Guild Wars 2

+pow +prec +con dmg

or

+pow +prec +cri dmg

or

others

Thank you.

get a berserker’s set. with that setup, you’ll be dead as soon as anyone draws a bead on you anyway, so why not try and deal as much damage as you can before that?

unless you’ve got sigils of earth or something, 95% of your damage in WvW is coming from direct damage: you meteor shower… though I don’t recommend going only fire element nor choosing to go either rampager’s or berserker’s sets. your damage output would suck if you only used fire element, and you’d be pretty much useless if not for that meteor shower.

an elementalist’s extremely good in WvW: with staff, you’ve got a huge radius AOE slow, up to 3 AOE heals, a line that slows all opponents that cross it, 2 AOE DoT spells and two AOE direct damage spells, an AOE snare and a line snare, a knockback, a blind, and just about all of your spells have 1200 range. an elementalist alone can hold a chokepoint indefinitely in WvW. WvW is the only thing elementalists excel at. why let all this potential go to waste and use only meteor shower?

elementalists’ damage output is terrible compared to that of other classes. however, we can deal the same amount of damage to almost unlimited numbers of mobs as we can deal to a single mob… and in WvW, where large battles are a common occurrence and the battlefield is strewn with the bodies of noobs-aplenty, this is where we shine.

i’ve seen countless noobs try to walk through 50 feet worth of slows and an entire length of meteor shower+ lava font +eruption + ice spike. i’ve seen myself deal 10k damage per second in WvW and my WvW KDR is somewhere around 10-15 all THANKS to the many control abilities we’ve got at our disposal. don’t let those go to waste. :P

now, if you’re going to go try sPvP, it’s totally different. dual daggers, dagger/focus, and scepter/focus with a soldier’s set is better for 1v1 dueling, and smart element juggling means you can still beat thieves who mindlessly spam heartseeker all day, no matter how disadvantaged people say we are in the matchup.

well, i went off on a tangent. personally, i just go with power + toughness + vitality gear. it won’t make you tanky, but it’ll keep you alive long enough to control the battlefield… and that’s what makes you useful to the team. sure, you might be able to land a few shots that perhaps might deal 30% more damage, but really, if you wanted damage output, you wouldn’tve picked elementalist in the first place.

Elementalists cannot hold a chokepoint alone unless it’s against the countless noobs you’ve mentioned.

Once you hit your cooldowns it’s time to get out of Dodge, if they haven’t rolled over your Unsteady Ground and walked around your Stasis Field and Frozen Ground has worn off maybe one or two are hurting. Or perhaps your Meteor Shower just nuked you via a Retaliation buff. And that’s only talking Melee!

1500 Ranger and Engineer spam is enough to drive you back and if you’re still standing at 1200 after that, well you’re enemy Elemental fodder after Magnetic Shield has worn off.

But all in all you are correct, WvW is one of the only places I feel like I get to use my Staff to it’s full potential when not fighting NPC’s.

Regarding the OP go with power, prec, crit damage but at least use SOME +vit and +toughness in your accessories. Regarding your build you’ll likely be 30 Fire and 20 Arcane leaving you with another 20 to spread around how you feel comfortable but that’s for you to decide.

If you’d like to maximize your dps while using a staff, I’d recommend +crit damage over +con. It seems like +con is better suited for the other weapon types.

I’ve been doing an awful lot of WvW with full power\precision\critdmg gear over the course of 3 weeks. Surprisingly, I had great success with it, even when engaged with 1v1 against lvl80 thieves\warriors\guardians. In my opinion, this set of stats is the only way to actually influence the battlefield, as you will hit like a jelly hammer otherwise. The most important trick, in my opinion, is to know when to use magnetic aura. I can assure you, this is the best skill an ele has in WvW. It will enable you to drop fully-channeled meteor showers with the support of frozen ground and static field. This combo can easily destroy multiple lvl80 targets, or at least make them pull back. Plus, magnetic aura has made thieves, rangers and warriors to kill themselves multiple times in my experience.

I would also advise you to consider adopting Lightning Flash, Signet of Earth and Mist form as utility skills. Blink allows you to escape immobilizes or chase enemies, signet of earth is much more efficient than Shockwave as CC, and mist form is quite obvious.

I do not consider this to be the most efficient choice, but I do use etheral renewal as my healing spell due to it’s ability to remove almost unlimited amount of conditions. There is extreme joy to witness 3+ immobilizes to be wasted on you while you channel the skill and retreat to safety.

As for the elite skill, we simply do not have better option than tornado in WvW. It is very situational, but can be invaluable when defending or assaulting bridges, cliffs and so on. Paired with full berserker’s set it can even net you several kills in an open space, although this will require your opponents to be unskilled.

I use +MF.

Make the most out of that pile of bags! :P

MarzAttakz.9608:

Elementalists cannot hold a chokepoint alone unless it’s against the countless noobs you’ve mentioned.

Once you hit your cooldowns it’s time to get out of Dodge, if they haven’t rolled over your Unsteady Ground and walked around your Stasis Field and Frozen Ground has worn off maybe one or two are hurting. Or perhaps your Meteor Shower just nuked you via a Retaliation buff. And that’s only talking Melee!

1500 Ranger and Engineer spam is enough to drive you back and if you’re still standing at 1200 after that, well you’re enemy Elemental fodder after Magnetic Shield has worn off.

But all in all you are correct, WvW is one of the only places I feel like I get to use my Staff to it’s full potential when not fighting NPC’s.

the thing is, in WvW, the brashness of opponents is well expected. many seem to believe that they are safe in numbers (even if meteors are raining down around them and they’re snared around a field of slows) and thus are as predictable as PVE mobs. use this to your advantage, and you can net at least a kill credit per minute.

to avert the obvious problems that rangers and engis present, two arcane shields + armor of earth means you can lose 75% of your HP and still continue to channel your combo. the only problem with recovery would be that staff’s water element’s heals aren’t too great. 4, 5k tops in an optimal situation… though they’re usually enough for you to get away from a sticky situation :P