giftkastare
New member
This is just one guys thoughts on the elementalist class and why staff is the best all around weapon choice.
First thing you need to do is go into options and turn on the option to autocast to the mouse pointer. This will make your life easier after the few bumps of getting used to the idea. Staff casting is a vast amount of area effect spells and the faster you can cast and keep moving, the longer you will survive. Now that we have autocast, lets discuss a staff build.
Build:
The only thing that I would really say is necessary is to spend 20 points into arcane and take Blasting Staff to increase staff area effects. Everything else is adjusted for personal taste.
My personal trait build for sPvP was set up for major utility/heals and crowd control:
Fire 10:
Internal Fire trait- 10% more damage when fire attuned
Air 10:
Quick Glyphs- 20% faster glyph recharge (I like the pets, the water pets heal allies!)
Water 20:
Adept trait:Group:Cleansing Water- remove condition to ally when you give regen. Solo: Piercing shards- 20% more damage to vulnerable mobs
Master trait: Aquamancers Alacrity- 20% faster water weapon recharge
Arcana 30:
Adept trait: Elemental Attunement- buffs to allies every time you change attunement (it will be often)
Master trait: Blasting Staff- bigger aoes!!! do more damage, do more healing, its okay if your aim is bad...
GM trait: Evasive arcana- cast an elemental spell every time you dodge. dodge and cast an aoe heal in water attunement? Wonderful idea
Playstyle:
You can, will, and should be jumping between different casting styles. I jump between water and fire the most with a smattering of air for the speed and stun. Coming into a group fight, I prefer to be in fire unless someone is about to die. Reach the edge of you casting range, drop your aoe fire spells. Meteor Shower first, then pick a weak target to drop a Lava Font on top of and Flame Burst them. Continue to Fireball them while you assess the situation. If your team is doing good then there will probably be a rout shortly, switch to Air to cast Static Field to drop stuns on anyone inside of it. Get near some teammates to cast Windborne Speed if the chase starts. If your team is locked even or doing badly, switch to Water to cast Healing Rain first, catching the most teammates you can within it. Hopefully they are smart enough to move into it and stay there. Throw Geyser on the most injured or tightest group of teammates for the bigger burst heal. Remember that your auto attack Water Blast heals any allies near the target you are hitting. Ice Spike is also decent damage aoe that causes vulnerability. Earth isn't bad, I just don't use it nearly as much unless I am under ranged fire where the magnetic shield can be put into use.
Obviously, 1v1 fights are a different beast entirely and are very different according to who I was facing but I really do prefer to fight in a team environment as an elementalist so my fields and heals can be put to proper use.
Utility Skills:
For my build I love glyphs, they really are useful as a whole. The best non glyph utility that I switch in sometimes is Mist Form instead of Elemental Power. But with only two weekends of playing and not full weekends for me at that, I haven't been able to work up more than this build and one or two others that I did not like as much.
Glyph of lesser elementals- summon a pet according to your attunement. fire-dps, air-dps/swiftness, water-dps/heals, earth-dps/tanky
Glyph of elemental power- spell procs conditions by attunement (with quick glyphs its 30 secs up 6 secs down. just set it off every time its up for an extra condition proc)
Glyph of renewal- revive downed ally and a special according to attunement (water is full life revive, fire is a revive self buff, air is revive and teleport them to you, earth revives up to three nearby downed allies!)
Elite- Glyph of elementals- a bigger elemental pet. fire- dps, air-dps/stuns, water-dps/heals, earth-dps/tanky
Fields:
From what I have seen, the field and combos are under utilized in random combat but can be a major turning point. Lets look at the staff elementalist fields
Fire: 2 fields
Burning retreat and Lava Font
Many fire fields in the game
Blast- nearby allies get Might
Leap- nearby allies get Fire damage shield
Projectile- add burning
Water: 3 fields
Geyser and Healing Rain.
2 of the 3 water fields in the game are on the staff water line.
all Combo finishers are aoe heals.
Frozen Ground.
1 of 3 ice fields in the game. one other one is off of an elite skill and the other is a trap.
only reliably cast ice field.
blast and leap- give nearby allies an armor buff
projectile- add chilled
whirl-chilling bolts aoe
Air: 1 field
Static field.
The ONLY electric field currently in game according to wiki.
blast-aoe 10s swiftness
leap- aoe lightning buff to allies
projectile- add vulnerable to attack
whirl-electric bolts aoe
Earth: 3 finishers
Finishers!
Shockwave and Stoning- projectile finishers
Eruption- blast finisher
That is 6 fields and 3 finishers
You could do your own combos if needed but its better to organize the use of fields with your teammates
Only one field combo can be used at the same time. No point in stacking fields for combos.
This makes the staff Ele the best field caster in the game as far as I know and we can cast them quickly as weapon skills. Many other fields are from utility skills.
Alright, that was a major word vomit. I suppose this is my introduction to this website, I liked the guild setup and figured I would throw in my two cents on my favorite class. If you have any questions, feel free.
Edit: Just noticed I didn't link this...
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simu....0.18.0.0.0.0.0.46.0.0.65.68.71.10.10.0.20.30
First thing you need to do is go into options and turn on the option to autocast to the mouse pointer. This will make your life easier after the few bumps of getting used to the idea. Staff casting is a vast amount of area effect spells and the faster you can cast and keep moving, the longer you will survive. Now that we have autocast, lets discuss a staff build.
Build:
The only thing that I would really say is necessary is to spend 20 points into arcane and take Blasting Staff to increase staff area effects. Everything else is adjusted for personal taste.
My personal trait build for sPvP was set up for major utility/heals and crowd control:
Fire 10:
Internal Fire trait- 10% more damage when fire attuned
Air 10:
Quick Glyphs- 20% faster glyph recharge (I like the pets, the water pets heal allies!)
Water 20:
Adept trait:Group:Cleansing Water- remove condition to ally when you give regen. Solo: Piercing shards- 20% more damage to vulnerable mobs
Master trait: Aquamancers Alacrity- 20% faster water weapon recharge
Arcana 30:
Adept trait: Elemental Attunement- buffs to allies every time you change attunement (it will be often)
Master trait: Blasting Staff- bigger aoes!!! do more damage, do more healing, its okay if your aim is bad...
GM trait: Evasive arcana- cast an elemental spell every time you dodge. dodge and cast an aoe heal in water attunement? Wonderful idea
Playstyle:
You can, will, and should be jumping between different casting styles. I jump between water and fire the most with a smattering of air for the speed and stun. Coming into a group fight, I prefer to be in fire unless someone is about to die. Reach the edge of you casting range, drop your aoe fire spells. Meteor Shower first, then pick a weak target to drop a Lava Font on top of and Flame Burst them. Continue to Fireball them while you assess the situation. If your team is doing good then there will probably be a rout shortly, switch to Air to cast Static Field to drop stuns on anyone inside of it. Get near some teammates to cast Windborne Speed if the chase starts. If your team is locked even or doing badly, switch to Water to cast Healing Rain first, catching the most teammates you can within it. Hopefully they are smart enough to move into it and stay there. Throw Geyser on the most injured or tightest group of teammates for the bigger burst heal. Remember that your auto attack Water Blast heals any allies near the target you are hitting. Ice Spike is also decent damage aoe that causes vulnerability. Earth isn't bad, I just don't use it nearly as much unless I am under ranged fire where the magnetic shield can be put into use.
Obviously, 1v1 fights are a different beast entirely and are very different according to who I was facing but I really do prefer to fight in a team environment as an elementalist so my fields and heals can be put to proper use.
Utility Skills:
For my build I love glyphs, they really are useful as a whole. The best non glyph utility that I switch in sometimes is Mist Form instead of Elemental Power. But with only two weekends of playing and not full weekends for me at that, I haven't been able to work up more than this build and one or two others that I did not like as much.
Glyph of lesser elementals- summon a pet according to your attunement. fire-dps, air-dps/swiftness, water-dps/heals, earth-dps/tanky
Glyph of elemental power- spell procs conditions by attunement (with quick glyphs its 30 secs up 6 secs down. just set it off every time its up for an extra condition proc)
Glyph of renewal- revive downed ally and a special according to attunement (water is full life revive, fire is a revive self buff, air is revive and teleport them to you, earth revives up to three nearby downed allies!)
Elite- Glyph of elementals- a bigger elemental pet. fire- dps, air-dps/stuns, water-dps/heals, earth-dps/tanky
Fields:
From what I have seen, the field and combos are under utilized in random combat but can be a major turning point. Lets look at the staff elementalist fields
Fire: 2 fields
Burning retreat and Lava Font
Many fire fields in the game
Blast- nearby allies get Might
Leap- nearby allies get Fire damage shield
Projectile- add burning
Water: 3 fields
Geyser and Healing Rain.
2 of the 3 water fields in the game are on the staff water line.
all Combo finishers are aoe heals.
Frozen Ground.
1 of 3 ice fields in the game. one other one is off of an elite skill and the other is a trap.
only reliably cast ice field.
blast and leap- give nearby allies an armor buff
projectile- add chilled
whirl-chilling bolts aoe
Air: 1 field
Static field.
The ONLY electric field currently in game according to wiki.
blast-aoe 10s swiftness
leap- aoe lightning buff to allies
projectile- add vulnerable to attack
whirl-electric bolts aoe
Earth: 3 finishers
Finishers!
Shockwave and Stoning- projectile finishers
Eruption- blast finisher
That is 6 fields and 3 finishers
You could do your own combos if needed but its better to organize the use of fields with your teammates
Only one field combo can be used at the same time. No point in stacking fields for combos.
This makes the staff Ele the best field caster in the game as far as I know and we can cast them quickly as weapon skills. Many other fields are from utility skills.
Alright, that was a major word vomit. I suppose this is my introduction to this website, I liked the guild setup and figured I would throw in my two cents on my favorite class. If you have any questions, feel free.
Edit: Just noticed I didn't link this...
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simu....0.18.0.0.0.0.0.46.0.0.65.68.71.10.10.0.20.30