Guild Wars 2

The more I play Staff, the more I realize that Air feels like a filler attunement swap that I rarely use out of need and more of to just get out of another attunement. 4 and 5 feel like solid abilities while 1-3 feel incredibly…useless. So, after thinking for a bit, I’d like to propose the following changes.

Add application of Vulnerability to Chain Lightning
Lightning Surge reworked to a ground target (size of lava font) with a half second cast time that explodes after half a second for a blind, blast finisher, and moderate damage.
Gust reworked. Added a one second cast time and knocks back anyone in a 90 degree cone in front of you. Evades while casting and uses Blazing Speeds animation.

Yeah, Air is easily the worst attunement on Staff.

Chain Lightning is a little better since they sped it up a bit, but it still struggles to compete with Fireball.
Lightning Surge should cast much faster and/or do much greater damage. The AoE blind is great but too unreliable
Gust should have a better hit box and do some damage
Static Field is alright, except that it’s so situational in PvE
Windborn Speed is really the only one that’s fine as is as long as the others are fixed

Use the static field as the combo field it gives for PvE, not so much the stun. My two cents. And @op, i agree 100%.

cheshirefox.7026:

i don’t mind chain lightning being slow, but they could increase the range and allow it to bounce more   a} make sure it bounces back to initial target b} make sure it doesN’t bounce back to initial target, but increase damage on main target c} add vulnerability per hit

lightning surge should cause an aoe blast with stacked vuln

gust needs better effective area or a} just give us gale + launch b} scrap it entirely for a 360 degree launch

i know this is about air but let me just say
stoning, earth #1 is annoyingly slow.. and weak
i know it’s a projectile finisher,but honestly.. if your team isn’t a bunch of pro combo fielders.. it’s just junk

i’ve been wishing Gust was an AoE launch around yourself since i first casted it,it was in original Guild Wars,so that’s what i was expecting,not a puff of wind that can’t connect at all…

as for Stoning….no…
with all of our utility,Stoning is a really good weakness applicator,in boss fights you can maintain it,sure,you’re only hitting it for low damage,but given the fact things like bosses hit for 10k,you can soak up 5k of that damage…
if your allies have less than 10k health,you just saved them a down state and struggle getting them up
at least for when the group is struggling,this game isn’t about just damage,weakness is a HUGE control ability that is highly overlooked
especially now with it’s 50% flat across reduction,rather than only 50% of crits
projectile finisher? it’s not even 20%….unlike EVERY other skill slot 1,this allows you to apply confusions,vulnerability in your own Air 5,burning from lava font,or what i do,is,more Chill applications from Frozen Ground,50% fumble and slower movement,and,what people don’t realize,slower boss attacks

I wish Chain’s initial damage was significantly higher at least making it a decent single target option. Something like instead of 100-100-100 on the bounces, it would be 150-100-50. Of course, the overall damage done would still be weak but at least it would be a little more decent for single target.

I agree with your conclusion that air is the ‘filler’ attunement for staff, and that abilities 1-3 specifically are not wonderful. Gust is ok but it takes alot of practice and is still not nearly as good as almost any other cc control ability.

Lightning surge I think needs changing the most, either its functionality, its recharge, cast speed etc. The recharge on lightning surge is noticeably longer than the #2 for water, fire, earth attunements, which makes air staff play feel more awkward.

Regarding the autoattack…it is up-to-par with the other staff aa’s. But in general, I think the staff ele probably derives a very small % of its damage output from its autoattacking, in comparison with other professions/weaponsets (even more true in pvp against active targets). Therefore the staff auto attacks in general might need to be considered for reworking.

spalt.6938:

I wish Chain’s initial damage was significantly higher at least making it a decent single target option. Something like instead of 100-100-100 on the bounces, it would be 150-100-50. Of course, the overall damage done would still be weak but at least it would be a little more decent for single target.

This is something that really needs to change across the board. I’m not sure what their motivation was for making virtually all “bounce” attacks operate this way instead of the way you describe.

spalt.6938:

I wish Chain’s initial damage was significantly higher at least making it a decent single target option. Something like instead of 100-100-100 on the bounces, it would be 150-100-50. Of course, the overall damage done would still be weak but at least it would be a little more decent for single target.

This is absolutely how the Air auto should work. Maybe even bump it to 200-150-100 but prevent it from bouncing back to previous targets.

2 should be either instant or 1/4 second cast time. It isn’t anywhere near good enough an effect to justify its casting animation. I like the idea of scrapping it in favor of something else, though, as it’s a boring skill to begin with.

I actually really like Gust. If they just widened its hitbox a bit and sped up the projectile a little, it would be perfect.

spalt.6938:

I wish Chain’s initial damage was significantly higher at least making it a decent single target option. Something like instead of 100-100-100 on the bounces, it would be 150-100-50. Of course, the overall damage done would still be weak but at least it would be a little more decent for single target.

Yes. An obvious and reasonable improvement.

Same for staff air #2 – drop the damage and make it instant just for the sake of usability. The opportunity cost isn’t quite there.

Agrees with gust needing a bigger AOE/spread/360 degree hit on it or even a tiny bit I damage would be nice

air is bad :/

chain lightning would be much better if it deal more initial dmg reduced by each bounce, like 100% -> 75% -> 50% or 100% → 66% → 33%

lightning surge needs more dmg or reduced cast time, cant counter any hit with blind like this nor is usefull us it as dmg with this cast time

gust needs better hitbox and/or travel time, its hard as hell to hit something moving, annoying

For staff’s air attunement to be worthwhile it needs to fullfill the one thing air attunement is meant to do. Single target damage. Making air auto attack do more upfront damage to the first person struck would help with that. Lightning Surge needs to be reworked. Lose the blind completely and give it a sizeable boost in single target damage. Air already has two crowd control effects, it needs the damage.

Give Lightning Surge about double the damage it has now and it should be sufficient.

Gust I’d like to see given a considerably wider hit box, and changed into a skill shot. Being able to aim it in the direction we want would let us anticipate where our enemies will be, and at least give the skill a small chance to hit our target provided we used the skill.. Skillfully. It’d be massively more valuable to aim it toward a general direction than a target, as targets are always moving. Plus, being able to do a knock-back on 3-4 enemies all crowded around a downed ally would be a tremendous boon to any staff elementalist.

cheshirefox.7026:

lightning surge does ok damage when built for it
i don’t understand why people keep asking for shorter times and more damage
that could be said for Any skill
i really think it could use a vulnerability aoe added onto it
chain lightning needs a distance increase, i don’t know where someone got it in their heads that everything on elem needs to be 1200, it should also cause vulnerability
chain can cause vuln per hit like ‘stoning’ causes weakness and surge can cause a stack of it from an aoe blast.. even if it’s just a 2 stack

i also don’t know how they justify the absurdity of ‘each attunement does something, but nothing is shared’   when it is so blatantly obvious ‘switching attunements is a necessity’  
fire – burn   water – vuln   air – blind   earth – bleed

would it kill them to put some vulnerability into air?
honestly, if i want to use that.. what am i supposed to do?
ice spike and water blast something to death? i don’t think so

the problem isn’t air is a ‘filler’ attunement
the problem is staff elem is a ‘filler’ character
we are there to add a little extra to more privileged professions

Staff itself doesn’t feel like a ‘filler’ of any kind. Only Air feels like it should be fixed a little. All of the other attunements feel really strong to me. I don’t think you play Staff at all to say that Lightning Surge is okay in any way, because it really, really isn’t.

However, about the damage thing, I sort of feel that doesn’t really apply to Staff. For Staff, you go Fire for direct damage and Earth of over time damage. Air feels like it’s supposed to be the more evasive and controlling part of staff with Windborne Speed, Gust, and Static Field. Changes to Lightning Surge (making it much faster to apply and a better AoE ground targeting) and Gust (adding a small evade mechanic to it).

I’m not insulting you, I’m just saying that I don’t see how you think Lightning Surge is okay. It’s not. It’s usually just a waste of a cast time. The other attunements in staff are really strong on their own and with each other. Air is the only one that feels like it doesn’t fit right besides just Static Field.

cheshirefox.7026:

a lot of other players want the blind as a viable counter strike, so they want it instant like “blinding flash” or they want it to have burst damage.. or both

yes thats what it should be… instant counter strike OR a skill with longer cast satisfied with good damage… not a mediocre dmg blind with long cast…

Air, since GW1 , has usually been about single target, and not much AoE. So when I switch to air I should feel like there is no other element more suited for 1v1 than air. Why not make lightning surge something to be feared; when everyone can see it coming a mile away, it better pack a punch, and if thats not an option, than at least get ride of the cast time. As for Gust, why would I want a skill that pushs people over only when they stand still? If they are just standing around or immobilized, than Im going to be dropping AoE, not pushing them. Gust is really only meant for someone running straight at you. No one runs at you! They are bull rushing or telephoning!