to end and start new sentences a lot and am always previewing my posts/replies to correct that as well as even doing full edit’s after I hit that “reply” button lol.

Ele is both support (water fields?) and main dps, where the front-line needs more survivability to dictate fights, we can go glass and fulfill two roles seamlessly. WvW for an ele is all about positioning and situational awareness, once you understand how to move, you’ll be unstoppable.

Dreary Yew.5187:

If you’re playing your ele correctly, you’ll have more survivability in full zerk than a warrior in full ptv in zerg fights. Protection really isn’t needed when you have some of the best escape skills in the game, and you’re ranged. Positioning is key. Also, your Armor of Earth gives you stability and protection when you get caught, and Earth Attune gives protection as well if you’re specced correctly.

Absolutely NOT. As somebody that ONLY plays warrior and ele, this is false. In full berserker it’s painstakingly easier to survive in a zerg fight with my warrior than on my ele unless I essentially stay the kitten away on it and therefore, drastically hindering myself. The thing about ele is, once you’re targetted you WILL die, provided you’re in zerk. There are a plethora of incredible ways to defend yourself, I’ll agree, but it’s not enough to survive if you’re targetted in a zerg.

I can tank as much damage wearing no armor with my warrior as I can with my ele in full berserker. Sorry but your comparison is just… no.

Please keep in mind that I do feel like elementalists are in a great area and I’m not advocating buffs with them.

Purple Miku.7032:

Dreary Yew.5187:

If you’re playing your ele correctly, you’ll have more survivability in full zerk than a warrior in full ptv in zerg fights. Protection really isn’t needed when you have some of the best escape skills in the game, and you’re ranged. Positioning is key. Also, your Armor of Earth gives you stability and protection when you get caught, and Earth Attune gives protection as well if you’re specced correctly.

Absolutely NOT. As somebody that ONLY plays warrior and ele, this is false. In full berserker it’s painstakingly easier to survive in a zerg fight with my warrior than on my ele unless I essentially stay the kitten away on it and therefore, drastically hindering myself. The thing about ele is, once you’re targetted you WILL die, provided you’re in zerk. There are a plethora of incredible ways to defend yourself, I’ll agree, but it’s not enough to survive if you’re targetted in a zerg.

I can tank as much damage wearing no armor with my warrior as I can with my ele in full berserker. Sorry but your comparison is just… no.

Please keep in mind that I do feel like elementalists are in a great area and I’m not advocating buffs with them.

I think that is the point. Like Warrior is more tanky but they are most likely in the front lines taking damage compared to Ele in the back line ranging at ~1000 range or more. So an Ele can survive as well as a warrior with more dps pieces if they position well throughout the fight. If their position is bad they will get focused and melt. I don’t think the person was saying Ele > Warrior straight up tanking damage.

Kalen.1423:

Ele’s have the lowest survivability for a reason, because they do incredible amounts of damage. Using beserker trinkets and soldier’s armour you’ll still do more damage than a warrior, but have as much survivability too.

They also have a global cooldown on all skills, four times the opportunities to be interrupted, and an average 25-50% higher recharge rate on most of their skills. Eles have plenty of drawbacks for their marginally better than average damage without having zero survivability in their class mechanic, no defense in 3/5 of their trait trees, or the lowest base defensive stats in the game.

Staff elementalist is what should be used in zerg play when you’re an ele. They also do have some of the highest damaging spells in the game that can, and will exceed what warriors can do.

Wanze.8410:

Ele Forum….

lol ikr, anyway.. anyone who plays wvw and isn’t hiding in a zerg knows very well that staff elementalist has practically no survivability Unless you blow all your elite and utilities…

They broke the ele so they wont fix it.

1- Mist form healing/utility nerf, was really essential considering our low hp and defense
2- RTL nerf, now a warrior with twice an ele hp can run away faster
3- Elemental attunement nerf: Epic fail
4- Cantrip healing nerf (Soothing mist): Epic fail
5- Celestial and Divinity nerf: Affected eles more than any other class, made our best trait line much weeker
6- Meteor shower huge red circles but no fix on lag, gives 2 sec to anyone to jump out of our damage area

Fail Fail Fail Fail etc.

I thought this was going to be about boon duration runes being nerfed … but as I read it I realized … its about nothing …

I can barely understand what you’re writing. Eles never gained Protection with Soothing Disruption when using a Cantrip (unless, of course, they used Armor of Earth, which gives Protection).

I THINK you’re talking about Eles in the context of WvW Zerging. If that’s the case, look at Chemsorly’s stream and his build: http://www.twitch.tv/chemsorly

Kalen.1423:

Ele’s have the lowest survivability for a reason, because they do incredible amounts of damage. Using beserker trinkets and soldier’s armour you’ll still do more damage than a warrior, but have as much survivability too.

This is a wrong theory.
Ele dps comes from traits.

If you don t take those traits your survivability is BAD and youd DPS is awful.

Now Warrior can also use traits with the difference that a soldier warrior can achieve both a decent dps and a good survivability.
Also mobility.

Mostly because their dps is in their skills differently from ele.