First of all after playing around I’ve found that it’s always best to use staff unless you need more defensive utility (blocks, condition cleanse) because you want to avoid swapping off of fire as much as possible.
Ideally with two eles, one of you two would be using LH due to the fact that every third hit on LH’s autoattack chain is a blast finisher, but it really depends on the circumstance because sometimes LH is a trash weapon depending on the encounter.
For staff the optimal build for DPS in fast groups is typically 66200 because of the fact that lots of speedclear groups deep freeze bosses (ice bow #5), and you can take Tempest Defense grandmaster trait for 20% more damage against stunned fows. If a boss isn’t deep freezed, the absolute best trait setup you can take along would be 64220. Otherwise, 62222 is an incredibly powerful getup but you’ll need signet of fire with only two trait points in air. Alternatively, 64202 is a versatile staff trait setup for pugs that’ll make it easier for people to blast in your lava fonts and make your meteor showers hit more.
For the D/F \ S/F ele that’s using LH, they’ll want to be using 66200 or possibly 66002 if they’re afraid of goofing up and will need more endurance from renewing stamina. The reason they don’t have as many trait point variations is because at least one ele should be using weak spot to contribute to vulnerability stacking on bosses (though with the recent glyph of storms buff and warrior mace offhand buff it isn’t as necessary now in groups). Along with that, it makes it much easier on an ele that isn’t using staff to have the fresh air trait so that they can always make sure they keep their +10% damage modifier in air after they are done with their might stacking rotations.
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Staff traits:
6 (VI VII XI)
6 (VI VII XI)
2 (VI)
0
0
6 (VI VII XI)
4 (VI VII)
2 (VI)
2 (VI)
0
6 (VI VII XI)
2 (VI)
2 (VI)
2 (VI)
2 (V)
6 (VI VII XI)
4 (VI VII)
2 (VI)
0
2 (V)
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D/F & S/F traits:
6 (V II XI)
6 (VI X XII)
2 (VI)
0
0
6 (V II XI)
6 (VI X XII)
0
0
2 (II)
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Note: if you for whatever reason are not using LH for anything, swap out II in fire magic for VII or VI (I keep it on VII because internal fire isn’t very useful when I’m using air training).
Also with 100% scholar bonus uptime and permanent 25 might and fury, scholar is ~7% personal damage increase over strength runes, but strength runes ends up being better DPS provided you’re able to maintain 8 stacks of might or more with it. Scholar typically is the better set for staff eles because of the fact that they are very infrequently blasting themselves might and normally have to rely on the aid of others blasting in their lava fonts.
In fractals (especially levels 40 and 50 with the mistlock instability of agony ticking periodically while in combat) it’s very impractical to maintain 100% scholar uptime so it’s normally best, or at least much easier, for the ele to just use strength runes for there. In dungeons it’s pretty much always best to use scholar runes if the group is good.
Pick and choose what you want. :P
