Guild Wars 2

Hey there!

I am leaning towards playing an Elementalist (right now have Asura lvl 11 or so), and the thing is, I really dig the animations and ranged magic style and all, but I hear that the most viable build for PvP and sometimes even PvE is a Dagger/x build.

The problem is, I suck at meelee dodging. Kiting is okay, but gosh dodging and jumping around to get behind the enemy all the time is a chore all right!

So I would like to ask if Elementalist is also good with a staff in all the content, or if it’s REALLY that inferior to the dagger/x playstyle.

The only thing I would mayby consider is playing scepter/x if it is more viable than a staff.

Would you guys please tell me how staff stands in the current meta compared to dagger and scepter?

And if they are really that inferior, could you give me some tips about the dagger gameplay, I struggle at evading damage in the first place, but also at my rotations.

I use lightning AA and the blind when needed and often switch to fire for dragon’s breath + fire wall and fire dash skill. I only go ever to water when I need to heal or when I need to distance myself a littlebit by applying chilled status. I have the hardest time knowing when and how to use the earth attunement, it seems only useful for deflecting projectiles and the invulnerability, but apart from the invulnerability I wouldn’t know why I would bother going to earth when facing a meelee opponent.

So tips and explanations would be really welcome!

Thanks in advance for the help guys!

Greetings,

Acantha.8634

Personally I wouldn’t put to much thought into the meta… most of the time the meta weapon choices offer a difference of less than 5% DPS… not really worth pulling hairs over…

That said… Staff is still a very strong choice for Elementalist… the things to keep in mind with staff though is that it’s a slow weapon. It has the longest range and most of it’s attacks are very hard hitting, but at the cost of being the slowest weapon available to elementalists.

Scepter/x will offer you a more mid-range and fast pace option, but at a lower damage per hit threshold. It’s higher attack rate will help make up for the lower damage output, which in some situations can actually be more beneficial.

Dagger/x is considered meta because of how horribly unbalanced the weapon is… not only does it have the highest attack rate of all elementalist weapons, but it also has a damage per hit output comparable to the staff. Which makes it’s high attack rate and heavy hit’s quite significant… it’s only drawback is it’s short range. Granted that short range does come with a high risk, and when fighting mobile enemies can result in a significant DPS drop.

Personally I use Scepter/x… my choice was ultimately made due to my personal play style, which the skills from Scepter fit the best. I’d highly recommend just seeing which weapon has the best feel to you for your play style and sticking with that. Unless you actually intend to stay in near-melee range of your enemy 90% of the time, you’re probably better off ignoring dagger despite it having the highest DPS potential.

Everything Panda said seems to hold true in my experience as well, with the exception that I’m pretty sure scepter and dagger are actually very close in dps.

Staff really shines with a stationary target. Most of its spells are ground targeted, so if things are moving around, they will move right out of your damage. This also makes soloing more difficult with staff. If you move away to try and kite, the monsters will follow you … right out of your damage. Otherwise, you have to stand up with the target to keep them in place, negating any ranged benefit anyway.

Scepter is actually comparable damage to dagger, but with 900 range vs. the 1200 range of staff. It’s also much easier than staff to land it’s full damage on targets that move.

All three weapons have associated meta builds, so you really can’t go wrong. Try all three and choose what works best for you, though it sounds to me that scepter may be what you are looking for.

For PvE, if you’re not aiming at high-end content, the weapon choice is entirely up to you. Everything is “good enough”. Staff is also still very strong option in this game mode (and also in WvW).

I don’t know for PvP & WvW as I don’t play those modes, but in PvE (I don’t raid though) I enjoy staff, and I get on fine doing lots of solo stuff. You just need to be a bit cleaver with where you place your aoes, and use things like Unsteady Ground / Static Field etc to slow mobs down so you can drop a big aoe on them. For solo taking Glyph of Elementals and popping an Earth Elemental really helps too, that’ll soak up plenty of enemy attention and give you time to drop some hard hitting attacks. You could always take Arcane Shield and use that to cover the slow cast of Meteor Shower too.

And while this may not be optimal for DPS, or a meta build etc, I find for soloing with staff in HoT maps taking Arcane > Final Shielding is really useful for surviving, that saves my bacon a lot! As does having a Superior Sigil of Energy in one of my staff slots.

Staff is still decent for its damage vs large hitboxes, aoe damage and utility it brings.
Scepter ir meta at the moment i think. So you can actually go both. For stationary targets or large targets go with staff. For small ones and moving ones go for scepter.

Staff is very strong if you can keep in rotation, even does well on 1v1… Same as any ele build! d/d with commanders is still my fave though… Perma fury/swift/ 25 (might during 2nd rotation) and even since launch its still the most enjoyable weapon set to play.