Guild Wars 2

But isnt the whole purpose of having 4 attunements making it so that it is almost equivalent of having 2 weapons swaps, 4 different gameplays, and versatility?

Now, i know that for some cases this does not apply, like say: you wont pick a D/D to storm a castles wall, or a staff to have a brawl fight with a warrior, but, each weapon has the tools to deal with each situation, except the staff. Sure you dont have to siege a wall with D/D but apart from that, I cant possibly imagine a scenario where D/D isnt better than staff (and high lvl fractals is doable with D/D, trust me, but poinbt besides, NOBODY should really melee in high lvl fractals except maybe guarians and sturdy warriors so that point is null).

Yet, staff lacks the tool to stay ranged (the opposite is dagger with tools to create gap and close it at convenience) AND lacks the option of damage, which pidgeon-hole us into support , not by choice, but because its the only path left.

If I hear another “just switch to D/D” counter argument I swear I will pour a glass of hot chocolate milk on the drain and punch a kitten (not, that wasnt a filter), that argument ONLY applies to people that can switch weapons mid fight. Get real, staff needs help, period. Where is the ranged elemental wizard, commander of the elements, weak as a spaghetti but can kill you as fast as you could kill him?!

Mid fight is already too late, you need more awareness.

The ranged wizard is called the mesmer.

emikochan.8504:

Mid fight is already too late, you need more awareness.

The ranged wizard is called the mesmer.

mesmer is a master of confusion, a duelist, which is why their mechanics are aimed at mostly single target with some collateral damage (clones only attack the person you target, if you switch targets then you have to start again)

As for the weapons

Lets say you are in tPvP, 5v5, I remember a statement from Anet that they wanted to make all weapons viable, better in some scenarious but overall you would be able to play your style and make it work for the most part with traits. I think the real problem are traits, but lets face it, they might take a lot of work (work which will very likely include Anet reworking them completely) so it wont see much changes, therefore we have to change the weapons to fit the “style”. Are you implying Im forced to play D/D in sPvP and tPvP all the time? Because there most of the time it is a 2v2 or 1v1, with the occasional 3v3, (unless your team is bad and all go together, in which case nothing can save you) and staff wont cut it, in fact D/D is better candidate for teams 4 or smaller, but not only that, you could argue that staff is good at WvW, but there is this video of 2 D/D eles soloing 10+ people, and killing a few of them, and then running away, try to do the same with more than 2 people with staff (and pray one of them isnt a thief) and you will see…..
So then you are only left with sieging the walls, which happens to be the only thing dagger is not good at, but thats not a biggie, after all, only a few professions that can do that, is that the only redeemable thing about staff then? wall sieging? Is that all we are left with? Is the the viability you would expect? Are you truly satisfied with that, are you?!

you wont pick a D/D to storm a castles wall, or a staff to have a brawl fight with a warrior,

I think i prefer a staff against a warrior.
its easier to deflect his greatsword, than having tiny daggers for it…

But then again.
If i was a master of 4 elements. (only need 2).
I whould simply guide down a lightning strike from distance and see him get electrocuted to ash.
why even try melee…

you know.. metal armor + lightning = Evil. :P

Staff in WvW is the only weapon to use (expect focus vs Siege weapons) since its the only one that has 2 attacks that ignores target limit. Its a bit weak to compare to Mesmer/Necro/Guadian but still.

When it comes to high Fractals your job is pretty much to supply water field when your group cant find a ranger. D/D dies, Scepter is occasionally fine (Shaman shield).

In sPvP you have good option with Blind Builds with S/D or S/F and Focus + Cantrip builds are tough point holders.

Where D/D shines its for 1v4 (2 are low level, 1 is afk and the last one is trying Bob’s character on a laptop with the Airport’s free wifi) heroes, ninja-survival kiting or other “gamer-ego-trip-to-put-on-a-vid-with-neometal-junk” material.

If they remove AoE target limit all weapons suddenly become fine, actually many professions too, and it punishes huge zergs and the “lets pack up together” on-way brainless strategy.

As for staff in PvE (and anywhere else) at least hastening water #1 travel time (channeling?) and Eruption’s blast (so you can actually cast a field BEFORE Eruption, like reactive playing, you know, not just “hey lets throw a healing blast on this guy in case he loses hitpoints and doesn’t have his heal up and also doesn’t die before and doesn’t walk 3 steps away!”)

innocent ouarior.1954:

Staff in WvW is the only weapon to use (expect focus vs Siege weapons) since its the only one that has 2 attacks that ignores target limit. Its a bit weak to compare to Mesmer/Necro/Guadian but still.

When it comes to high Fractals your job is pretty much to supply water field when your group cant find a ranger. D/D dies, Scepter is occasionally fine (Shaman shield).

In sPvP you have good option with Blind Builds with S/D or S/F and Focus + Cantrip builds are tough point holders.

Where D/D shines its for 1v4 (2 are low level, 1 is afk and the last one is trying Bob’s character on a laptop with the Airport’s free wifi) heroes, ninja-survival kiting or other “gamer-ego-trip-to-put-on-a-vid-with-neometal-junk” material.

If they remove AoE target limit all weapons suddenly become fine, actually many professions too, and it punishes huge zergs and the “lets pack up together” on-way brainless strategy.

As for staff in PvE (and anywhere else) at least hastening water #1 travel time (channeling?) and Eruption’s blast (so you can actually cast a field BEFORE Eruption, like reactive playing, you know, not just “hey lets throw a healing blast on this guy in case he loses hitpoints and doesn’t have his heal up and also doesn’t die before and doesn’t walk 3 steps away!”)

No skill ignores the cap, the reason why it might seem like it does, is because, for example, Meteor Shower, each meteor affects a max of 5 people per second, so as long as they fall on different intervals in that second, there shouldnt be any issues, if 2 fall at the same time, then 5 targets in between both are picked at random, 5 hits divided, tested it plenty of times, threw it on a 200+ zerg and saw the same numbers that throwing it on a 50+ zerg.
The freezing ground is the same (water #4), it might appear like it affects everyone or a lot of people, but in reality all it does, is apply the freeze status randomly to 5 targets in a second inside the field, meaning that each second the RNG is run and randomly assigned to each victim, but the freeze lasts long that a second so over the duration can potentially affect a different target everytime, same goes for air #5, once the stun wears off off someone then it gets randomly appied to someone else…

Only Air#5 and Earth#4 affect all targets that enter/leave/go though the wall. They are the only usefull things an Elem can go in WvW. And thats staff.