Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, I decided to make a post on my staff ele build because people keep asking me for it. And I’m a little tired of giving them all the info : P. The build is exceptional in pve and pvp in all their forms within gw2. Some minor adjustments are required when switching to or from pve or pvp. But none require a respec.

I’ll first go over the pvp version, then tell the minor changes for pve at the bottom of this guide. As for the build in general, it is a zerker build that is dependent on the long range of the ele’s staff abilities.

And the clever use of high ground, as in vantage points. You can burn through a group of 5 enemy players in a hand full of seconds. Or melt a boss in no time, this is due to the massive power of the staff ele’s area of effect abilities (aoes).

In other mmorpgs, such as World of Warcraft aoe effects did fairly low dmg on each individual target they hit. By no means bursting them down, this restricted their use to that of crowd control abilities. Not worth using unless there was a group of foes.

Or maybe a stealthful enemy. In gw2, one meteor out of a rain of meteors can do 9k damage (Meteor Shower, fire attunement). I’ve seen it myself many times. This build requires you to use certain combos for maximum efficiency . I’ll explain this more later on in the guide.

The type of gear you want to have is all Berserker’s, as in power, precision, and critical damage.

Your talents go like this: 30 in fire magic, 30 air, 0 earth, 0 water, 10 arcana.
In fire: VI VII XI
For air; VI VII XI (yes it’s the exact same as fire : P)
Arcana; V

As for your heal, elite ability, and utilities;
Heal; Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Elite; Conjure Fiery Greatsword
Utilities; Signet of Earth, Arcane Blast, Arcane wave

For your runes and sigil:
Sigil; Sigil of Superior Fire
Runes: Superior rune of Scholar

As for the combos I mentioned. I should explain a little of the machinations of this build before I go over those. So you better understand when to use what. This build requires your enemies to stand still, or at least move around in a small area. In order to deliver its best bang, luckily spvp & tpvp are centered around capture points. Very tiny capture points for the most part, perfectly fitting your Meteor shower. Arena net must really like aoe effects : P.

But it gets better! You are probably aware of the downed effect in gw2? Well downed players tend to attract their allies. No doubt trying to revive them, >:) this is where your Lava Font comes in. The second ability in Fire Attunement, this ability procs three times throughout its duration.

Each proc usually criting due to your 49% crit chance. Each proc should do about 3700 damage, assuming it crits. And you have about 8 stacks of might build up. You gain about 11 seconds of might whenever you cast a spell while in fire attunement.

It usually plateaus at 8 stacks, it can go up to 12 or more if you’re using a lot of spells. Also if you use your heal spell while in fire you gain 3 additional stacks for 22 seconds. You also gain 10% more damage when over 90% health due to your runes of the scholar. So using your heal while in fire even if your only at 70% hp let’s say.

Might be ideal for the damage boost. Assuming they’re aren’t trying to attack you up on your cozy little ledge, that is. : ) As I was saying, using Lava Font on a downed enemy or even ally if someone is trying to finish them is ideal.

For the enemies trying to revive their unfortunate ally, or trying to kill yours. Will have to stand still in order to do so. And standing still in overpowered aoes, assuming they’re not friendly, (please stand in my aoes teammates) hurts.

After Lava Font, use your number three fire ability, which is called Flame Burst, then use your #5 Meteor shower. After this, if they still are alive, you should probably switch to Water Attunement and use your #4 ability.

Which is Frozen Ground, it will chill them, insuring they won’t be able to move out of your rain of meteors before getting cracked once or twice. But you may be asking “how to I create a downed person to use as a trap”. Well you use the super omega paragon’s biscuit combo. Which goes like this:

You start of in Air Attunement or water, depending on your preference. Water is better, especially if there are multiple targets. I say Air because you’re usually already in that attunement when moving around because the speed boost.

If in air use your #2 ability, and before it’s done casting switch to fire attun for the increased 10% dmg, thanks to Internal Fire (see fire talents). This won’t interrupt the cast don’t worry.

If in water, use your #4 then your #2. And before the #2 lands, switch to fire attun for the same damage boon. Next use your #3 ability for an additional 10% damage, plus the dmg from the burning effect applied itself. This 10% comes from Burning Rage, so now you’re doing 20% more damage in total.

Now comes the part in this combo where you get to use your utilities. Start by applying the devastating 4 second immobilize of the active effect of your Signet of Earth. Then immediately cast Lava Font under their feet, which also lasts for 4 seconds.

Next begin casting Meteor shower, which takes 3 seconds to cast. And while that is casting. Use both your Arcane blast, and Arcane wave, in that order. Your arcane abilities are instant and will not interrupt the cast. These abilities always crit, and give you an additional 10% crit damage. Thanks to your air talent Arcane Lightning.

So now you’re doing an additional 30% damage on crits, you’re criting all the time due to your stats. And you have the additional damage from your many might stacks. At this point the enemy may very well be dead. It would be wise to just sit in Fire Attunement. For your auto attack does a great deal of splash damage.

In a wide radius, and gives you might, as well the rest of your fire skills have a short cooldown. But if you see a small window of opportunity. An enemy has very low health and is just about to heal or stealth. Target them and switch to Air Attunement, this will do instant damage, usually critical damage for you have fury applied to you when you switch attunements. The damage comes from the air talent.

Lightning Strike, this is a very good ability. It is always ideal to down an enemy before they can get their heal off. With this build you can do that, and fairly often Lightning Strike. Gives just that little bit more needed to do so.

As for what you do when someone is attacking you. Each of your attunements has one or more abilities that either, stun, slow, or immobilize your target or targets in an area. Except for fire attun that is which has an amazingly long dodge.

That dodge ability is your #4, Burning Retreat. Now usually when someone attacks be I make an assessment. I ask myself “are they squishy enough for me to burst down” if yes, I use a shorter version of the burst combo detailed above. It goes, Signet of earth, Lava Font, Flame Burst, Arcane Blast, Arcane Wave, then switch to Air Attunement for the Lightning Strike. If they’re still alive, I switch to plan B.

Which you should resort to right away if the person attacking isn’t squishy. Use Burning Retreat the #4 ability in fire. Assuming you’re in fire attun, then switch to Air and use your #5 ability which will stun them if used properly.

Then use Windborne speed which is the #4 air attun ability. This will remove chill, immobilize, and cripple, it will also give you swiftness. Next you might want to switch to water attun and use your #4 to chill them. Next use Conjure Fiery Greatsword, your elite skill. And use the number three ability to help you make your speedy escape.

You will evade all attacks, and spin far away. Keep running but wait one second until you use your number #4, if you use it too quickly after your #3 it will glitch and send you back in the direction you came. Which will likely be your end, your #4 will make you run more quickly for a time, leaving a fiery, shallow, wall behind you.

If you make sure you have no target and aim this well on an enemy who’s staying still. It will apply a lot of burning and burst damage as you run through them. Nifty little trick that.

Well that’s about it, I encourage you to read all the abilities and come up with abilities of your own. Also, always keep an eye out for new vantage points throughout the maps. There are a lot of them, the spvp maps are very well designed in this way.

The minor changes for pve: Instead of using XII in Air Magic, use III instead for the reduced glyph cooldowns. And instead of using Signet of Earth, use Glyph of Storms, and change your elite skill to Glyph of Elementals. The Glyph of storms is ideally used n earth attun for it applies blindness over and over. Which is incredible for a glass cannon like yourself. And the the Glyph of Elementals is best used in fire for maximum damage.

I tried to post some screens shots of my scores in tpvp & spvp. But it wouldn’t let me : (. My highest score is 465, and then the runners ups are all around 340-360 by the looks of it.

Once you get good at this build you’ll be downing entire groups multiple times in almost every match you enter. Unless your team is really bad, or the enemy team assigns someone to chase you around all match long.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, try to go in after your allies make contact with the enemy. Stay hidden until then, I’ve found that people tend to have tunnel vision, once they start attacking something. They don’t stop until they or it is dead, all the while not noticing that you slipped in after the action began.

And started to rain fire from the heavens! : P Don’t ever go near the enemies btw, even if they’re downed. The reason for this is your burst is so high that you can kill them more quickly by just casting a Lava Font and auto-attacking.

If you go close you’ll probably just be burst downed. And you’ll have to leave your cozy ledge which is a big nono usually. I actually avoid taking part in the reward for capturing a point sometimes. Just so I don’t have to leave my perch. Which pays off a lot.

There is one acception though to the never use your finisher skill rule. If a warrior is downed, and he’s tanky and you can’t burst him down in time. Before he’s able to use his Vengeance, which is the warrior’s downed ability that lets them get up and fight for a short time.

Well, what you can do, assuming he isn’t in the middle of a point being bombed on by his allies. Is jump down, switch to Earth Attunement. Begin casting your finisher and use your #3 ability which is Magnetic Aura. This will reflect the hammer that he is likely to throw at you. In attempt to interrupt your cast, great trick for finishing off tanky warriors. : ) And stay down!

Magnetic Aura I forgot to mention is also the go-to ability when anyone is attacking you with projectiles. Whether it be other staff elementalists, rifle warriors, rangers, thieves who use pistols, engineers. It will reflect all their attacks right back at them for 3 seconds.

This is a life saver, and actually works out very well when trying to finish a downed thief. Your so squishy that their auto attacks can actually down you. Well, using magnetic aura will spare you and speed up their death.

Quick update, Instead of using runes of scholar use Superior rune of strength. And now we’re able to use two sigils instead of one, so use Superior sigil of Air and Superior sigil of fire. Which abilities do stack in spvp and tpvp, I’m not so sure in pve and wvw though. I would just use superior sigil of accuracy in place of sigil of air if the effects don’t stack.