Guild Wars 2

This is my first attempt at making a guide. I do not claim to be the greatest player, I just want to suggest the build I use and how I play it.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|6.1g.h1|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.a2.1g.a2.1g.a2.1g.a2.1g.a2.1g.a2|2s.d14.2s.d14.3s.d17.211.d14.311.d16.2s.d14|u67c.u36a.0.0.a5|2i.1|1l.1o.26.23.29|e

I have been running this build for awhile now in PvE and Dungeons. Its a very dangerous build because you are not traited in Water or Earth at all, which provide Toughness, Healing Power and Vitality. Survival while using this build comes down to how well you dodge, use your control and healing skills. Overall the build is built for massive AoE and great Single target nuking but because the natural mechanics of the class and the use of the Staff you can provide support through healing, defensive/offensive boons and control.

Traits Explained

I built this mainly to help clean out packs of mobs in Dungeons and to tag a ton of mobs in PvE for looting. I wont discuss the minor traits because they are obvious and pretty much given.

Going with 30 points in Fire provides a bonus of 300 Power and a 30% increase to Condition Duration. Internal Fire is an obvious choice dealing 10% more damage while attuned to fire; Pyromancer’s Alacrity recharges all Fire skills 20% faster which in turn supports Pyromancer’s Puissance because the faster i can use fire spells the quicker I gain might stacks!

Going with 30 points in Air provides a bonus of 300 Precision and a 30% increase to Critical Damage. I choose Quick Glyphs because the faster recharge allows me to bring down instant AoE with Glyph of Storms every 48 seconds and summon Elementals with Glyph of Elementals every 96 seconds. Bolt to the Heart and Air Training are obvious damage increasing traits. Although it is a minor trait, its worth mentioning Weak Spot brings consistent Vulnerability stacking because of my gear and traits, especially when I AoE.

Going 10 points into Arcana I gain 10% Boon Duration and a 20% Attunement Recharge rate. Swapping through Attunements puts a 12 second cooldown on the previous Attunement. I choose Elemental Attunement for the bonuses provided when swapping attunements, namely the fact I have (almost) permanent Swiftness using this trait because I switch to Air and use Staff #4 in Air when it runs out. The options for Major traits in Arcana are all pretty good but for a damage option you will want Arcane Retribution or Arcane Master (to support the Arcane Blast utility skill); for more survival you may want to choose Final Shielding or Renewing Stamina.

If you want bigger AoE you can go with only 20 in Air and go up to 20 in Arcana. Choose Blasting Staff for a huge increase in AoE coverage while gaining another 10% in Boon Duration, 20% Attunement Recharge rate and attunement bonuses last 5 seconds longer.

Skill Slots Explained

- This is a damage focused build so for utility slots I choose Arcane Blast for a hard hitting, instant cast Nuke. This and all Arcane Skills are guaranteed to crit and can be used even if you’ve been knocked down.

- Signets were buffed back in the April 28th update, Signet of Fire provides a passive 10% crit chance and you can activate it to do do direct damage and burn foes from 1200 range.

- Glyph of Storms is an instant cast AoE, and the AoE is based off of what attunement you are in. Because of traits its only on a 48 second cooldown

- Glyph of Elementals is an amazing Elite skill because an Elemental is summoned depending on your attunement. For pure damage I will summon a fire one; the water elemental will heal you and your party; the air elemental will control your target; and the Earth can tank like a BOSS, I am looking at you Lupicus! Also because of traits this is only on a 96 second cooldown.

- The heal skill can be extremely situational but I prefer Ether Renewal for the pulsing condition removal and burst heal. It is a channel skill which is its only downfall but since I am not traited into water I dont have many condition removal options. For more damage and other boons the Glyph of Elemental Harmony is a fantastic option because its reduced to 20 seconds because of your traits.

How to play

Ideally like the majority of Elementalist builds you will want to cycle through all attunements during an encounter, this alone provides you with 25 different tools to use along with the passive synergy of boons because of your traits.

Damage

Fire Attunement: #3,2,1

Air Attunement: #2,1

Utility Skill: Arcane Blast

Elite: Fire Attunement

AoE

Start with Water Attunement: #2

Fire Attunement: #2, 5, run past mob and use #4 through them

Utility: Glyph of Storms

Control

Water Attunement: #4

Air Attunement: #5 and 3

Earth Attunement: #4, 2 and 5

Elite: Air or Earth Attunement

Healing

Water Attunement: #1, 3 and 5

Elite: Water Attunement

I hate to say this, but I see a lot of things wrong with this

First off, trying to go 30/30/X in your Power/Precision/Crit Damage trees for the stats is sort of a waste. While it does increase your DPS somewhat, the fact is that the Staff’s DPS sucks no matter how hard you try and pukitten.

The reason for this is twofold. Ranged weapons in this game generally have really bad damage (with some exceptions), and the Elementalist has really bad damage (because he has so many skills available to him at any given time).

The staff’s main attraction comes from the utility it provides. Combo fields, decent heals, stun cage, snare… to be honest, I find it’s sort of lackluster in most dungeon situations compared to Scepter or Dagger.

If you really want to DPS with staff, at the very least, I would seriously suggest putting 30 in Arcana. The ability to constantly swap attunements is the most powerful ability an Ele can have. More importantly, Evasive Arcana is the strongest trait we have, and it serves an even more important role in Staff than almost any other weapon spec. The Earth blast finisher is absolutely amazing for Staff’s various combo fields.

Additionally, Arcane Wave is basically necessary for a good Staff build, again, mainly for the Blast Finisher. Blasting in your own combo fields, and the fields of your allies, can lead to some really great effects.

In all honesty, I would try out the 0/10/0/30/30 spec:
-Bolt to the Heat: 20% damage increase when foe is below 33% HP
-Vital Striking: 10% damage increase when above 90% HP
-Soothing Disruption: Cantrips grant vigor and regen
-Cleansing Water: Remove a condition when granting regen
-Powerful Aura: You only share one aura
-Elemental Attunement: Grant a boon when changing attunements
-Renewing Stamina: Gain vigor on crit
-Evasive Arcana: Cast a spell at the end of a dodge roll (most notable for the blast finisher in Water)

Utility slots:
-Arcane Wave
-Mist Form
-Lightning Flash
-Glyph of Elementals [Elite]

And all Berserker gear.

Your main rotation is to start in Air. You engage with Static Field to stun enemies, then swap to Fire for some burst from 2 and 3. If your allies are doing well, use 4 to create a Fire Field, then dodge roll back into it in Earth attunement to blast finish, giving 3 stacks of might. You can even then Arcane Wave blast to grant 3 more stacks of might. If your allies need heals, instead swap to Water attunement, lay down Healing Rain, then swap to Earth attunement and roll into your Healing Rain for a blast finisher, then Arcane Wave for yet another blast finisher, for massive burst heals.

If you find yourself in Earth attunement with other attunements off cooldown, you can use Eruption (Earth 2) to create a Delayed Blast Finisher, then place a combo field on top of Eruption. Your choices are Lava Font (Fire Field for might), Frozen Ground (Ice Field for Frost Aura), and Healing Rain/Geyser (Water Field for burst heals).

Your best pure DPS rotation is probably staying in Fire Attunement and using 2 and 3 off cooldown while auto attacking, though it really won’t get you that far compared to a melee set.

In the end, if you’re really set on Staff, I’d suggest looking to other things the staff can do, such as its copious combo fields and various utility stuff (AoE stun is nice on trash). If you’re set on DPS, I’d really suggest looking at another class, or switching to almost any other weapon set the Ele has.

Disagree on both post.

The main problem with staff fire dps oriented build is that you waste a large portion of staff support potential by spending so much energy into buffing Fire Attunement while still doing a lot less damage than Scepter build.

About the details:
1- There is a logical failure into picking Elemental Attunement and 2 Fire only traits
2- Air attunement skills with staff do terrible dps and isnt worth spending a trait (even Zephyrs Boon for Blast in Ice Field is better)
3- Skipping Vital Strike in water is a major dps loss
4- Fire branche is one of the worste trait line to spend points in unless you rely heavily on Condition Duration

All in all, if you really want to single element dps I would build 30/30/0/10/0 but I seriously wouldnt play staff for this kind of build.

If you want a staff oriented dps build (not justanother bangwagon arcane/water cantrip crap) I would aim for a 10/25/0/15/20 that at least offers you more intelligence, blasting staff, vital strike, amd healing ripple.

As for utilities your choices are fine. Glyph of Storms in Earth is amazing, Signet of Fire passive is must-have for dps and Ether Renewal heals a lot and allows to skip condition cleanse water traits. I would however use Arcane Wave for another blast finisher as Heal or Might tool instead of Arcane Blast.

As an elementalist myself, I love the staff, but I love it for its strengths that include control and AOE’s.

I run this:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|6.1g.h1h|0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.71h.1c.71h.1c.71g.1c.71g.1c.b1h.1c.b1h|411.d1e.211.d1e.311.d1e.211.d1e.311.d1e.2s.d1e|0.p36.0.p56.k58|1b.7|1m.1v.21.23.29|e

I take no credit for the build, as I was inspired by another post somewhere, I just tweaked it to my needs. I run it in PvE and WvW. use more berserker trinkets if you want more offence, i just felt lazy and used celestial for more survivability.

That is, when I am not running my D/D build (almost pure knights gear)

thanks for all the input everyone!