Guild Wars 2

or staffs are better?

staff is easier.

D/D is the only good weapon for Ele as far as I am concerned.

Sceptre is fine vs mobs standing still, but in fluid combat situation, sceptre is just irritating. By “sceptre” I mean “dragon’s tooth”.

19 of 20 staff skills are AOE (grr…) – not the greatest in the general case.

Be aware though that D/D is the hardest to learn.

I leveled up with d/d no problem. Staff is a bunch of ground targeted aoes so that should be a consideration (if you don’t like ground targeting abilities might want to stay away).

Do it with D/D but do not limit yourself to d/d
you will learn how the ele functions and wont be completely owned if you decide to go into spvp or wvw. not that staff bunker does not work but im guessing people are not going to spec bunker in pve by default.

Depends on your play style.

If you prefer 1v1 more often then D/D.

If you prefer 1v2+ more often then Staff.

I think both of these are extremes of what particular gameplay style you like – while mixing scepters/focus/etc was probably meant to be something in between, however, either it does not work as intended, or, people just like to go either of the extremes.

Death Reincarnated.3570:

Depends on your play style.

If you prefer 1v1 more often then D/D.

If you prefer 1v2+ more often then Staff.

I think both of these are extremes of what particular gameplay style you like – while mixing scepters/focus/etc was probably meant to be something in between, however, either it does not work as intended, or, people just like to go either of the extremes.

yeah i think the issue there is that the extreme is just more well known.

I have messed around with the rarely used dagger/focus in both pvp and pve and its entertaining but i after 400 spvp games… i am a lot better at dagger dagger.

I’m level 45 now, and I’ve been using D/D since about level 15. My Ele is my first character so only after reaching level 15 I’ve decided to try different weapons than a staff

I still use the staff in group events. Otherwise I’m D/D What I did do is that I’ve picked up the Frostbow trait, and use Icestorm on a big group of mobs before charging in Icestorm is a big AOE and deals quite a bit of damage. Makes it easier for you to kill the mobs

The staff is a wonderful weapon when you’re teaming up with other people. But for solo I find it lackluster at best. Nearly all staff attacks are AOE’s which takes ages to go off, and are very easily dodged.

Scepter doesn’t fare much better in my opinion.

D/D for me

I think I will try D/D… I am leveling my ele to do wvw, and she will use D/D, sand for what I’ve been seeing, D/D is hard to play, so I think that I should begin playing DD from now.

thank you guys

D/d is great if u r just leveling or in wvw when running down/disrupt enemies.
But found staffs to be more useful in a party wHen I play healer/support.

I’m lvling with dd, first thing you want to do is go to the TP and by some cheap but good weapons for your lvl every 5 to 10 levels, unless you get some good drops. I’m currently droping 3+ enemies with the train them through your fire fields, kd then churning earth teleport kite a bit. Ranged mobs need to be LOS pulled or killed asap.

Dual dagger is perfectly good for levelling.

But you’ll probably want to keep a staff on-hand for boss events, group support and not being in melee range is really nice for bosses.

I leveled as D/D 1-80, and must say it’s the most fun I had leveling anything (I have a couple of 80s). So much fun that I breezed through the whole thing in 4 days Great survivability, nice damage and an active playstyle.

In my opinion the only “hard” thing about it is that you need to keep switching your attunements constantly. Also, keep dodging, you should have near perma vigor if you’re doing it right.

But as others said, keep a staff in your bags, for some events it’s just a lot easier.

Staff kinda sucks until you’re lv 40 and can get Blasting Staff (trait). Use dagger/dagger with a power build, or scepter/whatever and a condition build

I didn’t like D/D leveling up, because you don’t get an XP bonus for taking longer to kill things.

Most of what you do leveling up will be 1-2 mobs, sometimes 3 at a time. For this, I found S/D to be the best (stacked condition), because I could throw a couple of stacks of the stone shards on each mob and then do a churning earth before moving on to the next set of mobs. Sometimes using the Dragon’s Tooth and Phoenix if Churning is still down.

D/D is about slow dps with the ability to survive a long time, not what you want when leveling up.

Albane.8367:

I didn’t like D/D leveling up, because you don’t get an XP bonus for taking longer to kill things.

This is not true, you know?

“An exploration bonus is earned based on how long a creature has been alive in the world.”

Albane.8367:

D/D is about slow dps with the ability to survive a long time, not what you want when leveling up.

no way, dude. D/D has the most upfront burst damage of any weapon set. burning speed -> ring of fire into your target, preferably directly behind them so that they get hit by the trail and start burning (these two skills combined come out faster than a single use of most slot 1 skills), and then turn around and fire grab. Bam. tons of damage. It’s as much damage as hundred blades in little more than half the time
If you want slow dps with ability to survive a long time, look at scepter/focus.

Albane.8367:

I didn’t like D/D leveling up, because you don’t get an XP bonus for taking longer to kill things.

Most of what you do leveling up will be 1-2 mobs, sometimes 3 at a time. For this, I found S/D to be the best (stacked condition), because I could throw a couple of stacks of the stone shards on each mob and then do a churning earth before moving on to the next set of mobs. Sometimes using the Dragon’s Tooth and Phoenix if Churning is still down.

D/D is about slow dps with the ability to survive a long time, not what you want when leveling up.

Ouch, talk about being way off base in regards to d/d
slow dps? DudE?!

So I rolled an Elementalist despite a lot of negative comments on this forum. I have to say the overall experience is enjoyable. The game play differs greatly from my guardian so I am still getting used to the Ele squishyness. I am alos getting use to the elemental atunement swapping on the fly and figuring out a good rotation to flick through in what situation. I mainly use a D/D while i am PVE I find it easy enough to level and play. It makes solo play easier imo that the staff although I do tend to switch between the two as required.

I think that is the key. Adaptability. Don’t lok yourself into a particular weapon set. Try them all and then go with the style you like best but be prepared to switch over to something else on a moments notie depending on the mob you are about to face.

Use staff when at higher level.

I started with staff, as I found it easier to learn. At lv15 or such, I switched to D/D and never changed unless required by situation.
Staff has range, that gives you the time to think about what to do ’cause foes are “far”; D/D has a very fast paced playstyle which forces you to be constantly in movement, and if you stop even for one second, you are as good as dead.

You can also try S/D. But by no means do not stick to single weapon when leveling. It is more fun and you actually learn the class much better when you swap weapons once in a while.

I do use D/D for leveling.
You have to consider that leveling an Elementalist in general is much harder than a Ranger, Warrior or Guardian.
As for weapons, I simply chose D/D because staff feels horribly slow and clunky to me. With D/D, fights are much more dynamic and fun. Also, D/D has much AoE, so saying that staff is king of AoE is kinda false. The greatest advantage of staff is its range.
As far as scepter goes, I do not like it that much.
Scepter fire: horrible autoattack, good #2 and #3
Scepter water: weak, just weak
Scepter air: too much single target and not that strong
Scepter earth: that one is alright, although heavy on condition damage

I leveled D/D all the way to 80 easily, and I mostly use it in dungeons as well. It’s more versatile than most think, but it WILL be a little rough at the beginning because you won’t be able to stack both power and toughness in the same gear, so you may find yourself resetting traits a lot to make up for this.

I would recommend mainly using D/D. Tons of AOE damage and good survivability in later levels when you trait correctly.

I tend to use staff in WvW if I go with a zerg (D/D in small squads) and boss fights

In general, I would consider S/D to be the easiest weapon to use for open-world PvE. The weapon set gives you a lot of 900-range effects, so you can attack from a distance and kite if you need to (and you will need to, early and often), but it also has a lot of close effects to amp up your damage if enemies get close (which they will), as well as an epic number of ways to mitigate damage. Basically, S/D lets you attack from whatever range you need at any given moment and makes them all effective while also helping to keep you alive.

Fire
1: No projectile, inflicts burning. If you’re in fire and waiting for a cooldown, it’s worth it to spam this.
2: Long lead-up, but if your summoned Elemental is tanking mobs they’ll be standing still anyway. Massive, massive damage when it hits. Good for taking down structures, too.
3: Fire it slightly behind your target and it will strike them three times. Plus condition removal and Vigor help keep you alive.
4: A fire field, good for stacking might and dealing some point-blank AoE damage. Fire 423 + Earth 45 is a lot of damage as well as a huge number of Might stacks.
5: Massive, massive damage. Your autoattack ensures you can get the double-damage whenever you want.

Water
1: Pretty bad, don’t use this.
2: Pretty bad, don’t use this.
3: Awesome spike-healing with a bit of extra damage. I like using it to heal my summonened Elementals when they’re tanking damage for me.
4: A good buff, helps keep you alive, helps you kite enemies who’ve already closed the gap.
5: Awesome spike-healing.

Air
1: Not great, but the animation can help you keep track of an enemy in hectic circumstances.
2: Free damage, use whenever up.
3: Instant blind, great for blocking big boss attacks.
4: The single best mobility spell in the game, period. Also has pretty decent damage.
5: Massive disruption to a whole group of foes, plus a follow-up Swiftness.

Earth
1: A really strong autoattack, worth spamming sometimes.
2: A strong Toughness perma-buff.
3: AoE blind, awesome for fighting big groups.
4: Big damage, plus wide AoE knockdown. If you get rushed by a big group, this can easily save your bacon. Also a Blast Finisher.
5: Absolutely insane damage. The channel can be rough, but if you cast it immediately after Earth 3 and 4, you’ll almost always get it off against mobs. You can also cover yourself with Armor of Earth and Arcane Shield, if you want to be sure, and you can even initiate a fight with it by starting the channel from a distance and then using Lightning Flash to get into range just as the channel ends.

For the other sets: D/D is ok in PvE but doesn’t give enough damage mitigation for my taste and lacks S/D’s higher burst potential. Regardless of pairing, Focus doesn’t give enough damage. Staff is great for Dynamic Events but isn’t ideal for close fighting against small groups of foes. You can still use another weapon set if it clicks with you, but S/D is my preference and suggestion.

I agree with everything Blaine said (except water skill 2, I like it). Scepter/Dagger is great. I initially rolled D/D, but the scepter with o/h dagger is just nice, and I survive a lot more while doing equivalent damage.