Guild Wars 2

New ele questions. After multiple calls on my server for more staff eles, I decided to try out my newly leveled elementalist in WvW. And I died, over and over. Now, I realize the problem is that I’m used to being front line with a war, guard or mesmer but even when I tried staying in back, too often I end up running away or in the dirt. I can’t seem to stay in the fight consistently. Often it’s just one shot and I’m down. And it takes me forever to kill just one npc guard by myself with the staff, the damage just seems- nonexistent.

I do have exotic armor, exotic/ascended trinkets and have perused all the available builds and advice I can find. I’ve changed my traits around several times, currently using 0-0-10-30-30. Before I relegate my ele to PvE, I am asking for suggestions on:

-How do you stay alive consistently, both when roaming, in small groups and in zergs?
-What is your usual attunement/skill pattern use when attacking another zerg? Small group?
-Would going s/d be better in WvW?
-How do you tag enemies and caravans/npcs in a zerg? The staff is so slow that everything is dead before my staff attacks reach anything.
-With the upcoming update, will anything improve?

To options: staff combo field support (which uses something like bunker build you have now) or glass cannon nuker, which is what I run.

Go 30/20/10/10/0 or 30/20/0/0/20, full zerk everything. Forget about roaming, you will die. Only go with small groups or Zergs. Just hang in the back, move up to drop your lava font or meteor. Use flame burst to tag quickly, or lava font to tag a lot foes in one spot.

Sequence is Earth->eruption->fire->lava font->flame burst-> then either auto attack and redo lava font, or meteor and glyph if storms.

Stay in fire most of the time. Use water only if you need to drop combo fields. Go earth only to start eruption for a blast finisher. Use air only for swiftness and static field. That’s all.

S/d…. Lt me get back to you on that. Not experienced enough in it to say.

With the update… The only improvement is blasting staff goes down to adept, so I can get vital striking in water for more damage.

Just don’t get greedy. Use fire 4 to get away when the enemy charges on you. They will not risk getting caught up in your Zerg, so your biggest problem are archers in the opposing ranks. Thieves that backstabbing from stealth are also a hard counter, just run away when that happens. Get used to running away, or you’ll die a lot.

I rarely die, usually only when I do something stupid or if my Zerg dies or retreats. Otherwise, you’ll be cleaning house. This is one of the most satisfying
Builds to play in wvw. You get to fry so many enemies, it’s great.

Thanks for the advice! Having a lot more fun- dying only rarely now and it’s nice to be able to do damage

i would recommend cavilers/beryle and zerker accessories and valkrey armor, good toughness and lots of crit/crit damage and good power. If you want more HP a PTV necklace bumps you up to just under 18k.

just remember staff ele’s dont win fights, they win battles.

That is so true! I never win 1v1 fights. But in a big battle I can turn the tide.

It’s up to you if you want more survivability, but for max damage full zerk is the way to go. Play around if you’re feeling to squishy, but I find if you stick with the full zerk build you’ll get used to it and play better even without the extra survivability.

There are a lot of other tricks you can do to maximize your powers, sometimes I stay in Air to tag with chain lightning. The one thing I just plain suck at is running away from roamers, they kill me every time if they set their eyes on me and I am alone.

Been ting to experiment usi Fire 4 to turn around and run, along with static field or chill earth to get some distance, but I don’t get enough opportunities to practice my escapes so I still get run down.

escaping is how i came up with my current configuration, i can evade and escape around roamers and roaming groups to rejoin with the main force.

if its ranged shooting at you just pop earth 3, and then go to air and hit your speed buff. If its melee with high mobility its tricky, but static field spin to face them fire 4, water snare at their feet when they pop a stun break on the static field. now they are slowed, jump to earth hit 3, this will stop any ranged snares and gives you a short speed buff. air should almost be off CD now so hit your speed buff, a thief or warrior will use jumps and lunges to catch up, earth 4, spin fire 4 keep running jump back to air and rinse and repeat.

hold your mistform in case they blow all their CD’s to kill you.

I use arcane skills, but otherwise I’m similar in that I go mostly fire damage. Your elementalist has a ton of skills that can be used for escapes, so if you focus on proper positioning and avoid 1 on 1s, you should do well. Also, remember when you are running to cast skills (e.g. earth 4, air 5, others) in front of you and run over them. Your lunging pursuers will appreciate it. :-)

One other thing – when you see the enemy ball-up, learn when to be bold and fly through your AoEs as fast as you can. Those blobs are not the borg – they’re talking on TS, thinking strategy, etc, and if you catch them you can do amazing damage very fast.

Actually, that brings to mind one more thing – just because you are focussed on fire doesn’t mean that you should only do fire. Use the tools that you have.

The other one that is often forgotten is earth 2 is a blast finisher with a 2 second deley, that means you can proc you own fire (2), static(5) and water field (5, three is a kitten to try and proc but its doable).

I think the biggest mistake staff eles make is staying in one stance, work out a good rotation and keep refreshing those auras.

Why is everyone suggesting berserker when he can make a celestial set and be all around better.100% critical dmg is good no?healing a lot more hp and a LOT more armor.
My personal opinion is that you are not playing elementalist for the heavy damage.You play to provide support AND damage.

Don’t stay in fire attunement all the time.You start with fire usualy to give a fire field for might then you go Air to give a nice Static in the enemys face.Sometimes i turn to earth to give wall for extra cc and shockwave to immobilize any target my group is focusing(not to mention reflect aura for extra protection).

The best advice i can give is….DO NOT waste your your cooldowns.For example…meteor..why all elementalists have to unload at the start of the fight i do not understand.At the beggining of an engage in WvW if the enemy group is a little organised then all their groups have retaliation up.If you do a meteor on them you are most likely toasted or you will have to burn your healing cooldowns just to get yourself up.So the solution?…Wait for it.After some time retaliation will wear off and when they are close to 50% unload everything.Meteor will finish them for sure.

Also,watch your positioning..unless you are full PTV you cannot follow your commander inside an enemy zerg.Go around but be carefull not to go infront of the enemy pain train.You sualy try to go with their tail.

^ is correct.
1 dodge roll and everyone is out of meteor storm.
Zerk gear provides rally to opposition when you die.
Focus your damage on those with lower health. Ours is not the first damage folks feel but the last.
Use your aoes to provide damage but also to funnel opposition.

Jarek.2430:

^ is correct.
1 dodge roll and everyone is out of meteor storm.
Zerk gear provides rally to opposition when you die.
Focus your damage on those with lower health. Ours is not the first damage folks feel but the last.
Use your aoes to provide damage but also to funnel opposition.

Yeah, timing is the key And the position of course, the more experience you get, the more “zerky” you can go and still be able to survive (staff has some nice skills to save yourselves, with the boosted burning retreat, the mobility is not that bad and when paired with CCs, you can escape )

And the satisfaction when you down/kill 10 ppl with your well timed and placed meteor is priceless

Because Celestial Set is inferior to Zerker for damage. If you want to be a middle of the roader, that’s your choice. Celestial works great for support builds, if support is what you want to do.

But one of Staff’s greatest strengths is dealing massive damage to the enemy en masse, and if that’s how you want to play, you run Zerker. Full Zerk gear (Exotics without Ascendeds) will get you to around 3,500 power base and something like 80% crit damage. Celestial may have 100% crit damage or what not but your lower base power doesn’t make up for it.

And as Zerk you can provide Support just as well as a Celestial build if need be — though frankly if you want to do damage you aren’t gonna waste your time doing support all that much.

Fact is, Ele can’t do everything at the same time — it’s the weakness of attunement cooldown. Every second you spend providing support is time you spend away from dealing damage. You have to choose between the two playstyles what you want to do, and gear up accordingly.

Regarding dodge meteors — when the fray is intense that is when people don’t realize they are being hit by meteors, and they get smashed easily. You’ll find the right timing for this easily. I do agree with Graendall opening with Meteo at the start of the clash is not smart. The key is to wait for the opponent to get distracted by your other teammates before you smash them with meteor — since meteor doesn’t have a red ring, people tend to be oblivious to it when they’re distracted.

However at the start of the fight you can already soften them up with Lava Font and Fireball and Flameburst. I also use Glyph of Storms. I take the first hit, and the last. Some of you may prefer to CC instead at the start, up to you I guess. Whatever works. Personally I find going full DPS is much more effective and softens the enemy a lot more, making them go down faster. I think it’s because of the meta — everyone and their mother is prepared to deal with CC and Condi. So I just ignore that and go straight to the damage.

zacharias.5437:

I am asking for suggestions on:
-How do you stay alive consistently, both when roaming, in small groups and in zergs?
-What is your usual attunement/skill pattern use when attacking another zerg? Small group?
-Would going s/d be better in WvW?
-How do you tag enemies and caravans/npcs in a zerg? The staff is so slow that everything is dead before my staff attacks reach anything.
-With the upcoming update, will anything improve?

1) To stay alive in a zerg: target your commander. stay in the back but follow him by orbiting around him in a half circle. Cantrips are the real deal for survival (I am one of those that also believes that 20 in earth is more useful than 30 in arcana because of Rock Solid). When roaming, Fire 4 is your best ability. Make sure you quick-key the about-face move (not sure what its called, but it instantly turns you around 180 degrees), then hit 4 and while 4 is going, rotate your view back forward. When roaming or solo, I blast air fields to keep perma swiftness as well.

2) When attacking a zerg: If you got the drop on them, always start with Static field on their frontline… it will force them to use their stability/stun breakers and will remove aegis. At this time, you have a few options, though I normally go this route: Swap to water, drop 4,5 then 2 at the frontline location. This will keep their frontline clumped with chill, 5 will remove the inevitable condi-shower off your frontline and 2 to get a damage hit in. I then swap to fire for 2,3 and 5 (if not being focused) and swap to earth right kitten begins casting (Rock solid ftw). Start heading towards your commander as it will be time to drop water 3 for a quick refresh heal and back into the fray.
Small group: position yourself behind your allies but not too far behind as to miss out on their buffs. Concentrate on CC and support at first to get the fight within your teams control.

S/D: great for solo roaming in WvW for fun bursty madness. Absolutely useless anywhere else.

How to tag: you have to preempt where the enemies/dolyaks are going to be and get lava font on them fast. Or, use Arcane Wave (I can’t take that skill off my hotbar).

In terms of gearing: I suggest a balanced gearing setup that leans more towards dmg. Don’t go full zerker unless you like to be rally bait or you love to turtle in a tower. Those that say full zerker staff is good in WvW most likely don’t fight too many coordinated guilds, and they probably fight some pretty inexperienced WvW players.

zacharias.5437:

-How do you stay alive consistently, both when roaming, in small groups and in zergs?
-What is your usual attunement/skill pattern use when attacking another zerg? Small group?
-Would going s/d be better in WvW?
-How do you tag enemies and caravans/npcs in a zerg? The staff is so slow that everything is dead before my staff attacks reach anything.
-With the upcoming update, will anything improve?

I play staff with your trait setup and full celestial. The key to survival is understanding your CCs. You have about six different ways of stopping an enemy from chasing you or running away. Earth 5 is a dear friend, as is 4 if you’re good. Dropping Air 5 and pushing someone into it with 3 always gives me a laugh. Water 4 is a great snare, particularly with Earth 2. Remember that if you want to hit anyone properly, you’re going to have to keep them still.

Zerg vs. zerg is about keeping on the move and laying pressure with fields. Throw Water 2 and 5 at the front of your zerg to keep the frontline healthy. Drop CC fields at the front and sides of the enemy zerg. You want to halt their pushes and box them in. Be careful where you drop your meteor shower; see other posters above. Fire 2 and Arcane Wave are your best bets for tagging.

Roaming is hit or miss based on your skill and enemy skill/class. Earlier today I toasted a mesmer and engie 2v1. Ten minutes later a thief and a warrior found me and that was that. Often survival here means bolting; unless you’re unlucky or careless, you should have little trouble getting away. Victory in combat requires knowing your skills inside out; the best advice here is just to get experience doing it.

Two more of your duties in a zerg are clearing walls and healing. When assaulting a tower or keep, no one can pick people and siege off the walls like we can, particularly with blasting staff. This is where meteor shower really shines. If your assault force is under fire, you should stay in water and keep fields and Water 1 on the door.

Ele in WvW is about support, control, and pressure. A couple of good eles have more potential to turn the tide of a battle than any other class. However, it takes a lot of skill and experience to play successfully. Keep practicing and you’ll do fine.

In regards to your question about s/d: in large group fights you should absolutely go with the staff, it has far more aoe and utility than s/d could dream of, and in order to get the kind of burst you need to make s/d viable you have to be in the thick of the fighting… in zerker gear. Not the greatest for zerg fights.

Where s/d shines is small, organized group play. If you have a couple buddies to stun/immobilize your target for about 4 or 5 seconds you can burst down anyone in a matter of those 4 or 5 seconds. dragon’s tooth pulls 5-7k, ring of fire gets 3-4k, when you aim phoenix right behind your enemy so that it hits them on the way out, with the explosion and on the way back it gets about 10k total. I’ve pulled that rotation, switched to earth and hit with a churn because my target just stood there, dumbfounded by the amount of damage that an ele just put on them.

There is such great advice here that I find myself coming back constantly to refine my skills and try different tactics. I think someone could put together a nice guide for WvW just with this thread.

I started out trying to get celestial armor but it wasn’t in my budget so I had to mix in PVT for the more expensive pieces. I am gradually changing to more berserker over time, so far survival is still good. Still working on a personal balance between support and damage.