Question for a new Elementalist.

[Baxuel.3296]

Hello you fire slingers and lightning spitters and beyond. I have decided to finally come back and get my groove on and actually play through this game as intended. I havent made many posts except explaining I have a limitation that prevents me from using the more intense button assault builds. What I am curious to know, and from my research thus far (Which is given me mixed opinions and never a solid yes or no) is can I use staff to level just through the story and core Tyria? I did have plans on switching to Tempest when I got to that point and working on my button skills to some degree. I just wanted to know if Staff is good enough on an Ele to go through the core portion of the game with? Daggers don't really sit well with me and thats all I actually see people use. 

 

Anyways, much appreciated for anyone who let's me know or suggest an alternative weapon to use (Just not daggers please. Plllleeease. Lol.) Jokes aside, thanks for any feedback. Have a good day!

[Lord of the Fire.6870]

As a ele main I can only say run run as far as you can D

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

4 minutes ago, Lord of the Fire.6870 said:

As a ele main I can only say run run as far as you can D

As another ele main I can only confirm: run!

 

Staff has been heavily over-nerfed. That's why you see barely anyone using it. You can still use it in the core portion of the game, but depending on your build you might find it difficult to defeat expansion mobs.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Staff is bad, but the core game is easy.  It's definitely doable, but elementalist is a poor choice if you prefer low-intensity builds.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Staff is perfectly functional for most of the game.  The only place you'll encounter issues is in fractals and raids, not because staff doesn't work but because other players prefer weapons that are more bursty with higher DPS. 

While wandering the overworld, you'll want to use something like this until you unlock the elite specializations.  The strategy for it is pretty simple: you sit in Earth Attunement while walking around, until there's enemies to fight.  Then, use Magnetic Aura and Glyph of Storms on the group of enemies.  Lay down Eruption, quickly swap to fire, then put the Lava Font down.  Once lava font is down, use the arcane utility skills to blast the enemy to bits.  This makes use of the fire field to give yourself plenty of might.  From here, you just camp fire until all enemies are dead.

[fuzzyp.6295]

I know you have mentioned you want a Staff build and some others have given good advice/builds with it. I just want to chime in and say that a lot of builds that use Dagger can also be substituted for Scepter without much of a problem. IF there is a build that interested you but said it needed dagger, maybe try it with Scepter instead before dismissing it completely. From experience, the build I use in open world is a Power Tempest that runs Scepter/Warhorn and I really enjoy it for all that brings to the table. Since you've mentioned you might swap over to Tempest, that might be something to consider once you get the elite spec if you're finding Staff isn't your thing.

[Stallic.2397]

Yes you can use staff in core tyria. It'll be difficult but not impossible. Will make you a strong player if you go from lvl 1-80 just on staff. My recommendation is to use your utility skills wisely. They'll make or break your build. I might add a conjure to supplement your play style. 

 

Play staff till you're really good /bored with it. Then switch to another weapon. I personally didn't like Dagger either on Elem when I first played it. It'll grow on you. 

[Guybrush.4762]

For Core Tyria and story you could frankly go with whatever. Staff work decently for leveling because at first the monsters don't hit too hard. Essentially, you can afford to pull a group of monsters, land a carpet bomb at your feet and stand still while they die. Note though that it is a bad habit to develop outside of leveling and the game will make it abundantly clear as you progress.

If you want to keep using staff past that point, you will need to learn to use your Unsteady ground (Earth Staff 4) and Static field (Air Staff 5) to lock the enemy in place. Kiting is also an essential skill to acquire. Preferably you kite by rotating your camera toward the pursuing monster while running in the opposite direction. You can shoot every staff skill behind you even if you are not facing your target!

Overall, staff is rarely used outside of WvW and it is not considered super optimal there either. You can find a plethora of thread here about why staff does not see more play but in summary : it generally compares poorly to other weapon outside of some niche situation. That being said, I do play a very aggressive Staff weaver in PvE from time to time but that is just me enjoying some weird fun. 🙂

Edited January 8, 2022 by Guybrush.4762