Guild Wars 2

So i have alot of 80s atm, and absolutely love my ele for pve . Hence, I basically want to master and main ele for the pve branch of the game.

I went on metabattle where i found these two builds that are both rated the highest tier.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Staff_Conjure
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_S/F_LH

I’ve been using the sceptre/ focus build for awhile as the dps is really nice, but I am constantly going downed as the restricted range on sceptre makes you really vulnerable. So im thinking about switching to the staff build, but noticed it doesnt have lightning hammer, which is so nice for dps.

Is there anyone that has played both builds, or knows alot about eles in general that can give me more insight on the differences in each build? Also, how is the dps on the staff build?

Currently Im just running dungeons for pve, but will soon switch to fractals once I learn more about pve and master the builds on ele.

Any advice or insight from former pve eles is appreciated. Thanks

and yeah i do switch in between weps and skills (not traits yet, as i am no pro) during dungeons, for might stacking/ swiftness stacking.

but id like to have a “set build” while in combat

Staff = highest damage option
S+LH = most might and medium damage
D/F = Most utility and lowest damage.

All 3 are very viable builds.

Your choice for S+LH will basically be “do you have a PS war, or a second Ele who is running S+LH?” If the answer is Yes, go Staff, if it’s No, go S+LH. However in PUGs S+LH is tough to play, very very tough, generally I save it for more organized grouping and run D/F so I don’t have to deal with stolen hammers or when I expect a WoR from a guard and it simply never comes and I eat a downed.

Part of mastering the profession though will be knowing when to take what. You can often get away with just using staff and swapping to Scepter to prestack quickly as you run in, then blow things up with staff. But that’s for quicker fights.

I’d highly suggest look up dekey’s guides for scepter stuff, great info, Zelyhn for D/F and well staff… it’s pretty simple, try to start in earth get your number 2 down, swap Air, glyph of storms quickly, swap Fire quickly lava font on your earth2 to catch the blast, ice bow, 543, drop it and back to the lava font/meteor/auto spam. Staff Ele is IMO one of the easiest damage rotations in the game, it’s weaving the utility in that takes a little finesse.

Ohh and staff is still better than LH for dps, but sometimes LH can be nice just to drop for your mesmer or something, but again situational thing, generally run Ice Bow, Arcane Wave, and Glyph of storms and rotate between Ele and FGS for elites.

Yup, staff is highest dmg output.

Rotation I like to use:
Lightning – > Glyph of Storms
Water – > 2
Earth – > 2, 5
Fire → 2, Arcane Blast, Ice Bow 4, 5, 1 spam

Stay in fire for rest of fight if I can.

I suggest avoiding S/F+LH because it’s really only wise to use in non-pug, very organised groups. Staff or D/F are better ideas.

OP I suggest to read Jerus’s post. It’s in nice detail and provides good information.

PlayerX.5307:

Yup, staff is highest dmg output.

Rotation I like to use:
Lightning – > Glyph of Storms
Water – > 2
Earth – > 2, 5
Fire -> 2, Arcane Blast, Ice Bow 4, 5, 1 spam

Stay in fire for rest of fight if I can.

I believe you lose some damage using this rotation. You need to stay in fire/air and not swap to anything else because of the +10% damage traits (assuming you’re 6/6/2 or 6/6/0/0/2)

If you have Air training as last air trait, you can start with Ice bow (attuned to Light), Glyph, AB/AW, drop Ice bow and go fire for the typical rotation.

If you have Tempest Defence, swap to fire immediatelly after using Glyph.

Aye, may be an easier rotation to pull off though? Pretty sure optimized start is Earth, get your Eruption out, which takes a while to explode, this is enough time to quickly swap Air and glyph of storms, As soon as this starts casting you swap to fire, which is where you have your +10%, you won’t have air trianing because you should likely have Arcane Lightning for the higher Ferocity when you slip in an Arcane wave onto your first Lava Font. So after you’ve cast your Lightning Storm in air you immediately swap to fire and lava font on that same spot, this allows you again to get the damage modifier on at least most of your Lightning storm ticks and your eruption as well as just enough time to have dropped that lava font for another tick of might from the eruption blast. Slip in an arcane wave for the buff, pull out your Ice Bow, likely another Ele was waiting for the deep freeze if you’re utilizing it, so generally it’s 4->3, drop it and lava font/meteor/auto attack with fire for the remainder till icebow/storm is up again.

The tough part of staff is that you do have utility in things like Water4 being a chill field, or using Earth + Greater Elemental/Sandstorm just for examples (also things like water field or immob but yeah). So weaving those in can be a bit more demanding. With Blasting staff you’ll have 1s off recharge for 11s attunement swap. Need to fill that up best you can. So say I swapped to Water for a chill/water field, I’ll drop a water2 then maybe swap Air to just auto a couple times till I have like 3s left on fire, swap Earth and Eruption, then swap fire and catch it in a lava font and get back to the standard rotation. Generally want to be in earth before fire if I can, so if I go to earth for a glyph or earth ele summon I’ll generally stick in earth to get 2 eruptions off the second being swapped to fire and blasted in a lava font.

Not sure if those are the best damage rotations, but I haven’t heard the optimized setup for when you leave the standard plan, it’s just kinda what I’ve come up with for when I do it. Try to land big hitters and try to end with eruption to grab those 3 might stacks and fury. Only really a concern for longer more dangerous fights where you have to use some unplanned utility/support tools.

EDIT: eek misread your post Yellow, yeah if you picked up Air Training as the GM slot trait, then yeah you can do everything in Air without a concern. And, worth mentioning that it may be good to have an Ele who’s starting with Bow for DF to have it out early so no eruption and all So yeah sorry

This is the optimized staff rotation for both small and large hitbox targets.

FGS isn’t mandatory but it has good burst, especially on large hitboxes.

After this rotation completes it is optimal to stay in fire and cycle through fireball, lava font, flame burst, and meteor shower while still doing ice storm off cooldown. You have to use glyph in fire unfortunately, but it’s still more worthwhile than taking signet because it’ll help maintain the 10% damage modifier anyways.

In group fights nothing should be surviving long enough for you to need to use glyph of storms more than once anyways, so using it in fire probably won’t happen.

Nice Miku. Just to point out, you don’t have to use Flame Burst in many groups (saving a little time, small dps increase) if you already have a solid burning source (guardian).

Curious, do you have a way you like to summon late Ele’s or drop chill/water fields. IE if you have to jump to another attunment for something, what to do you on your way back to fire?

Chill is helpful, but swapping to air also triggers lightning strike and it’s always decent to do an ice spike/eruption while you’re waiting on fire I guess

Thanks alot guys! all the information you guys is provided is really helpful. so ive swapped to staff for sure and am really loving the dps and combos u can pull off.

also i was watching ur stream (purple miku) and u stated to use ice bow 4 before meteor shower for more dps? any reason for that? <3 watching ur runs btw

anyways, thanks alot all!

Glad you like the stream!

And yes, Kaozkrayken there is a reason for that.

Basically, meteor shower takes 3 seconds to cast and has a 9 second duration, where as ice storm is 2.75 second cast and ends briefly afterwards. Because of this, when you prestack might you will make best use of your might by using ice storm first as it’s quicker to pull off. Both skills have 24 impacts and also because ice storm’s area is smaller, the impacts are condensed into a smaller area so it makes it more reliable than even meteor shower with blasting staff.

Also if you were to do it vice versa then your might would already be dropping before the meteor shower finishes casting, and would already be done dropping before your ice storm completes.

Technically for larger targets like Lupicus meteor shower has the most potential between the two skills damage-wise, but its drawback is that it needs time to execute. Hope that makes sense.

Scepter/Focus is only really good with Lightning Hammer, so that’s why, as others have said, it’s best to stick to either Staff or D/F if you are just PUGing, since LH is a pain in PUGs. I mean, you can run Scepter/Focus without LH, sure, but your damage, after your burst, will be stupendously bad.

Staff and D/F have their ups and downs. Staff has more damage and perma fire fields, Dagger/Focus has more utility and a projectile block. Both are fine.

Purple Miku.7032:

This is the optimized staff rotation for both small and large hitbox targets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKXX8p6OAvo

Can’t do YouTube at the moment.

Is the rotation available as text somewhere?

It’s what I wrote above with the burning skill thrown in as well as FGS.

So, start fight in earth, use eruption, swap air, use lightning storm, swap fire, drop lava font, use Flame Burst, Ice bow 4, arcane wave, 3, drop bow, lava font, meteor, auto, FGS 5, 3, drop once you get through him, lava font/meteor/auto…

That’ll be your best burst, the video he phases lupi in like 23s solo. So doing that with dodges

Ah, so that was proof that reading comprehension plummets while talking on the phone.

Thanks!

Just to add, I’ve run similar to the staff build for years and am happy with it. Rarely swap out, mostly when wanting to try something different.

Zerker armor with scholar runes and celestial trinkets/staff. Main difference is using 6/2/2/2/2 in PvE/WvW or 6/0/6/0/2 at world bosses. Arcane Wave and Glyph of Elementals gets swapped out as a situation demands though generally stay equipped. If you play with more organized groups often can swap out the cele to zerk. Been solid for me in living world story too so I can’t complain.

Can even take the build to sPvP… does reasonably well. Celestial or cleric over zerk though. Benefit: laugh at turret engies as you meteor their point ^.^