Guild Wars 2

I’m curious to hear feedback from anyone that uses exclusively staff in WvW (mainly large group warfare) and glyphs. Specifically, I’m interested in hearing feedback on using air traits III (quick glyphs, 20% cooldown reduction) and VIII (inscription – grants boon based upon attunement when activating glyph).

1. Glyph of Elemental Harmony: 2 traits above grant extra boon and reduce primary heal’s cooldown from 25 seconds to 20 seconds. Does regen stack from inscription and glyph while in water attunement?

2. Glyph of Elemental Power: does the reduced cooldown of 36 seconds start on usage or on expiration of the buff given by the glyph? I don’t care that this is now becoming a stun-breaker, so please don’t derail the topic with comments on that aspect.

3. Glyph of Elementals: wiki says inscription doesn’t work with this and the cooldown doesn’t reset until the elemental dies or expires. Is this true?

For reference, I’m contemplating a 0/20/0/30/20 staff build with the 2 air traits mentioned above, with the standard 30 water (V, VIII, XI) and 20 (V, VIII) arcane traits.

Thanks.

While I don’t WvW I do use staff and glyphs and I can say that

1. The boons for inscription and the GoEH stack on all attunments

2. Cooldown starts at the end of casting

3. Glyph of Elementals does not work with incription and cooldown does not start until the elemental dies

Thanks for the answers. Hoping someone that frequents WvW can comment, as I’d like to know if the proposed traits and utilities are feasible.

Glyph heal is okay, personaly i still prefer ER for superb condition removal.
Glyph of elemental power is a good boost to your cc (water/earth), or damage mitigation if cast in air, but worthless in fire. Cd starts when used, so it does benefit from cd reduction.

Elemental glyphs are basicly worthless, and untill quite recently atleast elementals dying caused enemies to rally. If it´s the elite, go ahead, you´re not losing on much, but if it´s the utility, stay away from it and use the slot for something useful.

Grabbing first glyph trait is feasible, 2nd is debateable (might work, but is not optimal i think)

Thanks for the reply Strang. I’m planning on playing a strictly ranged zerging staff ele (if I want to play anything else, I’ll use my thief), so thought having condition removal from any regen and on water attunement would be enough. Do you agree?

With the change to weakness being a 50% fumble rate, I’d think glyph of elemental power cast in air attunement would be a huge boost to your team, right?

In regards to the elite glyph (which I was referencing), I agree they aren’t the best option, but as I’m planning to stay at 1200 range, fiery greatsword isn’t very beneficial (I’m not rocking toughness so no way I’m getting within range of <900 range attacks) and I don’t see the need for tornado (same issue as fiery greatsword). I rolled asura, so no take root for me

If I didn’t do inscription (2nd glyph trait in air), not sure there’s anything else in air that makes sense. Guess could consider taking that 10 points back into arcane for EA or into earth for armor of earth @ 50% health. Thoughts?

After using glyphs for a few weeks in wvw I agree with most of the above. About inscription though:

- elementals are basically useless in large battles so you probably wont use them
- GoEP will likely be used before you need any of inscriptions defensive effects
- Storm glyph redundant with staff unless you have highly specialized role

so inscription basically enhances glyph heal, but it is decent doing just that.

If you use 20% reduced cooldown trait and inscription every 20 seconds heal you can maintain one of:

- earth: 11 sec of protection (inc protection from one earth attune)
- water: 20 sec of regen + regen from water attune
- fire: 4 might for 20 sec + 1 for fire attune
- air: 20 sec of swiftness + swiftness from attune

This with no boon duration just for hitting your heal skill. Get in the habit of using heal in earth when you are at 2/3 health and water when less than half and it might be worth it.

Actually with GoEP being instant now and water/earth the most useful effects when zerging, inscription is actually good. If you are in a long battle with many distractions the simplicity of maintaining these boons is great. Just convinced myself

I use a glyph build with staff as well, I find storm is nice, the AOE blind can be a life saver, or just to spam more AOE quickly.

Thanks for the additional feedback. In regards to GoEP, do you find that the chill or cripple would be more effective than weakness? I’ve been debating this point as cripple is ideal for selfishly keeping people in ground targeted AOEs longer (e.g. lava font), but weakness would really help keep your team’s front line in better shape to hopefully prevent enemy pushes (thereby allowing you to continue your staff blasting from 1200 units away without having to fall back). Also, using GoEP on cooldown in air would provide swiftness, which isn’t a bad thing since I’m not using signet of air.

For the elite, what would you recommend then? I ask because as I described above, I can’t see any use for FGS since I want to be using my staff skills on rotation since they do more damage than FGS at longer range (range is key for me). Tornado – no use other than trying to run into a keep, which is what lightning flash and mist form already do for me. Asura racials are blah, so only thing I see is the elemental glyph.

Can anyone confirm that elite’s elementals don’t allow enemies to rally? I know you said elementals are useless, but the air one is 1200 range so he’d be sticking back with me nuking (not great damage but it’s something). Granting swiftness to allies with me as an occasional short stun on enemies seems ok (at least compared to other elites). Am I missing something?

Lastly, any comments on the trait point distribution? Sounds like 20 air is good for glyph-centric build, and we know at least 20 arcane needed for blasting staff, so that leaves the question about how much water.

If you’re planning on strictly rolling with zergs why not consider Glyph of Storms? It’s another aoe you can throw down for extra tagging, and you can use it in Water Attunement to slap chill down on people trying to run away when the battle turns against them.

Glyph of storms has a 900 unit range, which since I want to stay as close as possible to 1200 units as possible is problematic. Also, 900 unit range doesn’t work for keep defense/siege, so would be practically useless there I’d think.

Combine that with my other 2 utilities being mist form and lightning flash. Mist form is 100% must keep due to stun break (only one other than GoEP, which I plan to use on cooldown and not save for stunbreak), I’d have to give up lightning flash to get storms. LF will save me from an unlucky immobilize or allow me to get within mist form range to get into keep or back into zerg pack if I am separated (due to player error). I just don’t think the defensive tradeoff is worth a 900 unit storm. Now, if the storm was 1200 unit range, I might change my toon.

As always, open to feedback. Still hoping to hear trait distribution from other (partial) glyph users.

Slashco.3927:

Thanks for the additional feedback. In regards to GoEP, do you find that the chill or cripple would be more effective than weakness? I’ve been debating this point as cripple is ideal for selfishly keeping people in ground targeted AOEs longer (e.g. lava font), but weakness would really help keep your team’s front line in better shape to hopefully prevent enemy pushes (thereby allowing you to continue your staff blasting from 1200 units away without having to fall back). Also, using GoEP on cooldown in air would provide swiftness, which isn’t a bad thing since I’m not using signet of air.

Cripple and chill from GoEP seem to work better when countering a steamroller zerg:

- since it only hits some of them it spreads the zerg out a bit
- when chill/cripple wears off the player remains out of position but weakness retains no benefit

Weakness is probably better when fighting in a lord room where there is less running around though.

For the elite, what would you recommend then? I ask because as I described above, I can’t see any use for FGS since I want to be using my staff skills on rotation since they do more damage than FGS at longer range (range is key for me). Tornado – no use other than trying to run into a keep, which is what lightning flash and mist form already do for me. Asura racials are blah, so only thing I see is the elemental glyph.

Can anyone confirm that elite’s elementals don’t allow enemies to rally? I know you said elementals are useless, but the air one is 1200 range so he’d be sticking back with me nuking (not great damage but it’s something). Granting swiftness to allies with me as an occasional short stun on enemies seems ok (at least compared to other elites). Am I missing something?

In my experience it tends to get a target then run straight into AOE and fall over. Might be useful if you stay on the back lines and keep getting jumped though. It seems to me all ele elites are highly situational.

Lastly, any comments on the trait point distribution? Sounds like 20 air is good for glyph-centric build, and we know at least 20 arcane needed for blasting staff, so that leaves the question about how much water.

Personally I would never go less than 15 water for the heal and I don’t find myself lacking dps, so current favorite build is 0/20/10/20/20 with knights + celestial trinkets. That’s not actually optimized for dps but for playing your role while under fire.

I hope you aren’t thinking about fighting zerg as a glass cannon, those battles tend to be messy and you will have to eat some damage. Also, everybody knows squishies try to stay at max range and the better players go for them first