Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,
in this thread I want to discuss and rework the elementalist staff skills. Some are really strong in my opinion while others are weak. I hope this will improve the current situation for staff eles. This thread is the first part. I will also do a rework for dagger, focus, scepter and the slot skills in the future.

Here are the different skills:

Fire:

Fireball
Cast a fireball that explodes on impact and hits multiple foes.

• Deals decent damage in a small AoE but the projectile is slow.
  => Increase the speed by 25%.

Lava Font
Make lava erupt from the target area.

• The damage per tick is good but most enemies will only stand in it for 1 or 2 ticks. The CD is ok.
  => Instant damage instead of delayed damage.

Flame Burst
Burn foes at the target location.

• Burn deals a good amount of damage and the small AoE helps. The CD is balanced as well.
  => No rework needed.

Burning Retreat
Quickly roll backward, leaving behind a line of fire that burns.

• Close to 0 damage unless you stand in the fire field for the whole duration. Pretty high CD considering it is the only real engage/disengage skill for staff eles. Needs a rework imo.
  => Remove the fire field (we already have Lava Font for that) and reduce the CD to 10 seconds. That way staff eles would have a slight chance in a 1v1.

Meteor Shower
Call down a meteor shower onto the target area.

• Great skill if you need AoE damage, terrible in a 1v1. CD is ok. Balanced skill.
  => No rework needed.

Water:

Water Blast
Spray a jet of water at foes that also heals allies in the blast radius.

• Low damage but small AoE heal. Balanced but unreliable.
  => Heal bounces similar to Winds of Chaos (Mesmer staff 1).

Ice Spike
Drop a giant ice spike on foes to make them vulnerable.

• Nice damage and Vulnerability on a very low CD. The problem is the skill doesn’t hit your opponent most of the time.
  => Reduce the time until the Ice Spike hits your opponent (~75% of the current time) and increase the CD to 5 seconds.

Geyser
Create a geyser to heal nearby allies.

• The heal is ok but the AoE radius is way too small. The water field is very nice. CD is ok.
  => Increase the AoE radius to 180.

Frozen Ground
Coat the target area in ice, chilling foes that enter it.

• Fantastic skill on a very high CD. The ice field helps a lot.
  => No rework needed.

Healing Rain
Call down a healing rain on the target area, granting regeneration to allies and curing conditions once every three seconds.

• Great skill on a very high CD. Heals, removes conditions and gives you another water field. Sadly you need to stand still while casting but that makes the skill pretty balanced.
  => No rework needed.

Air:
Chain Lightning
Hit multiple foes with arcs of chain lightning.

• Really low damage, no additional effect and slow projectile speed. Really needs a damage and speed buff to keep up with the other staff 1 skills.
  => Increase the damage to 500 (first hit) /400 (second hit) / 300 (third hit) and increase the speed by 25%.

Lightning Surge
Charge a lightning surge that blinds foes near your target when it discharges.

• Mediocre damage and a high casting time for an air skill doesn’t make sense imo. The high casting time is also the reason why the blind is close to useless. Instead of making a certain skill miss it hits a random skill after 1 1/2 seconds.
  => Increase the damage to 600, reduce the casting time to 1/2 second and increase the CD to 14 seconds.

Gust
Push foes backward with a burst of air.

• Knockback without any damage on a high CD. Misses quite often.
  => Increase the projectile width and/or projectile speed. Add some damage (~1 auto-attack).

Windborne Speed
You and nearby allies gain swiftness, while curing crippled, immobilized, and chilled.

• Nice skill on a high CD. Seems balanced to me.
  => No rework needed.

Static Field
Create an electrical field that stuns foes crossing it.

• Fantastic skill on a very high CD. The lightning field helps a lot.
  => No rework needed.

Earth:

Stoning
Hurl a rock and weaken your foe.

• Low damage but causes weakness and is a physical projectile (combo finisher). Nice skill.
  => No rework needed.

Eruption
Shake the ground until it erupts and damages foes.

• High damage and a blast finisher on a low CD. Pretty much never hits the target.
  => If you press 2 again while being in earth attunement the eruption explodes early but deals less damage.

Magnetic Aura
Reflect projectiles with magnetic energy.

• Fantastic skill on a high CD. Pretty balanced.
  => No rework needed.

Unsteady Ground
Create unsteady ground that cripples foes moving through it.

• Close to 0 damage and only a 2 second cripple on a high CD. Pretty useless.
  => Instant knockdown and cripples for 3 seconds.

• alternative skill rework:
  Create a line in front of you that foes cannot cross.
  Duration: 5 seconds
  Range: 1,200
  CD: 50 seconds
  Casting time: 1 second
  Now skill 5 instead of 4.
  (Line of Warding on a 50 second CD instead of 40 and no combo field)

Shockwave
Create a shockwave that bleeds and immobilizes your target.

• Low damage but immobilize and physical projectile (combo finisher) on a high CD. Misses quite often.
  => Increase the projectile width and/or projectile speed.
  Now skill 4 instead of 5.

This is my current rework for the staff elementalist. If you have more ideas on how to improve the elementalist or if you want to discuss my rework feel free to leave a comment! I will keep editing this thread to keep it up to date.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

[Reserved for more editing]

I like these; your assessment of the skills is very close to what mine would be.

Air in particular needs help – the DPS vs. usability on #1 and #2 is shockingly bad (no pun intended), like to the point that it’s very obviously imbalanced, which makes the attunement in general borderline useless. This really compromises the whole weapon.

Just letting you know there is an ongoing thread for staff changes if you care to add your info to it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/staff-fixes-improvements/page/2#post1940800

You should create one for Focus also, pretty good job.

I feel like Lightning Surge should do around 1,000 to 1,300 damage, and remain with it’s current Cast time, with CD increased to 15 seconds.

I personally think fireball could use a bit of a speed boost. It’s like the old necromancer’s spectral claw thing necrotic grasp, where if players just side step back and forth while standing still or moving, the attack won’t it.

edit:

Old Spectral Claw? You mean the current Staff autoattack for Necro, right?

Right that thing. It used to be slower, but got a speed boost, still pretty kiteable though.

Old Spectral Claw? You mean the current Staff autoattack for Necro, right?

A good set of changes. I’m glad you’re not suggesting ripping the whole thing apart since most of the staff’s skills are indeed pretty good already.

Blackhat.4016:

Air:
Chain Lightning
Hit multiple foes with arcs of chain lightning.

• Really low damage, no additional effect and slow projectile speed. Really needs a damage and speed buff to keep up with the other staff 1 skills.
  => Increase the damage to 400 and increase the speed by 25%.

Actually, I’d kinda like to see the damage increased even more dramatically against the first target, but them see rapid fall-off with subsequent targets and don’t allow the bounces to bounce back. The staff could use a few single-target damage options (most other professions can just handle this with a weapon swap) and the Air autoattack makes sense for that.

Blackhat.4016:

Eruption
Shake the ground until it erupts and damages foes.

• High damage and a blast finisher on a low CD. Pretty much never hits the target.
  => Reduce the bleeding time to 8 seconds and reduce the delay to 1 1/2 seconds.

My concern with a reduced delay would be comboing it with Water 3/5 or Fire 2. You already have to get the rotation down to muscle memory to pull it off, but with a reduced delay on Eruption it may not even be possible.

Blackhat.4016:

Unsteady Ground
Create unsteady ground that cripples foes moving through it.

• Close to 0 damage and only a 2 second cripple on a high CD. Pretty useless.
  => Skill rework:
  Create a line in front of you that foes cannot cross.
  Duration: 5 seconds
  Range: 1,200
  CD: 50 seconds
  Casting time: 1 second
  Now skill 5 instead of 4.
  (Line of Warding on a 50 second CD instead of 40 and no combo field)

I wouldn’t say no to this change, but it does strike me as kinda stealing the Guardian’s thunder and also doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense thematically. Maybe if the Cripple were longer and the damage were higher? Maybe if it inflicted a short Weakness as well?

Blackhat.4016:

Shockwave
Create a shockwave that bleeds and immobilizes your target.

• Low damage but immobilize and physical projectile (combo finisher) on a high CD. Misses quite often.
  => Increase the projectile width and/or projectile speed.
  Now skill 4 instead of 5.

Yeah, I really just want this to hit more reliably. It’s awesome when it does hit.

Blackhat.4016:

Fire:
Lava Font
Make lava erupt from the target area.

• The damage per tick is pretty low considering most enemies will only stand in it for 1 or 2 ticks. If you stand in a lava font you should be punished for it. The CD is ok.
  => May need a small damage or AoE radius (~180) buff.

Lava Font damage is deadly as it is, if target stands inside. Immobilize your target before casting lava font, or pay attention to what your friends do around you and cast it when they immobilize the target. This is how I get my most kills in WvW.

@Einlanzer.1627
Thanks for your feedback!

@Tsai.8216
Thanks for letting me know. I will post the ideas there once I have more feedback on how to improve the rework. I don’t want to spam the thread with unfinished work.

@Mooncrosser.7519
Thanks for the feedback! I will do a rework for the focus once I have more time.

@TheMightyAltroll.3485
Thanks for the feedback! I thought about the same rework you did but I feel like the blind is only a small bonus on top of the damage then. Imo the blind could be used way better if the casting time would be lower. That’s why I didn’t want to increase the damage too much.

@Navzar.2938
Just tested it again and you are right. Even though the AoE sometimes hits the opponent the skill misses quite often. Going to update that.

@Blaine Tog.8304
Wow, that is a lot of feedback!

Chain Lightning: Completely agree here. Your suggestion makes sense and fits the air attunement better. Going to update the rework!

Eruption: I agree. I am used to do these combos and that’s why I felt like 1 1/2 seconds would be enough. It may be difficult for new eles and players with a high ping though. Here is an idea which just came to my mind:

Don’t change the skill but if you press 2 again while being in earth attunement it explodes early (dealing less damage ofc). That way eles could still use the combo or hit the enemy if they want to.

Unsteady Ground: I was thinking about increasing the stats as well but imo that wouldn’t help a lot. The staff is mainly used for WvW or PvE. Cripple is pretty useless there because zergs in WvW have too much condition removal (for a 30 seconds CD) and it also doesn’t help a lot in PvE. That’s why I wanted to change the skill back to how it used to be in beta (if I remember correctly) without making it OP. Currently Guardians are pretty dominant in PvE (speed runs, FotM, etc.) and with the skill rework that might change. You wouldn’t have to wait for a Guardian for your run and instead you could use an ele to do his job. Obviously not as well as the Guardian but still good enough.

Shockwave: Nothing to add there.

@Vaugh.7193
Thanks for your feedback! I know the skill is deadly if you stand inside but the if is the problem.^^ That’s why I wanted to increase the damage (=> only 1-2 ticks hit but they deal a lot of damage) or the AoE radius (=> 2-3 ticks hit but they deal good damage). Like you said increasing the damage would be a little OP though and that’s why I will change the rework to increased AoE radius only.

Blackhat.4016:

Eruption: I agree. I am used to do these combos and that’s why I felt like 1 1/2 seconds would be enough. It may be difficult for new eles and players with a high ping though. Here is an idea which just came to my mind:

Don’t change the skill but if you press 2 again while being in earth attunement it explodes early (dealing less damage ofc). That way eles could still use the combo or hit the enemy if they want to.

That would be a great change. Maybe give it a minimum charge time of, say, 1 second for half damage and bleed stacks that ramps up to full if allowed to charge for the full 3 seconds.

Blackhat.4016:

Unsteady Ground: I was thinking about increasing the stats as well but imo that wouldn’t help a lot. The staff is mainly used for WvW or PvE. Cripple is pretty useless there because zergs in WvW have too much condition removal (for a 30 seconds CD) and it also doesn’t help a lot in PvE. That’s why I wanted to change the skill back to how it used to be in beta (if I remember correctly) without making it OP. Currently Guardians are pretty dominant in PvE (speed runs, FotM, etc.) and with the skill rework that might change. You wouldn’t have to wait for a Guardian for your run and instead you could use an ele to do his job. Obviously not as well as the Guardian but still good enough.

I still think it would be better to differentiate the skill more. Hmm. What if it applied a slightly longer cripple (3 seconds, say) as well as a unique debuff that knocked down the target if the cripple lasted for 2 seconds? I don’t find condition removal so prevalent in WvW that conditions aren’t still useful, and a condition that turned into a knockdown would be pretty useful for escapes and chases, I would think.

uu I like the Eruption idea, sort of charges the spell. There are not many skills that you charge in gw2, suprisingly! Was expecting many more pre launch actually.

Let’s say the total delay is 3 seconds atm, if you leave it on its own it’s 6 stacks of bleed. 2 sec is 4 stacks and 1 sec is 2 stacks. Always blast.

I don’t think Lava font radius should be bigger, because then it would be harder to aim (snipe) it to hit certain parts of zergs (target limit). Which is quite important.
It should just do the first tick right away.

Instead of Unstable Ground, usable while stunned, a 1-2 second tornado transform instant SWOOOSH. Smaller knockback and applies 2 second cripple too.

@Blaine Tog.8304
Thanks for the feedback!
A knockdown would be nice as well but I feel like the huge amount of stability would make the skill a little weak. Either an ally gives you stability or you just use your own skills and run through Unsteady Ground without even noticing it. Sadly Unsteady Ground doesn’t move, otherwise the knockdown would be pretty good since your opponent has less time to react. Besides that it would not help too much in PvE. Imo a skill similar to Line of Warding would improve the PvE meta a lot since you would not rely on a Guardian every single time you want to do a difficult dungeon or FotM.

@Sabull.5670
Thanks for the feedback!
I agree about Lava Font. Going to update that!
I am not sure about the Unsteady Ground rework though. Imo a tornado transform would fit the air attunement much better and the small knockback wouldn’t help too much (I explained that in my answer to Blaine Tog.8304). I might include your idea in another rework though. Maybe focus.

This all seems pretty similar to what I think about staff as well. Most skills have the numbers but are slower than slow. Things I would do differently would be:

Burning retreat: a lot of people have said similar things in the past; have it do damage at your starting location like a reverse burning speed. Damage would be around fireball damage.

Water blast: needs a more reliable way to heal allies. I would suggest a bounce effect like Mesmer staff 1 that heals allies it hits or have the heal centre on yourself rather than the target so you can control where it heals.

Healing rain: I don’t think this is good enough for its cooldown. Needs to have either a higher target cap or some direct healing in addition to regen.

Chain lightning: air 1 does more damage than fire 1 in every other set and I think the same should be true here. I like the idea of having its initial hit be severe then falling off as it hits additional targets. I also think it should require a dodge roll to evade (either super fast or homing).

Gust: more like Mesmer greatsword 5 pls. Staff is the aoe weapon.

Stoning: weakness is a weak condition. Give it more damage or 1s cripple.

Unsteady ground: cause immobilise on contact but no effect while you already have immobilise.

Shockwave: larger aoe.

Blackhat.4016:

@Blaine Tog.8304
Thanks for the feedback!
A knockdown would be nice as well but I feel like the huge amount of stability would make the skill a little weak. Either an ally gives you stability or you just use your own skills and run through Unsteady Ground without even noticing it. Sadly Unsteady Ground doesn’t move, otherwise the knockdown would be pretty good since your opponent has less time to react. Besides that it would not help too much in PvE. Imo a skill similar to Line of Warding would improve the PvE meta a lot since you would not rely on a Guardian every single time you want to do a difficult dungeon or FotM.

While I can’t speak to high-level FotM, I do think you’re undervaluing an AoE knockdown for WvW, sPvP, and general PvE.

For WvW, enemies randomly having Stability is fairly uncommon. Most builds only have a small amount of it and only for short duration (or on very long cooldowns as part of an Elite). If a zerg is chasing your zerg (or vice versa), you’re probably going to knock down a bunch of people. Some will cleanse out of the Cripple before the knockdown takes effect, some will blow a Stunbreaker, and some will indeed have Stability, but many will just have to eat the knockdown. The ability I’m describing has high potential power but also good counterplay which means it would be pretty easy to tune into balance. It would still start instantly when dropped so you could place it on a downed ally to guarantee breaking all stomps without Stability or Mist Form for a few seconds (and forcing someone to blow Stability for a stomp when they otherwise would’n’t have used it is still a good trade).

If you think that’s too much counterplay, perhaps the ability could knockdown targets immediately upon stepping on it, then apply a follow-up cripple and knock them down again if they stay in the AoE for too long.

Coldtart.4785:

Healing rain: I don’t think this is good enough for its cooldown. Needs to have either a higher target cap or some direct healing in addition to regen.

Not gonna lie, giving Healing Rain a 10-target cap sounds really, really good.

Change one or two of the auto attacks not to be projectile. A kinda of drop down skill from sky or etc.

More faster, not delayed and more reliable skills. You can almost walk dodge every skill from 1200 range.

Remove or rework all single target skills.

Blackhat.4016:

Air:
Chain Lightning
Hit multiple foes with arcs of chain lightning.

• Really low damage, no additional effect and slow projectile speed. Really needs a damage and speed buff to keep up with the other staff 1 skills.
  => Increase the damage to 500 (first hit) /400 (second hit) / 300 (third hit) and increase the speed by 25%.

Static Field
Create an electrical field that stuns foes crossing it.

• Fantastic skill on a very high CD. The lightning field helps a lot.
  => No rework needed.

In regards to these 2 skills:

Chain lighting, I’ve always wanted to see this actually work like chain lightning, not like a fireball. I think it ought to work like forked lightning and hit 3 people simultaniously creating a chain of lightning between 3 people. To balance that I guess the damage kmight need to be lowered, or the casting time increased to 1 second, not 0.75 seconds.

I use static field in 2 situations; If I am being chased and need to stun whoever is behind me, and in a boss fight I sitch it near the boss so that melee attackers put stacks of vulnerability on the boss as well as get dazing strike.
I would rather this skill was a second lightning storm, or a bolt of thunder that comes out the sky and strikes one target making them dazed or confused and dealing significant damage to one target.

@Coldtart.4785
Thanks for your feedback!
Burning Retreat:
Extra damage would be nice but I think a skill which creates distance between the ele and melee professions would be even better, especially for a 1v1. I would buff the damage in the air attunement to compensate for that though.

Water Blast:
I agree. That is a pretty nice idea. Going to update that.

Healing Rain:
I am not sure if the skill would be too strong with a higher target cap. Since we already buff Water Blast for the active heal I would not change this skill to keep the water attunement balanced although I would love to be able to heal more allies.

Chain Lightning:
Nothing to add here.

Gust:
Nothing to add here.

Stoning:
Weakness is a pretty underrated condition imo. Besides that Stoning is a physical projectile (combo finisher) which makes the skill even better. I don’t think the skill needs a buff.

Unsteady Ground:
Going to explain that in the answer to Blaine Tog.8304.

Shockwave:
Nothing to add here.

@Blaine Tog.8304
That was a pretty good explanation. Maybe I am too used to running around with at least 2 Guardian guild members and Armor of Earth. Besides that I really like the combo between Unsteady Ground and Lava Font/Ice Spike/Eruption. Going to update that but I will keep the complete rework as an alternative since I really liked the skill in beta.

@rhodoc.2381
Thanks for your feedback!
Chain Lightning would be a good skill for your idea. Sadly the damage would need to be lower if the skill is a drop down from the sky.
I included all your other ideas in the rework already (except for a Stoning rework which would be a single target skill).

I was thinking as I was playing earlier that Burning retreat might be more useful if the fire combo was removed and instead it was made into a combo finisher Leap.
There would be no damage, but the elementalist keeps the ‘free’ extra dodge roll, but gains a leap which would work well with lava font and other combo fields.

To the OP,

What you are suggesting is making the Ele too strong in the eyes of other players. This will not go down well with whiners who can’t even avoid an AoE. Sorry, but if the devs does follow some of the suggestion, they will nerf it after one round of complains from whiners.
Which is pointless. Besides, Dev rarely even come into the Elementalist forum to comment anything. It is like they dislike the Elementalist class. Which makes me wonder why they did not removed Ele and make another class they like in the first place?

^ If aoe is what other classes hate so much, how about turning the chain lightning and blinding flash aoes from air into single target attacks? This would greatly strengthen staff’s versatility, while taking some of it’s strength away in exchange. Chain lightning can remain as is, but hit the target twice instead of additional .targets. Lightning surge’s cast time would be reduced to 1 sec and damage increased a bit, maybe 20 or 25%

Although I don’t think the aoe complains are about staff, so just decreasing lightning surge cast time to 1 second and changing eruption’s damage delay to 1 second after cast instead of 3 should make a huge difference.

Other than that, unsteady ground could also be buffed to cripple for 3 seconds and deal 2 or 3 times it’s current weak damage. Or maybe make it a curtain/wall type skill instead with a 5~6 sec cripple.
Gust could also use a small boost, preferably 33% faster projectile speed. Or instead one of the following: 30sec cd, small 90 aoe radius, 200 base damage, 5 sec weakness, or 5 stacks vulnerability for 5 seconds.

I also noticed meteor shower’s visual effect lasts ~4seconds longer than the skill itself, so it’d be nice if that visual was fixed so other would realize it’s weaker than it seems.

@Half Tooth.1867
Thanks for your feedback!

Chain Lightning
That’s a nice idea although I think it would be pretty difficult to balance the damage. I like the idea Blaine Tog.8304 had a little better though since it fits the air attunement really well (single target damage would be equal to the first target attacked in this case).

Static Field
That’s what I like about Static Field. I really wouldn’t want to change this skill. Lightning Surge should be the high damage skill imo while Static Field is your stun/combo field.

Burning Retreat
I thought about that as well but I am not sure if a leap finisher would be a little bit too strong. You would have access to every single aura (except for Shocking Aura) and a daze then. I like the idea though.

@SirDrygan.1823
Thanks for your feedback!
I am not sure which skill would be OP after the rework though. I tried to buff the weak skills and keep the good ones balanced. If there is a skill which is OP in your opinion please let me know.

I know they rarely come to the ele forums and comment (there is like 1 comment every 3 months) but I hope that somebody might read this and like the ideas. Maybe 1 or 2 of the reworks will be in a small staff buff.

@Navzar.2938
Thanks for your feedback!

Lightning Surge
Got a similar rework.

Eruption
I think the idea mentioned in the rework is better than just reducing the delay. You could either use the skill to hit your opponent or as a combo finisher.

Unsteady Ground
I don’t really like cripple with a damage boost considering this skill has a 30 second CD tbh. I would expect something useful like a knockdown with little damage since it fits the earth attunement really well.

Gust
Got a similar rework.

Meteor Shower
Yes, although this would be a bug fix instead of a rework then.

hey Blackhat,

these are some fair, reasonable suggestions, so i would be delighted to poke holes in them

Fire 4 Burning Retreat – IMO, it’s fine the way it is. The fire field is awesome! fire 4 > switch to earth > dodge roll foward back into the fire > EA blast might. I also run Arcane Wave most of the time, so fire 4 > Arcane Wave = blast might.
Also, you can use it effectively, you just have to be creative—i was chasing an enemy in WvW, i used lightening flash to get infront of him, immediately followed by burning retreat, so he was stuck in my fire AoE.

I do like the Earth 2 – eruption trigger idea, as long as it functions the same if you don’t trigger it. The only issue i can see is this may clash with my button mashing tendencies.

Water 1 – i think it’s fine the way it is, but i’ve always thought it would be awesome if you could target teammates/other players instead of enemies, and just cast it as a (very small) heal everytime the projectile hits them.

Air 3 – i would like a change that would make it easier to hit enemies, especially at close range (like an AoE cone).

Otherwise, i think staff is fine the way it is. The biggest changes staff needs are increased projectile speed, especially for air 1, and instant ticks on AoEs.

Blackhat.4016:

@Half Tooth.1867
Thanks for your feedback!

Chain Lightning
That’s a nice idea although I think it would be pretty difficult to balance the damage. I like the idea Blaine Tog.8304 had a little better though since it fits the air attunement really well (single target damage would be equal to the first target attacked in this case).

Static Field
That’s what I like about Static Field. I really wouldn’t want to change this skill. Lightning Surge should be the high damage skill imo while Static Field is your stun/combo field.

Burning Retreat
I thought about that as well but I am not sure if a leap finisher would be a little bit too strong. You would have access to every single aura (except for Shocking Aura) and a daze then. I like the idea though.

Yes, I find static field useful, but not as 5th skill. It does not compare to the usefulness of Healing rain, nor the AoE of Meteor shower. It would be better as a or 4thskill, with the 5th skill reserved for some colossal spike damage. Or I don’t know if anyone remembers the mission thats later on in the main story where you’re an asuran golem and you get a skill that’s like static field except it starts as a small circle and moves outwards. That would also be more useful, but then maybe overpowered if it kept the combo field?

Also this doesn’t quite fit in, but some of the skills the enemies use in the Molten Dungeon are so cool and I would love the ele to have a firey tornado Also the fire effects used by the Molten alliance are slightly different to the ele’s fire and I much perfer the molten fire.

Half Tooth.1867:

Yes, I find static field useful, but not as 5th skill. It does not compare to the usefulness of Healing rain, nor the AoE of Meteor shower. It would be better as a or 4thskill, with the 5th skill reserved for some colossal spike damage. Or I don’t know if anyone remembers the mission thats later on in the main story where you’re an asuran golem and you get a skill that’s like static field except it starts as a small circle and moves outwards. That would also be more useful, but then maybe overpowered if it kept the combo field?

I am not telling you to L2P, but static field is probably our most powerful skill in WvW or large scale PVE engagements. Its situational use is less obvious than fire and water 5, but I would not point to air 5 being the weak skill on that set. Its power stems from its absolute domination in terms of control. If you fight in choke points, this skill lets you OWN the choke point. Air 5 → Water 4/2 → Fire 5/2 → earth 2 → you just killed EVERYTHING on a bridge.

As a suggestion for the thread:
I woudl like to see air 1 made more like scepter air 2, its animation is you thrusting your staff into the air and calling down a strike on the target. They can dodge based on cast time and its no longer a projectile (how does it make sense for lightnign to mvoe slow anyway?) It can arc out from that target as it currently does, or instead have a large damage boost and become single target (since Air is our single target dps in theory.) Air 2 can just either hit for more, be faster cd/cast, or have a very long duration blind.

Agree with pretty much everything else.

Jester.1546:

I am not telling you to L2P, but static field is probably our most powerful skill in WvW or large scale PVE engagements. Its situational use is less obvious than fire and water 5, but I would not point to air 5 being the weak skill on that set. Its power stems from its absolute domination in terms of control. If you fight in choke points, this skill lets you OWN the choke point. Air 5 -> Water 4/2 -> Fire 5/2 -> earth 2 -> you just killed EVERYTHING on a bridge.

I can see how that is useful, but situational stuff always has that drawback of being absolutely brilliant in a specific situation whilst being barely used the majority of the time.

I have to agree with Jester about Static Field. It’s fantastic in choke points, amazing for chases or escapes, great zone control in open-field fights, and offers the only Air field in the game, allowing for very rapid Vulnerability stacking in any sort of group situation. Did you know you can’t dodge through it? You still eat the stun. Air 3 synergies great with it, too, as well as all the other Staff’s slow-firing AoEs.

Half Tooth.1867:

I can see how that is useful, but situational stuff always has that drawback of being absolutely brilliant in a specific situation whilst being barely used the majority of the time.

Windborne Speed is situational; Static Field is what you use pretty much on cooldown to get your AoEs to hit.

I play staff ele as my main, so I figured I’d just toss in my 2 cents…

Blackhat.4016:

Fire:

Fireball
Cast a fireball that explodes on impact and hits multiple foes.

• Deals decent damage in a small AoE but the projectile is slow.
  => Increase the speed by 25%.

I don’t actually see an issue with this skill. I rarely miss my foe and have no issues taking things down [in PvE]. Perhaps this needs a speed adjustment in PvP / WvW, but for general PvE, I feel it’s fine.

Lava Font
Make lava erupt from the target area.

• The damage per tick is good but most enemies will only stand in it for 1 or 2 ticks. The CD is ok.
  => Instant damage instead of delayed damage.

I guess it depends on the play style. Even alone, I don’t have an issue getting foes to stand in this for the full duration; however, I’m also standing toe to toe with them when I use this. Otherwise, as with all aoe spells, the foe will move out it. (Hooray for semi-intelligent AI) However, when taking on other players, I can see how the player not standing in it is an issue, but I think that’s part of the point. Understanding when and where to use this skill to get the most out of it. Making it instant damage simply makes it another flame burst. We don’t need 2 of those on the bar.

Burning Retreat
Quickly roll backward, leaving behind a line of fire that burns.

• Close to 0 damage unless you stand in the fire field for the whole duration. Pretty high CD considering it is the only real engage/disengage skill for staff eles. Needs a rework imo.
  => Remove the fire field (we already have Lava Font for that) and reduce the CD to 10 seconds. That way staff eles would have a slight chance in a 1v1.

Based on your focus on 1v1, I’m going to assume you’re looking at these skills from more of a pvp aspect, at which point a split to this skill might be necessary for your changes. IMO, this skill works well as is in the PvE environment. Admittedly, I’ve seen it used well in the PvP environment was well, and people *are*stupid enough to run through the line of fire, igniting themselves. I can see reducing the cooldown, since its really the only built in evade we have, but leave the burning. Maybe up the burning duration a touch for more damage, since you think it’s too low.

Meteor Shower
Call down a meteor shower onto the target area.

• Great skill if you need AoE damage, terrible in a 1v1. CD is ok. Balanced skill.
  => No rework needed.

I’d like to see them add the knockdown back into this skill.

Continued….

Water Blast
Spray a jet of water at foes that also heals allies in the blast radius.

• Low damage but small AoE heal. Balanced but unreliable.
  => Heal bounces similar to Winds of Chaos (Mesmer staff 1).

Instead of making this bounce, as with the Mesmer, maybe just increase the blast radius slightly. I’d like to see maybe a 5% increase in the heal as well, but that might make it too good.

Ice Spike
Drop a giant ice spike on foes to make them vulnerable.

• Nice damage and Vulnerability on a very low CD. The problem is the skill doesn’t hit your opponent most of the time.
  => Reduce the time until the Ice Spike hits your opponent (~75% of the current time) and increase the CD to 5 seconds.

The timing on this is decent when chaining with other skills. However, if you’re not chaining, and would like to make it fall quicker, perhaps just adding in the ability to hit 2 again to trigger the drop would be sufficient. Keep the damage the same for both scenarios; however, add in the functionality to increase the cool down by 5 (as you suggest) if the fall is triggered early.

Geyser
Create a geyser to heal nearby allies.

• The heal is ok but the AoE radius is way too small. The water field is very nice. CD is ok.
  => Increase the AoE radius to 180.

Fully agree here.

Air:

Yeah, I’m just going to agree with the general consensus that this line needs some help. Long casts for less than stellar damage. I swap to this mainly for the movement buff, and the very occasional aoe blind in group situations.

Eruption
Shake the ground until it erupts and damages foes.

• High damage and a blast finisher on a low CD. Pretty much never hits the target.
  => If you press 2 again while being in earth attunement the eruption explodes early but deals less damage.

I think I would prefer being able to trigger it sooner (by pressing 2 a 2nd time) and have it do the normal amount of damage, just increase the cooldown slightly if you trigger it early. Seems like a balanced trade off.

Unsteady Ground
Create unsteady ground that cripples foes moving through it.

• Close to 0 damage and only a 2 second cripple on a high CD. Pretty useless.
  => Instant knockdown and cripples for 3 seconds.

I would vote for this, rather than the alternate suggestion.

I like some of these changes, especially because it’s not suggesting ripping up the entire weapon to rework it into something else.

Burning Retreat
Quickly roll backward, leaving behind a line of fire that burns.

• Close to 0 damage unless you stand in the fire field for the whole duration. Pretty high CD considering it is the only real engage/disengage skill for staff eles. Needs a rework imo.
  => Remove the fire field (we already have Lava Font for that) and reduce the CD to 10 seconds. That way staff eles would have a slight chance in a 1v1.

10 sec might be too short, lowering it to 15 seconds seems to fit with the attunement cooldown better and you can trait it to be available sooner. Another change I might suggest is simply having it move away from your target instead of reverse where you’re facing. If no target is selected, it goes reverse like currently. No need to remove the fire field. I like the look of it.

Water Blast
Spray a jet of water at foes that also heals allies in the blast radius.

• Low damage but small AoE heal. Balanced but unreliable.
  => Heal bounces similar to Winds of Chaos (Mesmer staff 1).

I’d prefer the AoE just be made larger…unless you’re suggesting the bounces to be AoE or for the the bouncing portion to only aim at allies. Currently, winds of chaos will bounce back and forth between foes and allies so its buff potential is sketchy. I like my healing AoE but if it only hit a foe once then started bouncing between allies, that would be great!

Blackhat.4016:

Air:

I’m sort of a fan of Air attunement and I don’t find anything particularly wrong with it. For damage, it can do a pretty decent job if bouncing between two targets. I would like some buffs to it though, more for flavor than anything. Don’t have anything against your suggested changes, but some of my own:

Chain Lightning: Hit multiple foes with arcs of chain lightning.
- chains more often the longer you’re in air attunement (2 bounces default; 3 bounces after 5 seconds; 4 bounces after 8 seconds)
- if that change would be in-line, one could also add that to your Water Blast suggestion and have it bounce more often (an additional bounce after 5/8 seconds).
- also, fix the buggy range. It sometimes gets the out of range message when clearly within its normal range.

Lightning Surge: Charge a lightning surge that blinds foes near your target.
- Make this a true charge skill. This skill could be a normal 0.5sec cast but the longer you charge it (up to 2 seconds) the longer its range(1500) and the wider its radius(400)

Gust: Push foes backward with a burst of air.
-Currently, the description says ‘foes’ but it only hits one target at most. I’d love to change Gust into a target blowout + pushback to all foes near the target. Could just change it to a skill similar to Shockwave but instead, it pushes back in a line.

Blackhat.4016:

Earth:

Earth is a bit short when it comes to bleeding. A fix I don’t think people will like is adding 2 stacks of bleed to current Unsteady ground every tic. Reducing this cooldown to something like 15 to 20 sec would make it somewhat usable for applying bleed but also, making the wall wider would help in its use. Adding an instant knockdown on cast would be good ontop of this.

Pretty much all your other changes I agree with except with air…but it’s not that I disagree with your air suggestions, I’d just rather mine instead :P

Great Ideas. I would add:

Water Blast:
Better make is a channeling attack healing every second all allies standing in the ray.

Eruption:
The idea is great, I dont think it does need a “lower damage if activated”

Shockwave:
The best would be to drasticly increase the bleed part to make condition damage more viable on staff.
Another idea would be to affect (current immob+bleed) all targets on its way, its a shock wave after all.

Unsteady Ground:
Maybe too good. It does already goes past the AoE target limit as all “line” attacks. Adding 2/3 bleed (like mobs on fractal final) would be nice.

Ice Spike:
I like the idea of having heavy hitter very punishing for bad players. Increasing damage would be a better design than increasing falling speed.
The best design imo would be that staff Elem could sometimes create a very punishing “dont melee me” zone throuhg the use of some attacks (Spike/Eruption/Lavafont) instead of having to rely on low speed low damage auto attack and low/average kiting abilities.

A good thief should know when to melee and when to go away instead of mindlessly stick to you mashing skills.

Reading this thread, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m actually pretty happy with the staff as it is right now. The only thing I would change is the casting delays on things like Lava Font (which is ridiculous) and the speed on stuff like Gust and Shockwave. Other than that, it’s actually a pretty solid weapon. Especially if you know how to take advantage of your combo fields (which are very fun to use).

Sorry for not updating this guide for such a long time. I didn’t really play GW2 too much for several reasons but I am still checking the forums from time to time. Anyway, since there are several new answers I will reply to them now.

@LanfearShadowflame.3189
Yes, the rework is mainly an attempt to make the staff viable for s/tPvP. I agree that most of the changes are not really necessary for PvE since the staff is not bad there.

Thanks for the huge amount of feedback!

@Leo G.4501
Burning Retreat:
10 sec is a pretty low CD and that’s why I would remove fire field. I partly agree about the “move away from your target” part. While it is nice to have this implemented I would prefer to actively choose in which direction I want to roll. It’s a part of the challenge to use this skill properly and if you do it right it’s rewarding. Besides that you can use the skill as a gap closer.

Water Blast:
Yes, that’s what I meant. The heal bounces.

Chain Lightning & Lightning Surge:
I prefer the current rework since I like fast combat and it fits the air theme better imo. Your suggestions do make sense though.

Gust:
Yes, the skill should be able to hit multiple targets although I would prefer a ranged projectile.

Thanks for your feedback!

@innocent ouarior.1954
Water Blast:
I like the idea but there is a problem. You can’t use any other skills except for instant ones while using Water Blast. That’s why I like short heal bursts better.

Shockwave:
Condition damage wouldn’t be a problem anymore after the Eruption rework. That’s why I didn’t want to increase the damage here.

I like the “don’t melee me zone" idea but there is a problem imo. You can’t deal reliable damage to your opponent. You can punish them for certain things but what happens if they don’t go into melee? That’s where the rework is supposed to help.

Thanks for your feedback!

@ThiBash.5634
Yes, I agree. Thanks for your feedback.

Pretty nice work you did there, I really appreciate that.
Alternative to Fire #4 (sorry, even after so many hours, I still don’t know many skills name) could be stun or at least immobilize breaker, tho I’d rather remain it the way it is with shorter cooldown just to make more viable escapes.
Earth #4 alternative version wouldn’t going to happen, due guardian has that exact same skill. But for sure it’s one of main skills that needs to be reworked. Maybe adding some more damage and immobilize would be good push in right direction?
3rd skill in my opinion that is most in need, is Air #3. I’d say in longer range it’s pretty much useless cause it fails more often than it actually works. If it was heat-seeking or with faster speed and bigger radius, maybe then it would be good to go. Same thing with Earth #5.

innocent ouarior.1954:

Unsteady Ground:
Maybe too good. It does already goes past the AoE target limit as all “line” attacks. Adding 2/3 bleed (like mobs on fractal final) would be nice.

I thought it’s just a standard aoe with a stretched rectangle shape rather than a line/curtain type, still only affecting 5 foes per pulse. Can anyone confirm this?

Skip to AIR if you don’t want to read the rest!
I only bought this game 2 months ago, so I’m a little new here, but staff elementalist was/is my first character so I thought I’d throw in my opinion and pray that the dev gods see it! I will post agreed/disagree, with my own opinion if disagreed.

Fire:
Fireball.) agreed
Lava Front.) disagree, no rework needed
Flame Burst.) agreed
Burning Retreat.) disagreed, like the fire field, but also would like a lower cooldown for lower damage
Meteor Shower.) agreed

Water:
Water Blast.) disagree, add ability to target teammates, don’t change anything else
Ice Spike.) agreed with others, either higher damage or quicker drop time with same cooldown
Geyser.) disagreed, maybe add the ability to target teammates for higher accuracy
Frozen Ground.) agreed
Healing Rain.) agreed

Earth:
Stoning.) agreed
Eruption.) agreed
Magnetic Aura.) agreed
Unsteady Ground.) disagree with both, would love to see it made closer to the jade maw collosi attacks, with bleeding and cripple because earth is condition damage anyways
Shockwave.) agreed

AIR: COMPLETE REWORK NEEDED, traits say high damage but we are only given two damaging attacks and they both stink!

Chain Lightning.) replace with something better like a “Lightning Blast” that “hits the target with a blast of lightning so powerful (think dragon’s tooth) that foes close enough (<120 radius) feel its effects”

Lightning Surge.) replace with something else, either an aoe similar to the underwater lightning aoe or something awesomely similar to the thief’s pistol unload skill, ex. “Lightning Storm hits target with six lightning strikes in rapid succession” (pretty low cooldown, because air only has two damaging attacks

Gust.) agreed
Windborne Speed.) agreed
Static Field.) agreed

ALSO LIKED THE IDEA THAT SOMEONE ELSE HAD ON CONJURED WEAPONS: add a trait somewhere in arcana that, when active, would allow you to pick up a conjured weapon and have it replace its respective attunement with decreased damage, and not using the trait would keep either charges or the timer and the conjured weapons would stay powerful

Please almighty devs, hear our pleas!!!