Guild Wars 2

If so what roles in wvw does it perform well in? Its my favorite elementalist weapon and I am hoping I can use it effectively in both pve and wvw

You have to play a supportive role since you are squishier/slower than with focus/dagger.
It has 1200 range, AoE heal/condiremoval/chill/daze/immobilize/bleed/meteors/burning/swiftness/blind.
Stats you want to focus on are healing power, power and condi dmg. Get a couple vitality/toughness trinkets so you don’t get blown up
Use max range as much as possible.

is there any gear that does heal/power/con or will I just ahve to mix-match a lot?

Staff is pretty hard to use effectively in PvE, I find.

Staff is very strong in WvW with a zerg.

Go full Berserkers (for ranged AoE DPS) or full Clerics (for sustainability and support) and don’t look back. 0/10/0/30/30 with Bolt to the Heart, Cleansing Wave, Vital Striking, Cleansing Water, Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff, and Evasive Arcana.

Don’t ever take condition damage on an Ele. It’s awful.

For your utilities, take Arcane Wave, Lightning Flash, and Mist Form.

Learn to Blast Finish in your own Healing Rain by casting it, then dodge rolling into it with Earth, or blasting in it with Arcane Wave. You can also do this in the reverse by using Earth 2 (a delayed blast finisher) and then Casting Healing Rain or Geyser on top of the Earth spell.

Air 5 is amazing and really screws up zergs.

Use Fire 5 on walls and against zergs.

And use Water 4 on zergs to snare and slow people.

Staff is very useful in WvW.

you hav to mix/match
1 Combo is Cleric’s (healpower/toughness/power) and shamans(vitality/condidmg/healpower). This has the highest health pool.

Another combo is Cleric’s and/or Apothecary’s. It has the highest healing power but lowest health meaning you are very vulnerable to conditions but have stronger heals.
If your going full heal just run Cleric’s/Apothecary’s and put Sapphire Orbs on everything
There are other combo’s you can find here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rampager#Triple_attribute

Condi Dmg benefits burning from fire, and bleeding from earth (it isn’t necessary if you don’t use/rely on fire skills 3 and earth skills 2,5. The reason I recommend it is because most people in WvW will forget to dodge those skills in large fights)
Healing power benefits your personal heal and the heals from water( it is the stat you want to get the most of since it helps keep you and your allies alive)
Power benefits all attunements, mainly fire and air.
Vitality is to raise your low base health (you only need enough to get 16-18k)
Toughness is to reduce dmg from attacks you cant dodge/reflect/interupt (need 2-3k)
The reason I don’t recommend precision is because you can get beryl orbs on everything and just use arcane skills for guaranteed crits

Buy a rare set of items if you just want to try the build out, only get exotics if you want it to be your main build. Try to look for the rares you can buy with karma so you don’t have to spend gold.

For utilities;
Always carry at least one stun breaker just incase you are caught in a bad position
Use arcane wave to take advantage of your combo fields (AoE Might/Heal/Chill/Swift)
The last skill can be anything but a conjure

The staff is imo realy strong in w3, you just have to stay next to the zerg/your group.
I would recommend an all-stat-gear, especially the staff-ele benefits from this gear.
For example: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmKbyx5gjDAkHmgCLiCWUeMzO2A-jkxAoLAqBQyrIasF3ioxqqJiqV2YSBMwYA-w

This way you get enough hp, might, armor and crit% – to do your job.
The runes and water VI give you a nice dmg boost, if you use your full range. Also your heal is pretty nice, if you get 25 charges

MrSmiley.1543:

If so what roles in wvw does it perform well in? Its my favorite elementalist weapon and I am hoping I can use it effectively in both pve and wvw

One of the problems with staff is that virtually every skill is AoE. In WvW you cannot survive without a group, and even then your viability is limited to zerg support and wall defense.

I actually feel pingeonhole into staff since Static Field is so strong against zergs. D/D is hardly viable for structure fights and Scepter seems to be mostly good for Dragon Tooth wall tricks. If you actually play for the win (and not randomly gank people for l33t vids) staff is the way to go.

really… condition damage, healing power? apothecary? wat?

so this is why I have an extremely easy time beating most nub elementalists in wvw…

Razor.6392:

really… condition damage, healing power? apothecary? wat?

so this is why I have an extremely easy time beating most nub elementalists in wvw…

i agree with razor. anyway, staff gameplay is mostly designed for teamplay while in wv3. for solo roaming i suggest s/d or the overrated d/d bunker. i usually avoid both cond damage/healing power while using staff or s/d, benefits from these stats are quite low for eles. all you have to do is ask to yourself: “how am i going to play with my ele? am i going with a large number of ppl (more than 15)? or am i going to solo or with a small party?”. for the armor, i suggest to start with knight or soldier and slowly balance with your jewelry until you reach your personal balance. it is preferable to change equipment / weapons / traits depending on the situation you’re going to face, there is no fixed formula. as an example, i usually do wv3 with my guild at prime time, and since we’re at least 15, i usually run with staff and soldier armor mixed with knight/cavalier/berz jewels. this gives me a lot of survivability,support and a decent amount of dps. sometimes you may notice a lack of dps while running with your warband, if you do, you can switch to knight armor and berz/valk/soldier jewels, to maximise your dps without affecting your survivability too much.

Eternal.9148:

Razor.6392:

really… condition damage, healing power? apothecary? wat?

so this is why I have an extremely easy time beating most nub elementalists in wvw…

i agree with razor. anyway, staff gameplay is mostly designed for teamplay while in wv3. for solo roaming i suggest s/d or the overrated d/d bunker. i usually avoid both cond damage/healing power while using staff or s/d, benefits from these stats are quite low for eles. all you have to do is ask to yourself: “how am i going to play with my ele? am i going with a large number of ppl (more than 15)? or am i going to solo or with a small party?”. for the armor, i suggest to start with knight or soldier and slowly balance with your jewelry until you reach your personal balance. it is preferable to change equipment / weapons / traits depending on the situation you’re going to face, there is no fixed formula. as an example, i usually do wv3 with my guild at prime time, and since we’re at least 15, i usually run with staff and soldier armor mixed with knight/cavalier/berz jewels. this gives me a lot of survivability,support and a decent amount of dps. sometimes you may notice a lack of dps while running with your warband, if you do, you can switch to knight armor and berz/valk/soldier jewels, to maximise your dps without affecting your survivability too much.

wtf – you guys don’t have the slightest idea how to play an elementalist do you?
s/d without heal? the ele dont benefit from healpower? bro it’s the whole idea behind s/d ele to get the survivability through healpower… It’s called balance ele – in tpvp you play it with a valkyrie’s amulet and rune of the scholar in combination with water VI and air VI to generate your dmg with a decent amount of survivability.

Next point, the staff benefits in a big way from an all stat gear – why you ask?
easy, you can use every single stat on these items, even +cond and +heal. Thats why it’s so kittening strong for a staff ele.
If you don’t believe me, just watch this stream http://en.twitch.tv/chemsorly/old
I think you all know Red Guard – maybe you guys get it this way…

The only build were you dont benefit that strong from +cond and +heal is a d/d build, but thats not what we discuss here.

Ele staff is epic in WvW zergs. You’ll probably die very quickly in most 1v1s but with a group to hide behind, you’ll be tossing out crazy damage, CC, and support.

drazzar.3042:

I think you all know Red Guard

No.

drazzar.3042:

Eternal.9148:

Razor.6392:

really… condition damage, healing power? apothecary? wat?

so this is why I have an extremely easy time beating most nub elementalists in wvw…

i agree with razor. anyway, staff gameplay is mostly designed for teamplay while in wv3. for solo roaming i suggest s/d or the overrated d/d bunker. i usually avoid both cond damage/healing power while using staff or s/d, benefits from these stats are quite low for eles. all you have to do is ask to yourself: “how am i going to play with my ele? am i going with a large number of ppl (more than 15)? or am i going to solo or with a small party?”. for the armor, i suggest to start with knight or soldier and slowly balance with your jewelry until you reach your personal balance. it is preferable to change equipment / weapons / traits depending on the situation you’re going to face, there is no fixed formula. as an example, i usually do wv3 with my guild at prime time, and since we’re at least 15, i usually run with staff and soldier armor mixed with knight/cavalier/berz jewels. this gives me a lot of survivability,support and a decent amount of dps. sometimes you may notice a lack of dps while running with your warband, if you do, you can switch to knight armor and berz/valk/soldier jewels, to maximise your dps without affecting your survivability too much.

wtf – you guys don’t have the slightest idea how to play an elementalist do you?
s/d without heal? the ele dont benefit from healpower? bro it’s the whole idea behind s/d ele to get the survivability through healpower… It’s called balance ele – in tpvp you play it with a valkyrie’s amulet and rune of the scholar in combination with water VI and air VI to generate your dmg with a decent amount of survivability.

Next point, the staff benefits in a big way from an all stat gear – why you ask?
easy, you can use every single stat on these items, even +cond and +heal. Thats why it’s so kittening strong for a staff ele.
If you don’t believe me, just watch this stream http://en.twitch.tv/chemsorly/old
I think you all know Red Guard – maybe you guys get it this way…

The only build were you dont benefit that strong from +cond and +heal is a d/d build, but thats not what we discuss here.

unfortunately for you, there isn’t only one way to play an ele, and this post is about wv3 and not spvp. if you ever played wv3 you should know that. while in spvp there are only few successfully builds for ele, in wv3 things drastically change. it’s stupid to tell ppl how to play, fortunately gw2 gives us the chance to play the way we like, far from meta builds or crap like that. i’m not saying that your gameplay is wrong, but it’s not even the best way to play. same for me. it’s just matter of personal style. chemsorly have an aggressive approach to the battlefield, with valk/berz/sold equip, i have a solid approach with soldier/knight/cavalier. it’s half true that staff eles benefit from all stats. you are the jack of all trades regardless from your equipment, imo it’s better to focus on a single role instead of being an hybrid. but that fits to my gameplay, not yours or everyone else. what real elementalists should do is to expose the various alternatives and let the undecided players test their skills using the various assets, not forcing ppl to use build that doesn’t fit their personal gameplay.

Staff ele is awesome. But high DPS isn’t free. You will have to get some berserker gear for the high dps or else you will hit for under 2k or something with your meteor showers.

I use staff around the 2:00 minute mark in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL9Tv4_M65w