WvW solo roaming with staff questions

[Joey.3928]

Hey all,

90% of the time I play my ranger in WvW. I play pure melee and do very well. I enjoy the difficulty it brings and the acknowledgement from enemy players for doing so well on a non meta build. I want to do the same with ele. I'm really new to the profession. I have always loved staff though. I know staff solo roaming is NOT meta and people say it won't work and there are more viable options, but I don't care about that. I want to get really good with it. I was initially going to stay as core ele and when I got comfortable, move to weaver. But I actually unlocked weaver last night and figured I should just jump right into it.

Does anyone have general staff tips? Trait/gear suggestions? Right now I am trying air/earth/weaver. I might switch to air/water/weaver though for more heals/condi removal on water.

[Gokil.2543]

I think for the most part you'd be better off on tempest if you're planning to roam with staff. Outside of oneshot builds at least. Air overload and earth overload complement the staff kit very well, and waiting for overloads isn't as painful as on other weapons, since your animations are longer. Running ether renewal helps a lot for getting to overloads easier as well.

[Joey.3928]

Never even considered tempest. I'll look into it, thanks :)

[steki.1478]

Dont ever play tempest with dps setup in non-pve modes. Overloads do no damage, they are easy to interrupt and easy to avoid. Traits are mostly useless for any dps or reliable defense/sustain compared to other specs. Same goes for earth, it only has niche uses in support builds (especially tempest auramancer), but thats all.

The only thing that makes staff ele (weaver) somewhat decent for roaming is pile driver because it moves fast (unlike 99% of staff skills). S/f FA weaver build works quite well with staff too, with small trait changes. It uses arcane x-3-2 (for immob on your arcane wave/blast), air 2/3 - 2/3 - 2/3 (personal preference, all of those have great potential) and weaver 1/3 - 2/3 - 1 (again, personal preference for more dmg/defense). Marauder/zerk mix of gear with pack/scholar runes works quite well, lots of good sigil choices including force, air, leeching, energy. From skills I use ether renewal (glyph is also strong), flash, twist of fate, arcane wave and fgs. Glyph of elemental power can be good pick since it gives 25% more dmg on next 5 hits, which is quite good on staff, but other 3 utilities are quite good for setting up combo or escaping.

Most of your damage comes from comboing arcane wave/blast+pile driver+lightning surge and electric discharges (+lightning rod trait if you use it), followed by fire ball. Other skills require static target and are quite easy to avoid, so if your target doesnt die from combo, you probably will (and water spec wont help you with that).

[Jski.6180]

Keep with ranger you will be far more useful and have more "wins" when roaming.

[ZNICK.8537]

This will help... builds on Ytube.

[Joey.3928]

@"ZNICK.8537" said:This will help... builds on Ytube.

I'll check it out thanks! Cool to see a roaming staff ele. What is your experience with it in outnumbered fights? I'm on a small server so most of the time I am 1vx on my ranger and hope to be able to survive those as well on staff ele if possible.

[steki.1478]

@Joey.3928 said:

@"ZNICK.8537" said:This will help... builds on Ytube.

I'll check it out thanks! Cool to see a roaming staff ele. What is your experience with it in outnumbered fights? I'm on a small server so most of the time I am 1vx on my ranger and hope to be able to survive those as well on staff ele if possible.

It can barely handle 1v1, outnumbered fights only depend on how long you'll remain unnoticed.

[ArmageddonAsh.6430]

@steki.1478 said:It can barely handle 1v1, outnumbered fights only depend on how long you'll remain unnoticed.

This, You can deal big damage if you have everything go right (or macro...) but any decent player wont have trouble killing you, even crap players depending on their class or build. Its just not designed for solo. It will get kills, not many and will have to be against either people have only just stepped foot into WvW and new to the game or against people AFK. You could go the Fresh Air Pile Driver build, will kill people but if they dont die from the burst you will die.

[Joey.3928]

Sad to hear. I guess I will have to shelve this idea. I'll look into other weapons then.

[ArmageddonAsh.6430]

@Joey.3928 said:Sad to hear. I guess I will have to shelve this idea. I'll look into other weapons then.

If you want pure melee. Dagger/Dagger or Sword/Dagger. You have Base, Tempest, Weaver all as options. Different benefits to each so would be your choice. You would have the freedom to choose power, hyrid, condi, bunker. Anything really.

[Joey.3928]

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@Joey.3928 said:Sad to hear. I guess I will have to shelve this idea. I'll look into other weapons then.

If you want pure melee. Dagger/Dagger or Sword/Dagger. You have Base, Tempest, Weaver all as options. Different benefits to each so would be your choice. You would have the freedom to choose power, hyrid, condi, bunker. Anything really.

So my ranger is all about evades. I am good at outnumbered fights because of my evades, good mobility, and good cc. If I can find a weapon set with those on ele, I will probably like that

[ArmageddonAsh.6430]

@Joey.3928 said:So my ranger is all about evades. I am good at outnumbered fights because of my evades, good mobility, and good cc. If I can find a weapon set with those on ele, I will probably like that

Sword/Dagger. Great mobility. Leaps, Teleports, great swiftness, Great condi removal. Solid CC (for an ele lol) several Evades. Good options in utilities as well.

[ZNICK.8537]

@Joey.3928 said:

@"ZNICK.8537" said:This will help... builds on Ytube.

I'll check it out thanks! Cool to see a roaming staff ele. What is your experience with it in outnumbered fights? I'm on a small server so most of the time I am 1vx on my ranger and hope to be able to survive those as well on staff ele if possible.

FYI, that is not me in the video, I just posted it for you... also, I too have a druid and an elementalist. I wouldn't scrap the idea of rolling the ele just because people say you can't win a 1v 3 or whatever fight. Unless you get real good and the 3 suck they're right, you won't beat them. Your druid is better for that.

I don't agree that "any decent player will beat you 1v1, maybe even crap players"... you may need to build a bit more defensive when you're alone but you have a fair chance to beat anyone once you get decent.

However, if you like the idea of the build, this type of ele can really shine if you get in a party with a couple other people. I can realistically see a good group of 3 beating a group double the size if you play well together. The cool thing about ele is you can do anything... dps, heal, CC (lots of it)... so a good coordinated small group would be fun.