Guild Wars 2

I’d like some feedback on any optimization I can do of my current staff build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEQQFAWhImIbwR5wjDIEFmQGOUECjQ5xMsD2AA-jkCBYLIoLAkIBJ7pIasltRr0JsVXBR9ATdiIq2boIa1iAYGD-w

0/0/20/20/30 (earth’s embrace, rock solid, cleansing wave, arcane abatement, elemental attunement, blasting staff, and evasive arcana)

Glyph heal, arcane blast (I can’t believe I ever ran without this since it’s a life saver on blasting water fields), armor of earth, mist form, and FGS elite

Exotic PVT armor

Exotic Knights accessories with exquisite ruby jewels (except for rare soldiers back)

Exotic soldiers Staff (Berserker’s staff used to obtain 25 stacks of bloodlust, soldier’s used with superior sigil of battle after 25 stacks obtained)

Superior sharpening stone & chocolate omnomberry cream (bringing buff duration to 75%… no I won’t get 80% because I refuse to do token PVE dungeons for a 5% increase since all I do is WvW).

Noticed a large increase in survivability since I’m now rocking 2,700+ armor (and close to 3,000 when in earth attunement) and 16.5k health. What I’m not sure on is whether the 2 seconds of stability to group (and myself) is worth the loss of the grandmaster water trait (cleansing on regen). I have personal stability on AoE trait and utility (both with 75% boon duration) and stun break on AoE and mist form utilites (not sure if AoE trait also stun breaks).

You seem to be going down the same path I tried a few months ago. Quick notes:

- tanky enough for frontlinish stuff
- good for destroying seige
- damage is good but predictable, wont make opponents panic
- I found EA to be mediocre without some kind of endurance boost. If you find yourself only making good use of the heal it may not be worth it.
- you have enough passive defense that you shouldn’t need two defensive utilities except in extreme situations. I loathe mist form because it encourages a clumsy playstyle when used for escape.
- the 2sec stability trait sounds good, but unless you change your attunement rotation to swap to earth at just the right time (usually initial engagement) its useless.
- about stunbreakers: for zerging stability may be preferable. With that much toughness you can usually eat an unexpected stun without much trouble, unless being focused or in the kill zone (don’t be there or have stability).

Food for thought: being too tanky on elementalist is bad because it encourages slow wits and flat feet. Personal opinion.

I’ve enjoyed a rather odd stat combination lately that I’ll be changing for Celestial as soon as I can cobble the armor together.

30/0/10/0/30
Cleric’s Armor
Celestial Trinkets
Runes are all +Might Duration
Rampager’s Staff – Sigil of Battle

The damage is pretty bad, but that’s not really why I like it.

I can keep 15-25 Might stacks up almost all the time, plus permanent Fury on all of my party members and myself.

If the situation turns bad I can easily switch to a support footing, toss out some quick burst healing with Water finishers, throw down some CC with Chill and Static fields, and go back to putting out AoE damage and stacking Might again.

With a decent amount of Might stacks the damage goes from “Bad” to “Okay,” but I figure the amount of damage I’m adding by buffing everyone around me balances that out well enough.

Thanks for the feedback floppy. Before this build I tried running valk armor and beserk trinkets/staff and found that while the damage was decent, my survivability was low if I was caught off guard or if a thief broke through our front lines and hit me while I was at 1200 range of the zerg.

I’m curious, would you mind sharing what setup you are running now for WvW? Especially if it’s staff, since that’s why I made this guy (played a roaming thief for a long time but since I’m on SOS server, it’s mainly zergs now vs. small man roaming.

PinCushion …I havent tried out that fire trait, but are you saying when you blast a fire field you are giving fury to other people?

covenn.7165:

PinCushion …I havent tried out that fire trait, but are you saying when you blast a fire field you are giving fury to other people?

Yeah. It gives Fury to your whole party (or nearest 5 people) every time you blast-finish a fire field.

I usually have around 20-30 seconds of Fury at all times, as does everyone around me.

PinCushion.7390:

covenn.7165:

PinCushion …I havent tried out that fire trait, but are you saying when you blast a fire field you are giving fury to other people?

Yeah. It gives Fury to your whole party (or nearest 5 people) every time you blast-finish a fire field.

I usually have around 20-30 seconds of Fury at all times, as does everyone around me.

Are you sure it works on every fire field? I’ve been using the same grandmaster trait as a central part of my current build but I only seem to get the Fury when I blast my own fire field. It’s hard to tell with all the fields flying around though.

Either way I usually combine Burning Retreat and Arcane Wave whenever both are off cooldown anyway to keep perma fury on me and my team. This is a very nice trait.

Edit: Tested it with an ele friend and it did indeed grant fury when I blasted her fire fields. Most likely my problem is other people throwing their field down a fraction of a second before my fire field goes down.

Slashco.3927:

[…]

I’m curious, would you mind sharing what setup you are running now for WvW? Especially if it’s staff, since that’s why I made this guy (played a roaming thief for a long time but since I’m on SOS server, it’s mainly zergs now vs. small man roaming.

My setup tends to change regularly, but with a staff it’s usually some variation of

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEUQFAWhImKboR4wjEAEFm8yoQICFVARRxM7A-jEyAorgQiCS2DKBSkxWJLiGrqmIqW9g5BwECQ3YA-w

The third utility changes frequently between Lightning Flash, Armor of Earth and Signet of Earth. I want to love Armor of Earth more but I find long cooldown skills annoying in WvW.

Food changes depending on opponents (how many enemy necros on the map, are you in a strong group, etc).

This particular build is for CC/damage so needs to be played aggressively. My preference is about one dodgeroll beside the frontline. Best positioning is beside enemy zergs path for as long as you can get away with it, and Lightning Flash is great for getting there.

I guess I should mention this is on blackgate, so against the better guilds you can’t get away with much and have to coordinate with teammates more Haven’t found any formulas that always work against smart opponents so its best to be a little adaptable (see frequently changing utility slot).

edit: now that I think about it, if you only have exotics it might be a good idea to start with a highly survivable build like yours and evolve it along with your playstyle. Thats how I got to this build and I had a good time along the way.

I’m running a similar build for d/d frontline atm, except with more armor, different runes/jewels/foods/utilities etc. I do not see the need for staff eles to get tanky because you are supposed to be on the outside supporting and dpsing. If you are getting caught out of position a lot then sure, use tanky gear until you learn to position. Otherwise I would definitely go with more damage.

For pure support staff ele, I think you have a pretty sexy build, especially 20 in earth for group stability and blasting staff. The only thing it really lacks is crit dmg and crit chance. You dont really need 30 in arcane imho. You could take 10 out of it and put it in the air trait line and be doing a lot more dmg without losing much in the way of survivability. It also wont hurt your buffs as most of your buffs come from making fire, water, and electric fields from others to blast from.
This build is what I use for both s/d and for staff in wvw. The only change I make is for s/d I change the air 30 trait to “fresh air”.
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.1|6.1c.h2|0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.7h.1c.7h.1c.7h.1c.7h.1c.7h.1c.71j|3u.d17.3u.d17.3t.d17.31k.d17.3t.d17.3u.d17|0.u39c.0.k56.k58|2e.1|1m.20.26.25.28|e

Ehecatl.9172:

PinCushion.7390:

covenn.7165:

PinCushion …I havent tried out that fire trait, but are you saying when you blast a fire field you are giving fury to other people?

Yeah. It gives Fury to your whole party (or nearest 5 people) every time you blast-finish a fire field.

I usually have around 20-30 seconds of Fury at all times, as does everyone around me.

Are you sure it works on every fire field? I’ve been using the same grandmaster trait as a central part of my current build but I only seem to get the Fury when I blast my own fire field. It’s hard to tell with all the fields flying around though.

Either way I usually combine Burning Retreat and Arcane Wave whenever both are off cooldown anyway to keep perma fury on me and my team. This is a very nice trait.

Edit: Tested it with an ele friend and it did indeed grant fury when I blasted her fire fields. Most likely my problem is other people throwing their field down a fraction of a second before my fire field goes down.

Burning Retreat → Eruption → Dodge

Eruption → Lava Font

Arcane Wave on cooldown

It’s always nice when you’re ramming a door in WvW, get interrupted, and half your team already has 10-20 stacks of Might and Fury on them.

PinCushion.7390:

Burning Retreat -> Eruption -> Dodge

Eruption -> Lava Font

Arcane Wave on cooldown

It’s always nice when you’re ramming a door in WvW, get interrupted, and half your team already has 10-20 stacks of Might and Fury on them.

Indeed it is! Love the playstyle Persisting Flames offers. Basically serving as a mini battery of offensive boons for your entire party.

Working with 30/0/20/0/20 now. Kind of lacking for high crit damage, but I get 10% extra damage on burning foes, 10% more damage in fire attunement, and 10% more damage when enemies are within 600 range (Good for when something does get close to me or for small scale skirmishes). I just wish I could drop 5 from arcane to earth so I could get 10% more damage when my endurance is full without losing Blasting Staff. That’d be a full 40% damage increase under the right conditions.

And Obsidian Focus so I take a little less damage when channeling meteor shower under heavy enemy fire. That plus switching to Earth as I start the channel for Earth’s extra toughness and the Protection from Elemental Attunement makes me pretty tanky just long enough to get it off and dodge roll away.