Guild Wars 2

It would be awesome if everyone could share any interesting trait lineup for staff weapon.

My efforts of avoiding the typical tanky build have failed hard

Rerroll.9083:

It would be awesome if everyone could share any interesting trait lineup for staff weapon.

My efforts of avoiding the typical tanky build have failed hard

we are pretty much forced into it, not because we want to (like you said) but because water/arcana, as much as they have been nerfed, they are still the better traits.

Given that lava font wont be doing more than maybe a tick of 2k (maybe) to a 25k hp warrior and he will be doing 8k with #4 rifle (i think it is that one) we have to be able to survive around until fire is up agaisnt, because trying to do any damage outside fire is a joke. But then we are bunkers, unable to do more than just be CC bots. It is sad, there is no real middle ground here, specially since unlike PvE we cant mix and match stats, once we pcik either soldier or valkirie, we are pretty much stuck with that.

Fortus.6175:

Rerroll.9083:

It would be awesome if everyone could share any interesting trait lineup for staff weapon.

My efforts of avoiding the typical tanky build have failed hard

we are pretty much forced into it, not because we want to (like you said) but because water/arcana, as much as they have been nerfed, they are still the better traits.

Given that lava font wont be doing more than maybe a tick of 2k (maybe) to a 25k hp warrior and he will be doing 8k with #4 rifle (i think it is that one) we have to be able to survive around until fire is up agaisnt, because trying to do any damage outside fire is a joke. But then we are bunkers, unable to do more than just be CC bots. It is sad, there is no real middle ground here, specially since unlike PvE we cant mix and match stats, once we pcik either soldier or valkirie, we are pretty much stuck with that.

I used to go full Cleric’s and Water traits, and it greatly improved my survival.

I got tired of dealing pitiful damage and being a marginally useful heal-bot.

Now I go full Carrion and just deal with dying whenever someone decides to gap-close me. Next time I bother with sPvP I’ll probably try out Berserker, because what good is an AoE Pressure class that doesn’t do any damage? I’m anxious to compare the damage output and utility to my Condi Necro. I expect many Lava Tombs in my near future.

PinCushion.7390:

Fortus.6175:

Rerroll.9083:

It would be awesome if everyone could share any interesting trait lineup for staff weapon.

My efforts of avoiding the typical tanky build have failed hard

we are pretty much forced into it, not because we want to (like you said) but because water/arcana, as much as they have been nerfed, they are still the better traits.

Given that lava font wont be doing more than maybe a tick of 2k (maybe) to a 25k hp warrior and he will be doing 8k with #4 rifle (i think it is that one) we have to be able to survive around until fire is up agaisnt, because trying to do any damage outside fire is a joke. But then we are bunkers, unable to do more than just be CC bots. It is sad, there is no real middle ground here, specially since unlike PvE we cant mix and match stats, once we pcik either soldier or valkirie, we are pretty much stuck with that.

I used to go full Cleric’s and Water traits, and it greatly improved my survival.

I got tired of dealing pitiful damage and being a marginally useful heal-bot.

Now I go full Carrion and just deal with dying whenever someone decides to gap-close me. Next time I bother with sPvP I’ll probably try out Berserker, because what good is an AoE Pressure class that doesn’t do any damage? I’m anxious to compare the damage output and utility to my Condi Necro. I expect many Lava Tombs in my near future.

hahaha, imagine if lava tomb also applie a burn, it would definitely help you there, buddy.

but jokes aside, I have tried DOT staff but the only two conditions we have are burn and bleed, and the only one you can actually applyy is the fire #3 one, because hitting earth #2 in most fights is as easy as landing on the sun itself.

but staff IS support
support does not always mean healing and buffs

fire in staff is damage support because it’s easier to deal damage with it when allies are involved

lupercaleb.6041:

but staff IS support
support does not always mean healing and buffs

fire in staff is damage support because it’s easier to deal damage with it when allies are involved

is it bad that I want to support my team by killing enemies? Staff has a lot of potential, but it is not being exploited to its fullest potential because people have created this protective bubble that “support” doesn’t deal damage, justifying staff’s weakness and not letting it bloom.

Staff took a huge hit when the last patch went out. Especially in terms of Regeneration and condition-remove. The Water-Combo-Field is still good but it has lost a bit of its strenght. Overall the Staff is in a solid-state and not that bad. But as for many other examples I have to say, there are better options out there to use.

ur a funny dude, thinking we should struggle to keep melee off us and do equal glass damage back.

thief gets teleport steal, teleport on each weapon set (initiative based mind you) (okay not pistol pistol but) and a choice of teleport utilities. the average thief build has 4 ‘pursuit’ gap closers.

anet kittened the idea of a kiting lines of battle game sideways already, you cant fix that with a change to the staff.

i mean youre right about the various nerfs, though i think evasive arcana nerf was aimed at us cause we were a great bunker. they all have eroded staff ele and it is bad now but hey, at least were not warriors right?

It would be nice with a reworked staff. Currently you need 20 in Arcane for the Blasting Staff trait, which is mandatory and could easily be placed 20 in Fire (replacing One With Fire) with a 5% damage boost to staff skills on top.

Making staff less squishy/reliant on almost pure defensive traits (and offensive builds more viable), I still believe that Persisting Flames should be changed into a trait that allows you to produce smoke fields instead of fire fields.

Staff – Air – 3

Should be Point-Blank AoE, 45 degree arc in front of you, Knockback

Ranged, single-target, slow projectile knockback is just bad.

Edited: Changed 180 degree because I realized that it would be very OP when used offensively.

I think the real problem comes from the traits, and how unimportant they are when hey aren’t water/arcana (or air bolts to the heart)

Yes, they have some pretty good effects, but they are nothing compared to warriors/mesmers/guardians traits that for example; dodge creates clones, or clones exploding slow enemies, or clones shatter remove boons from enemies, or that perma vigor comes from a 5 points trait line instead of a 10 points one.

There isnt much personalization with eles unless you go into water/arcana, and not only that, you NEED the 60% attunement decrease and the vitality/healin powe r or those 13k hp will melt like butter in a volcanoe

xbaunx.6438:

Give us a weapon swap or give us a staff that is capable of 1v1.

conjure wea- oh wait, they kittening suck.

You can say they’re easy fixes, but I guarantee if all of those changes were implemented (or even half) Elementalist would be severely overpowered.

Your post and blatant bias/recklessness in your suggestions just goes to prove how delicate an act balancing is.

Demonsoul.9271:

You can say they’re easy fixes, but I guarantee if all of those changes were implemented (or even half) Elementalist would be severely overpowered.

Your post and blatant bias/recklessness in your suggestions just goes to prove how delicate an act balancing is.

funny, even doing all these “OP” changes, they would not be as strong in damage as a mesmer/thief/ranger/warrior and would not give any more utility that guardian/mesmer bring to the table.

Look, I understand that from many people’s point of view eles are ok, which they are…if you are D/D. But truth of the matter is; anything that deviates from D/D, like say…staff, or S/F …is in a dire state. None of those things would push them over the top, if anything they would make the ele a force to reckon with, something that you notice, because you dont go into a 5v5 match and say; “on look, ignore that D/D thief/shatter mesmer, they dont do anything even if they tried”, but thats what they pretty much say when you see a DPS staff ele…….no, people say; “easy kill, WOOHOO!!, yay for 4v5, we win!” .

I ‘ve been playing staff today for the funs and it’s so awesome. If they made very few tweaks eles would have a “new weapon”.

The build i’ve been playing:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-kZ;3B2-V0c4kM-Z0;9;5E-OT;15;345-47A5;5E;54Bd

all it takes are some simple traits changes on fire/air and making damage a little bit more reliable to land, as well as maybe a small damage buff outside fire, and voila, they are viable

Fortus.6175:

all it takes are some simple traits changes on fire/air and making damage a little bit more reliable to land, as well as maybe a small damage buff outside fire, and voila, they are viable

Simple yet would solve the solution, subtle changes is exactly what is needed, not nerfs (which I hear they’re planning to nerf us into oblivion in June…..again).

DarkSider.1079:

Fortus.6175:

all it takes are some simple traits changes on fire/air and making damage a little bit more reliable to land, as well as maybe a small damage buff outside fire, and voila, they are viable

Simple yet would solve the solution, subtle changes is exactly what is needed, not nerfs (which I hear they’re planning to nerf us into oblivion in June…..again).

if this ios true then I will completely lose my faith in PvP for this game, and assume they are low in funds if they cant hire professionals on the field

Meanwhile Staff is singing

One does not easily fix the Elementalist Staff.

You need like sticks and crystals, and Bears with Laser eyes.

I would like to see some buffs to the staff. One of the complaints my friend made (back before the d/d you know, when staff eles were invulnerable) was that he had to give up all range when fighting over a point. That basically makes the range advantage of the staff useless. If you are bunkering on a point with a staff (unlikely these days) you don’t have any way to get max range out of the area (unless at the G.Y on Foefire).

its gonna take a lot of effort into making Anet see that staff is NOT ok, once the AoE nerfs start rolling in you will see the outcry, but right now, because of the poor WvW environment we have, the popular view of staff is; its ok, when in reality it is a big giant mess, especially in the topic we are discussing: sPvP.

The problem with it is it has no mobility, and no mobility is dead.

All its damage delivery methods are staggered, yet it doesn’t have all the evasive measures of d/d to survive, and it doesn’t have tanking tools to compensate for that lack of evasion.

Eruption takes too long to happen, and several of the cast times are too long on certain skills. Healing Rain should be cast on the move, Blasting Staff should be baseline, with a trait replacing it that reduces staff ability cd’s and some other perk.

The water auto needs to go up, and the earth auto projectile needs to go up in speed, or projectiles like earth auto and necro staff and longbow auto and ranger axe should not be sidestepped because they are too slow.

If these autos are hard to land, they should at the very least hit hard when they do or have a substantial effect.

Staff has little spike outside air 2>air attunement swap bolt. Its damage has a lot of downtime for the lack of longevity the weapon has relative to dd or sd.

The aoe and cc is great — when nobody looks at you. That’s why staff ele is underpopulated in our guild, because they feel that they need to be babysat all the time to be effective when they could have the self sufficiency of d/d and provide similar support and much better burst.

My goodness, they actually heard us!

Yo, can someone lend me a build—I tried making it work yesterday but had some issues, but then again…I did neglect 30 in both water and arcane..haha but are eles still stuck to the x/x/x/30/30 foundation?

Only issue of staff: in this game you’ll hardly have fights larger than 3vs3.

Staff weapon is well rounded, but not self sufficent – it needs at least 4-5 ppl around to be really meaningful.

Thing that in this idiotic conquest mode is very rarely going to happen, it’s all 1vs1, 2vs2, 1vs2. Something staff is really bad at.

I’d like more Bo Staff in my Ele build Just a few melee skills

tried to make staff ele work after the patch, 0/20/0/20/30

while it did gain some nice buffs (being able to move while casting water attunement 5, some aftercast reductions), it still requires a lot of team support (which doesn’t work for me since i solo queue)

although i will say that i was able to stay alive 1v1 for inordinate amounts of time against burst classes

Julius.1094:

katniss.6735:

D/D is doing all the damage?
wat?

You do know this is a pvp forum right? And that unlike mobs any decent pvper will simply move or dodge roll out of staff AOE and take no damage, right? But please, link some more pve damage logs. So helpful to the discussion.

He’s the the reason we keep getting nerfs. They have no idea what they are talking about, why do devs listen to people like that. I have played staff Elementalist for over 1500 hours, why haven’t any devs asked me my opinion? :c If they want it, I want to quit the game so baddly because of my frustration with my class. You have no idea how many builds I go through just to try tPvP and get my Elementalist title from it. I’ve went through every possible build that is available, all the bunker ones, condition damage, glass cannons on every single weapon set up. Nothing feels right, everything on them feels SO weak. I just want to get on another class for PvP, but I can’t, because I love the elemental mage type class too much.

People go on about how the d/d or s/d bunker build is OP, but every other bunker build does what we do, but better. Even the freaking necro MM bunker does more then us. The guardian bunker can actually kill people as a bunker 1v1.

I love this game so much, but I’m at might wit’s end.

Dragsooth.4071:

He’s the the reason we keep getting nerfs. They have no idea what they are talking about, why do devs listen to people like that. I have played staff Elementalist for over 1500 hours, why haven’t any devs asked me my opinion? :c If they want it, I want to quit the game so baddly because of my frustration with my class. You have no idea how many builds I go through just to try tPvP and get my Elementalist title from it. I’ve went through every possible build that is available, all the bunker ones, condition damage, glass cannons on every single weapon set up. Nothing feels right, everything on them feels SO weak. I just want to get on another class for PvP, but I can’t, because I love the elemental mage type class too much.

People go on about how the d/d or s/d bunker build is OP, but every other bunker build does what we do, but better. Even the freaking necro MM bunker does more then us. The guardian bunker can actually kill people as a bunker 1v1.

I love this game so much, but I’m at might wit’s end.

Have you ever thought maybe the problem is you and not the class? D/D and S/D are still very good in tpvp. SoR may have been over nerfed, maybe rtl as well but ele’s still provide heals,boons,cc and burst all in one. If you think a bunker ele has less damage then a bunker guard you are playing it wrong. I don’t think the devs want to listen to someone who thinks a minion master is more viable then a bunker ele.

I tried zerker staff build the other day using signets and it’s pretty good for 80% tier play, but it is highly dependent on your team aka they need to be more bunkerish.

Aside from that note, I think staff just needs more for sure ways of doing damage. The AOEs are too easy to dodge without distraction from your teammates and the autoattacks are too slow. Increase autoattack speed or just make at least half of the spells have a more for sure way of landing hits, then the staff ele should be able to hold better ground. It’s weird that staff marks are much easier to land on necro than eles with the trait that increases the aoe radius.

Fortus.6175:

fire #2 Why the skill has an animation time, PLUS activation time of 3/4 till first tick is beyond me, you can literally (not exaggerating here) walk out of it, even with the increased staff radius on arcana. Please make it like necro’s marks. No negotiations on this one.

1. air#1 needs to be a little bit faster (a lot) , make it so that the first hit REALLY hard, 3 bounces and each consecutive hit is 50% weaker (meaning the last hit hits for 12.5% of the original damage)

2 things
In WvW fire 2 would be overpowered because that’s the most used elementalist skill when sieging a tower/keep/smc. If you got one a size of a mark on top of your tower, how hell are people on the tower suppose to fight back if theres no room? Fire 2 is easier to land than dragon tooth, at least it prevents people from moving into that area while dragon tooth just simply misses.

As for air 1 bouncing needs to be faster and deal more damage. If they do something like this, Mesmer staff works the same way and should be dealing more damage and being a lot faster as well.

Berserking bloodthirsty Staff ele is one of my new favourite toons after the patch : 3
It can deal crazy dmg relatively quick, the only thing u have to watch is your movement and positioning on 1200 range radious. A surprise max range attack usually does 50% dmg on everything. It also has pretty sweet combos on its own and team support viability. Well thieves : D yeah they can kill u fast if they catch your butt, but everything else is doable …

Changes I think would be interesting to see, though not necessarily all at once or even all together (for the sake of balance). Most of them have little to do with damage and more do with the actual process of using the skill. Animation times I would tweak on the premise of encouraging people to actually be rewarded for paying attention to telegraphing instead of accidentally dodging skills.

Fire -

1 – Reduce cast time by 25% and flight time by 33%. It is a decent damage dealer but its rubbish stats in both of these mechanics make it less than ideal.
2 – Initial casting should cause damage and every damage packet should apply burning for x second(s). Possibly a small radius boost?
3 – Is actually not a terrible skill but suffers greatly if you are not running a condi spec. I would opt only to increase the initial damage slightly.
4 – Make it the reverse of Burning Speed. A burst of damage upon activation will give this skill dual purpose and not require you to switch to Earth to get any decent use out of it. Make that thief/warrior think twice before rushing you if you have berserker stats.
5 – This skill should be more of a game changer than it currently is. The recent buffs helped a tad with actually hitting people in the radius, but the cast time is still awkward in faster paced combat (SPvP, TPvP). Change root on cast to reduced movement speed on cast. Change function so that if it is interrupted the skill goes on interrupt cd and you don’t waste it for 3 pathetic damage packets.

Air -

1 – Reduce cast time by 25%. Possibly add ability to bounce to allies and apply one second of swiftness or vigor at random with a priority to bounce between foes.
2 – Reduce cast time to 1 second. That’s all I think this skill needs.
3 – Add a slight homing factor that allows the gust to change direction slowly as its target moves, allowing it to be dodged if the person is paying attention but not if they just randomly side step without even watching you.
4 – Pretty solid to me.
5 – Make it punish people for walking through the field multiple times to keep it on par with other professions who have line fields that trigger utility effects, or increase the damage x amount.

Water -

1 – Increase damage/blast radius for heal, either or both.
2 – Decrease animation time by 25-33%. This skill has solid damage and the vuln stacks are a nice bonus, and it can even be cast while moving, but its ability to hit somebody when they are not in Air 5 or immobilized is just pathetic.
3 – Increase radius slightly increase duration by 1 second.
4 – Seems alright to me. Its combo ability and fast cast+immediate chill application are very useful.
5 – Same as Fire 5. Change casting root to decreased movement speed or actually let it pulse a smaller heal than Water 3. In fast-paced combat you will get punished for using this skill without a doubt if there is a person paying attention to you.

Earth -

1 – Increase flight speed by 33% and reduce flight arc. This skill has great utility but you want to be able to use it to stop fleeing foes as well.
2 – Casting time buff was nice, but the skill still takes too long to go off, an inherent weakness running rampant across the staff. Reduce animation time by 25-33%. This will also enable more flexible attunement swapping for people who enjoy buffing on-the-fly.
3 – Fantastic skill.
4 – Make it an actual AoE effect like the Ranger’s Muddy Terrain and I will be happy. I hate these line-based AoEs that lack any real punishing effect when crossed.
5 – Increase initial damage, bleed, or both.

lava tomb with blasting staff and persisting flames makes dying fun

Leuca.5732:

Changes I think would be interesting to see, though not necessarily all at once or even all together (for the sake of balance). Most of them have little to do with damage and more do with the actual process of using the skill. Animation times I would tweak on the premise of encouraging people to actually be rewarded for paying attention to telegraphing instead of accidentally dodging skills.

Fire -

1 – Reduce cast time by 25% and flight time by 33%. It is a decent damage dealer but its rubbish stats in both of these mechanics make it less than ideal.
2 – Initial casting should cause damage and every damage packet should apply burning for x second(s). Possibly a small radius boost?
3 – Is actually not a terrible skill but suffers greatly if you are not running a condi spec. I would opt only to increase the initial damage slightly.
4 – Make it the reverse of Burning Speed. A burst of damage upon activation will give this skill dual purpose and not require you to switch to Earth to get any decent use out of it. Make that thief/warrior think twice before rushing you if you have berserker stats.
5 – This skill should be more of a game changer than it currently is. The recent buffs helped a tad with actually hitting people in the radius, but the cast time is still awkward in faster paced combat (SPvP, TPvP). Change root on cast to reduced movement speed on cast. Change function so that if it is interrupted the skill goes on interrupt cd and you don’t waste it for 3 pathetic damage packets.

Air -

1 – Reduce cast time by 25%. Possibly add ability to bounce to allies and apply one second of swiftness or vigor at random with a priority to bounce between foes.
2 – Reduce cast time to 1 second. That’s all I think this skill needs.
3 – Add a slight homing factor that allows the gust to change direction slowly as its target moves, allowing it to be dodged if the person is paying attention but not if they just randomly side step without even watching you.
4 – Pretty solid to me.
5 – Make it punish people for walking through the field multiple times to keep it on par with other professions who have line fields that trigger utility effects, or increase the damage x amount.

Water -

1 – Increase damage/blast radius for heal, either or both.
2 – Decrease animation time by 25-33%. This skill has solid damage and the vuln stacks are a nice bonus, and it can even be cast while moving, but its ability to hit somebody when they are not in Air 5 or immobilized is just pathetic.
3 – Increase radius slightly increase duration by 1 second.
4 – Seems alright to me. Its combo ability and fast cast+immediate chill application are very useful.
5 – Same as Fire 5. Change casting root to decreased movement speed or actually let it pulse a smaller heal than Water 3. In fast-paced combat you will get punished for using this skill without a doubt if there is a person paying attention to you.

Earth -

1 – Increase flight speed by 33% and reduce flight arc. This skill has great utility but you want to be able to use it to stop fleeing foes as well.
2 – Casting time buff was nice, but the skill still takes too long to go off, an inherent weakness running rampant across the staff. Reduce animation time by 25-33%. This will also enable more flexible attunement swapping for people who enjoy buffing on-the-fly.
3 – Fantastic skill.
4 – Make it an actual AoE effect like the Ranger’s Muddy Terrain and I will be happy. I hate these line-based AoEs that lack any real punishing effect when crossed.
5 – Increase initial damage, bleed, or both.

overall good changes but too many of these and it would be OP, also, water 5 already has the root taken away