Guild Wars 2

Let me start by saying I spend most of my time in WvW. Ive done
this on a 80 level Warrior and Ele, both fully geared and in many
different trait specs. After 3 months of playing, my favorite is still
a Staff Elementalist.

I understand there are many variations and opinions on doing things,
but this is what works best for me. It may be useful to other staff Eles.

Here is my build and setup:

Fire (30): Internal Fire, Burning Precision, Ember’s Might
Air (30): Quick Glyphs, Bolt to the Heart, Inscription
Water (10) : Vital Striking

Full Berserker gear with Ruby Orbs, and Berserker Trinkets.

Healing Skill: Glyph of Elemental Harmony
Utility 1: Glyph of Storms
Utility 2: Signet of Earth
Utility 3: Mist Form
Elite: Glyph of Elementals
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With that aside, let start by saying why this setup does not work
for many users: Lack of map awareness.
I cant stress that enough. While traveling and during battles, I am
ALWAYS aware of whats going on around me, and even more importantly,
possible escape routes if things go bad.

Let me break down some highlights into:

1) With this build, you have permanent swiftness which was important
to me. When you pop Windborne Speed + Glyph of Elemental Harmony
(while in air form), the duration is longer than the next CD on glyph. Actually,
if you start these off, and keep using both the second their CD is up, the duration
keeps going up (try it, ive gotten duration up to over 1 minute).

2) I used to think Glyph of Storms stunk, but not after researching it. The water
one last 5 seconds, air 6 seconds, and fire and earth both 10 seconds. Ive tested
all of the extensively in the mists. Oddly enough, on a single target, air was getting
ONE hit on a target during the duration, while water was just as bad at 3 his. Earth
and Fire were both 9 hits average.

The only one I use is the Earth one because it is SICK! Does the same burst damage
as fire, but then adds bleed and blind on enemies. One of my favorite spells, and
the blind is applied every 3 seconds so it can really affect a battle.

I used this skill in place of Arcane Blast because my auto attack in fire does more
damage!

3) When traveling in the open world, I switch out to Scepter/Dagger to use
Ride the Lightning. This combined with the swiftness insures that I do not
get caught in the open.

4) Vital Striking. There is no details on this one on wiki, so I tested this one
myself by averaging 100 autoattacks before and after picking this trait (used
the heavy armor dummy in the mists). The difference was exactly 10%. This is
a massive damage bonus, which is real nice when hiding behind walls during a
siege. Once you start mastering map and battle awareness, you will get hit
allot less, thus having this up more.

5) As an alternative to Vital Striking, sometimes I use Piercing Shards. Why? Beleive
it or not, Ice Spike does MORE than Meteor Shower! In fact, over 2k more per hit
with this trait.

Always know whats going on around you, and always have an idea on where you
are going to escape to if things go bad. Get a feel for your CDs, and cycle through
your AOEs to stack an area. This never gets old. Last night, my Ice Spikes were hitting
for 5-7k (highest was 8200 last night). Now imagine that with Earthquake and
Meteor Storm going on.

There are many tools at your disposal with a staff, and you need to master them all.
Examples (in no particular order):

Are you fleeing someone?
Burning Retreat, Frozen Ground, Windborne Speed, Static Field, Unsteady Ground

Are you chasing or trying to slow someone?
Signet of Earth Trinket, Frozen Ground, Static Field, Unsteady Ground,
Shockwave (Immobilizes)

Are you trying to protect your siege or your walls vs siege?
Magnetic Aura

Do your allies need help?
Healing Rain (notice that this also cures a condition every 3 seconds)

AOE damage
Lava Font, Meteor Shower, Ice Spike, Eruption
—————————————————————————————————————————————————

For single target nukes (which I do ALLOT), I use Signet of Earth > Lava Font >
Flame Burst > Fire auto attack (do over 2k crit each)

Long post, but so much more I could talk about. The more I play an Ele this way,
the more fun I have. It never gets old seeing a 2-3 AOE spell rotation go off
and seeing 5 people drop (check out the total damage done when using Glyph
of Storms in earth attunement, you would be surprised). Im always amazed at
the damage of Ice Spike alone in this build.

I know there will be many people thinking “if I caught you, you would be dead in
1 hit.” Sure, its a glass cannon spec, but if combined with an intelligent playstyle,
you can avoid being caught in open (not many roamers on my realm). And with
Ride the Lightning and swiftness, its RARE if I get run down. Once again, the key
is to stay with numbers, if small numbers. Im not concerned about 1 v 1 fighting,
I want to be mage sneaking around the fringes of the fight but dropping the
serious damage (many people are caught off by the mass spike damage and are
not prepared for it. It drops them before they even get concerned about running out).

Hope some of you users have learned something new, I know the information on
the Glyph of Storms is unknown by many. Ive enjoyed this MUCH more than a
d/d ele because I got sick of feeling like a tank. Oh yea, and always missing badges
and loot since I had to be on the move!

Oh yea, I personally dont use Blasting Staff. It only affects 7 of the 20 abilities,
and even though I like the increase in Lava Font, I dont find it worth it in my
playstyle.

In addition, never underestimate chain lighting (auto attack in air). Even with
two targets, the first one hit will get hit twice (the bounce after the second hit).
Even that auto attack can see crits over 2k. This is especially useful when fighting
Mesmers since it destroys their illusions very quickly.

So Ice spike applies the vulnerability first, then piercing shards multiplies the damage after? Or are you getting the vulnerability on the target some other way?

When I use it, it relies on the first one to apply the 5 stacks, so the second
one does allot more damage. Especially useful during siege defense since
90% of the players dont move out of it.

Good to know. Therefore vital striking is better if you’re counting on first strike, but if you know you can get a second or third ice spike on target, then shards.

Neat info. It’s nice to know someone is researching builds other than d/d. And it seems to me that each build requires a particular talent to play properly. For d/d, it’s reflexes, fast thinking. For staff, apparently it’s situational awareness. I’m looking forward to someone figuring out scepter/focus.

Tonight Ive been trying Signet of Fire in place of the the Signet
of Storms. I find the 900 range on the latter more of a hinderance.

The Signet of Fire only has a 20 sec CD and does 3663 damage
so it is hard to pass up for single targets that have an escape
(after your nuke).

More and more Im relying on Chain Lightning, especially in
battles that are really bogged down (low FPS). When in doubt,
I use that since its hitting up to 3 targets for nice damage
(or 2 targets for 3 hits total).

Thunderbrew, you bring up several good points. I want to use my elementalist in WvW similarly to what you suggest, designed to fight in large battles more than small skirmishes. It hadn’t occured to me how valuable the traits that increase damage against targets with x condition could be. But now that I think about it, there are not only MY application of conditions to think about, but also all my teammates. If there are 10 of us around, surely the enemy I’m attacking is going to be burning/bleeding/vulnerable a lot of the time, even if it’s not my doing.

I’ve shied away from a precision-heavy build in favor of a more balanced build. I found myself going down too quickly. Is your advice there simply “don’t get hit?” If so, how does your build deal with hostile conditions?

Have you taken a close look at Glyph of Elemental Power? I dismissed it at first, but with Quick Glyphs, it can be almost always up, and the chance to chill or cripple with any hit can be very useful in WvW.

Thanks for the info about Glyph of Storms. I had never taken the time to test them on a dummy. The conditions Earth provides are well worth knowing about!

When you’re travelling with scep/dag, isn’t the little jumpback that comes with your swiftness power annoying?

How do you get the most out of Mist Form and Vapor Form? I don’t do a good job of surprising my enemies with these, and they normally just track me down.

Will Magnetic Aura repel a treb shot?

How much do you value your combo fields? I was fighting the Claw of Jormag yesterday and saw that if I simply put down my fields in front of the clot of players on the corner, I was granting regeneration to more than 5 people, or burning, vulnerability or whatever. Do you do anything special to take advantage of your fields, or are they just a fringe benefit?

I know it can sound hard to beleive, but in a typical 4 hours run in WvW, I
average 3-4 deaths, but I also fight like a coward (have to). I stay with people,
and when fights start, Im always in the back. If you are separated from the crowd
you will get picked off. You need to spend most of your time looking at the
battlfield and watch for enemy reinforcements. If it is a losing battle, I will turn
and leave the battle. Once Im out of combat, I teleport back to WP.

The Glyph of Elemental Power is interesting, because it only has a 7 second
downtime in this spec. Im not sold on it though, since its affect stays locked
into the attunement you cast it from. Worse yet, its a CHANCE to proc the
effect on each cast.

What do you mean on the swiftness jumpback? I have not seen that with
Ride the Lightning (unless you are using Updraft).

With Mist Form, its not to surprise people. Its to escape a stun or mass AOE.
At least with my playstyle.

Magnetic Aura stops the siege projectile, it no longer reflects it.

I ALWAYS dump my combo fields before switching attunements. Its good
to review all of the. For example, Static Field and Frozen Ground are combo
fields, so you can throw either on your allies.

Ive been playing today with Arcane Blast, and its definitely what I am using
instead of the Signet of Fire (which is a bleed not burst). I was really impressed
with AB since its a 20 sec CD, and I did 4682 on a Keep Lord, while the highest
versus a player was 4613 so far.

My main focus is breaking the momentum of an attack as opposed to anything
else. Once Meteor Storm starts I quickly cast Frozen Ground and Ice Spike, than
go into earth and pop off Shockwave (immobilize) and Eruption. I really think
the quick AOE overlapping is underused by many players. The damage of the string
of AOE I just stated is massive, and will down most groups standing in it.

To my advantage, many players still stand in AOE or try walking out of it
(reminds me of the WOW days “stay out of the fire!”).

The key is knowing when to AOE or nuke a single person (especially a commander).

I was runing power tough vita ele from the begining of the game but mght try a glass cannon build.

Its definitely fun Knox, you just need to play much differently. My defense
is map awareness, which I think is a very undervalued habit. Ride the Lightning
is more than enough to not get caught in open while you are going over to the next
battle.

Another thing I forgot to mention, when trying to get into a keep the enemy
is attacking, put on a scepter focus and cast Obsidian Flesh. If thats not enough
Mist Form the rest of the way. Also can use Rock Barrier and Dust Devil since
you are already in earth attunement.

Chain Lightning is probably my most used skill, especially in fast paced battles
when you dont have time to get allot of AOE off. This is especially common
in 25+ zergs where everything dies right away in a camp. The damage on that
always impresses me.

Thunderbrew.7034:

What do you mean on the swiftness jumpback? I have not seen that with
Ride the Lightning (unless you are using Updraft).

I was referring to Updraft, which actually grants swiftness so I can (continue) running away. It bounces me back a little bit. I also have trouble clearing my target and quickly getting pointed the right direction before I Ride the Lightning, but that’s just a practice issue on my part.

Regarding the Glyph of Elemental Power, I like the fact that it locks on the attunement I had when I cast it, because I can pick what’s best for a situation. I can continue distributing chills or cripples in a WvW battle, or Weakness in a PvE battle where my side is outnumbered against lots of damage sources. It is only a chance, and for a short chill, but so much of GW2 is piecing together different bits from different allies to tilt the overall slant of a battle. That 2 seconds I chill someone may be enough for an ally to get the drop on them or catch up to them if they’re fleeing.

I like your advice about dropping fields on your allies. I’m going to try that. I just hit 80, and am now investing the time figuring out how best to be effective in WvW. I’m going to focus on thinking about my synergy with my allies more, and putting my allies in a field should be a part of that.

I dont even need Updraft for the swiftness. With the traits I have, when you
use the healing glyph, the duration on the boon equals the cooldown.

As far as the Glyph of Elemental Power, if you like it, use it. I just use
the three I have in too many situations to let them go. Arcane Blast for
nuking weak runners (this is instant cast so can be cast while channeling
something else), Signet of Earth for the toughness and the root in picking
people out of packs, and Mist Form for saving my bacon countless of times.

i been running 30/30/10/0/0 in full ruby zerker for a staff ele in WvW.
heal: signet of restoration
utility: glyph of storm, arcane shield, arcane blast
elite: tornado/take root

with this build u might consider using omnomberry ghost or similar food which provide life steal on crit. when u successfully cycle through some of ur aoes especially meteor storm and glyph of storm u can leech back a large portion of ur health. the extra precision boost for crit chance doesnt hurt either.
with signet of restoration and combine with omnom ghost, u basically leech back any dmg u take as u kill the enemy. usually as gc build ur either going to drop instantly, or u take only part of ur hp in hits, in which case the aoes u have previously set down should heal u right back up.

arcane shield is ur 1 counter for a glasscannon thief who jumps u. turn shield on, drop a lavafont under u, an arcaneblast+fireball+flameburst and that glasscannon thief is probably downed. i have gc thiefs that died just from 1 fireball, a lavafont and shield exploding just because i didnt move from the font and he tried to HS spam on the shield ontop of the font.

i also use sigil of fire on my wpn. if u want a burst for single target on this build, fireball+flameburst+lavafont+arcaneblast can dish out 10kish dmg within 2second. not the highest or most impressive burst but decent for a staff ele.

tornado while…sucky still have situational uses in disrupting enemies with the knockback. with the current culling it allows for a glasscannon ele to sometime dash up the front of zerg to drop aoes and get out alive, the same can apply for a tornado. invis tornado in enemy zerg is hilarious

I thought about the sigil of fire, and may do that for the AOE. Ive been
using the one that procs a lightning bolt (which Ive seen hit for big).

I have to say, last night was the best WvW night Ive had on my ele since the
start of the game. More specfically, one battle in particular that lasted 40 min.
We were holed up in the keep to the west of the garrison, and the enemy
was trebbing us from there. Myself and 2 other eles were rotating out focus
skill Swirling Winds to stop the treb from hitting the wall. This conjured up
mages in fantasy for me exerting their will on their environments.

When they realized that our wall was not being hit, they zerged the keep, numbering
over 40. The group I was with, around 25, bunkered down in the keep. When the
east wall went down, the enemy was trying to get through the chokepoint. By this
time, we had 4 arrow carts covering the hole.

Anyhow, I couldnt beleive what happened next. I stayed on the wall above the breach,
and rotated my AOE down in front of the gap for a battle lasting over 30 min! As I was
talking about in previous posts, it amazes me how many people stand in AOE, but
in their defense it is hard to see allot of AOE in those large battles.

I lost count after 40 loot bags, and it was by far the most kills I had to date. I will
never forget that fight and how it felt seeing people get slowed, dropped, nuked,
etc.

With the story aside, I did have a big problem last night: A smart and good Thief.
When we won the above battle, and pushed to the Garrison, this guy must have
dropped me 5 times, and I was in the MIDDLE of our zerg. He literally came in,
dropped me, and left. I actually was on edge the rest of the night, because in this
build his Steal alone was over 6k followed by a 8k backstab (Im not complaining
since I am all offense). Luckily, most thiefs dont play this strategically.

By the way, Arcane Blast is amazing when you keep it at the ready after a cycle
of AOE. Once you see your 2-3 spells pop off, watch for the targets with the
lowest health who lived and hit them with AB. Keep in mind, this skill has
a 1500 range, and it hits HARD.

Well i played with that setting from the pre-launch because Ele is hard to master and u really have to move and dodge and see what is happening on the map. But now i think i have to make it some changes, on set and runes probably.

I did in fact switch to the Sigil of Fire last night, and I am pleased with the
results. In extensive testing, it does a less than lightning, but it is hitting
multiple targets (up to 5 in radius). This compliments my chains of AOE.

Something else worth mentioning after playing all night: One of the benefits
of a GC staff ele is the lack of reaction time defenders get when you are
assaulting a keep. As you know, players step up to the ramparts, drop a skill,
than back off, with little time to drop them (unless a mesmer or thief pulls
them off). I cast Ice Spike, quickly switch to Fire and use the Signet of Earth.
Than cast lava font > fireblast > Arcane Blast. If that doesnt kill them, the massive
Ice spike does (one hit for over 8k last night, Im sure a lowbie but still).

In addition, defenders know Meteor Storm is a threat, but many times their
plans are to step into it long enough to get a skill off. What they are not ready
for is 2-3 hits of max damage.

When I am the defending player, I switch out Signet of Earth with Arcane Shield.
This allows me to pop it, step up to the ramparts, and drop a few key spells. If I am
pulled off (happens allot), I immediately pop Mist Form and get back into the
keep. As simple as it sounds, Im always 100% sure of where I am in relation to the
portal to insure that I get back in. Normally, I will not step up to the line of fire
unless Mist Form is up for this reason.

I did fall prey to Theives 5-6 times last night, who are specfically stealthing
into groups to drop people like me. My reaction time is improving on this,
and I was able to stop several attempts last night by immediately hitting
Mist Form, and when that ends, Lava Font and/or Static Field on me. Anything
to buy time for their stealth to fade. If I still dont see them, it has alerted the
people around me, and I follow up with everything I can AOE related.

That is about the only thing that I really have to watch out for with proper
positioning and map awareness. Even when I do get ganked, its still worth
the tradeoff to me compared to the kills I do vs the enemy.

Like i said on other post, im changing build from 30 Fire, 10 Air and 30 Arcana to 30 Fire, 20 Air, 10 Water and 10 Arcana. Im also going to change my jewels. Was using Knight, gonna go with ruby. More dps sounds good.

What can you tell me about the range on those sigils that say “nearby opponents?” I believe the Sigil of Fire you’re talking about is one.

Sigil of Fire (on weapon) is a decent range. Test it on target dummies
in Mist.

Sigil of fire does not say “nearby opponents”. The flame blast hits opponents nearby to the target, but the target can be at range (I do not know what max range).

But for most sigils and abilities that do say “nearby opponents”, do not count on them working outside melee range.

True enough, but if you are focusing on AOE, that will still do more
damage to multiple enemies.

I use a staff ele in wvw.

I have the exotic gear from HotW, 5 Superior runes of the Eagle and 1 Superior rune of Baelfire. I have exotic berserker accessories two with Chrysocola and the rest Rubies. My staff is only a masterwork staff that dropped for me.

I usually use Signet of Fire, Arcane Blast, and Mist Form.

I’m going to try and implement some of the information from this thread but I have never on my best day done more than 3k against a player. Most of the time enemies stand in my aoe but rarely take damage. I basically use the same strategies as you’ve outlined but I’ve never won a 1v1 encounter or been able to escape a melee player. I’ve hit spiders for 110k but they had it coming….lol

Well, that’st it. Going to have to start leveling my Ele again. I’ve found that I’m just getting bored with the repetitive skills of the Warrior at this point. There are just so many things/strategies with the Ele that I can see myself enjoying it more.

You will see over 3k if you are specced max into glass cannon (Im at 3441 power,
58% crit and 109 to crit damage).

And yes, 1v1 is very hard with the spec against good players. I avoid 1v1 and
stick with groups.

Ive been starting to look for setups for Gust, and I had some
awesome events last night with it. We were attacking the garrison
via siege to the west (near the cliffs edge). When the enemy
came out to destroy the siege (15+), I waited in the back lines until
some of them got near the siege, and I used Gust at 1200 range to
knock a few of them over the edge.

In certain situations, you can also knock people off some of the towers.
On the ones where you can get on the side of the tower, when the
enemy steps up to the lip to cast (which you have to on allot of the
AOE spells), Gust them off.