Anet's Elementalist Philosophy
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(edited by KirinDave.6451)
If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.
I am a great, big monster and I will eat your whole family.
(edited by Voxel.6473)
And here I thought staff was for support…
Sounds like this thread is the equivalent of hey I want to play gs war and be a bunker.
Your staff build has a role, and playing the build out of context will make it seem weak of course.
Staff is support if you spec for it, however that’s the only viable spec for our only ranged weapon, doesn’t it seems weird to you? Staff was able to do some dmg, until the EA was “fixed”, even if the usage of the EA basically eliminated the range purpose of the staff, it was fun and dynamic playstyle. Now, it’s gone and the new EA is good for D/D set and maybe for support staff (if you can anticipate the need for burst aoe heal, but guess what, that’s a support…)
If you spec for bunker, it sux, D/D is better, much more mobile and effective for this setup.
If you spec for dmg, you’re just meat on a stick, period. You don’t stand any chance against practically anyone, because you die probably before your first fireball lands, which is kinda sad
#ELEtism 4ever
And here I thought staff was for support…
Sounds like this thread is the equivalent of hey I want to play gs war and be a bunker.
Your staff build has a role, and playing the build out of context will make it seem weak of course.Staff is support if you spec for it, however that’s the only viable spec for our only ranged weapon, doesn’t it seems weird to you? Staff was able to do some dmg, until the EA was “fixed”, even if the usage of the EA basically eliminated the range purpose of the staff, it was fun and dynamic playstyle. Now, it’s gone and the new EA is good for D/D set and maybe for support staff (if you can anticipate the need for burst aoe heal, but guess what, that’s a support…)
If you spec for bunker, it sux, D/D is better, much more mobile and effective for this setup.
If you spec for dmg, you’re just meat on a stick, period. You don’t stand any chance against practically anyone, because you die probably before your first fireball lands, which is kinda sad
if you want to bunker play sceptre/focus. if you want to damage play d/d or s/d or s/f
if you want to bunker play sceptre/focus. if you want to damage play d/d or s/d or s/f
If I want ranged dmg, I should play Rifle warrior, right?
#ELEtism 4ever
if you want to bunker play sceptre/focus. if you want to damage play d/d or s/d or s/f
If I want ranged dmg, I should play Rifle warrior, right?
If you wanted ranged damage go play a different class, rifle warrior is obviously weak right now and it’s not even worth playing in any team composition. You’re analogy is wrong. Also, I don’t think GW2 should be a “OMG GUYS LETS SIT HERE AND AOE A POINT” even though Anet have necros spamming conditions on point.
#ELEtism 4ever
If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.
(edited by ThiBash.5634)
It seems like Anet recognized that they can’t fulfill the original description, so they changed it now, which doesn’t seem fair to the players imho…
What would you rather have, Anet trying to fulfill something they cannot do, or change philosophy so the game will be fun to play? I’m leaning towards the latter to be honest.
That’s the right question
I would like if they keep their word, however if it cannot be done (that sux, but happens), I would like them to tell the community what they are working to, in a concrete way, so ppl know what they can expect (are the working on the scepter/staff now, so those will be viable in the future? What changes are they planning to release? etc…). The Ele mechanic is greatly designed, however it has it’s problems (no weapon swap – which is understandable of course. But being forced to melee with a caster class, when you look at the weak sides – low armor and HP, doesn’t seem so fair). Of course it is an option, but ppl want other options too —→ long range play. Every class has it, so why Ele doesn’t?
#ELEtism 4ever
That’s the right question
I would like if they keep their word, however if it cannot be done (that sux, but happens), I would like them to tell the community what they are working to, in a concrete way, so ppl know what they can expect (are the working on the scepter/staff now, so those will be viable in the future? What changes are they planning to release? etc…). The Ele mechanic is greatly designed, however it has it’s problems (no weapon swap – which is understandable of course. But being forced to melee with a caster class, when you look at the weak sides – low armor and HP, doesn’t seem so fair). Of course it is an option, but ppl want other options too —-> long range play. Every class has it, so why Ele doesn’t?
You have some valid points, and it would be nice to be able to get some insights on what Anet has in store for us.
The problem with ‘rebalancing’ the staff as I see it, is that it’s pretty hard to determine how big the power gap between it and daggers truly is. Daggers are more powerful currently, I don’t deny that, but they’re also more popular. I’ve read on these very forums about some people (who are better players than me) getting pretty good results with the staff, even in sPvP. So it’ll be tough to separate the facts from the theory/popularity votes if you know what I mean. In principle (not saying it is), it could be that the staff is actually perfectly balanced compared to the daggers. But there’s arguably more information and discussions going on about highend dagger builds than there is about the staff. And then there’s the combo fields, that obviously get stronger the more players you have near you. So how does one go about balancing that?
But I agree with you, I do sometimes feel ‘forced’ to go melee. The daggers has so many flashy, but also useful tools. Almost everything it has is viable, and the different roles (fire damage, water healing, air speed/stun and earth bleeding) are lot better represented. Even when it’s just the auto attacks, none of the feels truly useless. With the staff…not so much, even though it’s still (in theory) a cool weapon.
Maybe if the staff was ‘increased in speed’ a bit, it would be more playable. Like for example, if all skills would activate 10% faster, projectiles fly 10% faster, eruption’d actiavte 10% faster, etc.
If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.
That’s the right question
I would like if they keep their word, however if it cannot be done (that sux, but happens), I would like them to tell the community what they are working to, in a concrete way, so ppl know what they can expect (are the working on the scepter/staff now, so those will be viable in the future? What changes are they planning to release? etc…). The Ele mechanic is greatly designed, however it has it’s problems (no weapon swap – which is understandable of course. But being forced to melee with a caster class, when you look at the weak sides – low armor and HP, doesn’t seem so fair). Of course it is an option, but ppl want other options too —-> long range play. Every class has it, so why Ele doesn’t?You have some valid points, and it would be nice to be able to get some insights on what Anet has in store for us.
The problem with ‘rebalancing’ the staff as I see it, is that it’s pretty hard to determine how big the power gap between it and daggers truly is. Daggers are more powerful currently, I don’t deny that, but they’re also more popular. I’ve read on these very forums about some people (who are better players than me) getting pretty good results with the staff, even in sPvP. So it’ll be tough to separate the facts from the theory/popularity votes if you know what I mean. In principle (not saying it is), it could be that the staff is actually perfectly balanced compared to the daggers. But there’s arguably more information and discussions going on about highend dagger builds than there is about the staff. And then there’s the combo fields, that obviously get stronger the more players you have near you. So how does one go about balancing that?
But I agree with you, I do sometimes feel ‘forced’ to go melee. The daggers has so many flashy, but also useful tools. Almost everything it has is viable, and the different roles (fire damage, water healing, air speed/stun and earth bleeding) are lot better represented. Even when it’s just the auto attacks, none of the feels truly useless. With the staff…not so much, even though it’s still (in theory) a cool weapon.
You’re right about the popularity, therefore problem with estimating the balance between D/D and Staff. I don’t doubt that Staff can be very good in the hands of a skilled player, but also the fact that ppl usually expect some other class when they see a Staff-wielder (mesmer, necro) often favors the Staff Ele player in the form of surprise (in PVP of course).
I’m also a huge fan of Staff, in fact I levelled my Ele with it, I didn’t care that it is slower/more difficult than with other weapon sets. But with recent changes, I was forced to start using D/D also, to be more of a benefit to my group (when the EA was cutted to 1/4 of efectiveness for staff wielders).
With that another annoying thing came out, the inability to fast-switch weapons/optional traits outside of combat, when I need to become a ranged in instances/WvW. That is quite annoying to cover my whole screen with hero tab, stop moving and just switch everything manually, which is delaying the whole group
#ELEtism 4ever
#ELEtism 4ever
If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.
Really now? I did not know that. It’s an interesting thought…would ‘fixing’ that issue bring the staff up to speed?
Surely it will help at least partially, because faster targets are often ignoring your fields completely, even if you cast them in their path. You can easily test this, just try to cast lava font on a static monster (so latency will not affect the position of it) and you will se that the first “tick” of dmg is applied after a while, then go to the location where are some mobs which cast this spell (embers or destroyers) and you will se that it hits you right as the monster cast it.
This seems quite unfair and it makes the long animation problem even bigger with the staff
#ELEtism 4ever
The thing with the staff is that while individually the skills are subpar, combined they actually become quite decent. The skills are meant to be combined with either other players or yourself. That’s why the initial cast of fields is weak. An arrow shot through a fire field causes 320 or so extra damage, or chill with ice fields, or regen with healing fields.
And yes, they have long cooldowns. But if you swap attunements often enough, you’ll find they’re done with the cooldown by the time you get back to them.
I know this isn’t news to most people who post here. Yet reading some of the posts here, I feel like it is. What helped for me personally though, was Glyph of Elemental Power. Used in earth or water, it gives all your spells a chance to snare, which makes it easier to hit targets, which in turn have another chance to become snared. Walking through a churning earth just turned 2 seconds cripple into a 7 seconds cripple. Try it sometimes, and I think you’ll find it enchances the staff’s playstyle immensely.
I have already stated that you won’t beat ever a decent player with a staff, no decent player will ever walk over ‘eruption’ ( no churning earth which is dagger OH earth 5).
Against a r40+ warrior/guardian/mesmer/thief for example you won’t survive long enough to cast another frozen ground, they can flipping teleport/leap at you every 10s or so and burst you down in a fraction of that time
You can try to combine all skills you want, but the profession above can eat 3/4 of your health in 2-3s by pressing 4 buttons maximum, you’re quickly pushed in defensive mode without any effective way to retaliate because your CC skills have long CD and are quite unrealiable, furthermore you lack strong single target skills
The last paragraph of Arheundels reply is very true. With staff no matter what you do in PvP melee will be right at your tail all the time.
But what caught my eye was the “you´re quickly pushed in defensive mode” part. With ele this is basicly true with every weapon combination. Even with D/D you have to actually kite melee or you will get slaughtered. That´s the playstyle and I´m OK with that, but it also complicates things alot.
Eg burning speed needing a bit distance to actually hit the pestering melee, or not to even mention fire grab. (honestly I miss like 75%)
So for me the only logical weapon set is S/D. You can do damage while kiting and buff your defense safely at a distance. After all the best defense is not to get hit
I love D/D but every time I go back to it I always have the nagging feeling when I die that I would´t have died if I would have ran with S/D and kept the distance.
I am by no means an expert at playing staff. I’m only level 41 and played d/d mostly. Back when I played my mesmer I remember a staff ele that was DESTROYING in sPvP. Basically whichever team had that elementalist would win the match. She just kept running around and laying down fields which basically made players decide between a hallway of death or running around the fields…which if they did that would never catch up to her.
One particular combo I saw, that I thought was effective was that she would run away and leave down Static field, after that Unsteady Ground followed by Eruption and then Lava Font. The thing I noticed about her is that she never stood still and always placed her fields between you and herself. Catching up to her was practically impossible and you were taking damage the whole time.
I was so impressed that the first time I did sPvP i tried out staff. I failed miserably. I don’t know what skills, traits, gear, etc she had. I wish she would pop up and make a staff guide the way darkphoenix made a d/d guide, because I think there is some great things you can do with staff in the hands of a skilled player. I’m not good at figuring things out on my own. …I have to rely on guides to teach me how to play well haha and there isn’t a tell all like darkphoenix’s d/d guide for staff users.
Use the “look behind” key when running forward, turns your camera behind you while you keep running forward, simple trick but very effective If you’re running D/D it’s great to “look behind” click to target then go into your RTL > Updraft rotation when the group chasing you turns back and one or two are left chasing, especially fun when a SB thief is trying to close the gap.
YOU KNOW THERE AIN’T NO REST FOR THE WICKED, TILL WE CLOSE OUR EYES FOR GOOD.
Once proud member of Extraordinary Gentlemen [EXG]{DESO4LIFE}
Once proud member of Extraordinary Gentlemen [EXG]{DESO4LIFE}
Love the explination of Ele’s…
but they forgot: Highest Survivability, Best Escapes, Completely cannot be CC’d, Best Healing, Best Boons, best Mobility in game with strong damage.
Same thing as ppl say about Thieves – Best burst + Best escape + shadowstepping all over the place + totally invisible and with ultra-healing.
Same trolls everywhere….
But I like my 30/30/30/30/30 build too, enjoying it so much
#ELEtism 4ever
#ELEtism 4ever
Gondram – D/D Aurashare Elementalist
Kinsman Redeemer – Hammer/Shout Warrior
Proud Member of Opposition – Jade Quarry Oldtimer
Kinsman Redeemer – Hammer/Shout Warrior
Proud Member of Opposition – Jade Quarry Oldtimer