Guild Wars 2

Hey guys (and ele experts)!

I’m a no PVP-Player. If I do PVP, I do WvW in a group since I tend to be really bad at PVP mash-ups (dunno why, doesn’t matter since Ele isn’t the best PVp choice anyway).

So I wonder: How exactly will my 0/0/10/30/30 Staff Ele do in Dungeons and PVE in general after the patch? Yes, I use D/D but only on my own while exploring the world-map and my far bigger concern is about dungeons and instances :O
Any calculations thus far?

0/0/10/30/30 is pretty much the only build in existence that wasn’t changed at all (well you might be affected depending on what you took for 10 and 20 in water), so I would suggest experimenting with different builds

I am running staff with 0/10/0/30/30 right now and going to do some experimenting after the 10th. I have been thinking of trying a 30/0/20/10/10 on the 10th and go with might generation, if it doesn’t work i’ll probably be back at my pre 10th traits as they got swapped around but still doable.

Your earth minor #5 will give you more 40 toughness while in earth, and lingering elements should partially work with it now, giving you 120 toughness outside of earth. Ranged arcane wave and heal blast finisher might help too.

But it’s the 30 fire staff builds that are going to get the most noticeable buffs, with the improved minor #25 in fire for+5% damage, the only 10 points requirement for blasting staff in arcana (which leaves 10 free points for more damage traits), and improved attunement recharges.

Part of me wants to try a 30/30/0/0/10 staff build in full zerker gear. But the other part of me thinks that would not be an elementalist, but a trebuchet with boots (also, a rallybot). I doubt the fun would last long.

I have really enjoyed 0/20/0/30/20 as a balanced all-rounder for WvW group play, and it looks like nothing important will change.

Oghier.7419:

Part of me wants to try a 30/30/0/0/10 staff build in full zerker gear. But the other part of me thinks that would not be an elementalist, but a trebuchet with boots (also, a rallybot). I doubt the fun would last long.

I have really enjoyed 0/20/0/30/20 as a balanced all-rounder for WvW group play, and it looks like nothing important will change.

I was theorycrafting a bit ago and came up with that build. What armor and such are you running with that one?

Oghier.7419:

Part of me wants to try a 30/30/0/0/10 staff build in full zerker gear. But the other part of me thinks that would not be an elementalist, but a trebuchet with boots (also, a rallybot). I doubt the fun would last long.

I have really enjoyed 0/20/0/30/20 as a balanced all-rounder for WvW group play, and it looks like nothing important will change.

Nah, that’s not true, I’ve been having fun with full zerk 30/20/0/0/20 build for the past two months in WvW, Dungeons and Fractals. The fun never stops! And you won’t become rally fodder if you play it right.

Like Diogo said, us 30 Fire builds are gonna have a lot of fun come December 10, being able to reduce Arcane to 10 pts will be awesome, now we can get an extra Stone Splinters or Vital Striking or something to augment our damage. Inner Fire to 10% also gives an extra 5% damage that is much appreciated.

It’s great.

Oghier.7419:

Part of me wants to try a 30/30/0/0/10 staff build in full zerker gear. But the other part of me thinks that would not be an elementalist, but a trebuchet with boots (also, a rallybot). I doubt the fun would last long.

haven’t tried it in WvW, but 30/20/0/0/20 staff is great fun in PvP. I don’t even take elemental attunement anymore (what good is regen or 1 stack of might on the glassiest build in the game?), opting instead for final shielding. And then I also take arcane shield. so I’m super squishy but packing two arcane shields, and they do tons of damage when they explode. makes me feel like not only a walking trebuchet but also a walking bomb. especially since I take arcane wave too. I’m always thoroughly amused when I get jumped by a glass thief only to see him drop instantly

A proper PvE Staff build is 30/20/10/10/0 or 30/25/25/0/0. Both of these will only receive a little buff (25 in fire), nothing except that changes.

Dub.1273:

A proper PvE Staff build is 30/20/10/10/0 or 30/25/25/0/0. Both of these will only receive a little buff (25 in fire), nothing except that changes.

I’d say 10 points in arcana for blasting staff is worth over water’s or earth’s investment. Blasting Staff indirectly increases aoe damage against kiting foes, as well as the damage from meteor shower, not to mention the massive utility it brings. Also, the improved base attunement recharges (10 arcana will be worth a 12 second cooldown, instead of the pre-patch 14 seconds) will allow elementalists to get back to fire more quickly.

You might say that all of this is useless in a perfect scenario where your party stacks into a boss and spikes them down, which is true, but perfect scenarios won’t always happen, and fire staff builds suffer a lot every time things don’t go the expected way. And that will happen in some specific dungeon battles, it’ll almost always happen with pugs, and it’ll almost always happen in the open pve world or in new not-yet-abused content.

All things considered, massive utility/ aoe that blasting staff brings is far more noticeable and convenient than a conditional 10% damage boost, IMO, especially when we consider how much extra damage potencial the staff trait can also add by itself.

And for pve farming, a fireball or a meteor shower with twice the radius damage range are golden.

10 arcana also offers the flexibility of picking renewing stamina, for those players who need the extra survival.

@ Diogo: 30/20/10/10/10 that Dub mentioned is the correct build, if you need Renewing Stamina. Getting Blasting Staff instead won’t be nearly as beneficial. If you don’t need Renewing Stamina, the 30/25/25/0/0 will do more damage than 30/20/10/10/10 with Blasting Staff. The majority of your damage will be done against single-target bosses, so a bigger Fireball won’t help. Meteor Shower will do more damage, but the majority of your damage isn’t coming from that – it’s coming from Lava Font and Fireball, and it’s assumed the single-target boss you’re fighting is standing still so Lava Font is hitting every time regardless of Blasting Staff. Blasting Staff just isn’t needed in dungeon farming, since you’ll do more damage putting those 10 trait points into a more useful trait line.

Although, this is all academic, since you should be running an LH build anyway.

It’s true that Blasting Staff is not needed in highly organized dungeon running because of the terrible boss design. I was talking about a more general pve context. Assuming many different contexts, like wanting to use the same build through the entire pve content, or not being skilled enough, or doing dungeons with pugs, or not having learned dungeon’s mechanics yet, or even fighting more complex encounters, whichever they are. In a more flexible scenario, blasting staff is far worthier than a conditional (and thus won’t always work) +10 % damage boost.

Tibstrike.2974:

Oghier.7419:

Part of me wants to try a 30/30/0/0/10 staff build in full zerker gear. But the other part of me thinks that would not be an elementalist, but a trebuchet with boots (also, a rallybot). I doubt the fun would last long.

I have really enjoyed 0/20/0/30/20 as a balanced all-rounder for WvW group play, and it looks like nothing important will change.

I was theorycrafting a bit ago and came up with that build. What armor and such are you running with that one?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImkbwx4QlDAkHn4CLCFVQRRxM7A-j0CBYLBhsAgKAJ9RZNBSQsMMsVMBp6KaKbYqTER1eDER1SBIowI-w

I really like the build. It’s not optimized for anything, but it’s reasonable at everything. It is designed for group and zerg play in WvW. Perma-swiftness, plenty of condition cleanses, decent damage, decent healing and all the control skills that staff provides.

The gear isn’t perfect. It’s what I happen to have on my ele.