Should staff have 1500 range?

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

With all the issues ele has and staff dps eles having little defense and are way harder to use for the same output as something like rev, what about staff having 1500 range? Obviously it's not a fix-all but it would give some better distancing and being able to aoe your foes from further away would be a decent enough reason to bring one to group fights.Thoughts?

[Zeesh.7286]

considering how slow the projectiles are, the extra range won't help much tbh. Plus it will be a massive pain for healers who have heals in limited range to heal and support the 1 squishiest player sitting at 1500 range in group settings. Like in group settings you're aiming to stack with the support and boon classes anyway

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

@Zeesh.7286 said:considering how slow the projectiles are, the extra range won't help much tbh. Plus it will be a massive pain for healers who have heals in limited range to heal and support the 1 squishiest player sitting at 1500 range in group settings. Like in group settings you're aiming to stack with the support and boon classes anyway

It's more for when 2 groups are stacking just outside of range, an ele could push them further as well as hit them earlier during a charge. Also must skills aren't projectiles, and since staff is mostly for group fights, if it misses your target you will still hit someone.

[Downstate.4697]

Dunno, if they addressed the actual problems with staff we wouldnt need 1500 range

[MarzAttakz.9608]

I'd take any bone they're offering at this point. 1500 to nuke those pewpewpew bowtards, to cast static field at max range and hit the targets while moving without having to LF 900 units ahead to make up for movement speed vs cast time) etc etc etc? Yes please. But first I'd like projectile speeds increased to super-speed levels at least (if you have it you can keep range, not entirely render the projectile useless), cast times on most skills shaved by 1/2 - 1 second and certain fields to tick damage immediately on placement. Bonus points for making every single fire skill actually apply burning ffs.

Then we can talk about Scepter and inconsistencies in fire fields too.

[Zeesh.7286]

@SlitheSlivier.1908 said:

@Zeesh.7286 said:considering how slow the projectiles are, the extra range won't help much tbh. Plus it will be a massive pain for healers who have heals in limited range to heal and support the 1 squishiest player sitting at 1500 range in group settings. Like in group settings you're aiming to stack with the support and boon classes anyway

It's more for when 2 groups are stacking just outside of range, an ele could push them further as well as hit them earlier during a charge. Also must skills aren't projectiles, and since staff is mostly for group fights, if it misses your target you will still hit someone.

Eh usually groups will just move out of range. You will have ele's on both sides with 1500 range so there won't be any point. Like the groups will stack out of range anyway. And when they push they usually have projectile reflects for your fast projectiles. When groups start pushing, they move too fast with super speed so lava font etc. fire fields and earth 2, water 2, earth/fire dual are all too slow they will move out of the aoes before the casts are completed. Even pre casting meteor will be pointless because the issues with Meteor is not range but the cast time and how the first few hits appear midway casting not immediately so meteor won't get any benefits from 1500 range.

one benefit might be safer ability to hit necros and other 1200 range classes but if we are talking group vs group then they will be near support classes and not sitting solo for you to cheese and they can always move out of range.

Like @MarzAttakz.9608 said, it is of course better than absolutely nothing, but i don't see any benefits to the added range. Staff's issues aren't range. It's the speed and the damage. Either speed the skills/projectiles. Or boost the Damage so there is a reward for slower casts. TBH recently I think the damage in WvW for staff is good. It's easily top dps if built and played right. I do think just a slight change to few skills will enhance the quality of play in WvW and boost survival. Like just remove the root on cast for meteor and reduce delay in blast for water 2, earth 2 and the dual attacks like earth/fire and the air/earth rooting while casting (argh root while casting is such a shit mechanic for wvw) and that will alone boost not just the survival but also make it far more easier to play staff ele in not just wvw/spvp but also pve.

[Einlanzer.1627]

Yeah I don't think 1500 range would actually address much. The problem is the whole design of the staff set and it really needs a comprehensive rework. The attunements are overly-specialized. Fire is strong but is slow and clunky while the other three are both clunky AND weak giving up far too much damage to provide various utility.

That said, maybe should make staff 1500, scepter 1200 and dagger 900 given how many attrition and gap close problems eles have.

[Infusion.7149]

I'd rather that staff 5 meteor shower not root. Considering elementalist is the lowest health and armor class , it really makes you a sitting duck if you don't have quickness.

Even if the root is removed, the huge cast time makes it extremely hard to get off in any competitive environment already.

[Virtuality.8351]

No, I do not believe they should.

While considering any further increase in skill range, one must also consider the radius of the AoE skills. Meteor Shower, for one, extends the effective range of staff for at least a couple hundred units. The same goes for Healing Rain.

What staff needs is to scale up the number of targets to match the feel of the scale of both its visual effect and function, radius primarily. For example, Healing Rain really should have affected 10 allies instead of 5, and the same goes for many other staff skills just as well. (Never mind Meteor Shower though since each fiery rock has its own number of targets and it already out-spike most classes in WvW and in PvE against foes with extensive hitbox.)

[Virtuality.8351]

@Infusion.7149 said:I'd rather that staff 5 meteor shower not root. Considering elementalist is the lowest health and armor class , it really makes you a sitting duck if you don't have quickness.

Even if the root is removed, the huge cast time makes it extremely hard to get off in any competitive environment already.

The floating animation in stationary is extraordinarily beautiful though...

In WvW, people would precast during Burning Retreat (#4) for better positioning or simply Lightening Flash to safety to fully channel the skill. The class still performs reasonably well in open field if properly handled.

[Jski.6180]

Staff 1 skills need to detonate at 1,200 ranged even if they do not hit something. That alone would fix long range problem with staff ele.

[steki.1478]

@Jski.6180 said:Staff 1 skills need to detonate at 1,200 ranged even if they do not hit something. That alone would fix long range problem with staff ele.

They already do. Fire does its aoe even if nothing is hit (that's how you destroy hard to reach arrow carts in wvw - action cam required though). Water heals even if you dont hit anything. Air bounced off of walls last time I tried it.

Earth doesnt have aoe at all.

[Jski.6180]

@steki.1478 said:

@Jski.6180 said:Staff 1 skills need to detonate at 1,200 ranged even if they do not hit something. That alone would fix long range problem with staff ele.

They already do. Fire does its aoe even if nothing is hit (that's how you destroy hard to reach arrow carts in wvw - action cam required though). Water heals even if you dont hit anything. Air bounced off of walls last time I tried it.

Earth doesnt have aoe at all.

They do not they detonate on object but not at there max ranged in the air. Being able to detonate fire balls and water blast above ppl would have added ranged on the attk and bigger aoe of targets. I would also like to see earth getting a 3 target aoe.

[Wyrdern.4092]

making fireball explode at 1200 range would actually nerf the range of fireball because currently it flies somewhat further before vanishing