Guild Wars 2

Today I played in sPvP against a thief. I got him into his downed state.

I know thieves can move their location up to two times.

But this thief “Blinked” 4 times, and without any animation, and in rapid succession.

All of these events occurred within a span of 2s. The moves didn’t seem to have any strategic objective in mind… almost completely random movement.

When I finally got up to him to stomp him, he didnt blink again. He just took it.

Has anyone else seen this kind of anomoly? Is it a lag? I’ve played over 300 rounds, and only seen it happen this once.

imo, a blob is a group which has foregone strategy in place of numerical superiority.
A zerg is just a lot of players on one spot.

IE: “There is a <guild> zerg chasing us.” vs. “There is a map blob chasing us”

Means two different things. Map blob would insinuate that the entire map is chasing you.

A zerg is just a group with lots of people in it.

“‘Cause I got a golden tiiiicckkkeetttt
I’ve got a golden twinkle in my eeeyyeees”

edit: Enjoy the never-ending tune looping in your head now.

Edit edit: Darnit.

Nageth.5648:

I want them to let Eles use a focus.

Har har.

ba da chhhhhh

… but really, focus is fine. I loves me some s/f

When I started playing ele, it was dagger/dagger that sold me. I loved the concept of an anime-esque, close range, high damage caster. It sounded hybrid to me.

Greatsword caters to that side of me. A caster with a giant sword? Yes, please.

I really don’t think this will happen though. Or if it does, it’ll be a PvE-specific weapon set which I won’t be able to use in sPvP. They have too many balance issues to work out with the existing sets.

Had a chat with some guildmates about the other “new” elites as well. The consensus seems to be pretty strong that these are fake.

Arenanet even took down the original post that allegedly ‘revealed’ them. There appears to be no basis for these skills whatsoever.

And as pointed out… this elite would be ridiculously overpowered.

1. Elementalist
2. Ranger
3. engineer

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmQb0RzwjDAEFwYyQhIaUeQzM1A-j0BB0CgkHAZSFRjtMsIas6GYKWER1eEFRrWKAImGB-w

Thats what i would come up with, swap our Corruption for either a condition damage or condition duration sigil once you hit 25 stacks. The biggest problem with it, as with most possible ele condition builds – lack of condition cover.

The burning would be insane damage but it would be rather easily removed due to the lack of covering conditions. You could use Elemental Power in fire and then go into Earth or Water and still get the chance of burning or something

On the face of it, the damage would be insane, the problem the burning and bleeding would be the biggest threat but easily removed. Arcane Power in Fire would be great if we had the ability to use covering conditions.

I guess we could go with Arcane Power In Fire, proc all the burning and use Elemental Power in Air for more conditions, Water and Earth Auto attacks have conditions as well. Getting Churning Earth off with it would be insane damage though.

This build is so random, I cannot even begin to fathom how this build is meant to function. It violates so many norms of the ele class that, at first glance, I almost immediately closed the window.

But upon careful inspection, there does appear to be some method to the madness—albeit a convoluted one. It breaks so many conventions that I cannot state, with confidence, that it will not work.

It’s like you’re driving a train, from the caboose, down a rocky mountainside with a parachute strapped to your back. It makes NO sense… but I can’t say it’s not possible because I’ve never even come close to trying it.

Good Luck with that one

Nope.

The best you can do is guess work. Find a 1200-range ground-target skill. Hold the green circle at maximum range, and guage what half of that distance would look like (to find 600)

But no, there’s no way to dynamically check your range on the fly. Experience will teach you.

Condition elementalists don’t work, in my experience. For all of the above-mentioned points.

However, if you were looking for constructive suggestions, here’s an interesting D/D condi bunker ele for spvp

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbzR5wjDAkHwcCLDFioRRBNzA-ToAg2CrI6S5lzLTXyvsfN8Y2B

Yes, it should most definitely work with frost aura from D/D.

It does work on getting auras from combo fields—but I think what you’re saying is that an aura from a combo doesn’t activate powerful aura. And yes, you’re right there. It only affects yourself in that case.

There’s, literally, a post exactly like this still on the front page:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Good-roaming-build

Good luck

Tactu.4867:

…

It works perfectly well. If it’s not working for you, you need to practice more.

The combo works and your opponent will be unable to act until the DT lands—this includes a dodge. You don’t even need to be in game to see that it works:

Gale = 2 second knockdown.
Switch to fire [you can switch to Fire while casting Gale]
Dragons Tooth = 1s cast
Flame wall = 1/4s cast
Pheonix = 3/4s cast
Switch to Earth. [you can switch to earth while casting pheonix]
Arcane wave [simultaneously while casting pheonix] for immobilize. =1s

Everything will land at roughly the same moment. No dodge rolls allowed. If you really want to nail this DT, you can use Arcane power and get 5 more seconds of immobilize by spamming autoattack in earth immediately following pheonix.

Their only option at this point is to use their stability (while at full health, and their opponent over 900 range away… not enticing) or waste their condi cleanse on a single condition.

And if they do get out—let’s say they popped their cleanse to clear the immob, you use the “Imaginary” chill combo I described.

15s of chill means they aren’t going to be applying any damage to you until it falls off or they clear it.

And you STILL have your arcane shield to utilize if all else fails. Keeping in mind, you’re still cycling into lightning for fresh air DPS (not laughable).

And all of your arcane utilities are on 45 and 30s cooldowns respectively.

Very viable. Very deadly. But as mentioned—you’re not invincible… but neither is a cantrip ele.

Good luck.

PS. I’m at 92% in rankings right now, but I normally hang around the 700s. I’m not the best, but not the worst by far.

YES. Elemental Surge is amazing. It adds so many different potential combos/conditions to be considered anything short of amazing with the right build.

Here’s mine:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArdhMmMbnxygjDIhCEg4hF0AcY5RMMD1AA-ToAg0CnIqRVjrGTNyas1MsYKC

A brief writeup on Elemental Surge (using the S/F sPvP build). You get several interesting combos out of this one trait:

Immobilize Combo:

Lightning: Use Gale to knock over your opponent.
Switch Fire:
Dragon’s Tooth on knocked down player. (Blast finisher)
flame wall on top of knocked down player.
Pheonix on top of knocked down player. (Blast finisher)
Switch to Earth:
Arcane wave onto downed player/flame wall (Elemental Surge: Immobilize 1s) (Blast Finisher)
(This is important to make sure the DT lands)

Switch to Water: Comet for Daze/Freezing gust for chill.

Chill Combo:

Defensive combo. Do not use at the start of the fight. Try to pull their condi cleanse first—but at the very least, make sure some of their abilities are on Cooldown.

Water attunement:

Freezing gust – Chill ~4s
Arcane shield (Elemental Surge: Chill ~4s)
Stand near them so they can hit you and wait for Arcane shield to explode, then Comet for daze.
Arcane Wave (Elemental Surge: Chill ~4s)
<Wait for them to blow their condi cleanse>
Arcane Power (Elemental Surge: Chill ~4s)
Use auto-attack. It hits 3 times her hit, so you apply 5x stacks of chill in 2 attacks.

Healing Trident to heal.
Earth Attunement (Optional):
Magnetic wave to clear movement condis/reflect projectiles.

Kite. You only use 1 attunement for this combo, so you should have 2 or 3 other attunements to swap between to keep casting spells and get that free healing from Sigil of Restoration.

If they can’t cleanse the chill, you’ll get back to full health in 6-8 seconds with regen.

Fire Combo:

Goes without saying. Use the combo listed under ‘immobilize’ but drop your arcane (bypass Earth to water for chill/comet) to apply ~14s of burning. Great to use if a teammate has stunned/controlled an opponent for you.

Blind:

Downed opponent.
Start spiking opponent:

Switch to air.
Blinding flash on downed.
Arcane Shield = blocks 3 attacks, then explodes into AoE blind.
Arcane Wave = AoE Blind.
Arcane Power = Single target blind on attunement swap (blind interfering players)
Arcane power = blind on lightning strike (blind interfering players)

P Fun Daddy.1208:

As far as I can see, they would have to try pretty hard to make it as bad as our other elites.
My prediction:
Passive: 2 sec, ICD 10 sec (so fresh air abuse doesn’t happen, 2/5sec would be pretty crazy. Matches up with fury on swap.
Active: 30-45 second cooldown. Consistent with other signets. Probably more towards 45 because of written in stone being so powerful.

You raised an interesting point about the fury on swap.

With quickness, it means Churning Earth will be channeled faster, and delivered with fury o.0

kitten .

This is a pretty basic roaming fresh-air build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhEmgbzR5gjDIkHwwJwCiHWQDwhlC5AA-jUyAYrASWAoPgJfBxknyaVrIas6FMVJRUt3ATIgRLAA-w

Mainly: High damage, high mobility. Utilizes the currently-broken critical damage stat-line for more damage output. The armor set for this build is likely to be changed when the ferocity changes come in on the next balance update.

Edit: THis build has 15.5k health. But with defence against guards (5 stacks) you should be hovering around 17.5k which is survivable in most cases.

Good luck.

Resetting attunements will be a Very powerful elite for S/D or S/F players running fresh air builds since attune swapping can often leave you without attunements.

Also, it’s a sigil. A lot of trait lines could make this stronger than it is with (potentially) game-breaking effects. 5 sigils on one build? Insane.

Confirming: Glyphs are terrible.

Im not going to pick apart your gear—sometimes that’s set in stone.

I would question your second build. I would take the 10 pts out of earth and put it into arcana for Elemental Attunement. Group Regen/Protection/swiftness/might is entirely too strong to pass up—and far more important than 2s of stability every 10s.

If you absolutely can’t give up Rock Solid (some eles swear by it), then drop zephyr’s fury. Fury is great, but it comes secondary to protection imo (your first build, basically).

So I would try this build for aura sharing:

0/10/10/30/20

If you get a tournament pop in Edge of the Mists, your food/wrench buff is stripped, even when the tournament ends.

Thanks

Wait for the achievement hunters to quit and it’ll be fine.

If it’s a problem 2 weeks from now… just switch instances.

I have my concerns about the map.
But I find it a huge improvement from the state of WvW as it is currently.

If I could choose – I would ask ANET to completely revamp the original WvW maps to suit a style more akin to EotM.

WvW is dead so long as EotM is around, as far as I’m concerned.

zencow.3651:

Updraft doesn’t leave the opponent on the ground long enough for DT to hit. Quake has too long aftercast and thus can’t be used for landing DT either. Since everyone with a brain runs Sigil of Energy, they can always dodging in time after they get up. Gale is the only way to land DT without being dodged but at 50 sec cool down and being the only knockdown on focus it can only be used when ganking and target has stun breaks used up. Gust is a staff skill.

Gale*

You’re right, each stun doesn’t keep them down long enough. But you’re not without options, is what I’m saying.

You can:

A) cast DT first, then then updraft or earthquake (not guaranteed)
B) Cast updraft > DT/Pheonix > Earthquake
C) Gale > DT, Pheonix

There’s a lot of people who might say “But the stun isn’t long enough!”

They would be right. So I use Elemental Surge (XII in Arcane) as well. I like arcane utilities instead of cantrips.

Immobilize:

Gale > DT, flamewall (for combo), pheonix > Earth attunement > Arcane Wave/Blast for 2s immobilize.

Is your fire/gale on CD? No problem:

Earth attunement: Arcane wave/blast -> comet -> Freezing gust.

Chill:

Freezing gust + (water attunement) arcane wave/blast = 9s of chill.
Wait for them to pull their dodges (most melee classes will roll just to get in range of you) and then Comet for a daze -> Dragonstooth. They can’t walk out of it without a dodge-roll while chilled.

I also run Arcane shield in sPvP – often times i’ll stand near them and let them punch it until it pops and they get another 3s of chill +1k damage.

Burning:

If you thought DT hurt, try this:

DT, Flamewall, pheonix, arcane blast, arcane wave.

Even if you miss the DT, assuming you set up your flamewall right, you get 3x blast finishers (9x might), 10s of burning + 1s from wall + 1s from projectile finisher = 12s burning. (and all of this in a single attunement).

Proceed to set up combos from any of the other elements.

Blind:

Stomping an opponent? Arcane wave = AoE Blind.
Arcane shield = 3x block and then AoE blind.

Now the commander will feel the same anger the rest of us feel following that stupid blue dorito around.

Jerks

I’m at work, and can’t seem to find an answer to this anywhere on the interwebs.

Are people allowed to group queue into EotM? Does it prioritize them into specific instances?

Or is it just luck-based to get into an instance of EotM with your friends?

Thanks

This is a content-less thread, so I’ll post my question here instead of making a new one:

Is there a group-Queue for EotM? Or does it put you in the same instance as your party members? Or is getting into the same instance with your friends a matter of luck?

Thanks in advance.

Katran.9186:

That can be a first step. Yet, having 5 skills instead of 20 is like death for ele in PvP

Ah, but by removing the cast time on it, you’re effectively giving an ele 25 skills, because you can fluidly roll into them, and then out again like another element to swap to. And this would be a worthwhile utility.

I really feel like this is the way the weapons were meant to be used. If you’re sitting there expending all 15 charges, you’re probably PvEing and the weapons are already OK in some circumstances (lightning hammer can be pretty good)

There’s only one thing they need to change to make most of the conjures more viable…

Remove the gosh-darn cast time on them.

It should be like having another weapon-set on your utility bar. I should be able to switch to the set fluidly without pausing to get it out like I’m wrankling my junk out of my pants for a quick pee.

It makes it very difficult to use the fields/finishers in the set.

If your argument is for PvE, then I definitely agree. There’s almost no reason to switch out of fire unless you really need some CC (which doesnt happen on most boss fights)

But if your argument is for sPvP or WvW, then I can stand to argue there. Every element plays into each other very well. They made sure to put a CC in every attunement to (in my opinion) make them very accessible.

Eruption is also a strong source of damage and the bleeds should not be overlooked. But the autoattacks (besides fire and earth) are largely useless and should be revamped.

I made a video on the basic combos of sPvP for staff here if it tickles your fancy:
Two links to the same video. Fast forwarded to the combo sections for your convenience.

http://youtu.be/QDX7lo1xtak?t=15m25s
http://youtu.be/QDX7lo1xtak?t=9m45s

I don’t like how everyone is using cantrips as an example of long cooldowns.

Of course they’re long. But people still use them because they’re still the best utilities in an elementalist’s toolbox. So if they need to be buffed up by bringing down the CD, then every other utility will need to be improved proportionately or we’ll see an even bigger disparity between Cantrips and the other utilities than we already do.

Many of the other abilities have relatively short CDs. Arcane blast can get on a 16s CD (and it’s a great ability contrary to popular belief). Arcane wave can get down to 30s. Signet of fire is 20s. All the other signets are 30s, and they can be reduced as well.

The truth is—everyone whines about cantrip cooldowns because cantrips is the only thing anyone uses. Ironically, it’s because they’re the only utilities worth their salt.

So why would we buff cantrips, but not any of the other utilities? Of course they’re on long cooldowns…

I have been playing S/F in sPvP lately, and DT is already a really strong skill.

If your opponent doesn’t dodge it, they’re dead. Making it hit any harder would only add insult to injury. And there are lots of ways to make sure it gets hit. Elemental Surge (immobilizes), signet of earth (immobilizes), chills and any stun, really (earthquake, updraft, gust?)

Now if you want to talk the Shatterstone (Water 2 scepter ability)………. I mean, does anyone actually bother using this?

Great vids. I love D/D – but I hate how boon duration/cantrips damage seems to be the only way to make eles viable

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

oZii.2864:

Yea I should have been more clear the next balance patch which will be like march probably. The could just lower cantrip cd that doesn’t require much thinking at all,

Honestly they need to step up their balance game. If we really have to wait till march till the next changes I probably will have stopped playing by then.

But…. Winter is coming.
In March.

What are you going to do between now and GoT if not GW2??

TyPin.9860:

@KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:
I watched your videos. Gave me some ideas, but basicly I am using all those combos already. I also like to use static field and gust to push my opponents on the forcefields on Skyhammer.

However, fighting thieves is not a problem for me. My main is mesmer and I have spend a fair ammount of time fighting thieves roaming in WvW and the ones in sPvP don’t seem to be much different. They are very predictable and usually suicide in my AoEs, cuz they think I’m an easy pick.

I will practice more with staff. I could use dagger or scepter, but I find the staff the most stylish, so I wanna make it work. I remember staff eles in WvW, who I just eat in seconds with my mesmer. But playing Ele myself I can’t ger rid of the feeling that with the right ammount of practice and experience it is possible to make Staff Ele work in 1v1 and even 1vX. When I get to this point, I will put up some videos myself

Please do! I look forward to watching more videos of staff eles out there performing.

But come on now, guys… let’s not get too hasty. Staff could use some buffs. Don’t want to let arenanet think they can get away with nerfing us again

Do your team a service!

Roll MM necro today!

Gokil.2543:

I watched the videos before, and held my silence waiting for more staff content because I wasn’t very impressed. When you showed your 48 percent win rate and 1000 ranking(I applaud you for trying staff though), I had even more doubts. I’ve been rank 250 and on a 57 percent win rate atm with D/D. I would love to believe staff has a place in PvP but to this day I’m waiting for convincing videos against competent players. Not hating on you in the slightest, I just can’t see what all the fuss is about. When people start claiming staff is useable as a 1v1 set, I just can’t take that seriously.

Absolutely agree. If you’re looking to perform at the top level, then when you get down to brass tax there’s really only 1 or 2 builds you’re allowed to use per weapon set to perform adequately in sPvP.

Narrowing that further, if you only want to perform well in a dueling environment, there’s usually only 1 build per metagame (Condition build/power build etc).

So:

If the question is: “Does staff work in sPvP” the answer is Yes.
If the question is: “is staff useable in 1v1” the short answer is It Depends.
If the question is: “Is a staff going to replace the best dueling build as a 1v1 weapon” the answer is No.

I would argue that staff is better than most D/D and S/D builds in a 3v3 to 5v5 situations. (I would also argue 2v2, but let’s not get too hasty!) and of course it greatly depends on your team and your opponent. And having an uninterrupted staff elementalist on the edge of a team fight will almost always win that fight for your team. With that said, staff definitely has a place in sPvP.

So again, if what you’re saying is: “Can a staff beat a warrior/guardian in 1v1” the answer is yes.
If you want to know: “Is a staff better than D/D in beating a warrior/Guardian in 1v1” the answer is no.

And I’m not saying staff is good, either. We definitely need a buff But it’s not all bad.

Gokil.2543:

Can any other staff player back this up? Can staff really perform anywhere near decent in 1v1s in sPvP (stay on the point or kill opponent). Because from my experience in PvP and WvW roaming, a staff ele in open terrain is a non-factor, or even a negative contribution due to being a free rally.

Hey there,

Warriors and Guardians are actually among the easiest classes for a staff ele to beat (in my opinion). Granted, you won’t win with 100% reliability, but you can definitely give them a run for their money in any instance. And being a support class/build, that’s pretty good. The reason I prefer to fight them over any other class is because they are the most predictable. You know which way they are coming to engage you, and so you know how to place your fields/CC.

Here are the videos he was referring to. It’s a step-by-step instructional guide to playing staff ele. There’s some stuff referring to the build itself, but the combos will remain the same across all builds.

Guide Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDX7lo1xtak

Guide Part 2 [6:25 for thief content]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roANj4g0Skc&feature=youtu.be

P Fun Daddy.1208:

Yeah, I’m not quite willing to give up my blasting staff yet.
I actually dropped Elemental Attunement, not arcane mastery, as the defensive boost doesn’t help if you’re running zerker (I tried celestial and didn’t really like the feel of it) and I get much more out of having quicker recharging blast finishers.

I keep blasting staff for:
A) meteor shower, my main surprise attack,
(Edit: This is a “B”, then a “)”. Not a smiley) Lava Font, as it forces a dodge (or does 1-3k damage if they stay) if I use it right on them,
C) Greater damage on multiple targets, which is really important,
D) Eruption, sort of,
E) It’s hard to stay in my water fields, or to get my teammates in them, when they are small, and gives me greater freedom for blasting. You miss it a lot when you want to blast a fire field to hit an enemy, and give yourself and an ally might, and especially when you earth dodge out of your water field.

Probably just a playstyle difference though, I might try dropping Blasting Staff again at some point if I feel like I can still land my stuff and stay versatile, but for now it stays.

A great point about the lava font. Something I wanted to mention in the video as well. With Combo #1, without Blasting staff its really hard to put the lava font to encompass both the eruption and the target after he’s been immobilized. Often times, you’ll have to choose between one or the other.

Still, great stuff. Zerkers can be a lot of fun

P Fun Daddy.1208:

Ugh, I have the same exact problem with glass thieves. Was sort of hoping you had the solution, haha.
I noticed that since your current build is also pretty much exactly the same as mine is, though I still prefer Blasting Staff to EA and Zerk over Celestial, there aren’t really any build changes I can do to help me with them either.
Didn’t know about that powder combo though, that does help a bit.

Thanks for watching!

I used to believe that blasting staff was a requirement for staff builds, given that it was so hard to land the combos I’ve shown. But as I practiced, I actually found that having the extra radius did very little for actually landing your AoEs.

90% of all your damage comes from when you manage to interrupt your opponent. Immobilize. Unsteady Ground. Static field. And if they’re already not moving, the size of the field mattered very little.

In fact, Blasting staff serves as a major detriment for Static field. The larger field gives your opponents more space to move around inside the circle without actually hitting the sides.

Even while freecasting from range, I found that the AoE is already large enough to encompass most points (in sPvP) so you dont need to worry about it reaching out farther.

The only notable difference is in meteor shower. Blasting staff increases the size of each falling meteor, and you’ll notice a visible difference in the damage with the tornado/meteor combo.

But I won’t ever go back. It was a great learning tool, but I turned it down for arcane mastery for this build because the reduced heal cooldown is almost paramount.

DISCLAIMER: This is a video for EXPERIENCED players. You must already have a keen understanding of your abilities to understand the content of this video.

The First Video

Please be sure to watch these videos in order. If you have not seen the first, you will have a hard time following the second, as I make plenty of references to the combos I showed there.

Who I am

I do not profess to be the best elementalist in the game (not even in my guild), but I do consider myself more than competent. Over a year ago, with several others, I pioneered the ‘Churn Bomb’ and created a video which brought it into the mainstream. You can find the video at the end of this post.

Top 1k players

I have recently wormed my way into the top 1k players in Solo Q using the build displayed here. Although this may not be a monumental achievement for some, accomplishing this as a glass staff elementalist was no easy task for me. I am quite proud of this accomplishment.

Dealing with Thieves

The last video, many people asked how I might deal with thieves as a glass staff. I promised the video, and here it is. Unfortunately, finding 1v1 duels with thieves in an active tournament was more difficult than you might think (they tend to be pretty darned opportunistic). But actually, the main problem was finding a thief that would stick around to the end of a fight.

If a fight isnt going in a thief’s favor, It’s not uncommon for them to shadow refuge and leave, which really didn’t make for good television. I did get one or two clips, but mostly I arranged a guildy-thief to duel me to provide the shots I needed. That being said, this won’t work on all thieves, but this should show the fundamentals and help you to step up your game.

Skip to 6:25 in the video to get straight to the thief content.

Special thanks to “Honey Nut Charios” for providing ample duels and info.

Comments

Please leave comments and questions. I am more than happy to reply! I apologize for the second post, but the first thread was getting a little over-bearing and hard for new viewers to follow/catch up.

The Build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWnEEFcYnBWGQlYAI8gADKQUwiyjYmxGA-TkAAyCsIqRVjrGTNyas1M+A

The Videos

Guide Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDX7lo1xtak

Guide Part 2 [6:25 for thief content]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roANj4g0Skc&feature=youtu.be

Churn Bomb [1 Year Old]:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUeSjnQmllA

Made it to the leaderboards:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y82/kildron/Top1K_zpsa98fa5fc.jpg

I realize nobody’s probably reading this post anymore (Threadnaught!) But here’s the proof of concept.

Today, I made top 1K players using staff as an elementalist. It CAN BE DONE.

The final build (Which has been put to a thorough test) is as follows:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWnEEFcYnBWGQlYAI8gADKQUwiyjYmxGA-TkAAyCsIqRVjrGTNyas1M+A

There will be another video up soon.

Gorni.1764:

yeah I actually play only Solo-Q and your parameters are pretty much the reason why I mostly play defensive (there seems to always be a thief and/or a minion-necro in the enemy team and skyhammer pops up way too often). Sometimes I switch to D/D (usually on spirit-watch when we don’t have an orb-carrier).

so basically this is my build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-kZ;3BJVU0-5NN-Z0;9;6JJT;427-28-47A5;5sV2DsV2D6Ro
Berserker-Amulett is only equipped when my team consists of something like 2 guards and 2 warriors. Against teams without much CC I choose Arcane Wave instead of armor of earth and against teams without much stability I always pick tornado, etc. When there’s no thief or petting-zoo I sometimes pick vital striking in water for more damage.
I’d love to have 10 more points for Internal Fire or Bolt to the Heart – But Rock Solid and Healing Ripple are just too good to give up on them.

I still don’t know which runes are best though. I don’ really benefit from the crit-damage from divinity but you’ll still get the best stats out of them. I tried ogre and scholar but ogre is kinda contra-productive since you should avoid beeing hit at all costs and scholar seems to not be active very long (even with a defensive spec). Boon-Duration might be a good idea but these seem too defensive.

I have the same problem with the weapon-sigill. I think battle, bloodlust or force are best. I can’t really decide though. Thanks to soothing disruption I always have enough endurance for dodges so I don’t really need sigill of energy (would be my first pick otherwise).

Btw: Have you ever tried frost-bow? At first I was sceptical but it really kicks in, especially when your mates know how to use it. Bunker-Guards can basically be oneshotted with it (just time 4 and 5 with a team-mate and the guard can’t do anything about it). The CC is also nice to interrupt rezz or stomps (there’s nothing more satisfying than an enemy beeing frozen mid-air while trying to stomp your team-mate).

I’ve tried frost bow, but ultimately decided against it. The area is too small, and once your enemy knows what to look for it becomes a completely useless utility (and more people are becoming aware of it). Besides Icebow #4, the weapon is worthless. Icebow 5 is great if you can actually land it. But because the channel is so quick (and again, its the only useful skill in the entire weapon) it doesnt even give you something to do while waiting for cooldowns. It’s basically a one-trick pony.

Took a look at your spec and it looks solid. Bunker builds takes practice to make them work, but can be very rewarding. Although I might use tornado instead of elemental—since you’re probably going to be bunkering a point, tornado guarantees to disable the point by throwing your opponent out (provided you pulled their stability first).

Gorni.1764:

I tried alot of builds and amuletts lately and I think that a defensive spec (I run 0/0/20/20/30 now) brings the most benefit for the team. Due to the high amount of power (~3000) Your AoEs will still do very good damage (even with soldiers amulett) and force dodges from opponents, Frostbow can still oneshot squishy thieves and overall I think that the role of a staff-ele shouldn’t be pure damage anyways because of the enourmous support-potential it has. You won’t get oneshotted when focused in team-fights and you can even tank thieves for some time. Additional to your healing, with stability on earth-attunement you can stomp any enemy (or ensure that your mates get the stomp) and rezz your mates. You can engage in group-fights without fearing to instantly die in AoE. You can kite better and defend points 1v1 without larger problems against most classes. You can also do objectives like carrying orb in spirit watch. Since you can’t win 1v1 with staff anyways you’re always kinda dependent on your team-mates so I think a more support-orientated build fits staff better. Best thing above all: you won’t melt against AI-builds like minion-necro or spirit-ranger like GC-eles do.

I’d say it’s a matter of taste but overall I’ve won more games with a defensive build than with a pure GC-build.

Defensive spec is most likely the way to go in a lot of cases (most notably, solo Q) as a bunker is always useful in those situations.

When I play Solo Q, I actually have a few builds which I will use in the event of:

A) Skyhammer
B) More than 1 thief on the enemy team (Bunker hard, bro!)
C) Multiple minion-master necros.
D) Team PvP.

I strongly advise being flexible in your builds as you are an underpowered weapon choice. You need to be very good in every aspect of your class to even be moderately competitive in sPvP as a staff elementalist. Being good at bunkering, and having a build for this, is a large part of that.

I don’t use different weapon sets, however, as a matter of preference. But it’s also a good idea to have a few D/D or S/D sets as well in case your team is truly pooched.

Inoence.6907:

Here are my thoughts about your build (& video):

Showing combos like you did is really helpful for starters, especially for the weapon which none used in s/tPvP (until now )!

I’ve had great experiences in soloQ where for example thieves were QQing at me… “If only I could catch you”. Or when I somehow managed to get rid of two foes at the Skyhammer Cannon (evil laugh). Although we eles are squishy as hell wearing only cloth, I prefer to use the Berserker Trinket over the Celestial one (To increase our squishi… umm… I meant damage obviously).

Also I switched out the Lava Axe for Signet of Fire (atm; couldn’t really decide), because I don’t really like it. Which doesn’t mean that I don’t find it effective though! It’s just that… when I use it, I feel like it’s a burden. Usually in combat with more than 1 opponent I don’t have the time to think how I should pull off a triple burst/leap heal.

Back to the zero-toughness build: My survivability is pretty high albeit wearing a Berserker Amulet. Until now I rarely had problems with conditions (maybe because there are few running them in tPvP? I’ve observed that about 90% were running power builds) and generally no problems with many classes. The only opponents who really ‘pwned’ me were:

• Minionmancers (Those minions do such op high sustained damage QQ) But seriously, I am downed before I killed every minion of those Necros. (I even check the other team whether any necros are present, and try to avoid them, if any are)
• A shortbow ranger who critted 1k per hit (Crossfire!)
• Hambow warriors, who aren’t that frequent fortunately (Only 1 stunbreaker is kind of… meh)
• And lastly, thieves, when I didn’t pay attention

P.S.: My ele fittingly bears the name “Glàss”. Maybe you’ll meet me in soloQ

Thanks! It was really just the combos that I made this video for. The build itself is really only the sideshow. I’ve seen a lot of elementalist staff videos which make me sad because of how easily people just throw away their attunements without any clear display of why they’re using each specific ability. So i’m glad you enjoyed it!

Skyhammer is, by and large, my favorite map (watch everyone /unsubscribe after I said that). Elementalist is freakin’ amazing at taking skyhammer. I rebuild myself to run 0/0/10/30/30 protection/regen stacking staff elementalist. Utilities: Lightning hammer, Armor of Earth, Earth Shield

Knockbacks: gust, tornado, Wind Blast (LH 3), Magnetic Shield (ES 4, 600 range pull)

Skyhammer control room becomes a game all on its own. I liken it to playing Super Smash Brothers with edge-hugging and every time I use Wind Blast I think: “FALCON PAUNCH!!!”

And as for Fire Axe – I understand completely. The axe really does provide much needed time to cooldown your abilities, but lately (as I’ve risen in ranks) i’ve been ditching it in lieu for Mist Form. It reduces my overall damage potential, but it gives you that invuln-stomp utility which you can use once your meteor shower+tornado inevitably puts someone down (it also helps to deal with thieves).

Signet of Fire is also a great alternative if you plan to be doing more 1v1.

Minion master necros also give me trouble. The best way to deal with them is in multiple engagements. I go in, meteor shower/Combo 1 and kill some pets. Burning retreat. Heal. Return and fight again (you can heal more frequently than they can, and those pets come back slowly).

lislis.8075:

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Biomanz.9302:

If your water roll EA is on cooldown and need another heal, can still switch to Earth and roll within a geyser for a water blast while staying inside it. Of course, will need blasting staff.

You don’t even need blasting staff. You just need to make sure you cast the guyser in front of you, so your roll finishes inside it. You’ll miss the initial tick, but you’ll get the blast finish (which is far more valuable)

without the blasting staff i feel like the ele fire lava become too small to be useful…

In my humble opinion, the size increase in blasting staff does very little for lava font. I have found that 90% of the time, even with proper CC, you can only expect your opponent to stand in a lava font for 2 seconds maximum. Most of the time, you will only want to place a lava font after your target has been stunned/immobilized and not before. And in that case, the size increase matters very little.

The main reason you would take blasting staff is for the increased size in Eruption/Ice spike/Frozen ground/meteor shower (and to a lesser extent, static field. But if you practice, the increased size is actually a detriment because they’re more likely to just walk around inside the inside).

Even healing rain has a huge radius already and really doesn’t need any more. But more healing area never hurt anybody

In the video I said that blasting staff is required for all staff builds. That may not necessarily be true. But I would not recommend running a build without it unless you’ve already got plenty of experience wielding a staff.

DiogoSilva.7089:

I’d say water’s minor #5, water’s #15, cleansing wave and cleansing water + healing rain skill offer a lot more party support than 20 points in fire and 10 in air, no?

But I agree with you when it comes to toughness. Maybe valkyrie amulet could work with 30 water investment, but the critical chance would be very poor. Might work well with Rune of the Pack, though, but I understand that I’m moving too much away from your build now.

In regards to 30 fire, I feel it might be worthier than 20 in air. More fury will offset the lower precision, more power is more effective than more critical damage, the 25pt trait replaces arcane lightning, and you lose the lighting strike on air attunement to get more condition duration, fury team support, and a 50% stronger lava font from a trait that also affects burning retreat and your two fire fields from flame axe.

Runes of Lyssa might be appealing here too, with good precision to compensate for less points in air, an extra 10% condition duration (up to 40%), a 13 second boon every 20 seconds from the heal, and a condition cleansing tornado that offers all boons for 5 seconds. That means even more fury, and some nice protection and regen, while on tornado.

I honestly haven’t tried Runes of Lyssa, but I really like what I see there! The precision + condi duration is an interesting mix for my celestial build since it already has some condi damage built in, and the 30% duration. I’m not sure how I feel about losing 10% crit damage from the divinity set, but it would definitely make the tornado/heal more potent (and the heal is huge because you’re usually dropping arcane brilliance every 20 seconds).

I’ll give that a try, for sure. Thanks again!

DiogoSilva.7089:

Gotta try this build out!

I’m not very impressed with the 20 fire point investment, though. The minors aren’t worth it, and I feel that two of the best fire traits are the #25 and the #30 Persisting Flames. Cleansing Fire is cool, though.

I wonder if 30 water investment could work. Cleansing Wave and Cleansing Water offer more cleansing over time, the minors are much better, the new trait that gives regen when hit, and berserker amulet to compensate for the loss of fire and air magic investment. You would be able to maintain the healing power, vitality, precision and critical damage, but lose condition damage and toughness for a lot more power and much better traits. Alternatively, valkyrie with zerker jewel, 10 in air, and perhaps runes of lyssa or pack for the extra precision. A cleansing full boon tornado and an extra boon for each 20 second arcane heal are not too bad either. Especially whenever Lyssa gives you protection/ retaliation/ regen/ etc from the heal.

Great suggestions, but a big reason I can’t ever make zerker trinkets work is because of that lack of toughness. Without damage mitigation, your heals are reduced in their overall effect. Regen, especially, is only good if you’re mitigating the incoming damage to make it worthwhile.

There are a lot of boon duration builds which utilize heavy amounts of protection and regen because the two play off each other. Protection makes the regen worthwhile because every point healed is 33% harder to remove.

In a build without toughness or protection, regen is largely worthless (unless you put 30 in water to get them to clean conditions as well).

But if you’re going to run 0/10/0/30/30 you’re swinging your build back to a more personal/survival build and not so much team support. And if your goal is to just survive and drop fields—why not play a necro?

Likewise, for this build (which is high-DPS centric) I prefer the power/condi duration over vitality/healing.

I definitely agree with the comment about fire 30 though. Persisting flames is amazing, and something I’ve been running a lot more of. The fury given to teammates really helps in a team fight. The 25pt minor fire trait also helps to make up for the lack of arcane lightning.

Thanks for all your suggestions

juno.1840:

Great video — I thought the combo explanations were excellent. I rarely setup Earth-2 as a blast because I have to start in earth (and normally I end in earth). I will try and focus on that a bit more based upon your video.

I love the staff, but I play like D/D — switching attunements all the time with Elemental Attunement. I need to retrain my brain

Thanks for watching Juno!

I too came from D/D and it took a long time to break down the old habits. Blowing my attunements (although fun!) is something I still catch myself doing from time to time because of how used to D/D I was.

Gorni.1764:

3 Utilities and a Grandmaster-Trait only to pull off one combo that’s propably not killing anybody? … not really worth it

I tried it out last night. I concur.

It’s good. And it’s a lot of fun to do this, and then immediately go into meteor shower + tornado.

But ultimately, it makes you a one-trick pony which will dominate a point for only about 10 seconds with a 150s cooldown.

vanensang.1389:

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

P Fun Daddy.1208:

It’s pretty much only good for arcane power. Everything else ends up being really lackluster (who really cares about the small burn or chill? the blind is okay, but the immobilize duration is atrocious), but with arcane power you can easily stack 15 seconds of chill, 25 burn, and five seconds of immobilize.
Even then, its on a 36 second at minimum cooldown.

!

I had no idea it did this! That’s incredible. I’m going to have to give this a shot. Thanks!

[Edit] For theorycrafting: If that’s true… Do you suppose this might work with it:

Start in Earth.
Drop Ice Bow.
Arcane wave (for initial immobilize)
Arcane Power
Ice Storm (still earth attuned).

Each bolt falling (first 5) will cause AoE immobilize with the already-ludacrous damage and guaranteed crit…
That would be pretty lol.

[Edit Edit] If this becomes a ‘thing’ i’m going to dub it the ‘Go-go gadget Icebow’. You all witnessed it. It’s official.

Yes it works with Arcane Wave at least. It should work with Ice Storm too. You could even use Glyph Of Storms.
Its really easy to control stealthed enemies like this in my opinion. I’m running Elemental Surge for several weeks now and it works great. My build was pretty similiar to yours though I didn’t use Flame Axe.
Guess I’m the one and only Elemental Surge-Elementalist on my server right now … Thought my targets are immobilized for at least 4 seconds. It helps to counter Endure Pain and such abilities.
Though Warriors who use Berserker’s Stance won’t have a problem with it at all.

I wasn’t using Arcane Shield actually. I hope that it will work as a better counter against glassthieves.

Edit: I also still have issues with conditions. Cleansing Fire and Healing Rain is not enough.

Conditions are a problem. My only solution to it is, quite literally, healing through them/Cleansing wave from Evasive arcana. The cleansing fire trait will help with your first 3.

This gives you the ability to deal with run-of-the-mill conditions which are really only applied to augment their direct damage.

But if someone is built to apply conditions (Necros), then you’re pooched. Swiftness + Burning speed the heck out of there.