Guild Wars 2

Staff damage to me is lacking a little in pve but in pvp it falters. The main problem I think is the reliability of our attacks hitting in the first place.

First, the main problem-speed of our auto attacks. I find it funny the last patch upped the speeds of several classes missiles but completely ignored ours. In pvp and even pve sometimes our auto attacks just don’t hit. I found the “sweet spot” to hit over half my attacks to be within 600 yards. Always see my projectile shoot off to 5000 yards when someone rolls or charges. I had fun dodging the guardians scepter auto attack (before it got buffed in speed) and shiver to imagine more skilled opponents moving erratically to dodge ours, which isn’t hard to do even for ppl running like a chicken in spvp.

Damage wise, fire 1 is the only auto attack that hits decently hard. Water 1 can be changed to heal the enemy and I couldn’t care less in its current state. Air 1 is pathetic unless there are 2 and only 2 targets near u. Earth is equally bad for damage but won’t be so useless if it doesn’t travel like a helium balloon. So out of 4 auto attacks we have 1 decent one, and maybe, just maybe 2.

Then there are the rest of our attacks. Fire 5 is random and risky to cast, with a long cd. You’re lucky to hit a tick on 2 on a moving target unless u slow/immobilize him. That leaves 3 which is a plain burn and staff is mostly about power.
water 2 is the only one to hit decently. Fair enough with the short cd and 3 useful support abilities.
Air 2 does moderate dmg after an excessive channel. Then you’re left with the abysmal auto.
Earth 2 is 1000x more dependable to use as a blast finisher than to actually hit anyone.

If I want to do as much damage as possible to someone in spvp my “normal” rotation is earth 2 then 4 immediately fire 2, fire 3, roll in for the arcane burn, auto about 2×., water 2 then air 2, all the while PRAYING SOME OF THESE HIT. The ONLY skills I can count on is fire 3 air 2 and my rolling burn. I can repeat the rotation burning another cc/slow to deal dmg. Also notice I needed to switch attunements rapidly just to continue using offensive abilities which is why 20+ in arcane feels mandatory even if blasting staff is free. Significant damage also comes from my rolling fire so 30 points is pretty much required.

I tried glass cannon staff in spvp. Thee is still no burst potential at all (see my rotation above) if im unnoticed and left completely untouched but once I’m targeted I go down faster than a thief. So there’s no point. That’s y the only way for staff to kill anyone is to outlast someone and keep casting aoes in hopes they eat one here and there and die/ run away. Also is why 30/30 in water/arcane is necessary to stand a chance.

When our auto attacks are not dependable past 600sh yards, cc skills need to be near melee range to hit (earth 5, air 3), and needing to roll into my enemy for the precious fire aoe dmg/blind for full effect, i find myself playing at similar range as dagger or scepter. Melee obviously isn’t a problem but what if they bust out their ranged weapon? How ironic that all it takes to beat a staff ele handily is to kite us!

So….simple fix is to increase our projectile speed. A LOT. second is to modify our abysmal fire/air/earth traits. Our innate staff support skills make it a careful balance act so anet must add traits that modify Abilities with a cost tacked on. IE Air trait changes air1 to hit one target only but deal 2x damage. Or earth 5 no longer immobilizing but deals non condition damage. I didn’t play staff ele to be other ppls buffing tool. I wanna Mage!

Staff ele needs a very minute buff by means of increasing projectile speed, you’re spot on with that. But, Air 1 damage weak? Are you kidding? I can get 2k crits all over my screen when people are bunched up, and with 60% crit chance, 30% chance to cause burning, chance to cause random condition, runes of rage…yeah. Needless to say, Mesmers don’t stand a chance if I can dodge the stun.

Air 1 is only decent against Mesmers’ clones when they’re too far for fire1, but not much else. With 30% crit and 60% you’re pretty much a glass cannon, and 2k is pretty subpar. Only good for chasing someone as it’s the only auto that tracks targets, but still slow. Against single target air is still lacking outside of air2.

Fire ball> Air 1 for single target or 3+ target. Air 1 is only nice when its 2 targets since it hits the first one twice.

oh, I just accepted it as a hard fact that staff blows at pvp
use for pve and massive huge wvw fights only

and I think air and fire 1 do about the same dps vs single targets since air doesn’t hit as hard but hits faster
correct me if I’m wrong

Fireball base damage:314 Fireball cast time:1
Chain lightning base damage:203 Chain lightning cast time: .75

So fire ball deals roughly 1.5x damage per cast, bu 25% slower. .75 × 1.5=1.125 So fireball is 12.5% more damage vs a single target

I just tested it. in 30 seconds I flung 21 fireballs, and 22 chain lightnings. So only the cast time is different, but time between activation is pretty much the same. I came up with 20% less dmg per cast as well, so air1 still sucks to me.

I definitely agree about staff reliability. The 2 skills are the only decent damage outside of fire. Air 1 is situational, it’s very good when it’s the right situation, but when it’s not, it sucks, combine that with earth 1 and water 1 both being low damage defensive skills and we become incredibly limited when not in fire.

I think part of the problem is also how many skills don’t deal damage at all, of course this is on top of low damage auto attacks. Geyser, Healing Rain, Frozen Ground, Gust, Windborn Speed all deal zero damage, and they have significant cast times. Unsteady Ground and Static Field deal very low damage. All the time spent casting these CCs is time when we aren’t dealing any damage.

There has to be at least one back-up attunement when fire is on cooldown that can deal damage for more than just one spell. In addition the condition damage on the staff is very sparse, there are only 4 spells total, and Shockwave and Burning Retreat are not really strong condition wise.

Navzar.2938:

Fire ball> Air 1 for single target or 3+ target. Air 1 is only nice when its 2 targets since it hits the first one twice.

Chain Lightning is also better when your targets are spread apart from each other. Fireball’s radius is not as big as C.Lightning’s.