Guild Wars 2

I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.
A mage class should never be melee oriented.
And it is also a specc wich gives the mage just everything…

And i REALY hate such. 1 specc for everything ? dagger/dagger.

hell no ty.

SO, iam using staff. a realy hardcore underdog specc/weapon.
But, HOW in the hell are you playing it.
Its weaker in every aspect, Besides guarding a keep.

And i also found that when i level up…
even staff is used as a melee weapon.. you have to just rush in and land your aoe.
you have to play bait to keep ppl or mobs IN the aoe…
I have to play Tank with lowest armor and hp… GOOD PLAN….realy brilliant.

why have they designed this crappy ? it realy make no sense at all.

If they want a melee mage..This is what they should do:
*Rename class to: Battle-Mage.
*Give heavy armor.
*Unlock all weapon slots, but not pistols. GS, hammer, swords, axes… everything.
*Increase HP to be atleast the same as Guardian.
*Rework the whole kitten trait tree. its just horrible atm. (1 specc, or you are useless)

This class is just insanely horrible, unless you play dagger/dagger.

To the post under me: we want A-net to hear us…
well. i have had 2 of my posts removed. so obviously they read forums.
they just ignore us more or less. iam used to it, i played druid wow from beta up until panda got out. it took blizzard think it was 4 -5 years.. to fix the bad look on druid.
but in the same time. a normal player. a 3D designer, made a skin that was 500 % better about 2 years before blizzard… so..
game company usualy think: we make the game, we are all powerfull and know best.
i know, skin look and mathematical class balance is different things. bla bla.
but its realy the same thing,
bad skin = clipping, wich we have in gw2.
bad math = dagger/dagger is best, other is bad math balance.

eldain stenlund.4306:

I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.
A mage class should never be melee oriented.
And it is also a specc wich gives the mage just everything…

And i REALY hate such. 1 specc for everything ? dagger/dagger.

hell no ty.

SO, iam using staff. a realy hardcore underdog specc/weapon.
But, HOW in the hell are you playing it.
Its weaker in every aspect, Besides guarding a keep.

And i also found that when i level up…
even staff is used as a melee weapon.. you have to just rush in and land your aoe.
you have to play bait to keep ppl or mobs IN the aoe…
I have to play Tank with lowest armor and hp… GOOD PLAN….realy brilliant.

why have they designed this crappy ? it realy make no sense at all.

If they want a melee mage..This is what they should do:
*Rename class to: Battle-Mage.
*Give heavy armor.
*Unlock all weapon slots, but not pistols. GS, hammer, swords, axes… everything.
*Increase HP to be atleast the same as Guardian.
*Rework the whole kitten trait tree. its just horrible atm. (1 specc, or you are useless)

This class is just insanely horrible, unless you play dagger/dagger.

welcome to everyone’s dilema, we are trying for Anet to hear us, but until ppl dont stop playing D/d altogether and the stats for the amount of eles dont decrease, Anet will keep thinking eles are fine, after all, D/D ele is storng enough to be one of the top classes in the game, and one of the highest seen.

Staff needs love, but nobody outside ele players will ever know this since everfyhime they get killed by an ele they dont really judge the weapons, just the class itself, to the point of being coined as an OP class.

Fortus.6175:

welcome to everyone’s dilema, we are trying fir Anet to hear us, but until ppl dont stop playing D/d altogether and the stats for eles dont decrease, Anet will keep thinking eles are fine, after all, D/D ele is storng enough to be one of the top classes in the game, and one of the highest seen.

This is rather contradiction to what devs says themselves. On the contrarily, only playing D/D might be the only way to make them look into staff, since they have argued that they want to bring other weapons on pair with those most used. They have said themselves that they don’t want to have just one meta build for a class (any class), but make other builds/weapons just as strong.

Now, whether they are working on it or not, is hard to say. Balancing is rather tricky and take times. Maybe the changes are going too slow, but I am sure there will be some changes brought to staff sooner or later.

eldain stenlund.4306:

*Increase HP to be atleast the same as Guardian.

lollll. Sorry, i didn’t give your post much credit throughout, but I completely lost it there.

eldain stenlund.4306:

I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.
A mage class should never be melee oriented.
And it is also a specc wich gives the mage just everything…

Why not? They aren’t the first with the idea. You could as well argue that warriors shouldn’t be ranged with rifle/longbow.

And i REALY hate such. 1 specc for everything ? dagger/dagger.

hell no ty.

Personally choice. Some are loving it. Personally I think the skill set up on D/D are more fun than on Staff.

And i also found that when i level up…
even staff is used as a melee weapon.. you have to just rush in and land your aoe.
you have to play bait to keep ppl or mobs IN the aoe…
I have to play Tank with lowest armor and hp… GOOD PLAN….realy brilliant.

Are you serious? You know anyone who has any sense will move away from AoE, has nothing to do with where you stand. Same goes for mobs, as soon as you hit them, they will come moving towards you (if solo). Did you expect that mobs/people will just stand there in one spot? If you want to hit with AoE, you gotta CC first or use single target spells. This is regular strategy for most MMOs.

*Increase HP to be atleast the same as Guardian.

Lol, guardians has same base hp as eles. :P

This class is just insanely horrible, unless you play dagger/dagger.

It’s isn’t. Not even with staff.

Hello, staff ele checking in. I’ve played staff ele since the Betas and had no problem leveling up to 80 with it. I mainly do WWW now, and yes I use a staff. You’re not going to be the uber solo ganker in WWW, but you’re also not useless, and I have won plenty of 1 v 1 while playing. When I do roam solo in WWW I do switch to dual daggers, but when I’m running with a group, it’s staff all the way.,

I have had to alter my build and gear as time has progressed to keep up with the changes to the class. PVE is actually pretty simple when it comes to playing staff, and is even more so after you spend some time doing WWW.

The one thing that drives me crazy and I would love to see a change made is attunements and arcane. Other classes have weapon swap, which is similar to our attunements, except theirs is on a set timer. Why can’t attunement simply be on a set timer, and change arcane to be an attunement! That way the current necessary points in arcane could be put somewhere else, or putting points into arcane would give you bonuses and extras based on the new arcane spells associated with it.

>I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.

why, the most interesting build to play. Ranged dps is for noobs.

>A mage class should never be melee oriented.

who said this?

>And it is also a specc wich gives the mage just everything…

yeah, especially ranged attacks and autos …

>This class is just insanely horrible, unless you play dagger/dagger.

if ele is to hard for you try guard, warr, mess or even some thief builds – they as facerol as I asumme you want to play the game.

Btw. after you level and gear to 80 (cuz I think you play the game for max a week) try to do some hard content with close range DD and later switch to ranged scepter or staff then come back to this topic and laugh at yourself.
Still any pve content up to fractals 30+ can be done with any ele weapon, many dungs will be a lot easier for begginers with staff. Most of the standard dungs with dd are not so easy as with ranged setup.

Lavadiel.6231:

>I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.

why, the most interesting build to play. Ranged dps is for noobs.

>A mage class should never be melee oriented.

who said this?

>And it is also a specc wich gives the mage just everything…

yeah, especially ranged attacks and autos …

>This class is just insanely horrible, unless you play dagger/dagger.

if ele is to hard for you try guard, warr, mess or even some thief builds – they as facerol as I asumme you want to play the game.

Btw. after you level and gear to 80 (cuz I think you play the game for max a week) try to do some hard content with close range DD and later switch to ranged scepter or staff then come back to this topic and laugh at yourself.
Still any pve content up to fractals 30+ can be done with any ele weapon, many dungs will be a lot easier for begginers with staff. Most of the standard dungs with dd are not so easy as with ranged setup.

wow, this has to be the douchiest reply i have seen…in a while

your “solutions” and conclusions are so wrong it makes sad.

“Range is for noobs” ? Im sorry, you can stop playing now, its ok, we wont miss you if you quit. not everyone have to love being melee, you know? Some of us like being at range.

Surely there isnt any “rule” that dictates that mages cant be melee, but if someone wanted to be melee with two daggers I would actually prefer a ….say warrior, thief, heck, even the “ranger” (rambo) is melee lore-friendly.

Granted, D/D has no ranged attacks, but….why would you need it when you have so many gap closers? Also, a very large chunk of damage comes from AA, ever hit a fire #1 at point blank before, while critting?!

“why dont you play something else”

analog to :

“your child is doing bad on math and physics, please can you throw him away and get a new one?”

The reason why are asking for deserved buffs is because we CARE about the class, we are DISCUSSING problems and SOLUTIONS, if your is “dont play it” then your role in this discussion is over, you can now close this thread forever.

Please leave this to the people that actually care, kthnxbye

One issue I haven’t resolved is how to get might stacks outside of melee range?

If that’s where you’re going to stand, then why not be d/d?

>if your is “dont play it”

I played almost only ranged until I learned to play close.
Even now, in harder content (frac 30+) I offten must switch to ranged cuz dd is either unplayable or not as effective as staff, scepter or focus.

ps.
This game is not wow frost mage and never will be – accept this or go back to wow.

Lavadiel.6231:

>if your is “dont play it”
I offten must switch to ranged cuz dd is either unplayable or not as effective as staff, scepter or focus.

Right there is your answer. We are trying to make it effective. If you dont like our efforts, its ok man, you dont have to, but dont be a dead weight. “Learn” melee? I have played plenty of melee here, including D/D ele. Yes im “effective”, I get killed, i barely die, i move around just fine, but….. thats not what I want. No, I dont really enjoy melee that much, I see no impediment as to why ranged should be penalized? Im sorry but your view is self-centered to your personal liking and not to the wide scope, which is; many gamers do NOT like melee and willing to give up security and defense in exchange of killing power at a distance. Im one of those players.

Yes, I played frost mage, my main was Moonkin and Tree for arena. I enjoyed the gameplay. Im a “mage” kind of player, staff is my fantasy liking, not D/D. Staff necro and mesmer is very viable, staff guardian is very helpful and does incredible stuff, while keeping the chance to switch back to an offensive weapon, why shouldnt I have the chance to do some damage at range for a change without being forced into S/D where half of my damage comes from….guess what…melee…

Once again, I want ranged to be viable, I want to have the same chances to blow someone if i jump on them that if they jump on me, as simple as that.

Once again, if you like the D/D gameplay…good for you man, congratz, but who cares? We are talking about making staff as viable as D/D, nothing more, nothing less.

>No, I dont really enjoy melee that much,

you will love mesmer

>I see no impediment as to why ranged should be penalized?

its not penalized, as I said its best for begginers, good at any dungs/champions and almost must in hard content – which unfortunately for now is only fractals 30+

>Im sorry but your view is self-centered to your personal liking

not more than you.

>many gamers do NOT like melee and willing to give up security
> and defense in exchange of killing power at a distance.
> Im one of those players.

and you perfectly can play like this ofc it not as easy as frost mage but still a lot easier than close range GC which is hardcore compared to range GC.

>Yes, I played frost mage

it was obvious, again GW2 is not wow

> Im a “mage” kind of player, staff is my fantasy liking, not D/D.

as I said, you can play with staff only. I played mostly with stff for first 2 months. Made 80, all the dungs (grinding full exotic sets from tokens)and it was NO PROBLEM.
Got bored, tried close and faound this way way more challenging than ranged, especialy when spec into damage not pvt.

>Staff necro and mesmer is very viable,
>staff guardian is very helpful and does incredible stuff,

yep, at pve any kind of ele is rather weak…. but that is why I like to play it.
Imho all the OP pve prefessions deserves a nerf (gardian especially), buffing ele will make him as boring as they are.

>Once again, I want ranged to be viable,

again, it is, ofc not as good as gc dps ranged mesmer but you can use staff almost everywhere in pve.

>are talking about making staff as viable as D/D, nothing more, nothing less.

2 questions:
do you ever played hi level fractals or at elast Arrah? Did you only used dd there?
do you ever played wvw?

staff indeed is bad for pvp but it has its uses in all other acpects of the game.

Lavadiel.6231:

>No, I dont really enjoy melee that much,

you will love mesmer

>I see no impediment as to why ranged should be penalized?

its not penalized, as I said its best for begginers, good at any dungs/champions and almost must in hard content – which unfortunately for now is only fractals 30+

>Im sorry but your view is self-centered to your personal liking

not more than you.

>many gamers do NOT like melee and willing to give up security
> and defense in exchange of killing power at a distance.
> Im one of those players.

and you perfectly can play like this ofc it not as easy as frost mage but still a lot easier than close range GC which is hardcore compared to range GC.

>Yes, I played frost mage

it was obvious, again GW2 is not wow

> Im a “mage” kind of player, staff is my fantasy liking, not D/D.

as I said, you can play with staff only. I played mostly with stff for first 2 months. Made 80, all the dungs (grinding full exotic sets from tokens)and it was NO PROBLEM.
Got bored, tried close and faound this way way more challenging than ranged, especialy when spec into damage not pvt.

>Staff necro and mesmer is very viable,
>staff guardian is very helpful and does incredible stuff,

yep, at pve any kind of ele is rather weak…. but that is why I like to play it.
Imho all the OP pve prefessions deserves a nerf (gardian especially), buffing ele will make him as boring as they are.

>Once again, I want ranged to be viable,

again, it is, ofc not as good as gc dps ranged mesmer but you can use staff almost everywhere in pve.

>are talking about making staff as viable as D/D, nothing more, nothing less.

2 questions:
do you ever played hi level fractals or at elast Arrah? Did you only used dd there?
do you ever played wvw?

staff indeed is bad for pvp but it has its uses in all other acpects of the game.

once again, ranged =/= new player, just gamestyle choice

yes I play high lvl fractals, Arah, WvW.

Yes I play Mesmer, and Im finding ranged attacks to be effective, but somehow I get the feeling you are going to say “then go play it”, so before you do it I will warn you, i wont, I want to play staff ele.

I played other games, so what? You keep implying as if that was a bad thing, as if only melee was the way to go in games.

Yes my liking is ranged, but notice how many people are complaining about the same issue.

On the ele description it clearly says (paraphrasing here) " a force to be reckoned with, capable of destroying foes before they even get to them" somewhere in the development of the game, back when the professions description text was longer.

Once again, dont try to force your liking upon others, make a thread called “D/D is the way to go, comment here about it” and you might have your own discussion there, for the rest of us (notice the amount of threads and answers to these topics) we will keep asking for the ranged nuker.

Once again, and las time im saying it; ranged is a playstyle choice, not a beginner’s stepping ladder. We want Gandalfy gameplay, not healing-chicken gameplay.

>will keep asking for the ranged nuker.

there is only one thing you can do – go back to wow

Lavadiel.6231:

>will keep asking for the ranged nuker.

there is only one thing you can do – go back to wow

-sigh- I give up, now i get it, you are just trying to troll, good job man, you had me there for a while, but from now on im just gonna ignore ya

There is more then 1 spec for pvp. There are servarl that I have seen used great effect the problem is they all fall under the same catagory: bunker. Most of the good builds I’ve seen tickle the enemies to death. We need move diversity in the builds, the chance to go full glass cannon and not get 2 shot. What I don’t like is that the mesmer has more health then us but can still dish out more damage and have the escapes nessicary to vanish when it fails. The thief has more armour, and can vanish. The warrior need a bandage but perviously finished you or laughed with his higher hp pool and armour, comming close to our max hp with his min.

The several builds:

D/D: 0 10 0 30 30 dapheonix, 0 0 10 30 30 original op staff swapped to daggers, 0 15 0 25 30 my current build with zerkers – very hard to play but can beat the 0 10 0 30 30s

S/F: 20 10 30 0 10 obvious what this is: selfish aura bunker

S/D: 20 10 30 0 10 selfish aura bunker with movement over invunerability, also under this weapons set is the 24sec of burning flame axe build (don’t remember the traits)

Staff: 0 0 10 30 30 original op build now its the not so op build that uses 2 frost eles to apply a lot of frost auras to you and the frost elementals and alot of chill.

BTW eles already have the same health as gaurdians. Gaurdians have the heavy armour though.

Mages = frost mage from wow ?? not realy.
sure. wow might have set standards for some classes and mmos.

But you know.. wow is kinda young.

There have beeen thousands… of other rpgs. and many other mmos before.

The THING IS.. mages have for well.. since the guy who first came up with the name
Wizard/Mage/Elementalist/Conjurer/necromancer/ … .. you get my point.

They have always, and will always be a range specialised spell slinger.

and in some rare occasions. there have also been a battlemage here and there.
*once a warrior that found he was somewhat skilled for spells.
Or the opposite way.
*a mage that found he is also skilled or rather more skilled at melee combat than throwing spells.

ME. i dont want to be a battle dagger/dagger mage.
I want a working Staff mage. (wich is alot more fitting to a caster class in cloth).

I DONT want to nerf dagger/dagger into the ground.
what i want is STAFF to become buffed to the same level.

I also want to have perma vigor /might stack / superior healing / etc etc
and 2 sigils to buff things even more.

People say you need skills to use dagger/dagger.
but they have no idea about the impossible task of playing a hardcore underdog staff.

>I want a working Staff mage.

and there you have it:
http://youtu.be/-919RMwyfnk

the moment you stop consider staff ele as a borning lame ranged auto attack nuker which obiviously he will never be you will get the working staf mage – as on the movie.

no offense lavdiel but that is more tagging than being effective.

If you like a ranged staff mage there is one really effective…
Its called mesmer….

the effectivnes of staff ele comes not (only) from the damage. Still I think ele on this movie played an essenital role and it would be not possible if he was a messmer.
Ofc I do relize that for ranged DPS or collecting wvw badges (and many other tginhs) mesmer is better.

For Lavadiel.6231:

4 guys run away and “hold” a zerg on a chocke point for several seconds before the zerg commander tell them not to chase and stick to objectives. Yay… pretty much every weapon/spec/profession can do that with a tankish build/gear.

The Elem recording is playing what we use to call “staff bunker build”, basically stacking healing stat and blasting in water fields. It used to be good (nearly broken) with blasts on every attunement on Evasive Arcana, now you have to swap to Earth, abit annoying but it is still fine.

As for the detail Sigil of Energy is a no brainer when you play with EA, Glyph of Storms (in Earth attunement) is widely supperior to Arcane Blast in few VS zerg situations and I would use Quick Glyph if I’m on a Dwayna+Elemental Harmony+Cleansing Water setup.

If the team had 2 staff necros, a ranger and a +heal thief it would have been very much more impressive.

For the op:
Staff gives an incredible edge on indirect damage. Perma Fire Field is crazy on +condition necros and rangers. Even if it doesnt mean you HAVE to stack +heal, you have to understand staff Elems are support characters. You wont shine or do crazy damage, you are not the wizard or mage you can see in other games but you are far from useless.

If you like to be a damage hero and stick to ranged weapons as an Elem, S/F realy does a very good job both as bleed/burn heavy condition build or AoE Burst.

Lavadiel.6231:

the effectivnes of staff ele comes not (only) from the damage. Still I think ele on this movie played an essenital role and it would be not possible if he was a messmer.
Ofc I do relize that for ranged DPS or collecting wvw badges (and many other tginhs) mesmer is better.

actually this is a warped vision…
Ele used to be a long range dps …was clearly extremely overnerfed and from release nobody doubted about that.

but people forgot when staff ele started to troll with water fields …actually a wall with legs is OP in this game.

Btw was nerfed again….

Now you have current useless staff that get few tiny buffs from time to time but nobody uses seriously.

Except in www….mostly because some people don t like scepter and D/D is not good for contributing to zergs so you choose the lesser evil.

@innocent ouarior.1954

I agree basicaly with all you said with the exception of “pretty much every weapon/spec/profession can do that with a tankish build/gear.”

>Glyph of Storms (in Earth attunement) is widely
> supperior to Arcane Blast in few VS zerg

it pve/wvw and even sometimes in pvp Glyph of Storms (in Earth attunement) is supperior to many other utils. The thing is almmost nobody uses it.

innocent ouarior.1954:

Staff gives an incredible edge on indirect damage. Perma Fire Field is crazy on +condition necros and rangers. Even if it doesnt mean you HAVE to stack +heal, you have to understand staff Elems are support characters. You wont shine or do crazy damage, you are not the wizard or mage you can see in other games but you are far from useless.

Dude keep talking smart and I might fall in love with you

Lavadiel.6231:

I agree basicaly with all you said with the exception of “pretty much every weapon/spec/profession can do that with a tankish build/gear.”

What I was trying to suggest here is that in the very particular situation in the video a lot of other professions or weapon setups (S/F Elem, Staff necro, staff or focus mesmer, wall guardian, etc…) would have been as effective. Heck, 2 D/D Elems can drive 30+ guys crazy.

wvw staff ele checking in. 10fire/30water/30 arcana bunker build with PVT gear.

first of all, every ele should carry all their weapons. I am most comfortable with staff, but i will always choose D/D for 1v1s. Staff is great for group fights and support, but when i’m on my own D/D is the safest way to go.

If i find myself caught offguard in a 1v1 and still have my staff out, my best advice is to start spamming your AoEs on yourself. That way if they want to hit you theyre going to have to be able to withstand my AoE dmg, which they wont be able to do for long

But the class is called elementalist, not mage.

I see a lot of people saying that elementalists aren’t good at ranged 1v1s, but I haven’t seen a single reason as to why that can’t be changed.

Personally, I’d like to the scepter changed so that Phoenix actually hits at range, Dragon’s Tooth hits at all, Shatterstone is useful, and Dust Devil is replaced with something that hits at range and deals decent damage (or is just changed).

> *Increase HP to be atleast the same as Guardian.

Done! Your wish is our command!

Staff ele works well. Hell, I levelled as staff. I spend most of my time in D/D now, but I always swap to staff for WvW and for most dungeons. Stop trying to think of Staff as a nuker, and think of it more as a control / support weapon. For those purposes, it’s excellent.

speaking from strictly a PVE standpoint, Staff is just as viable as anything else, however I highly recommend you carry all available weapons into PVE.

On my guy, my kit consists of a Staff, a Scepter, a Focus, and two Daggers (I hardly ever use the second one) for PVE.

Staff is great for trash pulls and mob control in general. There’s plenty of times that the AoE from a staff is needed in big mob pulls.

D/D is usefull on bosses where you HAVE to be in melee range, Test Subject Alpha for instance.

S/D I use a lot for midrange single target fights. It deals a lot of damage and you can get in and out with no problem at all.

S/F I use for fights where you need the utility of ranged canceling move, like say in Harpy fractal.

Point is, don’t think of yourself as a staff ele, or a D/D ele… you’re an ele, to limit the tools you have at your disposal is to limit your potential.

I’m of the group who think that mages should remain as “magey” as possible, so I have used staff since my ele’s inception. Of course, it’s not a great solo weapon, but I typically excel in groups as it provides decent support with damage output through AoE. Haven’t ever tried daggers but I’ve heard of their power so it makes me a little disappointed that I’m considered “weaker” because I don’t use it, but it’s more of a preference anyway and I don’t PVP much right now.

I don’t understand the hostility to the question as to how to use the staff effectively, if the class was meant to be D/D only then obviously the Devs should just remove the staff from the game, …

I may not agree with everything the original posted said, but. I much prefer to play a ranged class, Caster or Ranger, having that view of the Fray from a step back appeals to me. and I am interested in any serious anwser to his basic original question. Any guidance on getting the most out of the staff as a weapon choice. For me esp PvE just not a PvPer myself.

That is also someting the devs should or are NEEDED to look into about elemental.

We can NOT swap weapons once we go combat.
so if we have staff, and we get jumped. we are screwed.

Where other classes have the option to either swap weapons from group fights
into solo targets.

a Staff is considered AoE. Group support. = you cant do anything yourself.
(or very very limited).

Now, we have all seen these DD vids, Where they are more or less impossibleto kill, and yet there are 10 + people attacking.

Try that with staff.. wich IS the Group fighting weapon.. you die in seconds.

IS it so wrong to have:
Fire + water = AoE dmg/ support.
Air + Earth = single target dmg.

If you want to know what elementalist should be just look at elementalist skills on MOBS in PvE XD

They are way stronger than ours despite they are designed to be easily avoidable…(except fire 2 that is completely OP in mobs form…)

As i said the current ele is not how they designed it but the result of usual nerfs on complaints…..

eldain stenlund.4306:

Mages = frost mage from wow ?? not realy.
sure. wow might have set standards for some classes and mmos.

But you know.. wow is kinda young.

Did I read this right…. yes it set standards but that game is a relic.

Getting back on topic staff is perfectly fine the way it is. Staff is balanced around each element being a ‘mode’ of gameplay; fire for damage, air for movement, water for healing, earth for control. When I first started playing I wanted nothing more than to be a lightning wizard, and had plenty of fun with the scepter(till that bad bug it used to have got the best of me.)

I want to say it is a L2 kitten ue, in some cases it is, but is is more of a change of style that people aren’t quite use to yet. There will never be a ‘best’ weapon or ‘best’ class. Every time I see posts like this people want staff to be the end-all be-all weapon with the best of everything, that is wrong. Staff is a long-range support weapon, Scepter is mid-range support/brawling, dagger is for straight up brawling.

A 1200 range weapon will never do more than a melee weapon, if it did then nobody would be melee. Staff damage is good if you can keep distance, don’t stand on the front lines, even if you REALLY want to get a few more WvW bags (insert random other situation here.)

I don’t know if I created this build but it is amazing for going full ZERK

30/10/0/10/20

run any traits abilities but use this build with full zerk and you’ll be surprised. I recommend using it so that cantrips give you might and regeneration/vigour and every fire spell you cast gives you might. also this build works very nicely in WvW just stay away from those pesky little thieves haha

I do love being kind of glass cannon build AND stay in the back of the zerg in WvW..
Like most are saying here, Ele’s are indeed a support class, simple as that..
If you want lots of kills when using staff in WvW, go 5/30/0/5/30, full exo berzerk gear and acessories and stay in the back of your zerg.. I guarrantee you multiple kills and crowd control.. But you’ll die alot in 1vs1, but no worries, you’ll have lots of more kills/exp from attacking in group.. (talking about an easy 3k dmg each hit from fire skill 5..)
Also, use Blasting Staff in Aranca Traits (makes AoE from staff bigger)
This build also works fine in PvE with D/D..

I use this kind of attacking (staff) when I’m with a zerg, fighting against another (also works great when on wall defending SM,keeps, etc..): water 4,water 2,air 5,earth 4 and 5, then go fire 5 and 2.. Repeat. But like I said, stay in the back cuz once you’re targetted, say your prayers lol..

the OP just sound stupid to me.
D/D: solo roamer
Staff: zerger
Where is the problem? we are the class with most AOE skills in the game, that pretty awesome

Mijo.3274:

the OP just sound stupid to me.
D/D: solo roamer
Staff: zerger
Where is the problem? we are the class with most AOE skills in the game, that pretty awesome

where is the problem?
Our aoe are plain BAD….they works only on standing opponents while necro and mesmer laugh at use for zerg fights.

Not to mention how bad staff is in PvE.

Its not the number its the quality….

the point is i don t find staff good at zerging….
I don t care for dueling in www its not what you need.

Now you are patrolling with your zerg….ele is cool it has lightning field for area swiftness.

You then go to siege against a low defended tower…
Water field or fire field are nice.

Then a zerg arrives…
Don t you dare to cast anything that can prevent ethereal,field and poison fields to do their jobs

=> spam autoattacks

I feel nowaday its better to have combo finishers, leaps and stuff because other professions have better Aoe CC and fields…….

Don t you think so?

While you defend a tower staff is awesome….but in ZERGS S/D is plain better.

P.S. and at least in organized raid you have not enough time to change weapon…..and most weapons don t work with the same traiting.

>Our aoe are plain BAD….they works only on standing opponents
>while necro and mesmer laugh at use for zerg fights.

yep currently many of them are area denial skills (indirect CC/damge) , but because there is really no staregy other than zerg in wvw they are weak compared to direct damage aoe limit baypass necro/mess skills… but its not that ele is broken, those two classes are broken and need a fix.

HeNnAz.8913:

I don’t know if I created this build but it is amazing for going full ZERK

30/10/0/10/20

run any traits abilities but use this build with full zerk and you’ll be surprised. I recommend using it so that cantrips give you might and regeneration/vigour and every fire spell you cast gives you might. also this build works very nicely in WvW just stay away from those pesky little thieves haha

only 10 in Air for a direct damage oriented build sounds strange. Your crit damage will be quite low.

besides the staff have you tried Scepter/Focus as it has more of a ranged spellslinger feel to it and is likely at least more viable than staff.

innocent ouarior.1954:

HeNnAz.8913:

I don’t know if I created this build but it is amazing for going full ZERK

30/10/0/10/20

run any traits abilities but use this build with full zerk and you’ll be surprised. I recommend using it so that cantrips give you might and regeneration/vigour and every fire spell you cast gives you might. also this build works very nicely in WvW just stay away from those pesky little thieves haha

only 10 in Air for a direct damage oriented build sounds strange. Your crit damage will be quite low.

that’s the idea of zerker trinkets/runes/armour/weapons

Lavadiel.6231:

>Point is, don’t think of yourself as a staff ele, or a D/D ele… you’re an ele,
> to limit the tools you have at your disposal is to limit your potential.

in a normal situation I would call this guy “captain obiovious” but on this particular forum/topic I must call him a “mentor” – staff QQ pls follow in his footsteps.

>I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.
>A mage class should never be melee oriented.

denying the use of daggers, staff, focus on any other wapon that does not fit your broken image of a “mage” class is as stupid as denying for example the use of attunement swapping, or fire attunement cuz “I am a frost mage and I will never use fire its not lore friendy!”

> this is not 4chan, please top using the " > ", it does nothing.

you keep bringing frost mages, what exactly is your bone with them? Anyways, nobody is denying the use of daggers, nor the element swapping, the only thing its being said is that we want a little more variation from the “D/D is the only way to be effective”

Once again stop justifying elementalists, we are already aware you LOVE daggers on elementalist, once again, congratz, now go, keep playing D/D, you wont care much about this. As for the rest of us who wants staff to be effective OUTSIDE WvW zerging and be a good pick for all those situations where normally other classes would switch weapons mid-fight, i.e. playing sPvP, or in WvW when a zergs breaks and now you are in combat sitting ducks with a staff, or in dungeons where suddenly you have to take more mobs than usual.

Once again, you are not the only player in existence, many, MANY others love the squishy, high hitting ranged wizard that destroys foes before they get to them, or dies in the process if he makes a mistaken, stop forcing your kitten D/D gameplay which you so much love onto others, we cant switch weapons mid fight, the day i can switch freely between staff and D/D i will not complain about the lack of “flexibility” that we so much suffer by being forced into only one gamestyle . Once I get my kitten chance to fight back when i get attacked alone or in a small skirmish is the day i will consider the staff el to be a balanced vlass, until then, it will keep being underpowered and unreliable outside WvW raids.

Seriously..who give a kitten that you can kill a bunch of clueless scrubs in wvwvw?...you don’t need a staff to do that ! The majority of us want to play a ranged ele without the need of somebody holding our hands can we??

Shall we re-name staff to ‘wvwvw weapon’?, because apparently as long as the staff is good in a specific situation..we all must be happy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=h10n9BBReWs#t=166s

That’s how I play it – that ele from [Psy]. Would have done better, but:
1. Changed wrong trait after switching from d/d to staff – instead of Renowing Stamina for Blasting Staff I changed Elemental Attunement. Which was REAL loss with my 60% boon duration build.
2. Guild mate is new to his build.
Not to mention horrible placement for two ranged proffessions on strict melee area.

So OK, I’d call myself as experienced player, familiar with many proffessions and builds.
I don’t know why do people complain about staff all the time. For me, the only thing staff is lacking of is maybe some “self defense” or “mobility”.
If only Fire was giving vigor from any skill, I’d be grateful for that. Dodging really do save a life. And comparing to D/D, I don’t have problems keeping vigor up (from trait) all the time and other boons since staff isn’t a weapon on which you can switch attunements every 2-3sec like with D/D. (not to mention going from fire to earth with blast gives 9stacks of might or 6stacks of might and aura).

maybe lavadiel played warrior badly in wow.
Frost mages was the anti class for warrior. and even more so when playing a warrior bad.
(but you just needed to know when to spellreflect, and when to charge).

But we dont want a frost mage.
we want an elemental mage. with working staff and range attacks.

If you use staff as it is now. you are gimping yourself incredible.
and unless you are on keep guarding duty. you are not realy helpfull.

“but you have aoe to keep people back” <— some one is going to say that.
umm ye.. thats not realy working. have you seen how ppl fight in wvw?

you lure enemies inside a cave. and then put a ton of aoe above them.
what happens is: they dodge roll straith too you. avoinding the aoe.
i see this happening constantly. its a tactic we us in our guild. and its a tactic other people also use.

And this is in a wvw. Big group fight.
(lots of people = someone might getting hit atleast).
now, if you are using staff and getting into a small group skirmish.
you are hardly gonna land any dmg at all.
AND, if the enemy see you are using a staff. you will get focused first.
not becuase you are a treat, you are more of an irritating insect than anything else.

You will get focused because you cant defend yourself, and you are a hell of alot more squishy than a DD user. (wich people avoid, since they know they cant kill them).
And you can have 20 k hp and building power / though / vital gear. with your staff.
(making you even more useless, because now you realy dont have any dmg at all. and you still cant survive anything.

But, thats not something a DD user have to worry about.
(they realy dont worry about anything).

WE. the staff users dont want to be an easy free kill in pvp anymore.
lets us atleast be able to fight back fairly.

Lert.

you play necro. in that vid… you took the wrong door in the forum corridor ??