Guild Wars 2

I’ve been using staff ele for as long as I can think of, and with the new changes everything is all screwed up.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-o;4R0VX0A5oNkY0;9;403G;0036256156;46J;1R;0udbTudbTNBG74;2Fb-V1-60B1G2LZR_6Z-870HV8aNX8a;9;9;9;9;9;4VRs8h

This is my new take on my old build.

I wanted to create a decent build that I didnt have to swap attunements to much and, could do general gameplay. The build isnt really specialized for one part of the game.

Just wanted to to know constructive thoughts on the build.

PLEASE do not reply with a nasty comment.

With air you can take Aeromancer’s Training for better precision, or Inscription for when youre in a fight with alot of close range dodging.

Swap to One with Air in air line for long distance runs then just swap in and out of air.

The build heavily relys on Fiery Greatsword for fights where staff isnt enough, and theres a few traits that help that sword.

Place lavafont down as much as possible, and aim it well. With the last trait of fire line you should be able to 100% uptime on lavafont. Actually you should be able to over lap lavafonts by 2 seconds.

Not sure if they removed the fields being larger in the fire traits, as it doesnt specifically say that they are bigger, but i dont see a different or huge difference in size from pre specialization update.

The idea is to stay in staff and dps things down with lavafont.

If you cant afford scholar runes, flame legion runes are pretty good budget choice.

Any food that fits your style will be fine, but I use whats in the build link to boost crit.

Having the ascended staff doesnt make a HUGE difference but it does help.

Let me know guys. Also what we could name this build.

edit
After testing lavafont uptime, you can 100% uptime lavafont but you cannot overlap them.

edit 2
Also the utility skills are up to you, they are all useful in their own situation.

If you want more damage modifiers and don’t plan to move around in attunements, why not go Water for the damage modifier from Aquamancer’s Training?

Overall is pretty spot-on for pve.

Bountiful power or elemental surge instead of evasive arcana. Probably bountiful power.

There is also an option to take water traits(piercing shards and aquamancer training) instead of arcana to use on icebow. So your rotation becomes earth(eruption), air (glyph of storms), water cast and use icebow then drop, fire lava font and auto.

From a PvE standpoint, this is missing a couple things:

1) Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Wave. For PvE, those are basically mandatory for most fights as the Blast finishers are pretty much necessary. The Signet of Air isn’t that necessary for boss fights (thought useful for getting around).

2) Elemental Surge over Evasive Arcana. EA is really good in PvP, but in PvE…not so much. This gives you 150 Ferocity and lower CD on Arcane skills, so keeping the buff up is now even easier. Bountiful Power might be an option, but I’d say that Surge beats out power as you’ll have enough crit with a zerker set up to make the nice crit bonus outweigh the usual amount of boons (Vigor, Might, and Fury). Plus, again…more blast finishers.

3) Sigil of Force over Bloodlust. Honestly, as an Ele, I’m too squishy for Bloodlust to stay up long enough to be greater than force. Plus Force is another damage modifier so it actually gives more than 5% damage.

Those are suggestions, but overall, I think this build nails the basics for a staff build.

It is possible to overlap lava fonts, by a good one second.

And the theory confirms this:
4s reduced cd
0.4s cast time
=4.4s real reduced cd
6s duration
= 1.6s overlap

Of course this is not going to happen so perfectly because of latency and other casting oddities, but I tested and overlapping is actually possible.

You don’t need air signet because the adept minor in air is basically a built-in air signet.

robertul.3679:

You don’t need air signet because the adept minor in air is basically a built-in air signet.

I still use it even with air trait line since it’s low cd stun break and a blind, but that goes more for pvp.

Fun dmg for WvW, just different utilities and small trait changes, have to be careful positioning though.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-o;4R0VX0A5oNkY0;9;403G;0036256157;45J;1N;0udbTudbTNBG74;2Fb-V1-60B1G2LZR_6Z-870HV8aNX8a;9;9;9;9;9;4VRs8l

Heres a new build based on suggestion.

Neko.9021:

If you want more damage modifiers and don’t plan to move around in attunements, why not go Water for the damage modifier from Aquamancer’s Training?

You could but I love the aoe and pure raw power of fire. I might make up another community suggested build around water, though I was never really good at the water trait line (suggestions)

robertul.3679:

Overall is pretty spot-on for pve.

Bountiful power or elemental surge instead of evasive arcana. Probably bountiful power.

There is also an option to take water traits(piercing shards and aquamancer training) instead of arcana to use on icebow. So your rotation becomes earth(eruption), air (glyph of storms), water cast and use icebow then drop, fire lava font and auto.

Wanna make a quick variation of this build for the community? This build is meant to be a starter build for the community to go with where they want to thats why I left it so open for choice on utility skills and such.

Fade.1743:

From a PvE standpoint, this is missing a couple things:

1) Arcane Brilliance and Arcane Wave. For PvE, those are basically mandatory for most fights as the Blast finishers are pretty much necessary. The Signet of Air isn’t that necessary for boss fights (thought useful for getting around).

2) Elemental Surge over Evasive Arcana. EA is really good in PvP, but in PvE…not so much. This gives you 150 Ferocity and lower CD on Arcane skills, so keeping the buff up is now even easier. Bountiful Power might be an option, but I’d say that Surge beats out power as you’ll have enough crit with a zerker set up to make the nice crit bonus outweigh the usual amount of boons (Vigor, Might, and Fury). Plus, again…more blast finishers.

3) Sigil of Force over Bloodlust. Honestly, as an Ele, I’m too squishy for Bloodlust to stay up long enough to be greater than force. Plus Force is another damage modifier so it actually gives more than 5% damage.

Those are suggestions, but overall, I think this build nails the basics for a staff build.

I have changed the sigils on the weapons (see build link above and went with ES instead of EA) Though lets keep it open that bountiful power is still a good trait in some situations.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

It is possible to overlap lava fonts, by a good one second.

And the theory confirms this:
4s reduced cd
0.4s cast time
=4.4s real reduced cd
6s duration
= 1.6s overlap

Of course this is not going to happen so perfectly because of latency and other casting oddities, but I tested and overlapping is actually possible.

I wasnt able to produce a 1.6s overlap but I couldve been lagging. The math says your correct but I couldnt produce two fields at once. Could be possible.

robertul.3679:

You don’t need air signet because the adept minor in air is basically a built-in air signet.

I left traits pretty open to your own suggestion. These traits arent even the ones I use, I normally use arcana skills + signet of air + signet of fire. This build is meant to be left open for a basis for people who want to branch off to their own play style. I personally use signet of air for world completion, once i get 100% map completion (like i did on my ele) i hardly ever used it.

Its also worth noting that It may be good to switch to a sigil of speed for map completion to do away with signet of air. In PVE map completion the sigils dont make to huge of a difference, and sigil of speed can produce some pretty nice uptimes on swiftness (ive had up to 3.45 minutes on 33% swiftness from the sigil). Just swap out accuracy sigil for speed on staff.

Atoss.1056:

Fun dmg for WvW, just different utilities and small trait changes, have to be careful positioning though.

Mind sharing your WvW / PvP build version of this build?

Love the great suggestions guys, Would love to see some build variants of what you would play personally based off this. My idea was to come up with a build that everyone can use as a gateway build or even as a permanent build for something you change up yourself.

Coder Dad

Izikeo.3287:

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

It is possible to overlap lava fonts, by a good one second.

And the theory confirms this:
4s reduced cd
0.4s cast time
=4.4s real reduced cd
6s duration
= 1.6s overlap

Of course this is not going to happen so perfectly because of latency and other casting oddities, but I tested and overlapping is actually possible.

I wasnt able to produce a 1.6s overlap but I couldve been lagging. The math says your correct but I couldnt produce two fields at once. Could be possible.

Try to do it by including the auto-attack in between each lava font cast.
The idea is that you need to queue up spells while you cast lava font so that the cooldown delay bug does not occur. So essentially: mash 1 as much as possible, cast 2 as soon as it is ready.