Guild Wars 2

I’ve been practicing with staff ele in pvp/wvw for a while now and i’ve gotten pretty decent at dueling most classes. I’m very frustrated however that even a relatively kittenty pewpew ranger can still beat me with longbow/pet interference. My reflect is short and has a long cooldown and I can’t stay close enough and deal enough dmg fast enough to down non-glassy rangers before they can pewpew me again- they just have too much health/defense. With such little vitality (I run zerk) I’d really appreciate some guidance in dealing with rangers especially.

As for thieves, I can out-predict and kill bad ones using my interrupts and cc. But if any more experienced staff eles have advice for dealing with not kittenty thieves i’d love to hear it.
Thanks

You have to lock ranger/thief down.

For example… static -> knockback into it -> earth 2, earth 5 -> fire 2+3+5

Make use of your single target dmg like air 2, fireblast… make sure to re-apply weakness every time you are in earth attunement. Dodge pet attacks (most telegraph pretty obviously).

Put fire 2 on smoke circle/refuge against thieves. Make use of water 4 to keep ranger/thief in meteor.

Ah yes… and I usually prefer to have air elemental against thieves and lb ranger, water elemental against condi rangers.

I will practice these things, ty mate!

Yasi.9065:

You have to lock ranger/thief down.

For example… static -> knockback into it -> earth 2, earth 5 -> fire 2+3+5

Make use of your single target dmg like air 2, fireblast… make sure to re-apply weakness every time you are in earth attunement. Dodge pet attacks (most telegraph pretty obviously).

Put fire 2 on smoke circle/refuge against thieves. Make use of water 4 to keep ranger/thief in meteor.

Ah yes… and I usually prefer to have air elemental against thieves and lb ranger, water elemental against condi rangers.

u use meteor when dueling?._.

Wyrden.4713:

u use meteor when dueling?._.

Why not? At worst it’s area control, at best people are stupid enough to actually enter the blast zone. If you center it around yourself, you can be the bait that gets people into the area. And once they’re inside fighting, you’ll outdamage them.

ThiBash.5634:

If you’re fighting a longbow ranger, proper timing of Magnetic Aura (try to reflect a rapid fire) works very well. But I’ll bet you knew that already. :-)

Wyrden.4713:

u use meteor when dueling?._.

Why not? At worst it’s area control, at best people are stupid enough to actually enter the blast zone. If you center it around yourself, you can be the bait that gets people into the area. And once they’re inside fighting, you’ll outdamage them.

usee, during casting meteor u r too vulnerable, ppll just can do great hitting stuff and be sure to land if someone casts meteor, i as s/d ele always kill other eles when dueling if they start casting meteors

Wyrden.4713:

ThiBash.5634:

If you’re fighting a longbow ranger, proper timing of Magnetic Aura (try to reflect a rapid fire) works very well. But I’ll bet you knew that already. :-)

Wyrden.4713:

u use meteor when dueling?._.

Why not? At worst it’s area control, at best people are stupid enough to actually enter the blast zone. If you center it around yourself, you can be the bait that gets people into the area. And once they’re inside fighting, you’ll outdamage them.

usee, during casting meteor u r too vulnerable, ppll just can do great hitting stuff and be sure to land if someone casts meteor, i as s/d ele always kill other eles when dueling if they start casting meteors

just flash away during chanel to avoid big spells

Gorni.1764:

Wyrden.4713:

ThiBash.5634:

If you’re fighting a longbow ranger, proper timing of Magnetic Aura (try to reflect a rapid fire) works very well. But I’ll bet you knew that already. :-)

Wyrden.4713:

u use meteor when dueling?._.

Why not? At worst it’s area control, at best people are stupid enough to actually enter the blast zone. If you center it around yourself, you can be the bait that gets people into the area. And once they’re inside fighting, you’ll outdamage them.

usee, during casting meteor u r too vulnerable, ppll just can do great hitting stuff and be sure to land if someone casts meteor, i as s/d ele always kill other eles when dueling if they start casting meteors

just flash away during chanel to avoid big spells

its kind of easier said then done, hard hitting skills r mostly like evisc, they dont take so long, and they move to the player

as s/d ele for example i could just precast phoenix, flash into enemy, for instant dmg

Indeed, it’s easier said than done, but it’s not impossible. It all depends on your opponent, the situation, terrain, etc.

I’m also running zerk staff and have the same issues vs thieves. As for rangers, I typically kite them out of LoS as much as I can; it’s not too hard with all the stun/slow/wall fields we have. Holding a point against a good one is pretty much impossible though.

About meteor, I don’t cast it often in duels, but it can be very useful when you’re LoSing. Center it on the corner you’re running from, while they’re still trying to get in LoS and you have some nice area denial/dps.

I actually dont have trouble casting meteor in duels, it’s just key to really be patient and wait for the opening when they’re on the defensive/recovering. I’ve actually killed a few thieves by using myself as the bait in the meteor and they’re too hasty, rush in and get pummeled.

I do my best to los rangers but in wvw and pvp there are often big open spaces where there’s nothing to obstruct them T_T

Sorry, but if you cant anticipate eviscerate, hammer stun etc… then you should just do a lot more practice. S/D ele for example like to cast their big dmg to the side and then flash into you, just make sure you are attuned to fire when you see them casting up their big dmg spells and then press 4. Or use mistform… blindness… interrupt them with knockback…
The only skill I really have trouble with, that’s guard meditation teleport, but even there burning retreat or mistform always works.

Im casting meteor – always – when dueling… and while casting meteor my groundtarget for flash is already set so I can blink away asap.

I dueled with zerker amu, valk, cele, soldier, cleric… always staff… always casting meteors. Not once did I die during meteor casts.

Dueling as a staff ele, its about setting up your own killzone… kite for about 30seconds while casting fireblast etc… setting up next killzone etc.

If you are in a tournament match and you have to fight on point… make sure to always make your opponent run as much as possible, and as often as possible through firefield/chill/eruption.

you probably won’t win against a good ranger or thief who knows your telegraphs. good rangers who understand staff ele , even condi specced can easily take you down or at the very least stalemate with you. thieves who understand the windows of opportunity against a staff ele will know when to drop down your hp and what to avoid at the same time. its really tough against good ones.

Wyrden.4713:

ThiBash.5634:

If you’re fighting a longbow ranger, proper timing of Magnetic Aura (try to reflect a rapid fire) works very well. But I’ll bet you knew that already. :-)

Wyrden.4713:

u use meteor when dueling?._.

Why not? At worst it’s area control, at best people are stupid enough to actually enter the blast zone. If you center it around yourself, you can be the bait that gets people into the area. And once they’re inside fighting, you’ll outdamage them.

usee, during casting meteor u r too vulnerable, ppll just can do great hitting stuff and be sure to land if someone casts meteor, i as s/d ele always kill other eles when dueling if they start casting meteors

Meteor Shower is actually very good during duelling.

Against pew pew ranger you have no choice to LoS. If it’s open area dueling you lose… end of story. Same deal with a zerk rifle warrior. You can hope to win by them eating a lot of damage from a reflect but that’s basically it.

With thief it’s best to spam chill on them and make sure you have CC to weave through. However, smart s/d thief is a pretty hard counter because if they use 2 well they’ll never eat your aoe.

Yasi.9065:

Sorry, but if you cant anticipate eviscerate, hammer stun etc… then you should just do a lot more practice. S/D ele for example like to cast their big dmg to the side and then flash into you, just make sure you are attuned to fire when you see them casting up their big dmg spells and then press 4. Or use mistform… blindness… interrupt them with knockback…
The only skill I really have trouble with, that’s guard meditation teleport, but even there burning retreat or mistform always works.

Im casting meteor – always – when dueling… and while casting meteor my groundtarget for flash is already set so I can blink away asap.

I dueled with zerker amu, valk, cele, soldier, cleric… always staff… always casting meteors. Not once did I die during meteor casts.

Dueling as a staff ele, its about setting up your own killzone… kite for about 30seconds while casting fireblast etc… setting up next killzone etc.

If you are in a tournament match and you have to fight on point… make sure to always make your opponent run as much as possible, and as often as possible through firefield/chill/eruption.

Thanks for the advice, the eviscerate isn’t hard to see coming but if i’m already out of dodges or cds it’s just brutal. The fact that it only goes on cd and the adrenaline doesn’t deplete means even if I avoid one or two eviscerates they can still get one off if they have multiple endure pain to keep themselves up, or if they are a tankier spec that can still hit hard. With the axe skills being so fast it’s only 1-2 hits after an eviscerate and my 14-6k health pool is gone

I’ve recently tried going celestial against teams with thieves/rangers and it’s been a big help in pvp. And in wvw/open field flashing aggressively into ranger’s faces and staying on their toes seems to panic them into giving me the advantage. It’s made 1v1s so much easier

ps- I’ve recently had some fights versus thieves, even two thieves at once and come away alright. Obviously if I were unable to retreat to a safe place i’m not sure I could beat two at the same time but i’ve gotten better at surviving them. Seeing them from a distance and preparing my earth armor and swapping to earth for protection in anticipation of their opening strike, and laying down earth 4 to interrupt their movement repeatedly, takes away their ambush advantage and makes the rest of the fight in my favor. Even if i’m caught off guard, misting and then going into earth, earth 4, earth 2, water 4 water 2, then fire or lightning (with air training for 10% dmg increase) is enough to at least scare them off of me.
Funny how thieves tend to universally leave a scary target alone in favor of soft or unaware uplevels (a great chance for me to hurt them more as their focus is turned from me).