Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing my Ele for quite a while, played most of the fotm build, mostly DD. I’m running glass canon D/D usually in regular PvE. I also have a set of PVT and Knight gear. But for WvW I want to play something else and not the typical x/x/x20-30/30 builds..

Atm I’m running 10/25/0/15/20 build, something I just tossed together quickly, with PVT gear and zerker trinkets. Mostly I want to balance the offensive and defensive and not going for pure support. But my toughness is still really low, so might have to change for knight’s armor instead. It just feels impossible to balance properly considering the low base health and armor…

Edit: So I changed the spec a little bit. It looks like this

Fire: 10 – VI
Air: 30 – VI, VII, XI
Water: 20 – VI, V
Arcana: 10 – I

Utility: Arcana Blast, Arcana Shield, Mistfor, Tornado elite
Runes: Superior runes of scholar
Knight’s Armor and Zerker/knight trinkets

I decided not to go for some of the most traditional traits like elemental attunement and staff aoe radius trait (I personally don’t think it’s that big of a deal, since ppl don’t tend to stay in aoe rings anyway). I also used as many damage amplifier traits as possible since I also have scholar runes. Still debating on tweaking with traits or utilites to get some protection.

For what it’s worth, Staff Elementalists are considered absolutely vital to organized WvW groups, and will generally run 0/0/10/30/30, which I know you wanted to avoid, but is sadly the most appropriate build for the format, with an organized group. The ability of a Staff Elementalist to throw down Water Fields when the commander calls for it makes them indispensable for high level WvW play.

30 in air isn’t really worth it for staff, since you won’t really benefit from fresh air. Fire attunement is pretty much where most of your damage comes from, but a good staff ele in WvW doesn’t just spam fire skills, but also uses air, water and earth for support etc. In most cases i switch through my attunements pretty fast depending on what needs to be done. Still need practise rotations though.

Blasting staff is a pretty big deal actually, even though you disagreed with it. Personally i find it detrimental for staff ele in WvW. For example, your water fields are bigger, which means you can heal more effectively, static becomes bigger, which makes it easier to stun. And your range is basically a little further thanks to the bigger radius of your aoe’s.

I went with celestial armor and celestial/cavalier mix of trinkets. And trait is 0/10/10/30/20. So you can see i still put a lot of attention to water because of it’s ability to lose conditions quite easily, and at the same time it’s perfect for support.

I run with 0/25/0/15/30. A little glassier than my old 0/20/0/20/30, but I get a bit more damage outta it from Vuln procs. Still redoing Weapons/Armor, but settled on 1/2 Knight, 1/2 Valkyrie on Trinkets.

I went high Arcana after game release when most went zerker for the easy kills versus the many new characters. Interestingly, the vocal majority switched to Arcana after it was nerfed, while I specked into full power, partial crit. My last build was a damage alternative to the Cavalier craze going on. Staff was the reason I chose full power. Staff is utility. Lighting is not the best, but there are times to use it. Power is best for lighting. Meteor Shower is for stand-offs, like at keeps. Power is best for all fire spells. Put might on top of high power and you get massive returns, especially when a 30% crit brings the unexpected two or three crit string thanks to fury or Arcane Power. The right spec for staff is 30/x/x/x/x. Try it before you knock it.

try out staff with powerful aura build or d/f group-support auramancer and STACK DEM AURAS!!!

If you are going with Staff in wvw, then go full zerk build. You’re a free kill in any 1v1 situation anyway so might as well run with a zerg and provide heavy fire support.