Guild Wars 2

I play a Staff Ele in WvW. It is amazing at keep sieges, and pretty good in slightly zergy battles. I currently use full Cleric’s, because I like the big green numbers. It also helps a lot for surviving Arrowcart and AoE spam. Where I have the most problems is in open-field encounters. It’s inevitable that when a supply camp capture turns into a battle I’ll be jumped by a couple of roamers as soon as I pop off the first AoE.

Most recently it’s been a Thief & D/D Ele duo (at least 2 or 3 different duos).

I’ll die very fast, get stunned/KD/Dazed out of any healing skill, and get chain CCed if I try to run away (plus obligatory Heart Seeker spam).

I know that running Staff is the equivalent of carrying a giant “Kill Me Please” sign in WvW, and I’m not suggesting that I realistically be able to win any of these encounters. What I would like, though, is advice for getting away. Roaming builds are likely supposed to hard-counter AoE pressure/support builds, so it doesn’t bother me that I can’t function normally once I get noticed. I’m just curious if running away is an option, or am I meant to just die as soon as someone decides to gap-close me?

I’ve tried using my AoE CC to build space, but the gap-closers and constant cleansing make this pretty useless. Has anyone developed any decent tactics for surviving while using a Staff? I didn’t really have this problem with D/D or S/D because Ride the Lightning and triple Cantrips make it moot.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/WVW-Stoneline-Staff-Build/first#post1997811

This build makes cc on you pretty meaningless while giving you access to plenty of swiftness and snares to at least stand a chance at heading for safety. Staff is always gonna be kinda slow though.

Fiery Greatsword, Evasive Arcana in the water attunement, Ether Renewal, Cantrips up the *** (I recommend Cleansing Fire, Lightning Flash, and Armor of Earth).

Have fun being annoying.

Jester.1546:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/WVW-Stoneline-Staff-Build/first#post1997811

This build makes cc on you pretty meaningless while giving you access to plenty of swiftness and snares to at least stand a chance at heading for safety. Staff is always gonna be kinda slow though.

This is pretty close to what I’m looking for. It’ll take a bit of regearing. I notice you use PVT gear. Would this build function at all with Cleric’s? I’ve grown accustomed to the increased healing and regen, and PVT gear is a bit of a hassle to get.

PVT is very easy to get with karma, as an observation. All but one piece which you’ll need from AC.

You can use what ever youw ant I suppose, though my playstyle is sustain up on the front line helping with fields and snares on top of my group, so I feel I need the vitality and toughness. Comming off PVT will just mean you need to move back some, but this makes you easier to get left behind/singled out.

Jester.1546:

Comming off PVT will just mean you need to move back some, but this makes you easier to get left behind/singled out.

This is the main problem with staff, If you stand too far back you tend to get singled out by thieves or other bursters. If you build is squishy, that often means death. However, it also goes the other way, if you are really tanky and have to be really close to do anything, you tend to overextend and get focused by the enemy zerg which tends to kill you, regardless of tankiness.

Im trying to find a good staff gear setup that puts your most effective position right in the middle of your group. Something that is tanky enough to survive but can also throw out some decent damage. However, its rather difficult due to the ele’s light armour, low health and traits that don’t favor toughness. From what I’ve found, the only way to tank anything on a staff ele is to go with a full pvt setup like Jester suggested.

If anybody has a good balanced gear/trait setup, Id love to see it.

I dont claim to have the best build in the game, I never really cared about it. I just wanted to be a support healer, like in every other trinity mmo ive played. I realized to late that this game doesnt have trinity ^^

However, ppl I play with are impressed with my survivability, Im often the one that goes down last, both in pvp and in dungeons. So I guess ive done something right after all.

Im using full Cleric set with Dywana runes. My traits are 30 fire, 10 earth and 30 water.

As elite skill Im using the Sylvari skill Take root, but I would have used the greatsword if I didnt had that one.

My utility skills are Mist form, Signet of earth, Signet of Air. Using signet of earth to immobilize an enemy and then put lava underneath his/hers feets is deadly. 80% of the times the player dies with that combo if succeeded. I use signet of the air just coz of the speed buff, using it sometimes to blind opponents. I dont think I have to explain mistform.

Eather renewal as my healing skill. Using it as soon I get conditions on me.

My damage is really low compared to others. Im really bad 1vs1, but in small teams or zergs I do alot better. I can tank the attacks while my mates deal the damage. I switch between passive and aggresive plays depending on my coldowns. In passive mode I fall back and put out water fields on my friends. In aggresive mode I lock a target down with signet of earth and kill him/her.

Mikemad: I wont link it again, but the build I linked to at the top of this thread is exactly intended for that playstyle. It is designed with the inetion of staying “on the tag” of your commander or group leader or who ever it is you want to follow. If all of your armor is PVT you can do what ever you want with the accessories, though PVT is a good starting point. (As I mention in the post, I am also building towards full all stat acended and already use cav and knights). If you notice, I discuss the particular utilities I chose as being strong damage and control support.

I tend to move to more and more PVT as the zerg gets larger and more dps accessories as the group size comes down since you are dealing with less and less blind aoe damage and more singletarget which you can actively counter.

Of course over extension is a concern, but that is not about gear. I have found that as long as I stay right with the core of my team’s mele, I never get heavily singled and am able to sustain through the fight and keep up even with the hardest to kill members so that I am still around for the final pushes that can really decide a fight and determine who gets their loot bags.

If you like the build give me your feed back on its thread please!!!

Vaugh: Remember that earth 5 is also an imobilize, if you wanna free up the utility slot (though the toughtnessf roms ignet of earth is nice).

PinCushion.7390:

Jester.1546:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/WVW-Stoneline-Staff-Build/first#post1997811

This build makes cc on you pretty meaningless while giving you access to plenty of swiftness and snares to at least stand a chance at heading for safety. Staff is always gonna be kinda slow though.

This is pretty close to what I’m looking for. It’ll take a bit of regearing. I notice you use PVT gear. Would this build function at all with Cleric’s? I’ve grown accustomed to the increased healing and regen, and PVT gear is a bit of a hassle to get.

I’d never played an elementalist in WvW before so my friend let me try his out. I respec’d it to Jester’s build and had a blast. I always stayed with a team and whether we were on offensive or defensive you can lay down loads of AOE. I liked staying toward the middle to see where the enemy push would come from and then disrupt it with earth cripples, the shock circle (what is it staff #5 on air), meteor shower, etc. You can also lay down water fields to heal up fellow teammates.

Jester.1546:

Vaugh: Remember that earth 5 is also an imobilize, if you wanna free up the utility slot (though the toughtnessf roms ignet of earth is nice).

Yes, but its slow and a good player see it comming, signets are more stealthy and harder to dodge. Also the static field can work on stopping the enemy to place out the lava field. But I prefer the earth signet.

Im using full Cleric set. […]Using signet of earth to immobilize an enemy and then put lava underneath his/hers feets is deadly. 80% of the times the player dies with that combo if succeeded.

Are we playing the same game? Or do you have a more deadly lava?

Galrond.5972:

Im using full Cleric set. […]Using signet of earth to immobilize an enemy and then put lava underneath his/hers feets is deadly. 80% of the times the player dies with that combo if succeeded.

Are we playing the same game? Or do you have a more deadly lava?

Im sure we play the same game. It is a deadly combo to immobilze oppenent, put lava under his feets, makeing him burn then fire fireballs. The opponent has to have condition remover and a heal ready to survive that kind of nuke, even with cleric set.

Vaugh.7193:

Galrond.5972:

Are we playing the same game? Or do you have a more deadly lava?

Im sure we play the same game. It is a deadly combo to immobilze oppenent, put lava under his feets, makeing him burn then fire fireballs. The opponent has to have condition remover and a heal ready to survive that kind of nuke, even with cleric set.

No, we’re definitely talking about different games. You’d get, what, maybe 5k damage out of that?

Chaosky.5276:

Vaugh.7193:

Galrond.5972:

Are we playing the same game? Or do you have a more deadly lava?

Im sure we play the same game. It is a deadly combo to immobilze oppenent, put lava under his feets, makeing him burn then fire fireballs. The opponent has to have condition remover and a heal ready to survive that kind of nuke, even with cleric set.

No, we’re definitely talking about different games. You’d get, what, maybe 5k damage out of that?

Haha hell no, I get 5k dmg of the fireballs alone. Then add all ticks of lava damage. Then add the burning damage. Outcome is a nearly downed player.

Vaugh.7193:

Haha hell no, I get 5k dmg of the fireballs alone. Then add all ticks of lava damage. Then add the burning damage. Outcome is a nearly downed player.

5k dmg fireball in cleric gear? That was on a rabit sir.

Vaugh.7193:

Chaosky.5276:

Vaugh.7193:

Galrond.5972:

Are we playing the same game? Or do you have a more deadly lava?

Im sure we play the same game. It is a deadly combo to immobilze oppenent, put lava under his feets, makeing him burn then fire fireballs. The opponent has to have condition remover and a heal ready to survive that kind of nuke, even with cleric set.

No, we’re definitely talking about different games. You’d get, what, maybe 5k damage out of that?

Haha hell no, I get 5k dmg of the fireballs alone. Then add all ticks of lava damage. Then add the burning damage. Outcome is a nearly downed player.

firstly, afaik – lava font is not condition damage or burn. and you will not get 5k dmg with 1 fireball unless your oponent is a critter (you should get it in 5-7 hits though). while lava font is one of our best dps spells, but it is actually quite weak. by the time you manage to cast your snare, lava font has almost fizzled out. not to mention you have limited instant snares and using earth/air snare spells would be too slow to respond.

how i wish my autocast fireballs hit for 5k. that would be soo nice.

innocent ouarior.1954:

Vaugh.7193:

Haha hell no, I get 5k dmg of the fireballs alone. Then add all ticks of lava damage. Then add the burning damage. Outcome is a nearly downed player.

5k dmg fireball in cleric gear? That was on a rabit sir.

1 fireball deals around 1k dmg. During those nuking seconds Im able to fire 4 or 5, witch will be around 5k damage.

Jason.9643:

Vaugh.7193:

Chaosky.5276:

Vaugh.7193:

Galrond.5972:

Are we playing the same game? Or do you have a more deadly lava?

Im sure we play the same game. It is a deadly combo to immobilze oppenent, put lava under his feets, makeing him burn then fire fireballs. The opponent has to have condition remover and a heal ready to survive that kind of nuke, even with cleric set.

No, we’re definitely talking about different games. You’d get, what, maybe 5k damage out of that?

Haha hell no, I get 5k dmg of the fireballs alone. Then add all ticks of lava damage. Then add the burning damage. Outcome is a nearly downed player.

firstly, afaik – lava font is not condition damage or burn. and you will not get 5k dmg with 1 fireball unless your oponent is a critter (you should get it in 5-7 hits though). while lava font is one of our best dps spells, but it is actually quite weak. by the time you manage to cast your snare, lava font has almost fizzled out. not to mention you have limited instant snares and using earth/air snare spells would be too slow to respond.

how i wish my autocast fireballs hit for 5k. that would be soo nice.

Fire skill #3 burns. Sorry if I wasnt clear enough.

Jason.9643:

Vaugh.7193:

Chaosky.5276:

Vaugh.7193:

Galrond.5972:

Are we playing the same game? Or do you have a more deadly lava?

Im sure we play the same game. It is a deadly combo to immobilze oppenent, put lava under his feets, makeing him burn then fire fireballs. The opponent has to have condition remover and a heal ready to survive that kind of nuke, even with cleric set.

No, we’re definitely talking about different games. You’d get, what, maybe 5k damage out of that?

Haha hell no, I get 5k dmg of the fireballs alone. Then add all ticks of lava damage. Then add the burning damage. Outcome is a nearly downed player.

by the time you manage to cast your snare, lava font has almost fizzled out.

First you immobilize, then you put out lava. Its that simple. Also pay attention on you team mates, they might immobilize foes aswell. Throw a lava then too.

I cant belive Im alone doing this combo ?!? How do other Staff users kill other players?

how i kill with staff -

for 1v1, if opponent is not a bunker and dumb enough to slug it out with me without fleeing, he most likely die to my 3 pets (2 pet rocks and 1 parrot).

for wvw zergs, aoe snares works incredibly well in chasing down fleeing cowards for bags.

edit: i do not know of any other class that can do a massively large AOE snare like frozen ground (water4) at 1200 range. that is just sweet in wvw

I cant belive Im alone doing this combo ?!?

It’s not the combo. It’s the numbers. Either you are fighting pure zerker glass canons with 0 additional vitality/thoughness or scaled players.

Galrond.5972:

I cant belive Im alone doing this combo ?!?

It’s not the combo. It’s the numbers. Either you are fighting pure zerker glass canons with 0 additional vitality/thoughness or scaled players.

Glass cannons actually goes down before the lava dissapears.

Im amused how players reject the build before even tried it. And if you tried it, you did it wrong.

When attacking a keep or against large numbers I switch to staff and quickly adjust my traits/utilities/armor.

While using staff in an engagement I maintain two fields of fire; an individual and a specific area.

Specific Area:
Rotate between attunements to cast quick cooldown AOEs Fire 2, Earth 2, and Water 2.
While rotating between above I cast Fire 5, Air 5, Earth 4 and Water 4 when available.
I will also throw in my two utilities: Glyphs of Storm and Radiation Field.
Glyphs of storm has medium range so I move up, cast, and if needed retreat with Fire 4.

While in Water:
I will cast water 3, 5 on my front line for heal and regeneration.

Specific Individual:
Target individual to either side of AoEs and cast
Fire 1 , 3, Air 1, 2, 3, Earth 1, 5, Water 1

Tornado:
I use tornados on Portal jumps, up or down congested ramps, alongside of cliffs, within tunnels or any confined area. Prior to casting tornado I switch to earth and I cast two out of the 3 Glyphs giving me about 15seconds of protection. Adding that to 15s of Stability from Tornado allows me to cause havoc in the specific area with knockbacks and damage. Tornado also provides a bonus to vitality and power thus giving me about 4500ish power and 28-30kish of health during these times.

This build fits my play style allowing me to switch weapons groups.

0/20/10/10/30

Air: I rotate between Quick Glyphs and Inscription (staff) with bolt to the heart and air training.
Earth: I rotate between Earths Embrace (staff) and Stone Splinters
Water: I rotate between Cleansing Wave, Vital Striking (staff) and Soothing Disruption.
Arcane: Elemental Attunement, Evasive Arcana and switch between Blasting Staff and Final Shielding

Utilities:
Staff:
Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Glyph of Elemental Power
Glyph of Storms
Radiation Field (Asura Racial)
Tornado

Non-staff:
Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Glyph of Elemental Power
Mist form
Lightning Flash
Glyph of Elementals / Fiery Greatsword

Armor/trinkets
Rotate between:
Soldiers assorted + boon durations
Knight w/ melendru and berserker

Weapon:
Staff: Berserker w force
Sceptor/Dagger: Beserker w accuracy
Dagger/Focus: Berserker w Air

Vaugh.7193:

Galrond.5972:

I cant belive Im alone doing this combo ?!?

It’s not the combo. It’s the numbers. Either you are fighting pure zerker glass canons with 0 additional vitality/thoughness or scaled players.

Glass cannons actually goes down before the lava dissapears.

Im amused how players reject the build before even tried it. And if you tried it, you did it wrong.

It´s not a matter of trying it, your numbers are just wrong(and for the record i have used the combo myself too, personaly i used to stack eruption+ice spike prior to using it though and even that doesn´t kill nothing but the glassiest players).

You stated around 1k fireballs.
Lava font does slighlty less per tick with the amount of power clerics gives.
Flame burst without condition damage does 2150 dmg with the +duration from traits.

Combo starts with immoblize (3.9s with your traits)
Casting flame burst and lava font takes .75s and fireballs have a fire rate of 1 per 1,4s. This means you will get off 3 fireballs during the immobilize, let´s assume all hit despite last one being dodgeable.
I´d assume you have longer fire fields trait due to 30 in fire line, so lavafont will effectively have duration of 5 ticks, which in this case let´s assume all hit despite last tick being dodgeable.

That gives us 8×1k damage which is 8k damage and 2k burning which adds up to 10k dmg. 10k being the lowest base hp possible for thief, ele and guardian, next lowest is 15k for engineer, mesmer and ranger, with 18k being lowest possible hp for warriors and necromancers.
But let´s be generous and say each fire ball and lavafont tick do 1,5k dmg. Now we´re upto 12k + 2k dmg, certainly enough to kill lowest hp pool classes with 0 vitality, but nothing else.

All above ofcourse assumes that the combo is executed with machine like precision and that the target does nothing and none of the other enemies does nothing for the target (doesn´t heal, remove conditions, apply boons, dodge any fireballs or the last tick from lavafont, ) for the full duration of 6,5 seconds it takes the damage to be dealt.

So yea, that combo alone doesn´t kill anything but afk, 0 vitality characters from lowest health pool classes.

My staff one-trick-poney combo:
- Shockwave
- Eruption
- Signet of Earth
- Ice Spike
- Froken Ground
- Flame Burst
- Pewpew Fireball

If everything lands it kills someone, sometimes. If the guy cleanse or stunbreak the root its a fail. It has however nothing to do with root/tooth/nix/electric discharge/lighning strike burst.

Good stuff here. Bumping for future reference.

Jester.1546:

Mikemad: I wont link it again, but the build I linked to at the top of this thread is exactly intended for that playstyle. It is designed with the inetion of staying “on the tag” of your commander or group leader or who ever it is you want to follow. If all of your armor is PVT you can do what ever you want with the accessories, though PVT is a good starting point. (As I mention in the post, I am also building towards full all stat acended and already use cav and knights). If you notice, I discuss the particular utilities I chose as being strong damage and control support.

I tend to move to more and more PVT as the zerg gets larger and more dps accessories as the group size comes down since you are dealing with less and less blind aoe damage and more singletarget which you can actively counter.

Of course over extension is a concern, but that is not about gear. I have found that as long as I stay right with the core of my team’s mele, I never get heavily singled and am able to sustain through the fight and keep up even with the hardest to kill members so that I am still around for the final pushes that can really decide a fight and determine who gets their loot bags.

If you like the build give me your feed back on its thread please!!!

Vaugh: Remember that earth 5 is also an imobilize, if you wanna free up the utility slot (though the toughtnessf roms ignet of earth is nice).

I swapped a few things in my build around, and largely inspired by your post, tried out 30 Earth, 20 Water, 20 Arcane. It’s working far better. I don’t do very good damage, but that’s not really my goal. My goal is to do mediocre AoE damage, max out my survivability, and provide decent healing to everyone around me. It works surprisingly well. I still die to glass-cannon thieves if they single me out, but I don’t think that’s going to change as long as I’m using staff. They ignore most of my CC, and dodge most of my (bad) damage. That’s just the breaks.

On the bright side, it does take them far longer to kill me, which usually guarantees that they die to my teammates soon after.

Beyond that, I don’t really have problems stonewalling any other class. Thief burst is so high, and so difficult for my eyes to predict and dodge, that it overwhelms my high healing and toughness.

And if I want to do damage in WvW I just hop on siege.

When I have staff and am in a 1 on 1 I run while casting snares and aoe’s behind me…
It keeps ’m busy…

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

When I have staff and am in a 1 on 1 I run while casting snares and aoe’s behind me…
It keeps ’m busy…

I do this too, but Thieves just teleport through them and chill doesn’t do anything to initiative regen.

Mostly, I just try to bait them into wasting a bunch of initiative on my Mist Form and attempt to run toward the nearest keep. I’ve never actually killed a Thief 1v1 on any character, no matter the build. They either kill me or they run away. One of these days I’m going to have to make a Thief and find out what it’s like to only lose 1v1s if I feel like over committing.

You could also force quit the game when you see a thief or a thief nails you down.
“Ah ah!” “Perhaps we can’t do 50% the amount of damage you do in twice less time, but we can also turn invisible!” (in our own pathetic way)…