Guild Wars 2

Every time I try to zone into FOTM, my client crashes. This doesn’t happen when I zone into anywhere else but the fractal area. This bug started to occur today for me.

The crash report is attached.

I’m on a network with the same person. They do not have any trouble zoning into FOTM.

Note that this also applies when I try to zone into a fractal currently in progress. I assume because it’s on the same server. It’s just odd that the person on the same network as me has no issues leading me to think it’s a graphic-related issue.

It’s really quite frustrating to be hit by a nerf as an auramancer (earth/water/tempest). I lost a tremendous amount of self-sustain, group healing, and it feels like I’m super squishy even in Soldier’s + cleric stats on my staff.

Auramancer isn’t even that popular. Were they afraid eles were going to overtake our druid healer overlords? Since there are all of two healers in this game anyways? Jesus christ, ANET…

Oh well. RIP face tanking axemaster. Anyone have a decent build for tanking/healing now similar to auramancer? Been playing necro/rev a lot lately and I must say…the tankiness + ability to self heal is amazing compared to ele at the moment. You have the option to use minions too to solo pretty much anything as well.

Has this not been patched? This is pretty crippling to auramancer with the already huge nerf to healing from WAtP.

Am I missing something or is there really not a stow pet binding? What year am I in? Am I dreaming?

Edit: I do realize that the auramancer mentioned on Metabattle:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Tempest_-_Midline_Auramancer

is probably what I am aiming for. However, I would still value any input you guys can give me!

Hi there fellow eles!

The short: Is there a viable tanking/healing elementalist build that focuses on survivability above all else with the benefit of added healing for teammates?

If so, what weapons would this build use? What kind of armor does this build use? What runes do you put on the weapons and armor? How about accessories?

The long: A long time ago I decked out my elementalist in berserker gear for Citadel of Flames farming but took a long break from GW2 and recently returned. I absolutely love the tempest class but boy am I having a hard time staying alive (staff fire/air/tempest) in some dungeons like Twilight Arbor Aetherblades and Arah P1. I believe I am dodging enough/correctly as I have read that is what a berserker elementalist relies on for defense.

Sometimes, though, this doesn’t cut it in PUGs. I would like to find a build that focuses on the opposite of the berserker build: sacrifice most of my DPS for tankiness and support. I want to reenact the effectiveness of my mantra-based mesmer 2 years ago that could sustain myself pretty well.

I have checked many different sources but have come up short as most of the tank builds I have found are quite old.

Does anyone have suggestions? I would like to know what weapon, what specializations to choose, what armor, what accessories, and the runes that go along with all of these if possible. I have a few ideas but I am afraid of making my own build and wasting money on armor only to realize that a certain rune synergizes better than what I had selected.

Any help is much appreciated!

Sarie.1630:

Kagato.5390:

Get real. What’s happening is that now you have to complete the fight the intended way

If the numbers of spiders that spawn now was intended it should have taken far less than 10 months for them to fix the boss to make it spawn the correct amount. The tree never used to chuck out 6 silvers and countless, countless small spiders every 30 seconds of combat

This boss seems to be far harder than anything in Arah right now, unless you’re able to solo it, not that it matters any more. Everyone who matters has their Dungeon Master title, right?

You’re quoting the wrong person. >_>

Mesmer mantra build is quite effective, actually. I play a guardian and ele as well but neither can keep up with how much healing my mantras do. 2k per cast and mantra of pain is almost always up.

Only problem is you have to be relatively close.

Yes which can be a problem if he decides to open with the bombardment. Hits all teammates running in for the same amount. Either they’re almost dead or downed and then the spiders finish them off. I think this encounter would be better if the spiders reset on wipe like they are supposed to.

Hello all. Thank you for your responses. Sorry I haven’t been keeping tabs on this thread. I did end up just sticking with my original build and am at level 70 or so. It works well but I don’t feel I have enough precision to pull it off quite yet…but at 80, I think it will work well.

My build now looks something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjcOZvJPOPMxBAjCjA6ogKmUKgzNA

I still use the bow on ocassion but now run axe/axe in dungeons alongside GS. I think I went too far into the disc. tree, to be honest. I think it’s effective at 80 when you’re always using axe/axe (or almost always) but right now I use bow too much to warrant the 20 into disc. Any suggestions where to go next?
I didn’t know Deep Strikes was bugged! Glad I switched from the build early on (40 or so).

I marked the answer with a lot of helpful info in it that I didn’t know even though all of you answered my question (even a little). Thanks again!
Thanks again.

jwaz.1908:

rfdarko.4639:

….plus trying to dodge the trees attacks. If you have any specific tips on clearing the spiders (especially after reset) I’d love to hear them.

You know the Nightmare Tree itself on this path doesn’t do anything right? As in, its attacks are ignorable, the only attack the tree does that is important is when he shakes, which spawns the spiders.

The entire point of this fight is just to find a way to deal with the mobs of spiders, whether it be kiting and circling the tree in 1 direction, or face-tanking with reflection.

Completely incorrect. The tree bombards you (which also spawns spiders) for 2.5k damage 5 times (level 80 Mes with zerker gear) which equates to about 12.5k damage in one second. The tree also impales you and the mortars that spawn at the entrance can hit up to 2k damage on you using a ‘red’ attack (so says the combat log).

Aeros.2046:

You know guys, you COULD unlock it yourselves. Balthazar is not hard to do, just get 2 groups of 5, run 2 invasions, and follow the wiki guide.

Balth is actually one of (if not THE) hardest temple to unlock. After trying it numerous times with 3~5 people, I just gave up and guested to another server. Requires 8~10 and the ambushes really can suck on the last part.

124 views and no response? I know you guys are better than that!

It’s funny because that’s the same lame excuse that Blizzard tells to WoW players.

“We can’t balance both! It’s impossible!”

rfdarko.4639:

I really would like to see a of video done with this using reflections on classes that aren’t guard or mes. That’s a genuine and not a sarcastic request. Or, a video that shows this supposed kiting technique – because my only experience with the boss is 3 second after the spiders spawn your pretty much dead to the poison cloud, no matter where your standing or dodge rolling. If it’s possible but just difficult, that’s actually fine. Most pug groups I run are willing to listen and try tactics. I’m just not sure that the reflect uptime with ele/thief/engi is going to be enough(without 3 warriors dpsing like crazy) and the kiting I can’t even imagine.

I don’t have a video of my mesmer solo but I do have a video of an engineer soloing it:

All you need for mesmer is a mantra build. I run something like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsdRl4zioHVzqGaNJipC92pHQnztckKoalUgbXIA-jwxAYLioRKSEJLAJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVLEgo1A-e

Just have to keep an eye on your endurance. Every dodge creates a clone which wastes one round of spider poison. You throw two clones at the tree with GS and nullfield out of the root. You can also feedback the pack of mobs following you if you get in a sticky situation. Really easy to do…only caveat is that you need to round up the spiders initially which can be a little annoying.

Player Character.9467:

They already announced that they’re reworking every single dungeon, so ya, I think they’re reworking every single dungeon.

Ya? Did they say they were reworking every dungeon to make them more difficult? Didn’t think so.

neigeux.3172:

Hey everyone, OP here. Let me tell you how my run ended up going.

I ended up posting in LFG and had to pay group members 2g each to get a total of 3 guardians (one of which was me), a mesmer, and a warrior, all in PPT / knight’s gear.
For the last boss, we went in with sanctuary/shield of the avenger/wall of reflection/feedback/repeat and chained our reflects, took the boss out in about 40-50 seconds. We did that on our first try.

I think that this dungeon, similar to Simin for arah p4, is one of those groups that requires certain classes. While anet insists that any combination of classes can do any dungeon, i’d like to see 2 condition necroes, an engineer, a longbow ranger and a staff elemental that sits in one attunement complete arah.

While anet is supposedly tweaking all of the dungeons, unless they do a complete overhaul of professions, 1 guard 1 mes 3 zerker warriors will still be the most popular group composition, and one of the most viable in many situations, including this one.

The best way to get around the issues of having kittenty PUGS is to get into a dungeon-oriented guild, have a group you do regular runs with, specify classes in LFG or simply MAKE A WARRIOR/MESMER/GUARDIAN.

Glad you at least got it done…too bad at that price. Would’ve been happy to do it with you.

It definitely pays to have one of those classes at 80 just for those occasions. Anet can insist all they want…normal PUGs will not be able to handle something like the F/U tree.

Guys, this probably was mentioned earlier, but you can easily monitor what is open/when it’s open on what server here:

http://us.gw2stuff.com/en/events/us

For instance, only Sanctum of Rall currently controls Temple of Balth.

Recently decided to level a warrior for some fun. What I’ve noticed, though, is that there are very few guides out there that will tell you details and trait/skill slot setups. When to place what where and why.

Compared to other professions where you will find at least two guides for leveling, warrior seems to have “go with signet build and put 10 in arms”.

After searching the forums (and GW2 Guru) for a while, I haven’t unearthed much of anything. Could one of you perhaps offer your advice?

I’m currently level 52. I used the signet build up until 40 or so (crafted to 52). No one really tells you what to put points in after the 10 in arms and 10 in strength.

However, here is what I’m currently using since I run dungeons quite a bit to level:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjcOZvJPOPMxBAjCjA6ogKm0CA

This build is rather nice but it seems to require a lot of precision to pull off. If you don’t use the precision/signet build, you end up wavering around 6~7 stacks of might without FGJ up.

Any advice on how to touch this up? Maybe I should be using more banners or a different banner?

I liked the dialogue and thought it was well done compared to some other MMOs.

However, I find it very strange that you think the Charr, of all the races, has decent dialogue options. They are the most monotonous, forced, and inflexible in terms of voice acting…actually quite horrid.

Human is good and it’s bad. It is what it is.

The Sylvari and Asura were both very well done.

The Norn, from what little experience I had with them, just annoyed me. I liked their voice acting but didn’t like what they talked about frequently.

So let’s redesign 7 other dungeons + FotM to make it more challenging. Sounds economically feasible and intelligent.

I’m not opposed to increasing the difficulty. TA was meant to be challenging, actually, until you start skipping trash, exploiting mechanics/boss fights, and abusing class mechanics in a way they weren’t intended to be used. You have control over two of those. It’d be fun to see if you could find a group that wants to kill the trash on your way to Leur/Vev.

The one you don’t have control over is exploit removal/bug fixing. Anet has shown it is in no particular rush to fix commonly abused mechanics.

So why did they begin with this particular fight and not the other prolific bugs throughout the dungeon?

Idling worms when you sit at a certain spot, stacking on spider trash (prolific in AC as well), stacking on Fy negating 90% of her fight’s mechanics, yanking Leur’s guards off to the side without pulling him all the way, etc. So many things wrong yet they chose to ‘fix’ this particular NM tree. But instead of a reasonable fix, it seems they went overboard.

Which you don’t think is the case. You seem to think Anet is going to go in the opposite direction and make things more challenging: that perhaps this was just the first step. I’ve got some bad news for you if you hadn’t been paying attention to them for the past 6 months or so. Hence, why most of us believe that this is currently bugged. Deductive reasoning, you see?

But the overarching problem is not any of the above. The problem is you’re playing a casual game while under the impression that there is a hardcore component to it.

But wait: there is! It’s called CoF P1/2.

About as mentally challenging as wiping your nose.

The bar isn’t set too high. Perhaps accept that or play another game that has a more hardcore community with ‘challenging’ content.

Nikaido.3457:

Kagato.5390:

Urg so much stupidity in this thread in support for an obvious flaw/glitched boss.

I’m suuuuuure it’s a glitch that the spiders are now aggroing and not letting you afk autoattack a boss like before. I’m suuuuure it was intended by anet for all of you to jump on the leaf and afk auto too.

Get real. What’s happening is that now you have to complete the fight the intended way, something pugs have never done because this boss was one of the most exploited, afkrange boss of the game until now. The groups “strategies” in pugs until now were all about either jumping on something on the map that allowed you to afkauto or to max range it and only kill the first pack while completely ignoring everything else in the room.

They only changed the aggro mechanism to reflect the way boss adds work in other dungeons. Can you ignore the adds from AC P1 boss, or kholer ? Can you ignore the grubs in the grawl shaman fractal ? the fact that you could do this fight while ignoring everything else in the room was the glitch. Not the current situation.

Fixing exploits is wonderful. So why haven’t they fixed the 50 other ones exploited in the other dungeons yet?

This fight was clearly intended to be either solo’d by an engi or mesmer or by a group with mass amounts of reflect/condition cures. That’s what Anet is clearly telling us.

Which is fine. PUGs don’t seem to mind sitting on their butts while one person does all the work for 23 minutes anyways.

Delay.6908:

Kagato.5390:

Player Character.9467:

I can’t comprehend why you think groups of spiders that can be aoe’ed b4 they do anything are so scary. Dungeon trash is trash.

cranked.3812:

For the other 90% of the people who join PUG groups, it isn’t so easy to beat this particular boss because of the crazy amount of spider spawns.

Whoah, like… real content?

Please just leave this thread. You’re not helpful. You’re not constructive. You offer up no advice that is helpful.

The infinite amount of spiders that spawn are not intended. At least, anyone with a brain can discern this.

And to get it out of the way: I have 4 legendaries, 7 level 80s all decked in the best equipment, and have been playing for twice the amount of time you have. It’s easy to do this in my guild runs. It’s not even remotely feasible to do it with a bunch of PUGs.

This fight is not a L2P issue: it’s a bug. Deal with it and move on. Maybe you’ll have your first legendary by the time they patch F/U.

By the way all that you listed there means absolutely nothing in terms of player skill so its kinda irrelevant.. legendaries are just a gold sink and alts+armor sets can be kinda the same thing, just farm CoF to get them.

Anyways the only reason this boss sucks on pugs is because PUGS lack the coordination to tackle it and most pugs fear away from melee which is the “correct” way to do it (along with stacking reflects) so they try the ranged tactic, wipe and then when they attempt range/correct tactic the spiders have already spawned and it becomes a LOT harder.

And your credentials are? Nothing?

It wasn’t meant to demonstrate skill: it was meant to dispel the air of elitism that surely will present itself (as seen above) when the ‘special’ players enter the thread and state inane things such as:

“Oh, just get a guardian/mesmer”
“Oh, just melee him down (implying 3 warriors, a guardian, and a mesmer)”
“lolz all u ned 2 do iz kyte”

So many disillusioned people who think PUGs are capable of listening to directions or that these PUGs have alts with the optimal equipment and party makeup.

I like the boss’ difficulty only because it’s entertaining for me to solo it as a mesmer or engineer. That takes around 20 minutes. Surely not fun for the rest of my party who are sitting there dead watching me whittle away at the tree’s HP.

Does that mean I think it’s not bugged just because I can kill it? Not at all. Like I said: anyone with a brain can compare the situation before the change and the situation after the change to see that they went overboard, causing a buggy encounter.

For instance, I was in a group with a guardian, mesmer (me), warrior, necro, and thief. We tried just about every tactic. Kite them CW…CCW…stack and melee while reflecting projectiles. Killing spiders. Having two kite/kill spiders while the melee people whack at the tree.

Only thing that worked was me kiting indefinitely while they all remained dead. This is completely different compared to how they’ve designed other bosses, indicative of a bug.

Hey. So over the past few weeks I’ve noticed something with Master Nente.

I start the fight up on his island perch. Usually I melee him. After a while, he will teleport. When he teleports, I switch to my bow and start to use ranged attacks against him. Every time I do this, though, I received the message ‘Invulnerable". I’m able to hit the dogs he summons but that’s about it. When he teleports back to the center, I’m usually able to hit him again.

Anyone else experience a similar issue?

Urg so much stupidity in this thread in support for an obvious flaw/glitched boss.

I can solo this on my mesmer. Takes 23 minutes, but I can still solo it. Does that mean it’s a fair boss? Hell no.

Kanto.1659:

Kagato.5390:

So tried the mantra build and just want to say…holy hell is it useful. Especially in PUGs with a lot of squishies. My DPS didn’t drop too much, either, which was quite surprising. Would recommend it (as linked earlier in the thread):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsdRl4zCoHRzqGaNJipC92pHQnztckKoalUgbXIA-jwxAYLioRKSEJLAJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVLEgo1A-e

Yeah, tbh it’s one of my favorites too. Full berserker gear + Regen granting + 2.6k HP heals every 5 seconds? That’s pretty good. And though we need 3 seconds to recharge the mantra, which means three seconds not attacking, we can take this in consideration with our cooldowns and wait for the iZerker or Mirror Image to come out of CD and use them. The loss of three seconds not auto-attacking are made up by the fact Mantra of Pain charges can be used at the same time with other skills and crit for 2k upwards, not a great loss in actual DPS.

Question for you, though.

I see on the build that signet of inspiration is used. Not really sure why. It isn’t a mantra so doesn’t contribute to healing. Yeah, it provides a random boon and can be activated to give boons to allies but…meh. Doesn’t seem that useful in comparison to something like nullfield.

Maybe I’m not looking at it the right way. I know inspiration is usually used to double stack buffs (like in CoF P1). Is this the intent?

I like its abilities. I HATE the autoattack sound, though. So annoying to listen to over and over again.

So tried the mantra build and just want to say…holy hell is it useful. Especially in PUGs with a lot of squishies. My DPS didn’t drop too much, either, which was quite surprising. Would recommend it (as linked earlier in the thread):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsdRl4zCoHRzqGaNJipC92pHQnztckKoalUgbXIA-jwxAYLioRKSEJLAJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVLEgo1A-e

I just leveled my mesmer to 80. I got to level 23 or so and was thinking…no I’m not going to do this for 17 more levels. So, I crafted (like you’re thinking of doing). Took me around 6 gold to get to level 30 or so.

Most classes seem to scale SEMI-linearly as they level up. Mesmer scales exponentially as you level up. The difference between level 23 and 30 was night and day when I went back to the field. As I hit 40, level 23 seemed like a bad joke.

The advice above is really good. I used Lazy Kai’s leveling build (which isn’t terribly lazy) and would affix sigil of bloodlust to my greatsword and sword. Worked really well. If you are having survivability issues, you can eat a pie which allows you to leech health on hit.

Skoteinos.4213:

Let me suggest you a Phantasm Build for Fractals/Dungeons, Best at DPS and Great for Support, so that you can have all options available

Build Video Link : http://youtu.be/2HjQhhPUmog

Gameplay Video Using This Build : http://youtu.be/9jsoxUmVBwM

I believe you’re pretty much spamming this in every thread asking for builds.

Read my original post. It states that I am actually USING your current build in the first two sentences.

To update the rest: went back to shatter build and am doing just fine. Great damage but not much support. That mantra build looks REALLY intriguing to me so I’ll give it a shot tomorrow.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I do really enjoy supporting allies in dungeons. I have an 80 elementalist who usually roles staff support (air/water/arcane).

No one in particular told me shatter was out but that’s the vibe I was getting from these forums lately! :P

Thanks very much for the advice! I really like all of these suggestions.

Hi. I used Lazy Kai’s leveling build and recently hit 80. I’m decked in full berserker and am using the phantasm build that is lurking around these forums.

I tend to not like it too much. Too reliant on phantasms. I liked crapping out a clone on dodge.

I need some advice. I want to be able to do a shatter build but from what I’m told, shatter isn’t very effective anymore.

Goals are simple: PVE dungeons and events. Nothing else. Exploration.

Should I returnto Kai’s build? Is my armor ok for that build? What build does well with full berserkers? Right now I have a pretty high crit damage modifier from gear and runes/signets.

Kind of getting turned away from mesmer due to its uses at level 80. Had a blast from 20-79 but now I feel stuck to a build that does great burst DPS but that’s about it.

Suggestions?

Revelations: to cure the burning condition inflicted upon you, equip mantra of resolve and use it ASAP.

Mesmer PVE dungeon leveling build

This thread is not for a discussion of open world leveling. If you’re not using your utility skills in open world with staff/S+D or GS/S+D, you’re doing something wrong.

If you’d like to discuss open world PVE leveling, make another thread.

I redid my traits to be more staff-oriented as in the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BIC02dO0j28

Something like 0/0/30/20/20

It might work nicely at level 80, but it sure does crap for damage in dungeons around the 40-50 range. Probably best to stick with GS/S+D for now and use a 10/20/0/0/10 variant.

While you do have to risk getting in melee range with sword and focus, it offers too much amazing utility to pass up. Could also swap in a torch I found out for some rather nice combo field buffs.

Really all I need now is knowledge about rotations. Since I’m a shatter build, should I shatter anything I have up (including phantasms) and continue to do so till the mob is dead? Should I leave my #5 on sword up to deal with ranged damage (w/ #4 to remove debuffs) and hold off on shattering? Just a few tweaks to that and I should be ok to go.

I like control that mesmer brings. Locking down ranged targets, providing other unique utility buffs, and the focus on illusions/time-based magic.

My main is an elementalist. I’ve looked through the forums. I know well enough by now that I could stick my trait points anywhere and still end up ‘ok’ but that isn’t what I’m asking.

I wouldn’t mind using a staff or a greatsword but with elementalist as my main, it gets kind of boring using that all the time. My ele uses a staff when she isn’t wielding a hammer/FGS.

My playstyle is more of a ranged one and when I have to use the sword and focus, things get a little hairy. The problem is, the sword/focus combo offers up a really nice control in the form of temporal curtain which pairs nicely with the other knockback that GS has. Also, you get another ranged mitigation spell with S/F unlike staff, where I feel like I’m not doing much besides debuffing/buffing my target/players.

I was watching the staff build that some mesmers use at level 80. It focuses on chaos, inspiration, and another line I think…basically all traits that enhance staff abilities.

This is the build I was referring to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BIC02dO0j28

Also eyeballing this one:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/OP-Phantasm-Mesmer-Build-Updated-06-27-13/first

I’ve been searching the forums for a while looking for some info but all I’ve seen is builds recommended to level 80s.

I’m currently 45 or so on my mesmer and was wondering what would be the best use of my abilities in dungeons? Staff and sword/focus? GS and sword/focus? I use a combination of the above but find that my staff lacks damage.

What trait line is most appropriate for the dungeon leveler? Should I focus on my illusions/phantasms doing damage or should I focus on them exploding (like in Kai’s guide)?

Thanks in advance!

I’d look into the hammer build.

It’s hard to use since it is really built with glass but if you’re going to go down anyways…might as well do a hell of a lot of damage in the process.

Using full berserker gear including trinkets. I think it’s recommended that you do berserker on equipment, survivability on trinkets. You are going to be downed quite a bit.

Instead of arcane wave, though, I typically use a cantrip or some sort of survivability to say, “Yeah, I tried to get out of that…too bad my 13k HP didn’t allow for it.”

This made me lol but also helped me through the dreaded starting levels! Thanks (for being lazy) Kai!!

Senticon.3452:

Can anyone write down all staff ele’s possible combos with utility skills in this manner?
frozen ground + acrcane wave = frost aura
Because I want to know which ones I missed, and those listings in wiki doesn’t provide
solid info on utility + actual skills.

And I’m just curious, does aquatic helm affect my stats while I’m on the ground
and my cowl while I’m under water?… Couldn’t track any changes in stats section.

Not going to write them all down but I’ll give you a general idea…

Eruption > Lava Font (might)
Eruption > Geyser (area regen)
Eruption > Healing Rain (area regen of healing..forget)
Eruption > Static Field (area swiftness)

Arcane wave can trigger the others. So LF to arcane wave will give you might, Geyser to AW will give you area healing. Etc.

If you use evasive arcana, you can pull out some other combos. Staff isn’t well known for their combos.

I guess I just need to get some experience with cantrips. I never really found them quite useful, tbh, but I’m probably using them wrong.

All three inputs were very helpful! Thank you for helping me become a better ele.

Kodiak.3281:

So for dungeons I rock two weapon sets on one build. I do use Cantrips. I use Cantrips because they are the best option all around compared to anything else we have. They provide stun breakers, huge condition management, regen/vigor (when traited), all on top of their base effects (teleport, protect/stab, invuln, condition removal). All of those are ideal for dungeons.

My over all point spread is 0/20/0/30/20. This gives me a good base to do whatever I want/need for either D/D or Staff by swapping around Traits for Staff and D/D and gear.

For D/D, I rock a slight variation of the standard Aura Share build. I lose Evasive Arcana but end up picking up a bit more damage from the Air line as a result (figuring I lose 3 stacks of Might for 10% crit dmg and 100 Precision). This allows me to support a melee team pretty well. I typically rock PVT Armor and Knight Jewelry/Weapons for greater survivability. I use 2 Sup Monk, 2 Sup Water, 2 Maj Monk for Runes and Furious/Battle Sigils.

There are many “gotchya!” style mobs in dungeons that can kick out tremendous damage and the added survivability seems to work especially with me in Melee. The huge amount of Boons (Fury and 20+ Stacks of Might) I am pumping out in this build to maintain my damage. This means I’m supporting my allies by giving them a huge amount of Boons to them as well as providing a decent amount of healing/condition removal to them.

For Staff I tend to rock something like this. You can see I really only changed 3 traits (Air I -> VIII, Water XII -> XI and Arcane V -> VIII). You could give up the Arcane VI instead of V too but I like the near permanent Vigor in certain situations (albeit in high Condition areas such as Explorable CM I will use V). In this setup I tend to rock Berserker Gear with Berserker Jewelry/Weapon. I use Rubies for Runes and use a Sigil of Fire (but this is debatable as Divinity is also good but fairly expensive and there are other Sigils such as Battle but I tend to find myself in Fire attunement a lot). I like this setup a lot because it offers me really good damage through high base Power (gear) Crit (gear and spec) and Crit dmg (gear and spec) BUT it still lets me support the team through 30 in Water giving me colossal condition management for the team as well. Some people state this is redundant with a Shout Guardian or Warrior but I have run countless groups with neither of these options being available.

The only downside is that any boons provided are pretty short duration because this isn’t a Boon style build. I find because I am not in melee that my survivability is more than sufficient with this but if I’m really having issues then I can swap to my Emerald Jewelry. Many cases the groups I run with are perfectly fine and I tend to sit in Fire and just DPS most of the time. If I find myself out (such as to swap to Water to heal) I might rotate into Earth first and then do Eruption to blow up a Lava Field along with Arcane Wave for a double Area Might. The self combos are much more limited as Staff compared to D/D.

Arcane Wave is great for setting up self combos in either spec. For on the fly it lets you do Area Swiftness with Static Field or Area Heal or Area Might. It’s pretty great. The Cantrips, as previously mentioned, offer everything we could want. The alternatives (Glyphs and Signets) are ultimately extremely limited on what they provide unfortunately. The only one I’ve ever considered using as an alternative was Glyph of Storms because the AOE Blind in earth is pretty handy (but it’s been nerfed repeatedly). In addition when doing certain Dungeons/Bosses you will swap out Utility based on encounters. For example in Ascalon Catacombs you will often times use Frostbow for Graveling Burrow destruction as well in any other place that requires you to destroy an object. My favorite bit in P2 Citadel of Flame is dropping Meteor Shower, Lava Font, then Frost Bow and watch half the Crystal’s HP just vanish.

I also find this build works very well in WvW so this spec really ends up working out for me because all I need to do is swap around Traits and I’m ready for any scenario rather than having to go back and respec each time.

Thank you so much! That’s actually the build I run because it allows me to play DD and staff with very little changing that needs to be done. It’s quite nice.

Neko.9021:

You say that you dislike cantrips, yet you spend a whole 10 points in earth to gain… a cantrip.

If you want to spec into damage, put more points into Air Magic from Water Magic.

If you need survivability, put up cantrips, but don’t waste valuable trait points on it which could instead do something more useful (water 30 traits and air 20 traits are both very strong).

Frost Bow is a pretty blah utility. Ditch it.

I personally like Ether Renewal more than Glyph of Elemental Harmony.

To be quite honest, Staff is a low DPS weapon with low utility for dungeons. The main reason is that the nature of dungeons just doesn’t lend itself to Staff’s AoE control, and that as a long-range weapon, Staff’s damage is just really low.

If you want to play DPS, play a Warrior.

If you want to play Support, play a Guardian.

If you want to play a Jack of All Trades, you should look to other versions of the Ele, to be honest. Dagger mainhand with either Focus or Dagger offhand are the best options for now.

Ah I didn’t realize that the armor of earth proc from 10 points into earth was actually the same skill as the cantrip! It still is rater nice coupled with arcane shield. It’s the only cantrip I use I think.

I appreciate the insight but I see quite a few fellow elementalist wielding staves in dungeons. I’ve heard that the pure dps builds put out respectable damage. I’m not looking to remake a character just for a specific specialization. I think elementalist with a mesmer can be just as good (or a little worse) than a warrior.

I’ll give those slot skills a try…think I’ll follow the advice others have offered: try everything and see what fits your playstyle.

I agree with you, though. I wonder how useful earth 10 for armor if you don’t use any other cantrips. I know lightning later on has some very nice DPS boosting traits.

Zelyhn.8069:

You have done the first step towards becoming a good player: choosing what role you want to fulfil: pure damage deal / jack of all trades.
All classes can be jack of all trades and this denomination basically mean that you want to use all assets available to you. let me tell you this will not end well: most likely you will do a bit of everything, badly.
Being a damage dealer is much easier to build for, let’s see: you want to deal more direct damage, condition damage or a combination of both?
It is fine to want to be glass canon: you can just replace the defensive stats by offensive stats, it fits your ambition.
Second step: gear for the type of damage you want to do
Third step: choose your traits, experiment! Many build are viable and it has to reflect your playstyle. Never copy a build from any forum!
Final step: do NOT limit yourself to one weapon.
You have to know how to use the skills from all of your weapons, when to choose which, how to tweak your traits accordingly.
Once you have achieved this, choose your runes & sigils.

Have fun!

Thanks! This clarifies things a bit. So being a jack of all trades won’t end well…think I’ll start acquiring berserker gear and going pure DPS.

I do enjoy the last bit of advice you gave: don’t limit yourself to one weapon…which is kind of what I’m doing. I really enjoy the focus and scepter combo or scepter/dagger but haven’t had a chance to buy decent weapons (besides the staff) so we’ll see how that goes.

Will be testing a bunch of slot skills to see how things goes.

Hi all. Just to give you an update from this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/No-definitive-staff-leveilng-guide

I’m currently level 80. I used staff almost exclusively while leveling up to 80 and find it the most enjoyable out of the weapon selections (weird, I know).

I was looking through many guides (including the one mentioned by Da Beetus in the previous link) and am having conflicting results on what to do! The problem is, GW2 is so open-ended that staff can be implemented many ways.

I’ll tell you what I currently do (or have done):

I purchased 4 of the 6 pieces from the Temple of Balth. karma vendor. I forget the name but it basically focuses on PVT, something D/D elementalists are told to go for when they hit 80. I figured, what the hell I need some exotic armor so might as well start there.

Currently I’m working on the berserker set but here is where I have questions.

My build is currently 0/10/10/20/30

As you can see, I focus mostly on support. My main intention was to make a pure damage elementalist (one of the 30/x/x/x/x builds) but my mind has changed based on the gameplay I’ve seen in dungeons.

I really like setting up combo fields for my allies and buffing them, not something I’d be doing much by staying in fire all the time besides maybe might stacking.

Is there a way to incorporate more damage into this build? I tried 10/10/0/20/30 and it was doing great but I needed the 10 in earth for the oh !@#$ shield.

Also very confused on skill slot selection. I currently use glyph of elemental harmony, arcane wave, arcane shield, frost bow, and glyph of elementals.

It gets the job done but I continually see builds centered around cantrips (I don’t really like cantrips). Also, many take the armor of earth over arcane shield but I’m unsure why. I like being able to cast meteor uninterrupted.

My usual rotation is to stack Earth2 onto Water3 or Fire2. I can squeeze out two might stacks if I go Earth2>Fire 2. I’m new to evasive arcana so not how to incorporate that in. After that, I usually spend the time setting up healing fields , controlling adds/mobs through L5/frost bow, and perform strong AoE damage via bow/meteor/F2.

Should I forgo this setup and head straight to berserker gear and spec full on fire? My heals, when they do land near my allies, are pretty piddly.

Any help would be great. I’m really new to the terminology in GW2 so if you could be simple, that’d be even more awesome!

Like I mentioned, I read many of the guides (including the one in the other link) but found them lacking or giving conflicting information. I hope that now you know my playstyle, you can help me determine which build is best.

I like being a pure damage dealer with a little support (glass cannon) or a jack of all trades (healing, control, damage). Keep in mind: my goal is dungeons. No WvW or anything else.

Syn Sity.5826:

Booler.6598:

I agree with the OP , here’s my 2 cents . To all the ppl who flame me for ridiculous reasons like I put my banner between slavery and the wall, I hope in the morning you use a superior sigil of faster eating on your corn flakes a superior sigil of drying on your teatowel to speed up the drying , you then sprint to work and use a superior sigil of faster writing on your office documents at work , this will save you 2 minutes at the end of the day that let’s you get onto gw2 faster. If you dont do any of this then all the optimization you do in cof is in vein. Cos let’s face it you certainly act like that’s what you do in life.

I really hope you read this, because I truly want you to try and understand something from a different perspective. I don’t put up with people flaming in my runs, I like to keep them light, but serious. You need to understand that all the things cof runners do aren’t just to save 1 minute of their lives. It’s all about maximizing efficiency. Some people who play this game are serious (us) and some are more casual (you). You need to understand that the reasons you play this game are NOT the same as the reasons we do. I know that for me, the most fun I can have is when trying to be as efficient as possible in my runs. If that means there are certain random people I can’t run with, so be it. I can find new random people who are as serious as I am. If you don’t like the way speedrunners play and you don’t understand/agree with their methods of clearing a dungeon you should start forming your own groups or joining non speed-runs. And pinging gear is just an effect of having done a large number of cof runs. If you’d done the amount of runs we have, and played with the kind of people we have, you’d be asking for gear checks too.

No offense intended (read: a lot of offense intended), but this is the mentality that does NOT belong in this game. You’re a blight upon the GW2 community.

This isn’t WoW. This isn’t FFXI. You are easily able to get things done with many setups in roughly the same time. GW2’s dungeons are a joke compared to some of the crap you deal with in other MMOs. Take the extra 2 minutes to explain to a new player what is going on and you’ll have a more enjoyable experience.

Many people do not like speed runners: NOT because of their zerg tactics but because generally people that demand ridiculous requirements are rude, not focused on teamplay, and a detriment to the teams they join or create.

After playing FFXI for 8 years and WoW for 7, I laugh at what people consider to be ‘difficult’ in this game.

Need to loosen the belt and breathe.

Really, hardcore gamers do not belong in GW2: it is a casual game.

For the record, I run full exotic (both PVT karma and berserker) on my ele. If I play glass cannon and have a mesmer, I can easily out damage any zerker.

I think, if you play any game for a long duration, you’ll eventually get tired of it hence why so many complain about burnout or lack of new content.

But that’s because you burn through the new content so fast, playing ~5 hours a day. It would seem incredibly repetitive under those circumstances.

What I truly enjoyed from 1-80 (hit it today) was the fact that it was just as easy to get from 79 to 80 as it was from 10 to 11. I didn’t even get to explore most of the zones! So I can easily find more replay value if I choose another character and select other maps to explore that next time around.

The world is beautifully constructed and I love the differences between areas. The storyline isn’t half bad and I do enjoy the personal story.

I just think it was really well done compared to FFXI and WoW, two games I put an unholy amount of time into. My opinion will change, of course, over the next few months. But a game can only entertain you for so long.

This post is a thank you to the development team for making GW2 such an enjoyable experience. I am currently a level 78 elementalist and will be hitting 80 soon but it feels like I have not even touched half of the content out there and there is so much to do!

I’m a FFXI veteran of 8 years and a WoW vet. of around 6 and I have to say…I have never had more fun leveling in a MMORPG than in GW2.

Just wanted to praise the development team for breaking away from that mold to introduce something quite refreshing to players who are tired of the grind most MMOs invoke.

Can’t wait to see what level 80 entails.

Hey there. I am an ele that prefers staff over the more popular DD.

Problem is, I don’t see many guides catering to this build.

I’m level 40. I’d like to know where to spend traits for staff, what my end goal is, what is the most important trait, what are the most important stats, etc.

Which slot skills are optimal? How about elite skills or even regular slot skills?

Right now I use both lesser and greater elemental plus the basic glyph that heals you and gives you a buff depending on which atunement you are on, I use both elementals, and arcane wave/shield.

Any advice you can provide to make me a better staff player?

I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m just questing…but dungeons opened up quiet a while ago. But, since there is no LFG tool right now…I’m not entirely sure how to get into one. I made my character around support and survivability rather than offense.