Guild Wars 2

The reason why I made this post is since so many people complain that staff eles are not viable in sPvP. Even more people complain that zerker eles are unplayable because they get one shot.

I’ve been D/D ele since day one (though last couple of months I’ve been using staff equally as much). I’ve played a tanky build since I generally hate playing zerker builds duo to squishyness. Maybe this is partially why I’ve been afraid of rolling a zerker Ele. But since I’ve grew tired of the regular D/D pvp build, I decided to play the complete opposite.

I was surprised….

The damage output is pretty decent.. I know my numbers aren’t close to a thieves, but constant 2k crits are enough for me.
I do stay on the range all the times, which gives me a good advantage against melee.
I have no problem of getting away/survive if I get ganked. CC, heal, protection and regeneration on attunement swap, worst case scenario I use cantrips.
In a full match I die maybe.. twice tops. That’s not much different from when play D/D ele.

Here’s one attachment from one of the matches. I know it doesn’t generalize the whole spvp game, but that was my 3rd match out of 10 this morning. In the other games I usually ended up in the top 3 somewhere.

Atm, I’m looking forward to build myself a zerker Staff build for WvW. It seems it’s not even close as bad as people might have told.

Cheers, Lux Domina.

:)

Nice
Staff is good if you play good, but if you play bad then no wonder you get 1-2 shotted. Tanky D/D is easy mode and you see how many ppl choose it :P

If you time the skills to hit at around the same time you can pull off surprising damage with staff before your target has time to react, especially if you are assisting an ally who is fighting on a point.

So I’ve played my staff build for half a 3-4 hours, using 0/25/10/15/20 set up with zerker amulet and jewel, divinity runes and sigil of battle. Here are some conclusions:

I found it pretty easy to play to be honest. sPvp is a pretty selfish game where people simply want to get the most score. So did the staff zerker build make it more difficult for me to achieve this goal compared to my old bunker D/D build? Not really… The result was about the same. The play style was however completely different. And that’s the biggest difference between playing D/D compared to staff in pvp.

For example, you wouldn’t rush into a group of 2-3 as you might have with a d/d build. However, where the fights were going group vs group, for example in graveyard, say 4v4, I had no problem staying in the middle of it. Did I die a lot? Not really.. 1-3 times per match, depending on the situation. I had no issues escaping enemies, although this wasn’t as easy as with D/D.

For 1v1, I can say, that staff is definitely not made for it. However it’s not impossible. Against tanky builds it’s fairly easy, with CC and the sustainability you gain from water/earth through traits/skills you shouldn’t die. Against zerker specs you probably have a bigger chance to win as well as the highest chance to lose.

My final thoughts are that.. staff is completely viable in spvp and small scale pvp. I won’t say anything about tpvp since that is entirely depends on strategy and team set up. What I liked most about it is the constant pressure you put on enemies in group fights with AoE, as well as CC, while your team mates focus more single targets. You could argue that D/D can achieve this as well, but I’d say not to the same extent as with staff.

Reason why I went for a zerker rather than supportive/tanky (I tried that too) staff build is because I found no reason to do so. The pressure from AoE damage with zerker is much more beneficial than just throwing in heals and fields for your team mates, since you can still do that even with a zerker spec. The only reason for a tankier build is that you would be afraid to die faster (as I was in the beginning), but I honestly didn’t find it much of a problem. Other than that, I really enjoyed this game play and will probably continue running it for a while. Might try zerker d/d later on.

Edit: I just wanted to add that I still find a few things with staff being annoying, such as projectile speed. But in the end when you are discussing viability in pvp, I think it’s important to be aware of what goals you are trying to achieve.

If you like zerker staff in spvp (like I do), then s/d and s/f will be fun for you, too. I’ve tried every gear setup in spvp, and nothing is as fun as full zerkers. If you play defensive Earth, or Water support, the game feels pointless. Seeing someone get hit for 10k with fire instead of only Churning Earth, is very enjoyable. You have to be really good to play s/f all the time IMO. Because I certainly don’t have much practice with it. I like evasive arcana with staff, and accuracy on the staff itself. And sigil of fire on scepter.

paleeshi.1924:

Atm, I’m looking forward to build myself a zerker Staff build for WvW. It seems it’s not even close as bad as people might have told.

Cheers, Lux Domina.

:)

There are a couple things to consider when using a build in spvp and trying to apply it to wvw, well more than a couple, but anyway….

Full zerker gear in wvw has NO vitality added, unlike the amulet, so you’ll have even less HP.

Damage (that you will take) is higher in wvw than spvp. Backstabs and kill shots will insta-down you. None of your skills will insta-down anyone. Many other profession’s skills have been nerfed in spvp to reduce their damage as well, prepare to 3 shot yourself on confusion stacks.

Casual aoe is everywhere and moving can sometimes require taking damage, since you can’t dodge constantly. Keeping track of the possible sources of incoming damage in a zerg fight is exponentially more difficult than keeping track of the movements of 5 or 8 opponents. Your enemies won’t all be fighting in a circle the size of your aoe, they will just walk away from most of it.

When you die (and you will, if it happens a couple times in a 15 minute match with 8 people, it will surely happen in a protracted keep siege involving a hundred players) you’ll rally every downed enemy that tagged you. In wvw I don’t care about people hitting “omagawd humongo numbaaz!” so much as not dying to every stiff breeze that blows past and rallying half the enemy army they just downed.

All that said, it is possible to run glass cannon staff in wvw. Just have a good group do protect you, all the time, avoid open field combat if possible and use terrain/allies to your advantage at every opportunity.

Thrashbarg.9820:

There are a couple things to consider when using a build in spvp and trying to apply it to wvw, well more than a couple, but anyway….

Full zerker gear in wvw has NO vitality added, unlike the amulet, so you’ll have even less HP.

Damage (that you will take) is higher in wvw than spvp. Backstabs and kill shots will insta-down you. None of your skills will insta-down anyone. Many other profession’s skills have been nerfed in spvp to reduce their damage as well, prepare to 3 shot yourself on confusion stacks.

I’m well aware of that. However, the PvE build I’ve made is far more better than the PvP one. With food I’ve calculated having 15300 health, 2220 armor, 50% crit chance and 96% crit damage. This gives me both higher defense and damage compared to sPvP. I’ll see how well it works in WvW and I also want to try staff dps build inside dungeons/fractals to see how far I’ll be able to push it without dying all too much.

Zerk staff is fun in hotjoins, where the extra teammates allow you to not necessarily hang out in the conquest circles as much.

paleeshi.1924:

Thrashbarg.9820:

There are a couple things to consider when using a build in spvp and trying to apply it to wvw, well more than a couple, but anyway….

Full zerker gear in wvw has NO vitality added, unlike the amulet, so you’ll have even less HP.

Damage (that you will take) is higher in wvw than spvp. Backstabs and kill shots will insta-down you. None of your skills will insta-down anyone. Many other profession’s skills have been nerfed in spvp to reduce their damage as well, prepare to 3 shot yourself on confusion stacks.

I’m well aware of that. However, the PvE build I’ve made is far more better than the PvP one. With food I’ve calculated having 15300 health, 2220 armor, 50% crit chance and 96% crit damage. This gives me both higher defense and damage compared to sPvP. I’ll see how well it works in WvW and I also want to try staff dps build inside dungeons/fractals to see how far I’ll be able to push it without dying all too much.

What’s your power/attack? I’d like to know your setup there.

paleeshi.1924:

Thrashbarg.9820:

There are a couple things to consider when using a build in spvp and trying to apply it to wvw, well more than a couple, but anyway….

Full zerker gear in wvw has NO vitality added, unlike the amulet, so you’ll have even less HP.

Damage (that you will take) is higher in wvw than spvp. Backstabs and kill shots will insta-down you. None of your skills will insta-down anyone. Many other profession’s skills have been nerfed in spvp to reduce their damage as well, prepare to 3 shot yourself on confusion stacks.

I’m well aware of that. However, the PvE build I’ve made is far more better than the PvP one. With food I’ve calculated having 15300 health, 2220 armor, 50% crit chance and 96% crit damage. This gives me both higher defense and damage compared to sPvP. I’ll see how well it works in WvW and I also want to try staff dps build inside dungeons/fractals to see how far I’ll be able to push it without dying all too much.

Those numbers should be workable. I don’t really consider that full glass, since you have enough armor and hp not to get oneshot, it’s more of a hybrid-dps setup. If you have mist form and maybe another cantrip that’s plenty of survivability.

My build has similar numbers but I trade a bit of crit damage for toughness as I swap between all weapons depending on situation (and whim, occasionally). Full bunkers are boring, and full healer gear isn’t spectacular as support (2 rangers and 2 thieves is a better healing setup than 4 elementalists anyway, not to mention guardians, or other group comps with water fields and more blast finishers than staff elementalists….. ok Thrash, stop ranting on the forum and go play now…..).

We’ve all tried it.

I’m not sure why you’d play a berserker Ele staff when you could just play a berserker thief D/D + shortbow and do more AOE damage + be able to take down single targets + be able to get away realiably. Or zerker mesmer for that matter.

^Cause completely different play styles?

saiyr.3071:

paleeshi.1924:

Thrashbarg.9820:

There are a couple things to consider when using a build in spvp and trying to apply it to wvw, well more than a couple, but anyway….

Full zerker gear in wvw has NO vitality added, unlike the amulet, so you’ll have even less HP.

Damage (that you will take) is higher in wvw than spvp. Backstabs and kill shots will insta-down you. None of your skills will insta-down anyone. Many other profession’s skills have been nerfed in spvp to reduce their damage as well, prepare to 3 shot yourself on confusion stacks.

I’m well aware of that. However, the PvE build I’ve made is far more better than the PvP one. With food I’ve calculated having 15300 health, 2220 armor, 50% crit chance and 96% crit damage. This gives me both higher defense and damage compared to sPvP. I’ll see how well it works in WvW and I also want to try staff dps build inside dungeons/fractals to see how far I’ll be able to push it without dying all too much.

What’s your power/attack? I’d like to know your setup there.

Here it is.
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|6.1g.h4|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e|311.0.211.0.2v.0.211.0.2v.0.2v.0|0.p6a.0.p65.k58|3l.7|1l.1v.1q.1u.28|e

1873 power. Food gives mainly precision/vitality, you could use other food for more power/less precision. But since I’m using bloodlust, it’s additional 250 power at max stack.

Though I’ve decided for a slightly different gear set up :P

Forstbow is better than lightning flash imo. Just a hint.

You mean for the 4th skill?

In PvP/WvW, Lightning flash is almost mandatory for me, since it works both as a stun breaker and “get away” skill. Mist form has incredibly long CD to cover that purpose entirely. In PvE though Lightning flash can be replaced by something else. I don’t know what purpose frost bow would serve compared to Lightning flash that would be better?