Elemental Weapon in Dragonflight PVE

Hi,

I recently returned to the game and am working my way through the first DF zone. I’m wondering if Elemental is “supposed” to run with a weapon/shield or a staff in DF?

I have a quest that rewards an Agility axe (obviously for Enhance), an Intellect dagger or Intellect staff, and don’t know what to choose. I don’t PVP.

I’m currently using a weapon/shield, but they’re very low level. I’m wondering if I pick the knife I won’t find a shield, or if I pick the staff I will find a shield and not be able to use it. (Sorry if I’m being a noob I took a 5 year break lol)

Don’t worry too much about it when you’re leveling. Use the item with the highest ilvl.

Even when you’re max if you have a staff that has a higher ilvl than your shield / 1hander then use that.

It’s better to have a shield and 1 hand for the extra defense but using a staff isn’t the end of the world.

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The shield gives you more armor, so it’s nice for situations when your taking a lot of damage (ie dungeons), but it’s not gonna break your leveling experience.

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There are a few fights where you will be taking physical damage from the boss. Experiments in Aberrus for example. On those fights having a shield is ideal.

Outside of bosses that do physical damage to you it’s just whatever is higher ilvl.

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Thanks for the feedback. I seem to remember that in past expansions (I haven’t played since BfA) we were focused on one setup or the other (staff vs. weapon/shield, like when we had the artifact weapon). It sounds like that isn’t the case in DF.

I usually prefer to run with a shield. In this example all the weapons are the same ilvl but the staff increases my total intellect/stamina more since my shield is low ilvl.

I realize the choice is no big deal while I’m still leveling, I am also trying to understand what endgame elemental weapon setup was best.