Guild Wars 2

Just about to hit 80 on my Ele, it’s my second character but I have absolutely no idea what to build at 80. I understand most people spec D/D for control and Staff for support, but I like the damage I can do with my staff and find the D/D really confusing.

So what I’m asking from you is most builds really REALLY dumbed down for me (Links to type of gear+wepons with runes etc) to understand. I have enough gold at my disposal to build many sets to see what I like.

Please halp!!

You are almost level 80. You have played through a lot of content killing a lot of things. You don’t NEED to make a build that everyone else likes. Keep using the build you’ve used up until this point if you’re comfortable with it. Don’t change just because that’s what everyone else is using. When you hit 80 I would buy gear (yellows because it’s cheaper than exotics and if you do end up changing it around, it would be very costly) with stats that match your build. Maybe do a trait reset with your full 70 trait points to make them go with what you’ve been using currently.

But just stick with your current play style if that’s what you like using. You don’t NEED D/D to play. I love D/D but not because other people were saying it’s the best, but because it’s what I played with and loved from bwe1 to now. Play with what you’re comfortable with and work on improving that build/ getting better with it.

Pretty much what Jake.1842 said. I like S/D and I am running it most of the time in PvE.

I am personally thinking of Power/Toughness/Vitality gear with condition damage rune as it appears it can fit into almost any build, then I could change accessories and weapons to fit different stats.

If you like playing staff foremost then decide on a build and gear around that. Firstly you need to ask yourself two very simple questions …

Q: How good am I at avoiding damage in the game mode I play the most?
Q: Do I understand the purpose and role I prefer to play?

If you’re good at avoiding damage and understand your role as a staff damage dealer then you can build around a strong offensive trait set with gear to go along with that.

If you’re not that good at avoiding damage then you need to gear more defensively while traiting more offensively.

If you can answer those two questions publically then we can look at putting together some viable builds for you.

It’s your thing. Do what you wanna do. I can’t tell you who to sock it to.

I use PTV (Power Toughness Vitality) Armor and Weapons from AC (Ascalonian Catacombs). I put boon duration runes (major water, superior water, and superior monk) on my armor, and Bloodlust and Battle on my weapon/offhand. I use D/D, sometimes switching to S/D for ranged fights. I also use Cleric’s accessories and Soldier’s Spineguard rare back piece with an Exquisite Sapphire jewel in it.

My traits are as follows: 0/10/0/30/30 (10 Air, 30 Water, 30 Arcana). I use Air: I (Zephyr’s Boon. Water: III (Soothing Disruption), IX (Cantrip Mastery), and XI (Cleansing Water). Arcana: V (Elemental Attunement), VI (Renewing Stamina), and XI (Evasive Arcana). This maximizes survivability and condition removal.

Sometimes I switch out Water: IX (Cantrip Mastery) and XI (Cleansing Water) for Water: V (Cleansing Wave) and XII (Powerful Aura) for some extra group support [aura sharing not only shares the aura itself, but also the fury and swiftness that come with it due to the Air: I (Zephyr’s Boon) trait]. This is optimal with a D/D weapon set, because it gives you access to 3 different auras (Air #3, Water #4, and Earth #3 inside a fire field, such as Fire #4). I wouldn’t even bother with this if you are going to use Staff (or Scepter since it has no auras), because 1 of the 2 auras that Staff has access to ALREADY affects nearby allies.

P.S. If you like playing Staff, you can use the same exact build and just replace Arcana: VI (Renewing Stamina) with Arcana: VIII (Blasting Staff). You might also want to replace Air: I (Zephyr’s Boon) with Air: III (Quick Glyphs) if you don’t find yourself using auras very often (Staff only has access to 2 auras; Earth #3, and Earth #2 inside of an Ice Field such as Water #4). Quick Glyphs is good because it reduces the cooldown of all your Glyph skills by 20% (making Glyph of Elemental Harmony a 20 second cooldown, and Glyph of Elementals a 96 second cooldown).

P.P.S. I use Glyph of Elemental Harmony for my healing slot, Lightning Flash/Mist Form/Armor of Earth for my utility slots, and Glyph of Elementals for my elite slot.

P.P.P.S. If you find yourself running dungeons a lot, remember to use an Omnomberry Bar for an extra 40% Gold Find (and 30% Magic Find). It pays for itself as long as you kill and loot at least one boss (due to the extra silver you get). This is especially important if you do AC Exp gold farming runs (killing all bosses and gold-dropping champion mobs).

It’s best to just spend some time really reading the abilities and traits, looking for what makes them synergise, it’s quite rewarding in the end, it’s not like you’ll get booted from anything as long as you don’t die constantly, just have fun getting to know your class

If you like something, then take traits and gear to boost that. On my warrior i love the support aspect for example, so it’d be silly to take the 5 signet greatsword build :P

@Amaethon: Seems the OP prefers playing staff and while the 0/10/0/30/30 staff permutation has a fair amount going for it, personally I think it is over-tanked hence me asking the OP how well they avoid damage.

Running p/v/t armour is a good suggestion and covers as many bases as possible supplementing your damage with either knight’s/valk’s/berseker’s (personal choice) or clerics if going more support (although it scales badly) accessories.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I can say that I’m experienced in avoiding damage since I’ve spent plenty of time on my Ranger doing dungeons/WvW. But as for knowing my role as staff ele I’m not to sure on. If I should mix healing from water attunement and damage for fire. Or perhaps add condition damage for earth. The options seem endless to me.

MarzAttakz.9608 if you would like to add me ingame to make building easier you can go ahead, I’ll take any help I can get at this stage.

Staff condition damage isn’t worth it in my opinion, it goes well with Scepter for burning and bleeds but if you’re running dungeons with necros or thieves chances are good you’ll hit the bleed cap fairly quickly.

Regarding your role, well just remember you have four attunements and each one has a general purpose. I’m sure you know them by now but fire is dps, water is healing, air is crowd control/mobility and earth is protection/cc/damage related. The point being that you have something to contribute to a fight in every attunement. Usually healing will involve dropping your water fields (either blast finishing them yourself or allowing others to do that for you) and/or switching to water attunement when positioned close to you team. Sadly healing power doesn’t scale all that well and some of our healing skills have been reduced in effectiveness. As long as you aren’t spending all your time in one attunement then you’re doing fine.

I’ll link some builds and gear choices in a bit, need to spend some time getting the info for you, I’d rather post them here as you can’t copy/paste any text from ingame.

Preface: Firstly the following is my personal opinion, while I wouldn’t call myself a pro, I have played an Ele as my main since BWE1. What I’m sharing is my experience playing the class as well as my own approach to builds across multiple games. I prefer a balanced approach to my characters, I very rarely build a glass cannon or a full-on bunker unless there’s a requirement to do so.

Tools: I use the build editor here http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/ while it isn’t up-to-date with the latest changes, it’s the site I found easiest to use. While testing stats on the site is great for sPVP I prefer to use SatireV’s build spreadsheet for PVE and WvW as it gives a more accurate idea of stats outside of the Hearts of the Mist. You can download the spreadsheet here and read his thread on Reddit here .

GEAR SELECTION IN GENERAL

Because I’m lazy and there is so many different permutations of runes/gems/sigils etc. I’m gonna simplify things and say go for a Berserker’s Staff.

What sigil you use is entirely up to you and dependent on the build to a lesser degree but obvious choices are Superior Sigil of Battle (3 stacks of might on attunement), Superior Sigil of Bloodlust: +10 power per kill stacks to 25, Superior Sigil of Force: +5% damage, Superior Sigil of Perception: +10 precision stacks to 25 and two of my favourites for dual-wield: Superior Sigil of Fire and Superior Sigil of Air. Up to you what you choose, if uncertain try buying the Major version of each and test them before deciding.

Regarding Runes, again I’m gonna be lazy and say if you can afford them then Superior Runes of Divinity ((+10 to all stats, +2% crit damage)x6) for your final choice of armour. If you’re rich enough to deck out multiple armour sets with these bad boys then kudos to you!

Now about the armour, in my opinion the only options are Soldier, Knight and Valkyrie, the rest are too specific and don’t have enough versatility for my taste. We don’t have the base hp and armour to build too glassy and healing power scales badly preventing a dedicated healer build. I’ll post specific gear combinations for each build but would like to say don’t be afraid to mix pieces since you get the most stats in descending order from Chest, Pants, Helm, Shoulder Guards, Gloves and Shoes. Buff your priority stats using your trait points and armour and then fill in the holes or specialise via your jewellery choices.

GENERAL PURPOSE VERSATILITY: 0/10/0/30/30

This build is a staff variation of DaPhoenix’s popular D/D build. While it doesn’t have the punch of a dedicated damage build it has enough of everything to be one of our most versatile trait setups allowing the usage of all weaponsets without sacrificing too much in all departments. Your effectiveness in each role can be tailored by using different accessories. Furthermore it requires only one set of armour that can be used in both PVE and WvW without having to retrait meaning you can easily switch weaponsets, utilities and selected traits while out of combat.

Trait Allocation:
10 Air: 100 precision & 10% critical damage
VI (20% extra damage to targets under 33% health)

30 Water: 300 Vitality & 300 Healing Power
V (remove condition when attuning to water)
VI (Deal extra damage when health is above 90%)
XI (Remove condition when granting regen to yourself or ally)
bonus: 25 in water for 2% extra damage per boon on you

30 Arcane: 30% Boon duration & attunement cooldown reduced to 9 seconds
V (Attunement swap grants boon)
VIII (Area attacks with staff are larger)
XII (Arcane skills cause condition based on attunement)
note your final trait selection is very flexible and you can change it as you see fit.

Utilities:
Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Mist Form
Arcane Wave
Arcane Power
Glyph of Elementals

Weapon: Berserker’s Staff with Superior Sigil of Perception + Berserker’s Staff with Superior Sigil of Force once max stacks reached.

Gear: Any Power/Vitality/Toughness armour from either WvW, AC dungeon vendors (there are other dungeons but AC is easiest to acquire) or via Temple Kharma vendors (you won’t find pants at the kharma vendors and will have to visit more than one vendor) Guild defender’s backpack or Soldier’s backpack from TP. Superior runes of Divinity.

Trinkets: 2 x Berserker’s Rings, 2 x Berserker’s Earrings, Berserker’s Amulet, all accessories come slotted with exquisite ruby gems by default.

Final approx base stats excluding boons, food and sigil stacks

1976 Power, 1534 Precision, 66% Crit Damage, 33% Crit Chance
1214 Toughness, 2134 Armour, 1514 Vitality, 16785 Hit points
60 Condition damage, 360 Healing power

PROS: All round balanced stats but leaning towards dps with berserker’s accessories, can be customised via different accessories, very versatile trait selection favouring all weaponsets
CONS: Jack of all Trades

LONG RANGE BOMBARDMENT: 20/20/0/10/20

This build is meant to deal a very good amount of AOE damage from range without sacrificing too much defense. You’ll need to avoid damage as much as possible but you have enough defense to survive a hit or two before getting out of danger.

Trait Allocation:
20 Fire: 200 power & 20% condition duration
VI (10% extra damage in fire attunement) or III (5% extra damage to burning targets)
VII (Fire skills recharge 20% faster)

20 Air: 200 precision & 20% critical damage
III (Glyphs recharge 20% faster)
VI (20% extra damage to targets under 33% health)

10 Water: 100 Vitality & 100 Healing Power
VI (Deal extra damage when health is above 90%) or V (remove condition when attuning to water)

20 Arcane: 20% Boon duration & attunement cooldown reduced to 11 seconds
V (Attunement swap grants boon)
VIII (Area attacks with staff are larger)

Utilities:
Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Mist Form
Arcane Wave OR Glyph of Elemental Power OR Cleansing Fire
Glyph of Storms
Glyph of Elementals

Weapon: Berserker’s Staff with Superior Sigil of Perception + Berserker’s Staff with Superior Sigil of Force once max stacks reached.

Gear: Valkyrie’s coat, pants and helm, Knight’s shoulders, gloves and boots. Guild defender’s backpack or Soldier’s backpack from TP. Superior runes of Divinity.

Trinkets: 2 x Knight’s Rings, 2 x Knight’s Earrings, Valkyrie’s Amulet, all accessories slotted with exquisite ruby gems.

Final approx base stats excluding boons, food and sigil stacks

2076 Power, 1642 Precision, 74% Crit Damage, 38% Crit Chance
1338 Toughness, 2258 Armour, 1306 Vitality, 14700 Hit points
60 Condition damage, 160 Healing power

PROS: AOE hits like a truck, while not as heavy hitting as a 30 fire build, it hits hard enough
CONS: On the low side of the HP scale but you have enough toughness to mitigate damage, low on condition removal

SUPPORT: 0/10/0/30/30

So you’re here to heal, that’s all good, water attunement is your friend. To maximise your effectiveness you’re going to need to be blast finishing your water fields as much as possible when they’re off cooldown. You’ll do this by using Eruption, Arcane Wave and Evasive Arcana earth dodge so you’ll need to be close to your team mates needing to be healed, as such a decent amount of toughness will be needed. Please be aware that the rewards for playing support are pathetic since your contribution is calculated by dps only so don’t expect gold medals from DE’s and good drops.

Trait Allocation:
10 Air: 100 precision & 10% critical damage
V (5% precision converted to healing power) OR III (Glyphs recharge 20% faster) OR VI (20% extra damage to targets under 33% health)

30 Water: 300 Vitality & 300 Healing Power
I (water skills recharge 20% faster)
V (remove condition when attuning to water)
XI (Remove condition when granting regen to yourself or ally)
bonus: 25 in water for 2% extra damage per boon on you

30 Arcane: 30% Boon duration & attunement cooldown reduced to 9 seconds
V (Attunement swap grants boon)
VIII (Area attacks with staff are larger)
XI (Attunement based spell at end of dodge, one per attunement)
note: you’ll be using Evasive Arcana dodge roll in Earth as a blast finisher, get used to how it works, also dodge roll in water is a very strong self-heal.

Utilities:
Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Mist Form
Arcane Wave
Glyph of Storms
Tornado (use this in a water field to throw out heals)

Weapon: Magi’s Staff with Superior Sigil of Life + Magi’s Staff with Superior Sigil of Water once max stacks reached.

Gear: Cleric’s coat, pants and helm, Magi’s shoulders, gloves and boots. Guild defender’s backpack or Soldier’s backpack from TP. 2 x Superior Runes of the Monk, 2 x Superior Runes of Water, 2 x Major Runes of Water OR 2 x Superior Runes of Dwyna

Trinkets: 2 x Cleric’s Rings, 2 x Cleric’s Earrings, Cleric’s Amulet, all accessories slotted with exquisite sapphire gems by default.

Final approx base stats excluding boons, food and sigil stacks

1418 Power, 1216 Precision, 10% Crit Damage, 18% Crit Chance
1412 Toughness, 2332 Armour, 1430 Vitality, 15945 Hit points
0 Condition damage, 1355 Healing power
around +70% boon duration maximising the amount of healing via regen. boon.

PROS: Heals like a boss, teaches you the mechanics of using Evasive Arcana and blast finishing in water fields
CONS: Doesn’t hit very hard, requires specialised armour set, very little versatility due to armour set

Nice builds and indepth analysis

When I run staff, I just use a variant of the 0/10/0/30/30 setup. It really is an optimal trait setup for all weapon types for elementalists. Plus theres no need to waste money to retrait :P

I run something on the lines of this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQBYAg8wEUKRU4hyjZ2xGA

In terms of staff build types to run, there is two ways to go:

A staff setup primarily based off of a mixture of DPS and support
A pure DPS / one attunement setup revolving around mostly fire

Personally I like having versatility, so I run something that utilizes all the attunements.
In my opinion, I think Evasive arcana and Blasting staff traits are must haves for any staff setups. The elemental attunement trait is a must have for any build as well.

Evasive arcana leads to water healing + dodge roll earth combos for burst healing effects, and provides a nice additional water roll as well. Blasting staff for the increased area size effects, as having a larger area effect is always more useful.

That leaves 30 points used in arcana. You could altneratively only take 20 points in arcana and not utilize evasive arcana. The passive trait in arcana 25 is somewhat useless.

I find the water 15 trait extremely useful as well (Healing ripple) as it provides a large heal bonus upon swapping to water attunement. Staff elementalists are providing support to the team, so it only makes sense to have this. Some form of condition removal is a must have, so that should be traited as well. The hp>90% damage trait is extremely useful as it provides an extra 10% damage across everything. Combine this with a 2% damage per boon from the water 25 traits passive, and you will definitely do a lot of damage :P

Other possibly traits:

Air1 – With boon duration gear, it gives you 8 seconds of swiftness and fury, so upkeeping perma swiftness+fury on staff is fairly easy. Plus you can still use water12 for aurashare, and provide magnetic aura+fury+swiftness to allies as well if your going for water 30
Air6 – more damage is always nice

Earth3 – free cantrip, use it with water traits

Fire4 – might from cantrips

I´ve made LONG RANGE BOMBARDMENT: 20/20/0/10/20 piece by piece, exacly as u described… its sick man! Thanks a LOT!

Well thats helped ALOT.

Thanks heaps MarzAttakz!!!

daphoenix.4283:

Nice builds and indepth analysis

Coming from you Sir, that just made my day! My thanks for your input to our community as a whole. At the end of the day sharing is caring.