Guild Wars 2

I just started my ele again after about a month of neglect, and I’m level 15. I’ve only been using the staff since I’ve started and I have to say I’m actually liking it a fair bit. This is for solo play, and what ever DE’s I happen to stumble across. I may consider changing to sceptre/dagger in a bit just to try it out.

So far I find fire to be the attunement I’m sticking in most of the time. The auto attack does insanely high damage (~90-150) and the other abilities (I keep typing abilitities by accident EVERY TIME) are on such a short cooldown that I hardly have to switch at all.

So I’m wondering a few things. What stats should I be looking for using a staff, cond or power?

Also is each attunement good for a specific task? For example:

Fire – I use fire mostly when I want to do damage and kill things fast single target or multiple targets.

Water – Water is for when I need a quick heal, or another kiting tool for frozen ground.

That leaves earth and Air. I’m preferring air because of the blind, knockback, and snare but even though it have decent damage on auto attack, it really doesn’t have much damaging capability. So I switch to it when everything is on cooldown in fire, and the enemy is getting a bit too close.

I haven’t found much use for Earth with the staff. The #2 is so unreliable unless you’re constantly kiting the enemy through it. Unsteady ground has a long cooldown and an insignificant cripple duration to be of much use compared to other abilities in other attunements. The ONLY use I’ve found for staff Earth is for Shockwave, and Magnetic Aura if I’m getting pummelled by ranged enemies.

TL:DR – What stats/traits should I be prioritizing with the staff, and is there any point in swapping attunements when multiple enemies die very quickly in just fire? Is it better to just pick, say two attunements and swap mostly between them?

welcome to the ele. please keeps your hand and feet inside the car…

Go to the mists. everything is there for free and they give ways to test it in variety of ways.

At the moment I’d rather just play the class, at least until I get to a higher level. I do find the mists useful for finding character builds but its a little difficult going from level 10 and only knowing a bit about your class, to being 80 and having all the traits and abilities thrown at you and trying to figure out everything at once.

Also, with everyone always saying how if you’re not always switching attunements you’re playing wrong – Are you supposed to ALWAYS constantly be swapping, or really only as situation demands type thing?

Btw, if you’re gonna take the time to post a reply you could leave a helpful comment, not just “figure it out for yourself”. It’s hard to get any kind of reply on this forum unless you’re QQing about something, I’ve found

Water
Earth
Fire
Air

Long ago the four nations lived in harmony, but everything changed when the fire nation attacked

Only the avatar master of all four elements could stop them, but when the word needed him the most he vanished…. Into the mist to test skillz

Sorry couldn’t resist

/agreed with Crunchy Gremlin. funny name lol.

Testing is key. Take Earth #2 for example. How fast does Earth #2 apply 6 stacks of bleeds for 12 seconds? How long do you have to kite mobs, as you say, thru it in other words? How high can you get it? It’s a combo finisher blast. Is there a field you have that will go with that? How does that work? One question inevitably leads to another, and another, and another.

lol.
Strangely true story donkey as most beginner eles can not switch attunements quickly and so they get comfortable with 1. so they are sort of seperated… waiting patiently to get combined.

There are no noob ele builds.

You dont think the mists is good advice? Interesting.

@ Levian

Actually I found his comment very constructive. You make statement that it is “so unreliable unless you’re constantly kiting the enemy through it.” That is proof of nothing except that you don’t know specifically how the skill works nor how or when it can be used to best effect. You can test it anywhere. The Mists just happen to be a place the test dummys aren’t trying to kill you and they stand still

sorry levian i was really not trying to be a kitten. i was completely serious.
Fight higher level mobs too. do dungeons.

There are huge debates about attument switching and if its the right thing or not. ultimately you will have to find what you like and you can only do that by seeing what the effect is.
That said i liked scepter focus and attument switching for tough pve content. all other content does not really matter in my humble opinion. Its all easy mode.

on a side note. something i think is missing from the mists is combo fields to see what effect those have

Ok so after another day of playing I’ve learned a bit more. I tend to go to fire for my main damage, and stay there until everything has been used except for meteor shower. I’ll sometimes drop a second Lava Font, then switch to air because the enemy is right at my feet by then.

Usually I’ll use Gust first, mostly because Lightning Surge has a really long cast time when the enemy is in your face and you NEED that CC. Follow up Gust with Windborne Speed and Static Field for kiting, then Lightning Surge as they get close.

After all this, fire may or may not be off cooldown so I sometimes switch to earth. I’ll start with Eruption, laying it where I’m going to be walking as I’m kiting and when the enemy gets to that spot I’ll use shockwave to make sure he gets hit by it. After that its unsteady ground just because I can and it’s available to be used, then switch back to fire and repeat.

This is the build I’ve been testing with

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImgbIy0gjDAhHEwQCiCVUekzO2A;TgAA2USZkSIlVKnUSpGEA

It’s focused on Power and Crit, the crit mostly being for Arcana VI, which goes along nicely with XI. I know I’m not a dagger build, but in the end no matter what your range is, you ALWAYS end up melee range and your survival depends on dodging often.

The only thing I DONT like about this setup is that its sort of glass cannon. If I get hit once or twice, I’m almost downed so it takes a lot of well placed dodges to survive.

What do you guys think of this for a staff build?

Levian.6742:

I haven’t found much use for Earth with the staff. The #2 is so unreliable unless you’re constantly kiting the enemy through it. Unsteady ground has a long cooldown and an insignificant cripple duration to be of much use compared to other abilities in other attunements.

I´ve an advice for you with those two

Try to cast an Eruption under the mob before you even pull him, free strong AOE dmg + bleeding + combo blast if you can time it right with some field. Also the unsteady ground has its uses (altough I agree that the cripple duration is very low for the CD of the spell, and if you cast it classic way in front of running mob, he may pass through even before the spell “ticks”), I´m using it in two different ways:

1) if the mob is immobilized/standing on spot for different reason (cripple stacks so he will get out with pretty high cripple duration.

2) If I´m kiting a mob, the spell can be cast just next to your side, so it is laying in a way how the burning retreat leave the fire trail (so you can easily kite the mob through its long side and stack cripple much better than if you use it like a firewall).

@Levian Nice. Now you’re getting the hang of things. Keep experimenting too. The forums for sure have alot of qq going on. Ignore that and there are alot of tips and tricks you can pick up and fit into your rotations. You’ll be squishy for a quite awhile but don’t get discouraged. Dodge is a great move for damage reduction. The Lesser Elemental Skill when you get it will draw alot of that agro you are experiencing and make things a bit easier.

yeah pay attention to those combo fields and the delayed damage of some abilities.

Say you start the fight off in something other than air. Fire burns, earth bleeds and if you say start the fight in earth then you can switch to fire and then to air almost as soon as you finish casting 1 spell from there.

and then switch to air for the main fight.

I love, LOVE, ele play style. However, I feel it’s either too squishy or puts out too little damage. I’d like to see a light-modest buff to either survival or damage potential.

DD is my play style and if I bring in 2-3+ mobs and come out with a dodge available I did something wrong. I most stay in fire, occasionally engage in air for rtl/shield/weakness then into fire. My ohkitten is popping into water for heals and a breath then into earth stacking bleeds and knockdown back into fire to finish the kite (burning and fields). I’ve tried 20-0-10-10-30 in spvp to great success utilizing the shields in earth and arcane, but I still feel like I’m made of kerosene soaked toilet paper compared to the damage I sacrifice in order to compete. I just think something should be buffed, dmg or survivability. Pve is also quite a kitten if you pull a veteran+x as they often have an immobilize and can sufficiently lock you down and since you can’t take more than 2 hits (usually) the fights are over fast. Downed state just sucks.

I forgot to mention my utilities.

So far I’m using Arcane Shield and Glyph of Storms. A neat trick I’ve found is to start casting Meteor Shower, then when the enemy is right on my feet to pop Arcane Shield. It usually gives me enough time to fully cast it on myself and I still have 1 of the 3 hits left on the shield.

Just like on my necro though I have a tough time with ranged enemies, or anything with a stun, snare, knockdown, immobilize, etc. My basic tactic if I pull a couple mobs and one is ranged is to target it, and draw all the melee enemies to it so I can still hit all of them, and use Magnetic Aura and hope all goes well.

@STRanger

First thanks for the advice! I don’t pay too much attention to the enemies while I’m fighting, more so their location to me, my cooldowns, and my health. So I never noticed before that Eruption even does damage before the explosion! Thats is GREAT to know, thanks.

I did notice using Unsteady ground vertically instead of horizontally, and pulling the enemy through the entire line works great.

For the staff in particular, what do you guys find the most effective attunement for damage? I’m just curious if there is a better option than fire