Guild Wars 2

When you think of a guardian with a staff, you think of a support power house, like a babby version of either of the Tome elites (probably more like the tome of wrath, as Anet have tried to shy away from pure healing).

Anyway. That’s not at all what you get. You get an auto attack that doesn’t support at all (see: mesmer auto attacks with boons/conditions) and a single heal orb (that is hard to aim and quite ineffectual). Now, the channel>might spell is very effective, but it feels really weak to use up a whole skill slot just to get about 5 seconds of 12stack might. The symbol of swiftness is worthless in all but the most niche WvW circumstances (and doesn’t actually increase your party’s damage or survivability), and the line of warding is completely worthless in all situations (however monsters will stupidly run into it over and over and get knocked down, leading to permastun which is okay).

This would be okay if the Scepter was good at supporting, as you could pair it with a shield for some okay buffing and protecting. But nay, the scepter doesn’t even try to support like the staff does.

This, too, would be okay if it wasn’t for the fact that other classes DO have support staff/ranged support options. Honestly, water-staff-elementalists fit this role better than Guardians. Can Guardians support at melee? Of course, and they do this in spades. But one has to ask, if that’s true, why even have a Scepter and Staff in the first place? Why not make it a pure melee class? And then the reasoning breaks down.

I want to be able to heal and buff my allies with a ranged weapon; I don’t want to draw a line on the ground that every human can run around with ease.

You should try playing sPVP, staff is amazing there. Symbol is good for getting from point to point and kiting.
Line of Warding is amazing for holding chokepoints, there’s several maps with spots narrow enough to completely block off.
But I agree with what you say about the first two abilities. The autoattack is alright, but the Orb of Light really irritates me. If you use it just for the damage and never detonate it it is some okay dps, but if you do detonate it you get such a little benefit for such a long cooldown that it’s just not worth it. In my opinion the detonating part should be a lot stronger.

I use a Staff on weapon swap in PvE all the time. I only really use Empower and Line of Warding. The 12 stacks of Might you give to your group and yourself is amazing, and on a short 20 second cooldown, it becomes even better! I also use the Line of Warding to help break up pulls and block mobs in hallways/doors. As for the Staff auto-attack and the Orb of Light .. I would prefer to switch back to my main weapon.

As support spec, staff 3 can also heal anyone that it touches cuz I think it is a symbol or whatever and a trait makes all symbols heal.

I’m sorry OP. I think you just haven’t actually played Staff Guardian. The staff is very amazing and unique weapon.

Skill 1: Spammable AOE? Yes! Perfect for DEs where you want to tag a lot of mobs and get exp/loot! WvW? Spam through the gate and hit everyone behind it. The damage may be mediocre but it makes it up for being able to hit so many targets at a relatively safe range.

Skill 2: Decent long range damage with relatively short cool down. Sure, its hard to aim, but it is perfect for pulling in mobs in PvE and then switching over to a different weapon. The heal is situational but can definitely support well from a distance.

Skill 3: Speed buff with short cool down? Yes! Coupled with other skills like Help Yourself! and Retreat! You pretty much get perma-swiftness. In WvW you can help move an entire group of people much faster across the map. And since you can aim with it, trait it as a distance group heal.

Skill 4: Give yourself and your group might before jumping into a PvE fight. Or stay back during a boss fight and give everyone heals. Only down side is that this skill is a channel spell so you are rooted. Works even better in a WvW zerg when you can stay back and help heal.

Skill 5: Extremely powerful ability at the right circumstance. Cut off retreating enemies? Protect choke points? (awesome to stick it on bridges/gates in WvW)
Considering there is no hard counter to this skill it is just so good.

Seriously, go play more. If you think you can just spam skills and win then you are very wrong. GW2 is not a game like that.

Staff is GREAT for DE’s, some dungeons, and in some cases sPvP. But yeah, its the guardian’s main support weapon, and I don’t see a single weak spell on it. A hint, don’t blow up the 2 so it recharges almost instantly.

Its the main weapon you use to tag multiple enemies to get the most drops, the only other weapons that can do this on autoattack are like the ele daggers. And I think daggers have lower range and smaller arcs.

staff combined with other control utilites and fully stacked healpower is my favorite build to run in dungeons, i may not be able to do much at range but i can certainly protect my entire team.

I disagree with the OP. I have staff as a switchup set and use in every dungeon run, with great success. Based on the post, I think it seems anything short of a weapon with 4 heals is not what your looking for, though the weapon is great support.

15 Stacks of might with skill 4 and the virtue. Another example, as you mentioned, is skill 5 which causes enemies to continuously fall down. That is absolutely great in many ways, offering your team time to damage enemies before they can reach you.

the uprising.6317:

A hint, don’t blow up the 2 so it recharges almost instantly.

This. A hint to your hint: if you position the mob at an incline or against the wall, you don’t have to wait for it to travel it’s full distance, making it easier to spam for more damage.

traits: +20% damage to burning enemies, VoJ = 3 stacks of might
charge up your #4 = 12 stacks of might
set mobs on fire
???
profit

Symbols can put vulnerability on enemies and heal allies when traited.
The auto attack can buff your allies with might every time you crit when traited.
The heal and might on the 4 skill do not have a target limit.
I believe the warding line is a combo field, which gives you two combo fields on one weapon. I believe only mace and shield can do that as well.
Staff is a very good weapon. It just isn’t very obvious. I even think a power staff build would be possible. I know during earlier beta weekends I used a “glass cannon” Greatsword/Staff build, and with my Staff and a ton of power and crit damage, I was critting all targets often for around 1.2k-1.5k. With no limit on targets, that’s about as much damage as Tome of Wrath does (without the burning, of course.)

The only weak point is the slow orb and the detonate. I’d replace it with a direct, channeled beam that blinds for its duration or something along those lines. Maybe even weakness.

Personally I wish they would just take the first ability off of the trident & copy paste it onto the staff’s #1 slot then move wave of wrath to the #2 slot, double-triple its damage & put it on a 5-8 second cool down.

After that the staff would be fine.

I honestly did not like it at fist, but after doing AC with it I never want to un-equip it again. Takes a fair bit of timing and tactics to use but hey, that’s the point of the game. It may not be as long range as other staves but it have a fair bit more versatility.

I find it hard to not use staff in WvW. Why should I care about putting in a few hits on someone on a wall/from a wall when I can entirely block the path of an enemy zerg.

5-skill alone makes the staff far from unimpressive. Also you may not realise but the 2-skill does some hefty damage fired direct (and it goes through multiple enemies so for enemy groups it’s guaranteed to hit a couple of people). 1-skill does major total damage to groups. 3-skill gets you and as many people stand on it in the time it’s up swiftness to get places quick/escape. 4-skill gives TWELVE stacks of might to your immediate allies.

Unimpressive is kind of the opposite, assuming you understand not all weapons are designed for 1v1 dps encounters.

Love the staff, my main weapon in WvW. Use Symbol of Swiftness constantly when moving and during attacks, same with the Might channel/heal and the Line of Warding. The attack skills are also great against zergs (which is what I’m usually facing as a support Guardian).

It could be that the Staff is the wrong weapon for the OP, or the Guardian is the wrong class.

The Staff is alright, in my opinion.
The first ability is a bit bland, and it would be nice if it could be traited to heal a little, or remove conditions, but as it it, it’s okay.
The second one has some problems, being very slow, and detonating doesn’t do all that much in most situations, but still, it’s a heal.
The Symbol is alright. Swiftness isn’t the best support a Guardian has to offer, but traited it still heals, and it’s a combo field, so with a few other players, it also brings condition removal and retaliation.
Empower is pretty powerful in bigger groups, but you can’t always find the opportunity to stay still for the entire cast.
Line of Warding is amazing.

Elythor.6320:

I’m sorry OP. I think you just haven’t actually played Staff Guardian. The staff is very amazing and unique weapon.

Skill 1: Spammable AOE? Yes! Perfect for DEs where you want to tag a lot of mobs and get exp/loot! WvW? Spam through the gate and hit everyone behind it. The damage may be mediocre but it makes it up for being able to hit so many targets at a relatively safe range.

Skill 2: Decent long range damage with relatively short cool down. Sure, its hard to aim, but it is perfect for pulling in mobs in PvE and then switching over to a different weapon. The heal is situational but can definitely support well from a distance.

Skill 3: Speed buff with short cool down? Yes! Coupled with other skills like Help Yourself! and Retreat! You pretty much get perma-swiftness. In WvW you can help move an entire group of people much faster across the map. And since you can aim with it, trait it as a distance group heal.

Skill 4: Give yourself and your group might before jumping into a PvE fight. Or stay back during a boss fight and give everyone heals. Only down side is that this skill is a channel spell so you are rooted. Works even better in a WvW zerg when you can stay back and help heal.

Skill 5: Extremely powerful ability at the right circumstance. Cut off retreating enemies? Protect choke points? (awesome to stick it on bridges/gates in WvW)
Considering there is no hard counter to this skill it is just so good.

Seriously, go play more. If you think you can just spam skills and win then you are very wrong. GW2 is not a game like that.

Just wanted to point out that you’re wrong, Stability counters line of warding. So, yeah. It’s not really as good as you think it is.

Staff is excellent for what it does. I think you have a misconception of what it should be (the tome of wrath). It’s the ultimate support weapon for our class and can be a battle changer in larger fights (forcing people to use stability just to get in range…and not have it available to actually do damage).

I used to think the Staff was pretty weak. Then I actually used it for more than the Swiftness buff and found it to be amazing. The auto-attack is great for tagging mobs in DE’s. The “2” skill is kind of meh, but need to play with it more. Symbol of Swiftness gives speed buff and does damage, sweet! Empower (or the “4” skill, might not be the name) is simply ridiculous … 12 stacks of might and a decent heal at the end for your group … amazing. And Line of Warding is just an amazing skill, especially in some of the dungeons I have done.

On all the classes, I tend to find the weapons “bad” for the first while. But when you get playing with it more, figure out some of the combos you can do and the timing, they start getting very powerful. I suggest taking some more time and playing with the Staff … and all the weapons we Guardians have at our disposal

Staff has meant the difference between party wipe and success in some situations for me. Especially dungeons or personal story quests that involve tight spaces. Keeping 8 charging melee centaurs at bay for 5 seconds is incredibly powerful when used right. Have a good nec or ele on your team and you can effectively tank mobs and ball them up – AT RANGE.

The staff is absolutely amazing and

Impossible Odds.4627:

the line of warding is completely worthless in all situations

this is ridiculous.

The staff skills indicate that it is a pure support weapon, but the auto attack skill doesn’t reflect this. It has short range and aoe damage. I would like to see the auto attack skill changed to something with more range, making it useful in boss fights and wvw, and an added support component. Maybe something along the lines of the trident auto attack which bounces and heals allies.