Staff wvw roaming/clouding

[Fat Disgrace.4275]

Is there any reason or point to add some healing power into a staff build or not? Mostly for wvw shenanigans, clouding and the good old spawn vs smc brawls.

[steki.1478]

You can do all that without healing power. Superspeed from air spec and twist of fate is more than enough defense to stay alive and your staff heals are pretty low sustain to begin with so no point in scaling them up. If you want a hybrid build you use a more supportive build.

[Bhima.9518]

No not really worth it. Honestly, staff ele in wvw is in a pretty bad place imo. I have played a pretty good amount of dps backline weaver, and I just decided to try the core guard staff scepter build with the better symbol dmg. It does literally everything better, same dmg thats way easier to land within a less skillful envelope as trying to land meteor/glyph, less cooldown, all while having 2 invulns and abilities to support your group.

There is no comparison. Staff ele for wvw is dead imo.

[solemn.9608]

@"Bhima.9518" said:No not really worth it. Honestly, staff ele in wvw is in a pretty bad place imo. I have played a pretty good amount of dps backline weaver, and I just decided to try the core guard staff scepter build with the better symbol dmg. It does literally everything better, same dmg thats way easier to land within a less skillful envelope as trying to land meteor/glyph, less cooldown, all while having 2 invulns and abilities to support your group.

There is no comparison. Staff ele for wvw is dead imo.

Ya bumped this old thread up so I'll give my 2 cents lol

. Does go without saying that Guardian is much better for support, though. I like Bhima's suggestion to use a ranged guardian hybrid build instead, since OP is looking for a hybrid build.

I did try a tempest build recently which did considerable damage and heals, while spamming auras & many boons, but I can't remember exactly how I set it up and I decided to not use it anymore. It was something like half-diviner half-minstrel, water/air/tempest, aura spam traits.

[Bhima.9518]

Thing is, what I notice in this video is that the zergs you are facing do not at all slalom around the red circles. They literally just walk straight as a ball and eat it, or they stand in a spot and just eat all of it. Thing is, against a better comp, they see the massive red circle, and the group as a unit just tip toes around it before it even ticks. With Guardian symbols/sword conjure, the damage ticks IMMEDIATELY as it is placed down. Also, most of the dmg cooldowns for guard are considerably lower than ele--so it makes coordinating multiple bombs in a more prolonged fight easier to execute as well. Though with the recent heavy nerf to power guard, these factors likely push staff weaver ahead. I have been toying with Risen's burn build which can best the power guard, but in the Healbrand meta, its unreliable.

[Zeesh.7286]

A good blob will dodge ALL damage spikes. That's not a solid argument against meteor shower. You don't just throw a meteor shower whenever you see a blob coming. You have to throw it when you know they're about to go all in. The issue is never about blobs sitting and eating a meteor shower. The issue is that it is notoriously hard to time and pop meteor properly to maximize damage. A good staff weaver will consistently get top DPS or at the very least be in the top 3.

In my experience the only way you're not getting top DPS as staff weaver is if your positioning is flawed and you are mistiming meteor. If I'm playing staff weaver, I will always time my meteor a second or two early based on the predicted movement of the blobs. Blob fights also often try to bomb and strike at choke points which are again ideal for meteors. Meteor isn't instant. The first few hits start happening a sec or two into the channel. By that time most blobs with quickness would be out of the aoe range. Experienced staff weavers will adjust for the delay so the meteors start striking as soon as the blob moves in. A good staff weaver will out dps a good anything else in zergs. Even before the nerfs in december, weaver was top dps. It was just exceptionally rare to see good weavers. That is because staff weaver is frustratingly hard to play and learn. The positioning is different and timing is different. You're often slightly away from the main blob which has healers/support/blocks/cleansing so your sustain is also often risky. You have the lowest HP/Armor out of all other DPS classes so you can actually get killed before anything else goes down in a damage spike and before the healers can react and heal you up. The trashiest bit is the root while casting meteor which totally fucks you up. (Remove the fucking root on meteor anet. PLEASE)

So good staff weavers are few. It's easier to play other classes that just need to drop damage when the commander or tag tells them to. Meanwhile, weavers have to start casting and positioning differently from the Tag's order because delayed cast/roots etc. make it difficult. In addition, weavers don't give anything to the team. No boons, shades, nothing. It won't be meta, because you barely need more that 2-3 staff weavers. But I feel in two equally meta comp teams with equal skill, the team that brings in a couple of weavers in place of 2 other meta damage classes will have an advantage.

[Nimrod.9240]

@Zeesh.7286 said:The trashiest bit is the root while casting meteor which totally kitten you up. (Remove the kitten root on meteor anet. PLEASE)That's why I use sigil of celerity on my core ele, so I can quickcast the MS, makes it sooo much more convenient.

[steki.1478]

@Nimrod.9240 said:

@Zeesh.7286 said:The trashiest bit is the root while casting meteor which totally kitten you up. (Remove the kitten root on meteor anet. PLEASE)That's why I use sigil of celerity on my core ele, so I can quickcast the MS, makes it sooo much more convenient.

Rage one seems more reliable since you wont always disable someone (unless the sigil procs on targets with stability), but quickness duration is shorter.

[Nimrod.9240]

@steki.1478 said:

@Nimrod.9240 said:

@Zeesh.7286 said:The trashiest bit is the root while casting meteor which totally kitten you up. (Remove the kitten root on meteor anet. PLEASE)That's why I use sigil of celerity on my core ele, so I can quickcast the MS, makes it sooo much more convenient.

Rage one seems more reliable since you wont always disable someone (unless the sigil procs on targets with stability), but quickness duration is shorter.

With rage sigil you cant control the crit = the proc. Celerity is way more reliable even if it does not proc on stab. I mean we are talking about zerg fights, there is always someone around without stab to trigger it.

[steki.1478]

@Nimrod.9240 said:

@steki.1478 said:

@Nimrod.9240 said:

@Zeesh.7286 said:The trashiest bit is the root while casting meteor which totally kitten you up. (Remove the kitten root on meteor anet. PLEASE)That's why I use sigil of celerity on my core ele, so I can quickcast the MS, makes it sooo much more convenient.

Rage one seems more reliable since you wont always disable someone (unless the sigil procs on targets with stability), but quickness duration is shorter.

With rage sigil you cant control the crit = the proc. Celerity is way more reliable even if it does not proc on stab. I mean we are talking about zerg fights, there is always someone around without stab to trigger it.

You have pulsing aoe fields and at least 60% crit chance so it's a lot more reliable.

[Nimrod.9240]

@steki.1478 said:

@Nimrod.9240 said:

@steki.1478 said:

@Nimrod.9240 said:

@Zeesh.7286 said:The trashiest bit is the root while casting meteor which totally kitten you up. (Remove the kitten root on meteor anet. PLEASE)That's why I use sigil of celerity on my core ele, so I can quickcast the MS, makes it sooo much more convenient.

Rage one seems more reliable since you wont always disable someone (unless the sigil procs on targets with stability), but quickness duration is shorter.

With rage sigil you cant control the crit = the proc. Celerity is way more reliable even if it does not proc on stab. I mean we are talking about zerg fights, there is always someone around without stab to trigger it.

You have pulsing aoe fields and at least 60% crit chance so it's a lot more reliable.

I disagree.For me it is important that i can decide when to proc it, not have it proc the moment it's of CD with on crit RNG.With rage sigil, what if you want to proc it because the enemy zerg is about to push, but too bad, you crited some random dude 10 secs ago so it's on CD? Won't happen with celerity.Also, 3 vs 5 sec duration.