Guild Wars 2

Hey. I’m fast approaching my first level 80, an elementalist. I haven’t done much dungeons as most of the groups wanted max level or players with lots of AP. I’ve been using a staff to level so I could easily kite melee and are now not sure what I should use. What weapon do you recommend for dungeons? Thanks for advice

Kizam.2348:

Hey. I’m fast approaching my first level 80, an elementalist. I haven’t done much dungeons as most of the groups wanted max level or players with lots of AP. I’ve been using a staff to level so I could easily kite melee and are now not sure what I should use. What weapon do you recommend for dungeons? Thanks for advice

I recommend you stay with Staff since your used to the skill sets but I also think it’s smart to learn all other weapon sets so you can master your class. =)

Watch these 3 video links and check the weapon playstyles out:

Elementalist Staff Combat:

Elementalist Dagger/Dagger Combat:

Elementalist Scepter/Dagger:

Hope these 3 videos help somehow.

Hi there. If you want to focus on pve then staff is a very good choice. As you are already playing with it you will be comfortable with attunement rotations. What i missed and learned later is the usefulness of Conjured weapons. no matter what item you us, learn to conjure bow,hammer and sword. they are very helpful in fractals and dungeons and it is something only an ele can do . If you play pvp you must practice d/d too. But overall in pve staff is good.

Staff is full personal dps with low offensive support but 100% fire field uptime ( great coupled with another ele using s/f)
Scepter focus is the best offensive support set with access to all the party support focus gives, mainly projectile defense and a bit more blasts. Uses Lightning hammer for sustained dps.
Scepter dagger is the offensive version of s/f, less blasts and party support but better burst.
Dagger/focus is non reliant on conjures and has always access to focus defensive abilities, so it’s better used in high level content ( soloing, fractals).

That’s about it.

Oxtred said it pretty much.

The only thing is S/D have as much blasts as S/F. But S/D is better to stack migh before a fight, while S/F is better to stack might on your target. S/F will be faster since you do dmg while stacking might but sometime you can be interrupted or being killed while doing your rotation next to an enemy. S/D on the other hand will make sure you enter the fight with your might already to kill stuff fast enough to not kill you. They are both useful in specific situation and specific gameplay style.

Earth dagger 5 doesn’t count, too much of a dps loss.

Very good links….Kudos!

Kizam.2348:

Hey. I’m fast approaching my first level 80, an elementalist. I haven’t done much dungeons as most of the groups wanted max level or players with lots of AP. I’ve been using a staff to level so I could easily kite melee and are now not sure what I should use. What weapon do you recommend for dungeons? Thanks for advice

Alright I’m sticking with staff for now. Should I also get the earth shield?

Earth shield is rarely used. When I run staff, I keep ice bow on (#5 skill freezes an enemy, #3 applies vulnerability, and then #4 rains down some damage). With other weapon combos, I keep lightning hammer on (every third autoattack is a blast finisher. Great when paired with a second ele who can maintain a fire field). After a while, you’ll develop your own preference.

If you haven’t been to the ele forum section, I recommend reading through this post https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-DPS-Elementalist-for-PvE
It helped me so much when I wanted to step away from my staff comfort zone.

oxtred.7658:

Earth dagger 5 doesn’t count, too much of a dps loss.

Its still a blast finisher. The cast time of Earth dagger 5 is the reason I prefer Focus while in combat. I keep dagger when I move between objective. But when you want to stack might in place dagger is better.

Let say you are at kholer, I have dagger and get at kholer first, start to stack might, by the time everybody is in place and kholer reach us, I went throught all my blast including earth 5 and it didn’t hurt my dps because i did it before we could attack kholer anyway. Same with the boss of AC path 3 and others.

Focus when I can go to the enemy, Dagger when we need to make the enemy come to us.

Stacking kholer is a dps loss as well, though.

Maybe, i don’t know. At this point we kill it in 10-20sec depending on my party. It work when I play with good and less good players in my guild. So I’m good with that.

How’s about this rotation:

Pre-stacking might:
Scepter/Dagger: Fire 2 → Fire 4 → Fire 3 → Arcane Wave → Earth 4
Swap to Staff: Earth 2 → Fire 2 → Arcane Brilliance
Swap to Dagger/Focus: Fire 4 → Water 2, 5

Engagement: Ice Bow → Air, Lightning Storm → your normal DPS sequence.

Iris Ng.9845:

How’s about this rotation:

Pre-stacking might:
Scepter/Dagger: Fire 2 -> Fire 4 -> Fire 3 -> Arcane Wave -> Earth 4
Swap to Staff: Earth 2 -> Fire 2 -> Arcane Brilliance
Swap to Dagger/Focus: Fire 4 -> Water 2, 5

Engagement: Ice Bow -> Air, Lightning Storm -> your normal DPS sequence.

Rotations work in Theory but not in actual fights.
You need to use skills based on situations accordingly.
Every situation changes in every second of a fight so I recommend tossing the rotation out the window and know what all your skills do individually so you can better prepare yourself for whatever comes your way.

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

Iris Ng.9845:

How’s about this rotation:

Pre-stacking might:
Scepter/Dagger: Fire 2 -> Fire 4 -> Fire 3 -> Arcane Wave -> Earth 4
Swap to Staff: Earth 2 -> Fire 2 -> Arcane Brilliance
Swap to Dagger/Focus: Fire 4 -> Water 2, 5

Engagement: Ice Bow -> Air, Lightning Storm -> your normal DPS sequence.

Rotations work in Theory but not in actual fights.
You need to use skills based on situations accordingly.
Every situation changes in every second of a fight so I recommend tossing the rotation out the window and know what all your skills do individually so you can better prepare yourself for whatever comes your way.

DreamyAbaddon.3265:

Iris Ng.9845:

How’s about this rotation:

Pre-stacking might:
Scepter/Dagger: Fire 2 -> Fire 4 -> Fire 3 -> Arcane Wave -> Earth 4
Swap to Staff: Earth 2 -> Fire 2 -> Arcane Brilliance
Swap to Dagger/Focus: Fire 4 -> Water 2, 5

Engagement: Ice Bow -> Air, Lightning Storm -> your normal DPS sequence.

Rotations work in Theory but not in actual fights.
You need to use skills based on situations accordingly.
Every situation changes in every second of a fight so I recommend tossing the rotation out the window and know what all your skills do individually so you can better prepare yourself for whatever comes your way.

xD Iris is quite familiar with Ele. She is giving OP more things to consider as are most of the folks commenting here.

@OP: look at what oxtred posted. It’s solid. A very fun class in and out of instances as well.

Oh no, you misunderstand me. Most people here are trying to argue out about which weapon set S/D or S/F is better at Pre-stacking might. My stand is, if you can get 25 stacks of Might with a proper rotation, the rest isn’t much of an issue. You’ll have both upkeep at 18 stacks of might (assuming solo) or full stacks with allies’ blast.

On the other hand, if truly comparing the effectiveness of each weapon sets, S/D has better burst (including RtL) and S/F has better support and more CC. The issue about Churning Earth being slow and a DPS loss is the same as Comet being an unwarranted CC which messes up with thief/mesmer’s interruption.