Guild Wars 2

In Pvp staff is a hard weapon to deal damage with. I believe these changes would allow the user to have more control over the weapon, skillfully hit more often and potentially do more damage without buffing any skill damage stats.

Fireball (fire 1).

This projectile has a slow travel speed, at longer ranges it can be easily avoided and will rarely hit.

This skill has at aoe of 120 (180 with blasting staff) and a target cap of 3. By being able to aim the attack you could make better use of the aoe by aiming it yourself to hit more targets.

You could also potentially hit more often by aiming the attack yourself, as you are more likely to be able to interpret the enemy’s movement than the AI.

Ground targeted aoe also has the benefit of being able to be cast over the shoulder of your character, so you would be able to kite better in fire attunement.

Fire Burst (Fire 3)

This skill doesn’t have any trouble hitting as it is not a projectile and has a fast cast time. It would be a stronger skill if it was ground targetable for the same reasons as Fireball, however it could send the skill over the edge and make it over powered, so there would have to be some sort of imparement.

Water Blast (Water 1)

The main reason to use this attack is to heal yourself and allys. It has a radius of 180 (240 with blasting staff) which is actually the same as geyser.

Without aoe targeting you have to aim it at an enemy or try to aim it your self with no target.

With no way to aim anything specificity at an ally your gona have trouble hitting them with it if they aren’t in melee range of an enemy (however this may be the intended use), or right next to you so you can shoot it at your feet.

Lightning Surge (Air 2

Blinds rarely have a cast time as long as this so its not the best way to prevent damage. If it was to be targetable it may need a shorter cast time or larger radius.

Gust (Air 3)

If this attack were to be a targetable cone attack it would function much better. You could aim it to hit more reliably at greater ranges or include more enemys. This attack can already be used over the shoulder, so i think changing this attack would really only help the player feel more in control.

Possible Problems of changes

It is the case I am sure that many players would not want these changes as they would mean you could not auto attack with fire attunement (I have seen the same complaint with grenades on engi). I saw someone suggest once that if you held down the button or put it to auto attack then perhaps the fireballs could continue to cast until released.
This still may be an unfavorable change for many.

Would making these attacks ground targetable make them too strong?

This could be argued either way but I believe with the difficulty of landing hits with staff in pvp, and with the currently rather low damaging builds they would be quality of life changes rather than game breaking ones.

The game seems to allow builds and classes that can aim aoe over the shoulder (engi grenades and necro staff). However it is possible that this is not what they want classes to be able too do, and want ranged classes to have to face their opponent to lessen their speed and commit to attacking (engi grenades get a lot of hate).

Anyway let me know what you think.
thanks.

Tldr Making staff have more targeted attacks may help its usability, but would it make it op? or be an unwelcome change for some players?

Like you said with the problems that would come with this change, this would essentially turn Elementalist staff into Engineer grenade kit which I really hate and the sole reason I left my engineer. So I’d have to vote no to this one.

Which game mode do you most play out of interest?

What is it which you specifically don’t like about the proposed changes? The possibility of having to press 1 over and over with fireball? or do you just not want to have to aim your attacks? even if there was some way to auto attack and still aim them?

If its true you dont like to aim, would you want more of the current skills to require a target?

If anything, this reduces usability. It forces you to predetermine enemy movement which gives you less time to worry about your own position. Ground targeting also suffers from line of sight and uneven terrain. I can’t see this benefiting staff, especially in pvp. Btw, you can already aim fireballs manually.

Sweat Stance.9836:

Which game mode do you most play out of interest?

What is it which you specifically don’t like about the proposed changes? The possibility of having to press 1 over and over with fireball? or do you just not want to have to aim your attacks? even if there was some way to auto attack and still aim them?

If its true you dont like to aim, would you want more of the current skills to require a target?

I play mostly PVE and WVW, I am annoyed about having to press manually for auto-attacks and that you have to aim it. OreoWolf already pointed out some nice points about what could go wrong with this change.

OreoWolf.9564:

Btw, you can already aim fireballs manually.

This
I already aim fireball manually half the time.

and I’m pretty sure you have to actually hit an enemy with water blast for it to heal. Throwing it at my feet didn’t do anything last I checked. So it’s probably indeed intended, as you suggested it might be

Sweat Stance.9836:

Lightning Surge (Air 2

Blinds rarely have a cast time as long as this

They also rarely have as much range
and making it ground targeted would actually decrease its potential range. I usually start casting this when I’m not actually in range yet
The fact that it’s not a projectile makes it fine. most other skills with as much range and shorter cast take just as long to actually connect anyway

The last time I tried using ‘water Blast’, I would say that it indeed healed me although it is very rare to pull this skill off – healing someone if there are no targets selected or no one is standing at the point at which the ‘Water Blast’ would explode therefore granting health. Just as far as I tried, so I might be mistaken.

I guess you have to predict your opponent’s next move – in PvP – to cast your skill, hitting its opponent as efficently as possible.

Gust I hate this skill. It rarely hits if someone moves to either side and it also takes, in most cases, to long to rech your opponent. That should be changed.

Gust could definitely be changed to increase reliability. The speed of the projectile is fine; all that it needs is to follow your target if he moves or simply increase the radius of the projectile.

This sounds like it would make things harder. In PvP I have a lot of fun playing a celestial staff elementalist, but unless I can CC my target so that they actually stay in my ground-targeted skills, it’s very hard to get any semblance of a “burst chain” off. This sounds like it would just increase that problem 10-fold. I personally think staff is in a great place in PvP as it is.

I find gust most usefull when targetting behind you or at close range (with or without target), because ennemies don’t expect it most often, or if they do, can rarely react in time. What annoys me with staff aa are the projectile speed but i guess it’s balanced this way since fireball is aoe, water is aoe heal, and air is multitarget. I wish earth aa was a bit faster though, but it’s also a combo finisher so maybe it’s fine this way.

Overall i think staff is a good weapon, surely the most balanced one between dps/support/control in a teamplay. That’s why i use it in pvp.