Guild Wars 2

Why dodge staff skills when you can just calmy walk around or move aside?

As a PvP staff player, i have to predict the opponent’s movements, luring them with some aoes to get them where i want them to be. Though most of the case they’re just on me. Killed more people with lava tomb than my staff skills.

On the subject of staff CC, I always think its hilarious to cast Air 5 as theyre running towards me, gust them back, and then put earth 4 in front of them and then hit /dance

I also think Ice Spike need a bit of improvement… If not blast finish, maybe adding confusing or tormented condition. (speaking from cartoon-ish perspective, when a giant thing hit you from the sky, you’re suppose to be kinda confused lol).

But seriously, adding blast finish would very much enhance water magic’s value. Right now Water magic’s only purpose is some weak heal + laughable long CD and short duration chilling condition and some okay but negligible vulnerability condition. Anet tend to make water spells meek and mediocre since gw1’s era.

Nikaido.6739:

I also think Ice Spike need a bit of improvement… If not blast finish, maybe adding confusing or tormented condition. (speaking from cartoon-ish perspective, when a giant thing hit you from the sky, you’re suppose to be kinda confused lol).

But seriously, adding blast finish would very much enhance water magic’s value. Right now Water magic’s only purpose is some weak heal + laughable long CD and short duration chilling condition and some okay but negligible vulnerability condition. Anet tend to make water spells meek and mediocre since gw1’s era.

Thanks, and not a bad idea re: confusion.

why would they boost ice spike, as far as i know it’s still a very good skill :o. highest single damage on staff, long nice area vulnerability with a very low CD. eruption+icespike+lavafont+arcane wave combi is just insane spike. I could imagine boosting water blast abit, and for the pve side i definitely understand that they find water attunement lacking raw damage, but for pvp/wvw ice spike is one of the best ele skills out there ;p

What are your feelings about a blast finisher in air which is clearly in need of an upgrade.

I guess I am in the minority when I don’t think air needs an upgrade, but staff really depends on what perspective you look at it: PvE or PvP. From a PvE perspective, most of earth and air are useless, because 1) the bleeds in Earth dont amount to much in a champion zerg and 2) all the CC in lightning is largely useless and all it is good for really is stacking swiftness.

In PvE, most people just seem to end up camping fire and switching to water for healing if needed or using conjure weapons.

But now as far as PvP, you have an AoE stun with a lightning field for swiftness stacking, an AoE blind, a single target knock back which is great for stopping stomps or pushing people off cliffs in EoTM, aoe switftness, and the auto attack is great for tagging when stuff isnt clustered enough for fireballs.

I also don’t really think staff needs another blast finisher, because if you are willing to trade out a slot skill, you already have 2 at your disposal and more combo fields than any other class.

Staff really shines as a support role in WvW zergs where you have a number of other classes applying finishers to your fields. It’s arguably the king of support in that role for that reason. We have other weapon sets that excel in other roles and scenarios.

MrSilver.5269:

Henrik.7560:

Nah, not a blast on that sort of CD. maybe air 3 as a blast was a good suggestion.
Ice Spike could be improved by a small damage increasement, and a delay reduce so you could chain it with air 5, and in exchange increasing cd to ~10s.

This seems like a fair compromise to me.

Here here.
plus1

If they buff water abilities again.. Silly water eles, Give Dragon Tooth the AoE size of staff water 2. Then we can talk

Any chance we can get a dev to weigh in on this topic? There are some cogent arguments that the staff is in need of a second blast finisher, if not in the water line in air.

As set forth above other professions have more ready access to blast from weapon skills, and because we are limited to one weapon set it would be nice to know what the devs feelings are one way or another.

Thanks in advance for your kind consideration.

I fell like you did not think this all the way through

blast finisher in water would be OP as hell. I feel that staff really shines in spvp in “bunker” builds already.

with a blast finisher people would just sit in water tanking.

tried out a 00644 build with diamond skin and clerics yesterday. sitting in water would roughly give you 2k heals per second if you keep autoattacking. adding spike heals from geyser and additional waterfield blasts would be just dumb.

just imagine: with healing rain on a 36cd (if traited) you could do 7 blasts until its back up again. Add in arcane wave and you got 8 while regenerating through soothing mists, reg and signet while sitting on 3k armor.

add the water elemental (which will not die as well due to aoe healing) and you got yourself the no.1 troll build.

I have been convinced that water should not get a blast finisher, but feel that a second blast finisher is indeed needed, and would be best suited in Air (air 3).

Or maybe make each meteor impact a blast finisher <3

Ice Spike is already plenty good. The only things Staff Ele needs are Air #2 to be better and the Earth auto to be better and a faster projectile. I’d dump weakness from it (though weakness is great) for something more condition oriented.

So it seems like there is a consensus that staff air needs to be buffed, and I submit a blast finisher on air 3 as well as improvements to air 2 would be a welcomed improvement.

I suggest Air 2 should become insta-cast.

I feel Ice Spike could use some love, however, a blast would be far too powerful.

Ice Spike having a blast would be very powerful in sustain situations. With water1 spam on feet already being rather strong sustain, add in a Blast for Water3, more water1 trolling, W2, W5, E2, Dodge = 3 Blast Finishers on the Healing Rain alone, 4 total, while W1 filling.
The water→earth defensive/sustain swap is already powerful, opening up Water→Fire with the blast would make it strong in the same way that Earth→Fire already is.

It would also boost PvE since you could E2→W2→F2 and start with 2 blasts.

It would be really nice if a dev chimed in on this thread.

Just sayin’

MrSilver.5269:

EDIT:

The consensus from this thread is that staff air is in need of a buff, and not water.

The suggestion is that air 3 should be given a blast finisher instead of the original suggestion of ice spike in the water line.

Anyone else agree?

staff air is probably its weakest link but it’s a strong kit, that said even air attunement is pretty decent aside from #3 which honestly the problem is the projectile moves too slow to be reliable for anything but pushing something into a static field that’s encircling it (if they dodge they’ll dodge into the static field and the same point is achieved anyway.

The only real weakness to the kit is 1v1 PVP fights because when there’s only 1 person involved it becomes easy to dodge 95% of staff’s damage which is ground targeted aoes, but in group PVP, WvW, and PVE, it’s an excellent weapon, one of the most valuable multi purpose weapons in the game.

So if anything changed air #3 I’d be pleasantly surprised but otherwise I think staff is fine as is and it doesn’t really need any more blast finishers, if it had more blast finishers there’d never be a reason to use scepter, ever.

Air 2 should be insta-cast and air 3 should be a blast finisher. You make those changes and staff will be in much better shape.

I came here to approve this message.

But we do not have a forum specialist? Will our message get to the devs? Do they read past the first messages of any thread, or do they read the threads at all?

Your move, devs!

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

But we do not have a forum specialist? Will our message get to the devs? Do they read past the first messages of any thread, or do they read the threads at all?

Your move, devs!

I would be happy if they just came on the thread, or the forum in general, and said: we are aware of your concerns and are reviewing current weapon sets.

They will never make Ice Spike a blast finisher even though skill animation cries for a blast. It is already the highest critting ability on staff on a very short CD.

Air attunement in its current state indeed needs some buffs. Air 2 has too long of a cast time imo (for the damage dealt), also entire skill goes to waste if your target blocks/evades (i mean no aoe produced).

Skady.5916:

Air 2 has too long of a cast time imo (for the damage dealt), also entire skill goes to waste if your target blocks/evades (i mean no aoe produced).

I think air 2 should be insta-cast. Thoughts?

Personally I think it would be neat if air 3 was made a two stage skill. So that you can detonate it during its travel time to knock people back. Adding a blast finisher as well would likely be overkill though.

Ele Staff should absolutely not get another Blast Finisher. It is designed as a team play weapon which is why it has by FAR the best combo field access in the game.

2 Fire , 1 lightning, 1 ice field and the only 2 reliable water fields in the game not on a healing skill (and ice, and both waters are all on water, and to think people in this thread think water attunement is bad)

They are intentionally given these fields with a minimal number of blast/leap/whirl finishers specifically because they are meant to work with other players.

The only change that Ele Staff needs is Air 2 changed to either have a faster cast point or my preferred make it a short channeled cast where the blind goes off early but the damage comes at the end. Which would give staff a second channeling skill to go with zephyr’s focus and obsidian focus traits giving all 3 main hand weapons 2 channel skills.

gaspara.4079:

Ele Staff should absolutely not get another Blast Finisher. It is designed as a team play weapon which is why it has by FAR the best combo field access in the game.

2 Fire , 1 lightning, 1 ice field and the only 2 reliable water fields in the game not on a healing skill (and ice, and both waters are all on water, and to think people in this thread think water attunement is bad)

They are intentionally given these fields with a minimal number of blast/leap/whirl finishers specifically because they are meant to work with other players.

The only change that Ele Staff needs is Air 2 changed to either have a faster cast point or my preferred make it a short channeled cast where the blind goes off early but the damage comes at the end. Which would give staff a second channeling skill to go with zephyr’s focus and obsidian focus traits giving all 3 main hand weapons 2 channel skills.

I respectfully disagree. Just because the staff has excellent group utility does not mean that it should be deficient in its ability to operate optimally independent of group play.