Guild Wars 2

I’m done!

There is a lot of new content in this video which you may find useful including new combos, new tips and tricks, and a new build. So even if you’ve watched the original Burn The Zeitgeist video, I strongly urge you to take a look at this video! Even very experienced Staff Elementalists may find some useful content here to improve their play!

Who I am

I am Azilyi who specializes in Staff for sPvP, but my love for Elementalist is all-encompassing. I have released several videos in the past which have received overwhelmingly positive feedback which you can find at the bottom of this post. I am in the top 1k players in Solo Queue playing only staff.

What The Video is about

This video was created for already-experienced Elementalists. I do not focus on general mechanics, and instead focus on combinations and skill-based plays.

This video is broken into three parts. The first part is a 1v1 dueling segment which shows the foundation combos required to defend yourself adequately. I chose to feature a duel against another dagger/dagger elementalist because, as my primary audience is elementalists, I felt they would more easily understand the mechanics at play.

What’s different

My previous videos were all done pre-patch. So a lot has changed. But unfortunately, Staff was not given many improvements. However, with so many radical changes its only natural that the meta has changed… and that has compelled me to change my build yet again. I think this build is quite simply the strongest yet… so give it a try.

The Build

The main point of this build is that even though it’s using Celestial Amulet, it has a +37% increase to damage overall. This produces incredible outgoing DPS effects, and meteor showers in excess of 5.5k. The amount of damage it produces will surprise you.

It features incredible group-utility and DPS without foregoing a sustainable defence. You can perform just about any role, including bunkering… but you’re most suited for long-range support casting.

The Build

The Video

The video is split into three parts. You can watch the video from the beginning here:
The Featured Video

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS!

Really, my main motivation for doing these videos has been this community’s incredible voice. I make an effort to reply to All responses. So don’t think that if you reply that your opinion is going to get buried… I respect all criticism (directed at me).

I just wanted to raise one question, why not drop 10 points in water and put 10 more into arcana? evasive arcanas dodge in water heals for more each 10 seconds, removes a condi, provides you with 6 seconds of burning to compliment your build and blinds. You would be losing some vigor and regen so I’m not quite sure if the trade offs worth it but it may be since you’re only running one cantrip and have a second one which may proc depending on who you’re fighting.

I have been running this build recently and I really enjoy it on d/d. It also has 6 points into fire and uses persisting flames!

This is what I would personally run
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISLD2zAGNArEGgAQCHowARlKv9bZA-TpQOgAA7PsWGAA

I do recall you saying its the hard to finish someone off with staff when they’re almost dead due to low dps sustain. This build should help that thanks to BTTH.

Grimreaper.5370:

…

I could see that working, if that’s what you’re in to.

But another thing that you trade is the vitality and healing power. Attunement speed and boon duration aren’t a great benefit to me. Although on the plus side, you would get flame blast on roll which is a nice way to apply burning—or potentially a blast finisher with earth.

So there is definitely some viability in that. Personally, I prefer to save my dodges for actually avoiding attacks though—which is still possible with EA, but it encourages a wasteful behavior when it comes to dodging—especially without vigor.

Good suggestions! I think I prefer more sustain in my build and having 0 in water sends shivers up my spine. But I can definitely see an incredible advantage to Bolt to the Heart for free-casting staff eles.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Grimreaper.5370:

I just wanted to raise one question, why not drop 10 points in water and put 10 more into arcana? evasive arcanas dodge in water heals for more each 10 seconds, removes a condi, provides you with 6 seconds of burning to compliment your build and blinds. You would be losing some vigor and regen so I’m not quite sure if the trade offs worth it but it may be since you’re only running one cantrip and have a second one which may proc depending on who you’re fighting.

I could see that working, if that’s what you’re in to.

But another thing that you trade is the vitality and healing power. Attunement speed and boon duration aren’t a great benefit to me. Although on the plus side, you would get flame blast on roll which is a nice way to apply burning—or potentially a blast finisher with earth.

So there is definitely some viability in that. Personally, I prefer to save my dodges for actually avoiding attacks though—which is still possible with EA, but it encourages a wasteful behavior when it comes to dodging—especially without vigor.

I believe bolt to the heart + glyph of elemental power used in fire would help a lot with your damage sustain issues.

Btw I edited my first message!

Grimreaper.5370:

.

Btw I edited my first message!

Haha, me too! I updated mine so its clearer

I can definitely see where you’re coming from. I think the message I’m trying to convey in the video is that it’s usually very hard to ‘get them down that last little bit’ because people get squirrelly™ when they get low on HP.

It makes it hard to apply damage when they back off, and move unpredictably making it hard to combo. Which is why its important to try to get into fire (or lightning too if you have BTTH) to get them down that last little bit with a powerful auto attack.

Getting your attunement order just right in order to be ready to switch into your ‘finisher attunement’ to deliver the killing blow can be a bit tricky.

BTTH definitely helps with that last sliver.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Grimreaper.5370:

.

Btw I edited my first message!

Haha, me too! I updated mine so its clearer

I can definitely see where you’re coming from. I think the message I’m trying to convey in the video is that it’s usually very hard to ‘get them down that last little bit’ because people get squirrelly™ when they get low on HP.

It makes it hard to apply damage when they back off, and move unpredictably making it hard to combo. Which is why its important to try to get into fire (or lightning too if you have BTTH) to get them down that last little bit with a powerful auto attack.

Getting your attunement order just right in order to be ready to switch into your ‘finisher attunement’ to deliver the killing blow can be a bit tricky.

BTTH definitely helps with that last sliver.

The part of your sentence I put in bold, I’m not quite following. You can use BTTH effectively in any attunement no?

Grimreaper.5370:

The part of your sentence I put in bold, I’m not quite following. You can use BTTH effectively in any attunement no?

Yes, but when your opponent is squirrelling at ~20% health, water and earth auto-attacks is unlikely to put them down because their damage is inherently low. Add to that, that their auto-attack has to score a direct hit, so a strafing opponent (moving left and right at 600 range) will give you ‘obscured’ misses.

Fireball has a splash which makes it more reliable out to about 600-800 range, and lightning (with BTTH) becomes 100% chance since it auto-tracks and both will hit for ~1k before crit.

I really wish I could fit BTTH on my build, but I can’t give up all the healing that comes from the water tree.

On my 1v1 dueling video I used BTTH and Air Training instead of fire which I really liked. But I couldn’t continue with it under the current meta because of a serious lack of condi cleanse which the fire tree assists me with. Still, finishing people off was much easier due to the auto-track lightning auto-attack with +30% damage

(The old build was 0/4/0/4/6)

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Grimreaper.5370:

The part of your sentence I put in bold, I’m not quite following. You can use BTTH effectively in any attunement no?

Yes, but when your opponent is squirrelling at ~20% health, water and earth auto-attacks is unlikely to put them down because their damage is inherently low. Add to that, that their auto-attack has to score a direct hit, so a strafing opponent (moving left and right at 600 range) will give you ‘obscured’ misses.

Fireball has a splash which makes it more reliable out to about 600-800 range, and lightning (with BTTH) becomes 100% chance since it auto-tracks and both will hit for ~1k before crit.

I really wish I could fit BTTH on my build, but I can’t give up all the healing that comes from the water tree.

On my 1v1 dueling video I used BTTH and lightning tree instead of fire which I really liked. But I couldn’t continue with it under the current meta because of a serious lack of condi cleanse which the fire tree assists me with

(The old build was 0/4/0/4/6)

I’ve also found 6/2/0/0/6 doing more damage than 2/6/0/0/6 btw. That says something about the ferocity nerf I think. You should try “killing” the invincible dummy as fast as you can and clock your speeds with multiple builds, try and find a nice balanced build by assessing the dps of the build in this manner along with your healing potential in mind. I did this for d/d with tons of builds in mind, testing on the invincible dummy and the heavy dummy, I was quite surprised by some of my results.

Grimreaper.5370:

I’ve also found 6/2/0/0/6 doing more damage than 2/6/0/0/6 btw. That says something about the ferocity nerf I think.

I think you’re right. It seems to be that power and conditions are the way to deal damage now. Ferocity and precision and just ‘nice-to-have’s, especially if your build doesn’t rely on critical hits like it would with a power-build thief.

Nice guide dude, keep up the solid work.

phaeris.7604:

Nice guide dude, keep up the solid work.

Thanks for watching!

You’re definitely a solid elementalist, and that definitely is a solid ele build. People always underestimate the damage and control and support a staff can do all at the same time. However, my personal bloodlust would find that build to be a bit too much on the tanky side. I haven’t put a point into water for over a month, and the staff build I’m running is similar to your but is 6/4/0/0/4. I took that 150 ferocity arcane trait and BTTH with strength runes and zerker amulet because when I hurt people, I like to hurt them a lot. I also, instead of internal fire, took lava font on down. I’ve found that if I’m in a double down situation that I’ll usually win with the extra huge DPS coming from the 10 second font. At my full stacks and downed, I’ve hit people for 5000 a tick in addition to my downed 1. Still, if they’re a ranger with a longbow or anything that breathes hard enough I crumple like a dried leaf on fire, but still.

I run something similair. #awesomestuff

Mimiga.9815:

You’re definitely a solid elementalist, and that definitely is a solid ele build. People always underestimate the damage and control and support a staff can do all at the same time. However, my personal bloodlust would find that build to be a bit too much on the tanky side. I haven’t put a point into water for over a month, and the staff build I’m running is similar to your but is 6/4/0/0/4. I took that 150 ferocity arcane trait and BTTH with strength runes and zerker amulet because when I hurt people, I like to hurt them a lot. I also, instead of internal fire, took lava font on down. I’ve found that if I’m in a double down situation that I’ll usually win with the extra huge DPS coming from the 10 second font. At my full stacks and downed, I’ve hit people for 5000 a tick in addition to my downed 1. Still, if they’re a ranger with a longbow or anything that breathes hard enough I crumple like a dried leaf on fire, but still.

Thanks for watching!

Indeed my build has some tank to it. My biggest concern when running a staff build in solo Q is ‘That Darn Thief’. Dealing huge AoE damage is a key role while playing this build (and others like it…) But you will, on occasion find a glass ranger or thief that hunts you down specifically because of how squishy you are.

If you run full glass in a solo Q game, a good thief can shut you down, and that almost guarantees a loss for your team as they’ll be playing 4v5… this is a big part of the reason I chose the build that I did.

I think it’s also important for every player on your team to, at least, be capable of winning a 1v1. If everyone on your team won all of their 1v1s, you would win almost every game.

On a related note, an unpopular opinion that I hold it is very difficult to tell if a ‘glass’ build is an ‘effective’ build. Glass will work on any class, on any character and any weapon set because of its ‘shock value’.

If you run glass, you may win 1/2 your 1v1s, but you aren’t consistent because once they learn of your weakness, it can be heavily exploited. Once they know to ‘Kill the glass ele’ your life becomes a nightmare of finding good perches to cast meteor from—which is a situation I refuse to fall into.

So I designed this build with enough tank to deter players from coming at me, but without sacrificing the damage which makes us great. True, your crits won’t be topping 6k… but played right, you’ll be pulling that annoying thief/ranger off point while still applying the damage to the team fight which your team sorely needs.

Luimes.4281:

I run something similair. #awesomestuff

Thanks for watching!

Mimiga.9815:

You’re definitely a solid elementalist, and that definitely is a solid ele build. People always underestimate the damage and control and support a staff can do all at the same time. However, my personal bloodlust would find that build to be a bit too much on the tanky side. I haven’t put a point into water for over a month, and the staff build I’m running is similar to your but is 6/4/0/0/4. I took that 150 ferocity arcane trait and BTTH with strength runes and zerker amulet because when I hurt people, I like to hurt them a lot. I also, instead of internal fire, took lava font on down. I’ve found that if I’m in a double down situation that I’ll usually win with the extra huge DPS coming from the 10 second font. At my full stacks and downed, I’ve hit people for 5000 a tick in addition to my downed 1. Still, if they’re a ranger with a longbow or anything that breathes hard enough I crumple like a dried leaf on fire, but still.

Yeah this is basically what I’ve been running for a while – it’s excellent fun but decent Thieves really screw it up (and Engineers are just ridiculous with the combination of condi + cc + power right now).
It’s not impossible to play agianst competent Thieves, though – as long as I watch the map and remember where they are, I can at least chuck down a Static Field and try to burst them down should one come to gank me. Matchups against 2+ of them, who know to focus me? Yeah, that’s a bit more complicated!
My other utility is currently Arcane Blast – the cleanse from CF is good, but I like being able to pump that little bit more into my burst, especially over that lovely 1500 range. I’ve played with CF, but usually there are enough sources of conditions (especially poison and burning right now) that I just can’t cleanse early enough to survive without immediately getting everything back on me.

I shared your tutorial and build with a friend of mine who is new and obssessed with staff. He loves it!

Can you kill condi healing signet warriors? I just fought one in wvw fit about 10 minutes to no conclusion. I think with the glyph elite it would be possible. That, or if you’d played the build longer than 30 mins like I did, haha.

Love it, thank you. Bookmarked it.

Should be a sticky

cheese.4739:

…

My advice for dealing with condi builds is really not much use at all. When fighting condi engies, you can beat them, with CF. But you really need to play an engie to know what to look out for. My secondary character is engie, so I can tell you a condi engie’s main weakness is range.

Against a condi engi, keep your range. They will usually have grenades and bombs if they want to apply damage. Bombs are point-blank. So if you see them walking towards you, you know they want to drop those bombs. Back off.

If they see you run out to range, and they keep their distance, they’re going for their grenades. Grenades are comparatively slow (its like lobbing fireballs at people) and the red circles are really easy to dodge and avoid at enough distance.

When they start shooting their pistols (it’s really easy to tell when they do… even on asura) they can apply poison and confusion. Use magnetic aura to reflect it back at them (its really funny how many condi engies have no idea what’s going on… they’ll just load themselves up with conditions many times)

A really good Engie will use the spanner for magnetic pull and then drop 5 stacks of confusion on you while you stand up. You can’t dodge that pull… it’s really annoying. If you find you get pulled, use arcane shield to block that initial hit and any other combo they have lined up after the pull. Use burning retreat to get back to range.

CF will give you the chance to clear those condis when they get a lucky hit, or to clear poison right before you need to heal.

Against condi necros (which are more and more rare after the popularity of condi engies) – I have less luck because it feels like their condi-application attacks are all untelegraphed/ranged. So I don’t see it coming, and I cant prevent them…. It might be my lack of experience with necro, but I have a great deal of issues fighting these.

tl;dr – to fight a condi engie, keep range and learn what their attacks look like. They’re all heavily telegraphed/obvious. Against condi necro, you will have more difficulty.

Grimreaper.5370:

I shared your tutorial and build with a friend of mine who is new and obssessed with staff. He loves it!

Thanks for watching! I’m glad you got something out of it. I’m also available in game if you have any questions so you can message me anytime.

Good luck to your friend!

Poliswag.8240:

Can you kill condi healing signet warriors? I just fought one in wvw fit about 10 minutes to no conclusion. I think with the glyph elite it would be possible. That, or if you’d played the build longer than 30 mins like I did, haha.

Warriors are a lot of fun to fight as a staff ele. They are the most predictable class to play against which makes it so easy to land your combos. If you have issues with them, I strongly advise playing a hambow spec warrior for about 30-60 minutes so you can predict the ‘stunlock’. GS is easier to pick up by playing against it enough.

That’s honestly the only thing you need to do to beat a warrior. Almost every warrior goes through the same rotation…

Bow on warrior for your reference:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQFADAA

They do the following rotation:
1, 2, 5, 3, 4.

1, 2 and 5 can be countered with magnetic aura (just stand still and watch them kill themselves). Dodge the arcing arrow (3). DO NOT stand in the fire field (4).

Their stunlock is exactly the same. They all cycle through it in exactly the same way… Dodge the first stun (really obvious- its usually earthshaker if they got enough hits in with the bow) and the rest of their attacks miss.

Once you’ve got that down, you’d be surprised at how easy they are to beat. They’ll walk into almost every unsteady ground because of how predictable they are…

Every combo in the video will hit them. They don’t actually have a lot of stability so every form of CC works on them, and very early on. They are remarkably easy to control.

With CF, I dont even notice if they’re running condi spec. I just clear the stacks when they get to big and heal through it—heal when my health gets too low.

tl;dr – counter their bow with knowledge of their rotation. Counter their hammer by learning how to dodge it. Hambow warriors are easily the most predictable class/playstyle in the game and with limited stability makes CC easy to land.

Good luck, and thanks for watching!

Dennis.3068:

Love it, thank you. Bookmarked it.

Should be a sticky

Thanks for the vote of confidence I had a lot of fun making this so I’m glad you enjoyed it.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Poliswag.8240:

Can you kill condi healing signet warriors? I just fought one in wvw fit about 10 minutes to no conclusion. I think with the glyph elite it would be possible. That, or if you’d played the build longer than 30 mins like I did, haha.

Warriors are a lot of fun to fight as a staff ele. They are the most predictable class to play against which makes it so easy to land your combos. If you have issues with them, I strongly advise playing a hambow spec warrior for about 30-60 minutes so you can predict the ‘stunlock’. GS is easier to pick up by playing against it enough.

That’s honestly the only thing you need to do to beat a warrior. Almost every warrior goes through the same rotation…

Bow on warrior for your reference:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQFADAA

They do the following rotation:
1, 2, 5, 3, 4.

1, 2 and 5 can be countered with magnetic aura (just stand still and watch them kill themselves). Dodge the arcing arrow (3). DO NOT stand in the fire field (4).

Their stunlock is exactly the same. They all cycle through it in exactly the same way… Dodge the first stun (really obvious- its usually earthshaker if they got enough hits in with the bow) and the rest of their attacks miss.

Once you’ve got that down, you’d be surprised at how easy they are to beat. They’ll walk into almost every unsteady ground because of how predictable they are…

Every combo in the video will hit them. They don’t actually have a lot of stability so every form of CC works on them, and very early on. They are remarkably easy to control.

With CF, I dont even notice if they’re running condi spec. I just clear the stacks when they get to big and heal through it—heal when my health gets too low.

tl;dr – counter their bow with knowledge of their rotation. Counter their hammer by learning how to dodge it. Hambow warriors are easily the most predictable class/playstyle in the game and with limited stability makes CC easy to land.

Good luck, and thanks for watching!

Oh, I’ve been roaming since the game came out – I know exactly what to look out for and what to dodge, what the general specs are, etc.

My issue was dealing enough damage to bring him down. I could survive plenty fine with dodging everything, it was the rotations that were an issue. Granted, I was trying out 5 0 0 3 6 and I’ve since then went back to 6 0 0 4 4, the fury should help out. I’d only been playing the build about a half hour then, I tried it out for another hour or so earlier today and I’m doing considerably better. The stunlock is crazy, haha, it’s very fun. I’m sure if I’d run into that same warrior I probably would win at this point – just stack a bit more might and I’m good to go. I’ve been averaging 18 or so stacks in lengthy 1v1s, so that definitely helps. I also run koi cakes to help keep up the burns and bleeds, seems to be working well!

Thanks for the build, I very seldom copy builds, but with this one I only changed a couple of traits and mixed in a piece of zerk and cav with celestial trinkets and ascended celestial armor. Well done!

Dude, I love the video, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t get the unsteady ground trick to work where you pivot right as you cast to make it change direction. It just stays the same for me. I don’t know how you’re doing this magic.

^^ I just came here to post the same thing. The Unsteady Ground is not
moving for me. I do as you say, and after casting it, I rotate my toon during
the channel. Doesn’t work.

Poliswag.8240:

…

You’re very welcome, and thank you for the high praise! I actually haven’t tested this thoroughly in WvW (im too cheap to buy strength runes) so let me know how that goes

Thunderbrew.7034:

^^ I just came here to post the same thing. The Unsteady Ground is not
moving for me. I do as you say, and after casting it, I rotate my toon during
the channel. Doesn’t work.

Anomaly.7612:

Dude, I love the video, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t get the unsteady ground trick to work where you pivot right as you cast to make it change direction. It just stays the same for me. I don’t know how you’re doing this magic.

Make sure that you’re pivoting your character and not just your camera. If you’re doing that already, you can try it this way to make it clearer, although in a practical sense, this would not be very helpful:

- Start with your character facing forward and your camera behind it (default).
- Rotate your camera 90 degrees to the left of your character so that you are looking at your character’s face in profile (from the side).
- Select unsteady ground and place the green casting-location in the space in front of your character

If you set it up correctly, it should look exactly like the screenshot below.

Now, you only need to push 2 buttons.

- Left click to start the channel and immediately…
- Press and hold ‘W’ to walk forward in the direction of your camera’s facing.

That should get the sidewall going, and give you an idea of how the mechanics of it work.

It may look hard at first, but the mechanic is flexible enough to be practical if you spend enough time practicing it.

great video! i posted it for all the eles in my guild to watch. thanks!

The soothing disruption doesn’t work with burning fire trait unfortunately

mcarswell.3768:

great video! i posted it for all the eles in my guild to watch. thanks!

Anytime! I’m glad I could be of service to you, and thanks for sharing it!

soapingwet.4810:

The soothing disruption doesn’t work with burning fire trait unfortunately

It does, actually. I know that it doesn’t show on the tooltip (like it should), but that appears to be a bug.

I ran a test to be sure – and it definitely gave me the regen and vigor in an spvp dueling arena.

With so few good ele builds for PvP, this is a welcome version of staff. When I get some free time later tonight I’ll definitely try it out. Thank you for posting!

Why isn’t this a sticky yet?
Hello Anet, do it!

Vincent Highwind.3054:

With so few good ele builds for PvP, this is a welcome version of staff. When I get some free time later tonight I’ll definitely try it out. Thank you for posting!

Thanks for watching! Let us know how it goes

Dennis.3068:

Why isn’t this a sticky yet?
Hello Anet, do it!

Thank you for the high praise!

Unfortunately, I don’t think Anet visits these forums at all…

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

cheese.4739:

…

A really good Engie will use the spanner for magnetic pull and then drop 5 stacks of confusion on you while you stand up. You can’t dodge that pull… it’s really annoying.

Tool kit’s magnet, while unblockable, can be dodged very easily if you’re expecting it.

limbeurt.9642:

Tool kit’s magnet, while unblockable, can be dodged very easily if you’re expecting it.

You’re most probably right about that. My thought that you could not dodge it was likely borne of skyhammer rage >.<

Wanted to bump this thread, and get a few more people commenting on how effective Staff is as an overall weapon. I really, reallllly like the mobility of D/D, but often roam with Zergs when I’m in WvW, and don’t really do much as D/D in a zerg. I usually find myself switching to Staff, even though I’m geared for D/D because of ranged fights.

The question is… Using this build, can Staff be applied to both PvE AND WvW? I don’t tPvP, but I’d like to be able to know I can kill someone 1v1, or at least get away/stay alive, before I buy a Bifrost over an Incinerator

Loved the video! I play a lot of staff ele, but I didn’t know about the Unsteady Ground pivot trick.

Eucalyptus.9784:

The question is… Using this build, can Staff be applied to both PvE AND WvW? I don’t tPvP, but I’d like to be able to know I can kill someone 1v1, or at least get away/stay alive, before I buy a Bifrost over an Incinerator

Staff is hands down the better zerg weapon, but D/D is probably better in a 1v1. That said, I actually prefer running staff when solo roaming, because it scales better to 1v2 and 1v3 outnumbered fights than D/D. As for escapes, you lose RTL, but Burning Retreat and your many CCs usually make up for it.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Now, you only need to push 2 buttons.

- Left click to start the channel and immediately…
- Press and hold ‘W’ to walk forward in the direction of your camera’s facing.

That should get the sidewall going, and give you an idea of how the mechanics of it work.

It sounds like it’s impossible to do if your aoe targetting is set to “fast” or “fast with range indicator”

manveruppd.7601:

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Now, you only need to push 2 buttons.

- Left click to start the channel and immediately…
- Press and hold ‘W’ to walk forward in the direction of your camera’s facing.

That should get the sidewall going, and give you an idea of how the mechanics of it work.

It sounds like it’s impossible to do if your aoe targetting is set to “fast” or “fast with range indicator”

It’s possible. You just need to pivot your character after the cast starts, during the casting animation. I don’t think the green range indicator has anything to do with it.

Eucalyptus.9784:

The question is… Using this build, can Staff be applied to both PvE AND WvW? I don’t tPvP, but I’d like to be able to know I can kill someone 1v1, or at least get away/stay alive, before I buy a Bifrost over an Incinerator

I cannot speak for PvE, as I don’t think I’ve even completed all the dungeons. I primarily play sPvP and WvW, so I can say that it is definitely viable in both.

For roaming in WvW, you can definitely succeed with staff. But since mobility is key for roaming, I might run teleport instead of cleansing fire (but I would be loathed to do this…) Realistically, if you want to be successful at roaming solo you will be most successful with D/D. Staff can be done… but it’s better with a group and excels in fights of 3v3 or greater

For WvW Guild fights and zerg fights then staff is incredible. But I won’t go too deep in to that as I think the benefits of it can be seen in any group. Blasting water fields, and lightning fields, and fire fields are all key tools for any commander.

Good luck!

Marxist Breakfast.9613:

Loved the video! I play a lot of staff ele, but I didn’t know about the Unsteady Ground pivot trick.
… Burning Retreat and your many CCs usually make up for it.

Thanks for watching!

I agree with this statement as well. One of the biggest benefits to bringing a staff ele to your roaming part in WvW is the CC. Even if the enemy decides to focus you down—you can usually kite for a good 30 seconds just with burning retreat and a load of CC.

But I would probably want a good thief who isn’t afraid to use his shadow refuge to save you once in a while.

manveruppd.7601:

It sounds like it’s impossible to do if your aoe targetting is set to “fast” or “fast with range indicator”

It would be much harder, yes. But not impossible.

When you click to start the cast, your character immediately turns to face the direction where the spell is meant to go.

The cast time is very short. But while your character is channeling, this is where you need to pivot your character. The wall will face the direction your character is facing at the end of the channel.

So if you use fast cast, you just have to be ready to pivot your character the minute you push the spell’s button which will mean using your right-mouse click button to change facing at the last second.

The example you saw above is just to give you an idea of how that mechanic works. If you use fast casting then that example won’t be any help to you, sadly

Hey Chicken! Is this build good for WvW as well? I’m about to hit 80, and it’d be nice to use this build as some direction as to what I should shoot for gear wise.

Thanks!

Must have been a bad dd ele in the video, if he lost against a staff ele.
I never lost against a staff ele on my dd ele.
And I can’t imagine that this will happen anytime. But maybe someone proves me wrong.

The arrogance in this forum makes me want to never come back sometimes.

“Wait he’s Staff? Well I’m the best D/D Ele there is, so the guy he won against must be really bad. Only way Staff wins.”

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

manveruppd.7601:

It sounds like it’s impossible to do if your aoe targetting is set to “fast” or “fast with range indicator”

It would be much harder, yes. But not impossible.

When you click to start the cast, your character immediately turns to face the direction where the spell is meant to go.

The cast time is very short. But while your character is channeling, this is where you need to pivot your character. The wall will face the direction your character is facing at the end of the channel.

So if you use fast cast, you just have to be ready to pivot your character the minute you push the spell’s button which will mean using your right-mouse click button to change facing at the last second.

The example you saw above is just to give you an idea of how that mechanic works. If you use fast casting then that example won’t be any help to you, sadly

By pivot, do you mean just by holding down RMB and turning again? Cause I’m using A and D to strafe, don’t have turning by keyboard bound anymore. If you can do it with the RMB then I think I could manage it with practice. Neat trick though! How did you even discover it?

Eucalyptus.9784:

The arrogance in this forum makes me want to never come back sometimes.

“Wait he’s Staff? Well I’m the best D/D Ele there is, so the guy he won against must be really bad. Only way Staff wins.”

Well I didn’t want to be arrogant or offend somebody.
I think dd ele will always win against staff ele on same skill lvl.
Its my opinion. Maybe I choose a bad way to say this. English is not my native language.