Guild Wars 2

Is it possible? And I don’t mean a staff ele, commanding from the backline is near impossible with all these pugs around. I mean kiting the enemy as a frontline dagger ele, saving yourself and your army from hostile aoe? Can it be done, or is an ele, frontline or not, simply too squishy?

Thanks!

I have seen it done but you need a core support group. Pugs will will let you die!!!

I’ve seen fairly successful front-line staff ele commanders, but the build and command style were both different than anything I’ve seen other commanders use.

If you play staff for ccs, have cantrip mastery and around 21k health with guards stacks you can do it. Otherwise if your running a d/d berserker your gonna get destroyed in zerg battles.

Thanks for the replies!
So is a soldier build good for staff frontlining?

Commanding from the back line is almost impossible as THE solitary pin on the map.

However, command coordination is possible (when the map is willing to tolerate multiple pins on the map and the pins are open to facilitation).

Hawthorn used to command as a D/D ele and (when he was not raving) enjoyed modest success. But it is also important to understand that his success was predicated on the fact that he was often the only commander willing to pin up during those times. Cloud and Chia would constantly troll pin if/when they were online.

Any class/spec combination CAN command. Command is simply a GW2 construct (function) of leadership (a topic of which, tens of thousands of texts have explored).

If you display tenacity, courage, and nurture those that follow you with the necessary emotional food they need (appreciation, confidence, and trust), your ability to command can/will become legendary.

Every commander is going to lead a wipe and/or make mistakes. How you handle those events is a mark of your leadership!

That said, I would never encourage anyone to try to lead that is glassy. Bunker up and reduce the “appearance” that you are weak.

Remember, your function is not to do the most DPS… your job requires you to survive to promote cohesion. Your job is to convince people to accomplish things they may not believe they can accomplish. They will fight for you and they will die for you… if they believe. But no one is going to believe… if you don’t believe.

• There is a time for serious and there is a time for levity — never confuse the two.
• There is a time for proven and there is a time experimentation — never confuse the two.

And the mean, 800-pound gorilla?

I’ve got someone who can coach me to commanding, but these tips will definitely help me! You’re saying a huge part of commanding is mentality, not strategy? And don’t get me wrong, I’m not underestimating strategy, but I actually never knew keeping morale up was this important.

I will never follow ele commander.

(JQ in-joke)

Im a staff/ele commander. Usually i stay frontline (ppl follow the tag, not the orders…)

Its an hard life: if u play well, you can be “last man standing”, but its really hard. When i fight large zergs, usually i ask other commanders (fighters, protectors) to help me. Ele commander is ok in siege, defending bl and managing small groups of invaders.

For defensive commanding, ele is awesome. Very fast, and you provide your own fields for your pugs to blast. When I commanded defense I would switch to d/d whenever we were outside our walls. As long as you have good toughness/vit you can dive in and hopefully people will see that and follow. You can kite back to your backline if you take a lot of heat. Ele is a pretty poor choice for offensive commanding though or any kind of organized guild skirmish commanding. I also don’t know what server you’re on. I think it would be a lot harder to survive as a d/d commander in the higher tiers than the lower ones.

Melodey, not sure: im in anvil rock, and we are ALWAYS outnumbered. With equal numbers, i think ele commander is good choice. Water fields, static field, meteor shower is a gift of the gods when you are in the middle of a zerg fight. I think eles could be more effective in high tiers

I’ve done it before. Full PVT gear, Dolyak runes, Dagger/Dagger with auras traited to give protection. I survived a lot longer than most warriors and guardians.

My ele is now glass cannon so I try avoid commanding with it XD. Rolled a guardian for that purpose

I command as a front line staff ele, so it can be done. Just be sure to go full bunker, I go 30E and 30W, then 10 where ever. The real thing to remember is that your front line supportive, not a front line tank. You should be cc enemy and healing front line in most fights. Always have your catnips or fire 4 ready to fall back heal then get back up front.

MasterMc.7543:

Always have your catnips or fire 4 ready to fall back heal then get back up front.

Catnips!

Deliberate or not… I loved the comment.

Durian.5419:

I will never follow ele commander.

(JQ in-joke)

Easymode victory?

I command on an Ele.

Here is the build:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWhMM6cW5wwBr0AA5hLmwiowDlH5sjNA-zkCBYfIYLA0HApmFRjtMqIasqaA6FYqSJV5KyeDKrkBYZMA-w

Melandru runes are expensive but in conjunction with the PVT gear (valk or cavalier when you have a decently trained group to back you up) You are extremely durable, as long as you can keep people blasting your fields.

I’ve noticed a defensive PTV staff ele build with cantrips to work well for me when commanding. The best thing about commanding on ele is you can AoE siege when trying to capture structures and try to get your group to AoE siege with you. It also is good for getting people to CC with you too. It’d be ideal if I had other zerglings that could take care of AoE’ing but the pugs I’ve commanded have never been able to do it.

The worst thing about commanding on ele is trying to push when zergbusting a large blob. On my warrior, I can overextend like mad when pushing and not die but on ele you have to be very careful when pushing.

I’ve seen practically every class in the game command. I’ve seen a mesmer command in EB and be very successful at it, its all about knowing your class and the “zerg” around you knowing their limits.

In the field your tag is the only one stabile point. You call the damage, heal on yourself. You must to stand in the mid of the trouble. Warrior is the best because the high armor/mobility/stability

Dagger/force ele with the new update coming into play with the set up of 20 earth 20 water 30 ar you should be ok and live though most bombs at the same time you should be able to “leap” in for a bomb on-top of being able to blast at least 3 times on a mostly low cd. Your dmg will be nothing sadly.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJAodnMISLD25AGOAfEGAIKgxkhiQGp8InZsB-z0yAo+ASgAICgJfl1EogYVrIas6+IrYwUtA62k65LiWNpAEUZE-w

Something like this.

Hamster.4861:

I command on an Ele.

Here is the build:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWhMM6cW5wwBr0AA5hLmwiowDlH5sjNA-zkCBYfIYLA0HApmFRjtMqIasqaA6FYqSJV5KyeDKrkBYZMA-w

Melandru runes are expensive but in conjunction with the PVT gear (valk or cavalier when you have a decently trained group to back you up) You are extremely durable, as long as you can keep people blasting your fields.

I’m in Hamster’s guild and he is reliably one of the most durable people around including myself on a very tanky support guardian. Having a couple of water fields on command goes a long way. Its been very helpful as we have been trying to train up our guild for Zerg fighting to have a commander with access to fire, water and lightning fields. If you got a stable group with good elementalists in it, it might not matter as much but in pug zergs or if you are lacking in reliable elementalists, having a commander who can throw his own fields is great.

D/F ele is great for driving. 3 invulns/burst condi clear/great cleave from air, aura share to your frontline.

I know a couple of VR guys that can command on staff ele extraordinary well. The movement and “bombing” is different than the current meta, not going into details though