Guild Wars 2

Well bois I found a build that holds itself well in the meta.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWnMICNYidOA+MAcYiFWArYDkBmAuV1uaZlIBcACAA-TJxHABA8AA8Y/B6LDo8FAAA

Pros of this Build

1. Huge control of the field through immobalize and cc
2. High self-healing (trust me the sustain is there if you utilize blasts well)
3. Decent ally support through blasting water fields
4. Just the right amount of condi removal to be affective
5. Can 1v1 well on point

Cons of this Build

1. Not enough damage to be considered a dps. Its more of a cc/bruiser type.
2. Allies will be raging that you aren’t a traditional aura share ele
3. Most 1v1’s will be a stalemate
4. Team-oriented build so if your team can’t capitilize with on-point pressure its not affective.

How to use this Build

The build is pretty straight forward. You wan’t to utilize fire and air from afar and close in on enemies while in Earth and Water. You can overload air if you feel its safe enough to engage the fight.

I like to overload earth to get the enemies caught, use earth skills as you see fit afterwards.

I usually follow up with a small water and utilize the heal to blast. I don’t recommend using big water unless your team needs the condi removal or you really need a water field. Make sure to start your water rotation with ice spike so that you get the additional water field blast.

The reason I chose Rune of the Flock was because its a blind every 10s, which is really good in 1v1 situations. It also slightly boosts the heal potential of arcane brilliance.

I will attempt a video in the next few days to show it off. Let me know if you have any questions.

This is a nice start of a build, but it feels just a bit too hodge-podge. They REALLY need to give back some sort of amulet that has some toughness + healing power.

A few notes:
- Rune of dwayna is way better against condi, making every use of your heal another aoe cleanse. It also gives you the same healing power.
-Rune of the Herald is a good general bruiser choice, adding extra protection time that is also aoe. This also makes up for lack of shared prot from not having elemental shielding, increasing your effectiveness as a team support in a pinch.

I hear what you are saying about the build being all over the place. I initially when with maurader’s and took arcane blast instead of aftershock but I was dying too easily. With paladin amulet it felt like the right mixture to me.

My main goal with the build was to provide a different type of support other than healbot and I feel I gained that.

On top of the aoe CC from air and earth you gain a ton of access to immobalize. Its pretty nasty if you can follow up an air overload with aftershock.

My other goal was to have on demand blast finishers and gain better access to reflect. Thats why I chose aftershock in the long run.

But to each his own I guess. I can play around with some different runes and see what is the best fit. I’ve personally not run into any other staff ele as effective as this one

If you’re into soft ccs, I’d consider running Arcane Power. You have it traited, in team fights you can spam obnoxious amounts of immob, chill or blind. It just feels like a huge loss in team utility to pick Elemental Surge and not have that one skill that makes the most use of it.

Rune of Dwayna does not work with Cleansing Water (and never has).

No Arcane Power? The conditions from Elemental Surge are applied when allies hit with AP’s effect. So using it in Earth can unleash a powerful AoE immobilize or chill or even constant blind if you stagger out your skills. There’s also the ferocity bonus for your allies. If you and your team do it right, Arcane Power’s benefits outweigh Aftershock tenfold.

Also, staff’s damage is amazing. The problem comes with long cast times on delayed skills, or you need to stand still to cast or the AoE is small and hard to land. But staff, especially specced for soft CC, has so much control that it should be possible to hit with most skills or at least force dodges.

Mejiora.9584:

Rune of Dwayna does not work with Cleansing Water (and never has).

Good to know…I figured they would have fixed the bug by now, but then again arcana still doesn’t properly reduce the time to precharge overloads either (only the tooltip is modified).

That being said, for a support-ish bruiser build, I REALLY like menders with rune of the herald. Herald gives some extra toughness, which is very valuable with mender’s, and getting an extra aoe protection is excellent since the elemental shielding was nerfed. This is doubly true if you take arcana over earth.