Guild Wars 2

I have to say this is the most enjoyable profession/weapon combination I’ve played in GW2. It’s not perfect but it’s so much fun. The amount of versatility is amazing.

The only weaknesses I find is the lack of quick single-target damage: every skill has a slow cast time, reduced projectile speed, or lower single target DPS to compensate for the AoE damage effect.

This is a minor complaint compared with all the awesomeness the staff brings. Love it!

Yes you are correct, staff is lovely to play.
Ive used it since start of beta.

But once you start exploring something different then PvE you will notice that the issues you are showcasing slowly start to really hurt.

PvP ele staff is literally unviable, low HP, low defences, slow dps or low dps. and ofcourse huge recharge times.
WvW staffs main goal is to spam fire 5, meteor shower. there goes versatility, lol.
Dungeons, casttimes are too slow in a decent group, before you start spiking huge dps most enemies are already dead.
Rest of PvE vs enemies who dont insta die with 1 100-blade are very fun and rewarding to fight…

Actually I run mostly in WvW (currently rank 75). I enjoy the staff a lot, especially all the CCs we have (air 3, 5 — water 4 — earth 4, 5). Those CCs are critical.

Add to that our two water fields (that we can self-blast three times with skill and a bit of luck).

Finally the wall control with our ground-targeted AoEs… we are just epic.

In WvW I’m very weak when solo — so I never run solo. However there are times when trying to catch up to the zerg and such that I am solo. In that case I just run which is usually successful given our CC and utilities.

I think a great improvement would be to make a few skills faster (air blind 2) and raise the single target DPS a bit (earth 1). I love earth 1 for the weakness and vulnerability. However the DPS is lower than any of the other auto attacks (except maybe water 1). I find that strange as earth 1 is a single target and fire/air 1 are AoE or multi-target (respectively).

I would love a faster cast on one of the staff auto-attacks but I can’t see that happening really. It would be very cool to have Air 1 be beam that chains instantly (think of Mesmer GS auto but with arc lightning). The skill could have a longer aftercast to make up for the lack of projectile travel time.

Anyway, just dreaming as the weapon is already very good.

What i meant in WvW was more small groups play.
Elementalist dont really have anything except CC and CC is hardcountered by anyone who uses anti stun stuff. even in a group. it reduces the effective DPS of the party at that stage. So your stuck in the zerg. with CC wich have no use.

With meteor shower i kind of meant that youll only be in zergs spamming 5 because the rest isnt really worth it. doesnt add allot. even if you manage to get a good air 5 off a group of the zerg 1 antistun and its nullified wich is bound to happen with any organised guild playing.

Also the waterfields might seem good, but in general the only good one is 5 for taking towers, and that has a huge cooldown aswell.

Sorry if my comment is confusing, busy with different stuff at the same time!

That’s where Water 4 really shines — it’s not avoided with stability nor stun break.

Also use of a stun break is a small victory as now it’s on cooldown for the rock barrier which I just put down in front of the static field

I think the CC is one of our true strengths as a staff ele. I killed a guard “solo” yesterday by CCing him in the NPCs outside of Hill south gate (not solo as the NPCs killed lol). Granted he was a bad guardian and really wasn’t interested in fighting (but getting away instead), but those CC’s ruined travels.

I’ve also had some epic moments with a zerg-stopping static field. That was probably a bad zerg, but so many bags that fight.

Overall I’m super pleased with staff — my only desire is some single-target umph so I’m not so helpless solo with most of my damage being avoidable simply by strafing

staff ele is one of the highest DPS dungeon builds out there; compared to it warrior DPS is nothing.

guanlongwucaii.3162:

staff ele is one of the highest DPS dungeon builds out there; compared to it warrior DPS is nothing.

I can’t agree or disagree as I honestly don’t know any better from a DPS comparison standpoint.

However mobs aren’t smart enough to run out of AoEs which makes the weapon even more awesome in PvE. I remember when GW1 implemented some mob smarts and ruined fire-storm for example. I wonder how GW2 would play with that type of logic.

air 15 and arcane skills and/or lightning flash help a lot with quick single target damage. also sigil of fire/air. I’ve burst down thieves in 1-2 seconds in sPvP

I’m more of a d/d elementalist it’s but even I still use staff from time to time. I find it’s strongest aspect is supportive rather then laying waste to enemies. It works best when you have a partner to support you and be the bait so you can focus more on piling on effects and aoe’s without having to run around avoiding enemies and having them walk out of your aoe’s

juno.1840:

guanlongwucaii.3162:

staff ele is one of the highest DPS dungeon builds out there; compared to it warrior DPS is nothing.

I can’t agree or disagree as I honestly don’t know any better from a DPS comparison standpoint.

However mobs aren’t smart enough to run out of AoEs which makes the weapon even more awesome in PvE. I remember when GW1 implemented some mob smarts and ruined fire-storm for example. I wonder how GW2 would play with that type of logic.

They don’t. Just spam fire 2 all day and you win at dps. This obviously works best if your group is stacking/LOS’ing on a corner to get enemies clumped up and immobile.

ErazorZ.5209:

What i meant in WvW was more small groups play.
Elementalist dont really have anything except CC and CC is hardcountered by anyone who uses anti stun stuff. even in a group. it reduces the effective DPS of the party at that stage. So your stuck in the zerg. with CC wich have no use.

With meteor shower i kind of meant that youll only be in zergs spamming 5 because the rest isnt really worth it. doesnt add allot. even if you manage to get a good air 5 off a group of the zerg 1 antistun and its nullified wich is bound to happen with any organised guild playing.

Also the waterfields might seem good, but in general the only good one is 5 for taking towers, and that has a huge cooldown aswell.

Sorry if my comment is confusing, busy with different stuff at the same time!

For a beta player you have a really bad understanding of the benefits of a staff ele in wvw.

MarzAttakz.9608:

ErazorZ.5209:

What i meant in WvW was more small groups play.
Elementalist dont really have anything except CC and CC is hardcountered by anyone who uses anti stun stuff. even in a group. it reduces the effective DPS of the party at that stage. So your stuck in the zerg. with CC wich have no use.

With meteor shower i kind of meant that youll only be in zergs spamming 5 because the rest isnt really worth it. doesnt add allot. even if you manage to get a good air 5 off a group of the zerg 1 antistun and its nullified wich is bound to happen with any organised guild playing.

Also the waterfields might seem good, but in general the only good one is 5 for taking towers, and that has a huge cooldown aswell.

Sorry if my comment is confusing, busy with different stuff at the same time!

For a beta player you have a really bad understanding of the benefits of a staff ele in wvw.

maxinion.8396:

juno.1840:

guanlongwucaii.3162:

staff ele is one of the highest DPS dungeon builds out there; compared to it warrior DPS is nothing.

I can’t agree or disagree as I honestly don’t know any better from a DPS comparison standpoint.

However mobs aren’t smart enough to run out of AoEs which makes the weapon even more awesome in PvE. I remember when GW1 implemented some mob smarts and ruined fire-storm for example. I wonder how GW2 would play with that type of logic.

They don’t. Just spam fire 2 all day and you win at dps. This obviously works best if your group is stacking/LOS’ing on a corner to get enemies clumped up and immobile.

If you are talking about supporting then i understand where you are comming from.
Im not talking about supporting, im talking about being capable to do damage outside of zergs wich is pretty non existant.