Guild Wars 2

Hi! Right now I am leveling an ele to get a change from my guardian. My main focus for this char will be WvW and I am not really interesed in D/D. Was thinking of going staff but reading the forums I am not totally aware of how this works. I’m getting the idea that Ele takes a kind of support role with water/arcane spec, obviously having the offensive potential inherent to almost all ele specs.

Now to the questions:
Did I get the right impression or is there some sort of maybe air orientation for wvw?

And second but very important, what should I gear for? Got karma for a few pieces but I am having problems choosing the set I want, should i focus on Pr/T/V? Get some bonus healing?

Thanks in advance, sometimes there is much talk about the tiny crucial aspects, making it harder to get the bigger idea clear.

As for Traits, you can go in Fire and make yourself more damage orientated or put points in Water/Arcane and go supportive, w/e floats your boat i guess. For gear i recommend PVT gear with Zerkers for damage or Cleric for support or if you’re feeling ballsy you can mix up Zerker gear and PVT gear but you will die fast :P

I am using knights gear (power precision toughness) with clerics trinkets.
As for the traits I run 20 fire, mainly for the reduced meteor shower CD. Right now I use 30 Arcana for the bigger aoe and the attunment swap boons. I also use the Evasive arcana along with arcane blast for extra aoe healing etc. on top of this I run 20 points in water mainly for the condition cleansing.
I find this a reasonable mixture. You do plenty of aoe dmg, lootbags keep spawning under you if you land ur meteor shower right in zvz, you clense alot of condition and you heal alot, this along with mist from can keep you alive in most scenarios.

I would say Im a decent damage dealer with decent support and I do feel like an asset to my group. I also the same build while doing dungoens, You could probably make a few adjusments but I am a lazy man and feel this build does the job both in www and dungeons.

I recomend you to check daphoenix guides for further information. He has a very decent d/d ele guide and a staff guide that is not complete but still has alot of usefull information imo. Heres the link to his d/d guide, you can find the staff link in that thread aswell: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-2-16-12/first

I went with Berserkers armor, Berserkers weapons, and PVT trinkets. Build is your standard 30/30/0/10/0, although I have tried swapping some into Arcane/Water, but the benefits weren’t many(imo) for the dmg I lost.

It requires a lot of concentration and a fairly good group of people playing alongside you, but the rewards… kitten SOOO much dmg. Works well in dungeons too, super easy and quick nuking.

I was wondering about the increased aoe area traitable in the Arcane line. I rarely use arcane skills favoring cantrips. So, I’m on the fence on spending traits here. Does the larger aoe maintain full dmg over an increased area or does it dilute a set amt of dmg over a larger area?

Remember that Arcane line give you increased boon duration and the attunement recharge rate, i think 20 points here its necessary even in a dps build. Give you a little more versatility.

The staff is great in WvW – especially in confined spaces, taking out siege, or fighting large groups of people. If you want to provide support, the first thing I’d suggest is learn your combos! http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combos Some require quick attunement swapping (like burning retreat or frozen field > eruption), but with others you have more time (like eruption > frozen field or eruption > lava font) and can sometimes squeeze in a quick skill before you place the field.

The next thing I’d suggest is learn how to use your defensive skills – like Magnetic Aura (Earth 3) (good for both finishing off or running from ranged opponents), Burning Retreat (Fire 4) (which is helpful at gaining distance in a fight or dodging nasty attacks when immobilized), frozen ground (even better now that Frost Aura provides some damage mitigation), healing rain (which you may have to cast on the “run” – using lightning flash to make up for lost time), and the rest.

I usually run with a mix of Valkyrie and Berserker gear, with a combination of various boon duration runes. I always have at least one cantrip equipped, but typically run with 2 (Mist Form and Lightning Flash). I also use a sigil of energy on most of my weapons which maintains my endurance for GTFO’ing and Evasive Arcana.

Rallying enemies is rather detrimental, so when first starting out in WvW, you may want to consider PVT gear so you don’t die as often. As you learn what skills to avoid and how to respond to getting locked down, you should have no problem trading out the PVT gear for more offensive or healing stats.

As for food, I have a bunch on hand depending on the situation. Ghost pepper poppers for when I’m feeling cheap, Chocolate Omnomberry Cream for farming enemy zergs, Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew for super endurance, Omnomberry Pies when I need more staying power, and Plate of Truffle Steak Dinner for more damage. I also use Sharpening Stones (stacks with food effects).

/end wall of text.

i use full zerker with rubies on 30/30/10/0/0. i am just about as squishy as u can get as an staff ele.

usually for ele, u either go glass cannon for aoe, or u go bunker for support. dont expect to take hits if u do go glass cannon. ur either, alive, or ur downed theres no tanking anything involved. oh and u should make sure to have arcaneshield if u got GC, its ur 1 lifesaver.

SuiRyuJin.4615:

i use full zerker with rubies on 30/30/10/0/0. i am just about as squishy as u can get as an staff ele.

usually for ele, u either go glass cannon for aoe, or u go bunker for support. dont expect to take hits if u do go glass cannon. ur either, alive, or ur downed theres no tanking anything involved. oh and u should make sure to have arcaneshield if u got GC, its ur 1 lifesaver.

I do this as well. I make it my mission to keep the keep walls clear for our siege operators. The build excels at this, but it’s cumbersome at most anything else. It’s lots of fun, especially when it works. When it doesn’t you die very quickly, so at least there’s no suffering.

I run PVT armor with Berserkers Staff and Trinkets on the standard 0/10/0/30/30 build in WvW. I think of myself in WvW as damaged focused support. I run 4/6 boon duration and 2/6 might duration runes, and a sigil of battle which grants might on attunement swaps. The main problem I have with deep Fire traits is it tends to force you into Fire too much, when you really should be swapping through attunements more often and utilizing all your skills. Plus, the deep Water and Arcane traits are just so useful in WvW, not to mention the great passive bonuses.

Liquid.9672:

I run PVT armor with Berserkers Staff and Trinkets on the standard 0/10/0/30/30 build in WvW. I think of myself in WvW as damaged focused support. I run 4/6 boon duration and 2/6 might duration runes, and a sigil of battle which grants might on attunement swaps. The main problem I have with deep Fire traits is it tends to force you into Fire too much, when you really should be swapping through attunements more often and utilizing all your skills. Plus, the deep Water and Arcane traits are just so useful in WvW, not to mention the great passive bonuses.

I disagree. As long as you have 15 in Arcane you can take 30 Fire and not have to stay in the attunement that much. Just off the cuff, you can get +10% to burning targets (Major + Minor Traits), +10% while in Fire Attunement, and 3 Might from Cantrips. With Lingering Attunement that gives you time to pop into Fire, press 3 to get burning up, pop into Air (and get a free +20% nuke with 15 in Air) and press 2 for +20% Lightning Surge. If you took Air Training and Bolt to the Heart that could go up to as high as +50% on a single spike.

Raf.1078:

I was wondering about the increased aoe area traitable in the Arcane line. I rarely use arcane skills favoring cantrips. So, I’m on the fence on spending traits here. Does the larger aoe maintain full dmg over an increased area or does it dilute a set amt of dmg over a larger area?

IMO it dilutes. Some will say it “spreads” your dmg out and thus is better, but when we’re talking zerg v. zerg or keep defense, you want that dmg concentrated in a cluster to NUKE it down.

Thanks for all the answers! I guess I will try both specs (fire and water/arc), since in the end it’s all about personal experience.

One doubt I have, when going for 0/10/30/30, what’s a normal rotation? Right now leveling I have more experience with fire skills, I guess it’s basicly rotating around air and ice for dmg + utility plus the combos with eruption for example?

somsom.5201:

Raf.1078:

I was wondering about the increased aoe area traitable in the Arcane line. I rarely use arcane skills favoring cantrips. So, I’m on the fence on spending traits here. Does the larger aoe maintain full dmg over an increased area or does it dilute a set amt of dmg over a larger area?

IMO it dilutes. Some will say it “spreads” your dmg out and thus is better, but when we’re talking zerg v. zerg or keep defense, you want that dmg concentrated in a cluster to NUKE it down.

How does it dilute? AOE hits, at maximum, 5 people. How often, for instance, do you actually have 5 people standing inside of staff Fire2, even ikittenerg? How often do you actually get 5 people inside Earth 2?

The only time I’d say that MAYBE it dilutes damage is if everyone is concentrated on one spot, say at a gate. I really can’t think of a single other example for wvw (where the term zerg is applicable). I have no clue about sPvP.

Ronago.3268:

Thanks for all the answers! I guess I will try both specs (fire and water/arc), since in the end it’s all about personal experience.

One doubt I have, when going for 0/10/30/30, what’s a normal rotation? Right now leveling I have more experience with fire skills, I guess it’s basicly rotating around air and ice for dmg + utility plus the combos with eruption for example?

It’s about self-combos, giving combo fields to your group members (or even randoms around you, say in wvw), and it’s about not being “forced” to have to use our relatively weak auto-attacks (element 1 skills) because you can always swap attunements and something will be off cooldown.

If you’re in a good guild that works as a team, or if you’re always looking for a commander to follow, then a staff zerker build is great… or even a staff support build gives great heals, condition removal aoe blind with glyph of storms etc. If you prefer the smaller battles and ganking parties, then consider d/d or s/d as well. I mix it up a lot, but I play in an organized guild that works as a unit and our ele’s run builds that compliment each other.

you can play this game your way, whichever way you choose. There are ways to maximize benefit and while there are “some” specialization in roles/traits/wep sets, a support person still does some damage and a zerker still offers some support (except for Rangers of course, but rumor is they’re working on it). Anet built it that way on purpose

u can usually cycle through all ur aoes even without any arcana trait for attunement cd reduction. i would suggest u start in either air or water so u can static field/chill aoe to start. i prefer static field because it really can be a zerg breaker when people run through it, not to mention i probably start at full hp and rather save cycling to water when i have taken dmg.

air→fire→earth→water is my usual cycle.
static field→lava font→flame burst→meteor shower→magnetic shield→eruption→glyph of storm→crippling ground→eruption→ice spike→chill→1-2heal aoe→ice spike entire cycle takes easily over 10sec, usually in the region of 15 sec.
i usually end up back in fire since i am 30 into fire and any downtime is spent in fire til i start meteor shower again, not to mention static field takes 2 cycle for it to finish cd

Full berserkers. Traits up to you.

Staff ele is most effective in zergs and large battles. You don’t need defense since the zerg is your defense. Staff ele is best used to provide area denial with huge aoes (put 20 in arcane for bigger aoe radius) and area healing with water.