Guild Wars 2

Trying to plan ahead. Need to decide what to take to 500 first (artifacer or weaponcraft). I’d like to start to get serious about fractals soon. Both already at ~400, weaponcrafting bit higher.

Arti could make both staff and focus but focus doesn’t really need to be ascended I don’t think..and auto attack is most important I think for damage?

Not really a sceptor ele (so not taking that into account). Love the style of staff and dagger-focus (or dagger dagger for wvw roaming.)

Anywho, thoughts? Is one more useful for the other for high level fractals? (staff or d/f?)

Personally I would make the staff first- this gives you two slots for AR infusion straight away along with your higher stats and damage all round.

If you went for Weaponsmith first to make a dagger, you’d only get 1 AR infusion slot to start off with and then you’d have to really consider getting your Artificer up to 500 pretty soon as well.

By going for staff you can easily have +10AR to start off with. Later, you can then think about getting weaponsmith to 500 if you want to and make your dagger/focus if you prefer to play that way.

Personally, I like staff more, and seems to have more benefits for Fractals, since you can place fields for control/support at will, not to mention the high AOE damage output.

But it is GW2, your personal playstyle matters a lot. Go with what feels right for how you play.

Staff first.

You can always dps in melee range with a staff if you have to, but you cant dps from range with daggers.

Reliability is more important than peak performance.

Staff, staff, staff. 1 item instead of 2, and it is the most powerful PvE and WvW zerg weapon. Anet did a very poor job of balancing ascended costs between 1 and 2 handers.

dietzero.3514:

Staff, staff, staff. 1 item instead of 2, and it is the most powerful PvE and WvW zerg weapon. Anet did a very poor job of balancing ascended costs between 1 and 2 handers.

You mean just like how legendary 1h cost the same amount of mats as 2handers? Yeah, what a surprise awful design carries over.

Anyways, d/f is also ranged. the max range for melee eles is farther than mobs can melee you from. You can melee mossman and archdiviner without any fear of eating an autoattack.

With that said, staff is better because it has more overall uses than d/f, but d/f is more fun of a playstyle imo.

I would also recommend you grab ascended armorcrafting instead of weaponsmithing so instead of having to make different weapons for infusions you can make like 2 slots of ascended armor and that lets you use any weapon while maintaining uniform infusions.