Guild Wars 2

This is the build I have been running for PvE/WvW forever, typically just swapping utilities and stats on my Bifrost to Berserker’s for PvE or Sentinel’s for WvW. I survive very well with good commanders, and hold my own in dungeons, but I’m sure my cobbling here could be optimized, especially after the rune changes (my poor Divinity runes ;_; ). Maybe even the things I love about the build could be done better another way? I have tried a few of the other popular staff builds but just don’t find the mechanics as fun.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFEQFAWhUMaZW5wwBr0AEAS4ARWIqU5tfLD-TFSBwA3U/prSCY7PUWpAXlZSUCy4CAA4BBAA-w

I put in the calculator exactly as I am currently equipped, as I had been hesitant to commit to ascended armor and backpiece until the new rune meta shook out some.

Things I like about the build:

• Having Arcane Wave as a tagging/burst damage skill for zergfights and as a blast finisher. With the quick recharge from Arcane 1, I use it constantly. Most of the staff skills are not fast enough in laggy fights to make sure I get those needed tags, so I really depend on it.

• Permaswiftness for myself and yaks when I walk them, which is only possible with the Air attunement boon from Arcane VIII. The other attunement boons are nice as well, but the swiftness one I use most strategically.

• The dodge roll procs. I don’t have a lot of self-condi clear, so water is very helpful. And the blast finisher and AOE blind are useful as well.

• Moves to PvE just fine without a bunch of gear switching.

• Damage focus. I don’t want to be just a walking water field, I want to hit stuff!

So, any feedback is welcome. Some things I’m specifically looking to figure out:

• What is the optimal gear mix now with Ferocity?

• How is my crit/crit dmg/power triangle looking here?

• What runes and sigils would help me most now?

• Is there a better mix of traits that would allow me to keep all the Arcane ones I love, still hit hard, and get more sustain?

Pyromancers puissance is total garbage in WVW

Blasting staff is way better than arcana mastery.

…

I’ll just give you the build that on my mind deliver the higher dps without running without mandatory staff elementalist trait in WVW (whose are aquamancer and aeromancer alatracy):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISlD25AuMArEGoBQIero4JBWUsbTA
If you dont have cleanse in your group goes for ether renewal.

About runes and sigils:
divinity are still pretty good. If you really want to go for something more offensive, rune of strengh.
Power >>>>>>>>>>>>> … >>>>> precision for the dps, so sigil of bloodlust is way better. Sigil of battle is super strongh too.
What i do recommand is to get a “stack staff” where you got bloodlust and combat, and a “fighting staff” where you have battle and fire.
(for those who donno the trick, if you have sigil of bloodlust on your water weapon, you keep the stack)

For PVE your build/stuff is decent, the change i suggested about rune and sigils would improve your DPS in PVE.

Thanks for the feedback!

I see your point on Pyromancer’s Puissance, now that I think about it. I stay in Fire Attunement far less in WvW. What would be better? Looks to me like Blinding Ashes, Persisting Flames, or Burning Fire could be useful.

I have tried Blasting Staff, and I know everyone says it’s mandatory, but I did not find it that useful. It doesn’t affect Meteor Shower, and everything else with the speed of moving zergs and AOE target cap I find that with good placement I hit the max number right away or not at all. I’d much rather be able to cast Arcane Wave more often.

Aeromancer’s Alacrity I don’t see the benefit of – really the only staff Air skill that it helps is Static Field, as it doesn’t affect the 1 skill, I already have permaswiftness, and the other two skills are basically useless. I don’t often find my static is on cooldown at a time when I rotate back to it and it would be useful to throw one down.

Aquamancer’s Alacrity looks useful, but requires 4 points. I feel like the tradeoff loss of power and quicker cooldown on Meteor Shower if I take points from fire is not worth it.

I should mention that I am on a T1 server mostly playing NA prime, so I’m typically in a group of 50-ish fighting groups of similar or greater size.

I had stacking weapons before the patch, and got rid of them before finding out that there was still a way to utilize them. But since one of ANet’s goals with the sigil rework was specifically to stop the practice of using stacking weapons, I would bet on them nerfing the water weapon workaround sooner rather than later, so I’ve been hesitant to build around that.

For staff WvW:

Heal: Either arcane brilliance (team option) or ether renewal (condition clear/self-suffient option). No other heal even comes close. Arcane brilliance is pretty close to a full heal if you use it in your water field.

Blasting staff: better heals, better AoE, better CCs. Most important staff trait. I can’t imagine what kind zergs you fight if this doesn’t affect you since in t2 groups are always moving and often spread out. You put skills ahead of where the group is going and more radius = more hits.

Meteor Shower has an almost unlimited AoE cap and blasting staff lets you take down ACs or siege on walls that no one else can reach. Static field has unlimited AoE cap, so bigger radius = more targets. Water fields with basting staff is huge. These are the three main skills that make a staff ele so without blasting staff you’re almost half an ele.

I use a similar build to Mattmatt but with 10/30/0/0/30. Lightning rod for the grandmaster trait and the 10 in fire with burning precision.

Kunzaito.8169:

Thanks for the feedback!

I see your point on Pyromancer’s Puissance, now that I think about it. I stay in Fire Attunement far less in WvW. What would be better? Looks to me like Blinding Ashes, Persisting Flames, or Burning Fire could be useful.

I have tried Blasting Staff, and I know everyone says it’s mandatory, but I did not find it that useful. It doesn’t affect Meteor Shower, and everything else with the speed of moving zergs and AOE target cap I find that with good placement I hit the max number right away or not at all. I’d much rather be able to cast Arcane Wave more often.

Aeromancer’s Alacrity I don’t see the benefit of – really the only staff Air skill that it helps is Static Field, as it doesn’t affect the 1 skill, I already have permaswiftness, and the other two skills are basically useless. I don’t often find my static is on cooldown at a time when I rotate back to it and it would be useful to throw one down.

Aquamancer’s Alacrity looks useful, but requires 4 points. I feel like the tradeoff loss of power and quicker cooldown on Meteor Shower if I take points from fire is not worth it.

I should mention that I am on a T1 server mostly playing NA prime, so I’m typically in a group of 50-ish fighting groups of similar or greater size.

I had stacking weapons before the patch, and got rid of them before finding out that there was still a way to utilize them. But since one of ANet’s goals with the sigil rework was specifically to stop the practice of using stacking weapons, I would bet on them nerfing the water weapon workaround sooner rather than later, so I’ve been hesitant to build around that.

Blasting staff DOES affect Meteor Shower.
Wiki: “The damage radius for the meteors in Meteor Shower are increased rather than the radius of the spell.”
30 in fire is a complete waste and you shouldn’t need to stack might yourself as your group should be stacking might during initiation anyways (most of the time im @ 25 stacks before we do the initial push ).

I usually run 0/0/6/6/1 or 0/0/1/6/6 as a staff ele in a group. My damage comes from my gear not the traits themselves as the traits are more meant for supporting the group.

i think that aeromancer and aquamancer alatracy are mandatory cause its shortern the CD of the cade, and the water fields which are the main spell of the ele in WVW.

Since you play in prime’s blob, i think Zephirus’s build (2/30/0/0/30) would be better for you.
In fact aquamancer alatracy lose interest if there is like 5ele (which shouldnt be rare in a ~50 players blob). Guilds on the other hand try to take like 2 or 3 ele when the composition is optimal, here aquamancer alatracy is mandatory.

@Zephirus
I didnt try out lightning rod, i easily imagine what it does with the cage, but what is the average damage output ? (is it the same lightning as the master minor trait ?)

I don t really like Acquamancer alacrity, nor i like to be a waterbot.
I use this in WWW:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFEQFAWhMM6ZW5wzBrEBEAGxqQSIUAQcJYCMELtGA-T1BEABJcBAYS5XK7P0mOCAeQAYq+zWKBDAgAczbGAO6RP6RP6R7m38m38m3sUAjKMC-w

Play blob and raids on SFR.
Once you learn how to position, you don t need much defensive stats, just a little to be able to react with your utilities.

As condition cleanse, 8 cond every 15 seconds are enough:
ETHER RENEWAL makes the difference.

I am using this since april patch and it works.
Deals lot of damage, and don t die so easily.

The average damage of Lightning rod with this, is 1600-2000 (It usually hit mostly the heavy armored front line), but weakness is good also.
And the best part of that trait is that makes staff ele somehow fun.

You can t just blindlessly spam your skills but have to think when and where to cast your air5. earth4 and even air3.

Most common rotation is earth 2-4, air 5, fire 2-5, lightning flash, tornado.
And you see some serious numbers.

Blasting staff used to reduce the effectiveness of meteor shower on walls, but helps CC skills (it widened both radius…but maybe it was changed)..
Yet i prefer to run renewing stamina, that helps a lot when you are on the offensive side and need to fight under heavy fire.

P.S. for sieges you can take scepter/focus with you that have a longer range (dragon s tooth has no required LOS)
P.P.S. I have to say that the www guard defensive buffs helps a lot…you might want to add a PVT ring if you don t have it.

EDIT: i put air training instead of aeromancer alacrity :/ fixed now

Good build but very selfish. Its good but i’ll never run it. In WVW, there is the notion of teamwork ^^

Don t underestimate the power of Downing players.
Its possibly the best support you can give to your zerg or the word “rallybot” wouldn t have been discovered.

Also weakness and CC from lightning rod.
Your healing power is useless and you won t use more than a couple of water field anyway before a fight is decided.

The only important part is if you can survive or not.

Interesting builds. I myself follow a similar build like Lord Byron, except for putting 10 points to Stone Splinter instead of Internal Fire. During raids, we follow the commander closely, and almost always within 600 range of the enemy zerg so adding that damage modifiers seems more beneficial to me. My build would be 0/30/10/20/10 with Tempest Defense to avoid being focused by warrior. Against an unorganized blobs, full zerker with scholar runes and vitality/-condi duration is really sweet. Against an organized guild zerg, I use full soldier with regen runes in a more defensive 0/30/0/30/10 (or 0/20/0/30/20) setup with extra condi cleanse on regen.

Edit: Aeromancer and aquamancer alacrity are the only reasons to pick up the staff ele for me. I mostly play as a frontliner in a zerg fight and the lack of good CC support really makes one frown.

Thanks for the latest comments. What I’m gathering from this now is perhaps to be a bit more flexible with switching out more things situationally (e.g. the heal, or some traits).

Byron, your build doesn’t really fit the spirit of the thread, as it is a fundamentally different setup and removes the things I enjoy about staff ele. Maybe others will find it something to try, I’m really looking to optimize/tweak keeping the 6 in arcane and shooting for damage.

So the Berserker gear and Knight’s/Cavaliers/Celestial trinkets are a good mix? What would people suggest for a back item (since it’s comparatively expensive to change that at ascended quality)? I’ve seen some builds run full celestial, but that seems less appealing with the introduction of ferocity. Anyone care to comment?

For a back item I went with an ascended cavalier back for my ele and I probably won’t ever change it. I think PVT would also work as well, as would zerker if you care only about PVT, but I felt like cavalier was a good middle ground between the two and armored scales were relatively cheap when I made it so theres that too.

Kunzaito.8169:

Byron, your build doesn’t really fit the spirit of the thread, as it is a fundamentally different setup and removes the things I enjoy about staff ele. Maybe others will find it something to try, I’m really looking to optimize/tweak keeping the 6 in arcane and shooting for damage.

Fair enough, but i played ele long enough to know that our damage comes from traits (modifiers like “+10% when” etc etc etc).
You can’t have damage and 6 in arcane with a staff build.

EA is the most fun trait we have (should be a profession mechanic) but works best with DD.

LordByron, do you reallt stay in fire after you casted lava font and meteor shower ? I personnaly don’t, so internal fire is garbage to improve dps.
especially since by turning in tornado, you leave every attunement so the meteo-storm never take advantage of any “+X% damage while in Y attunement”

0/4/0/4/6 is the best build for new player in unorganized zerg. You have the survivability of arcana and both alatracy.

For the stuff, you can go 50% zerker, 50% soldier
100% zerker if you have steel kitten and you plan to play only with “unorganised” zerg (by this i mean anything else than a guild raid)

Full celestial is what is meta in high lvl guild (guild that only brings 2-3 staff ele)

50% celestial 50% zerker is nice for every set up.
By the way you can pretty easily get exotic armor though mcm (5g50 + a few token) so you can swap pretty easily.

PS:
EA works wonder on staff

Mattmatt.4962:

LordByron, do you reallt stay in fire after you casted lava font and meteor shower ? I personnaly don’t, so internal fire is garbage to improve dps.

I attune to fire AFTER air 5 or earth (+10% on lightning rod, and on hard hitting skills like earth 2).
Also i try to not rely on a single attack every 3 minutes, and prefer to use it when i m sure to maximize the effect.
Fire is my only +10% on attunement and its Always better to have one (in the build i had also air for mistake but i use the faster recharge on air skills).

0/4/0/4/6 is the best build for new player in unorganized zerg. You have the survivability of arcana and both alatracy.

For the stuff, you can go 50% zerker, 50% soldier
100% zerker if you have steel kitten and you plan to play only with “unorganised” zerg (by this i mean anything else than a guild raid)

Well i used to run similar builds.
At the begin i run 04046…this is really awesome if you plan to swithc to DD fast.
But with staff you lacks damage.

With a caster you don t have to stay near commander when they charge.
That means you don t need more survivability than the time needed to cast your utilities; those will earn you enough time to reposition.

Celestial armor + guard stacks are enough for me.
(i have full celestial and full zerker set i started from full celestial until full zerk with celestial armor where i am now).

The last thing to fear are condition, but since i tried ether renewal, i don t fear them no more (i was really sceptic about it :/).

EA works wonder on staff

It needs you to roll in your own fields.
Except for the water heal is quite the opposite a long range weaponset would desire.
Its better for PvP or for sieging under a door but in open field is not that good.

Celestial is no more meta since they changed crit damage (and the lack of power was noticeable even before).