Guild Wars 2

I have been playing SPVP non stop since the last patch and I’d say ive been loving it ever since. Ive tried out different builds and classes (have all been doing pretty good on my necro and warrior but what really shines for me is the pure DPS ele. Ive been maining ele since the beginning and been using it extensively in PvE, PvP and WvW.

Out of all the classes ive played, glass spec staff eles had created the most amount of rage in both solo and team queue. My guild/friends have taken out full out dragon/pheonix groups with this guy and winning/turning team fights but the hate it generates for me is even more than when im playing mm or terrormancer builds XD. They’ve called it a noob no skill build, this is not WvW call outs and calling us flat out cowards when we refusing to 1v1 thieves or other classes (which is a really bad idea to begin with when playing glass staff eles) while their faces are flat on the ground.

I just want to have a shout out to my fellow staff eles in spvp. I seriously feel eles are on a good spot now in spvp both d/d and staff variants. Your more fragile than a wet tissue paper and a freakin thief magnet, but hell with the right positioning/team play you can be a much wipe them all accross the board.

I just cant seem to know where this hate is coming from? Even more than using the FOTM cheese builds XD

Yea I experienced that too on my first game as a staff zerker elementalist. *Found a way to one-shot warriors but that aside I thought it was very hurtful when a mesmer that beat me cleanly twice before got hit by two meteors, died and called me noob and eles are op etc etc.
I mean mesmers are on of spvp’s greatest fears. Elementalists die pretty much the moment they notice where you are but mesmers can out dps, cloak and run away from anything. The hard counter to them is just AoE’s which we just happen to have… I’m guessing they have no experience with how hard it can be to hit with AoE’s

There was even a time that a dragon Necro bunker was suprised he was downed by me while talking trash. Im pretty much surprised that when they get killed by an uncommonly used build they generate much more hate than usual

Speaking of PU mesmers/ Cloaked thieves, having superior AOE pressure is a real hard counter to them. Just make sure someone has your back.

Usual thing I do when the obvious elementalist killers (Mesmer/thieves) come and get me, I run up to my teammates and try to shake them off while putting aoe pressure. It usually works and the 1v1 freaks gets kitten on my refusal to engage on 1on1 (which is not your job).

Its called freakin team arena for a reason.

I like it when they talk trash, especially when they say eles are “OP”
I just say learn to play your class better

I ran a glass staff ele, it was awesome but I felt ‘slow’ in spvp & tpvp so atm I’m just goofing on a d/d ele

I like glass canon staff ele a lot, I run it myself and posted something similar a couple of days ago:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/PvP-Staff-Ele-Post-15th-April-patch

true, even staff became slightly more viable after the latest patch.
Sadly, A.Net has a mysterious love for promoting skilless deadly builds (hambow war, PU/condimantra mesmer, spirit ranger, MM necro ecc).

Did any of you ever heard about that Ele placing in the Top 10 world pvp chart using a conditions based + Earth Shield conjurer build?
Me neither.

Grevender.9235:

Sadly, A.Net has a mysterious love for promoting skilless deadly builds (hambow war, PU/condimantra mesmer, spirit ranger, MM necro ecc)..

This would be because that’s what they run. Played a team that had 3 ANet and 2 pugs, the ANet devs were a minionmancer, a spirit ranger, and a hambow warrior.

I main a staff ele in PVP as well, I don’t play glass but I do love 1v1ing people and then killing them because they assume I’m a glass build/assumed I would be an easy kill because staff.

If you’re basically a meteor bot, then yes, but honestly that isn’t even a good build by any stretch of the imagination and shouldn’t be getting complaints.

If not, I can’t figure out what the heck they’re talking about. In PvP, eles are most definitely the class with the highest skillcap and highest skill requirement, and I would say that staff is probably the weapon with the highest skillcap even compared to d/d, because rotations aren’t quite as relevant (I find that d/d tends to rely on 1-3 rotations rather than improvisation, like you find more on the staff).
Scepter massive burst is the only setup I would think could really be said to have a low skillcap (to avoid confusion: I mean the instagib one person/40 seconds build, and then be useless for the rest of the fight), because it’s really just hit all of a few buttons as fast as you possibly can, stomp, then run.

If they’re talking about you not 1v1ing them, they’re just stupid. Not even for just staff eles, you should avoid 1v1s on every class. If you’re fighting fair you’re doing it wrong, because the measure of any good team is how often they can make sure fights are slated in their favor.
It goes without saying that you would have to be even more stupid to expect a 1v1 with one of the single worst 1v1 builds in the entire game (though I do occasionally give 1v1s to people if it isn’t a thief/mes/condi, because those really are the 1v1 builds and should be avoided at all costs if you’re not one of them).

Staff zerker ele is actually a very good build, and requires a lot of skill to not be constantly insta-gibbed by a burst profession. It can also carry a team if played well.

I laugh every time I wreck a thief b/c they are too impatient not to jump onto me while meteors are raining down from the sky, and then trying to stomp in that downed lava font. The build can definitely be played around, and isn’t very good 1v1 against patient/good opponents, but it can also do really well in soloQ.

People who are raging are probably just upset b/c they feel you should be an easy kill but are actually outplaying them!

BlackBeard.2873:

Staff zerker ele is actually a very good build, and requires a lot of skill to not be constantly insta-gibbed by a burst profession. It can also carry a team if played well.

I laugh every time I wreck a thief b/c they are too impatient not to jump onto me while meteors are raining down from the sky, and then trying to stomp in that downed lava font. The build can definitely be played around, and isn’t very good 1v1 against patient/good opponents, but it can also do really well in soloQ.

People who are raging are probably just upset b/c they feel you should be an easy kill but are actually outplaying them!

That, and when people get kitteny because I meteor + lava font all over a point that I’m not on, because they can’t just sit still on the point.

I’ve essentially stopped using my daggers after playing staff for long enough in PvE. In my bloodlust I even forget that I can have meteors unless I see three names to nuke. There’s so much that can be done on staff it’s not even funny. I can comfortably 1v1 warriors, thieves, guards, whatever because of how much CC staff can actually throw out all the while bursting them down. There is no better feeling than lightning flash gusting someone off a cliff or into your instagib AoEs.

yesterday i was playing with my team running this BUILD
I gotta say that is probably the most fun thing i ever did in pvp, finding spots to hide and dropping aoe in the circle!
To the people that insult me (i had a champion paragon whispering me for 15 minutes about how i am a phag and a noob and i will never win a 1v1, after we owned his team 500-70) i simply say that this is a game, and that we all have enough real life to rage about, gaming is about fun.
And btw, the build is pretty kitten hard to play, way more than a celestial DD or cleric bunker, because putting statics, unsteady grounds and other CCs or healing aoes in the right place is not that easy, and avoiding a fast burst from a thief or a mesmer is our main problem.
I think the only build with higher skill cap is the good old fresh air SD build.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Yea I experienced that too on my first game as a staff zerker elementalist. *Found a way to one-shot warriors but that aside I thought it was very hurtful when a mesmer that beat me cleanly twice before got hit by two meteors, died and called me noob and eles are op etc etc.
I mean mesmers are on of spvp’s greatest fears. Elementalists die pretty much the moment they notice where you are but mesmers can out dps, cloak and run away from anything. The hard counter to them is just AoE’s which we just happen to have… I’m guessing they have no experience with how hard it can be to hit with AoE’s

Well done! A slightly secretive ’mesmers are op and I r gud cus I r beat them!" post.

Mesmers cant outdps everything, mesmers cant stealth away from everything and one of their MAIN drawbacks are their lack of mobility, thus they can’t ‘run away’ from everything.

Mesmers are atm a jack of all trades, they can do pretty much anything.. moderately well. They’ll never outdps a thief, nor outstealth one and they’ll never successfully run away from a elementalist.

As for him calling you a noob? I’m not going to dispute his claim.
However the reason for him doing so? Utterly silly.

i used to be d\d ele and now trying the staff zerker build and starting like it , is true you are reealy squishy but you can too make every fight much easyer no you can stay inside the point when you active: lava font, meteor shower and ice storm

amaranthined.5167:

Grevender.9235:

Sadly, A.Net has a mysterious love for promoting skilless deadly builds (hambow war, PU/condimantra mesmer, spirit ranger, MM necro ecc)..

This would be because that’s what they run. Played a team that had 3 ANet and 2 pugs, the ANet devs were a minionmancer, a spirit ranger, and a hambow warrior.

this is sad over 9k :|

Flipside.4152:

the hate it generates for me is even more than when im playing mm or terrormancer builds XD.

try a terrormancer with minions, true hatred

Mijo.3274:

finding spots to hide and dropping aoe in the circle!

I wager this is the source of most of the hate. Ranged dps standing off point spamming aoe does deserve some hate. You aren’t much different from a nade engi in most people’s eyes. This is especially true for Niflhel and Silent Storm because a typical “hiding spot” at the mid point can be way too time consuming to reach. You’re basically immune to melee and some ranged attacks can have difficulty hitting you too. You might have more trouble than most builds when kitten hits the fans, but when things are easy for you it’s not like you’re working 5 times harder.

Liewec.2896:

Flipside.4152:

the hate it generates for me is even more than when im playing mm or terrormancer builds XD.

try a terrormancer with minions, true hatred

You mean that build that has no stunbreaks and is super-easy to burst? I don’t hate them at all!

Flipside.4152:

I have been playing SPVP non stop since the last patch and I’d say ive been loving it ever since. Ive tried out different builds and classes (have all been doing pretty good on my necro and warrior but what really shines for me is the pure DPS ele. Ive been maining ele since the beginning and been using it extensively in PvE, PvP and WvW.

Out of all the classes ive played, glass spec staff eles had created the most amount of rage in both solo and team queue. My guild/friends have taken out full out dragon/pheonix groups with this guy and winning/turning team fights but the hate it generates for me is even more than when im playing mm or terrormancer builds XD. They’ve called it a noob no skill build, this is not WvW call outs and calling us flat out cowards when we refusing to 1v1 thieves or other classes (which is a really bad idea to begin with when playing glass staff eles) while their faces are flat on the ground.

I just want to have a shout out to my fellow staff eles in spvp. I seriously feel eles are on a good spot now in spvp both d/d and staff variants. Your more fragile than a wet tissue paper and a freakin thief magnet, but hell with the right positioning/team play you can be a much wipe them all accross the board.

I just cant seem to know where this hate is coming from? Even more than using the FOTM cheese builds XD

What build is this? I just started Ele and have been loving D/D variants. I’d love to try this staff build. Can you post a build link?

Mijo.3274:

…
I think the only build with higher skill cap is the good old fresh air SD build.

Where is the big skill in mashing all possible buttons at once and one shorting people or be killed.
Its lame.. None of those one shot build needs much skill.
Skill is reacting to your enemy’s moves and taking the right decisions.
I never understood where the skill should be in one hitting anybody..

I play dd ele since beta BTW.

Astaso.4806:

Mijo.3274:

…
I think the only build with higher skill cap is the good old fresh air SD build.

Where is the big skill in mashing all possible buttons at once and one shorting people or be killed.
Its lame.. None of those one shot build needs much skill.
Skill is reacting to your enemy’s moves and taking the right decisions.
I never understood where the skill should be in one hitting anybody..

I play dd ele since beta BTW.

It really does depend, as there are several S/D FA builds, with scales of burstiness.
Some are actually skillful and require combos and good positioning, while one in particular just relies on macroing a specific combo to do 22k damage once per 40 seconds.
I still don’t think anything gets to staff level though, it gets its bad reputation from wvw and PvE.

Astaso.4806:

Mijo.3274:

…
I think the only build with higher skill cap is the good old fresh air SD build.

Where is the big skill in mashing all possible buttons at once and one shorting people or be killed.
Its lame.. None of those one shot build needs much skill.
Skill is reacting to your enemy’s moves and taking the right decisions.
I never understood where the skill should be in one hitting anybody..

I play dd ele since beta BTW.

If you say that you play DD since beta how can you argue about SD?
I tried almost every possible build ele could have, and i find SD fresh air the most difficult, i’ll explain you why:
-in DD you can refuel your life every 10 seconds in cleric, or get 50% of your life back in celestial, having a class that can self sustain that much make everybody a decent DD user, the combo is simply pushing button one after another and the only thing that is hard to drop is fire grab (3-4-5-F1-3-5) and if you fail to use the initial combo is not a big problem at all, you simply start the fight on par instead that with a good advantage. Most of the DD users have 3 cantrips: vigor, regeneration, stun breakers, stability, protection etc etc…
-SD fresh air on the other hand what offer? an initial opening combo that will NEVER kill an opponent if he is at full life, it will kill almost everything that is below 50% by the way, but your duty is the same as a thief IF you are bad. Being good with SD means that you’ll be able to sustain damage after using the combo, and be able to win 1v1, and believe me, is not that easy if you don’t have any condi removal, 1 stun breaker, 16k life and 1800 armor, and more important, you need to be sure that your combo will hit every time, so that means that you constantly need to watch: blinds, aegis, retaliation, possible LOS obstructions, defensive skills like protect me or defy pain, thieves around that could kill you in 2 seconds etc…
I personally use warrior, mesmer and ele, and i always found the “all or nothing” builds way harder than others, do you remember the frenzy 100b warriors from the Q1 of 2013? That build was for the most noobs out there, or for the most good. The difference was about be able to drop a lucky combo from time to time, or being a a death machine that could wreck anything in 3,5 seconds. WellSD fresh air is the same imo

Mijo.3274:

Astaso.4806:

Mijo.3274:

…
I think the only build with higher skill cap is the good old fresh air SD build.

Where is the big skill in mashing all possible buttons at once and one shorting people or be killed.
Its lame.. None of those one shot build needs much skill.
Skill is reacting to your enemy’s moves and taking the right decisions.
I never understood where the skill should be in one hitting anybody..

I play dd ele since beta BTW.

If you say that you play DD since beta how can you argue about SD?
I tried almost every possible build ele could have, and i find SD fresh air the most difficult, i’ll explain you why:
-in DD you can refuel your life every 10 seconds in cleric, or get 50% of your life back in celestial, having a class that can self sustain that much make everybody a decent DD user, the combo is simply pushing button one after another and the only thing that is hard to drop is fire grab (3-4-5-F1-3-5) and if you fail to use the initial combo is not a big problem at all, you simply start the fight on par instead that with a good advantage. Most of the DD users have 3 cantrips: vigor, regeneration, stun breakers, stability, protection etc etc…
-SD fresh air on the other hand what offer? an initial opening combo that will NEVER kill an opponent if he is at full life, it will kill almost everything that is below 50% by the way, but your duty is the same as a thief IF you are bad. Being good with SD means that you’ll be able to sustain damage after using the combo, and be able to win 1v1, and believe me, is not that easy if you don’t have any condi removal, 1 stun breaker, 16k life and 1800 armor, and more important, you need to be sure that your combo will hit every time, so that means that you constantly need to watch: blinds, aegis, retaliation, possible LOS obstructions, defensive skills like protect me or defy pain, thieves around that could kill you in 2 seconds etc…
I personally use warrior, mesmer and ele, and i always found the “all or nothing” builds way harder than others, do you remember the frenzy 100b warriors from the Q1 of 2013? That build was for the most noobs out there, or for the most good. The difference was about be able to drop a lucky combo from time to time, or being a a death machine that could wreck anything in 3,5 seconds. WellSD fresh air is the same imo

I played SD and staff too. Every good ele player should know what an ele is capable off.
I don’t say SD doesnt need skill. I talk of oneshot builds in general. And ele only have SD as a one shot build.

Or do you see that as big skill too instantly kill someone..?
For me thats not skill. Its lame. My opinion.

Mijo.3274:

-in DD you can refuel your life every 10 seconds in cleric, or get 50% of your life back in celestial, having a class that can self sustain that much make everybody a decent DD user. Most of the DD users have 3 cantrips: vigor, regeneration, stun breakers, stability, protection etc etc…

-SD fresh air on the other hand what offer? Being good with SD means that you’ll be able to sustain damage after using the combo, and be able to win 1v1, and believe me, is not that easy if you don’t have any condi removal, 1 stun breaker, 16k life and 1800 armor, and more important, you need to be sure that your combo will hit every time, so that means that you constantly need to watch: blinds, aegis, retaliation, possible LOS obstructions, defensive skills like protect me or defy pain, thieves around that could kill you in 2 seconds etc…

A lot of people completely forget about the support aspect of playing a d/d ele. That sustain isn’t just for you; every sustain trait is aoe. A really good d/d ele has to position himself to pressure enemies and heal/buff allies. Out of all the ele weapons, d/d requires the most role switching, battle awareness and positioning to be truly effective. If you’re attempting to bunker, it isn’t your job to use all your defensive tools as soon as possible. You’re supposed to hold on to them for as long as possible to minimize your periods of vulnerability or to use for better reasons than defending yourself. The objective best use for armor of earth or mist form is to guarantee a finish. If you need to use either of those utilities to defend yourself, you messed up. Also, you lose some credibility for suggesting the use of rtl > updraft > burning speed > fire grab to initiate.

S/D fresh air can be tough to use because it is a gimmick build. The build is limited and one-dimensional; that’s where the challenge is. The actual role you take on and the thought/ execution it requires is less daunting than both staff and d/d. Honestly, the fact that some players like it sets a bad precedent that anet can continue. Instead of buffing all the low damage, easily avoided scepter skills, anet just made it easier to spam the instant cast trait and air attack.

I don’t think any build in the game is particularly hard to use. I’m not trying to argue that one is harder than the other. Let’s just try to give a balanced assessment of how hard builds are to use.

I give my +1 to whatever can save the game from instafrag builds

Lue.6538:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Yea I experienced that too on my first game as a staff zerker elementalist. *Found a way to one-shot warriors but that aside I thought it was very hurtful when a mesmer that beat me cleanly twice before got hit by two meteors, died and called me noob and eles are op etc etc.
I mean mesmers are on of spvp’s greatest fears. Elementalists die pretty much the moment they notice where you are but mesmers can out dps, cloak and run away from anything. The hard counter to them is just AoE’s which we just happen to have… I’m guessing they have no experience with how hard it can be to hit with AoE’s

Well done! A slightly secretive ’mesmers are op and I r gud cus I r beat them!" post.

Mesmers cant outdps everything, mesmers cant stealth away from everything and one of their MAIN drawbacks are their lack of mobility, thus they can’t ‘run away’ from everything.

Mesmers are atm a jack of all trades, they can do pretty much anything.. moderately well. They’ll never outdps a thief, nor outstealth one and they’ll never successfully run away from a elementalist.

As for him calling you a noob? I’m not going to dispute his claim.
However the reason for him doing so? Utterly silly.

:) fun
I haven’t actively tried to understand the mesmer class all that much. But I figure that you can do lots of win with any good build with any good profession. A mesmer that isn’t smart enough to interrupt my heavily telegraphed meteor storm shouldn’t be calling me a noob… Now if he didn’t have an interrupt that’d be a whole different story but he did so…
It wasn’t because I was good or anything that I beat ‘m. He just didn’t react quickly enough.

Grevender.9235:

true, even staff became slightly more viable after the latest patch.
Sadly, A.Net has a mysterious love for promoting skilless deadly builds (hambow war, PU/condimantra mesmer, spirit ranger, MM necro ecc).

Did any of you ever heard about that Ele placing in the Top 10 world pvp chart using a conditions based + Earth Shield conjurer build?
Me neither.

no no no no. you still haven’t seen what the latest patch had for an impact on ELE’s.
you clearly haven’t played the new condition spec. i did the 6/0/6/0/2

although earth shield is not needed, sure it keeps you tanky abit longer, but not needed imo if running scepter/focus.

Astaso.4806:

Mijo.3274:

…
I think the only build with higher skill cap is the good old fresh air SD build.

Where is the big skill in mashing all possible buttons at once and one shorting people or be killed.
Its lame.. None of those one shot build needs much skill.
Skill is reacting to your enemy’s moves and taking the right decisions.
I never understood where the skill should be in one hitting anybody..

I play dd ele since beta BTW.

for spvp
some people focus on being a support for their team. namely the zerk nuke support type in order to win and try to avoid 1v1’s and engage large battles just for the sake of winning.
though this never works for me because the team is usually to stupid to not walk in alone vs 3 instead of seeking help (wait for respawn of them) only after battle starts it usually works, but then?

and in some cases the team is too bad dying constantly, forcing me to cap points and face 1v1’s, although the 1v1 works great vs thieves, unofortunately you won’t be facing bad thieves in arenas later on.

anyway, if the team won’t cap points, say for example, the map with waterfall:
if waterfall and quarry is taken and the team is struggling to get GY. the opposing team will keep getting respawns to GY, defeating you slowly. they have no means to send reinforcements to other bases as it’s capped, thus it’s a loss for struggling team.

I’ve tried every weapon set in s/tpvp and staff is definitely the hardest one for me. Even though it’s the one I have the most hours on by far (from WvW). With D/D I’m still getting over 2-1 win/loss ratio in top 1k soloQ but my staff just can’t play at that level.

In terms of the combos you have to pull off and improvise on the spot with staff, D/D seems 1 dimensional because it’s always clear what to do next with the skills you have on cooldown. Where D/D is more about simple rotations, staff is all about combos (cc+AoE and combo fields).