Guild Wars 2

So, I have a long and successful history playing Mesmer, but it’s time for a long term change. I’ve decided that Elementalist will be my next great endeavor. I also happen to be well on my way to crafting Bifrost, which is my personal favorite of all the legendary weapons.

I’m extremely excited for what is to come with Elementalist gameplay, but I’ve run into a dilemma. I love the celestial double dagger play style; getting up in peoples’ faces and brawling. Seriously, I love it. However, it seem that a play style similar to this is impossible with a staff. Everywhere I look, people want to make glass cannon staff Ele’s and it feels extremely generic. There must be some creative builds out there for me to experiment with. Anyone have any leads or input? Perhaps I’m just crazy and a tanky/brawling staff Ele isn’t possible. Like I said, I’m brand new here and I’m trying to get on my feet.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

Hello LCV,

Elementalist is a great class with lots of utility. However, if you want to run staff, you might not want to be in the frontline. Staff is designed with 1200 range in mind. That said, it is certainly not impossible. Just have a look at these:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Scrap-The-Zeitgeist-Staff-PvP-Tutorial-Video
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Azilyi-s-Zeitgeist-Staff-Ele-Duels-Video

Some possible builds for WvW zergs:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Staff-elementalist-WvW-zergbuilds

If you want very high damage, this build is probably for you:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/WvW-Suppressor

Actually, playing with a staff gives you the potential to be even tankier than D/D eles because of their water fields and long-ranged CC’s. They’re great for PVP because they can dance around in their AOE’s and destroy anyone that stays inside of them for too long.

You’ll want to practice a lot though and learn how to combo your skills so they’ll be most efficient, though. If not, you’ll find yourself either not doing enough damage to kill anyone or not being able to survive well enough depending on whether you over-emphasize offense or defense. D/D is more forgiving in this respect because you don’t have to worry about aiming/timing your skills as much.

Once upon a time, in a certain tournament (NA region), there was a staff ele who was so tanky that he was able to man-mode the center node in Legend of Foefire throughout the fight by himself. It was so boring to watch yet so awe-inspiring at how tanky an ele can go. His team won the championship and NA region was tainted with the bunker meta ever after… Oh wait, currently not anymore but you get the idea. It is possible but only works in Team Fight.

IMO its not viable. You may experiment with buids but I doubt anything will be good enough from a spvp point of view, I mean there will always be s/d and d/d builds which are better for spvp

. Staff is best for ranged gameplay – Hence PVE/WvW are where it works best. May be generic…but its soo fun to drop fireballs on BG :P…..so many bags

Tanky brawling Ele has always been the best spec for the Ele.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Staff_Support

Celestial Staff Bunker is very strong, has been seen in top tier play, and is great at offering a team a solid mixture of damage, support, and control. Honestly in my opinion, both Celestial Staff Ele and Celestial Dagger Ele are incredibly powerful and viable.

Play what u see fit to your favorite, I would suggest u to. Tanky or Zerker, D/D or staff, any way u feel happy with because anything never be useless (event tanky thief,lol).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMKc24wzBd0AGAGpqQ4EQAoHOOFMDCiA-T1BFABBqEkgHAQTK/aTHQiq/Az+DAcBAIFg5KjA-w

How is that for tanky for ya?

Rangerdeity.5847:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMKc24wzBd0AGAGpqQ4EQAoHOOFMDCiA-T1BFABBqEkgHAQTK/aTHQiq/Az+DAcBAIFg5KjA-w

How is that for tanky for ya?

Tank doesn’t just mean toughness, based on your link yolk have around 14.5k health.

since staff ele is a ranged class, people tend to make them as glassy as possible. If you want a tanky build, celestial 0/0/2/6/6 with str rune is pretty good, but it’s strictly for spvp only. I found this build has more versatility as a roamer in spvp than any roamer classes out there.

Marmatt.8590:

Rangerdeity.5847:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMKc24wzBd0AGAGpqQ4EQAoHOOFMDCiA-T1BFABBqEkgHAQTK/aTHQiq/Az+DAcBAIFg5KjA-w

How is that for tanky for ya?

Tank doesn’t just mean toughness, based on your link yolk have around 14.5k health.

26k health is a waste honestly if they can get 14k of your hp out then then another 12k isnt going to help you anyway. besides focused more on additional methods of mitigation if you look at traits

Staff seems much more dynamic (and fun) in sPvP… I would suggest trying that out and see if you like it.