Guild Wars 2

Many eles use dps builds in WWW since months.
Wich are the dps meta builds?

Ty

There isn’t a dps staff meta. With the addition of aquatic benevolance, any WvW group is going to have an ele run this setup.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMM6cW4wyBr0AhAG5NwCoBOKAUuGUCWBA-T1wHAB1eBA+Z/BAeAAAA-w

Gear is up to you, as I keep my gear spread secret, but aim for 900-1000 healing power and you should be able to pack a decent punch with the right gear spread. Staff Elementalist has the best healing capability in the game when you use your waters properly, so I don’t even think there should have been as “dps staff ele” meta in WvW but like i said above if you spread your gear right you’ll still hit pretty kitten hard.

DPS build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISlD25AuMArEGoBQIOso4JBUsbTA-TBBEgAGPAApLAQ6+DAHIAA-e
Lightning rod or tempest defense, its up to you … like for the stuff.

If you want condi cleanse, you can swap your heal, or get cleansing wave (which is selfish).
Talking about selfish modification, you can take air training instead of aeromancer alatracy.

I agree, there is no meta for this because groups want the ele for its other strengths, however…

I use my elementalist to just surf the zerg and farm with, so here is what I have been running:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhUMqcW2wuBr0AEAG5kwS4IGOAEBWAleDA-TlBBABYt/o8DgHAQe6AC4CAUp6PnpEkUA6JMC-w

Really good damage with some really decent heals.

Caution, this is VERY glass and only for surfing with the zerg if you know how to play the ele…I stay alive real well just due to positioning and killing very fast. Once we run into a group I am usually throwing down a lot of fire so I usually have over 10 stacks of might along with whatever the zerg sends my way. Then using water to heal everyone/set up water fields and throwing down monster damage with Ice Spike.

If you want a meta, look for a much different play style and build though.

Vylor.3276:

any WvW group is going to have an ele run this setup.

False. I know no groups (at least in EU) who use this trait for their staff eles.

^
As above, no one is running that. Even if a few are experimentally running it for whatever reason it’s definitely not the meta.
Trying to stack healing power also makes little sense when your best group heals are scaling off the blaster, not you.
Why are you even posting that in a thread about meta-DPS builds?

Staff ele is all about boon buff cleanse dps.
To get in those range u need to be stick to core melee or in medium range hence u need some survival
x/x/x/6/6 is really core. Elemental attument, Blasting staff, Evasive arcane,Cantrip recharge,Cantrip regen,Cure condition on regen is really useful trait that couldnt skip.

It is not worth to go fire6 or lighting6 unless u plan to give no support at all and become long range fragile glass cannon which most likely getting one shot by thives/mesmers/ks war.

The fact we had 4 threads with videos that were deleted for some reason (see to keep the build secret probably) tells me there is a dps meta.

That also because you see so many dps ele in www in both guild raids than zergs that there is indeed a dps meta aside the usual waterbots.

I just hope those posting them will pass by .-.

DPS in www is not 66200 like pve build.
Sacrificing 4 points in arcana and 2 in water is enough to push your dps without affecting your survivability by much.

(i myself use a dps ele and i die way less than the main zerg).

Its not that squishy to be oneshot, but yet can give lots of rallybot to your zerg.

P.S. acquatic benevolence doesn t belong to www..its a PvP/small roaming possibly but a GM trait that is less effective than Acquamancer alacrity (see aoe cap AND waterfields), doesn t seem good for www at all.

Staff ele dps can be very dangerous with fire6 meteo/whirlwind (even icebow still ok meta) especially in a organized guild where u can arrange proper high burst. For normal circumstance i would suggest u go a bit on support/survival/cc leave high glass dps to necro who has more survival than u is better.

Also it vary among tiers. In tier2 downward with less ppl there might be good chance for glass burst ele to shine than tier1 where u encounter 200 ppl at the same time.

Veinsmeet.4385:

^
As above, no one is running that. Even if a few are experimentally running it for whatever reason it’s definitely not the meta.
Trying to stack healing power also makes little sense when your best group heals are scaling off the blaster, not you.
Why are you even posting that in a thread about meta-DPS builds?

If you want to do dmg and have some survivability provided by your traits, the easiest way to do this is by changing all your armor ro Zerker with offensive runes(Scholar or Strength or even Divinity) and going the regular 0/2/0/6/6 bunker spec.Decent dmg to even the most tanky enemies.In huge blobfights its hard cause of the havoc but if you manage to get some dmg inside you are almost bound to rally.

With organised guild groups it works better cause you know how to move.Needs really good gameplay to survive.

Graendall.4765:

If you want to do dmg and have some survivability provided by your traits, the easiest way to do this is by changing all your armor ro Zerker with offensive runes(Scholar or Strength or even Divinity) and going the regular 0/2/0/6/6 bunker spec.Decent dmg to even the most tanky enemies.In huge blobfights its hard cause of the havoc but if you manage to get some dmg inside you are almost bound to rally.

I don t agree.
a DPS build can take most advantage from positioning and range.
A support build have to be near the zerg where will die too easily.

Cantrips and arcane shield can keep you alive for a lot if focused from a couple of players paired with the couple of defensive skills staff provides (also control skills like earth 5, air 2-3 etc).

But a X/X/X/6/6 berserker dps is awful
an offensive traited full CELESTIAL ele was proved to deal an insane amount of damage (the build i am referring to that was removed, also had some video to prove it).
I was the most sceptic about it in that thread but i was wrong.

P.S: The T2 thing makes sense. (in T1 even organized guilds gather 20-30 easily).

0/0/0/4+/4+ is the meta, and has been since release.

I’ll explain a little more why:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfFAQFAWnMISlD25AuMArEGoBQIOso4JBUsbTA-TBBEgAGPAApLAQ6%2BDAHIAA-e
Is insane.

You have an amazing survivability: 20arcana and 20water. All the support needed: both alatracy in air and water which make your water fields and your cage faster. 30 in air with 2 dps trait. Take any set up celestial or more offensive and you’ll DPS very well

I know…
But since i think current ele dps is awesome, it makes sense to have 2 types of eles.

Support and dps.
I prefer this…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMqc25wnBrEBEAGxqQSIUAQcJYCMEL9GA-TxAEgAJXAg09HAeQAAA-e

CC + DPS
In your rotation you don t need sigil battle, don t need elemental attunement either, and don t have time for waterfields (leave that to support eles).

Yet you are way more dungerous than any necro due to burst and not so squishy.

Yet someone posted a vid of a build that was even better since was more tanky with same dps if not more.
But couldn t get the build before was deleted

This is what I usually take to the fights:

• In the Lord’s Room
  For defense: 0/4/0/6/4 against heavy condi pressure.
  or 0/6/0/4/4 against hammer train pressure.
  For Assault: 5/2/0/5/2 for a killing spree or 4/2/2/4/2 for a collision (put III in Earth to counteract any imminent pressure)

• In the open field:
  If the opponent is unorganized then any of these builds above works. Recently I’ve been enjoying a lot of guild raid and against a very well organized guild group, it doesn’t hurt to take a classical approach of 0/0/2/6/6. With this build, I only do decent damage but have higher survivability to keep up with the commander while constantly keeping up the pressure onto the enemy frontliners.

As a little side note, when I play engi during a guild raid, I take pleasure spotting the enemy ele and spamming bleeding, poison and confusion on them while they are casting Meteor Shower. Those unaware ele, especially in their tornado form, would drop down really fast and their withdrawal from the field means a great advantage of our frontliners against their own.

The screenshot was damage applied to enemies with the 0/6/0/4/4 build before Rune of Rangers and Sigil of Strength were added to the build and without Tornado bonus. It is possible to keep up around 10 to 15 stacks of might during the fight.

Engi trying to put condition happens sometimes..
Ether renewal takes care of them and once MS hit, you don t need tornado no more.
Mesmer GS is the real annoyance (they can keep pressure), you can deal with everything else.

I don t agree also on water 5.
Since nerf it became really bad, better just go 6 in fire or something else.

Instead i have an interesting debate:
Tempest defense VS lighting rod.

Does tempest defense damage apply to static aura damage? or the disable happens after the damage?

In the second case tempest defense is only a win more trait.
Yet lightning rod applies to more skills.

At least is nice to see that effectively there are many 06044 builds around (and some 60044 also and similar).

Just for your info:
26044 with celestial armor and zerker everything else.
Does almost 200% dps compared to your.

LordByron.8369:

Engi trying to put condition happens sometimes..
Ether renewal takes care of them and once MS hit, you don t need tornado no more.
Mesmer GS is the real annoyance (they can keep pressure), you can deal with everything else.

I don t agree also on water 5.
Since nerf it became really bad, better just go 6 in fire or something else.

Instead i have an interesting debate:
Tempest defense VS lighting rod.

Does tempest defense damage apply to static aura damage? or the disable happens after the damage?

In the second case tempest defense is only a win more trait.
Yet lightning rod applies to more skills.

At least is nice to see that effectively there are many 06044 builds around (and some 60044 also and similar).

Just for your info:
26044 with celestial armor and zerker everything else.
Does almost 200% dps compared to your.

Tempest Defense applies his damage boost only to all kinds of disabled enemies→Every ally that uses a Hammerstun will increase the damage you do by 20%. You don’t have much control over that (the only way is to use a Static Field followed by a Meteor Shower), but it’s definitely the best trait (in the best traitline, as Air>Fire) for dealing damage as a staff ele.

That said, skilled WvW groups from EU usually run either 0 2 0 6 6 or 0 0 2 6 6 on their staff eles. Stats vary from Celestial/Knight/Soldier. In skilled WvW groups, Staff Eles are meant to provide some sustain to the group with the correct use and rotation of their Waterfields, coupled with some really damaging skills. A well placed and coordinated Meteor Shower→Tornado combo is enough to wreck a group of 20+ people.
Full DPS staff eles are only “useful” in zergs because you rarely have to care about thieves/mesmers focusing you. But as soon as someone focuses you and understands you are DPS specced, you are dead if you are out of position.

26044
Nice one byron :p

I dont really like going 2in fire, cause +10% while in fire sucks in my mind (for those who forgotten this: lingering element doesnt combo with it) cause i dont stay in fire. Lava fountain and MS if up then i switch (4 if need to avoid/run/etc.)

If you’re with a good WVW raid, i think tempest defense > lightning road. In unorganised group, lightning road is more reliable

I agree that 6 in Air and Tempest Defense probably works best in most of my scenario due to my low crit chance and the extra modification is nice to have. I mostly select Tempest Defense over anything else for when I get focused by hammer warrior. I would take the damage but the warrior will get stunned if he doesn’t have any stability.

I camp in Fire auto attack at all times when I don’t need other CC/support skills. Lava font has short CD, combining with Blasting Staff, it is good to put pressure on a choke point. And of course, I wouldn’t go too much to offense if the guild group with whom I played didn’t have 3-4 dedicated ele already. (I’m not on their roster and was told to feel free to play whatever, aww yiss!!!)

Stat wise, Celestial + Strength rune would be a strong contender for both staff play and DD roaming play, but I can’t really advise new (and non dedicated) players to throw a huge amount of gold out of windows for this new meta. Meanwhile, the basic formula of DPS is still the same in both PvE and WvW; getting enough Power, decent crit chance, throwing some damage modifiers and fitting toughness/vitality here and there for a bit of survival. Knight would be a great stat to mix, but I’ll miss my 16k HP dearly which helps a lot against Arrow Carts. Anyhow, against an unorganized zerg, I still play with my full berserker set + scholar runes with classic 6/2/2/2/2 :’>

LordByron.8369:

Engi trying to put condition happens sometimes..
Ether renewal takes care of them and once MS hit, you don t need tornado no more.
Mesmer GS is the real annoyance (they can keep pressure), you can deal with everything else.

I always apply crippled first (elixir gun), then cover it with a lot of bleeding from auto attack, then poison. If the ele realizes he is getting focused and chooses to use ether renewal, I’ll apply confusion and cover it with bleeding and cripple again (not to forget torment on crit). Most of the ele I’ve seen at this point will mist form and run to the back of their zerg, which is playing exactly what I want. They stop dishing out CC, water field and DPS pressure. Those who ignores the initial threat and continue doing DPS will most likely receive a lot of love from me.

I don t agree also on water 5.
Since nerf it became really bad, better just go 6 in fire or something else.

We tend to have a lot of buff before rushing into the objectives, which means 5-6% more damage for the opening hit. The big damage of meteor shower helps to break the enemy frontline and forces them to back up a bit.

Mattmatt.4962:

26044
Nice one byron :p

I dont really like going 2in fire, cause +10% while in fire sucks in my mind (for those who forgotten this: lingering element doesnt combo with it) cause i dont stay in fire. Lava fountain and MS if up then i switch (4 if need to avoid/run/etc.)

If you’re with a good WVW raid, i think tempest defense > lightning road. In unorganised group, lightning road is more reliable

(i wrote the build…its obviously a mistake.. its 26042)

Fire is there because staff has loong channelings.
you can cast a full opening rotation with 3 elements and still be in fire before it hits :/ (earth 2-4, lightning 5, fire 2-5 for example).

An attunement in wich you can sit for 10% more dps while channeling is Always good…if its fire, its even better.

for tempest defense
Actualy my issue is:
If many opponents are already stun, then we are already winning.
If opponents are not stun my potential stun dealing more damage AND weakness can help an outnumbered side.
And it goes really well with aeromancer alacrity since once you finished your opening rotation, your cc will be available again with less stability resistance from opponents.
Keeping dps pressure high and giving weakness when you more need it.

Or is it anything i still can t understand?

@Iris Ng
For defensive purpose i use cantrips.
A single arcane shield can keep you alive enough to reposition, if not mistform and cc will do the rest (staff has some single target cc that comes really useful like air 2-3 or earth5, and also fire 4 to evade).

When i finish casting my healing 4 seconds have passed…. at that point i have repositioned.
Ether renewal is what makes polssible to run an offensive ele.
Without it would simply be impossible imho, its a mandatory skill for staff.

And i once fallen in the same mistake to underestimate it.