Guild Wars 2

Hello,

the thing is I do realize that d/d eles are superior in general. Many – much more knowledgeable and skilled – players share this consesus. But I still like staff ele, mostly because it has ranged attacks. When the gameplay involves a lot of running between capture points or the combat is spread out, its kind of annoying that I have to run and/or use gap closers to get to each enemy. And many other reasons… you, who also play pvp need no explanation how having ranged attacks is useful in various situations.

So with this in mind – can I use staff ele without hindering my team’s progress? One scenario that comes to my mind is Legacy of the Foefire. Huge mid capture point (staff attacks cover bigger area), and a ranged class can cover the distance between side points and mid much easier. Also the structures around the mid point allow some nice pillar hugging with a ranged class. But anyways, these are just my thoughts. I’d love to see yours.

You can beat d/d ele if you slip them a mickey.

SobeSoul.6910:

full zerk staff ele with downstate traited that rekt me by surprise.[/spoiler]

There you have it. Trait for downstate and you can beat em.

Actually it just depends on what your team needs. Staff cele is full sustain where as D/D does more damage with slightly less sustain. Going head to head with equal players should just be a stalemate. So the question is, what does your team need? Does it need a D/D cele that can provide support and damage, or does it need more support and less damage.

GhOst.4019:

SobeSoul.6910:

full zerk staff ele with downstate traited that rekt me by surprise.[/spoiler]

There you have it. Trait for downstate and you can beat em.

Actually it just depends on what your team needs. Staff cele is full sustain where as D/D does more damage with slightly less sustain. Going head to head with equal players should just be a stalemate. So the question is, what does your team need? Does it need a D/D cele that can provide support and damage, or does it need more support and less damage.

Ok, so you mean they are equally viable? It just depends whether your team needs more support or more damage? I thought they are not so balanced and staff is only better in some specific situations.

Well, everything you said is true also….If you want the well rounded version, go D/D. Your team comp, their team comp, which map your on, etc etc, all play a factor. If you want ME to pick one for you, I would say D/D. Why? They can 1v1 on point when needed and get the kill and hold off 2 for a period while reinforcements show up. Staff ele is more of a mid/ wherever the team fight is to provide support. Staff cele will either not be able to kill their opponent or take 3 times as long as a D/D ele and will most likely require you to +1 the fight to get anything accomplished. Or you could just 1v1 all day.

Staff ele: Team supporter mainly, can hold a side point.
D/D ele: Team supporter and can hold and take a side point 1v1.

No there is not. D/D cele meta is too good at the moment. I run mostly DPS staff ele and enjoy it a lot. Problem is you are countered by almost anything ranged and anything that can insta teleport to you. Sure you can go bunker staff but you are about a good as a bunker guardian in this cele meta. Meaning you are wasted space in the group. Yes you can survive and provide wonderful support, but you will never kill anyone and sooner or later that cele group you are fighting is gonna have full stacks and out damage your support.

I would agree with everyone so far that there is little place for cleric bunker or zerker staff elementalist, though both can be a lot of fun and quite useful. However, celestial staff Ele is definitely still part of the meta, and can certainly be better in some team comps IMO.

What staff Ele provides is slightly better AoE support and cc in team fights, at the expense of slightly less mobility (only slightly) and slightly worse 1v1 ability. This is why cele staff ele’s often still take rune of the pirate to help guarantee many 1v1s.

But to answer the original question, one area that a cele staff Ele excels in and d/d Ele doesn’t is in decapping (which goes a long way to make up for it’s somewhat lesser mobility). Due to the staff’s excellent line of warding, stunning field, knockback, ability to reflect overcharged shot and soft cc immobilise, I’ve seem staff Ele make more decaps against good players than any other class.

Let’s imagine that for whatever rotational reason you want to leave a team fight mid on forest, and the enemy is going to chase with say…d/d Ele. If you’re a d/d trying to peel off mid perhaps you’ll lightning flash off point and burning speed + ride the lightning to get to the point. Once you’re there, you’ll have magnetic grasp and updraft to try and stop the chasing d/d Ele, who will pretty much have caught up with you. On staff Ele you can similarly peel off the point with burning retreat and lightning flash away, but unfortunately that only puts you as far as the archway. However, you could throw your static field in the archway to force stability (otherwise they’ll get decapped), and have line of warding and immob to stop them getting to the point, and if that doesn’t work there is your gale to knock them off afterwards!

I saw this thread at work and wanted to chime in since I’ve played staff ele since pre-launch and have over 5k pvp games on it.

The fact is that Staff Ele when compared trait to trait and skill to skill just doesn’t have as much going for it as a d/d ele. Staff Ele lacks the protection up-time of d/d, trying instead to make up for it with evades and kiting abilities, which simply isn’t where the meta is at right now. The meta isn’t so much about avoidance as having classes that can sustain and dish out an incredible amount of damage.
Let’s not even mention that Staff ele is less than half as effective at might-stacking.

That being said, Siroso did a great job pointing out a number of things that a staff ele can pull off against good players. The avoidance component can be used to survive outnumbered fights far longer than expected, delaying your opponents and getting those extra capture point ticks that can be the difference between a win or loss.

Conclusion: Staff ele has both benefited from and, in some ways, been made obsolete in the meta by Celestial. There is no doubt staff ele is a stronger pick-up than it has ever been with the advent of sigil of Battle, Celestial Amulet, and the un-nerfing of Cleansing Water. However, with the exception of the cleansing water trait, it does not make use of them nearly as effectively as a d/d ele.
I worry that in the process of bringing d/d eles and Celestial classes back in line, that Staff ele will be resigned to the Lesser-Tier role it has played in nearly every meta for the last 2 years.

I personally think D/D does everything way better than staff except for heal/remove condis. Even in that category it is only slightly worse than staff.

The personal survivability of staff ele is actually pretty bad and it’s horrible at 1v1ing while dd ele is a 1v1 god and can escape most 1v2s. You are simply holding your team back if you use staff to be quite honest.

There were some 6v6 gvg (6v6 on graveyard node on legacy) tournaments many months ago and I played staff in that and it was super fun. It’s certainly a good weapon provided you can always be in a large 5 man + group fight or so, which is never in spvp.

sitting on a tower in wvw and spamming aoe brainless down …

I prefer a bad dd over a bad staff ele… But a good staff over a good dd. They just dominate a point with so much damage.

I use staff and i lose vs all good d/d eles but i will say i can stack about 17 might in 4 sec and when im at range distance with some good bunkers i can really light up a group fighting on points. though once again i will lose vs a good d/d ele with the meta build.

Thank you all guys! You’ve helped a lot, as always. Now you only need to watch your backs, in case I show up on that kitten d/d ele. :P

rip metor-nado15