Guild Wars 2

Do I?
Quite sure I wrote ’’That’s how I play – ELE…‘’.
That’s just video I seem to appear. Don’t have any ele vid made by myself.
Fight seemed to be ballanced, pretty tough and place the worst to imagine. Yet, it didn’t go that bad as people picture staff ele.

Sorry, but since the PoV is from YOU, the necro.
i cant realy see what is going on.

And, you have a Mesmer + thief + guardian in your group only.
no elemental.

eldain stenlund.4306:

Sorry, but since the PoV is from YOU, the necro.
i cant realy see what is going on.

And, you have a Mesmer + thief + guardian in your group only.
no elemental.

Seriously? Can you read? CAN YOU?
What do I have to write more to point I’M NOT THAT NECRO.
POV is of NECRO.
I’M ELEMENTALIST – HIS ENEMY. FROM GUILD [Psy].
To be sure you understood I’ll paste that several times:
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO
I’M NOT THAT NECRO

I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST
I’M THAT ENEMY – ELEMENTALIST

I think that what i wrote in previous comments made it pretty clear. I just APPEAR at this movie. Point why I even pasted it here is due to incredibly bad placement for our team (bad for ranged, great for melee) and still I did pretty decent. Yet, people cry staff elementalist I so bad, they can’t even take single mob down. I don’t really see bigger problems with staff elementalist.
JESUS CHRIST -____-

if you want to show staff is great.
show us from elemental PoV then.

this vid is the same as this: (if you have abit of humor).

“you watch tv, a police helicopter is using its camera to follow a car”.
And on the tv, you see your car going in the opposite lane and direction…
swoosh.. we saw your car for like 1 – 2 seconds…
THEN you take that vid to a car dealer. (you recorded the tv).
and tell him to watch the vid… “THERE”.. you saw my car.. its super.
i want to sell it for 50 mil. c´mon, you saw me in the vid.. you saw the car is super..
But when you actually take your car to the dealer. its a rusty old lada, with 3 wheels.
(you lost 1 wheel on the way to the dealer shop).

so, your car. isnt realy super. its realy crappy.

I’ve already posted the changes I would like to have for staff. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/staff-fixes-improvements/first#post1755082

I feel it should be more offensive than it is. Right now, if you’re playing staff as anything but support, you’re basically doing it wrong.

The recharge rates, escape mechanisms (laugh) and AoE cap are all hindrances to playing it as an offensive weapon.

I’m still leveling up but…
I’ve played staff since Day one, and D/D only about 2 days, it is so much more powerful; there is no comparing the two. Staff really does need some love that way.
Still when you want to go Staff say in a Champion fight the present situation is aweful;

If any devs read this please give us a weapon swap button/option even if it requires a significant ‘cast time’ and cool down; having to literally retreat out of combat, and open ones hero inventory just to change weapons; well its painfully inelegant; and it blinds you while your fumbling round the open Hero GUI; again no other class has to blind fold themselves to change weapons. (Do they?)

As with any other class we need to have our full array of options available.. we are Ele’s not mystics; we can’t always know in advance what the next fight will be, and what weapon we need to equip.

Lastly if I may,
While ‘Area Denial’ and other considerations discussed about might have some value in a PvP situation; I would not know; what I do know is the Staff is the Iconic weapon of a Mage, I dont recall ever reading a story about a Dagger wielding Wizard. Some of Us are not self described gamers first thinking only in terms of PvP roles,

I dont think is should be too much to ask that we have real access to the Iconic weapons of our classes; these should be not nerfed to a speciality item only useful in a situation/format a good many of use will never particiapate in really. Sorry but the Devs got this one Backwards, make the Dagger build the Specialty Item that appeals to self described Gamers; the staff should be a viable option in the hands of any reasonably competent (not Elite) player.

Claudia De Anar.6304:

I’m still leveling up but…
I’ve played staff since Day one, and D/D only about 2 days, it is so much more powerful; there is no comparing the two. Staff really does need some love that way.
Still when you want to go Staff say in a Champion fight the present situation is aweful;

If any devs read this please give us a weapon swap button/option even if it requires a significant ‘cast time’ and cool down; having to literally retreat out of combat, and open ones hero inventory just to change weapons; well its painfully inelegant; and it blinds you while your fumbling round the open Hero GUI; again no other class has to blind fold themselves to change weapons. (Do they?)

As with any other class we need to have our full array of options available.. we are Ele’s not mystics; we can’t always know in advance what the next fight will be, and what weapon we need to equip.

Lastly if I may,
While ‘Area Denial’ and other considerations discussed about might have some value in a PvP situation; I would not know; what I do know is the Staff is the Iconic weapon of a Mage, I dont recall ever reading a story about a Dagger wielding Wizard. Some of Us are not self described gamers first thinking only in terms of PvP roles,

I dont think is should be too much to ask that we have real access to the Iconic weapons of our classes; these should be not nerfed to a speciality item only useful in a situation/format a good many of use will never particiapate in really. Sorry but the Devs got this one Backwards, make the Dagger build the Specialty Item that appeals to self described Gamers; the staff should be a viable option in the hands of any reasonably competent (not Elite) player.

couldnt have said it better; staff IS the iconic weapon of wizards/mages/sages, it should feel powerful, scary, overwhelming, epic……. not the “run around like a chicken casting some AoEs and hope for the best…oops did someone jump on you? might as well stand there cuz there isnothing much you can do, but run like a chicken” seriosuly…… make D/D THE support weapon and let staff be viable.

Also the self-blind UI is getting old too tbh……. Like Claudia said, we are not clairvoyants, we are no supposed to be looking into the future to decide whats coming next, maybe in a dungeon its ok, but in sPvP and WvW we dont really have a choice….

Fortus.6175:

Claudia De Anar.6304:

I’m still leveling up but…
I’ve played staff since Day one, and D/D only about 2 days, it is so much more powerful; there is no comparing the two. Staff really does need some love that way.
Still when you want to go Staff say in a Champion fight the present situation is aweful;

If any devs read this please give us a weapon swap button/option even if it requires a significant ‘cast time’ and cool down; having to literally retreat out of combat, and open ones hero inventory just to change weapons; well its painfully inelegant; and it blinds you while your fumbling round the open Hero GUI; again no other class has to blind fold themselves to change weapons. (Do they?)

As with any other class we need to have our full array of options available.. we are Ele’s not mystics; we can’t always know in advance what the next fight will be, and what weapon we need to equip.

Lastly if I may,
While ‘Area Denial’ and other considerations discussed about might have some value in a PvP situation; I would not know; what I do know is the Staff is the Iconic weapon of a Mage, I dont recall ever reading a story about a Dagger wielding Wizard. Some of Us are not self described gamers first thinking only in terms of PvP roles,

I dont think is should be too much to ask that we have real access to the Iconic weapons of our classes; these should be not nerfed to a speciality item only useful in a situation/format a good many of use will never particiapate in really. Sorry but the Devs got this one Backwards, make the Dagger build the Specialty Item that appeals to self described Gamers; the staff should be a viable option in the hands of any reasonably competent (not Elite) player.

couldnt have said it better; staff IS the iconic weapon of wizards/mages/sages, it should feel powerful, scary, overwhelming, epic……. not the “run around like a chicken casting some AoEs and hope for the best…oops did someone jump on you? might as well stand there cuz there isnothing much you can do, but run like a chicken” seriosuly…… make D/D THE support weapon and let staff be viable.

Also the self-blind UI is getting old too tbh……. Like Claudia said, we are not clairvoyants, we are no supposed to be looking into the future to decide whats coming next, maybe in a dungeon its ok, but in sPvP and WvW we dont really have a choice….

I want to have a viable weapon set first of all whichever it is then I will decide how I want to play it, not the devs and not the players will tell me how to play if I want an offensive d/d and offensive staff both good in 1vs1 situations, then yes it should be allowed

just compare cooldowns of scepter and staff.
also attack speed.
Staff is just a www weapon…(and not even good unless you are defending a tower).
.

Well on the other hand scepter has plenty only pve skills (i’d like to see a single dragon’s tooth hitting in 1vs1)

I am a D/D lover since beta, I rolled Elem because you could be melee. However I have the exact opposite experience: I feel pingeonholed into staff in RvR and PvE (high level fractals) because of how important combo fields and range when you play in minmaxed groups.

You dont even melee in daggers, bro.
Lots of “mage” types use ceremonial daggers

Rizzy.8293:

You dont even melee in daggers, bro.
Lots of “mage” types use ceremonial daggers

Daggers are around 300-400 range skills.
Thats melee.

when you get 900 – 1200.
your ranged. (staff, scepter).

And yes i know about ceremonial daggers.
but those daggers are used in sacrifices… thats point blank 0.00 range.
(thats also melee attacks).
Ceremonial daggers are never used in combat. they are crap for it.
The are made to look good… Fight with it.. and you break it.

hell. a cool. dagger range attack just poped in my head.

“Fiery Daggers” (or change name to fit better on flying fiery daggers).
Range 900. (if engineers can throw 1500)…
Effect: Flame thrower like.. But.. single target. You hold out your dagger towards your enemy. edge forward. and Fiery Daggers will shoot at target. Rapidly.
10 hits 2.5 sec channel skill.

I dont like DD in this game.. because you are going melee with a dress using
“ceremonial daggers”.

Designers have no imagination it seems to fit Ranged attacks to a dagger.0
(to keep the mage a Ranged spell caster class).

Don’t get me wrong, but expecting from staff exact same as D/D is like saying warrior would do great on versus with longbow and riftle. Staff is good ranged weapon, surely better for zerging, but for vs there are better options (d/d).

People complain they want same mobility with staff, same survivability, same combo, same damage (or greater) yet all that staying in range. Ah, ye, they also want the abilities to stay perma on range. Best when enemy gets even close to you, skill that evades you back 1000 yards and grant every possible boon for unlimited time.

Enough is enough.

Cmon people. Drop some decent feedback. Not your imaginary vision of staff as best possible weapon choice.
I do know how much D/D is more powerful in 90% cases and situations, but staff isn’t really that bad. I myself run in pretty often lately to get more out of it.
All I could possibly expect is some tiny improvment, nothing really else.

Lert.6287:

Don’t get me wrong, but expecting from staff exact same as D/D is like saying warrior would do great on versus with longbow and riftle. Staff is good ranged weapon, surely better for zerging, but for vs there are better options (d/d).

People complain they want same mobility with staff, same survivability, same combo, same damage (or greater) yet all that staying in range. Ah, ye, they also want the abilities to stay perma on range. Best when enemy gets even close to you, skill that evades you back 1000 yards and grant every possible boon for unlimited time.

Enough is enough.

Cmon people. Drop some decent feedback. Not your imaginary vision of staff as best possible weapon choice.
I do know how much D/D is more powerful in 90% cases and situations, but staff isn’t really that bad. I myself run in pretty often lately to get more out of it.
All I could possibly expect is some tiny improvment, nothing really else.

Yeah but warrior can switch to mele weapon from longbow/rifle…we can’t switch to d/d that’s why many requests should be considered reasonable.
We can’t have a whole weapon set entirely based on support, in PvP if you use glassc annon build, you’ll get slaughtered once thieves or warrior close in, but you still need a glass cannon staff build to do any decent damage those few times you can actually hit the enemu.
On the other hand if you build tank for support, you deal no dmg and won’t be able to support at all once somebody close on you, because you’ll be busy dealing with him..there is no backline in this game, so the the design of staff is flawed

Tbh, I can’t agree with you.
All you’re saying is staff ele got two chices: either go glass cannon and die from thief/warrior/mesmer within second (basicly like any other glass cannon class) or go full tank and do nothing. What about something ballanced between?
I myself run with either cleric or knight with staff. Having at 20-30% critical chance, 2.5-2.6armor and 600-900healing power still with around 3k attack. The fact I can keep half of the bonuses permamently is even better to it.
And yet, I can’t really complain about damage which is even 4k at it’s finest to some noob.

It’s not really hard to contrattack cannon thief. He is invisible and to deal damage he has to get close to you. All you do is drop AoE at your feet and he ends up with 50% hp after that.
Don’t forget that with staff you mostly got some allies around you. For solo, sure it’s not the best weapon choice.

@ Arheundel.6451:
“Yeah but warrior can switch to mele weapon from longbow/rifle…we can’t switch to d/d that’s why many requests should be considered reasonable.”

…Or they can choose to go 2 ranged weapons or 2 melee weapon.
The thing is that most melee glasses go melee and swap to range when range is needed. There is not really any situation when you must use a “melee weapon”, because ranged weapons CAN be used in melee range as well. However, a melee weapon CAN be more optimal than a ranged weapon because of it’s skill set and IF the situation allows you using melee form.

So.. in such case the issue isn’t that staff users are locked into ranged form (since you still can still attack from short range), but that D/D users are locked in short ranged. Though somehow no one is complaining about it as much as the other way around (not being able to swap from staff to daggers).

So.. in such case the issue isn’t that staff users are locked into ranged form (since you still can still attack from short range), but that D/D users are locked in short ranged. Though somehow no one is complaining about it as much as the other way around (not being able to swap from staff to daggers).That leads us to that people are just generally not satisfied with how the staff works (hence this thread was made). So what is it that makes people want to get out of staff into D/D? There are bascially only two things that I can say is better on D/D than on staff, and it’s mobilty and damage..

So.. in such case the issue isn’t that staff users are locked into ranged form (since you still can still attack from short range), but that D/D users are locked in short ranged. Though somehow no one is complaining about it as much as the other way around (not being able to swap from staff to daggers).That leads us to that people are just generally not satisfied with how the staff works (hence this thread was made). So what is it that makes people want to get out of staff into D/D? There are bascially only two things that I can say is better on D/D than on staff, and it’s mobilty and damage..Basically you want to have everything that D/D weapon has, that the staff will also have. That plus att the pros that the staff has. So people are just bascially wishing for a weapon that has everything and lacks nothing. However, it’s kinda of flawed argument that I’m sure many realizes and therefor many suggest weapon swap instead. Personally I feel weapon swap would make it eqaully OP, having access to 40 skills and all the pros of both weapons.

P:S And I don’t know why the forum likes to post tripple of everything I write in one post. :S

@paleeshi
To tell the truth the inability of switching from D/D to staff is what makes D/D not optimal in www compared to staff.

If you PLAY www for your server and you don t have a roamer role, you’d better leave D/D in the inventory….

Instead for example there are professions that use weapon swap efficently.

Look at mesmer You can have a 1200 range weapon and another couple that covers from 900 to melee.

Yet you can play with one range or any of them at will…(see a mesmer spamming clones for shatters).

Switching into them makes a flow very similar to elementalist attunements
Most professions have similar rotations for some builds.

To lert: about glascannon.. all or nothing.

Yes, if you are using staff. thats exactly one of the problems.

Go tanky on staff.. and you might aswell just go stand in start area.
you wont do much difference anyways.

And if you go full cannon. (wich is still low dmg).
you can deal moderate dmg. but now you die in 2 -3 hits,
since you are around 12 – 13k hp max.

I keep saying this:
Split staff into 2 ways to get more options and variations.
2 elements focus on: high single target dmg + CC.
2 elements focus on: Support, AoE.

Why ?

if you chose 1 direct dmg element and 1 support element. in your specc.
you can do alot more on the field.. and feeling alot more usefull overall.
(remember, we can not swap weapons)…

you Could help nuking from range to single targets and cc/interupt that target abit.
And you could help your friends with an AoE or support field.

Right now you are stuck with a messy staff with crap all over.
you help nuking your target with low dmg.
and you help your friends with low support.

How ever. Staff should NOT be the only weapon. doing everything.
It should be a viable. Good weapon. with options and variated builds.

But its not realy hard to fix the other weapons find a unique aspect either if you have atleast some brainactivity and imagination.

personaly, i like staff. its fitting to a mage, caster class.
But i whould love to have all our weapons: Good, Viable, Unique in their own way.
Making myself REALY confused of what to use, since all weapons are good.
THAT whould be just perfect. and FUN.

(but keep them ranged plz, iam an elemental mage after all, not a warrior)

eldain stenlund.4306:

Designers have no imagination it seems to fit Ranged attacks to a dagger.0
(to keep the mage a Ranged spell caster class).

that seems a bit… contradictory to me
surely a dagger mage (0-600, melee to mid range; and enough mobility to dance around enemies) is much more imaginitive than the stereotypical ‘Ranged spell caster class’

For now I expect only from ANet to add “-1” button so I could use it on ^ these comments.

Elementalist and low support? Cmon, ONLY soothing mist is good itself not to mention boons you apply to your allies.
The only thing I could agree on is that glass cannon elementalist is nowhere close to cannon thief/mesmer/warrior. That’s true.
But if you’re going tank, same as ANY other proffession, you’re meant to support your team and tank as long as possible. Pretty sure that’s the definition of tank. Not to tank whole opposite server while dealing 5k/hit to each enemy you meet.
As well I do not understand 2 viable options for staff elementalist. What’s there that holds you back from going tad more attack while being tanky? Afraid 1k health more, 30toughness and 50healing power will make such huge difference between full tank and going for some critical damage/chance?

Another thing you’re saying is that many proffessions can switch weapons. Yes, they can have melee and range ones, but I think beside mesmer and already not so strong necro there is no other class with so many range AoEs as elementalist. Keep in mind that. As well if you talk about damage, keep in mind you can drop AoEs while using #1 skill. Each skill wont deal 5k dmg, but it well deal pretty often and pretty stable decent damage. (eg. fire 5-2, water 2, finishing with air 2/1 while previous 3 AoE are still up).

Could I get for once support from someone who agrees that staff elementalists aren’t the ones most in need, please?

Keep in mind that. As well if you talk about damage, keep in mind you can drop AoEs while using #1 skill. Each skill wont deal 5k dmg, but it well deal pretty often and pretty stable decent damage. (eg. fire 5-2, water 2, finishing with air 2/1 while previous 3 AoE are still up).
—————————————-

Umm, ye sure. that sounds like a great plan for the golems in the mists.
they stand still so you can try.

But in pvp. enemies move, constantly.

yet again. tactic that fail.
just as your idea of just dropping AoE on yourself will make you perfectly safe.
(not working)…

Rule 1 in any type of combat.
If an enemy is mobile. you have to be mobile to counter.
(you know, dont get hit, move like water… that stuff).

fun example.
Have you every seen a boxing fight with just 1 of them just standing perfectly still while the other one keeps on hammering. round after round ???

and if you start spinning as defense. arms all over the place. (placing AoE on your feet).
the enemy whould just look at you.. “what the hell are you doing ???”
Let you waste energy and get tired. (AoE ends).
Then he just come in and knock you out. stone cold.

enemies move. to stop you from placing all your AoE on them.

counter root them ?
we dont have much realy. atleast nothing long lasting enough to make any type of staff combo.

AoE is terrible in even small group fights.. sure you might get 1 hit or 2.
makeing you their next target, knowing your a weak staff elemental with no defenses.

for AoE to work. you need a big group of enemies locked down. (not mobile).
(but that never happens sadly)

staff is crap, very simple.

Lert.6287:

Could I get for once support from someone who agrees that staff elementalists aren’t the ones most in need, please?

I feel like I could hold my own in small engagements with staff as-is, provided I did not have cooldowns between attunements. This would allow me to freely switch between damage and CC as rapidly as needed.

When I drop AoE damage, get focused, and have to swap to CC, I don’t like the feeling of needing to blow every (or most) of my CC in that attunement in order to get the most out of it before the 9 second cooldown (not to mention the 15 second cooldown if you aren’t traited into Arcana).

Then you have the issue of swapping to CC, using it, and having to wait 4-5 seconds (again, more if not traited Arcana) before going back to damage. In this amount of time almost all of our CC skills will have expired. This is a big problem when considering opponent’s ability to “just dodge out of our AoE damage.”

So I agree with you in the sense that the staff itself is manageable provided I am free to access all of my CC/damage at any instant. Elementalist’s can’t truly be quick thinkers or strategists because our attunements can’t keep up with our thinking.

As an Elementalist, are major strength is that we have 20 skills, but it’s more like

5 | 5 | 5 | 5

because each attunement’s ability to mesh with the others is being restricted by cooldowns.

paleeshi.

Enemy is running for you paleeshi.. Hurry…
quickly swap element to CC. hurry or he gets you… .. good work.
now lets kill him while he cant move… ohh wait.. your dmg just cut by 50 %… and your stuck in this crappy element now. long after he gets free.. crap.

how do i play myself ?

I play fire.. and range.. dmg.
the second i see someone coming for me. i use nr4 to speed back abit.
then i just run as hell.

unless its a thief or a DD. i can most of the time get away if iam fast enough.

I have tried may times to attack stragglers. in solo fights.
but, using a staff. its doomed to fail.
I have killed a few. some new players.

But as soon as there is a moderate player.
(consider myself also a normal medium player)
they slize me up and feed me to their dogs in seconds.

fastest kill on me.. a thief. i was running along in wvw. heading towards target area.
*poff… a thief appeared… “WHOA”. 1 second later… “restart at waypoint”

they should be my anti class. but like this…
let me atleast survive 1 hit. so i have a chanse to do atleast something back.

I think a big thing that’s problematic for staff is how elementalists access fury.

For D/D, switching attunements quickly and often comes naturally through normal play, leading to fury from the attunement switch through the arcane trait. The other source being the zephyr’s boon trait.

With staff, you only have your earth 3 aura, rather than having 2 auras to proc zephyr’s boon as D/D does with air 3 and water 4. In addition, switching attunements rapidly on staff to keep fury up through the arcane trait can be suboptimal. If nothing else, staff has some longer cast times so if you’re going to use up some cooldowns in an attunement it takes extra time to do so before you’re ready to attunement switch.

Of course, less fury means less dps.

If the arcane fury trait gave 4 seconds of fury with a 3 second Internal cooldown, rather than 2 sec of fury with no cooldown as it does now…it’d probably leave D/D about where it is now fury wise (not looking to nerf D/D here)…but be a help to staff which needs damage assistance.

Another solution would be having staff air 4 give 5 seconds of fury in addition to the swiftness given. Which would actually be a really nice change.

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.

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.

I do just fine with staff, I don’t know why your all complaining about it, sure it doesn’t counter everything but I’ve soloed plenty of players(80s too) with staff equipped. Hell, I don’t even bother to change my traits either. If your talking about PvE then I have no comment as PvE is too boring and too easy.

Whoa whoa whoa.
Wait. You play glass cannon ele using basicly ony fire?
Yeah, sure, staff is the problem >.<

its not even as bad as you could think…..unfortunately.

That IS part of the issue….staying in fire equals 90% damage of a rotation (numbers porvided time ago by a player), possibly even more if something breaks your rotation…..(note as rotation is a tactic for EASY fight because any good player or challenging PvE will break your rotation).

So staying in fire let at least have your cd ready for CC, healing or whatever.

Staff has really nice utilities. The main problem to me is the casting delays. First you have to target the area, then it takes a certain amount of time until the spell effect (damage, cc, ..) applies to the area.
While this is ok for PVE, its a major issue in PVP. Any decent player moves around the whole time. Its far too easy to avoid the red circles.

LordByron.8369:

its not even as bad as you could think…..unfortunately.

That IS part of the issue….staying in fire equals 90% damage of a rotation (numbers porvided time ago by a player), possibly even more if something breaks your rotation…..(note as rotation is a tactic for EASY fight because any good player or challenging PvE will break your rotation).

So staying in fire let at least have your cd ready for CC, healing or whatever.

once again, an easy fi to eles issues is;

making attunements 10 secs baseline, and traiting into one attunement also reduces the CD of said attunement. ( not very substantially, lets say 1.5 seconds per 10 points) That would give us some options to deviate from arcana, same with Blasting staff (arcana VIII) , make that baseline AoE for staff.

Lastly, increase DPS and projectile speed across the board for all non-fire attunements autoattacks, make autoattacks worth using;

fire: 1 second cast and another to land, more than enough for a thief to appear and dodge and disappear and repeat.

Water; Im not sure what have an auto attack, but probably increasing what you want the skill to be used for, either healing or damage, but both are non existent and pointless to use. I read somewhere a suggestion to give combo AA to eles, that is, first attack is the same, second does a sall healing blast for larger AoE and the 3rd freezes the target for 2-3 secs.

Air; make projectile speed much, MUCH, MUCH faster, it is lighting, it should be scary, also, emphasize the single DPS character of it, make the first hit &way harder*, but successive hits have diminishing return, also, 4 bounces (that, with a 50% biminishing return, the 4th hit would hit for only 12.5% damage of the first one). Fulfills its overall damage and still has a single target purpose

earth is fine; could use some small projectile speed buff, but minimal.

Finally, the only two other fixes would be, fire #2 lava font could apply damage on application, it is insane to have casting time and delay time, at least make them waste a CD or eat one tick, cuz right now just hitting once require them to be nearly afk.

Lastly, make air #3 actually hit something, make it like updraft, except that maybe homing or increase the radius of it, because hitting it is near impossible

Keep in mind that IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT DAMAGE. While fire #1 deals the most damage, it’s really silly to stay only fire 90% of the time – that’s nothing else than waste of elementalist’s potential.
You’re missing other important things. Without switching you got no fury, neither any other boon (and that’s what it is about with elementalist). Also water 25 gives you 2% damage boost for each boon you have.
Now I’m sure it’s lack of OP’s skills is the problem, not staff.

@lert
Before you say l2p to people please consider that

-you assume to use a staff on a D/D build,
-if your opponent is not afk or in a zerg, every single DAMAGING spell ecluding autoattacks will miss.
-Fire 1 can be sidestepped also.
-best fields are necro/mesmer/guardian’s
-staff lacks finishers
-EA finisher requires you to stand on the field you want to proc….that is bad for a 1200 range profession.

there is only 1 issue:
while water 4, air 5 are good cc they are far from enough;

Staff should have one of the following HUGELY improved:
1) damage skills difficult to evade
or
2) HUGE damage
or
3) more reliable AoE like mesmer/necro

And obvioulsy changing water 2 to be a reliable dps like other weaponsets….(not that scepter is huge but staff 2 is bad even in the most stupid pve encounter).

So actually there is no reason in the world to use a staff over a scepter.

If you’re so anti-staff, simply don’t use it.
I don’t have any problems with staff, at least not big ones. Surely it’s better than ranger’s longbow or warriors.

You’re saying that 100% of staff skills misses. Probably you’re right… as long you use #1 skill without target. The ye, you won’t hit anybody – ever!
Staff damage is pretty high. You won’t kill anyone in shot, neither 50% hp, but if you want to do that and simply stay alive then just roll thief or mesmer. While elementalist’s damage stays pretty high, elementalist itself does way better as off-tank (that’s why there is so famous bunker 0-10-0-30-30 build instead of 30-30-x-x-x for higher damage).
Not to mention how incredibly good staff is on 10-15ppl fights in not so open area (bridge).

I don’t consider myself as pro. But I’d say that I’m doing more than just fine with staff. And it makes me to think on what level of skill are all these ‘’QQ-ers’’ if they complain so much. Probably way under avarage (eg. 90% of the time staying on fire due to the highest damage of #1 skill).

Staff does great AE damage considering its at range. If you cycle it right, you can do one heck of a AE damage spike too. Staff does great CC, the best CC in the game in my opinion. Staff + Ele synergy does great conditional removal too for group support and really helps with confusion bombs, which you can even further enhance with finishers. I do wish the cool down was a little lower though.

Increase projectile speed would be a good start, and see how that plays out. Maybe change some of the AE abilities to do damage immediately as a second step.

Can’t really do much more without making it grossly OP in large fights.

Lert.6287:

If you’re so anti-staff, simply don’t use it.

Unfortunately that is what i m doing…
After tests etc….and while i DID actually roll a mesmer i had to say that mesmer/necro are currently king of AoEs…..

Maybe completely OP in www…

I did my tests etc (and not only me) because i want to play with staff….and so using the same old L2P cliché just tell me you don t have anything to prove your point….

I don t want to post the same old comparing pages across skills (expecially warriors) nor to remember how warrior has a pet/other weapons, and war can switch weapon…..

Nor how Ele is uneffective compared to aforementioned professions, even against HUGE zergs as i daily see on SFR….where Actually scepter/dagger is far better.

Try a necro/mesmer do 10X kills with half effort and understand wich is the issue.

I keep hearing the same old argument; “dont play it”, “l2p” , “you suck” but I dont see any real good counter argument as to way we cant have a ranged DPS staff build. Yes you can argue that we have a lot of CC and AoE which is great in groups, but thing is, other professions have the same (if not more) CC and AoE and yet they can fulfill teamfights and solo fights purposes. Im looking at necros, mesmers, guardians, even a warrior can switch freely back and forth between these two. Now, you notice a pattern, all the mentioned classes share something in common; they can switch weapons and have different weapons with different purposes, some weapons even fulfilling both roles(!!!!!) therefore you can conclude (and if you dont arrive to the same conclusion then you are being stubborn) that they have versatility.

We are “supposedly” the kings of versatility, yet, when we go from a massive zerg to a branched 3v3 or 4v4 we get our smokey b|_|tts completely burnt because we lack the tools to adapt to those situations, therefore we lack versatility. Repeat with me;

We are supposed to the kings of versatility yet we lack it

Unlike other professions we cant decide to wear D/D mid fights from staff, or S/D. Therefore all points implying the switching to other weapons are invalid and you people should even feel ashamed to bring them up. Now, im not asking for weapon switching, that would defeat the purpose of the uniqueness of our profession, all Im asking is a little more attunement specialization, more versatility, being viable in all contexts or vast mayority at least, not JUST WvW raids.

You know, not everyone is a WvW player, some of us like to……play sPvP and tPvP ‘GASP’

Ele’s can have a staff?

Login.5102:

Ele’s can have a staff?

hopefully one day.

That’s joke :P 15chars

Staff isn’t that bad, stop being so dramatic. Some of the abilities could use adjustments (making gust more user friendly would be nice), but it’s still more viable than a lot of the weapons in the game.

Celtus.8456:

Staff isn’t that bad, stop being so dramatic. Some of the abilities could use adjustments (making gust more user friendly would be nice), but it’s still more viable than a lot of the weapons in the game.

but unlike most other weapons in the game, we lack the options to say “oh welps, I guess i will use this other weapon whn the one im using now doesnt work in this situation” , we are already pidgeon-hole into one already before the fight even starts!!

Elemental have: Staff. Scepter. Dagger. Focus. 4 types.
Working types: i mean. realy working: Dagger/Dagger.

Warrior have: Sword. Hammer. Longbow. Axe. Greatsword. Mace. Rifle. Horn. Shield.
9 types.
Sword. heard from guild players, some realy heavy bleeding.
Hammer. high dmg + cc weapon.
Longbow. i see alot of warriors use this instead of rifle.
Axe. Realy good dmg on these. (what i use)
Legendary Greatsword. no explanation needed. we all know it.
Mace. dont see many people use this, other than with shield maybe.
Rifle. High single target dmg. Good burst if you land it. 8 k volley + 10k+ killshots.
Horn. Good to create more mobility. and support AoE.
Shield. CC + defense.
Working types: 8 of 9. (not counting rare mace).

So if warriors have more than 75 % working weapons.
why cant we have that also. or atleast 50 %.

If you mind, you also can summon weapons. Personally I don’t mind that elite sword. Works great in some situations no matter staff or d/d.

If you can’t use it, it doesn’t mean it’s bad. There, I said it.

yes. sure. summoned weapons. with limited amount of uses.

i dont know about you. but i dont consider gimmicks / toys,
to be classed as normal primary weapon options.

afterall. its not something you can use all time… Limited “ammo”.. and CD.

Besides. to be able to use these toy weapons, you need to take away skill slots wich i realy need for my primary weapon. (wich ever it is).

i DO have the elite Greatsword in slot.
nothing else is realy usefull. i use it to get away from crap.
its about the only use you have for it in any pvp area.
I can also use it in pve.. just for fun.. its a toy after all.

IF. they make summoned weapons to work as a KIT. like engineers have.
THEN i will totaly agree with you..
and i whould probably use a few of them myself sacrificing skill slots.
but with limited ammo.. no thanx.

eldain stenlund.4306:

Elemental have: Staff. Scepter. Dagger. Focus. 4 types.
Working types: i mean. realy working: Dagger/Dagger.

Warrior have: Sword. Hammer. Longbow. Axe. Greatsword. Mace. Rifle. Horn. Shield.
9 types.
Sword. heard from guild players, some realy heavy bleeding.
Hammer. high dmg + cc weapon.
Longbow. i see alot of warriors use this instead of rifle.
Axe. Realy good dmg on these. (what i use)
Legendary Greatsword. no explanation needed. we all know it.
Mace. dont see many people use this, other than with shield maybe.
Rifle. High single target dmg. Good burst if you land it. 8 k volley + 10k+ killshots.
Horn. Good to create more mobility. and support AoE.
Shield. CC + defense.
Working types: 8 of 9. (not counting rare mace).

So if warriors have more than 75 % working weapons.
why cant we have that also. or atleast 50 %.

All Ele’s weapon are useful, but every weapon is situational (build/situation dependent). The one that is less popular is probably scepter though. Same goes for other classes. Staff is still a much popular choice among Eles, so it’s false to say that it’s not working since so many Eles run with it.

I think the main reason Eles only have a limited amount of weapon choices, is because we have access to 20 skills per weapon set. So total amount of available skills is pretty high. If you look at Engineer, they do not either have weapon swap and only a couple weapons they can use (even less than Eles). But they have a tons of kits which gives them a high amount of skill sets.

And you see, kit as well takes place in 7-9 slot-bar and they don’t cry about it.
As well they don’t have any strict melee set (but it isn’t really a problem if they can shoot by pistol either 100 or 800 range, is it?).
Why I dropped argument with these ‘’toy weapons’’? Well, no other class has such option. You can always pick something for yourself to get another weapon set, but we all know every (beside sword) is waste.
Now you have 3 choices:
Change class
Change weapon set
Skill up

Pretty sure with two first options same problem will appear (d/d ele, so weak, can’t kill, blah blah blah or ‘’mesmer? – weakest proffession in game!’’).

As you can see, there are few guys willing to agree with me that staff is rather fine.

Some of you really need to play some of the older fantasy games. Daggers were one of the few weapons that mages were allowed to use. That and staff/fists/conjured weapons.

Also, the staff isn’t currently a “hardcore underdog” spec. It is made for groups/zergs. You have stun/chill/cripple fields and good aoe attacks as well as good heals.

Azaruil.3406:

Some of you really need to play some of the older fantasy games. Daggers were one of the few weapons that mages were allowed to use. That and staff/fists/conjured weapons.

Also, the staff isn’t currently a “hardcore underdog” spec. It is made for groups/zergs. You have stun/chill/cripple fields and good aoe attacks as well as good heals.

Yes, but it doesn’t kill people in 1 shot and doesn’t grant you perma triple-protection (99% dmg reduction) – that’s what they think.

That’s good point there, mate.