Guild Wars 2

good or bad idea? o.O

This is mainly focused on abusing the staff weapon of the class utilizing the massive range on it’s spells

I play it and it works great.

Walls and doors are your best defense.

Works fantastically, depending on your build and who you run with. Just don’t get caught alone. Super funtimes if you run with a guild group in vent.

Would recommend traiting Air over Fire; higher damage payoff, all in all.

For glass canon you will need atleast 30 in water, 20 in air or you will be wasting your time.

Glass canon also needs you to stack precision. Get pies.

You will also need to master ele burst combos and learn not to get upset if you die alot.

I run 30/30/0/10/0 Glasscannon. And it works just fine. I use Arcane shield , Mist form and Signet of fire and Ether Renewal. Know when to attack and you will deal massive damage and see the enemy melt before you. Yes sometimes some warrior/thief gets close and wipe me in 2-3 secs but that is part of the game. Try to stay at long range and if possible try to reduce the view angel the enemy players have to you. Like stay close to a cliff, wall or something that hide you from most of the opponents. Your aoe will hit anyone in the kill box even those you can’t see. I find that Ether Renewal is really good to remove conditions and have a nice short cooldown. Remember STAY SHARP you the juiciest target in www but one of the most deadly to.

Seafarer’s Rest – Aeeon

Just keep in mind that you aren’t dps’ing while dead. Might make things relative.

Fuzzion.2504:

For glass canon you will need atleast 30 in water, 20 in air or you will be wasting your time.

Glass canon also needs you to stack precision. Get pies.

You will also need to master ele burst combos and learn not to get upset if you die alot.

I’d say less water more fire/arcane for glass cannon. Anyway, I ran around with 30/20/0/020. If you don’t care for blasting staff and bit longer boons and better attunement recharge then I’d go with 10 arcane.

Novalight.7568:

Fuzzion.2504:

For glass canon you will need atleast 30 in water, 20 in air or you will be wasting your time.

Glass canon also needs you to stack precision. Get pies.

You will also need to master ele burst combos and learn not to get upset if you die alot.

I’d say less water more fire/arcane for glass cannon. Anyway, I ran around with 30/20/0/020. If you don’t care for blasting staff and bit longer boons and better attunement recharge then I’d go with 10 arcane.

Perhaps.

I currently run —>

25 air
30 water
15 arcane

Future spec is full pow/vit/tuff from my current glass canon with

10 Air
30 Water
30 Arcane

I’ve run 30 20 0 0 20 for my staff WvW zerg build since head start and it works amazingly well. You can singlehandedly turn the tide of a battle with your AoE damage. Just never go anywhere alone. Your single target damage is poor, range means nothing with all the gap closers and nobody is going to stand in your eruption, ice spike, and lava font 1v1. Played properly, you should rarely die unless your zerg gets wiped. This build is why I have an alt with bags full of Badges of Honor.

@Fuzzion
Water doesn’t boost your overall damage. Fire and air does. 0/25/0/30/15 would not be considered glass cannon, as it is mostly defensive in terms of traits.

A glass cannon build aims for high base and burst damage (in GW2) thereby sacrificing defense.

@OP
I would recommend 20 fire/30 air/20 arcane (for Blasting Staff). Critical damage, crit and power gear.

Malcastus.6240:

@Fuzzion
Water doesn’t boost your overall damage.

wad? “Vital Striking”, “Piercing Shards”, “Bountiful Power” to name some…. to me they all look like GREAT boosts to overall damage and compared to fire traits have the advantage of giving you self sustaining abilities.

I use what I like to call a “tanky” cannon build.
I have a mix of all stats, that synergises well with what I like to do.
I run 20 Fire / 10 Air / 20 Water / 20 Arcane

My build focuses on might stacking, which when runed and sigiled correctly, will grant you a consistent 12 stacks of might easily in a normal battle. Oh, and might last for 30 seconds, which is always nice.

You can go full glass cannon, but expect to pay a lot of repair bills.

You should put at least 20 points into arcane for the bigger aoe radius. full glass cannon would be 30 fire 20 air for might when you cast fire and boons when you cast glyphs. If you want to spec a bit more support go 20 air 30 water for regen and condition removal.

Grevender.9235:

Malcastus.6240:

@Fuzzion
Water doesn’t boost your overall damage.

wad? “Vital Striking”, “Piercing Shards”, “Bountiful Power” to name some…. to me they all look like GREAT boosts to overall damage and compared to fire traits have the advantage of giving you self sustaining abilities.

I meant the overall trait sections. Points in fire = higher power, longer condition duration. Points in air = higher crit chance and damage. Points in water = healing and vitality… Sure, you can aim for Vital Striking with 10 points spent (while going deep into fire and air) and it would benefit you neatly, but if you suddenly aim for 25 points in water for Bountiful Power, you are missing out on the damage that fire and air provides. It is also dependant on the boons of others. Piercing Shards will give you a bonus against vulnerable targets, and only if casting in water attunement. The only real damage spell there is, is Ice Spike, which miiight hit (very easy to dodge). You just can’t rely on your enemies not having someone to purge conditions (or have no condition removal themselves), thereby rendering it nigh useless.

Survival is good, but OP wanted a glass cannon build that relies on dishing out damage from a relative safe place. Going deep into water traits just doesn’t come close to specializing in damage, using the fire and air traits. 10 points for Vital Striking would work though.

2x scepter glass cannon ele = amazing
1 x glass cannon ele, not as cool – might just be me but I have problems with the other glass cannons, cant drop them before the open up (stealth →bs →dead). Before that I’ve got everything on cd except the earthquake I’ve been holding onto for stealth bs and churning earth (bad idea to use at this point).

Does Glass cannon Ele normally mean Berserker, or Rampager gear. I would like to try getting a set of armor for just WvW and running Glass cannon with it, but i don’t want to spend the absurd amount of gold trying to get all of the Powerful bloods required.

Would it help if i supplemented with ruby orbs/zerker jewelery/+condition damage runes?

pure glass cannon is full berserker set like I have (most possible damage). It’s great for wvw, where you can nuke to your heart’s content and not worry about survivability since you can hide in the zerg. This gear setup is terrible for dungeons, tho. Something to keep in mind.

It’s much more fun rush inside enemy zerg than hide inside own. It’ depends. I think that it’s much more important stay alive than deal huge damage.

4x glass cannon eles in x/D. 1x super tanky / invisible mesmer. Mesmer places portal between the 4 eles and the enemy zerg.
Eles start with churning earth, then use the portal into the enemies zerg.
Super Damage achieved.

Bad idea.

I use a heavy defensive spec and wreck glass cannons. Glass cannons sacrafice health, mobility and healing for critical and crit damage. Glass cannons get face planted in 1v1. Imagine a 2v1; you instantly die. Vaporized.

Glass Cannon Ele = Free and easy kill. Please continue speccing this way :P

Keep in mind that glass cannon staff ele in wvw has a lot to do with your positioning , and when to move forward or fall back. Of cource you’ll be a juicy target if you roam alone.

I’ve died less built full zerk w/staff than a d/d bunker build, because you had to play smart. d/d can afford more wrecklessness :p (and more fun)

Glass cannon ele is ok for zergs or defended behind a wall, but it definitely shouldn’t be your only set. It mostly serves to speed up battles that you would win anyway, or maybe aoe burst while one else is is holding the attention. Carry a second set in case you want to solo or do smaller group content. It’s great for sieges though, since you’re either just slamming doors or popping out from behind a wall to defend.