18 replies to this topic

[unspunreality]

Ok, I mainly ask this because I'm lv60 now. Ive been reading around and have seen many supporty builds. I enjoy the idea of supporting and Ive never used a weapon outside of staff during my entire leveling experience. But I also don't want to play support and find out Ima hate myself in end game areas because I can't solo the rabbit that hopped infront of the tree.

So I just wanted some clarification of how it would be while leveling as supporty, and also a recommended sort of order to build my traits?  From what Ive seen 0/10/0/30/30 seems to be the general consensus. Or could I just stick to power gear while leveling and keep a seperate set for soloing? Uugu. v.v; My head hurts now.

[jthamind]

no matter what you do, stay away from cleric's gear. i ran a staff support build for a few months in full clerics with heavy boon duration and heals. yes, you have great survivability and yes, you can heal others better than probably every class in the game, but your damage will be pitiful.

if you want to run a build like you're suggesting, make sure you make up for it with the gear and accessories so that you can still do damage along with your combo fields, heals, and attunement buffs.

and if you want more dynamic gameplay that keeps you on your toes, give dagger/dagger a try.

[unspunreality]

Understandable. But now reading over the builds Ive seen. The 10 into air confuses me since I see it for staff. But staff only gets 1 aura? So.. isnt that a waste?

[jthamind]

unless you spec for max boon duration, then yeah, i'd say Zephyr's boon is a waste for staff. when i ran staff, i put my leftover points in earth, but mostly because i didn't know what else to do with them. if you want, though, you could keep them in air and get Bolt to the Heart.

[jthamind]

now that i think about it, though, i don't know why you'd want to go a full 30 in Water unless you want max healing with cleric's gear and stuff. i mean, none of the grandmaster water traits are a must have for staff imo, the only reason i went 30 in water with my staff was just to pump out as much healing as possible. i guess you could go with Cleansing Water if you want, but cleanses aren't really a big deal in MOST PvE situations. i'm also not sure i'd go 30 in Arcane either if you want to have good damage, but i've never ran any staff build other than full heal/support, so what do i know. lol.

Edited by jthamind, 01 February 2013 - 01:04 AM.

[unspunreality]

Well Im still looking around at currently acvcepted builds. I wanna be supporty/healy with a staff. But Im unsure where to go with my talents to also not hate myself for going into higher level areas.

[jthamind]

http://gw2skills.net...4SogCCFWARRxM7A

i just tried to make a staff build that had both support and damage in it. i have no idea what i'm doing with this type of build, so if anybody wants to point out what i did wrong, feel free to lol.

the most obvious thing was 20 in Arcane for Blasting Staff and Elemental Attunement. the former is a must for staff, and the latter is good for support. 20 in water gives you a CD on your water skills, which means more heals, and you get increased CD on your cantrips. the 20 in Air is all for damage, both in the traits and the points themselves. lastly, i put 10 in might so you can get even more benefit off your cantrips, plus some extra power.

Arcane Wave is great as a blast finisher with Lava Font for might or either of your AoE heals for a nice blast heal. the cantrips are both "oh shit" buttons and ways to stack more might.

inb4 terrible build, you're retarded, jump off a cliff and shoot yourself on the way down.

Edited by jthamind, 01 February 2013 - 01:02 AM.

[Bloggi]

To add, staff appears to give straight access to only one aura (Magnetic Aura), but if you put blast finishers (eg. Arcane Wave, Eruption or have Evasive Arcana traited and dodge into your field in Earth attunement) into Frozen Ground that creates area Frost Armor. That is essentially the same as the Frost Aura skill from a dagger, which triggers Zephyr's Boon. So Zephyr's Boon in a staff build is not entirely a waste.

As for the Grandmaster traits in Water, I still use Powerful Aura, taking Cleansing Water only if necessary for some condition-heavy areas. Consider that we're looking at making a support-type build. Putting Magnetic Aura on nearby allies and reflecting projectiles is supportive in its own right. With at least 25 points in Water we also get an extra 2% damage per boon on ourselves, and you can get a buttload of boons on yourself in combat, especially if built to extend boon duration.

Have a look at this thread for some related information (also suggests the build that I use):

http://www.guildwars...dungeon-builds/

[draxynnic]

jthamind, on 01 February 2013 - 12:40 AM, said:

if you want, though, you could keep them in air and get Bolt to the Heart.

If you're using Glyph of Elemental Harmony, Quick Glyphs might also be worth considering. Soothing Winds would also allow you to get just a little bit of extra healing, especially if you have some precision in your gear as well as your points in Air.

It wouldn't surprise me if the general reasoning, though, is 'this makes it compatible with switching to D/D aura build'.

[Flaming_Foxx]

0/10/0/30/30 seems like a really weird trait set up to me >.>
I run with 0/0/30/20/20
The high earth gives you much better surivivability which is crucial for support, which the 20 in water gives you decent healing and the 20 arcane gives you access to blasting staff which increases the radius of your AoE staff skills, which can turn skill 2 in Fire, Earth and Water attunement into REALLY useful skills.

[Calebrus]

The great thing about a decent staff build is that with a few major trait changes you can also have a decent d/d aura build.  The 0/10/0/30/30 you suggested and the 10/20/0/20/20 build jthamind offered both accomplish this kind of diversity.
The unfortunate thing is that these are only decent staff builds, and not *good* staff builds, because staff is a power weapon.  Thankfully this can be alleviated by gear choices.

My Ele uses a build similar to this so that I can have fun solo (d/d) while still being effective in WvW (staff for group, d/d for roaming), and what I use in dungeons depends on the group I'm in.
Neither my d/d build nor my staff build is great, but they're both acceptable.  For me the ability to change my build from d/d to staff as needed more than makes up for the fact that it isn't spectacular at either of them.

Edited by Calebrus, 03 February 2013 - 06:04 PM.

[draxynnic]

That's something that I was thinking. If you're heavily invested in water, or earth and water, then you can afford to get more glass cannonesque gear due to it being offset by your attributes. You'll still do less damage than a true glass cannon, of course, but you'll also be less fragile and more supportive - and, after all, a defeated character contributes nothing to DPS.

[xtbx]

never underestimate aura share (water 30) even in staff ... u have 1+1 auras actually - Magnetic Aura (obviously) + Frost Aura (blast in Frozen Ground) ... not to mention shared Magnetic Aura is OP as hell

also Bountifull Power (water 25) = 8% dmg increase at least

and if u don't like it u can still run with Water XI for supperior condi removal

Edited by xtbx, 04 February 2013 - 11:31 AM.

[draxynnic]

Blast in Frozen Ground will share auras regardless of whether you have the trait. The trait might allow you to share an aura generated through a leap finisher, but staff eles are fairly lacking in leap finishers.

Magnetic Aura being strong when shared is a valid point, though, especially since neither friends nor enemies can waste the effect by moving as can happen to Feedback and reflection walls. It is situational, though - if you're not expecting projectiles, you'll want the alternative trait. Doubly so if you're running solo, since Powerful Auras does nothing for a solo character.

[jthamind]

aura share doesn't work with leap finishers. i do magnetic grasp through the fire ring all the time, and i'm the only one who gets the fire aura from it.

[xtbx]

draxynnic, on 05 February 2013 - 02:00 AM, said:

Blast in Frozen Ground will share auras regardless of whether you have the trait. The trait might allow you to share an aura generated through a leap finisher, but staff eles are fairly lacking in leap finishers.

Magnetic Aura being strong when shared is a valid point, though, especially since neither friends nor enemies can waste the effect by moving as can happen to Feedback and reflection walls. It is situational, though - if you're not expecting projectiles, you'll want the alternative trait. Doubly so if you're running solo, since Powerful Auras does nothing for a solo character.

first, combos (fields/blast) have range, so in ideal composion u can extend the range from which the Frost Aura is given* and
second, Aura share is strong for the boons that goes with it (fury/swiftness eventually protection)

*I'm not absolutelly sure about this, it may not work same as sharing Fire Shield from Leap finisher is not working

when u are soloing it's easy to switch 3rd major trait for anything more usefull - there are plenty to choose from - I, III, V, VI, IX, XI

[KodiakX]

This is the build I use.

I use full Zerker armor, weapon and accessories.  I use rubies in my rune slots.

Offensively speaking this lets me sit in Fire or Air and deal pretty decent damage.  Most of the time I sit in Fire and just spam 1-3 as needed and use Air if I am caught on Fire with a cool down.

Defensively (including Support) speaking I rely on three major aspects:

1. Cantrips are improved to provide a large amount of support.  Cleansing Fire will remove 4 different types of conditions (cause of cleansing water), break stun, and give you regen+vigor.  Mist Form is naturally always powerful.

2. 30 in Water provides a number of defensive utilities.  Swapping to Water provides an area heal, regen (and removes a condition because again of cleansing water).  Healing Rain is a massive AOE removal of conditions repeatedly for you and the group.  Swapping to Water prior to using GoEH (heal) provides you with 2 conditions being removed, a huge regen duration, and an area heal/regen(condition removal).

3. Arcane Wave adds a second blast finisher for water fields that can be used without swaping to earth first.  You of course can still swap to earth to do the standard Eruption -> Water -> Geyser but this you won't have to which is great if you're already in air.  It also works well in groups cause you can throw in a double area might using the same combo with Lava Font.

Now if you're willing to give up a bit of offense you could go Knight Armor instead for some Toughness (the one thing this build is woefully lacking) but you're going to be giving up a lot of crit dmg %.  Another way to mitigate this is to go 30/0/0/30/10 instead where you'll pick up more damage (you should always have 5-10 stacks of Might passively at that point) but some people are REALLY addicted to Blasting Staff.  I typically use Mango Pies (super easy to make) so I have little over 14000 HP and bit more regen.

[draxynnic]

Actually, looking at the wiki, Powerful Aura doesn't seem to apply to auras granted by comboes at all - possibly because you're not directly the source of the aura.

[Segraine]

I run 0/0/10/30/30 for my staff build with full clerics. I have excellent survivability and healing output. Boons also last a long time. I really don't care about killing things quickly, but I don't really notice a problem with damage. When I join a few people in a dynamic event it seems the life bar starts dropping much faster. Perhaps it is the constant stacks of fury on everyone and fewer downed players?

In any case, I am rather pleased with the build since it is closer to what I enjoy playing than DPS.

I played with Magnetic Aura and Powerful Auras; it can be useful in limited situations.It is funny to watch a Champion kill itself attacking you with Magnetic Aura up.