Any way to get out of gold if all I like to play is staff elementalist??

[Swagg.9236]

@Fortus.6175 said:

@sephiroth.4217 said:

@Fortus.6175 said:I have been playing almost exclusively staff tempest since beta, with sprinkles of D/D and guard, it is my favorite build ever, specially tempest, which is an upgrade to my playstyle. Every meta I try to make staff ele work, some metas have been rougher than others, but almost always I have made it high in the rankings with it one way or another. I often get the unsavory comments on running staff, and specially since the powercreep that PoF brought to the game, where eles got the butt end of the deal.

IMO staff ele is the staple of balance, it should be the basis that Anet should use for balancing other classes; clear strengths and weakness, windows of power and vulnerability, builds that commit you to certain roles while still doing some minor roles (unlike the one man army do it all; tank/damage/cc/wtfbbq it all holos or soulbeasts).

Personally what I love about the specc is that it feels like you have a tool for almost any situation, it is versatile and often you have to plan in advanced how you think the fight will go so that you can properly set up your combos and attunement choices. It really does feel like a one man army even if it doesnt play that way in reality; access to healing, CC, damage and general utility which has an ebb and flow to it. It is the only weapon combo that I dont mind losing games with since even then I'm still having fun.

Still, sw/d thieves, or thieves in general are, have always been and will always be our worst enemy....

Air trait line or static auras will help with thieves who run melee set ups.

I love all elementalist players who stuck with the class through thick and thin and prove that its not as bad as most claim to be, staff and DD tempest is by far my favourite and fire/air celestial build being my new fav set up as it utilizes a lot of the tool kit well.

I mean, it IS as bad as it seems, but still doesnt mean that the class isnt intrinsically fun, just that it would be NICE if the class was brought up to par to the rest of the game. I used to run that aura until it was removed recently. I was doing fire/air/tempest, sometimes air/water or air/arcane, now i had to drop air and running fire/water or water/arcane, thieves give me trouble nonetheless but thats because they are built for it; sword 2 into 3, which is unblockable and steals 2 boons, steal which is also unblockable AND steals 2 boons, and since stealing/corrupting prioritizes stability first( which we got very little access to, mostly earth armor, which is stolen), and unblockable skills goes through shields like arcane shield, there is jack-kitten you can do other than brute-force heal through it all and hope you dont get bursted to death.

Yeah, thieves have always been the absolute hard-counter to staff ele since launch. Considering that every consistent form of damage or CC available to staff ele comes with 1-second strike intervals and/or cast-times above 0.5s, the only real defense for the build is positioning; and since positioning is instantly compromised in GW2 by individual button presses, it makes staff ele worthless in a lot of situations unless a team can pick up some slack. If anything, playing staff ele off and on for this long has sort of enlightened me to how fundamentally flawed a lot of GW2 combat is at its core. Regardless, running maurader amulet and speed runes makes staff ele surprisingly resilient in the current meta, even against big meme spikers (so long as you bait out the meta's brainless openers and stick to cover).

All that said, I feel like it's possible to buff staff ele (and even maybe D/D) in an interesting manner without relying too much on Chemical Anet to carry it in the same way that the meta carries itself. Basically, it just revolves around keeping offensive potential to 1-second cycles, providing some self-defense measures, some anti-meta measures and then keeping these things respectively segregated. The current "good builds" in GW2 PvP always throw damage, CC, free movement and self-preservation all into the same mixing bowl without really thinking about the consequences, turning PvP more into PvE rotation wars than any sort of thoughtful combat paradigm. It's stuff like how Burning Retreat will never be a viable offensive option or how Frozen Ground is nothing more than a potentially powerful, area-control hazard which makes either of them remotely balanced in their own respective ways. Basically, it's just a matter of increasing these flexible threats and survival elements without adding unfair elements like protracted invulnerability coupled with outgoing damage.