Guild Wars 2

So I have been playing an ele in WvW for 4 years now.

But seriously all the skill cast times are just way too slow!

Call a water field and by the time it actually gets casts, your commander has moved somewhere else and you are luck to get more than 1 blast, and because most people have moved away, it was a waste.

These staff skills are just too slow for use with a large group, and not as effective as other classes like the OP thief.

DevilishLyx.2340:

So I have been playing an ele in WvW for 4 years now.

But seriously all the skill cast times are just way too slow!

Call a water field and by the time it actually gets casts, your commander has moved somewhere else and you are luck to get more than 1 blast, and because most people have moved away, it was a waste.

These staff skills are just too slow for use with a large group, and not as effective as other classes like the OP thief.

I learned to anticipate while playing staff. You have little choice but to try and anticipate where your target will be. That and make the target follow you where you want it.

Staff is slow and clunky, but also very powerful and versatile. Specialy in large fights.

Its strong but slow. Hows that wrong?

I can see what op is saying though. The cast times PLUS delay on some skills are annoying. Usable but could use some qol improvement

Im usually having a blast playing my ele in WvW. I throw water as the group goes, cc the enemy group, and try to anticipate where big water will be needed judging from several factors.

The heals together with good power, a decent crit ratio and a ton of skills to ensure your survival make it a very versatile class. Heck, we can even blink straight through an enemy zerg if we get cut off.

The only situation it can be a bit tricky is with the “jump-commanders” that insist on jumping without having backup, but even that can be anticipated.

Take off auto targeting and start to lead targets. Its a pain for things like fire 3 and air 2 as they need a target to be even cast but you get so much from landing fire balls near ppl vs on them as well as dropping water 1s at your feet. Only if they would make earth 1 an aoe too.

Aury.1367:

Its strong but slow. Hows that wrong?

I would not say they are strong a lot of the effects where aimed at simply being a field and getting the field effect that not many other classes could get was the reason for them to be as slow but that went out the window some time ago. Frost fields and water fields are easy to get (water fields are not that good any more with the light field changes) and the dmg nerfs. Staff is lacking power (both dmg and effects) for its cast time but its still a very viable support tool.

You need to cast it to where they are going, not where they’re currently at, necessarily.

That summarizes how to use staff in general.

ArchonWing.9480:

You need to cast it to where they are going, not where they’re currently at, necessarily.

That summarizes how to use staff in general.

Ye, bit brain usage would help. Also just target their cmd, look where hes going and then set meteor infront of him, so when it goes down, all the people following him get hit. Not a problem. Just practice

4 years and you haven’t figured out the basics? Feelsbadman.
You could always run full minstrel heal ele, plant yourself in the front-line and spam regen, never die and do 0 damage, but heal better than a water field and a few blasts.

“OP Thief” isn’t going to down multiple people with 10k meteors and 6k fire autos.

Ummm slow? Necros are slow… thats why they get killed all the time. Irony.

Staff ele was killed when they ruined meteornado. Scepter/dagger for the win.

Why does the damage from lava font not start till well after the animation. This has always annoyed me greatly. Would it be too much to ask that the first tick begin with the animation

Staff isn’t viable in wvw anymore… in fact it isn’t that great in any game mode anymore with all the nerfs recently… which makes me sad.
I have 2.5k hours on my staff ele out of 3.4k hours in gw2 in total.
That’s one of the reasons I dislike the game so much now.

For wvw specifically, ele doesn’t do anything that makes it worth using.
Healer rev does much more healing with tablet. No one even blasts waters anymore… Necros out-dps ele in every way possible.
Guards can provide as much, if not more condi clear + a lot more utility.

Staff ele is dead in wvw.

Vova.2640:

Staff isn’t viable in wvw anymore… in fact it isn’t that great in any game mode anymore with all the nerfs recently… which makes me sad.
I have 2.5k hours on my staff ele out of 3.4k hours in gw2 in total.
That’s one of the reasons I dislike the game so much now.

For wvw specifically, ele doesn’t do anything that makes it worth using.
Healer rev does much more healing with tablet. No one even blasts waters anymore… Necros out-dps ele in every way possible.
Guards can provide as much, if not more condi clear + a lot more utility.

Staff ele is dead in wvw.

Staff ele never was dead in wvw since very beginning of this game.

LOL dude necro EVERYTHING is slow asf. Only a few shouts etc. I dont agree with slow casts above half a second in any class it limits the skill lvl.

Rednik.3809:

Vova.2640:

Staff isn’t viable in wvw anymore… in fact it isn’t that great in any game mode anymore with all the nerfs recently… which makes me sad.
I have 2.5k hours on my staff ele out of 3.4k hours in gw2 in total.
That’s one of the reasons I dislike the game so much now.

For wvw specifically, ele doesn’t do anything that makes it worth using.
Healer rev does much more healing with tablet. No one even blasts waters anymore… Necros out-dps ele in every way possible.
Guards can provide as much, if not more condi clear + a lot more utility.

Staff ele is dead in wvw.

Staff ele never was dead in wvw since very beginning of this game.

Old staff ele was one of the best wvw class in the game. Its just been lost due to dmg changes and adding in full on healing classes.

First, there are traits to reduce cool down time. Second, as an ele we need to be starter than the commander. We have to watch what is going on around us and use the stills when needed. That is if you are going to use staff. I use staff if I run with the zerg, mainly, just for the water to keep everybody alive as much as possible and fire to do some damage. When running by myself I will use dagger/warhorn.

Ele staff skills need to be changed in speed time to catch up to other classes. Also maybe a weapon swap because if you go dagger and dagger/focus/warhorn you can only conjure a frost bow which lasts for a short time to be able to hit anything high above you and are pretty much stuck in melee mode. Even better if they made conjure weapons permanent to use when until you decide to put them away like an engineers kit.

Improving staff for ele should happen.

Fire 1, ground target, improved splash with burning
Fire 2, last tic heavy damage/burning
Fire 3, ground targeting with fire field that destroys projectiles
Fire 4, passively builds up to 3 skill charges, 1 per 15sec. Usage causes 5sec CD. Damage and burning improved based on how many charges you currently have.
Fire 5, burning, radius of shower decreases per second of channel time.

Air 1, no longer a projectile, on-point attack that strikes upto 5 foes near target
Air 2, instant cast, 1sec delay to detonate, 240 radius
Air 3, Cascade attack, interupts foes on path, knockdown enemies with swiftness, superspeeds allies
Air 4, added ground targeted teleport, causing short/heavy vulnerability and weakness to foes at destination
Air 5, Added increasing pulsing damage, increased size, reduces recharge by static amount per foe stunned by ring

Idk just my thoughts as a glass hammer rev on things that would make me go to ele for ranged damage in wvw.

Pumped.2371:

4 years and you haven’t figured out the basics? Feelsbadman.
You could always run full minstrel heal ele, plant yourself in the front-line and spam regen, never die and do 0 damage, but heal better than a water field and a few blasts.

“OP Thief” isn’t going to down multiple people with 10k meteors and 6k fire autos.

Was gonna say, on my minstrels staff ele, most of my heals come from spamming staff 1, wash away the pain or overloading water , and when I do cast my water fields, I usually anticipate where the blobs will meet and just throw it on there

Well if you do organisation group with quickness boon that should not be the problem. That’s what I always do. What Anet should change is bring back the berserker mode as a tempest. What would be a lot more useful vs condi cancer blobs!

For staff in wvw i would:
Fire:
1. At the end of the max ranged the fire ball blows up as if it hit a target.
2. Stay the same.
3. Is now a cone shap aoe that fire in a wave say 1,000 ranges and pules out burning.
4. Stay the same.
5. Faster cast time.

Air:
1. Now is a 100% projectile finisher and carry that effect and other on hit effects for its full 3 bounces.
2. Is a pulsing attk for its animations and not just one hit.
3. Is ground targeted.
4. Is now a whirl finisher.
kittens a bit harder when ppl pass though it.

Water:
1. Can be targeted to hit players on your own team.
2. Stays the same.
3. Burst heals at the end of the effect.
4. Apply torment ontop of the chill.
5. Stays the same.

Earth:
1. Is not a 3 person aoe.
2. Blows up faster.
3. Stays the same.
4. Apply crippler as well as being a wall.
5. Is ground targeted.

Well my thoughts on it.

I must say scepter need much more work then any other wepon Ele has. Ice Shards water 1 is such a places holder skill that should of been updated with something years ago. Its out right silly that it dose nothing but dmg.

Cast times really wont help staff eles that much.

It’s just the meta in wvw is really bad for us right now.
Heavy condi and heavy boon share/heals, and all the builds needed for wvw can still be tanky af. See minstrels, dire, trailblazer etc.

I was thinking how a new stat like ‘armor penetration’ would work. Like if you have 300 armor pen, you ignore 300 of the targets armor(or toughness). Would only be available in a pure offence set, like marauders except armor pen instead of vitality.
Would have to have HEAVY ‘diminishing returns’ vs people whose armor is already lowest possible amount (like vs someone in full zerks) to prevent ridiculous 1 shots.
That would help boost physical dmg from glass cannon builds in wvw, because right now basically everyone has a perma 43% dmg reduction in wvw (perma protection + mussel food).

That would prolly still make thieves and mesmers even more broken op.. but who knows tho.. Just curious how that’d work out.

Staff eles are op in WvW. Try squadwide DPS meter and you will see. Condi revs/dhs will be on top and eles next but arcdps counts condi wrong anyways.

The damage is insane if you just combo some things. Like fire 2 -> fire 4/5 combo (use meteor during burning retreat and it will cast from where burning retreat ends) -> fire 2 -> static -> air 2. Also Waters are really nice for condi cleanse/heals but dont bother them blasting yourself, because 5k AoE damage > 1.5k AoE heal.

Build you wanna run is something like
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWhUMowhVOwzB8RMQAYUW4IEFiCQAYBUrh0wmE-TFCEQB+T9Hmo0LBXAAA8AAcnOAHqMYLKBTx+DbGGAGBAMzMz0IiICpAeYnF-w (yes no tempest)

Sure its hard to make sure enemies/allies stay on the field, but on what class it isn’t? Aim AoE on the side you don’t want enemy to go to and you will also be controlling them while damaging (force enemy to walk through your field).

…and i wanna see a legendary staff WvW version called Staff of Destruction….
with a passive skill that makes every cast an instacast
same goes for every legendary weapons to have a unique passive skills
sigh….

Staff is fine for a support weapon but for damage anything outside of fire is bad.
Fire
1. Same
2. First damage tick begins when the animation does
3. Same
4. Same
5. Slightly shorter cast time
Air
1. Increased damage but explodes on first hit similar to fireball
2. AoE pulsing field
3,4,and 5 can stay the same (don’t want to change it to be less of a support option
Water can stay the same
Earth
1. Same
2. AoE pulsing damage and cripple
3. Same
4. Same
5. Earth version of meteor with spikes coming up from the ground

This would allow staff to still be a support tool but a glass staff ele could use more than just fire for dps
AND BETTER FITS THE CLASSIC MAGE FANTASY