Guild Wars 2

staff rocks

those guys were baddies

Sadly, the mindset of many farmers is, if you’re not providing maximum dps, you’re slowing them down. I’ve even seen some get worked up over a few lost seconds. While I place most of them blame on them, some of it belongs to Anet for creating systems that cater towards direct damage. There’s no penalty for hitting harder to criting more often but there are caps on conditions, boons and low healing values. Tagging mobs is the only way to get loot drops and you have to do a certain amount of damage before they die in order for it to work. As far as I know, you don’t get credit for the damage increase you give others. Warriors also have higher survivability out of the box and are one of if not the easiest class to play proficiently.

My advice to you is not to run dungeons with people like this. Even when I’m just farming, I would rather do it in 10 minutes with people that are relaxed than 5 minutes with anal-retentive speedrunners. They take the fun out of playing and, ultimately, I’m playing for fun.

CoF 1 is home to the largest percentage of rude players you’ll find in all of GW2.

I wouldn’t sweat anything that goes on in there and preferably just avoid it outright.

Those kind of people should be banned, seriously. I hope someone hacks into their accounts deleted everything, it’s what they deserve.

Classic speedrun ignorant elitists, just let them be.

However, if you want me to rate your build… low crit chance + semi high crit damage, ZERO attunement swap % and tempest defense is subpar in pvp lets not talk about pve…

Pretty bad. You have 0 boon duration, you can’t give ANY boons to your party or even yourself (if you had access to reliable might you would match your power numbers while having extra trait points available, fire traits suck), and you don’t seem to use other weapons no matter which encounter you’re facing.

I hope you at least have arcane wave in your utilities, otherwise it’s a 2/10 for your build, would not advice anyone to follow it.

Emperor.1360:

Either I’m terrible, or those guys in that group were just rude and crazy. I don’t know. Help!

Grizledorf.5290:

those guys were baddies

Terribads with a superiority complex. You did fine OP. Don’t let people like that get to you.

imo staff is fine, its just the you land with a team that prefer a dps build than sustained one. cof1 is a give and take damage lol tell them next time to add a mesmer if they want to get buffed up..

The weapon with the greatest access to combo fields in the game is terrible in PvE.

…

Where do you people find these clowns?

(The build seems perfectly good for PvE, also.)

I think its a decent build and if it works for you then its fine and if you want to see if it is the best build just try running with a couple other builds and see what happens.

Ignore them. IMO too many people just focus on damage and damage alone, especially people farming dungeons. Staff is an excellent weapon for groups.
Yes you want to complete the dungeon quickly but dying repeatedly slows you down too. Plus focusing too much on being optimal takes the fun out of the game. shrug

OP, are you making this up?

Because that sounds like a bunch of idiot sheep forum posters that that will go out of their way to make sure you play their way or constantly hound you about how the profession ‘Should be played’.

the problem is that ele is a bit subpar atm, if we spec pure damage we don’t have any survivability and therefore can’t help the team because we’re dead.

conversely our defensive builds (the ubiquitous 0/10/0/30/30 is never a bad idea) can deal solid damage with excellent survivability, but solid damage =/= high-speed.

i’m not saying your build is bad (i haven’t even glanced at it, so apart from staff i don’t know what it is) but overall if you want respect from your party members you should play something else.

IMPORTANT I’m am NOT saying people should stop playing ele because it’s bad, nor will you EVER hear me say it. I have been a devoted ele fan since Eotn was released for gw1 YEARS ago (long after it became a kittenty class). And even in gw2 i still spend 90% of my time on my ele. staff ele to be precise.

i agree these people were being elitist pricks, normally i’m willing to concede that elitists have a point buried under their egos, but when you consider how much of a waste it is to do any one dungeon multiple times a day i can’t see how a slower more survivable build is a bad thing.

p.s. i usually get tonnes of flak for DARING to imply elitists might possibly have a good point underneath their raving, let’s see how much i get for saying they might have a point in other situations!

staff ele shines imo most in TA. Still need to bring some D/D with you on backup for skipping mobs though.

Honestly your build isnt terrible, but might stand to have a few improvements.

I run an “almost” pure damage staff build (when im not running my honestly superier condition build, but thats for another time!), but I dont put all 30 points into air.

Instead, I run:

Gear: All beserker for armor with Scholar runes, and all Cavalier’s accessories with ex. rubies slotted. The added toughness allows this build to WORK, despite losing a minor amount of crit chance. obviously switching out for berserker full WOULD improve the consistency of the damage, but honestly it crits well enough without!

30 Fire, 25 Air, 15 Water, with several sources of damage amplification (20% damage bonus when above 90% health due to water trait + scholar runes, 10% while in Fire).

FIRE: I take the Damage Bonus in fire, -20% recharge for Fire, and longer fire Fields (sleeper op trait that no one notices!)

AIR: Bolt to the Heart for some added finishing damage potential, and Arcane Lightning for even more crit damage.

WATER: simply the 15 points to have the heal-swap utility and to slightly buff our healing to stay over 90% with Ether Renewal (best heal in the entire game in my opinion!) and of course Vital Striking for the 10% damage while above 90%.

The idea being my build is set up as the “optimum damage dealer” with outside support: if other people supply the perma Fury and Might and Vulnerability, my build will deal very, VERY nice, consistent damage, particularly in a relatively wide area with Meteor Shower.

Ideally, if you have a Guardian/Mesmer combo supplying an easy stack of 25 Might (particularly with you providing 100% up time on Fire Fields), then Pyro’s Puissance isnt useful, while getting additional damage tics from Lava Font, and REALLY long firewalls from Burning Retreat, help your damage and your group support by offering fire fields.

This results in rather frequent Fireball + Lavafont +6k damage per second on a lucky string of crits easily, if you are playing VERY smart and staying above 90% health. Individual hits from Meteor Shower can hit for over 8k, and this is all without the ideal 25 Might and 25 Vulnerability.

By taking 3 arcane skills with Arcane Lightning, you push the crit damage even a bit higher, while offering in some huge spike potential if its needed, but obviously these can be substituted out as utilities are needed. Ice Bow and Fiery Greatsword are amazing choices for when either structures need to be obliterated or bosses are “walled” if you choose to abuse the FGS’s 4th skill stacking all its hits in one area and its whirlwind hitting all hits.

Due to the multitarget potential, I think it has the highest potential sustained multitarget damage in the entire game, Mesmer phantasms withstanding (if they manage to survive with like a combination of 3 Berserker or Warden phantasms).

EDIT:

Forgot to mention, for a best-case scenario, you can have:

25 Might Stacks
25 Vulnerability stacks on foe
foe bellow 33% health (20% damage)
you above 90% health (20% damage)
fire attunement (10% damage)
butternutt squash curry (more crit chance, +10% crit damage)

This combination takes a normal fire damage spell, amplifies it by first +50%, then apply critical damage bonuses, then increases that total by 25% due to Vulnerability increasing received damage… its a LOT of pain, and a lot more realistically practical because it can be dealt at any range, and even if a foe is moving, you can always reposition the Lava Font shortly after, although stationary foes are vastly preferred.

Staff sucks…..
You are not supposed to die even with the most glass cannon build

Survivability is about skills not about equips often.

Also staff problem is skills works only on standing targets
Damage potential doesn t count if you don thit.

Try your staff dps build on mossman….you’ll deal less damage than any PVT build with a different weaponset because simply you won t hit.

Staff problem is it has issues to hit the targets.

Also D/D can stack 14 mights and several conditions while putting a huge aoe combo field on the floor.

And you will keep 7-8 of those constanltly for everybody on melee.

But most of all you will hit the target.

As an ex staff user i started really to hate the weapon is in need of further buffs…
Seems its more reliable with the increase in speed of fire 5 meteors, but still its too slow.

LordByron.8369:

Staff sucks…..
You are not supposed to die even with the most glass cannon build

Survivability is about skills not about equips often.

Also staff problem is skills works only on standing targets
Damage potential doesn t count if you don thit.

Try your staff dps build on mossman….you’ll deal less damage than any PVT build with a different weaponset because simply you won t hit.

Staff problem is it has issues to hit the targets.

Also D/D can stack 14 mights and several conditions while putting a huge aoe combo field on the floor.

And you will keep 7-8 of those constanltly for everybody on melee.

But most of all you will hit the target.

As an ex staff user i started really to hate the weapon is in need of further buffs…
Seems its more reliable with the increase in speed of fire 5 meteors, but still its too slow.

I find it ironic that you mention survivability is more about skill than equipment but you struggle to hit anything with staff powers. The trick to it isn’t to target where the enemy presently is. It’s to target where they are going to be. It’s even easier when you’re kiting because you can drag them into the aoe reticule. Water 4 also helps as it applies chill instantly and can be comboed with projectiles for even more. As for fire 5, you use it on crowds, massive targets or stationary structures. You never use it on high mobility targets. That would be like using a cannonball to swat a fly.

Crossplay.2067:

I find it ironic that you mention survivability is more about skill than equipment but you struggle to hit anything with staff powers. The trick to it isn’t to target where the enemy presently is. It’s to target where they are going to be. It’s even easier when you’re kiting because you can drag them into the aoe reticule. Water 4 also helps as it applies chill instantly and can be comboed with projectiles for even more. As for fire 5, you use it on crowds, massive targets or stationary structures. You never use it on high mobility targets. That would be like using a cannonball to swat a fly.

I think what Byron was referring to was Staff as a damage prospect alone. Staff as a whole does the least amount of damage compared to the other ele weapons by far. Fire is much stronger and much more capable of providing might in the other weapons due to increase in blast finishers or faster blast finishers in the other weapons.

Staff fire 1, 2 and 3 are subpar single target damage, and the rest of the elements are even worse. As you mentioned, staff fire 5 as inaccurate as it is, it can’t do single target damage. This is the main flaw, as staff fire 5 is supposed to be the staff ele’s main source of damage. Other builds d/d, s/f, and s/d can reliably do devastating single and aoe damage (which could also be supplemented by conjures). Staff is a great support weapon, but terrible for a damage dealing unless when constrained to fighting at extreme range.

As for the OP, a good ele should be capable of wielding all 4 weapons and be able to switch to them whenever required. Use staff for general utility, daggers for close up damage, scepter for ranged damage, and focus for group defense (especially when facing ranged opponents).

Crossplay.2067:

I find it ironic that you mention survivability is more about skill

no i didn t say that.
i said skillS <=== notice the plural.
SOmething like:
Scepter:
Air3
earth2
Focus:
earth 4
earth5

(compare duration/cd with staff to cry)

And on top of that add right bar skills

but you struggle to hit anything with staff powers. The trick to it isn’t to target where the enemy presently is. It’s to target where they are going to be. It’s even easier when you’re kiting because you can drag them into the aoe reticule.

False again, staff may be good VS bloomburger for example.
Any mobile target will simply mostly evade and if you are lucky pass by your aoe taking minimal damage.

See lava font, but most of all even autoattack are a pain when opponent constantly moves
moreover if he can stealth OR you need to change target your horrible attack speed will show you how bad staff is losing 5 seconds to kill a thing just because between finishing last animation, changing target and hitting it takes ages.

You also won t be able to keep your target under your aoe, it will just pass on it taking minimal damage unless the target is really easy…..

Andmost of all i don t think you will be able to keep aggro to kite with a staff ele.

There is a thing that i learned on this forum….
When you met most forum posters in game seems their theories starts falling…..“ kitten lag”

Water 4 also helps as it applies chill instantly and can be comboed with projectiles for even more

Water 4 is the only thing staff has of really good.

Best thing obviously is to have each weapon set with you, but if you really try all of them you’ll find staff is almost ever related to those few situations where having 1200+ range is a plus.

otherwise just scepter/focus for survivability and D/D for damage/support.
Direct support is way better than few fields more sacrificing damage…(mostly because rotating attunements will end up in forcing you into low damage attunements for too long).

One great thing about staff is it’s forgiving and allows you to use lots of different utilities. With Daggers, you’re likely stuck with cantrips and if at least not those, PVT gear.

I don’t often use D/D anymore, I usually use S/D, S/F or Staff and with those, trait and utility offensively. With either setup, I lean toward Air and/or Fire traits and murder stuff with either Glyph or arcane abilities (also throw in some conjures for specific situations). You can also keep water traits to help give your offensiveness a spllash of support.

Of course, you can go D/D with full offensive traits and utilities…just not very much room for error if you join a mediocre team.

Weekend CoF p1 runs are where you will find the most rude players on all GW2.
I just had a blast this last weekend seen all the zerker warriors wiping non stop due to changes on the food buffs, while my WP thief could evade most of the dmg…

Anybody here use D/F? I really don’t see that combo anywhere.

International.7980:

Anybody here use D/F? I really don’t see that combo anywhere.

I like Focus but not a fan of dagger main hand. I wish the combo had a niche but ‘close-ranged defensive’ isn’t a very good one…not when dagger offhand has some defensive skills of a different flavor that are more universally useful.

As an offhand, I feel focus more easily synergizes with a ranged mainhand.

International.7980:

Anybody here use D/F? I really don’t see that combo anywhere.

the reason for PVE is quite easy to tell.

Dagger relies on melee skills
Focus is about defense and anti-projectile

To benefit focus you need range mostly

Crossplay.2067:

Sadly, the mindset of many farmers is, if you’re not providing maximum dps, you’re slowing them down. I’ve even seen some get worked up over a few lost seconds. While I place most of them blame on them, some of it belongs to Anet for creating systems that cater towards direct damage. There’s no penalty for hitting harder to criting more often but there are caps on conditions, boons and low healing values. Tagging mobs is the only way to get loot drops and you have to do a certain amount of damage before they die in order for it to work. As far as I know, you don’t get credit for the damage increase you give others. Warriors also have higher survivability out of the box and are one of if not the easiest class to play proficiently.

My advice to you is not to run dungeons with people like this. Even when I’m just farming, I would rather do it in 10 minutes with people that are relaxed than 5 minutes with anal-retentive speedrunners. They take the fun out of playing and, ultimately, I’m playing for fun.

I will partially disagree with you.

The reason why I agree:
1. These are the recent batch of noob players in the recent 3 months that think they are no longer noobs.

2. These are the players that hope for others to carry them. Different way to put it. Just like people posting for ping gear check, need 3x warrior and then must have a Mesmer at the same time.

3. They do not understand that dungeons are team work and needs different combo, skills and etc to aid each other. Regardless of profession or built. You just need to swap your skills, weapons and traits available.

The reason why I disagree:
1. I do frequent runs on CoF (not as often as before. but recently starting back). I have partied with mo-rons that any experienced team-mate can see they are just spamming auto attack or the wrong skills. Such as trying to apply vulnerability to an inanimate object like turret, triggering npc and events at the wrong time. Even for Ac, I have met with players who keeps saying its easy and he knows what to do, but keeps getting lost and died with a guard (nearly an idiot proof profession) ! WORST OF ALL, I get mo-ron’s that won’t listen and answer’s back “like I care”. Even on fractals 16, I have played with 3 warriors (charr with legendary rifle) that dies all the time and sticks to rifle.

AC is the new grounds of rude players now. Before CoF became their watering hole.

2. These players ping check gear may be rude but I partially agree with them. What I do is I always post in LFG that they must be experienced and never let them host a dungeon. Ping check gear will also tell us if this player understands his profession or not.

3. All these in, there are also a lot of free loaders. Stacking themselves with max Magic Find.

4. There are also some profession that are harder to be good at, not to mention the different types of dungeons alone require change in traits and skills or depends on who’s in your party. Making the party slot a dead weight with an auto attack spammer build.

Warrior/Guardian are pretty idiot proof. Having said that, I have seen rare cases of uber idiosyncrasy in motion. These are just kids, maybe below age of 15, in rage or delayed puberty. Just avoid them. Until Arena comes up with a feature that allows us to view ratings and details of these player (i.e. rage quit ratio, number of thumbs down/up, dungeon event failure/success count, view his build stats/armor)

Try not to complain blindly coz I understand your hate. I joined a pug LFG post for CoF some months ago, my thief has over 2.8k armor, over 50% crit chance and over 60% crit damage, my downstate ratio is very low over the months. So I port from LA to CoF WP. during the wait, they just kick me out. I know those are the types that are noobs that think they are good enough but would like a warrior or guardian so CoF can be easier for them. These are not team players. Just avoid them. I always block players when I see these signs, ignore them showing off through out the P1 path, and finish it. Get tokens and say TQ / Good bye. Start a new party without them.

I found out most players that play Asura / Charr are mostly rude, childish and show-offs. Just in my experience.

Form your own party, guild mates, friends, etc that understand each other’s play style. It’s like playing doubles in Badminton, know your opponent, your own skills and also your team mate.

Even on CoF, I have helped new players/guild mates in the past to complete. as long as they are honest, listens, not rude, not a quitter and not a mo-ron.

si much text wasted when 2 skills on warriors guardians are still able to clear from fotm 48 to arah 4….

They are not speed runners nor noobs.

people that can t understand why there is a serious PvE issue between classes just isn t experienced enough.

It have been explained in every corner of the forum

DPS makes hard content uber easy…

You don t find many elementalist complaining the game is too easy…
You find hordes of warriors guardians saying th same……

Or people that plays with them.

I’ll try to explain in fewest words possible:

Given the fact that mobs hits irreasonably hard and you can’t tank them..
You have to rely on evasions, invulnerabilities, protection antiproijectiles

Those are designed for PvP and lasts few seconds.
Now the best and easiest way to address that is to abus ethem with the most dps possible in those seconds to get rid of most threats possible….

Mobs won t try to run and stuff so its a mono tactic that works everywhere.

And when you have a class capable of dealing 2 to 5 X other professions you understand where the issue is.

LordByron.8369:

si much text wasted when 2 skills on warriors guardians are still able to clear from fotm 48 to arah 4….

They are not speed runners nor noobs.

people that can t understand why there is a serious PvE issue between classes just isn t experienced enough.

It have been explained in every corner of the forum

DPS makes hard content uber easy…

You don t find many elementalist complaining the game is too easy…
You find hordes of warriors guardians saying th same……

Or people that plays with them.

I’ll try to explain in fewest words possible:

Given the fact that mobs hits irreasonably hard and you can’t tank them..
You have to rely on evasions, invulnerabilities, protection antiproijectiles

Those are designed for PvP and lasts few seconds.
Now the best and easiest way to address that is to abus ethem with the most dps possible in those seconds to get rid of most threats possible….

Mobs won t try to run and stuff so its a mono tactic that works everywhere.

And when you have a class capable of dealing 2 to 5 X other professions you understand where the issue is.

Think of it this way.

People who say a content is easy it’s bcoz they are show-offs. When they say it’s too difficult on some very obviously “not” difficult content, coz they do not understand the mechanics or not working as a team with others (this is not 5x warriors in a party).

I have both light, medium and heavy class. I can safely say I am not a hardcore but I do play better than most players that I see.

Warrior/Guardian = Designed for easy going players easy to get away and easy to play. Easy to shine even when they do not know how to combo or team work or stack. But there are exceptional cases on how mo-ronic people can be.

Elementalist/Necro/Ranger = Designed for intermediate players. It’s easier to make mistakes. More challenging. Harder to shine. It’s not less powerful than a warrior/guardian.

Engineer/Thief/Mesmer = Designed for advanced players. Very hard for it to shine. Makes you a dead weight if you do not know the profession well enough and how to use it.

It’s the newer contents and mechanics like the fractals that really tests the boundaries of these 3 different class. Trust me. if you play enough of fractals with pugs. You will notice there are really really really bad warrior/guardian players. They are the elites of the mo-ron clan to fail even to use a warrior/guardian properly – all they know is just spam attacks but not when and what to do.

LordByron.8369:

si much text wasted when 2 skills on warriors guardians are still able to clear from fotm 48 to arah 4….

They are not speed runners nor noobs.

people that can t understand why there is a serious PvE issue between classes just isn t experienced enough.

It have been explained in every corner of the forum

DPS makes hard content uber easy…

You don t find many elementalist complaining the game is too easy…
You find hordes of warriors guardians saying th same……

Or people that plays with them.

I’ll try to explain in fewest words possible:

Given the fact that mobs hits irreasonably hard and you can’t tank them..
You have to rely on evasions, invulnerabilities, protection antiproijectiles

Those are designed for PvP and lasts few seconds.
Now the best and easiest way to address that is to abus ethem with the most dps possible in those seconds to get rid of most threats possible….

Mobs won t try to run and stuff so its a mono tactic that works everywhere.

And when you have a class capable of dealing 2 to 5 X other professions you understand where the issue is.

On your signature. Please do not complain on other class that are too powerful. As it’s a very selfish opinion you have. Instead. just buff up other classes skills. I play all classes, and I know where you are coming from. There are just tons of people crying out there on ele/thief at one time.

Doing it wrong by anet, they will ruin that particular class. So next time you get killed by a thief/ele, please do not cry its too op. It’s because you didn’t observe and use the right skill.

Some of the skills like near perma stealth on thief, yes. I do agree it should be nerfed. But don’t do it to an extend that it ruins the thief. You need a thief for your pve super hard dungeons. Try to play all class and you will see what I mean.

MIxed reactions. Standard d/d fare. Roll around and get the 14 stackes of might, blow all the skills, before the battle begins. Get into battle, and RTL out of there to roll around and heal up while outputting no damage (hence the big RTL commotion, no escape, I gotta run) Have to wait for cooldowns. Little might stacking there.

Or,

Go into battle with no might, build it and use the skills and thier cooldowns for something useful like dps. So, there is no 14 might for the battle, only part of it, before RTL the heck out of there and roll around and heal while doing no DPS. Have to wait for cooldowns. Little might stacking there.

What is in common with both is that 14 might is 14%, big whoop. The ele is out of melee range after RTL, any might stacking is not going towards those in melee in range at that point, the skills used to generate might are on cooldown. If everything died its all good. If an ele has to be in melee range d/d is excellent, I agree. 1v1 it is excellent I agree. And, no, many skilled eles do not have to RTL the heck out of there, but there are an awful lot who do. Judging by the qq about the RTL nerf, it is more then I ever imagined.

Seems d/d fanatics ignore conversation about the lower dps of the bunker eles and the downtime of the glass cannon eles while out of range. Both builds with zero condition damage most all the time. My preference is for continuous damage. Its adds up fast.

There is a point here somewhere. I think I am saying that d/d is not the stick that should be used to judge the abilites of the player behind them, certainly not whether they should be in a party.

Umber makes a very good point. There are alot of people in pugs who think the attitude of someone successful should be to kick people from parties, mindlessly drone on about how uber they themselves are, recite dribble about the best builds (one in particular) that they have, and cut down anyone who doesn’t agree. Oh, and /ragequit from parties. That seems to be the best expression of their uberness that they can flaunt to their friends. I think the more times they do it, the better they must be.

But then, I don’t believe staff sucks. I believe melee is sometimes not the place to be as an elementalist. That depends on the situation. I think the sustained dps of the staff, the combo fields, and cc, and healing is often better with the staff at range than the d/d. And, I like the might stacking of the s/d better because I can use weapon skills to stack might instead of utility skills, meaning I can use utility skills that allow me to stay in melee range longer so I can do more damage.

Just one persons opinion. I wish everytime I look for a pug that I don’t get one of those know it all kids.

We will have to agree to disagree that a possible few seconds off a run are not a game breaker, or that one persons favorite build for their sytle of play does not trump anothers build that fits their style of play for the small difference it may, not will, make. Or that the dps of one character in a party is more effective than team play.

In truth, this is behavior I have seen over many years of mmo play. I can recall only one instance in GW2 of a player rage quitting and one we booted out. Most groups seem pretty decent. But from the stuff I hear on the forums, we have been lucky.