Guild Wars 2

Staff can do everything except PvP 1v1s. It also offers more combo fields and long-range AoE DPS than any other class/weapon in the game.

I feel like x/D and x/F (F?, what’s that?) can be played very well but don’t offer anything that can’t be matched or outmatched by another class.

If staff allows us to be the best at something, doesn’t that make it our premier weapon? I’ve always built around staff because otherwise I felt like I was only providing mediocre versions of everything to my group, be it PvE, WvW or sPvP.

Have I made too many assumptions? Anyone have something to say in favor of our other weapon sets (apart from staff’s inability to 1v1)?

Even though D/D bunker build has seen some nerfs and isn’t as strong as it used to be, it’s still borderline OP. I can still charge head first into a 30 man zerg, blow all my cooldowns, mist form, RTL, heal up, and run. The survivability is ridiculous. Scepter dagger is also a very viable option, best ranged damage in the game in a PvP environment. The only weapon set that still sucks is x/focus. Hopefully that will change soon.

I find staff to be crazy fun when facing zergs in WvWvW or taking out catas and arrow carts with meteor shower then running. It’s decent for small groups too, but zerg is where it’s at. I can heal up my team and tear people to shreds at the same time

It’s a complicated topic that can’t easily be boiled down into Staff is better than any other choice.

In Zerg WvW play Staff has a lot going for it. I have cast a Static Fields that have literally routed or caught entire Zergs in it basically stopping their entire advance or causing them to get clustered up prematurely. Not a zerg stopped another zerg, but one player with 1 ability stopped 20+ people. Combined with Frozen Ground it’s undeniably a powerful utility tool that when enough Elementalists are using it can make or break a battle. Facing Static Field alone has made me switch from using Mist Form to Armor of Earth because it’s just that kitten annoying to go up against when two Zergs clash. Dropping down Water Fields for people to blast finish into for healing is also extremely clutch even if you are 100% offensively geared with zero healing.

However damage component wise Staff is largely mediocre on the move and really relies on Chain Lightning auto attack to deal damage on the go because Fireball’s projectile is easy fooled and Field based damage won’t ever tick for more than 1 tick on the go. All of those are projectiles and subject to reflect which is quite common in big groups. The field based attacks are okay when zergs clash, but the stop-and-cast nature of Meteor Shower really leaves it in a position best when attacking walls or defending an area.

On the other hand Dagger play is amazing in a Zerg because Dagger/ is full of close range PBAOE and Cone attacks designed to be up close and surrounded by targets with no real central target to focus on. Scepter’s damage is almost the reverse of Staff with its’ damage mostly being single target in many attunements with still having some AOE (such as Fire is heavy AOE, Arc Lightning chains through targets, etc).

The most challenging part about Staff is the sheer lack of defenses it brings to the table for the Elementalist personally. While it can kick out fields like Static Field or Frozen Ground on a large scale these rarely help the Elementalist survive the dive. At most you’re looking at is movement impairment removal (with Windborne Speed) and projectile Reflect. This is also what makes it virtually impossible to play in a 1v1 scenario against a decent opponent since you’re entirely reliant on your Utility for defenses.

Again, using /D will give you any number of defensive options at your command from Earthquake (Knockdown) to Frost Aura (Reactive Chill and 10% reduction in dmg) and Cleansing Wave (AOE Heal and Condition Removal) as well as of course the staple Ride the Lightning to get out or Updraft to interrupt and evade away. Focus is more like Staff in that there’s very few defenses associated with it so it’s hardly worth mentioning outside of a few situations. Swirling Winds can be good protection for downing people since most downed abilities are Projectiles.

Long story short is any competent group will bring multiples of each Elementalist. D/D play is extremely powerful for a Zerg as well as Staff as well. Most Guild groups tend to run with both. They all really kinda have a role and place except for Focus and that’s because /Dagger just shines so much better than Focus that it makes Focus a non factor.

Donut.6914:

Even though D/D bunker build has seen some nerfs and isn’t as strong as it used to be, it’s still borderline OP. I can still charge head first into a 30 man zerg, blow all my cooldowns, mist form, RTL, heal up, and run. The survivability is ridiculous. Scepter dagger is also a very viable option, best ranged damage in the game in a PvP environment. The only weapon set that still sucks is x/focus. Hopefully that will change soon.

I can burning speed in, do ridic aoe damage, obsidian flesh, lightning flash out heal up and run.

I find d/d very lacking tbh.

I play with focus a lot, and apart from the lack of mobility it is great!
(hint: focus stacks might much better than off-hand dagger)

???