Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been leveling an elementalist (will be my 5th 80) and I’m looking ahead to when I have to gear him…

I’m interested in playing (for WvWvW) somewhere between a support and dmg as a staff elementalist… I’ve been playing with various combinations in PvP, and I’ve found i quite like the valkyrie amulet…

However, I’ve theorycrafted this build for WvWvW and I would love some feedback…
Cleric’s Armor
Berserker Staff
Valkyrie Trinkets (beryl I believe)

Including food, assuming no boons I would have:
18k health
26% crit chance (but with near perma-fury its 46%)
54% critical dmg
700 healing power
2076 armor
1827 power (3000 attack)

This is assuming a build that is either…
0/10/0/30/30
or
0/0/10/30/30
or
0/20/0/20/30

obviously those would have slightly different values each, but I think they all look viable…

Any suggestions such as changing my orbs to something else?

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k;9;9;9;19-TT;12;347A47AS;5UydbTLQhGok51;6E-J0O1TYY3e_93-0N-5V5PcW5P;9;9;9;9;9;4V9k3C

Note: the precision is almost entirely provided by consumables… This could, potentially, be an issue, however I use food in WvWvW all the time…

Sorry for the noob question… but how are you getting perma-fury?

juno.1840:

Sorry for the noob question… but how are you getting perma-fury?

With a combination of my runes and 30 points in arcane, I have 60% boon duration increase.
Arcane Fury ( http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcane_Fury ) applies two seconds of fury on attunement change.
With 30 points in arcane attunements recharge every 10 seconds.
That means, optimally, I should be spending about 2.5 seconds in each attunement, in reality, I spend closer to 3 or 4 seconds in each attunement.
With 60% boon duration, a 2 second fury from Arcane fury, will last 3.2 (rounded to 3) seconds.

This means, that assuming I attunement swap every 3 seconds, I will have permanent fury.

However, if you assume that sometimes I spend more time in an attunement than just 3 seconds, e.g. casting meteor shower, I would potentially run out of fury…

BUT….

If I switch to an attunement for a very short amount of time, e.g. switching to water just long enough to cast Glyph of Elemental Harmony for the regen ( http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyph_of_Elemental_Harmony ), then I would have 1 second left over when I swap; remember, fury duration stacks…

So in the long run, it works out as perma, or close to perma, fury…

Note: this doesn’t include fury duration stacked by allies (some skills, such as I believe warrior warhorn) can apply fury in an AoE to allies, so in a group you would have a higher uptime on fury…

TLDR: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcane_Fury

EDIT: added the quote

Sorry for the double post: With the sigil and runes I chose, I should have 9-12 stacks of might at all times just from attunement swapping and healing…

Here’s a very well written guide by chemsorly, an ele with 250k kills in wvw and a member of red guard before they disbanded: http://intothemists.com/guides/guide.php?id=107

I personally don’t like healing power and condition damage, so I replaced the celestial gear with a mixture of knights/soldiers/berserkers. Either way you should go read his guide, it is very well written. It mainly applies to higher tier WvW and the GvGs that take place, but good knowledge nonetheless.

InFluEnZa.6908:

Here’s a very well written guide by chemsorly, an ele with 250k kills in wvw and a member of red guard before they disbanded: http://intothemists.com/guides/guide.php?id=107

I personally don’t like healing power and condition damage, so I replaced the celestial gear with a mixture of knights/soldiers/berserkers. Either way you should go read his guide, it is very well written. It mainly applies to higher tier WvW and the GvGs that take place, but good knowledge nonetheless.

Thanks, I will do

This is a great guide for group WvWvW, but I want a solo or 2-5 man roaming build for staff

Relying on blast finishers doesn’t work by yourself

Staff is awful for solo and small group roaming, switch to D/D or S/D for that.

Morelia.6835:

Staff is awful for solo and small group roaming, switch to D/D or S/D for that.

I know its awful, its the most awful thing I could think of for solo roaming… Hence… That’s what I want to do… I had a necro roamer: boring… mesmer roamer: boring… thief roamer: boring… engi roamer: boring… I want something more challenging

P.S. Don’t misunderstand me, all those classes were fun, but I want something unusual… A real challenge… not a faceroll build…

The current support/dmg meta builds for staff are: 0/0/10/30/30, 0/0/20/20/30, and 0/0/20/30/20. Don’t use clerics anything as the healing from your geyser/healing rain pales in comparision to coordinated blasting of the water fields and the healing effectiveness of those blasts are dependent on those that blast them… not the elementalist. Gearing for WvW is somewhat flexible, though the REAL goal of all good elementalists (and I’m no where near there yet) is to find that perfect balance that maximizes damage but having just enough defense to not go down before your main melee train does. I’d start with a zerker staff, zerker trink, zerker back, cav rings, soldier earrings, soldier armor. Play for a while… take notice if you are surviving much better than the rest of your team. If you are easily surviving, then you haven’t properly geared and will need to swap some of those soldier pieces for zerk, or start even smaller by swapping to knights or valk.

Bhima.9518:

The current support/dmg meta builds for staff are: 0/0/10/30/30, 0/0/20/20/30, and 0/0/20/30/20. Don’t use clerics anything as the healing from your geyser/healing rain pales in comparision to coordinated blasting of the water fields and the healing effectiveness of those blasts are dependent on those that blast them… not the elementalist. Gearing for WvW is somewhat flexible, though the REAL goal of all good elementalists (and I’m no where near there yet) is to find that perfect balance that maximizes damage but having just enough defense to not go down before your main melee train does. I’d start with a zerker staff, zerker trink, zerker back, cav rings, soldier earrings, soldier armor. Play for a while… take notice if you are surviving much better than the rest of your team. If you are easily surviving, then you haven’t properly geared and will need to swap some of those soldier pieces for zerk, or start even smaller by swapping to knights or valk.

All these responses are stating that I don’t need to worry about healing power because my teammates can use blast finishers… However, I DON’T want to know what to use in a team… I’m quite serious when I say I want the best stat allocation for a solo roaming staff build

Um, figure it out and report back to us. Community wisdom is there is no such thing, good luck and I look forward to your awesome videos.

You could try a fresh air build. Maybe something like 0/30/10/10/20 with the +dmg traits in Adept slots. Then switch in and out of air as often as possible to maximize your lightning cracks when entering air.

If you beat any Player that’s not up-leveled, please let us know

@Xernth – guess I’ll give it a go then :-) thanks!

@juno – I think that makes sense, thanks and… erm… at lvl 60… with a staff… i beat a level 80 necro… #justSaying (he sucked :P )
EDIT: I had him low… then someone came along and finished him… he wasn’t able to kill me though… Thanks for being so unscathing :-) I appreciate the good honest advice

Roaming staff build is very possible, if you know how to use it.
My build is made to massive fights, but it works very well in the small ones. I guess that means someone could make a very good roaming staff build if needed.
This is the build I use… “Oh, staff with conditions! WTF?”, don’t say that, it works.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImgbnx4QlDAhCBMeEiGeUegzO2A-jkCBIhBhWAgmGJFqIasFMFRjVJjIqW3AzcTo2mLReEYA-w

Since it isn’t really made for roaming, I will lose about 40% of 1v1 fights. And 70% of 1v2 fights. But it’s good enough for a build that nobody really believe it works.
It’s been like… 6 months since I last found a staff elementalist who could survive me in a battle in wvw. Guardians, Rangers and thieves are almost always easy targets. Mesmers and hammer warriors will usually beat me.

The burning damage from Evasive arcana, flaming burst, burning retreat and cleansing fire + the bleeding from evasive arcana and shockwave and eruption are a lot of condition damage. I have a decent controlling from unsteady ground, shockwave, lightning surge, gust, static field and frozen ground. I have healling from the Glyph of Elemental Harmony, from Geyser and Healing Rain, and from evasive arcana.
Between all the weapon skills, Gust and Stoning are the only ones that affect a single player. Which makes very easy to deal with outnumbered situations (as long as you have at least one more person to take some hits for you).
Magnetic aura, armor of earth, arcane shield, Final Shielding (trait) and Earth’s Embrace (trait) are awesome defenses, as long as you know how to use them. Cleansing fire will help to deal with immobilize or when you are taking too many conditions. Healing rain will also help.
SOme of evasive arcana effects are also blast finishers. Very useful to get some might or extra healing.
Lava Tomb and Death Nova (from the armor runes) will raise the chances of killing the enemy while on downed state.
Although I don’t think it is perfect, this build works good enough for me both in big and small fights. But I’m use to it and developing it for more than a year, so I have an extraordinary experience using it. I am not sure if it would work that well with someone else.
Sorry for any english fail.

Basara.9405:

Roaming staff build is very possible, if you know how to use it.
My build is made to massive fights, but it works very well in the small ones. I guess that means someone could make a very good roaming staff build if needed.
This is the build I use… “Oh, staff with conditions! WTF?”, don’t say that, it works.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImgbnx4QlDAhCBMeEiGeUegzO2A-jkCBIhBhWAgmGJFqIasFMFRjVJjIqW3AzcTo2mLReEYA-w

Since it isn’t really made for roaming, I will lose about 40% of 1v1 fights. And 70% of 1v2 fights. But it’s good enough for a build that nobody really believe it works.
It’s been like… 6 months since I last found a staff elementalist who could survive me in a battle in wvw. Guardians, Rangers and thieves are almost always easy targets. Mesmers and hammer warriors will usually beat me.

The burning damage from Evasive arcana, flaming burst, burning retreat and cleansing fire + the bleeding from evasive arcana and shockwave and eruption are a lot of condition damage. I have a decent controlling from unsteady ground, shockwave, lightning surge, gust, static field and frozen ground. I have healling from the Glyph of Elemental Harmony, from Geyser and Healing Rain, and from evasive arcana.
Between all the weapon skills, Gust and Stoning are the only ones that affect a single player. Which makes very easy to deal with outnumbered situations (as long as you have at least one more person to take some hits for you).
Magnetic aura, armor of earth, arcane shield, Final Shielding (trait) and Earth’s Embrace (trait) are awesome defenses, as long as you know how to use them. Cleansing fire will help to deal with immobilize or when you are taking too many conditions. Healing rain will also help.
SOme of evasive arcana effects are also blast finishers. Very useful to get some might or extra healing.
Lava Tomb and Death Nova (from the armor runes) will raise the chances of killing the enemy while on downed state.
Although I don’t think it is perfect, this build works good enough for me both in big and small fights. But I’m use to it and developing it for more than a year, so I have an extraordinary experience using it. I am not sure if it would work that well with someone else.
Sorry for any english fail.

Hey :-) your english is great! Thanks for the good build, I appreciate knowing that someone out there thinks staff can work to roam!!!

Mice.8921:

I appreciate knowing that someone out there thinks staff can work to roam!!!

Rest assured then that there are others that roam with staff as well. I currently use the following build for both PvE, WvW and dungeons:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImgboR1gjDA0DmIZUxDlHzsjNA-jkCBYgAYLIkIBJ7pIasFhDRrMMsqZwqaCRKbYKXoA-w

While optimized for group play, it can hold its own while soloing because of the dual nature of certain traits and skills. For example, Glyph of Elemental Power is pretty cool in large encounters because it allows you to cripple or chill large groups with AoE spells (the cooldown is per target). However, it’s also a neat skill for 1v1 duelling because it gives all your spells a chance to slow down your opponent (which makes it easier to hit them, meaning they get hit more, which in turn results in more snares). The elementals are also rather versatile, allowing you the option of heal/chill (ice elemental), cripple/weakness (earth elemental) or range/stun (air elemental) as you choose. Zephyr’s Boon combined with Arcane Fury allows for perma fury and gives you the ability to buff yourself and allies even more with your Frozen Ground. Finally, Rune of Altruism gives you some extra might and condition damage whenever you heal but buffs allies too.

Whenever I enter a duel with someone, I’ll expect the realistic 50% chance to win or lose. Overall, I tend to surpass that number when roaming though.

ThiBash.5634:

Mice.8921:

I appreciate knowing that someone out there thinks staff can work to roam!!!

Rest assured then that there are others that roam with staff as well. I currently use the following build for both PvE, WvW and dungeons:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImgboR1gjDA0DmIZUxDlHzsjNA-jkCBYgAYLIkIBJ7pIasFhDRrMMsqZwqaCRKbYKXoA-w

While optimized for group play, it can hold its own while soloing because of the dual nature of certain traits and skills. For example, Glyph of Elemental Power is pretty cool in large encounters because it allows you to cripple or chill large groups with AoE spells (the cooldown is per target). However, it’s also a neat skill for 1v1 duelling because it gives all your spells a chance to slow down your opponent (which makes it easier to hit them, meaning they get hit more, which in turn results in more snares). The elementals are also rather versatile, allowing you the option of heal/chill (ice elemental), cripple/weakness (earth elemental) or range/stun (air elemental) as you choose. Zephyr’s Boon combined with Arcane Fury allows for perma fury and gives you the ability to buff yourself and allies even more with your Frozen Ground. Finally, Rune of Altruism gives you some extra might and condition damage whenever you heal but buffs allies too.

Whenever I enter a duel with someone, I’ll expect the realistic 50% chance to win or lose. Overall, I tend to surpass that number when roaming though.

THIS!!! THis is the sort of thing I wanted to see!!!!

Thanks

Hi Mice!

I just started playing my Ele in WVW and had mixed results at first, then switched up my strategy, and am getting some really good results. Last Sunday I killed 100 people in two battles. That was awesome.

I see your build is doing the usual x/x/x/30/30 build. I am really saddened that almost all Staffies seem to play with this kind of basic build… actually all Eles it seems and not just Staff users. The other two builds I saw linked in this thread are also 30/30 in Water and Arcana. That’s just sad. Happy to see one Condimentalist doing 30 in Earth over Water. I should try his build too.

I don’t know about Support/Damage… it seems that if you want to do any kind of decent damage with Staff you can’t go support, and if you go support you just throw your damage out the window.

I ended up doing a 30/20/0/20 build, going Full Zerk and taking Blasting Staff. I tell you this: I am a scrub in 1v1 but I do reasonably good in a small warband (4 -10 people against similar numbers).

I can’t roam by myself, but I can roam with 1 or 2 more people and still be reasonably effective. I can still sneak in kills in these small encounters, but I need to be running with a Warrior or a Guardian who is doing melee. Otherwise, I am useless. So in 1v1 situations, I just slip to Air and run away (I have the Air Signet and 20 points in Air, so I move pretty fast even without Swiftness).

In small groups I tend to be the last to die if we are losing, and if not I can sneak in a kill or two. I can usually kill 4 out of 15 people in small encounters as long as we aren’t losing. Just skirt behind your teammates and burn the enemy with your fire skills (in small groups Meteor Swarm isn;t useful, but Auto Attack, Lava Burst and the Flame Burst or whatever are great skills for killing enemies, Flame Burst in particular is great at tagging and finishing off all enemies, so I tend to get credit for kills).

Where the build really shines though is big zerg vs. zerg battles. In these kinds of battle I utterly demolish the enemy, I rake in around 20-30 kills per battle with very little danger to myself. It’s all about sneaking around the flanks and rear of the Zerg and opportunistically nuking where the enemy Zerg seems to be moving. Also great for clearing parapets in sieges. Meteor Swarm in a full Zerk build is just an awesome nuke. I have something like 3,300 attack, 55% crit rate and 80% crit damage without food or maintenance oils, so I hit pretty hard.

When your zerg needs it, you can easily switch to water and drop those combo fields, but I find when I do this the zerg doens’t do too well. I am better supporting damage, giving fire fields to blast for might stacks and we decimate the enemies faster this way it seems. I think my timing is the issue: since I switch to water if I feel we are losing and rather than from the onset, I think by the time I switch from DPS to support it’s too late and we’re already losing. At least I tend to be among the last to die in battles because I am so cowardly I stay by the sidelines. I hate those sneak stealth thieves though, they are my bane!

I used to use another build someone posted, something about a super DPS staff, it’s like 30/20/10/10/0 with Vital Striking and Stone Splinters along with Student Runes (in optimal conditions these traits give an extra 30% damage!) but I wanted blasting staff so I tried putting the points in Arcana. It also helps me switch between Fire DPS and Air run away faster, makes boon duration longer and keeps me alive longer.

But I do miss that extra 30% and may opt to go back for it. I don’t have Student Runes yet, though, might have to buy a set.

All in all, let me know if you ever make a good roaming build that can solo. I just suck at soloing with Staff, can’t figure it out.