Guild Wars 2

I’v only been 80 for a little over 2 weeks now and haven’t really gotten into builds /theory crafting yet so i figured i’d come here and see what community has to say. Currently i am using a 30 fire 30 air 5 water and 5 arcane build as a staff elementalist.

I’m assuming this is a glass cannon sort of build yes ?

What would you staff “experts” out there recommend for me and why . My main focus is PVE running dungeons for tokens.

While I’m no expert myself (just hit level 80 last night! \me does happy dance), I was building towards and now am running 0/10/0/30/30, which I either tailor for support or higher damage.

Support: 0/10(V)/0/30(III-V-XI)/30(V-VIII-XI)
Damage: 0/10(I)/0/30(VI-V-XI)/30(V-VIII-XI)

The main point of this build is using your fields. At Arcane 20 get Blasting Staff, which increases the AoE of a lot of staff spells with targeting circles. Arcane 30 get Evasive Arcana. Then roll into your own field (or use Arcane Wave) for combos.

If you don’t want to play that way, then obviously this isn’t a good build for you. Maybe go 20(III-V)/10(VI)/0/10(VI)/30(III-V-VIII) and focus on equipment for power, precision, and crit damage? There are also sigil and glyph-based builds out there.

DesertRose.2031:

As Rainshine has said as a Staff user you want to have 30 points in Arcane Power for [Evasive Arcana] because all the spells count as a blast finisher. [Elemental Attunement] is another must-have. For the last Arcane Power trait you have the choice between [Renewing Stamina] and [Blasting Staff].
Because you like survivability 15 points in Water Magic is also a good choice because now each time you attune to Water you apply Regeneration and Soothing Mist to yourself and nearby allies and an AoE heal and an AoE condition remove. Because you already put 15 points in Water Magic why not put 10 more in it to get [Bountiful Power]? +2% damage per boon results in more extra damage than any +5% damage and comparable damage to any +10% trait. And if you already have 25 points in Water why not 5 more for in total two AoE condition removes every time you attune to Water?
The last 10 points can go into Air Magic for faster recharging Glyphs or Earth Magic for either Armor of Earth or more damage against bleeding foes.

Equipment is either Knight or Rabid if you want maximum defensive or Berserker or Rampager if you want maximum offensive (I’m assuming you’ve chosen [Renewing Stamina]). 2xWater and 2xMonk runes for altogether 60% longer boon duration. I’ve chosen 2xEarth as my final two runes to get one more second of Protection each time I attune to earth but you can choose other.

Link to the build and equipment: (copy the link)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImmbwR5gjCAkHm4CLlHzkjNA;TkAA2Coo6y4lwL7Ouuk7M+A
(of course you can swap around some Water traits and utility skills)

This build deals about as much damage as a 30/30/x/x/x Ele and slightly less damage than a 30/x/x/x/30 Ele but has much more flexibility and survivability.

If you use Staff Earth #2, Air #5, Air #4 and then swap out off and back in Air and repeat the whole combo ~40 seconds later you don’t only grant yourself permanent Swiftness but to your whole group.

DesertRose.2031:

DesertRose.2031:

As Rainshine has said as a Staff user you want to have 30 points in Arcane Power for [Evasive Arcana] because all the spells count as a blast finisher. [Elemental Attunement] is another must-have. For the last Arcane Power trait you have the choice between [Renewing Stamina] and [Blasting Staff].
Because you like survivability 15 points in Water Magic is also a good choice because now each time you attune to Water you apply Regeneration and Soothing Mist to yourself and nearby allies and an AoE heal and an AoE condition remove. Because you already put 15 points in Water Magic why not put 10 more in it to get [Bountiful Power]? +2% damage per boon results in more extra damage than any +5% damage and comparable damage to any +10% trait. And if you already have 25 points in Water why not 5 more for in total two AoE condition removes every time you attune to Water?
The last 10 points can go into Air Magic for faster recharging Glyphs or Earth Magic for either Armor of Earth or more damage against bleeding foes.

Equipment is either Knight or Rabid if you want maximum defensive or Berserker or Rampager if you want maximum offensive (I’m assuming you’ve chosen [Renewing Stamina]). 2xWater and 2xMonk runes for altogether 60% longer boon duration. I’ve chosen 2xEarth as my final two runes to get one more second of Protection each time I attune to earth but you can choose other.

Link to the build and equipment: (copy the link)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImmbwR5gjCAkHm4CLlHzkjNA;TkAA2Coo6y4lwL7Ouuk7M+A
(of course you can swap around some Water traits and utility skills)

This build deals about as much damage as a 30/30/x/x/x Ele and slightly less damage than a 30/x/x/x/30 Ele but has much more flexibility and survivability.

If you use Staff Earth #2, Air #5, Air #4 and then swap out off and back in Air and repeat the whole combo ~40 seconds later you don’t only grant yourself permanent Swiftness but to your whole group.

Thank you great post, been looking for something like this I can understand since launch!

Any chance of helping us one more time for us new players and give us some hints of how to open our attacks in say PvE or even PvP? Just point me in the right direction -leveling a new ele- I’ll learn as I level.

Thanks a million!

With Evasive Arcana, and Elemental Attunement in the Arcana tree and Arcane Wave as a utility skill , you can get a stack of 10 might instantly in the beginning of every fight. Heres what I do…

Open in Earth and start with Eruption —> quickly switch to Fire for 1 stack of Might (from attunement trait)--> use Fire 2 to put fire field over Eruption ( long eruption delay time allows you to get this off before the blast finisher from eruption occurs) this will add 3 stacks of might —> after you cast fire 2, run up to fire field and roll into field for another 3 might ---> and hit arcane wave as well after you roll in for another 3 might.

So 1 + 3 +3 +3 = 10 stacks of Might

Then hit Meteor Shower and watch things die all around you…haha.

PvE has been covered, but I thought I’d should mention sPvP and WvW as well if you ever get tired of running dungeons. Don’t go staff in sPvP at all, period. And don’t use heavy arcane/water in WvW (like suggested in PvE) because you’ll have a horrible time without being able to kill anything. Glass cannon (i.e. 20 arcane, 30 or 20 fire, 30 or 20 air) is where you’ll be useful even though you’ll sometimes curse when you get targeted by a thief.

I haven’t played Staff Ele much in PvP so I’ll only cover PvE in my post:

The most important skill sequence an Ele most be able to do is Eruption → combo field (yes, Eruption has to be casted before the combo field). Lava Font, Geyser and Static Field are the combo field you’ll mostly use, and Static Field is more of an out of combat option to give yourself and allies Swiftness to run faster from A to B. A blast finisher inside a Lava Font will give everyone close to the blast finisher three stacks of Might for 26-32 seconds (depending if you have the runes or not), and inside a Geyser heal nearby allies for almost 1.5k iirc.

Before a fight I’m in Air or Water, make sure I’m in range of my target, switch to Earth to get Protection and immediately cast Eruption while running towards the target, then Shockwave, Lava Font and Flame Burst. If done right Shockwave and Lava Font will hit the target almost simultaneously, trapping the target inside the Lava Font, and a split second later Eruption will explode. Pretty much at the same time I dodge inside my Lava Font and try to aim for the edge of it, run out of Lava Font, switch to another attunement and dodge back into the Lava Font (note: right now you don’t need to swap attunements for the second dodge roll because every dodge roll counts as a blast finisher, not just the ones that proc a spell; I assume that’s a bug and will be fixed in one of the next patches so I already adjusted my play style to that). That will give you 1 stack of Might for attuning to Fire, 3 stacks of Might from Eruption and 6 stacks of Might from the two dodges. Then I try to gain distance again with Frozen Ground or Gust. After that the possibilities become to numerous to list them all.

However I wouldn’t advice touching the Staff unless you’re level 60+ or in a group, Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger are more suitable for solo PvE.

hellfish.6740:

Glass cannon (i.e. 20 arcane, 30 or 20 fire, 30 or 20 air) is where you’ll be useful even though you’ll sometimes curse when you get targeted by a thief.

Can you show us those builds? Because I wasn’t able to come up with a build that deals significantly more damage than a x/x/x/30/30 one.

Final note: It’s quite late here and I’m tired so no warranties that I didn’t managed to talk complete non-sense somewhere. ;-)

DesertRose.2031:

Can you show us those builds? Because I wasn’t able to come up with a build that deals significantly more damage than a x/x/x/30/30 one

I change build almost every day, and that’s not counting switching weapons, but here is the build I run at the moment. I wear all berserker clothing and valkyrie jewellry for the added vit. I use a crit/critdmg staff with sigil of blood until I’ve gotten 25 kills. Then I switch to a new same stats staff, but with a sigil of battle (%dmg works good too)

http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/elementalist#0.0-2.11.2.12.2-30.20.0.0.20-7.11.12.5.3.6.5

Fire is mostly useless for the way I do my bursts, but I do it mostly for the +pow anyway. The 10% dmg is nice, but the cooldown reduction is nicer (meteor shower)
Air: Grounded is nice, arcane lightning is decent.
No surprises in arcane.. Both traits are a must.

For skill slots, teleport is just way to handy in certains situations. It’s often the difference between being able to catch the fleeing player or not getting him, or your ticket to getting away/not getting away. I sometimes skip it tho and go for arcane blast instead, especially in keep defenses. An extra insta 3-4k is always useful. Arcane power and mist form are a must.

Rotation goes something like: erruption, icespike (and maybe frozen ground if you feel like it) followed by arcane power, meteor shower, lava font, static field, erruption again. A lot of newbs attacking your keep won’t start realizing something is happening until meteors starts to rain and since they can often crit for 7k, two of those could kill a classes even if the initial erruption/icespike missed.

And don’t forget tornado. It’s much better in defense gear/build but still works good in the right circumstances. I spotted a mesmer portal inside garrison some time ago, on a ledge facing the water side. I sent about 20 of them tumbling down the cliff once they decided to enter the portal. It’s one of those times you realize that the spell you thought sucked so hard really is totally awesome. Narrow hallways with lots of culling is great too.

Feel free to criticize my build btw. I’m a big boy and I probably won’t run this exact one tomorrow anyway.

I feel like staff is mainly about fields, so 30 arcane for blasting staff and evasive arcana traits. Arcane wave is pretty much stapled on the skill bar and you’ll probably want to bring a cantrip for areas with knockdown. After that though, I feel like its up to you.

I personally add 20 in fire and 20 in air for damage and glyph traits, and I take renewing stamina for more combo dodges.

hellfish.6740:

http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/elementalist#0.0-2.11.2.12.2-30.20.0.0.20-7.11.12.5.3.6.5

I don’t see why you would choose 30 Fire over 30 Arcane; I’ve tested [Pyromancer’s Puissance] and even with +50% boon duration I only got to 5-7 stacks of Might. If I would even swap out of Fire I’m down to zero stacks of Might before I can swap back. With [Evasive Arcana] I could cast a Lava Font next to me every 30 seconds and do two dodge rolls for 6 stacks of Might not only for me but also for everyone around me; in a siege or siege defend situation that sounds far more powerful to me. Even if [Evasive Arcana] will be fixed in the next patch you still get 3 stacks and again 6 stacks if you don’t swapping out of Fire. If you have a friendly Engineer with a Bomb Kit next to you you could even get up to 9 stacks without ever swapping out of Fire or “wasting” a Lava Font.

Btw: [Grounded] doesn’t work with Pushback or Knockback, so the only staff skill it would work with is Air #5, and it’s a grandmaster trait now.

So many ways to get more might than that. I get 18 out of combat without any kind of might trait or rune and without using any staff cooldowns.

NZ Scyther.8675:

So many ways to get more might than that. I get 18 out of combat without any kind of might trait or rune and without using any staff cooldowns.

So, please, enlighten us then. I would love to open a combat sequence with 18 stacks of might — and add 10 of my own (actually 7, so i can save arcane wave) for a stack of 25 (think is max) instantly on the first attack.

None of what we described above requires any might traits you speak of. They are traits that benefit all attunments. It so happens, might is the boon you get when attuned to fire. You could do the same with any boon in any attunement depending on what you want to do.

DesertRose.2031:

hellfish.6740:

http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/elementalist#0.0-2.11.2.12.2-30.20.0.0.20-7.11.12.5.3.6.5

I don’t see why you would choose 30 Fire over 30 Arcane; I’ve tested [Pyromancer’s Puissance] and even with +50% boon duration I only got to 5-7 stacks of Might. If I would even swap out of Fire I’m down to zero stacks of Might before I can swap back. With [Evasive Arcana] I could cast a Lava Font next to me every 30 seconds and do two dodge rolls for 6 stacks of Might not only for me but also for everyone around me; in a siege or siege defend situation that sounds far more powerful to me. Even if [Evasive Arcana] will be fixed in the next patch you still get 3 stacks and again 6 stacks if you don’t swapping out of Fire. If you have a friendly Engineer with a Bomb Kit next to you you could even get up to 9 stacks without ever swapping out of Fire or “wasting” a Lava Font.

Btw: [Grounded] doesn’t work with Pushback or Knockback, so the only staff skill it would work with is Air #5, and it’s a grandmaster trait now.

As I said I go fire to get permanent +power, not because of the awesome traits. The reason for this is that most of the time you’ll be running around and bump into the enemy without having time to build your might stacks.

I’ve been using Staff mostly and I have two builds I use often:

Fire 20: Internal Fire, Pyromancer’s Alacrity
Air 20: Quick Glyphs, Bolt to the Heart or Aeromancer’s Alacrity
Water 10: Aquamancer Alacrity
Arcana 20: Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff

This is one for WvW, where I think the wide AoE area is priceless. I prefer Bolt to the Heart most of the time because when I’m attacking or defending, some people think “I’ll just attack once more” and that’s when their health goes below 25%, and I crit a 4~5k on their face.
It has fast attunement swapping, so you can spam Lava Font, Eruption, Ice Spike, and whatever else you want alternatively, while getting your regen always and some boons.
Air has the worst AoE, but with Electric Discharge you can get a quick burst if you time your spells well, so remember to use it as well.

The other build I use is:

Fire 30: Internal Fire, Pyromancer’s Alacrity, Pyromancer’s Puissance
Air 20: Quick Glyphs, Aeromancer’s Alacrity or Bolt to the Heart
Water 10: Aquamancer’s Alacrity
Arcana 10: Elemental Attunement, Arcane Mastery or Final Shielding

This one I use for Staff and Scepter/Dagger, mostly when I’m looking for 1v1s in the road. It’s great for damage since you get more Power and Might stacks when staying in Fire.
Final Shielding is awesome for survivability too, but sometimes I pick Arcane Mastery (dungeons, usually) so I can get 12~15 stacks of Might easily with the Scepter/Dagger.

The con is that you don’t have Blasting Staff, a must in my opinion for WvW.