Guild Wars 2

As the titles says~

With the recent balance patch, Necromancers have (definitely) become a viable choice in PvP. Warriors are coming back, though this is controversial

But what about Elementalists using staff? All the builds I saw today are either Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger. Where are the staff users?

Have you noticed that staff skills have been nerfed to the ground that nobody just want to use it anymore?

The biggest problem with staff is that it needs people to stand still in order to do any damage and it has very limited ability to make anyone stand still. Secondary is that it does far less damage than S/D and D/D with no way to maintain distance and make use of its 1200 range. A ranged weapon with low damage and no ability to maintain range is just bad.

Funny enough it almost seems like you forgot the Focus exists.

Staff for now has its place in one area only. WvWvW. Period. It beats any “dagger” or “scepter” in fights with more than 20+ players. The huge AoE plus combo fields makes it the best ranged snipe weapon in game.

Caffynated.5713:

The biggest problem with staff is that it needs people to stand still in order to do any damage and it has very limited ability to make anyone stand still. Secondary is that it does far less damage than S/D and D/D with no way to maintain distance and make use of its 1200 range. A ranged weapon with low damage and no ability to maintain range is just bad.

Staff scales the best with damage though. Run 30/20/0/0/20 and you will see what I mean. A single lava font will kill some one. Sadly, you need extensive support which is just too hard in tpvp/spvp. Easier in WvWvW

Caffynated.5713:

The biggest problem with staff is that it needs people to stand still in order to do any damage and it has very limited ability to make anyone stand still. Secondary is that it does far less damage than S/D and D/D with no way to maintain distance and make use of its 1200 range. A ranged weapon with low damage and no ability to maintain range is just bad.

exactly… only usefull in WvW siege, thats all

@demon

actually have seen people in hotjoin who run that setup. the damage is pretty funny. when downed it’s plain scarey to be anywhere near them.

Ferik.3127:

As the titles says~

With the recent balance patch, Necromancers have (definitely) become a viable choice in PvP. Warriors are coming back, though this is controversial

But what about Elementalists using staff? All the builds I saw today are either Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger. Where are the staff users?

Have you noticed that staff skills have been nerfed to the ground that nobody just want to use it anymore?

Given that some comps are STILL running double elementalists (umm… didn’t the developers say this was a sign of an overpowered profession…like 6 months ago??), getting staff elementalist up to par is not nearly as important as getting warriors up to par in tPvP.

Thedenofsin.7340:

Ferik.3127:

As the titles says~

With the recent balance patch, Necromancers have (definitely) become a viable choice in PvP. Warriors are coming back, though this is controversial

But what about Elementalists using staff? All the builds I saw today are either Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger. Where are the staff users?

Have you noticed that staff skills have been nerfed to the ground that nobody just want to use it anymore?

Given that some comps are STILL running double elementalists (umm… didn’t the developers say this was a sign of an overpowered profession…like 6 months ago??), getting staff elementalist up to par is not nearly as important as getting warriors up to par in tPvP.

Look, I dont want to start a warrior thread here and deviate this thread, but I will say it now; I believe warriors are ok. People expect to hit a freaking ton while still surviving EVERYTHING with nothing but zerker and offensive skills, with maybe the block. They want to be as effective in PvP as they are in PvE, and such they are spoiled. All I have to say to them is; try to do the same on staff ele and you will feel our pain. I do fine with warriors, more than fine, in fact I would even say they are borderline OP if it wasnt because sustain is lacking a bit even when building defensive, but people NEED TO STOP HAVING THIS MENTALITY THAT they can build fully zerker and survive it all, if you go fully offensive you have to expect to die just as fast as you would kill someone else

Anyways, on topic; though staff buffs were a good step, they are still, by FAAAAAR not enough. We lack the means to keep distance, and even if we do manage to hit things (which are borderline impossible unless a full 5v5 encounter and everyone is distracted) we do little to absolutely NO DAMAGE unless fully traited 30/20/0/0/20 with zerker. Also the arcana 20 VIII Blasting Staff …..how was it that Devs called it on the necro’s explanation??? AHHH, “it cuts into their builds too much”….. Arcana is a most in almosty ALL builds already.

What staff needs; splitting for WvW; and increase damage and CC in sPvP and reduce lots of casting times as well (even more, 1 full second for an auto attack on fire that can be sidestepped?!) Or simply dont touch PvE (since they havent done it for RotL anyways) and give staff ways to deal damage RELIABLY (reliable damage is the keyword, no point in having insta killl skill if none can hit unless they are golems) outside fire/air zerker balls-to-the-wall-kamikaze-shield+meteors-in-a fight-to-die-anyways.

sorrychief.2563:

@demon

actually have seen people in hotjoin who run that setup. the damage is pretty funny. when downed it’s plain scarey to be anywhere near them.

Try putting some armor on and they’re a lot less scarey to be around.

30 VI VII XI 20 VI X 0 0 20 V VIII
Zerker amulet
Scholar runes

Caffynated.5713:

sorrychief.2563:

@demon

actually have seen people in hotjoin who run that setup. the damage is pretty funny. when downed it’s plain scarey to be anywhere near them.

Try putting some armor on and they’re a lot less scarey to be around.

30 VI VII XI 20 VI X 0 0 20 V VIII
Zerker amulet
Scholar runes

I would not say 8k damage over 4 seconds is less

But I do agree that staff needs something to make it a bit more solo or pair viable.
On a side note, I met a staff ele (0/0/10/30/30) in tpvp yesterday and he did well holding point with a bunker against 3+. The problem is with staff you need a bunker (guardian mostly) to help you survive while you spam AoEs around yourself. It is not optimal I agree but it does work very well

The same glass canon ele with S/D could do 12k damage with one spell in under a second.

Staff is bad. It isn’t even that good in WvW unless you’re fighting in a choke point or mowing down terribles who stand in red circles.

Fortus.6175:

Thedenofsin.7340:

Ferik.3127:

As the titles says~

With the recent balance patch, Necromancers have (definitely) become a viable choice in PvP. Warriors are coming back, though this is controversial

But what about Elementalists using staff? All the builds I saw today are either Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger. Where are the staff users?

Have you noticed that staff skills have been nerfed to the ground that nobody just want to use it anymore?

Given that some comps are STILL running double elementalists (umm… didn’t the developers say this was a sign of an overpowered profession…like 6 months ago??), getting staff elementalist up to par is not nearly as important as getting warriors up to par in tPvP.

Look, I dont want to start a warrior thread here and deviate this thread, but I will say it now; I believe warriors are ok. People expect to hit a freaking ton while still surviving EVERYTHING with nothing but zerker and offensive skills, with maybe the block. They want to be as effective in PvP as they are in PvE, and such they are spoiled. All I have to say to them is; try to do the same on staff ele and you will feel our pain. I do fine with warriors, more than fine, in fact I would even say they are borderline OP if it wasnt because sustain is lacking a bit even when building defensive, but people NEED TO STOP HAVING THIS MENTALITY THAT they can build fully zerker and survive it all, if you go fully offensive you have to expect to die just as fast as you would kill someone else.

Just my opinion:

Warrior Borderline OP? Ok….

“try to do the same on staff ele and you will feel our pain”
-Staff right now its not a good weapon to compare. You should ask to compare a D/D ele instead and see the diference between warrior and ele. (its a huge diference)

“I would even say they are borderline OP if it wasnt because sustain is lacking a bit even when building defensive”
-You said it all here. Go defensive and you dont kill anyone (good players at least) and still dont have enough sustain to stay alive.

“but people NEED TO STOP HAVING THIS MENTALITY THAT they can build fully zerker and survive it all”
-If you can´t win even when you build defensive you only have one thing to do: Kill as fast as you can. This is the main reason you see so many (unviable) zerker warriors.

Back on topic:
I would like ANet fix the staff for you guys, just because as my class (warrior) i want them to fix all classes and weapons so people can play as they most want. I feel that the biggest problem will be always the meta. They can even fix the staff, but that will make the staff viable?

silentnight warrior.2714:

hey can even fix the staff, but that will make the staff viable?

The problem is quite obvious; even after the buffs, its support is subpar compared to guardians, engies, mesmers who arent even properly traited for the job.

Its tanking is near impossible (unlike D/D) due to us having very conditional heals that even if hey hit they suck, access to boons are also very limited, and one of the reason DD works is because all defensive skills also work offensively; example D/D water #2, water #3 not only CCs but also does damage, frost aura. They greatly benefice of traits water 25 points which give them (now 1%) damage per each boon. Even skills like fire hit hard without any crit chance or much power.

Damage is relatively good, minus the part that once you are out of fire, thats it, you dont have any access to some hard,……no, medium hitting skill. All CCs for the most part have little to no damage attached to them. The entire thing is based on team gameplay, but in a game where AoE is capped at 5 and teamfights of 3 and more people at the same node are almost non-existent the weapon falls behind on; damage, support, tanking.