Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody, feel free to give feedback to the build.

My mission is to revive the staff elementalist from a downed state. ^^

Here you can find which utility skills / traits/ gear and infusions I use.
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.5|6.1c.h1h|0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.71g.1c.71g.1c.b1h.1c.71h.1c.7o.1c.7o|2u.0.2u.0.2u.0.2u.0.2u.0.3u.0|0.0.a3.u39b.u58b|0.0|1l.1s.1y.23.28|e

The reasoning behind the choices I made in my build:

Reason for traits and utility skills:

Protection

-Earth’s embrace for armor of earth which grants you protection and stability to do your big AOE spells’s

- Armor of earth for the same purpose just before to pop out AOE I use this. I use cantrip mastery for a shorter cooldown. With those stability you down have to worry about being interrupted while channeling.

-Elemental attunement if you switch to earth you gain protection in combination with 2 runes of earth 2 runes of water and 2 runes of the monk switching gives a 33% damage reduction for 8 seconds. For you and everybody around you.

Heals

-Elemental attunement if you switch to water you get regeneration

-Soothing disruption if you use armor of earth you get regeneration

-Evasive arcane when you dodge you get healed in water

-Soothing Mist is nice to have for as a passive heal while you swap between attunements.

Condition removal

-Ether renewal clears a condition with every pulse +heal

- Cleansing water: every regeneration cures also a condition. So armor of earth and Attuning to water cures a condition.

AOE

Blasting staff so with an bigger area of effect for fire 2 and of course water 5 and 4.
Too bad fire 5 does not increase in size.

-Glyph of Storms in fire
Although the other attunements can be pretty handy too it depends on the situation. Sandstorm does not cause blindness every second. I think it is once per 3 seconds, up to 5 targets. Ice storm, chilled for 2-3s per hit, duration stacks.

-Frostbow number 4

-Greatsword Number 5

- Meteor shower although the dps is low compared to the rest of the AOE options. Especially compared to the channeling time. I don’t use this skill very often. only if the rest is on cooldown. I hope it will get buffed.

Sigil of battle every attunement counts as weapon swap. So nice might stacking.

Gear:

Gear is soldiers everything: Why? You want to maintain power for you AOE. Toughness comes as a good second stat because its really making you healing more effective, since you already have low base health. While vitality even further increases your tank.The infusions are power because you want to compensate for the lack of critical damage.

For more information about how toughness and vitality works go here: http://sittingonacouch.com/the-gw2-m...esmer-numbers/

Its explained in a fun way definitely worth listing to.

Keybinds:
All default except:
Q Utility 6
E Utility 7
R Utility 8
X Elite
C Heal

Reason for making the build:

This is a build mainly based on PvE experience.
I played glass canon staff elementalist for 100s of hours, I liked the damage but I found myself downed a lot compared to other classes. So I thought what would happen if I went totally bunker WITHOUT sacrificing on dps, to a degree where it makes the build unplayable.

First thing what came in mind: What is the nature of a staff elemenlist? To me it was keeping a distance while maintaining damage. So that’s where the thought of AOE comes in to play.

I get this question often: Why combining Bunker and AOE its sounds odd no synergy? If you are doing AOE you keep your distance and if you are good enough at positioning you won’t die.
But you have to consider the channeling time and the many interrupts that could kill all your dps. While your channeling some could just burst you down or interrupt you.

Wiz.1543:

Gear is soldiers everything

Stopped skip-reading there.

Owh god I think I did it all wrong.. I fully went for Fire and Air magin in Trait part.
As for gear: Precision, Critical Damage and Power…

And now I think, thats why I’m unable to keep up while questing…

Tanky gear on staff PvE is really a waste. With half a brain you can dodge everything.
1200 range + 4 cantrips + 0/0/10/30/30 AND Soldier gear… good god.

Razor.6392:

Wiz.1543:

Gear is soldiers everything

Stopped skip-reading there.

If you read somewhat further you’ll understand why I use PTV gear. Its because of the channeling time + you have to stay still for casting the AOE.

Wiz.1543:

Razor.6392:

Wiz.1543:

Gear is soldiers everything

Stopped skip-reading there.

If you read somewhat further you’ll understand why I use PTV gear. Its because of the channeling time + you have to stay still for casting the AOE.

for PVE, don’t need PVT at all – if you’re getting downed a lot in dungeons/fractals, you gotta rethink what you’re doing

for WvW, half PVT as staff is fine, if you’re not a total baddie you can add in some other stuff

there’s only 2 things you need to stand still for: meteor shower (just time it carefully) and water 5 (it’s short cast), rest is all on the move anyway

you don’t need full PVT gear

My bad I thought that taking Soothing Disruption AND Cantrip Mastery wouldnt mean wasting 2 traits for one ability. You build is a catastophy, sorry.

Generally speaking, if you want heavy AoE go D/D, it does more damage and wear averagely tanky gear (Knight does good). If you can bear it go for Lightning Hammer but its not for everyone.

If you want to play staff the range factor makes that you wear full offense gear (I’d say rampager for Chest/Staff/Legs/Helm and Zerk for the rest) noone needs stability or Soldier gear to channel a Meteor Shower in PvE.

xiv.7136:

Wiz.1543:

Razor.6392:

Wiz.1543:

Gear is soldiers everything

Stopped skip-reading there.

If you read somewhat further you’ll understand why I use PTV gear. Its because of the channeling time + you have to stay still for casting the AOE.

for PVE, don’t need PVT at all – if you’re getting downed a lot in dungeons/fractals, you gotta rethink what you’re doing

for WvW, half PVT as staff is fine, if you’re not a total baddie you can add in some other stuff

there’s only 2 things you need to stand still for: meteor shower (just time it carefully) and water 5 (it’s short cast), rest is all on the move anyway

you don’t need full PVT gear

I have to agree in general PvE content you dont need as much PTV if you can dodge and position. Except higher level Fractals and Arah

I have to disagree on the frostbow´s AOE have to stand still.

What gear would you suggest for this build, and why?

innocent ouarior.1954:

My bad I thought that taking Soothing Disruption AND Cantrip Mastery wouldnt mean wasting 2 traits for one ability. You build is a catastophy, sorry

Yes 2 traits for one ability seems weird, it bugged me too. But I found the others not worth it. Do you have a better suggestion for a AOE / Tank build?

innocent ouarior.1954:

If you want to play staff the range factor makes that you wear full offense gear (I’d say rampager for Chest/Staff/Legs/Helm and Zerk for the rest) noone needs stability or Soldier gear to channel a Meteor Shower in PvE.

For one skill you are perfectly fine without soldiers and stability. However when you have meteor 5 / glyph of storms forstbow 4 and greatsword 5. An interrupt or too much damage so you have to retreat is very bad for dps.

Wiz.1543:

xiv.7136:

Wiz.1543:

Razor.6392:

Wiz.1543:

Gear is soldiers everything

Stopped skip-reading there.

If you read somewhat further you’ll understand why I use PTV gear. Its because of the channeling time + you have to stay still for casting the AOE.

for PVE, don’t need PVT at all – if you’re getting downed a lot in dungeons/fractals, you gotta rethink what you’re doing

for WvW, half PVT as staff is fine, if you’re not a total baddie you can add in some other stuff

there’s only 2 things you need to stand still for: meteor shower (just time it carefully) and water 5 (it’s short cast), rest is all on the move anyway

you don’t need full PVT gear

I have to agree in general PvE content you dont need as much PTV if you can dodge and position. Except higher level Fractals and Arah

I have to disagree on the frostbow´s AOE have to stand still.

What gear would you suggest for this build, and why?

it sounds like you’re mainly doing PVE, as ranged staff ele

for that I’d recommend something like zerker overall with PVT chest/legs/helm – mixed with as much valkyrie as you feel you need to stay safe, don’t need much more than that

Wiz.1543:

Yes 2 traits for one ability seems weird, it bugged me too. But I found the others not worth it. Do you have a better suggestion for a AOE / Tank build?

Well for staters D/D AoE capacity overshines staff by a very wide margin.
Staff is slow, low damage and ground AoE are a waste when stuff runs around. If I had to build an AoE PvE Elem I’d use D/D, Glyph of Storms and Arcane Wave. Vigor alone is pretty much a no-death safety as long as you know the events.

Now some bosses are no-melee so you do at some point have to use a staff or a scepter but these are situations where you do not need tank stats at all.

Frostbow #4 is good, but the one minute cooldown is too expensive. Its amazing to pop up on large struture distroying events (typically Ascalon Burrows) but I wouldnt waste a whole utility skill for that. You could argue that Glyph of Storms is about the same but the blind every second in Earth is just to good.

CFG is also a good tool but seriously skill #5 isnt almost worth the charges. On the other hand targetless Fiery Rush is godly.

Long story short, D/D is more damage and its AoE will rarely get interupt. Staff is a support weapon and range makes that you dont need tanky stats or stability.
All in all Vigor and knowledge (thats a stat you can only have on the player) trivialise most PvE fights.

xiv.7136:

Wiz.1543:

Razor.6392:

Wiz.1543:

Gear is soldiers everything

Stopped skip-reading there.

If you read somewhat further you’ll understand why I use PTV gear. Its because of the channeling time + you have to stay still for casting the AOE.

for PVE, don’t need PVT at all – if you’re getting downed a lot in dungeons/fractals, you gotta rethink what you’re doing

for WvW, half PVT as staff is fine, if you’re not a total baddie you can add in some other stuff

there’s only 2 things you need to stand still for: meteor shower (just time it carefully) and water 5 (it’s short cast), rest is all on the move anyway

you don’t need full PVT gear

If you’re always in the back, sure.

But what good are:
Water 4
Air 3 & 5
Earth 4 & 5

For chasing?

Wiz.1543:

xiv.7136:

Wiz.1543:

Razor.6392:

Wiz.1543:

Gear is soldiers everything

Stopped skip-reading there.

If you read somewhat further you’ll understand why I use PTV gear. Its because of the channeling time + you have to stay still for casting the AOE.

for PVE, don’t need PVT at all – if you’re getting downed a lot in dungeons/fractals, you gotta rethink what you’re doing

for WvW, half PVT as staff is fine, if you’re not a total baddie you can add in some other stuff

there’s only 2 things you need to stand still for: meteor shower (just time it carefully) and water 5 (it’s short cast), rest is all on the move anyway

you don’t need full PVT gear

I have to agree in general PvE content you dont need as much PTV if you can dodge and position. Except higher level Fractals and Arah

I have to disagree on the frostbow´s AOE have to stand still.

What gear would you suggest for this build, and why?

Actually you don’t need pvt in fractals either. All the high level fractals want berserker’s so you actually do damage to the monsters.

Razor.6392:

Actually you don’t need pvt in fractals either. All the high level fractals want berserker’s so you actually do damage to the monsters.

Ditto, besides you dont really want Berzerker because its bad

innocent ouarior.1954:

Ditto, besides you dont really want Berzerker because its bad

So what is not bad?

Wiz.1543:

- Meteor shower although the dps is low compared to the rest of the AOE options. Especially compared to the channeling time. I don’t use this skill very often. only if the rest is on cooldown. I hope it will get buffed.

I just thought I’d chime in here. It’s worth taking note that certain mobs and bosses have a huge hit box in those situations using Meteor Shower as a dps tool can actually come in handy when most hits are landing on 1 mob, all be the situation it few and far between.

It’s still nice for hits vs a zerg in WvW too also if you activate Glyph of Elemental Power in water attunement switch to fire then meteor shower it’ll proc chilled effect over a nice area along with your other available aoes over the 30s duration too very handy tool for control plus the -66% recharge rate for some quality trololol

it is worth mentioning the mechanics of how it works for some of the spells mentioned

glyph of storms –
- sandstorm does not cause blindness every second. i think it is once per 3 seconds, up to 5 targets.
- i personally prefer ice storm, chilled for 2-3s per hit, duration stacks.

glyph of elemental power -
- 25% chance, 5s CD. for water, its 2s of chill, which is great, but i felt air/weakness 6s and earth/crippled5s is more powerful in both pve/ pvp. i feel air is especially understated – considering dodges are key in pvp, and glancing blows is great in pve.

cleansing water – if you play spvp, this is nerfed to 5s CD, which makes it pretty useless – i also play a mesmer, which does amazing stun breaks and condition removals that makes my ele laughable now. ele was so godly in removing conditions that i almost never needed stun breakers to flee from zerg. pro tip: if you have cast time to spare, using air/inscriptions trait and casting any glyph also removes conditions in water attune

for gear in PVE – i’m amazed that PVT gear protects much better than zerker – if you make mistakes in PVE, you will down often no matter what gear you have. i find lightning flash is my best life saver – the only cantrip that instantly break stuns AND recovers from blowouts. in pve, you should never try to tank = i.e. prioritize casting a spell (small dent to enemy hp bars) over getting hit really hard. spend more time dps + dodging, and less time from trying to be a hero/ recovering from down state.

also if you like big numbers, you really need constant fury + crit damage – hence berzerkers is just beautiful, esp for videos/ screenshots

hope the above helps.

I dunno, I swear by my “Celestial” set. Elementalists can use every stat in every weapon set, so my armor’s a hearty mix of sets with a slight emphasis on direct damage and Vitality. I mostly use Staff in WvW and S/D most other places. It works like a charm.

haviz.1340:

innocent ouarior.1954:

Ditto, besides you dont really want Berzerker because its bad

So what is not bad?

I Think he meant PTV gear, I love it. It really kept me alive during the bomb run in FOTM (dredge) yesterday.

Disastro.4086:

I just thought I’d chime in here. It’s worth taking note that certain mobs and bosses have a huge hit box in those situations using Meteor Shower as a dps tool can actually come in handy when most hits are landing on 1 mob, all be the situation it few and far between.

I have to aggree on bosses with big hit boxes which dont run like crazy ( Abomination like) it is in fact a very viable way of attacking. However it can happen that the shower doesn’t even hit once…

Disastro.4086:

It’s still nice for hits vs a zerg in WvW too also if you activate Glyph of Elemental Power in water attunement switch to fire then meteor shower it’ll proc chilled effect over a nice area along with your other available aoes over the 30s duration too very handy tool for control plus the -66% recharge rate for some quality trololol

How does that work? Chill over a large area with glyph of elemental power and meteor shower. I tried it on some bots in pvp but I can’t seem to pull it off.

Jason.9643:

it is worth mentioning the mechanics of how it works for some of the spells mentioned

glyph of storms –
- sandstorm does not cause blindness every second. i think it is once per 3 seconds, up to 5 targets.
- i personally prefer ice storm, chilled for 2-3s per hit, duration stacks.

Thank you I am going to edit that one in the build :-). Personally I also use the water or the fire one. Love the chill and the big numbers.

Jason.9643:

cleansing water – if you play spvp, this is nerfed to 5s CD, which makes it pretty useless – i also play a mesmer, which does amazing stun breaks and condition removals that makes my ele laughable now. ele was so godly in removing conditions that i almost never needed stun breakers to flee from zerg. pro tip: if you have cast time to spare, using air/inscriptions trait and casting any glyph also removes conditions in water attune

Cleansing water is nice and indeed the inscription is pretty good. I was experimenting with that. However I could not find any justification into putting 20 into air and subtract something from 30 arcana or give up armor of earth at 50% or remove something from 30 in to water

Jason.9643:

for gear in PVE – i’m amazed that PVT gear protects much better than zerker – if you make mistakes in PVE, you will down often no matter what gear you have. i find lightning flash is my best life saver – the only cantrip that instantly break stuns AND recovers from blowouts. in pve, you should never try to tank = i.e. prioritize casting a spell (small dent to enemy hp bars) over getting hit really hard. spend more time dps + dodging, and less time from trying to be a hero/ recovering from down state.
also if you like big numbers, you really need constant fury + crit damage – hence berzerkers is just beautiful, esp for videos/ screenshots hope the above helps.

PTV gear does in fact protects better then Zerker gear while still having the same power. I can now run with the bombs and place them without getting downed at dredge fractal. Or I can cast more AOEspells in the assassins chamber CoF P2 because I have stability and dont have to worry so much about health anymore. Yes you could do it with Zerker I am not saying it is impossibru. The reason why I prefer PTV over Zerk is that I can spent more time AOE then on positioning and trying to survive.

Hows your support/healing side? My wife has been thinking about going more support with a staff elementalist and get out of her set of almost all berserker and go into something more sturdy as she has issues with dying in our fractals and stuff. This looks like a promising setup (though we might go 10 air for either 20% signet reduction or 20% more damage on below 33% health.)

Wiz.1543:

Disastro.4086:

It’s still nice for hits vs a zerg in WvW too also if you activate Glyph of Elemental Power in water attunement switch to fire then meteor shower it’ll proc chilled effect over a nice area along with your other available aoes over the 30s duration too very handy tool for control plus the -66% recharge rate for some quality trololol

How does that work? Chill over a large area with glyph of elemental power and meteor shower. I tried it on some bots in pvp but I can’t seem to pull it off.

This works for any aoe not just meteor shower. The proc percent is 25% per hit. So there is a chance the proc won’t happen. I just tested it against all attunements and the glyph in the spvp area with the cluster of golems and managed to get it to work across the board just remember to activate the glyph, press it the effect is not passive in the attunement effect you want first i.e. water or earth for control the chill duration is short (2s) if you have no condition duration so by the time to click something to check you may not see it. The cripple(earth) last 5 seconds if you’re only wanting to limit movement. Combined with glyph of storms to it’s pretty freakin awesome to proc cripples along with chills (ice) or just mass burning at the same time. A lot of people overlook the ability in WvW.

Loxsus.3841:

Hows your support/healing side? My wife has been thinking about going more support with a staff elementalist and get out of her set of almost all berserker and go into something more sturdy as she has issues with dying in our fractals and stuff. This looks like a promising setup (though we might go 10 air for either 20% signet reduction or 20% more damage on below 33% health.)

Healing even in zerker gear support staff works fine with 0/10/0/30/30 very survivable even in 36+ fractals just need to be careful with the dodges/evasives. Attuning to water = aoe heal+condition removal around 1600(trait) dodge in water = aoe heal+condition removal 1600 again(evasive arcana) geyser ground targeted heal is about 2500-ish heal with no +healing then you can combine that(or healing rain) with a blast finisher (arcane wave utility if you need to stay in water) for another heal around 1500 you can also have your group members also use blasts when you drop it and your entire group is back to full health from being nearly dead. All that aoe healing you can trigger back-to-back before you even need to use your self heal while healing everyone around you it’s pretty effective.

All that done while in berserker gear and still doing good damage. If you still have some issues surviving you could go PVT armor w/ruby orbs + zerker trinkets/jewelry and sigil of perception(help with crit chance) will give you a few more seconds to react and still do more than passable damage in most cases. Going “full” heal gear really isn’t recommended at all the only time there is “ever” a place for that is in WvW and even then it’s questionable.