Guild Wars 2

All else aside, (assume the group is high on health and not needing a cleanse) what are the highest DPS rotations for the various weaponsets against large health targets? (say champion trash or bosses). I really enjoy staff and scepter, but I find myself wondering if switching off fire just to use other abilities is actually lowering my damage output. I saw the thread specifically about COF P1 discussing the use of thunder hammer, and I am very intriqued by that… but it does have a dark implication: the best damage we can do against one target is just to auto attack with TH 1 :< For a class that’s so much about versatility and atunement swapping, it is frustrating that it feels like the answer to the question of “how do I do lots of damage to this boss while my friends don’t need heals or cleanse” is “spam 1-2 attacks.”

Is it really jsut keep 1 2 and 3 on cool down while in fire if you are using staff or scepter? It seems like Air 2 in both staff and scepter are supposed to be high damage single target moves… and yet I feel like I’m actually lowering my DPS by coming out of fire to use them.

Again, this is for PVE. PVE. PVE. PVE. Please don’t sidetrack into PVP rotations or utilities.

For staff, at least:
Water and Air reduce your DPS in all circumstances.
With no stats, Eruption’s DPS roughly matches Lava Font + Flame Burst. Eruption + other earth attacks roughly matches Lava Font + Flame Burst + Fireball autoattacks, but only for the first 10 seconds (at which point the fire skills are all off cooldown, but the earth skills aren’t)
With power, there’s no reason to use Eruption.
With condition damage, there’s no real reason to use fire attunement (the total damage from Flame Burst is lower than the DPS drop-off from Eruption’s bleeds running out)
Also, Lava Font can be traited to last 30% longer (one extra hit, unless that trait only extends the combo field and doesn’t allow it to pulse one more time), and with the 20% fire cooldown trait as well, has 100% uptime for the combo field. That may be very useful in the long run.

Just looking at the numbers, for a pure damage scenario, it looks more appropriate to just stick to fire or earth, depending on build. If you somehow have no offensive stats, then it’s viable to switch to earth occasionally just to mix things up, but the only advantage is the non-damaging conditions.

Unless you’re using a condition damage build, the only reason to leave fire (with staff) is for utility. Air 2 and Water 2 in staff are just “something to do while waiting for ether earth or fire to recharge”. Which is a little sad for Air, because the attunement description states it’s a high-damage skillset.

With Scepter Dagger and Glyph of Elemental Power

1) Pop Elemental Power
2) RTL to the npc to get in melee range
3) Fire attunement
4) Ring of Fire, combo field
5) Fire Grab, damage to burning targets
6) Dragons Tooth, gives might for combo finisher
7) Pheonix as soon as Dragons Tooth is in the air, gives might for combo finisher
8) Earth Attunement
9) Earthquake, give might for combo finisher
10) Churning Earth for combo finisher

Arcana can give a combo finisher also but there is only so much time to get everything in until the Ring of Fire goes away. I often do not bother with Fire Grab in the first combo. There is time in subsequent rotations to use that with Ring of FIre when Churning Earth for example will be on cooldown but I want to land Earthquake. The important thing is to get myself and nearby players alot of might asap before the boss perhapes knocks me down or hits me hard and/or I need to go to water for condtion removal or healing for myself or others. Don’t forget Air, for RTL, Blinding Flash, and Lightning Strike, quick triple combo after things are on a roll, rather than staying in one attunement and auto attacking. With Elemental Power this is good for Weakness and will help save your hide in melee range.

Must be in melee range. The Ring of Fire is key. With other party members aware of that and using their own blast finishers, you will see some really high Might stacking for yourself and them. I go back to fire everytime it is off cooldown to use that.

Staff on a boss is not all about Your dps. Static Field on the boss will stack alot of vulnerabiliy if the party uses Projectile Finishers. Healing Rain on the boss will proc healing with projectile finishers and clear conditions on the melee. Lava Font gives the projectile finisher effect of burning. You have 6 combo fields in all with Staff.

There’s a theme here if you missed it so far in this and my previous post. Combo fields!

I dig about the combo fields, and am alla bout using staff to support the group. But we both know there are times where the fight is stable and its mostly just “this is taking forever, I want to pew harder.”

Jester.1546:

I dig about the combo fields, and am alla bout using staff to support the group. But we both know there are times where the fight is stable and its mostly just “this is taking forever, I want to pew harder.”

I am with you all the way. If I can get in melee range I am all about dps. I go to the staff if I need the range on a boss. We are talking about bosses of course, not all the other stuff.

Key to melee range is to watch for aoe circles at their feet. They will often telegraph their melee damage moves. That can be hard to see because we are too close and they are so big. I try to stay behind them. If I keep seeing toes then I know they looking at me lol. A quick dodge roll forward to get behind them fixes that. If they have an aoe melee attack that has no aoe circles then its just hoping I can see them start it so I can dodge. Some bosses we just have to be at range, no choice.

Jester.1546:

I dig about the combo fields, and am alla bout using staff to support the group. But we both know there are times where the fight is stable and its mostly just “this is taking forever, I want to pew harder.”

ah, I think I misunderstood your point. There are not a alot of dps move sequences in staff and like the previous poster said, not alot of dps reasons to move out of attunements. But, the elementalist staff increases others dps. If the damage they are taking is reduced they are alive, not self healing, and not running out of range because they have no more heals. They are not taking time to remove conditions. They do not need a rez. For example, Staff Earth 1 is a great skill. Weakness stacks on many bosses. Given the choice between weak autoattacks and some nice support options, I opt for support.

This is sort of unfortunate, in a game that’s supposed to lack the holy trinity, it seems ele is more or less stuck in a support role in ranged fights. Which is great in groups that need it, but say TA final boss… really no one should need any support. Lupi phase 1 and 3 are the same way. Dont get me wrong, I love that a staff ele can all but heal a group through most fights if things are going poorly. But we sholdn’t be playing to fix mistakes, we should be playing to benefit groups at their peak. Even on scepter I still feel weak at range (since really scepter dagger wants to be up close for might stacking and dps, rather than having to pick between using moves to mightstack or deal damage). Thunder hammer is a nice solution on mele-able bosses, but not all are, and honestly those are usually the easiest bosses since the same mechanics which make it possible to mele the boss often make the boss less threatening. Also, if I can mele the boss… I already have a tool to deal damage: scepter/dagger. The utility skill just makes you a little better at something you’re already pretty solid at rather than filling in a hole in your capacities.