Guild Wars 2

Hey,

I’m new to the game and have been playing ele. After I researched a little I could only find melee builds (D/F) being competitive in PvP. Problem is, although I enjoy using staff and scepter, I really dislike the D/F build. Is there a competitive ranged ele build for PvP in the current meta?

Oh, btw, by PvP I mean instanced, not counting wvw.

Also, sorry about such a silly question.

There are two options that work at lower tiers (where you can out-skill your opponents), but you will eventually hit a wall and struggle with when you get up to the level of very good veterans.

First option: Scepter/Focus fresh air:
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_S/F_Fresh_Air

I personally run the water variant, with demolisher’s amulet, pack runes, and arcane shield, mistform, and lightning flash.

This build has good burst, and very low sustained pressure. Your role is mostly to +1 fights and spike down the most vulnerable targets. This build is also very good against ranged enemies with lots of projectiles (who also tend to be squishy, but don’t have all the projectile-hate you have. This build also requires a pretty high skill-floor to know how to combo your skills, how to stay alive, and how to rotate to be effective (taking 1v1’s isn’t worth your time, except against p/p thieves, squishy rangers, and squishy dragon-hunters.

This build, like any ele dps build, has a harder time against thieves and revenants (and burst mesmers, although that one can pretty even). With demolisher amulet, the fight is much more 50:50, but still probably tips in their favor. Your biggest advantage is that most thief/rev players nowadays have no idea how to play against you, so you can actually win most of the fights when you learn what they are doing and what you need to do (time and place your phoenix to punish them during their burst).

Second Build: Staff nuker:

build/advice: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Staff-Elementalist-sPvP-Guide

I personally don’t think staff does very well against good players. Good players know how to mitigate your damage without even wasting dodges, and good teams will quickly figure out you are a free kill if focused properly (not enough stunbreaks/invulns) and won’t just let you stand on the sidelines dropping aoe bombs. I also am not completely sold on using all those conjures like Jefferson does, but they might have a place. One of the things I personally learned with staff is that, often, your best defense is offensive pressure. Many times the best thing you can do to survive under focus fire is to drop your high damage skills ontop of yourself, as it will ward off and punish those melee attackers jumping in.

Staff REALLY struggles when focused by thieves and revenants, but you should be able to get around it if you aren’t playing really good players.