Guild Wars 2

is it viable for anything besides a support role?

i like the whole being a Wizard using a Staff…

It is viable as artillery/support weapon, in a 1vs1 situation you can do good/great against a ranged profession but against meles you’ve barely got enough steam to get away or to keep him at distance, for instance I woudn’t try to fight a warrior with a staff but you can do good against rangers/engineers/mesmers.

You want to have always lightning flash-mist form with you for easy get away and of course the VIII trait in arcana " blasting staff" , it’s very good for ice spike, eruption and static field ( unfortunately it seems lava font doesn’t get much benefit from it ).

I’d recommend to use staff in maps where you can sit on high places while shooting downward : Capricorn-Forest of Niflhel-Legacy of Foefire for ex, always use snare skills after dmg skills: E.G eruption followed by frozen ground to snare the foes and obtain frost armor buff, if trapped in a 1vs1 situation try to force the enemy in walking inside your aoes, don’t try to hit him directly rather place every aoe between you and him.

If you can always fight in a small area, going up and down using burning retreat, unsteady ground and dodges back.

ty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I used d/d until i think it was level 54, then switched to a staff build for Bloodtide Coast.
I found staff to be just as effective and more fun.

I use both!

With some minor tweaks to my traits on-the-fly I can be good with D/D or Staff. Staff is more a support weapon, but does well in groups and where range is needed.

Problem is that staff have like one good dmg skill and it’s meteor shower. Other skills are just crap.

Junkpile.7439:

Problem is that staff have like one good dmg skill and it’s meteor shower. Other skills are just crap.

Ice Spike and Eruption deal plenty of damage as well.

Sure, but every noob can dodge those.

Staff is actually a great weapon for applying easily-disguised condition damage, particularly in frequent application of strong burning with bleeding bursts. Burning does a lot more damage than people give it credit for, and the ele’s inherent ability to stack might on pretty much any weapon set without traiting for it means you can do about 600 damage per second+any landed bleeds with Eruption+Evasive Arcana+any ambient aoe damage that’s coming from your attacks. The best part is that these condition-based builds synchronize extremely well with your most defensive specs, giving you decent offensive power while retaining your strong support ability as an elementalist. The staff’s biggest weakness at the moment is not really its damage capability but its relatively poor single-target CC in comparison to the sheer number of ground-targeted/slow activating skills. However, it’s great for hitting a concentrated spot or defending a capture point.

Is it viable? Yes.
Do S/D or D/D outperform staff? Yes
Do those still outperform staff if i’m a noob who cant dodge? No.

Now if i am serious, Staff is only useful in WvW when you’re defending points from the walls

Junkpile.7439:

Sure, but every noob can dodge those.

Every noob except NPCs. Where in the original post did it say anything about PvP? In PvE and dungeons, the staff does plenty damage.

I don’t understand how staff works. Here is my problems: when I use it, I always feel it is slow and passive. It works better if there are some people tank for me. But the idea of standing stationary in a long distance and drop some slow nukes do not seem very engaging. I can kite melee mobs with staff, but it seems much slower and rigid compared to D/D.

It would be cool if some experienced staff ele explain how it actually works.

Staff, and every other weapon ele can use, is viable as a support or damage-oriented role. In the end it boils down to preference. Choose the weapon you want and build accordingly. I personally carry one of every weapon I can use and swap when I feel like it (or when projectiles are reflected constantly..)

Illusion.1807:

I don’t understand how staff works. Here is my problems: when I use it, I always feel it is slow and passive. It works better if there are some people tank for me. But the idea of standing stationary in a long distance and drop some slow nukes do not seem very engaging. I can kite melee mobs with staff, but it seems much slower and rigid compared to D/D.

It would be cool if some experienced staff ele explain how it actually works.

Staff can be very mobile if you choose to run around and dodge like a maniac. You can also be stationary if you so choose – neither way is wrong or right. I find when I’m using staff, I use my skills to keep distance (chill, immobilize, fire 4, etc) whereas with daggers, I’m constantly chasing a mob to land hits.

Staff is great I find. You have a massive range of conditions you can apply and if you combine all of the combo field attacks it has with the Utlities Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave Ele’s can perform a huge number of combo attacks without assistance of other professions.
If you trait with Blasting staff your AoE covers an even larger distance which is great for both damage and support. If you play effectively you can also do a great job of keeping enemies away from you. In Earth cast skill 5 to stop the enemy from moving then cast skill 2 to deal bleeding and damage. Then skill 4 to cripple them when they come out of immobilization. Then Water skill 3 to chill them and water skill 2 to deal some more damage while they’re unable to move far. Switching to Air you can then cast skill 3 to send them flying backwards away from you and then skill 5 which will temporarily stop them as they run back towards you. (or course this is just an example and only really works on melee classes, but there are definitely ways to mitigate damage from casters as well.
Staff ele’s are awesome