Guild Wars 2

Just wondering.. will I be able to use GS/staff effectively as my weapons in PvE and WvW? I understand that certain situations in PvE call for ranged and I’d have to switch to scepter.. but aside from those occasional moments where ranged is needed.. is using both of these viable?

I am trying to build my guardian support-ish.

Thank you

Of course you can. If you provided us with your build we might be able to “optimize” it but in most cases GS/staff is extremely viable for both PvE and WvW. For WvW specifically, you can “tag” a lot of enemies by running with the zerg and pressing 1 on the staff. You also get Empower which allows to you help the zerg might up before a clash. The symbol 3 also keeps swiftness up for yourself and a group. Tbh almost any weapon combination works for guardians.

Here’s the problem with that combination. One is built for damage, the other one couldn’t be any farther from it. All of the damage options on the staff are terrible, at best, so the main reason to really use it would be for Empower and Line of Warding. Now those are both awesome abilities, but you’re not doing damage while you’re using them.

I think it really comes down to what you’re wanting to do. Are you trying to do damage, but want some added support? Or, are you wanting to play support, but really want to use a greatsword? It would be hard to pull off for the first option, and much easier to pull off with the second.

More the second thing you mentioned. I definitely want to play support.. that is pretty much the reason I rolled Guardian, but I really enjoy the abilities on GS and the weapo skins (vain, I know).

Shyhalu.4891:

More the second thing you mentioned. I definitely want to play support.. that is pretty much the reason I rolled Guardian, but I really enjoy the abilities on GS and the weapo skins (vain, I know).

Yeah, you should be fine then. Pick up Two-Handed Mastery since you’re going with that weapon combination. Just realize you’re not going to be doing that much damage with it if you go heavy support. Just make sure you don’t stay in GS to the point where you’re missing out on the staff CD’s being up. Empower and Line of Warding are going to offer much more than anything from the GS, if you’re going support.

If I wasn’t so attached to the GS, what would you generally recommend as a secondary weapon set to staff?

Also thanks for your help

Shyhalu.4891:

If I wasn’t so attached to the GS, what would you generally recommend as a secondary weapon set to staff?

Also thanks for your help

Well, you’ll want a secondary weapon that offers more in the way of utility, rather than damage. Really, it will come down to personal choice. I think Staff/Hammer is a great combination, especially with Two-Handed Mastery. If you’re having trouble with survivability, Sword/Shield or Sword/Focus is a good combination. If you’re not going with a two-handed weapon, I personally like Scepter/Focus for the extra utility and support.

For WvW how do you feel about scepter/shield? Seems like the shield abilities could be fairly useful when you’re standing in the backlines scepter-ing people and buffing the zerg/group with staff abilities.

Shyhalu.4891:

For WvW how do you feel about scepter/shield? Seems like the shield abilities could be fairly useful when you’re standing in the backlines scepter-ing people and buffing the zerg/group with staff abilities.

Yeah, I like that combination. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Shield, but it has its merits. I think Shield of Faith works best if you’re going to roll with a lot of people, and Shield of Absorption is a nice ability, just be careful with people that have Stability up.

I love Scepter though, I think it has a good combination of damage and CC. Smite is great if you can drop it on a location where there’s a lot of traffic, and Chains of Light is just stupid good. .5 second cast, 900 range, single target Immobilize is just awesome. The auto-attack is very average, but you won’t be doing a lot of damage anyways, so it won’t matter too much.

Use staff for skipping through trash or at the beginning of the fight for warding and empower. When you dont need it take sword focus and GS. sword auto attack is the best dps you can do. GS just has nice burst dps. Hammer should only really be used in select situations when you need to absorb lots of auto attacks. And when supporting with a guardian take either beserker or knights gear. Anything else is just the sign of a bad/inexperienced player. The best support in the game is providing good dps and with a guardian you do that while blocking key attacks with aegis, condition cleansing and reflecting projectiles. Along with other boons and amazing buffs.

I run a 0/15/30/20/5 build that is support+zerker in pve and do quite fine with it. I never die, keep up might and other boons, and GS for damage. I just kind of have to time when I plan on using Staff, use it when it’ll negatively affect dps the least. IDK but I find it enjoyable.

Just a fun fact, you can one-shot people with Staff burst.
Ofc it’s not as strong as other burst builds and relies a lot on terrain but in DPS builds the staff is amazing (eg. Symbol DPS with Hm/St is the strongest guard DPS build in tpvp atm) and you can burst with it for trolls.

The combo works, but it’s not like most weapon set combinations where you can get away with hitting all the abilities then swapping, repeat. You’ll have to adjust to a playstyle that sticks with one of the two weapons for an extended period of time, usually greatsword. You only swap when the other weapon gives you a clear advantage.

The combo works but I would avoid GS in large group settings and replace it with a hammer. Taking GS offers more damage and mobility, but it comes at the cost of CCs and Blast Finishers, two things that are infinitely more useful in zerg vs zerg. Not to mention that Whirling Wrath gets you killed if enemies have retaliation and it’s not as bursty as Mighty Blow.

GS/Staff is my go to WvW support Guardian set up.

You’ll probably be using staff 90% of the time in WvW. Empower, decent AoE damage, healing, and Line of Warding makes it the best weapon we have for larger group play.

I mostly use GS for the mobility and those times when you can pull and WW effectively. Even in full clerics gear I can do a couple thousand damage with WW. Scepter/Focus is also useful, but I just love having the leap on the GS when running across a map.

Jax.5261:

Just a fun fact, you can one-shot people with Staff burst.
Ofc it’s not as strong as other burst builds and relies a lot on terrain but in DPS builds the staff is amazing (eg. Symbol DPS with Hm/St is the strongest guard DPS build in tpvp atm) and you can burst with it for trolls.

While true, I don’t think many of the guardians here have the skill to pull it off. I do not mean to offend anyone, so please don’t think that. I’m not being mean at all, but the reality is that most people don’t take enough time to work on pvp (actual player versus other players, not pve wvw) to know how to use staff effectively.

As Jax pointed out though staff is actually one of our best weapons when used correctly, and can have amazing burst. An example is most guardians don’t seem to know about the double hit on the orb. Which can be a fairly huge burst. Specifically you can time it with a JI/gs burst really well.

I agree that staff is a surprisingly powerful weapon. In an extreme dps build its quite viable for not only damage but also support. The staff allows you to medium range kite and avoid a ton of damage while still putting out significant damage that is not projectile and goes through obstacles.

I will frequently kite mobs/players around with it without ever using other abilities than 1 through 3 and dodge.

With my build; ill launch #2 at range activating VoJ before it hits, swap to GS without a swap Cd, roll into a symbol/leap/ww/binding weapon swap, symbol/orb/detonate orb then #1 spam.

I frequently see my staff autos critting for 2.5k, seen 3k plenty with group buffs, and my #2 orb crits over 5k on short cd with option for even more burst.

Staff is straight beastly precisely because it can put out great dps while giving you plenty of mobility. Your opponent will quickly realize the need to escape nearly undodgable and unreflective ranged dps that looks like 5k+2.5k at once followed by 2.5k 2.5k 5k+2.5k.

For under level events like Queensdale up through lol 60ish, staff for trash, GS for vets or greater.

I probably wouldn’t recommend staff for damage outside of a dps build.
The reason staff works so well for me in pvp and wvwvw is because its so easy to hit your opponent when you’re both moving around fanatically dodging and strafing.
Against melee its downright mean.

Staff is a vastly underappreciated weapon damage-wise that applies consistent steady pressure, but it has no burst. You don’t need to go full dps to provide decent DPS either, aside from full bunkers, it has its uses dps-wise even agasint a solo target. Everyone seems to focus on “this weapon has low DPS…” on target dummies! when in fact it shines against high mobility targets (hint: other players) or against, as widely known, multiple targets.

I’ve been using this weapon combo since closed beta (you heard right) to great success (I sorely miss my Spirit build!). With several buffs to Staff, the weapon became even stronger; they just have to buff Empower to be casted while on the move and I’ll be golden (I’m sure it’s going to happen eventually).

Remeber you have the greatest out of combat mobility with these two sets as well as great clutch disengage with Line of Wading+Leap of Faith. Both huge assets, especially for/as a Guardian.

Staff/GS is a very underrated combo, when in fact they both have lots of sinergies skill and trait-wise in all formats of the game (roaming, zerg, dungeons, fractals, world PvE and sPvP). I say try them out, and figure out the skill and trait choises for yourself (which is half the fun in these kind of games!).

0/15/30/20/5

Staff 1+F1 in WVW, loot bag heaven.