Guild Wars 2

Im leveling an ele now and love staff, I enjoy it’s dps, support, and healing skills. I notice no one suggests it for……anything. is there a reason for this?

Wouldn’t say not for anything, it’s impossible to pass up in WvW zerging but one of the problems with the weapon is it is a very choppy weapon. Sure you can do insane dps in fire but you don’t have any real defense aside from fire 4, Water can heal but not damage, air can keep you moving and control but pales in the dps category. And Earth has utility but no real damage making you very non-threatening.
With the other ele weapons there’s more even distribution of useful skills if you ask me. D/D for instance earth and fire both do nice damage air has the highest hitting auto with massive cleave and water has damage reduction, condi cleanse, healing, and a blast.
It takes a decent group to really take advantage of the Staff where everything else can stand on it’s own in general making them a better choice.
If you really enjoy staff try getting into dungeons or WvW since no one can out dps a staff ele running 6/2/2/2/2. Though you’ll have to probably be tankier in WvW not to be a free loot bag.

A good synopses. Thanks for the information.

It’s still the highest skillcap PvP weapon eles have, and one of the best damage options after LH in PvE, and the best support weapon for zergs across all classes.

Xcorpdog.2840:

Wouldn’t say not for anything, it’s impossible to pass up in WvW zerging but one of the problems with the weapon is it is a very choppy weapon. Sure you can do insane dps in fire but you don’t have any real defense aside from fire 4, Water can heal but not damage, air can keep you moving and control but pales in the dps category. And Earth has utility but no real damage making you very non-threatening.
With the other ele weapons there’s more even distribution of useful skills if you ask me. D/D for instance earth and fire both do nice damage air has the highest hitting auto with massive cleave and water has damage reduction, condi cleanse, healing, and a blast.
It takes a decent group to really take advantage of the Staff where everything else can stand on it’s own in general making them a better choice.
If you really enjoy staff try getting into dungeons or WvW since no one can out dps a staff ele running 6/2/2/2/2. Though you’ll have to probably be tankier in WvW not to be a free loot bag.

General staff build is 6/4/2/0/2 for PvE. WvW I run my own 6/6/0/0/2 though that requires intense positioning but does insane DPS.

Staff is easily the best PvE weapon IMO because nothing touches the combined damage of Fireball + Lava Font + Meteor. Absolutely nothing. Staff group-healing is also unrivalled, especially with the new water grandmaster trait (+25% healing).
Also very good for WvW zergs.

One reason S/D is often suggested for PvE is because it can perma-stack Fury for the entire group (Persisting Flames + 2x blast finishers) which is a huge net DPS gain.

For SPvP however Staff is not the best because most of it’s attacks require the target to sit still in the AoE….some Ele’s can make it work but most are going D/D these days because of all the recent D/D buffs.

As Wintel pointed out, Staff reigns supreme in PvE in terms of dps. It and FGS make Ele’s indispensible in Meta Dungeon groups, rendering Ele’s DPS the highest in the game bar none. It’s also good in large scale zerg situations.

Staff sucks in solo PvE. I’ve been leveling my Ele in the Pavilion and staffing as part of a group is awesome. Bottom line of what I’ve learned leveling (up to 51), staff sucks solo and is awesome in a group. D/D or D/F is where it has been at for me while going solo. I was getting trashed once I left the Pavilion using my staff xD.

Woljnir.7810:

Staff sucks i solo PvE. I’ve been leveling my Ele in the Pavilion and staffing as part of a group is awesome. Bottom line of what I’ve learned leveling (up to 51), staff sucks solo and is awesome in a group. D/D or D/F is where it has been at for me while going solo. I was getting trashed once I left the Pavilion using my staff xD.

See, I’m leveling as well. At 26 I’m doing better with staff solo than with d/d or s/f. Hence my curiosity. :-)

Staff is good in the following scenarios:

- open world events due to its high aoe dps on 1200 range

- WvW zerging because of meteor shower and water fields

- in certain situations in dungeons, e.g. cof path 2 (last “boss”), ta up/forward (the tree)

In spvp, fractals/dungeons (except certain situations) and wvw roaming, I would recommend using another weapon set.

I use my staff for GvG’s, Raids, Duels, PvP, Roaming.

U just have to know how to handle it and how to build it.

Yeah staff is definitly a great weapon but if you want to succeed in this game later on, I’d recommend carrying at least exotic level weapon of each type (probably zerker stats or whatever) so you can switch in each different situation. For example, most fractals enjoy D/F due to the high sustained DPS and defensive skills, but a few of them such as the ascalon fractal are as I’ve heard and practiced a bit, to be more efficient on staff. And as someone said before, certain bosses are better for staff. specifically ones that can’t move out of lava font or have large hit boxes that let them be hit by many meteors/ice bow storms.

I personally run s/d myself because I like being able to stack might and fury which as others have said, adds a nice chunk of dps to the whole group. Plus running LH will put you close in dps to staff. Of course it does takes practice vs sitting in the back and hitting 1-2-5-1-1 etc etc. I just found staff boring after awhile but to each their own I guess. The only downside is once you stack that might and fury and then bust out with LH and go to town, bosses usually will focus you and put the hurt on.

Staff is good if you have at least one other person with you. Combo fields and support/cc means that you can be a pain to target and can reliably buff your teammates, but since your main damage is in fire, it’s harder to burst someone down before they can get to you. The cast time for Meteor is especially killer, because it is easy to interrupt. If you have at least one other person with you, preferably a good spiker, staff really shines, even if you’re outnumbered. For PvE, I always take glyph of elementals for this reason. My current build is 6/0/0/4/4, and it seems to work good for most game modes. I’m trying to optimize it now to see where it needs changes for each mode.

Woljnir.7810:

Staff sucks in solo PvE. I’ve been leveling my Ele in the Pavilion and staffing as part of a group is awesome. Bottom line of what I’ve learned leveling (up to 51), staff sucks solo and is awesome in a group. D/D or D/F is where it has been at for me while going solo. I was getting trashed once I left the Pavilion using my staff xD.

I had that same experience. I was getting trashed doing solo pve with staff while leveling up. When I learned D/D, not only did I start having more fun, but survivability increased dramatically.

Now when grouping, in my opinion, staff is unchallenged.

Luimes.4281:

I use my staff for GvG’s, Raids, Duels, PvP, Roaming.

U just have to know how to handle it and how to build it.

I can agree with this. I just haven’t come up with the right staff build for solo pve.

i love staff, i even play glass staff on occasion in pvp, getting a meteorshower+lava font off on a bunch of unsuspecting enemies is HILARIOUS,
but the moment someone looks at you, you’re dead :P

Sauzo.6821:

I personally run s/d myself because I like being able to stack might and fury which as others have said, adds a nice chunk of dps to the whole group. Plus running LH will put you close in dps to staff. Of course it does takes practice vs sitting in the back and hitting 1-2-5-1-1 etc etc. I just found staff boring after awhile but to each their own I guess. The only downside is once you stack that might and fury and then bust out with LH and go to town, bosses usually will focus you and put the hurt on.

LH is a good 20-30% weaker than staff and the blindspam makes it super easy to manage in most content but to each his own I guess.

I use staff 100% of the time. After reading this I may try d/d for solo pve. Staff in dungeons, which I am running a lot, is great. I feel I can do good damage and support healing. I have noticed solo staff it does take me a while to kill. Have been trying to stack might and use conditions.

staff is mediocre support
/end

Main problem with staff is that only Fire does an appropriate level of damage, which makes it all but impossible to use when solo. They need to at least buff the autoattacks on the other attunements.

I like the staff, but largely because the Zenith Spire skin looks absolutely kitten, while the other zenith skins are notsomuch. I’m kind of annoyed that the animations don’t include actually using the staff, though.

Staff is only for the cool kids, like Dub.

If there was a trait that made Fire attunement have no CD (similar to Fresh Air), the Elementalist’s staff would be the best ranged weapon in the game, it would become extremely viable in duels even. As this is not the case (sadly, sadly, sadly), it’s not D/D like spectacular, just decent for general PvE, zerging and the occasional bunker healer on tPvP.

Staff is pretty good. From a pvp perspective, staff is really good just like D/D celestial. Run the same trait setups usually and clerics or keep the celestial if you want. Great group support with amazing sustain and heals while still dishing out the hurt with large AoE attacks and point crowd control. Always run with an ele in my team comps.

Staff Ele really need some buff… from what I see, Water spells need more damage and more chill options to keep your enemy in your AoE!

Ele’s water spell suppose to be very supportive with heal, chill and some burst damage, so far we only get some mediocre heal and that’s all.

Fire is pretty good, Earth… acceptible! Air and Water need major work.

Staff is good dps but the minute you leave fire, it drops off considerably. Not to mention it is very mediocre support. That is why I run scepter/dagger. Guanglai, you say s/d is 20-30% weaker. Maybe if you only look at your own dps. But if you factor in the perma fury and might stacking to your whole group, I think it is a better dps boost than staff. And yes, scepter dps is horrible, thus why you run LH which can give you huge cleave dmg. IMO staff is lazy mode since you pretty much sit in fire and spam lava font and meteor. S/D, d/f, s/f or d/d is a much more “active” playstyle which I prefer. But to each their own.

I’d say they should lower the DPS on fire and buff the DPS on other elements on staff, because there’s two things I see that doesnt add up on a staff for PvE:

1. Ranged weapons should not in any circumstance have higher potential DPS than melee.

2. You should not be encouraged to camp one element.

I love staff for general PvE. After I hit 30, I switched to staff and never looked back. I had a very positive levelling experience from that point.

Honestly, lava font, fireball and flame burst just absolutely slaughtered mobs. Although I had slight difficulties against destroyer type enemies, everything else was a cake walk.

I would say that it does encourage a lazy style of play… but if your only interest if just sweeping through areas, then I personally found staff to be ideal.

With the terrible new trait system I don’t know how different your experience will be, but if you find something that works for you, I would personally stick with it. Don’t be afraid to experiment (and I’ve tried!), but I’ve always gone back to staff in the end.

Staff is probably the highest DPS in a dungeon in a general sense. The fact that it has no utility doesn’t really matter in most dungeons because this game is a faceroll, with zero skill required for most of its instanced content.

My main problem with the staff is just that its so boring to play. I made an elementalist to play an elementalist, not a ranged GS-camping warrior with even less skills to use.

ITT – wut.

LH and/or FGS is the highest practical DPS in a dungeon (I know the staff is on paper better, but to be honest, a combo of one of each is optimal), with easy blinds+blast finishers. Or at least it’s the most fun, because camping fire and hitting 2 and 5 off cooldown is boring as fffffffff.

Staff is not really all that choppy for Wvw zerging, I run full zerk staff, and complaining that people don’t stand in the red circles is silly… you MAKE them stand in the red circles, or burn stun breaks and condition clears to move out, then you corral them with other skills, using those red circles to move them in the fight, wait til they group up and switch to fire. Meanwhile, you are clearing conditions on your teammates and giving them might stacks, frost armor, swiftness, etc.

I get that some people aren’t into it, but it’s really the highest DPS in wvw across the most opponents, and GvG Eles make up quite a high percentage of total damage and heals.

Sauzo.6821:

Staff is good dps but the minute you leave fire, it drops off considerably. Not to mention it is very mediocre support. That is why I run scepter/dagger. Guanglai, you say s/d is 20-30% weaker. Maybe if you only look at your own dps. But if you factor in the perma fury and might stacking to your whole group, I think it is a better dps boost than staff. And yes, scepter dps is horrible, thus why you run LH which can give you huge cleave dmg. IMO staff is lazy mode since you pretty much sit in fire and spam lava font and meteor. S/D, d/f, s/f or d/d is a much more “active” playstyle which I prefer. But to each their own.

I’m well aware of how staff DPS stacks up party-wise versus LH DPS. The MARGINAL advantage of running LH over staff is about 6 sustained might stacks. If you’re in a group that isn’t maxing might when you’re a staff ele, that extra 6 stacks of might party-wide probably isn’t going to be big enough to offset the DPS you’re losing by taking the LH, especially if you’re speccing 30 in Fire for Persisting Flames.

Hmmm, staff isn’t that great looking at DKey’s guide. I mean, she’s very good at what she does so I don’t really doubt those numbers.

But like I said, I just can’t use staff because I question why am I playing a GS warrior with even less skills to use. Optimisation is one thing but turning GW2 into MapleStory is another.

Look for Dub’s videos. His staff playing is incredibly inspirational. He uses staff in almost everything.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Hmmm, staff isn’t that great looking at DKey’s guide. I mean, she’s very good at what she does so I don’t really doubt those numbers.

But like I said, I just can’t use staff because I question why am I playing a GS warrior with even less skills to use. Optimisation is one thing but turning GW2 into MapleStory is another.

I don’t know what Maplestory is, but staff is boring in dungeons. On the upside, you would have time for RP while you wait on your 5 skill’s cool down.

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I agree that in a full 5 man team, playing staff ele is a bit monotonous and boring. However, many great eles I know swap weapons in between fights to fix the shortcomings of their group comp, and staff have the most useful utilities for group skipping.

The most boring playstyle for ele, imo, is scepter/dagger ele trying to burst the boss down with scepter air attack and churning earth. Bonus with ‘rolling in Earth for damage’. Pretty facepalm worthy.

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

Well that’s certainly true.

Iris Ng.9845:

The most boring playstyle for ele, imo, is scepter/dagger ele trying to burst the boss down with scepter air attack and churning earth. Bonus with ‘rolling in Earth for damage’. Pretty facepalm worthy.

This is the most effective stacking/bursting build, though… and trying to adjust your rotation for high DPS while reacting to melee range mobs or players is a very serious rush, but most folks just pick up the hammer and start smashing. It’s personal preference, for sure.

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I wasn’t really talking about challenge, I was talking about what you would do to optimise it. You forgo changing elements completely in a fight, which is the whole point to playing an ele. Without the elements, you stop being an elementalist, you turn into a boring class without the mechanic that defines it.

lunyboy.8672:

This is the most effective stacking/bursting build, though… and trying to adjust your rotation for high DPS while reacting to melee range mobs or players is a very serious rush, but most folks just pick up the hammer and start smashing. It’s personal preference, for sure.

Isn’t s/f the best build for mightstacking?

The problem with s/d is that you don’t adjust your rotation for high DPS, because for most of the fight, all you do is just AA with a hammer. Sure you change your elements a couple of times to proc multipliers or shoot off a discharge, but that’s not exactly adjusting the rotation, because you just halt the rotation and AA until you can resume it.

It’s essentially a rotation of one skill.

I just kind of think every one of the meta setups apart from d/f failed the elementalist from a gameplay point of view. If you aren’t using the elements, you aren’t being an elementalist.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I wasn’t really talking about challenge, I was talking about what you would do to optimise it. You forgo changing elements completely in a fight, which is the whole point to playing an ele. Without the elements, you stop being an elementalist, you turn into a boring class without the mechanic that defines it.

Anet wanted attunement camping builds to be viable, if they didn’t, traits like fire VI and VII wouldn’t exist. Stoneheart is another fine example.
There are other classes that don’t use their ‘class skills’. Like mesmers with phantasm builds. Warriors with meta builds won’t use their brust skill either, aside from the occasional eviscerate because they would lose a 15% modifier if they did.

Being a master of the elements is cool and all but being this powerhouse fire wizard that throws around fireballs, makes it rain meteors and burns his enemies to a crisp can be fun as well.

Xae Isareth.1364:

lunyboy.8672:

This is the most effective stacking/bursting build, though… and trying to adjust your rotation for high DPS while reacting to melee range mobs or players is a very serious rush, but most folks just pick up the hammer and start smashing. It’s personal preference, for sure.

Isn’t s/f the best build for mightstacking?

The problem with s/d is that you don’t adjust your rotation for high DPS, because for most of the fight, all you do is just AA with a hammer. Sure you change your elements a couple of times to proc multipliers or shoot off a discharge, but that’s not exactly adjusting the rotation, because you just halt the rotation and AA until you can resume it.

It’s essentially a rotation of one skill.

I just kind of think every one of the meta setups apart from d/f failed the elementalist from a gameplay point of view. If you aren’t using the elements, you aren’t being an elementalist.

Actually I believe s/f can get a couple more stacks of might than s/d. Just s/d has a bigger fire field which makes it easier.

And you’re right, with s/d you mostly stack might, AA LH and keep up fury. But with staff, you spam 2511121152112115 all while sitting in fire or else you do completely crappy dps. Built right though s/d with LH can do really nice cleaves not to mention FGS dmg.

Basically it’s pick your poison. I personally find staff boring as all hell cause like I said, you camp fire and spam 3 buttons. If I wanted that I would play GS warrior AND have a ton more survivability. Plus from my experience, groups love 25 stacks of might all the time and perma fury. Don’t get me wrong though, when I’m feeling lazy, I too pop in the staff and go autopilot.

And yes Anet did kind of fail but then again, they failed at a lot of this game. Basically the biggest thing is the meta for anything PVE is run full zerker with zerker build. Healing or “tanking” will do nothing but slow the run down and allow for more mistakes since it takes longer to down the stuff.

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I agree that in a full 5 man team, playing staff ele is a bit monotonous and boring. However, many great eles I know swap weapons in between fights to fix the shortcomings of their group comp, and staff have the most useful utilities for group skipping.

The most boring playstyle for ele, imo, is scepter/dagger ele trying to burst the boss down with scepter air attack and churning earth. Bonus with ‘rolling in Earth for damage’. Pretty facepalm worthy.

If you actually are using churning earth for anything other than prestacking might, then you need to just reroll. And scepter air attacks are meh too. That is why you got 2 LHs and 2 FGS. Try dropping DT while running in and drop rof, phoenix, arcane brilliance, earthquake, arcane blast, summon LH and go crazy on the boss. I guarantee you will be the one the boss will turn to instantly.

And to me s/d or pretty much anything with LH is more fun since you will be in there meleeing. Boring to me is standing 600 yards away and spamming 251112115 through the dungeon. But then again, I prefer melee.

Churning Earth would be amazing if Anet didn’t get rid of the old BWE AI where mobs would run out of AoEs. I don’t understand why wouldn’t they to be honest, I’m not a programmer but I can’t imagine it would be that hard to code in ‘if being hit by the following skills, move away’.

Sauzo.6821:

Xae Isareth.1364:

lunyboy.8672:

This is the most effective stacking/bursting build, though… and trying to adjust your rotation for high DPS while reacting to melee range mobs or players is a very serious rush, but most folks just pick up the hammer and start smashing. It’s personal preference, for sure.

Isn’t s/f the best build for mightstacking?

The problem with s/d is that you don’t adjust your rotation for high DPS, because for most of the fight, all you do is just AA with a hammer. Sure you change your elements a couple of times to proc multipliers or shoot off a discharge, but that’s not exactly adjusting the rotation, because you just halt the rotation and AA until you can resume it.

It’s essentially a rotation of one skill.

I just kind of think every one of the meta setups apart from d/f failed the elementalist from a gameplay point of view. If you aren’t using the elements, you aren’t being an elementalist.

Actually I believe s/f can get a couple more stacks of might than s/d. Just s/d has a bigger fire field which makes it easier.

And you’re right, with s/d you mostly stack might, AA LH and keep up fury. But with staff, you spam 2511121152112115 all while sitting in fire or else you do completely crappy dps. Built right though s/d with LH can do really nice cleaves not to mention FGS dmg.

Basically it’s pick your poison. I personally find staff boring as all hell cause like I said, you camp fire and spam 3 buttons. If I wanted that I would play GS warrior AND have a ton more survivability. Plus from my experience, groups love 25 stacks of might all the time and perma fury. Don’t get me wrong though, when I’m feeling lazy, I too pop in the staff and go autopilot.

And yes Anet did kind of fail but then again, they failed at a lot of this game. Basically the biggest thing is the meta for anything PVE is run full zerker with zerker build. Healing or “tanking” will do nothing but slow the run down and allow for more mistakes since it takes longer to down the stuff.

Before I took a break from GW2 to call Wildstar a home for a while, I mainly used d/f. It’s DPS is negligibly similar to ye olde fury/might s-LH on small targets that don’t move (basically everything in PvE), and much higher on big targets or against a wall, pumps out more vulnerability, gives an extra fire field/evade and is not dependent on having access to your LH (I mainly PUG).

You do lose a blast finisher for that though, but if you really want to catch up with it, you can swap Burning Speed further down a bit and LH it, since you don’t need that 2nd LH anyways.

d/f dps is never higher. The 3 mightstacks are significant and don’t forget that wielding a LH gives you 75 ferocity and 180 precision. If we’re comparing 6/6/2 builds for s/f and d/f you’ll also lose out on arcane lighting when running d/f because you need to trait for fresh air, that is another 150 ferocity. The LH attack chain is also stronger than lighting whip attack chain.
With ‘more vulnerability’ against a wall I suppose you mean that you might get maybe 3 extra vuln when you use burning speed against a wall. Then again if you are fighting a boss against a wall you’re going to use fgs anyways, if we’re clearing trash mobs they will die in seconds, no matter what you do.
The extra evade on burning speed is absolutely worthless, the evade frames are too short for it to be reliably used to dodge attacks. Honestly counting on burning speed to evade boss attacks has killed me more often than it has saved me.

The thing that makes d/f so great is the extra survivability trough the utility of the focus and that you don’t have to rely on a conjure to keep your damage up. However the damage will always be lower than a conjure build, which makes sense because you trade damage for survivability.

@Sauzo: If there is one gear type that is broken then it’s clerics. People running in cleric gear with ‘healing builds’ can complete any kind of content without having to dodge once, it’s even possible to solo some bosses without having to use your dodge key.
Wearing tanky gear allows you to make a lot more mistakes and people that are less experienced will have to use tankier gear to be able to complete certain pieces of content. It’s only natural that experienced players are able to run glassier setups and they are rewarded with faster clear times. The developers even said it was intended design.
Inb4 lollowriskhighrewardbossesdieinstantlymeeleeexploit: try running glass cannon in arah or fotm lvl 50 and see how easy it is when failing to doge 1 attack instantly gets you downed and might even kill you.

^ I was simply having a rough calc based on DKey’s number in her guide above. The d/f section was assumed with only 1 stack of the trail on d/f ticking. Each extra stack ticking adds 1.2 coefficient to your 25-30 rotation, equating about 3% DPS.

Most enemies in dungeons will have 2+ stacks ticking on them, fractals not so much so because you get more smaller enemies but you probably don’t want LH for fractals anyways.

Base DPS with strength runes on d/f is 12578. I’m going to take that number instead of running a DPS calc because otherwise I don’t know the exact assumptions behind it so I can’t compare to the LH numbers if I didn’t. So, then 12578*1.03=12955, which is 1% less than a s-LH build.

3/4 second evade is more than enough to dodge attacks with. Thief s/d is famous for having an evade on #3, and that’s 1/2 second.

3 might stacks is about 3% group DPS. Equivalent to 3 vul stacks. d/f stacks 2-3 more vul stacks than s-LH (unless again, against a wall, then its more), so it more or less balances out.

You won’t always have FGS with you, for example, in AC, spider queen is followed by the champion graveling. Its basically 2 bosses right after one another.

Sauzo.6821:

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I agree that in a full 5 man team, playing staff ele is a bit monotonous and boring. However, many great eles I know swap weapons in between fights to fix the shortcomings of their group comp, and staff have the most useful utilities for group skipping.

The most boring playstyle for ele, imo, is scepter/dagger ele trying to burst the boss down with scepter air attack and churning earth. Bonus with ‘rolling in Earth for damage’. Pretty facepalm worthy.

If you actually are using churning earth for anything other than prestacking might, then you need to just reroll. And scepter air attacks are meh too. That is why you got 2 LHs and 2 FGS. Try dropping DT while running in and drop rof, phoenix, arcane brilliance, earthquake, arcane blast, summon LH and go crazy on the boss. I guarantee you will be the one the boss will turn to instantly.

And to me s/d or pretty much anything with LH is more fun since you will be in there meleeing. Boring to me is standing 600 yards away and spamming 251112115 through the dungeon. But then again, I prefer melee.

…Hmm? I think you wholeheartedly miss my point. Scepter air attack as in spamming scepter skills number 1-2-3-1111-2-3 in Air Atunement without any Conjured Weapons. And I never said that I’m not meleeing with my staff. I would be surprised if one just camps one attunement during the whole dungeon.

Again, my point is staff is pretty interesting to play when you do man-mode in dungeons and high level fractals. Cued from the cool kids such as Dub and Emanuel.

Iris Ng.9845:

Sauzo.6821:

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I agree that in a full 5 man team, playing staff ele is a bit monotonous and boring. However, many great eles I know swap weapons in between fights to fix the shortcomings of their group comp, and staff have the most useful utilities for group skipping.

The most boring playstyle for ele, imo, is scepter/dagger ele trying to burst the boss down with scepter air attack and churning earth. Bonus with ‘rolling in Earth for damage’. Pretty facepalm worthy.

If you actually are using churning earth for anything other than prestacking might, then you need to just reroll. And scepter air attacks are meh too. That is why you got 2 LHs and 2 FGS. Try dropping DT while running in and drop rof, phoenix, arcane brilliance, earthquake, arcane blast, summon LH and go crazy on the boss. I guarantee you will be the one the boss will turn to instantly.

And to me s/d or pretty much anything with LH is more fun since you will be in there meleeing. Boring to me is standing 600 yards away and spamming 251112115 through the dungeon. But then again, I prefer melee.

I would be surprised if one just camps one attunement during the whole dungeon.

Again, my point is staff is pretty interesting to play when you do man-mode in dungeons and high level fractals. Cued from the cool kids such as Dub and Emanuel.

In a normal dungeon run, you do just camp one atonement on staff though :L

Xae Isareth.1364:

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I wasn’t really talking about challenge, I was talking about what you would do to optimise it. You forgo changing elements completely in a fight, which is the whole point to playing an ele. Without the elements, you stop being an elementalist, you turn into a boring class without the mechanic that defines it.

You forgot that the “Attunement Dancing” and “Staff” go hand-in-hand in World vs. World. It’s just not necessarily so in Dungeons while most utilities can be provided from your utility skills or teammate. If all you think of is camping Fire attunement in an organized group of 5 people is pretty boring then low-manning a dungeon will allow you to reach out to a more interesting staff play. You can really complain about a play style with all those crutches.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Iris Ng.9845:

Sauzo.6821:

Iris Ng.9845:

Look at it this way. If you play staff when solo AC or low-manning Arah, it is pretty challenging.

I agree that in a full 5 man team, playing staff ele is a bit monotonous and boring. However, many great eles I know swap weapons in between fights to fix the shortcomings of their group comp, and staff have the most useful utilities for group skipping.

The most boring playstyle for ele, imo, is scepter/dagger ele trying to burst the boss down with scepter air attack and churning earth. Bonus with ‘rolling in Earth for damage’. Pretty facepalm worthy.

If you actually are using churning earth for anything other than prestacking might, then you need to just reroll. And scepter air attacks are meh too. That is why you got 2 LHs and 2 FGS. Try dropping DT while running in and drop rof, phoenix, arcane brilliance, earthquake, arcane blast, summon LH and go crazy on the boss. I guarantee you will be the one the boss will turn to instantly.

And to me s/d or pretty much anything with LH is more fun since you will be in there meleeing. Boring to me is standing 600 yards away and spamming 251112115 through the dungeon. But then again, I prefer melee.

I would be surprised if one just camps one attunement during the whole dungeon.

Again, my point is staff is pretty interesting to play when you do man-mode in dungeons and high level fractals. Cued from the cool kids such as Dub and Emanuel.

In a normal dungeon run, you do just camp one atonement on staff though :L

Don’t you stack might or swiftness? Or use cleanse once in a while? Or killing the Orrian Turrets with your reflect? :s