Greetings all! Today I am starting a 4 part series where I break down the weapons you will be using as an elementalist. Today I will be starting off with the Staff!

A staff is a two-handed weapon that will occupy all 5 of your weapon skills. Staves are long range weapons that feature a large amount ground, enemy and self targeted ‘area of effect’ skills, meaning a staff is very useful against clustered foes and when you have significant amount of range on your foe.

Fire

	Fireball	0	Cast a fireball at foes that explodes on impact and hits multiple foes.
	Lava Font	6	Make lava erupt from target area.
	Flame Burst	10	Burn foes at the target location.
	Burning Retreat	20	Quickly roll backwards, leaving behind a line of fire that burns.
	Meteor Shower	30	Call down a meteor shower on target area.

While in fire attunement you have four offensive AoE attacks and a helpful retreat spell that leaves a fire field behind. This means fire is your go to attunment for mass damage, as long as you can keep your AoE’s aimed properly you should have no problem dishing out massive amounts of damage. Also note that since Lava Font is a fire field and Burning Retreat creates a fire field, you are also fairly adept at initiating cross-profession combos which will help your teams damage output a lot. Get used to aiming Burning Retreat so that it keeps you at a healthy distance from the enemy and also sets up your allies for a few attacks through the fire field it leaves behind.

Water

	Water Blast	0	Spray a jet of water at foes that also heals allies in the blast radius.
	Ice Spike	4	Drop a giant ice spike on foes, causing vulnerability.
	Geyser	20	Summon a geyser to heal nearby allies.
	Frozen Ground	30	Coat target area in ice, chilling foes that enter it.
	Healing Rain	45	Call down a healing rain on target area, granting regeneration to allies and also removes conditions.

Water attunement mainly focuses on healing your allies with a couple condition causing skills thrown in. Water Blast will be mainly helpful for any melee or close-range casters (e.g. Dagger elementalist) attacking your target as they will mainly be the ones within the skills radius, when using Water Blast try keep locked onto enemies that are attacking or being attacked by your allies for maximum effect. Like wise use Geyser and Healing Rain around clustered allies for optimal effect and remember they are both Water fields which means they can provide some extra healing through cross-profession combos. Use Ice Spike on foes that your group is focusing on to bring them down faster and use Frozen Ground to slow any enemy advances on you. Frozen Ground is an ice field so any blast finishers in it will grant Armor of Frost to allies in the radius.

Air

	Chain Lightning	0	Hit multiple foes with arcs of chain lightning.
	Lightning Surge	3	Charge a lightning surge that blinds foes near your target when it discharges.
	Gust	20	Blast foes backwards with a burst of air.
	Windborne Speed	20	You and nearby allies gain swiftness, while removing cripple, immobilize, and chill.
	Static Field	40	Create an electrical field that stuns foes crossing it.

Your air attunement is heavily focused on control, slowing or stopping enemy movement and preventing some skills making contact with yourself or your allies. While your first skill doesn’t have any real control capability it does allow you to hit multiple enemies which is helpful against groups of enemies. Lightning Surge basically acts as an enemy targeted aoe blind which can be very helpful in preventing some heavy attacks from hitting, however it may take some practise to get used to the timing of the skill. Gust is also another great control skill, when timed and aimed properly it can allow you to prevent enemy advances, interupt skills attacks and keep allies clear of any nasties hunting them down. Windborne Speed is an amasing mobiliser, not only does it remove movement impairing effects it also grants swiftness which allows for quick charges at the enemy and hasty escapes. Lastly Static Field is very helpful for maintaing control over the enemy. The field will basically locks down an area for your allies as enemies who enter the field become stunned and it is also an electrical field so your allies can create combos through the static field.

Earth

	Stoning	0	Hurl a rock at your foe and cause weakness.
	Eruption	6	Shake the ground until it erupts and damages foes.
	Magnetic Aura	20	Reflect projectiles with magnetic energy.
	Unsteady Ground	20	Create unsteady ground that cripples foes that move through it.
	Shockwave	20	Create a shockwave that bleeds and immobilizes your target.

Earth spells on your staff are all about weakening your enemy so they are less of a threat to yourself and your allies and are less likely to escape your attacks. Stoning is great for keeping weakness stacked on a foe which will heavily impact on a foes ability to dodge and inflict damage. Eruption is reliable against a cluster of foes due to it’s short cool-down and the fact that it inflicts bleeding which can stack up a fair amount of damage with successive hits, also remember that Eruption is a Blast finisher so it can be used to create combos with initiators. Magnetic Aura is helpful with protecting from ranged attackers for a short time, if a foe lines up a particularly nasty shot on you be sure to use Magnetic Aura to reflect it. Finally Unsteady Ground and Shockwave help slow enemy advances by inflicting Cripple and Immobilization respectively. Shockwave also inflicts Bleeding which can stack well with Eruption.

I hope this quick guide was helpful in explaining the functions of the staff. Stay tuned until next time as I go over the Scepter and Focus weapons.