Guild Wars 2

DISCLAIMER: This is a video for EXPERIENCED players. You must already have a keen understanding of your abilities to understand the content of this video.

The First Video

Please be sure to watch these videos in order. If you have not seen the first, you will have a hard time following the second, as I make plenty of references to the combos I showed there.

Who I am

I do not profess to be the best elementalist in the game (not even in my guild), but I do consider myself more than competent. Over a year ago, with several others, I pioneered the ‘Churn Bomb’ and created a video which brought it into the mainstream. You can find the video at the end of this post.

Top 1k players

I have recently wormed my way into the top 1k players in Solo Q using the build displayed here. Although this may not be a monumental achievement for some, accomplishing this as a glass staff elementalist was no easy task for me. I am quite proud of this accomplishment.

Dealing with Thieves

The last video, many people asked how I might deal with thieves as a glass staff. I promised the video, and here it is. Unfortunately, finding 1v1 duels with thieves in an active tournament was more difficult than you might think (they tend to be pretty darned opportunistic). But actually, the main problem was finding a thief that would stick around to the end of a fight.

If a fight isnt going in a thief’s favor, It’s not uncommon for them to shadow refuge and leave, which really didn’t make for good television. I did get one or two clips, but mostly I arranged a guildy-thief to duel me to provide the shots I needed. That being said, this won’t work on all thieves, but this should show the fundamentals and help you to step up your game.

Skip to 6:25 in the video to get straight to the thief content.

Special thanks to “Honey Nut Charios” for providing ample duels and info.

Comments

Please leave comments and questions. I am more than happy to reply! I apologize for the second post, but the first thread was getting a little over-bearing and hard for new viewers to follow/catch up.

The Build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWnEEFcYnBWGQlYAI8gADKQUwiyjYmxGA-TkAAyCsIqRVjrGTNyas1M+A

The Videos

Guide Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDX7lo1xtak

Guide Part 2 [6:25 for thief content]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roANj4g0Skc&feature=youtu.be

Churn Bomb [1 Year Old]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUeSjnQmllA

Ugh, I have the same exact problem with glass thieves. Was sort of hoping you had the solution, haha.
I noticed that since your current build is also pretty much exactly the same as mine is, though I still prefer Blasting Staff to EA and Zerk over Celestial, there aren’t really any build changes I can do to help me with them either.
Didn’t know about that powder combo though, that does help a bit.

P Fun Daddy.1208:

Ugh, I have the same exact problem with glass thieves. Was sort of hoping you had the solution, haha.
I noticed that since your current build is also pretty much exactly the same as mine is, though I still prefer Blasting Staff to EA and Zerk over Celestial, there aren’t really any build changes I can do to help me with them either.
Didn’t know about that powder combo though, that does help a bit.

Thanks for watching!

I used to believe that blasting staff was a requirement for staff builds, given that it was so hard to land the combos I’ve shown. But as I practiced, I actually found that having the extra radius did very little for actually landing your AoEs.

90% of all your damage comes from when you manage to interrupt your opponent. Immobilize. Unsteady Ground. Static field. And if they’re already not moving, the size of the field mattered very little.

In fact, Blasting staff serves as a major detriment for Static field. The larger field gives your opponents more space to move around inside the circle without actually hitting the sides.

Even while freecasting from range, I found that the AoE is already large enough to encompass most points (in sPvP) so you dont need to worry about it reaching out farther.

The only notable difference is in meteor shower. Blasting staff increases the size of each falling meteor, and you’ll notice a visible difference in the damage with the tornado/meteor combo.

But I won’t ever go back. It was a great learning tool, but I turned it down for arcane mastery for this build because the reduced heal cooldown is almost paramount.

Yeah, I’m not quite willing to give up my blasting staff yet.
I actually dropped Elemental Attunement, not arcane mastery, as the defensive boost doesn’t help if you’re running zerker (I tried celestial and didn’t really like the feel of it) and I get much more out of having quicker recharging blast finishers.

I keep blasting staff for:
A) meteor shower, my main surprise attack,
(Edit: This is a “B”, then a “)”. Not a smiley) Lava Font, as it forces a dodge (or does 1-3k damage if they stay) if I use it right on them,
C) Greater damage on multiple targets, which is really important,
D) Eruption, sort of,
E) It’s hard to stay in my water fields, or to get my teammates in them, when they are small, and gives me greater freedom for blasting. You miss it a lot when you want to blast a fire field to hit an enemy, and give yourself and an ally might, and especially when you earth dodge out of your water field.

Probably just a playstyle difference though, I might try dropping Blasting Staff again at some point if I feel like I can still land my stuff and stay versatile, but for now it stays.

P Fun Daddy.1208:

Yeah, I’m not quite willing to give up my blasting staff yet.
I actually dropped Elemental Attunement, not arcane mastery, as the defensive boost doesn’t help if you’re running zerker (I tried celestial and didn’t really like the feel of it) and I get much more out of having quicker recharging blast finishers.

I keep blasting staff for:
A) meteor shower, my main surprise attack,
(Edit: This is a “B”, then a “)”. Not a smiley) Lava Font, as it forces a dodge (or does 1-3k damage if they stay) if I use it right on them,
C) Greater damage on multiple targets, which is really important,
D) Eruption, sort of,
E) It’s hard to stay in my water fields, or to get my teammates in them, when they are small, and gives me greater freedom for blasting. You miss it a lot when you want to blast a fire field to hit an enemy, and give yourself and an ally might, and especially when you earth dodge out of your water field.

Probably just a playstyle difference though, I might try dropping Blasting Staff again at some point if I feel like I can still land my stuff and stay versatile, but for now it stays.

A great point about the lava font. Something I wanted to mention in the video as well. With Combo #1, without Blasting staff its really hard to put the lava font to encompass both the eruption and the target after he’s been immobilized. Often times, you’ll have to choose between one or the other.

Still, great stuff. Zerkers can be a lot of fun