So whats everyones favourite build for doing AoE damage?

Is it ranged or Mellee based?

Necromancer's marks and wells are fun.  Its not purely about damage, but it has lots of conditions and some good control.

I've only played necro so far (don't wanna spoil anything else) and I don't feel like it's a very good AoE class overall. The marks are fine, but they're mostly conditions instead of DPS, so it's not that useful spamming them, I'd rather save my marks for specific situations. Also, their area is a little small unless you have the trait that expands them.

But yeah, the staff auto attack pierces, so it could be AoE as well if you play it right. Still, I have the impression elementalists can be way more effective in this aspect

*cough* elementalist fire staff boom meteor shower *cough*

More seriously, I had a great deal of fun with Guardian hammer skill 2. If you put it in the right place at the right time (you can move while it's charging) you get quite a good deal of damage done. But I must say I'm not sure it's really competitive, although it won me a number of duels: I might have been against people who weren't great themselves.

I'm mostly using staff on Elementalist but as for the stats part of the build, I focus on power with a little bit of extra vit and the rest condition damage. In sPvP I take some more vit and possibly some durability.

So it's ranged for me to answer your question, and the max range (1200m) at that.

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

Originally posted by Kabaal

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

Oh? Why not? I thought with a bit of work and know-how when changing elements you could get a good rotation of damage and little heals/ escapes for survivability (static field+ windborne speed anyone?) and a lot of utility and combos with your friends. What has your experience been with staff elementalist?

Originally posted by Kabaal

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

It might not be the best build available for sPvP but it's still very viable, just look at this vid from BWE1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHsRDWeR1ZE

Originally posted by lilHeala

Originally posted by Kabaal

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

It might not be the best build available for sPvP but it's still very viable, just look at this vid from BWE1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHsRDWeR1ZE

Ele damage is much different than it was back in BWE1, plus he's playing in the pick up matches against new players.

Originally posted by ohpower

Originally posted by Kabaal

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

Oh? Why not? I thought with a bit of work and know-how when changing elements you could get a good rotation of damage and little heals/ escapes for survivability (static field+ windborne speed anyone?) and a lot of utility and combos with your friends. What has your experience been with staff elementalist?

Scepter + Dagger or Dagger Dagger are the two preferred builds for competitive PvP. Amazing burst damage and much more manoeverability. Have a read through the Team Paradigm forums and watch the vids http://www.teamparadigm.net/forums/Structured-PvP/126/Video-Compendium/

Originally posted by Kabaal

Originally posted by lilHeala

Originally posted by Kabaal

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

It might not be the best build available for sPvP but it's still very viable, just look at this vid from BWE1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHsRDWeR1ZE

Ele damage is much different than it was back in BWE1, plus he's playing in the pick up matches against new players.

Not so different that it isn't viable anymore. And he was a new player himself too so still an equal'ish playing field. Like I said it's not the top build for it but that doesn't mean it isn't viable and not everybody is doing tournaments with eSports so the pick up matches argument is moot.

Originally posted by lilHeala

Originally posted by Kabaal

Originally posted by lilHeala

Originally posted by Kabaal

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

It might not be the best build available for sPvP but it's still very viable, just look at this vid from BWE1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHsRDWeR1ZE

Ele damage is much different than it was back in BWE1, plus he's playing in the pick up matches against new players.

Not so different that it isn't viable anymore. And he was a new player himself too so still an equal'ish playing field. Like I said it's not the top build for it but that doesn't mean it isn't viable and not everybody is doing tournaments with eSports so the pick up matches argument is moot.

I could pick random traits and use random weapons and still be "viable" in pick up matches where no one really knows what they are doing in a beta weekend. At this point it's a bit silly arguing about builds though as everything will change multiple times and we've only just seen the first iteration of the new traits, but i will say that a staff ele in the last BWE2 would be eaten by a scepter+ dagger or dagger + dagger ele, it's just the way it was.

For Sieges i'm sure the staff will be useful but in small scale not so much.

Everyone is talking about the caster AoE DPS, but how about Mellee AoE DPS, don't hit 2handed mellee weapons up to 5 ennemies on every hit?

Originally posted by Kabaal

Originally posted by lilHeala

Originally posted by Kabaal

Originally posted by lilHeala

Originally posted by Kabaal

Ele staff AoE is pretty good but it's not a build to use in PvP.

It might not be the best build available for sPvP but it's still very viable, just look at this vid from BWE1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHsRDWeR1ZE

Ele damage is much different than it was back in BWE1, plus he's playing in the pick up matches against new players.

Not so different that it isn't viable anymore. And he was a new player himself too so still an equal'ish playing field. Like I said it's not the top build for it but that doesn't mean it isn't viable and not everybody is doing tournaments with eSports so the pick up matches argument is moot.

I could pick random traits and use random weapons and still be "viable" in pick up matches where no one really knows what they are doing in a beta weekend. At this point it's a bit silly arguing about builds though as everything will change multiple times and we've only just seen the first iteration of the new traits, but i will say that a staff ele in the last BWE2 would be eaten by a scepter+ dagger or dagger + dagger ele, it's just the way it was.

For Sieges i'm sure the staff will be useful but in small scale not so much.

True that staff ele might be beat against a S+D or D+D ele, but staff is still more than viable for pvp. Pointing to damage changes since BWE1 wont change the mechanics or principles of the staff gameplay. No doubt there will be people using all three builds. Although the dude playing the ele in the vid will not be as skilled he or anyone else will be by the time the game comes out...it still demonstrates the viability with mechanics alone.

My favorite AoE build is manning the trebuchet.  Leave me alone on that thing and it's an automatic loss for the other team :)