Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!

I finally managed to get lvl 80, so now I wanted to try some WvW.
Can you show me a good build for zerg fights with staff?

You need to provide more information about your play style. Do you want damage, survival or CC? What race?

I am Human and I recently bought some Berserker gear, so I guess damage would be nice.
But it shouldn’t be too squishy so I can survive some hits ;-)

So I would prefer a good mix of damage and survivability.
Mainly I try to stand back and land some AoE on the enemy group.

0/30/0/20/20 lots of damage % increases and just make sure to bring a friend who does alot of cc that way your foes will actually stay in your aoe’s otherwise you’d better go for S/D or D/D. (for the very daring you could try focus).

Best I have found is WvW Bunker Staff Ele build via the google. Basically you go all P/V/T I run 0/0/30/20/20. Still get one shotted by thieves and melee still rush through to kick my butt quick. I use glyph of storms in earth attunement for the blindness and stacks of bleed.

My build is:
0/10/30/10/20

Air: Bolt to the Heart
Earth: Earths Embrace, Strength of Stone, Geomancers Freedom
Water: Vital Striking
Arcane: Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff

+20% damage from (Enduring damage and Vital Striking)
+10% damage while in Earth ( I find that I am in earth attunement more then the others. )
+20% damage if opponent health < 33%

Utilities:
glyph of Elemental Harmony (switch to earth and cast to get about 10secs (includes elemental attunement) of protection)
Arcane Wave (combo finisher Blast)
glyph of Storms (Water (cc) and Earth (AoE blind))
Radiation Field (Asura racial – combo field poison that lasts 15 secs)
Tornado (combo finisher Whirl)

Most important thing is learn what combo fields and finishers you are capable of doing.

I’m still running the old 0/10/0/30/30. The air adept traits are mostly mediocre for my setup so I used bolt to the heart since it seems better than zephyr’s boon (only one aura). Water traits are sort of up to you, but I went cleansing wave, arcane abatement/soothing disruption/cantrip mastery (depending on if I need fall reduction), cleansing water. Arcane traits that I use are Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff, Evasive Arcana.

Utilities: Arcane Wave, Mist Form, Armor of Earth
Elite: Tornado (really whatever you want on here)

One thing you need to be aware of with staff elementalist is that while you can perma swiftness, you should try to have windborne speed available during combat since it cures immobilized, chilled, and crippled. The build probably isn’t really optimal anymore, but the trait point layout works pretty well regardless of weapon setup, so I’m still using it. That way I can switch to D/D (Daphoenix’s build that has the same point allocation) for roaming without having to retrain.

Either way if you’re running staff, you should have at least 20 points into arcane for blasting staff.

You will need damage for your aoe but also survivability for your character too. Elementalists seem to be popular targets in WvW. Melee classes will come after us and ranged will target us too. I guess this makes alot of sense, especially given the speed by which they move back out of our aoe circles.

I would recomend Arcane Shield so you can finish channeling your skills and Cleansing Fire for clearing the conditinos that are going to build up during the same. Glyph of Elemental Power has been my third skill for awhile now. Procing Crippling or Chilled on an aoe Meteor Storm is pretty good when you get a chance to lay that down on players in melee combat. Burning and Weakness aren’t half bad either, especially with the improvement to Weakness. Fireball and Chain Lightning are our two autoattacks that have an aoe radius too when our other aoes are on cooldown.

The key is, our range is not necessarily as great as it looks. We want the opposing players in all of our aoe, and that means we have to get up much closer than our 1200 range would indicate. The further the other player has to run to get out of the aoe, the more damage we do and the more damage our front line melee players can do to someone who has their back turned. Getting up closer promotes us as a great target of opportunity of course.

I carry only 15 in water but that gives me W5, Cleansing Wave. Together with Evasive Arcana that is two more condition removals and other additional healing. I don’t underestimate HOTs skills and traits and always have some regen going which adds up to alot over several minutes. I rarely have to stop dps to get out of range and heal. As a matter of fact, using the downed skill Vapor Form is a great way to get to the back line and get half our health back in quick time and that is just how far away from them I often am.

In order for a staff ele to be effective, the dps has to be significant imo. And, to do that best we have to get close and be survivable in my experience. (Having hot keys close at hand for target nearest and target next is something I think you will find very useful.)