Guild Wars 2

Lavadiel.6231:

>perhaps we want a fix for the staff because its bad/terrible/horrible
> as it is at the moment.

Have you ever considered the option that perhaps you are bad/terrible/horrible at using the staff and you do not understand the basics of combat system in this game?

“considered that perhaps you are bad/terrible/horrible”
“at staff”

Have you considered that there are plenty of players baseline skills and that maybe staff is also to blame? Have you considered people playing something other than D/D? Have you considered that skill ceiling does not justify weapon’s weaknesses?

Too many considerations to take, and not very nice of you to discard all arguments and say (in a “nicely” done way) l2p. When a large playerbase agrees with something then its most likely that someting is wrong, and it is not neccesarily on the player’s side.

With that said,, until now you havent provide of proof as to how a staff user can bear on its own in a small group or alone, the argument that staff is a suport weapon is getting really old and its mistaken, once again, (and again, and again, and again) we lack the option to say “OH kitten, the zerg broke and now I have a thief on top of me, better change weapons to shake him off” , versatility is about that……versatiliy. Right now staff damage potential is great, is amazing, its supperb, except for that tiny detail that unless you fight those dangerous golems in the mist, you wont be landing 1/4 of the stuff (heck, even MS hits 2-0 times on a afk target)

Lambent.6375:

Lafiel.9372:

Again, a strange argument here. Because of the rarity to obtain and item, one has the reasoning that it should be account bound? So why stop there? Exotics are rare, but they become soulbound on equip, why does no one complain about that? Needless to say, I would think this is more of a player issue (not thought about it enough and which character they wanted it to be on) then a game issue.

We stop there because basic exotics don’t even come close in terms of difficulty/effort to obtain.

specially since doing an easy dungeon (cough COF cough) can give you access to a staff in little to 5-6 runs

eldain stenlund.4306:

paleeshi.

yes. staff do have: cc. support. AoE. and “damage”.
across all the elements. its a kitten mess… give me the option to specialize in what ever i want… cc + support. or AoE + dmg.
I want to be strong in 1 or 2 fields max. not weak in all 4.

and the dmg only comes from one. Fire.
If your plan is to dps/dmg. and you switch out of the fire.
grats. you lost about 50 % dmg..
and now you are also locked out from the only atunement with some dmg.

And iam not talking about wow. never even mentioned that.

How ever..
an elemental IS a mage. its just another name.
Elementalist, Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Magician, Conjurer, Necromancer. etc etc.
Any archetype that can master the energies around the universe.
Is a Mage. (very easy, everyone know this).
They have all just specialized in different areas.
But their common base is: they totaly obliterate their opponent from afar.

what happens when i put this energy bubble inside that person over there, and then rapidly expand it……. *poff oh.. nasty, its raining blood and body parts now all over.

wonder what happens when i guide down a lightning strike on that persons head over there, eletrocuting every living cell in his body.
*ZZzzzzap hmm… he turned into a pile of ash… interesting…

Most common weapons for these archetypes: anything that is light in weight.
Sword, Staff, Scepter, Dagger(not for melee),Sickle.

how ever, staff is the most used weapon of choise.
so that they can hit their apprentices on the head when they mess up.
and also they tend to be a few hundred years old, so they need the support of the staff.

Go ahead and experiment with weapons.
just keep the base line. a mage is a mage. not a warrior.

Ask anyone about a mage.
and you get similar answears. its just as basic as 1 + 1 = 2.

^ pretty much this.

I dont know why people keep insisting about staff being a pushover, for crying out loud, Gandalf was epic, why cant I have so Gandalfy fun?! The bender of fire and destruction, not the chicken of Mordor.

Orion the Cursed.1206:

Lafiel.9372:

Again, a strange argument here. Because of the rarity to obtain and item, one has the reasoning that it should be account bound? So why stop there? Exotics are rare, but they become soulbound on equip, why does no one complain about that? Needless to say, I would think this is more of a player issue (not thought about it enough and which character they wanted it to be on) then a game issue.

I agree. This argument can also be used to justify saying, “since it takes me so long to level my 1st character to 80, i should be able to transfer my experience to my alts and if Anet disagrees, it means they are after my money.”

I believe the people who want legendaries to be account bound are people who do not believe in putting effort in to improving and achieving things in life. They feel insecure when they see someone else with a bigger achievement. There is no discrimination against people based on the number of Legendaries they own. People should get Legendaries because the challenge of getting one (or because they have extra cash and want to suport the game).

your analogy is bad and you should feel bad.

Leveling up a character is no way near as an ordeal compared to crafting a legendary. It has taken me near 5 months to get to the half point of making a legendary due to family/work/studies constrains, but it took me nearly 3 weeks to get a character full lvl and 80% map completition. You have to take into account time and effort too, lvling is easies compared to making a legendary, heck you can make a character go from lvl 1 to lvl 80 in a day by crafting, only takes around 25 gold and lots of patience.

Certainly legendaries could be a time/money/effort sink, but I wouldnt want to g through 7 months of this ordeal (yes, to me most of it is an ordeal since the only reliable way of making money for it is doing dungeons like CoF and running constatnt karma trains, which, i dont find fun, merely a means to an end) If the game were to boil down to it then this MMO wouldnt be any different to all MMOs which unfortunately I had to quit due to them slowly and almost unnoticeably making me spend time doing things that I thought would be fun but were only means to an end that wasnt really worth.

Legendaries should be worth their completition, nor their constant making. I play ele/mesmer and guardian interchangably, I would like to fully equip them but given the time constraints I face (and most of the game community, who like me, have a family and work) I would like to see my times worth evenly distributed on all my characters, not a selected one.

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Though, I can understand the counter point; legendaries should be tied to a character like a commander is; not to be memorizing a thousand people when its actually only one, as in Fortus is a commander but my alts name is Gardenia and now there is a new commander, that would cause confusion and what not, and would require crediting the name again, same would apply to legendaries, it would not be fun watching a new lvl 80 wielding a bifrost. So here is my proposition; make a tittle, call it " ‘Insert user’s name here’ the legendary" , now you can wield the legendary and all characters and everyone knows it is you, you keep your legendary status and I dont have to spend 2 years crafting 3 legendaries Bifrost for my guardian, mesmer and ele. Unless all Anet wants is the money, in which case they would make you craft it everytime, I would have a reason to believe this game is starting to slowly lean towards the Korean market MMO , in which case I would be moving on onto the next MMO which promises not to be another korean MMO, until that one does too and cycle continues….

Zeldain.5710:

Fortus.6175:

For the amount of work, time and money Im putting into them, the least you could ask for is that it is account bound, that way if you later on decide to move on to another profession or a new character, you still have access to it and not have it glued to one character only……

But that wouldn’t play into their cash shop ploys.

dunno man, people already pay the transmutation stones, and making a legendary is already very expensive, im not half way there and i have dorpped some money on it already, but i dont plan to do a second one, so either way they are not getting that money, as a matter of fact I would actually start to believe they would be becoming one of those greedy Korean MMOS (or at least a transcition state) and would be more weary on how i spend my money because…. if i see this beai=tiful MMO falling to greediness too, Im gona quit it….like I have done a thousand times before.

As it is, I will only spend money on one, Anet only ges money for one’s worth, they only decrease my sense of reward by not giving me the choice to show it off and still get no money out of it, either way is a lose/neutrl situation where the costumer loses and Anet can also on the long run.

I would also like to know, Im planning to do 3 legendaries and i would not like to hear that i only have the skin without the stats, a good fix would be making legendaries account bound once after all….no more issues with it tbh >.>

As in, do they actually open up a profession’s forum and start reading the suggestions and frustration of the players that take their time writing things down? Or do they just go ignored for the most part, just to open it maybe once a month or maybe 3 months and check if there is anything new?

If so, can we have some prove? Some hope that all our suggestions are not going into deaf ears.

My hope is that staff might be looked at. A “HI” would suffice

Thanks in advance, I still havent completely lost my hope, please Anet, dont disappoint me.

Created april/8/2012

Somewhere someone said Staff is the iconic weapon of wizards/mages, wouldnt it be better, if we make Staff the viable weapon and D/D the support one? What do yo say?

Swiftwynd.1685:

Fortus.6175:

also, how the heck do you get 6k-7k with lighting?! I can never get past 1.5-2k with full zerker set(exotic) and all accesorys zerker (ascended and exotic) and 5 stacks of mights and a couple of vulnerability!

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/81706-ouch-my-everything-the-80-potential-amplified-damage-build-with-sustain-support-and-control/

Its a build focused on damage amplification.

Damage Increase effects are multiplicative, so they become stronger the more you mix together.

You mix Piercing Shards trait (20% while in Water Attunement, effects Conjured Weapons too!) Vital Strikes (10%) Ember’s Might (5%) Burning Rage (5%), Bolt to the Heart (20%) and Sup. Sigil of Force (5%) and Sup. Scholar Runes (10%) and Bountiful Power (2% per boon).

All of these combined with mostly berserker gear (i use cavalier’s for my accessories and the all-stats ascended amulet, with Ruby jewles slotted into the cavalier’s) results in some vicious damage.

For full damage, you need to be above 90% health, with vulnerability and burning on the foe from your allies, and you get 25 might from external sources. Never had a 25 vulnerability + 25 might spike damage set up yet but it would be vicious. Once foes go below 33% it increases even further thanks to bolt to the heart

Im well aware of all that and as matter of fact I do use all that, coupled with ascended gear and max stats armor/weapons, yet I have NEVER reached 6-7k of damage with lighting #1 so im calling shenanigans on it until proven otherwise. But of course, 25 might stacks and 25 vuln stacks it will hit ahrd, but i can guarantee you that even then it would not be optimal, because with that much damage added any profession would be almost insta destroying anything in its path…

Anyways, Staff needs help, no going around it, either fix it or give us an statement saying as to why not, so many cant be wrong, when staff is only good for WvW raids then you know you have done wrong somewhere….. and lack of suggestions isnt, because this forum is FULL of them (a couple of my own too)

I heard that ANet is looking into eles and mesmers at the moment on a sPvP thread but it was a thief thread, were….guess what; they were whinning about thieves being UNDERPOWERED and how Anet was looking into making them “viable” in high lvl tournaments, he said something along the lines that they tend to be too powerful on low lvl but highliy uneffective in high lvl, my guess is they were talking about D/D, meaning more nerfs to it, while staff remains the same…..goes to tell you which classes are Anet’s favorites……

ANyways, though I do agree staff DESPERATELY needs help im sure Anets view hasnt changed ever since that one video they said eles were the masters of the game and their versatility was borderline OP, when we know well that they were probably refering to D/D…… it has been 8 months since release (or around that) and the only thing I have sen since Beta are nerfs…. remember guys, only 2 devs working on balance, it is bound to have a lot of some human bias against certain classes.

Claudia De Anar.6304:

I’m still leveling up but…
I’ve played staff since Day one, and D/D only about 2 days, it is so much more powerful; there is no comparing the two. Staff really does need some love that way.
Still when you want to go Staff say in a Champion fight the present situation is aweful;

If any devs read this please give us a weapon swap button/option even if it requires a significant ‘cast time’ and cool down; having to literally retreat out of combat, and open ones hero inventory just to change weapons; well its painfully inelegant; and it blinds you while your fumbling round the open Hero GUI; again no other class has to blind fold themselves to change weapons. (Do they?)

As with any other class we need to have our full array of options available.. we are Ele’s not mystics; we can’t always know in advance what the next fight will be, and what weapon we need to equip.

Lastly if I may,
While ‘Area Denial’ and other considerations discussed about might have some value in a PvP situation; I would not know; what I do know is the Staff is the Iconic weapon of a Mage, I dont recall ever reading a story about a Dagger wielding Wizard. Some of Us are not self described gamers first thinking only in terms of PvP roles,

I dont think is should be too much to ask that we have real access to the Iconic weapons of our classes; these should be not nerfed to a speciality item only useful in a situation/format a good many of use will never particiapate in really. Sorry but the Devs got this one Backwards, make the Dagger build the Specialty Item that appeals to self described Gamers; the staff should be a viable option in the hands of any reasonably competent (not Elite) player.

couldnt have said it better; staff IS the iconic weapon of wizards/mages/sages, it should feel powerful, scary, overwhelming, epic……. not the “run around like a chicken casting some AoEs and hope for the best…oops did someone jump on you? might as well stand there cuz there isnothing much you can do, but run like a chicken” seriosuly…… make D/D THE support weapon and let staff be viable.

Also the self-blind UI is getting old too tbh……. Like Claudia said, we are not clairvoyants, we are no supposed to be looking into the future to decide whats coming next, maybe in a dungeon its ok, but in sPvP and WvW we dont really have a choice….

inb4 “density used to be worse before, now it is better”

but yeah, in my case the only reason i used to go ther ewas for map completition and when I was in a hurry for 5 events/veterans for the daily. In my case I hate the colors and the whole undead theme, which, was done so well, that it is unappealing to me. I prefer to spend my time in GW2 on pretty maps with colors and mobs that dont perma CC me. They did increase the drop rate of drops but…..until they lighten up the colors and add some life to that place, im not coming back.

Yes, I know, thats whats supposed to be, thats why thahearme is fighting so desperatly; he wants to bring life to it, but holy geezus, that zone is sure fugly, maybe if they add a small santuary made by Sylvaris in an attempt to replant life into it…idk…something!

Im mostly an ele and mesmer player, but originally my to-be profession was guardians. I didnt go through with it because i couldnt do much (any) damage with them. Is there a way to be a DPS thread? Or are guardians pretty much tanks and out-lasters?

Lavadiel.6231:

>Point is, don’t think of yourself as a staff ele, or a D/D ele… you’re an ele,
> to limit the tools you have at your disposal is to limit your potential.

in a normal situation I would call this guy “captain obiovious” but on this particular forum/topic I must call him a “mentor” – staff QQ pls follow in his footsteps.

>I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.
>A mage class should never be melee oriented.

denying the use of daggers, staff, focus on any other wapon that does not fit your broken image of a “mage” class is as stupid as denying for example the use of attunement swapping, or fire attunement cuz “I am a frost mage and I will never use fire its not lore friendy!”

> this is not 4chan, please top using the " > ", it does nothing.

you keep bringing frost mages, what exactly is your bone with them? Anyways, nobody is denying the use of daggers, nor the element swapping, the only thing its being said is that we want a little more variation from the “D/D is the only way to be effective”

Once again stop justifying elementalists, we are already aware you LOVE daggers on elementalist, once again, congratz, now go, keep playing D/D, you wont care much about this. As for the rest of us who wants staff to be effective OUTSIDE WvW zerging and be a good pick for all those situations where normally other classes would switch weapons mid-fight, i.e. playing sPvP, or in WvW when a zergs breaks and now you are in combat sitting ducks with a staff, or in dungeons where suddenly you have to take more mobs than usual.

Once again, you are not the only player in existence, many, MANY others love the squishy, high hitting ranged wizard that destroys foes before they get to them, or dies in the process if he makes a mistaken, stop forcing your kitten D/D gameplay which you so much love onto others, we cant switch weapons mid fight, the day i can switch freely between staff and D/D i will not complain about the lack of “flexibility” that we so much suffer by being forced into only one gamestyle . Once I get my kitten chance to fight back when i get attacked alone or in a small skirmish is the day i will consider the staff el to be a balanced vlass, until then, it will keep being underpowered and unreliable outside WvW raids.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

1- Smear them with defensive siege.
2- Distract, divide, decimate.
3- Hit them where they’re not.
4- Wait for them to get bored/frustrated.

1- Capped, cant be moved, easily destroyed, needs time and resources to be constructed, by the time you build it, the zerg is gone somewhere else….or on top of you. If you use it on keeps then its slightly better, but still capped, and most definitely overcome.

2-Right now it is the only hope, but even when you do that, by distracting them, you have splitted your own forces, in the attempt to kill them, the smaller enemy cell may still be able to overcome you, while the big part of the zerg will continue at large, battling your split zerg , just to be attacked by the enemy zerg which just destroyed the distraction team. Works, yes, but only 2/5 times.

3 – Once again, splitting own forces, trust me, a large zerg is bound to have som stray elements, a smaller zerg deriving from the big mother enemy zerg might be enough to be able to hold agaisnt your rambo team. Also a good strategy, yes, but unfortunately, if you make a mistake or are unable to take the keep while the enemy is distracted then you have left your server in a bad situation; splitted groups which were already weak together, trying to overcome a big zerg coming their way, all the ways.

4 – Bend over and take it? See, this is what Im talking about, this is unacceptable, just waiting for them to go off for a few hours, until the gather up their numbers and retake the entire server. trust me, the losing server is more likely to get tired and frustrated, to the point of not caring for WVW that much (aka, my server, high population, have not gotten a single queue in WVW since release, not even during peak hours on weekends……sad? yes, server 21/24 on WvW rating, )

Right now we feel powerless regardless of how coordinated, we are bashing our heads agaisnt a wall, a moving wall.

It is the lack of strategy.

Now before you jump your guns, let me explain my reasoning, my major focus will be the AoE cap coupled with server population. I will be relatively brief since many of you are aware of this problem, so I will get down to it;

WvWvW Ultimately boils down to whoever has the higher active WvW population, but it isnt about being smart, it is about who has the most men, aka Zerg. Before we continue any further I will also let you know I main staff ele, specifically zerker fire/air. Vs a Zerg of 70 man (fairly small one, since on SM it can get up to 150-250 non-weekend days and about 350+ during the weekends), a server struggling with no more than 50 men per zerg to 150 peak hour will never stand a chance, no matter how organized they are, how well they know the environment, and how much CC and synchrony they pack

Choke points are a jokes; totally disorganized Zerg of 70 will charge through a choke point while suffering some minor hits, the staff ele offers great deal of debuffs such as a giant stunning cage, a freezing ground, a meteor shower and some nasty ground-based spells…….. which will only affect 5 random people, who might not even be the same ones per tick of damage. Meaning that 65 other will get through despite the efforts of lets say 10 organized members of a team whose sole purpose is stalling for time and taking advantage of the situation, considering those other 9 also have same or similar CC, at most 50 people will be mildly slowed, with the twist that given how it is truly random, you wuld get a mixture that could go anywhere in between 5 to 50 people affected, despite coordinating it all.

Now you might say “part of the strategy” which, is understandable and acceptable (justificable) if you are on the populated server, but it leaves no room for coordinated play, no spartan strategy, no point on going to capture a point from behind a zerg and then choking them at a choking point, because no matter how well you play your cards, it only takes a couple of people getting lucky with the RNG to make everything falls apart.

“But if you remove AoE cap then you would have a team of 5 staff ele locking a 250+ zerg at a way point and nothing could be done about it”, and, I actually agree with you, Zerging IS an acceptable strategy, but only when it goes on a ratio higher than 1:10, right now it is at 1:5, I would even dare to say 1:15 would not be pushing it, because, after all, they can also do the same, they can also use ranged attacks, out of 70+ peole they are bound to have ONE ranged dude who can do the same thing to the 10 people on my side of the map.

Long story short; zerging gets boring after a while, it is frustrating to deal with and have only one way to beat it; another zerg. Strategy is null if you cant press choke points, if you cant work hard to capture a keep and hold it with a well organized team which uses machinery and heavy hitting classes with CC. My suggestion? Increase cap to 10 or 12 people, make AoE damage affect mostly those who are lower in health, CC affect those who are more likely to have CC breakers on CD, bring strategy into this game, not senseless and headless blitzkrieg.

Now, I know it might look like im over reacting and very slightly b|_|tthurt but coming from a relatively small server, it is discouraging that despite our united and synchronized efforts through a special guild only for commanders, TeamSpeak and nearly flawless raid strategies, all it takes is a massive zerg of people running in through the main course and having no way to stop it until they bashed down everything. You might say that maybe they were using a strategy and we are too proud to admit that we lost to a smarter force, but when you see their behavior, their mob mentality, their lack of strategy, the complete cluelessness of their radical movements, you realize that all they are doing is waltzing in, aided by the “swarm effect” in which a few predators might be strong enough, but agaisnt a big school of fish they can only dent their population by that much.

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EDIT I GOT IT! Make outmmanned give the AoE cap increase. I t wont affect the fights for equally matched servers, but for the underdog server they might actually have a fighting chance!!!

Lavadiel.6231:

>will keep asking for the ranged nuker.

there is only one thing you can do – go back to wow

-sigh- I give up, now i get it, you are just trying to troll, good job man, you had me there for a while, but from now on im just gonna ignore ya

Lavadiel.6231:

>No, I dont really enjoy melee that much,

you will love mesmer

>I see no impediment as to why ranged should be penalized?

its not penalized, as I said its best for begginers, good at any dungs/champions and almost must in hard content – which unfortunately for now is only fractals 30+

>Im sorry but your view is self-centered to your personal liking

not more than you.

>many gamers do NOT like melee and willing to give up security
> and defense in exchange of killing power at a distance.
> Im one of those players.

and you perfectly can play like this ofc it not as easy as frost mage but still a lot easier than close range GC which is hardcore compared to range GC.

>Yes, I played frost mage

it was obvious, again GW2 is not wow

> Im a “mage” kind of player, staff is my fantasy liking, not D/D.

as I said, you can play with staff only. I played mostly with stff for first 2 months. Made 80, all the dungs (grinding full exotic sets from tokens)and it was NO PROBLEM.
Got bored, tried close and faound this way way more challenging than ranged, especialy when spec into damage not pvt.

>Staff necro and mesmer is very viable,
>staff guardian is very helpful and does incredible stuff,

yep, at pve any kind of ele is rather weak…. but that is why I like to play it.
Imho all the OP pve prefessions deserves a nerf (gardian especially), buffing ele will make him as boring as they are.

>Once again, I want ranged to be viable,

again, it is, ofc not as good as gc dps ranged mesmer but you can use staff almost everywhere in pve.

>are talking about making staff as viable as D/D, nothing more, nothing less.

2 questions:
do you ever played hi level fractals or at elast Arrah? Did you only used dd there?
do you ever played wvw?

staff indeed is bad for pvp but it has its uses in all other acpects of the game.

once again, ranged =/= new player, just gamestyle choice

yes I play high lvl fractals, Arah, WvW.

Yes I play Mesmer, and Im finding ranged attacks to be effective, but somehow I get the feeling you are going to say “then go play it”, so before you do it I will warn you, i wont, I want to play staff ele.

I played other games, so what? You keep implying as if that was a bad thing, as if only melee was the way to go in games.

Yes my liking is ranged, but notice how many people are complaining about the same issue.

On the ele description it clearly says (paraphrasing here) " a force to be reckoned with, capable of destroying foes before they even get to them" somewhere in the development of the game, back when the professions description text was longer.

Once again, dont try to force your liking upon others, make a thread called “D/D is the way to go, comment here about it” and you might have your own discussion there, for the rest of us (notice the amount of threads and answers to these topics) we will keep asking for the ranged nuker.

Once again, and las time im saying it; ranged is a playstyle choice, not a beginner’s stepping ladder. We want Gandalfy gameplay, not healing-chicken gameplay.

Lavadiel.6231:

>if your is “dont play it”
I offten must switch to ranged cuz dd is either unplayable or not as effective as staff, scepter or focus.

Right there is your answer. We are trying to make it effective. If you dont like our efforts, its ok man, you dont have to, but dont be a dead weight. “Learn” melee? I have played plenty of melee here, including D/D ele. Yes im “effective”, I get killed, i barely die, i move around just fine, but….. thats not what I want. No, I dont really enjoy melee that much, I see no impediment as to why ranged should be penalized? Im sorry but your view is self-centered to your personal liking and not to the wide scope, which is; many gamers do NOT like melee and willing to give up security and defense in exchange of killing power at a distance. Im one of those players.

Yes, I played frost mage, my main was Moonkin and Tree for arena. I enjoyed the gameplay. Im a “mage” kind of player, staff is my fantasy liking, not D/D. Staff necro and mesmer is very viable, staff guardian is very helpful and does incredible stuff, while keeping the chance to switch back to an offensive weapon, why shouldnt I have the chance to do some damage at range for a change without being forced into S/D where half of my damage comes from….guess what…melee…

Once again, I want ranged to be viable, I want to have the same chances to blow someone if i jump on them that if they jump on me, as simple as that.

Once again, if you like the D/D gameplay…good for you man, congratz, but who cares? We are talking about making staff as viable as D/D, nothing more, nothing less.

Lavadiel.6231:

>I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.

why, the most interesting build to play. Ranged dps is for noobs.

>A mage class should never be melee oriented.

who said this?

>And it is also a specc wich gives the mage just everything…

yeah, especially ranged attacks and autos …

>This class is just insanely horrible, unless you play dagger/dagger.

if ele is to hard for you try guard, warr, mess or even some thief builds – they as facerol as I asumme you want to play the game.

Btw. after you level and gear to 80 (cuz I think you play the game for max a week) try to do some hard content with close range DD and later switch to ranged scepter or staff then come back to this topic and laugh at yourself.
Still any pve content up to fractals 30+ can be done with any ele weapon, many dungs will be a lot easier for begginers with staff. Most of the standard dungs with dd are not so easy as with ranged setup.

wow, this has to be the douchiest reply i have seen…in a while

your “solutions” and conclusions are so wrong it makes sad.

“Range is for noobs” ? Im sorry, you can stop playing now, its ok, we wont miss you if you quit. not everyone have to love being melee, you know? Some of us like being at range.

Surely there isnt any “rule” that dictates that mages cant be melee, but if someone wanted to be melee with two daggers I would actually prefer a ….say warrior, thief, heck, even the “ranger” (rambo) is melee lore-friendly.

Granted, D/D has no ranged attacks, but….why would you need it when you have so many gap closers? Also, a very large chunk of damage comes from AA, ever hit a fire #1 at point blank before, while critting?!

“why dont you play something else”

analog to :

“your child is doing bad on math and physics, please can you throw him away and get a new one?”

The reason why are asking for deserved buffs is because we CARE about the class, we are DISCUSSING problems and SOLUTIONS, if your is “dont play it” then your role in this discussion is over, you can now close this thread forever.

Please leave this to the people that actually care, kthnxbye

Be happy you have queues, that means you have a big server, most likely full(er) than other servers in PvE as well. Mean while in mine there is NEVER queue…nor people in any map for that matter (except dragons from guesters…yep….)

eldain stenlund.4306:

I have tried dagger/dagger. iam REALY against that specc.
A mage class should never be melee oriented.
And it is also a specc wich gives the mage just everything…

And i REALY hate such. 1 specc for everything ? dagger/dagger.

hell no ty.

SO, iam using staff. a realy hardcore underdog specc/weapon.
But, HOW in the hell are you playing it.
Its weaker in every aspect, Besides guarding a keep.

And i also found that when i level up…
even staff is used as a melee weapon.. you have to just rush in and land your aoe.
you have to play bait to keep ppl or mobs IN the aoe…
I have to play Tank with lowest armor and hp… GOOD PLAN….realy brilliant.

why have they designed this crappy ? it realy make no sense at all.

If they want a melee mage..This is what they should do:
*Rename class to: Battle-Mage.
*Give heavy armor.
*Unlock all weapon slots, but not pistols. GS, hammer, swords, axes… everything.
*Increase HP to be atleast the same as Guardian.
*Rework the whole kitten trait tree. its just horrible atm. (1 specc, or you are useless)

This class is just insanely horrible, unless you play dagger/dagger.

welcome to everyone’s dilema, we are trying for Anet to hear us, but until ppl dont stop playing D/d altogether and the stats for the amount of eles dont decrease, Anet will keep thinking eles are fine, after all, D/D ele is storng enough to be one of the top classes in the game, and one of the highest seen.

Staff needs love, but nobody outside ele players will ever know this since everfyhime they get killed by an ele they dont really judge the weapons, just the class itself, to the point of being coined as an OP class.

Terrorsquad.2349:

Fortus.6175:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Fortus.6175:

ln aa zerg of 70+ people, 5 is barely anything, especially if they are chasing after you and all you can do is a mere #4 water or #5 air, the other 65+ will still keep going and wont even notice.

What are you saying, you want to stop or hurt the whole +70 zerg by your own?
Because it surely looks like this.. Saying 65 men don’t notice you.. Ofcourse they don’t, you’re not God xD

Keep cap up but let’s say 10 men can be hit in AoE’s.. Don’t turn cap off
Imo!

So you are saying I can beat an entire zerg of 70 people alone if AoE cap was removed?
Because it surely looks like this. Saying that 65 people wont attack me with gap closers/ranged attack…Ofcourse they will, Im not God.

Turn off Cap or make it a lot more people, Imo!

No, I’m saying u want a +70 zerg to notice u.. I never said “beating an entire zerg” I said hurt or stop (delaying) them.. No need to get angry now))))

nobody is angry, im just showing your flawed logic in a attempt to justify the AoE cap

Terrorsquad.2349:

Fortus.6175:

ln aa zerg of 70+ people, 5 is barely anything, especially if they are chasing after you and all you can do is a mere #4 water or #5 air, the other 65+ will still keep going and wont even notice.

What are you saying, you want to stop or hurt the whole +70 zerg by your own?
Because it surely looks like this.. Saying 65 men don’t notice you.. Ofcourse they don’t, you’re not God xD

Keep cap up but let’s say 10 men can be hit in AoE’s.. Don’t turn cap off
Imo!

So you are saying I can beat an entire zerg of 70 people alone if AoE cap was removed?
Because it surely looks like this. Saying that 65 people wont attack me with gap closers/ranged attack…Ofcourse they will, Im not God.

Turn off Cap or make it a lot more people, Imo!

you cant get past 35% mov speed, no matter what you do, personally I have no issues, I love signet of air cuz blind and the mov speed, and I run zerker 30/30/0/0/10 so i have perma swiftness without castign a single skill

I hoped they would leave it as mini-games (like Kegg fights) which had some sort of hard entry fee or that is (hopefully) hidden somewhere, ESPECIALLY THE BETA HUNGER GAMES! I mean, that awesome minigame was SOOOO AWESOME! Also all the Haloween games! My goodness I want all that back!!!!!! Also, even tough this part might infuriate many people, maybe let a very, VERY miniscvule chance to drop the stuff (weapons, skin, mats and such) chance at the end in a chests or something!!! I want to see a chance to get those things, as hard they can be without sucking away the fun of it!!

The joke is that they are removing the awesome 8-bit minigame on april 30!

right? right?! RIGHTTTT?!?!

rampager; crit chance, power , condi, good for confusion (glamour) , zerker for the mind wrack

yah, aoe is a biggy in pve, especially in orr where you have to tag them in less than 2 seconds before they die, also in WvW, but glamour can help you there

Only reason mesmers are not my main. Im all about mobility, but my ele is way better at that, heck, ranger, necro, thief, ele have all some way to move around, even warriors and guardian get skills they can use with their normal weapons to launch them ahead, and in some cases some utility weapons that give them almost pema swiftness, meanwhile us we have only one spell, ONE, attached to a weapon……

its unfair, staff is supposed to THE mage weapon, I have yet to see Gandalf running around Rohan with to dagger….

every week you change sides, know when the reset happens, as soon as it happens BAM, run towards those points, voila.

Yes, it might take a while, but trust me, only way if your server is losing (from 21/24 server; GoM for ya)

Some say it is a legend, other say they have actually been there! For those who dare, I call it WvWvW

too much effort to dump it on only one character, especially since you have several champions who use the same weapon, i mean, for gods sake, it is a freaking legendary, just the fact I actually managed to get one is amazing, let me boast about it with all my characters….not just one…

Berticus.5280:

I believe you can make your legendary account bound by using the transmute trick. If you’re unfamiliar with it: Buy a white weapon from a vendor and transmute your legendary skin onto it (making sure to use the white item stats). This will make it account bound and then you just put it in the bank and pick it up on the desired character. Not an ideal situation but it works. Hope this helps!

this is too risky to try it, can anyone provide me of some prove in videos or so?

Only around you

D/D Right now the only viable way to get things done, requieres a very especific set of runes, masteries and utility skills in order to suceed due to our lowest stats in the game and the fact that we scale from healing power and boons (water 25 traits give you 2% damage increase per each boon, with arcana 30% boon duration and constantly getting boons from cantrips and the weapon sigils you can have 5-6 boons at a time non-stop, especially if youy use these runes which gives you every possible boon in the game for 3 secs after using an elite).

S/D Semi-viable, if you have some condition damage, very iffy, only works on people who doesnt have condition removals or blind people who cant see dragon tooth and walk out of it (aka noobs). Has decent burst and once again you need very especific rune sets, focusing mostly in surviving since you have to go melee to do most of the stuff and sinc 50% ofyour damage is condition based, you have to last enough to see the fruits of it.

S/F Defensive set, mostly aimed at trying to survive and stack conditions on enemy, pretty much you can leave fire/earth as your DPS decreases by a lot and air only offers some KD and blinds with whirling defense, water is completely useless.

Staff- Works only in WVW when sieging and in some cases small skirmishes where the minimun is at least 15 people on each side. Other than that our weakess weapon set, despite what everyone else can tell you. Survavility on it is minimal, once someone or something gets to you it is relaly hard to do anything since it has long casting times and the only defense you have left at that point is dodge (2 per 20 secs). Right now it is a topic is discussion as how unreliable its damage is and several advises have been given (which none have been heard)

Trident; Dont even try to fight underwater, it is not the worst weapon set, but agaisnt a mesmer, thief, ranger, warrior or necro you wont be able to do much.

Sharkinu.8096:

Simple answer: item sink

All items from Master work and above are soulbound on use. Why should legendaries be special? Because it takes a lot of effort to get one? Volcanus or Infinite Light are exotics and take almost as much time and money to craft. Should they be made account bound too?

short answer; yes, long answer, yes, they should.

Now for those the amount of work is definitely less, so I would say not realy, but Legendary, MOST DEFINITELY

also base stats would help a little, mesmers get a triat that increases stats while wearing a certain weapon, example, arcana VIII which increases the radius of AoE with staff would also give 100 vit/tough

Lets face it, they need to be account bound, the amount of resources put into one, just to later on change your liking and COMPLETELY lossing the weapon, its NOT ok.

zerorogue.9410:

Because the gifts are account bound. Create the legendary on the character you want to use it. Not to mention there soulbound on use…. if you plan on getting a legendary At least plan on who will wield it.

I have a mesmer and a ele, since release I have loved my ele but ever since staff is so crappy (damage) I decided to switch to mesmer. Tastes change over time sometimes, and it sucks that for this 2 months i like one thing and then on the next 5 others i like another and I have to start from scratch……. legendary should be praised for being done, not for having it stuck on one character only…. I mean, i would undertsnad if they gave something other than aesthetic like 10% or 20% damage increase and range, but for just mere cosmetic uses it is NOT fair

For the amount of work, time and money Im putting into them, the least you could ask for is that it is account bound, that way if you later on decide to move on to another profession or a new character, you still have access to it and not have it glued to one character only……

Vayne.8563:

AOE will hit them even when stealthed.

i wont go much into detail for this one, but your logic is flawed. Only a bad thief will keep walking in the same direction, they have enough time to turn for…around 360 degree options, im sorry but wasting sacred AoE in the hopes that it might connect some of it is not ok.

True, compared to GS, we lack a GREAT amount of variaty, for necro we have pretty cool stuff, but for everyone else, especially elementalists we lack options, all we have is emberfire (which is quite good, but the you look at all the cool GS and you get sad)

Im talking about cool particles or cool designs, right now staves are meh at most for the most part and lack cool particles like say; Visions of the mist, Immobulus, Spirit link or that one orb which is great on mesmers because it fits their colors, but for staff right now….we lack that variety.

And yes, im looking specifically at GS, the amount of GS cool desings there are is incredible, as well as the ones with cool particles, they even have two legendaries!!! (goes to tell you which weapon is the designer’s favorite….)

seriously, they are still perma stealthed, sure you have a 2 seconds window BUT, here is the flip side, casting times (ele) plus travel time means that by the time those 2 seconds are over, the animations and skill are still taking place. No, im not exagerating; here, let me give you a quick example; staff ele, #1 fire, 3/4 casting time, around 1 whole second to travel a full trip, thats 1 3/4 seconds, just about enough for ONE auto attack, but here is the funniest part; if a thief cannot dodge ONE attack then they suck, no way around it, and here is the funniest part; 1 3/4 seconds fort hat to connect ONLY if you insta tag the thief, which, lets face it, 1/4 of a second is not enough to drg mouse and click on them, and tabbing does NOT ensure you get your target, and if you CTRL + left click it there is no guarantee someone else wont do it for the mesmer of somebody else, i mean, a lot of people doing it…not just you…. only one target for 5 people…

Right now 2 seconds is not enough window, especially if after that comes 4-7 seconds of stealth which can be constantly chained.
Basilisk >burn your stun breaker > stealth > backstab > dodge > stealth >HS > dodge > HS > stealth > backstab > HS > HS. If you survived you are a bunker, and you wont be killing the thief anytime soon, if you are a squishy you didnt get past the first HS.

ok, this is very important thing, 10% increase in power is equivalent in 10% increase in crit damage. The math has been done on it, you can redo it yourself, but I double checked a couple of times and even tested myself, it works. Now do the same math on stats, put the current stats you have and the calculation, example, if you have 2000 power, and you add 100 power, that is 5% increase in damage, equivalent to 5% crit damage. Generally speaking, the higher the power you have, the harder it will be to boost its damage, since its exponential, therefore sometimes its better to go crit%

But here comes the flip side, though crit % usually pays off better, crit chance offsets this, especially if you have a slow hitting weapon such as staff where one missed crit means diminished damage overall. I would recommend Power, more reliable, less bursty but when you add up the math usually it pays off better. Now, if you have more specific question about scaling, you can go to wiki or do the math yourself for skills, the coefficient of each skill can be calculated by finding

skill damage/total power+weapon damage (its on champion panel)

Also there is a website which builds your character with different stats and you can see the stats on a generated panel; http://en.gw2skills.net/

Notice how you still need dagger, which….has all skills close to melee, and if you dont use those melee skills, then you are wasting its “potential”.

Truly ranged classes are these; Mesmers (look at the amount of options they have, just look at them, even the GS is ranged, gap closer? #5 and repeat) Ranger (well, duh), even a rifle warrior (the lore-wise in-your-face archetype) is more effective than staff.

Ever played a game with the mage-archetype where they wore staff and were scary as kitten when they were able to unload their stuff?! but on the flip side, one sneeze and they were goners?! Yeah, glass cannons, thats right, effective if they got the first jump, pretty much a slap game, but here is the joke; we are a shooting pea, no damage, no disengage other than use the CC we have to run away like chicken and even when people stand in place, try hitting anyone with fire #5, it is like saying “if i dont kill you of damage, I will do it of laugh”

Seriously, all counterarguments I see are “dont play sPvP” , “play x/D then” or “staff is fine, you just need a group”

No, thats just wrong, for a class who is NOT given the liberty to pick their fights and weapons we should at least have the “versatility” to adapt to the situation with ONLY one weapon set….. and right now, who ever doesnt admit staff ele is a joke in 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 is either a liar, a thief, a D/D, a new ele who plays only PvE or a troll, period.

Staff needs help no matter how you look at it, right now they are free kills, even experienced people like me have hard time with staff ele, I do WAY better with the same work with my mesmer or guardian and get better results out of the skill used.

Right now it takes a god playing staff ele to do decent, when it takes smashing keys to make other classes do the same. This isnt really about “skills” , when two equally skilled players meet and only wins 99% of the time (and its not the staff ele),then something tells you that staff is in a bad place.

I know that some of you have already noticed, but for the vast mayority who still doesnt know, AoE only affect a maximun of 5 people at the same time.

“yes, so? O_o” Well, the argument why staff has not been buffed for the last 9 months is because it is “too strong” in WvW zergs and keeps sieging. But in a big zerg, all those #4 water, #5 air, #2 earth, #2 & #3 fire can only affect 5 people at the same time, period.

ln aa zerg of 70+ people, 5 is barely anything, especially if they are chasing after you and all you can do is a mere #4 water or #5 air, the other 65+ will still keep going and wont even notice. The reason it looks like it affects more people is because if it stuns 5 people and one of them breaks free while the duration is still on, it will stun the closest(random) person.

Also, you might be deceived to believe otherwise since fire #5 seems to be hitting a lot, but here is the thing, thats actually the only skil who caounts “different” and makes staff “viable”. Each meteorite counts as an AoE spell, if both were to fall on top of enemies at the same time, in between them it would only hit 5 targets, but if one falls and it can potentially hit 5 people, it will. Thats why you dont see infinite # of meteorites hitting even though you are pretty sure by the density (100+) of the zerg and the actual animation tells you otherwise.

It can be quite rewarding but I didnt sign up an ele for a one trick pony…. Either gives more reliability on putting out damage outside WvW zerg sieges or make ALL AoE NOT have a cap, it pains me to see everytime I ask for a buff on staff to hear the noob answer " hur durr but in zergs everyone gets hit and CCed, its ok, just l2p, or go to D/D" I want a mage, burster, ranged, period. No, S/D is not completely ranged, and focus…..well, lets say I might as well get a shield.

though I agree with you and most of the player base non-mesmer/thief agrees as well, this will never reach higher thanforum moderation due to the language and"not open to debate" tone it has.
Indeed ele is awkward, only viable build is a melee one for a mage, the two devs thing has been known for a while, thats why you dont see lots of changes, but if im not mistaken they are “hiring” people on the field.

Overall I hope a mod doesnt see this, but this will definitely get either closed or not heard. And yes, I agree with everything but the tone.