Guild Wars 2

Hello, I’m APeX Lucidity. I’ve been playing ele since bwe 1, falling in love with all the shiny buttons to mash really fast. Since november, I have played nothing but ele. I got to enjoy a lot of the godmode d/d in pvp against some of the most known players in the game…then watched my class receive many nerfs, some needed, some a bit heavy handed. real eles can’t be nerfed though, they’ll never leave the class for the pure fun it gives. But after playing ele at a high level in both pvp and wvw..I can recognize the class is definitely the closest to being “broken” meaning theyre extremely hard to balance due to the way the class is designed. I feel a lot of this brokenness can be attributed to the extreme reliance on the arcana tree. once the class has brokenness gone, only then you can truly balance the ele around the new changes to actually fix the class. Here are my ideas on how to fix the biggest offenders.

1. Split up evasive arcana into separate dodges into each of the elemental trees, perhaps stashing them in at the 15 or 25 point traits depending on how strong the dodge is. by doing this, we now completely negate the need to go all the way deep in on arcana. non arcana builds will finally have just a tiny bit more utility they need to be viable in anything besides just pve. just try to imagine playing a 30 fire 30 air glass d/d ele in pvp: its just not going to happen in any real fights atm. but with this proposed change, a glass ele now has just a tiny bit of utility of the weaker fire and air dodges to hopefully help them approach viability. because in its current state, evasive arcana is simply too good of a trait to pass up on: splitting it up into pieces will allow people to get some utility in non 30 arcana builds. perhaps a replacement trait for arcana could be something as simple as granting all dodges like we have now, leaving 30 arcana still an attractive spec for support oriented eles.

2. Elemental attunement needs to be a core part of the ele class. Perhaps even a bigger offender than evasive arcana, this trait is so good (broken) that the ele class simply has a hard time even functioning in a pvp/wvw environment without it. We are balanced for having low health, armor, and high cool down defenses…the one thing we have going for us is plentiful boons. But forcing eles to go 20 into arcana to get this class defining trait pigeonholes us into the arcana tree forever. just imagine being a glass staff ele, getting pounced on by a thief that can 3 shot you. without swiftness on attunement, you simply will not escape from anything for long. without protection on demand, the squishiest class in the game will simply melt. but, I feel that this trait should be lowered to boons only for yourself instead of 5 people. this would provide an opportunity to have a replacement trait that once again upgrades elemental attunement to five people, for supporty builds. at the end of the day..think of what each class gets for pressing f1-f4..in its current state in order for ele to get any real utility out of pressing f1-f4, they need to have at least 20 into arcana always. this just cant fly if you want any semblance of build diversity for this class.

Once we are no longer forced to grab the same grandmaster and master traits as always…can we finally start utilizing other trees. yet, my proposed changes would also give viable traits for the supporty eles out there to actually serve their role by going down the arcana tree as opposed to a combat stats tree. once these changes have happened, individual aspects of the ele might have to be buffed or nerfed depending on how things actually play out.

Agreed.

One you overlooked – reduce base recharge rate to 10 seconds – have it hit a minimum rate of 7 seconds with a 30 point investment.

stale.9785:

One you overlooked – reduce base recharge rate to 10 seconds – have it hit a minimum rate of 7 seconds with a 30 point investment.

I even think that most of the traited swap-proccs won’t be that OP since ele is lacking a decent class-mechanic anyway. Currently attunement-swap is more of a restriction than a benefit.

Every ele runs arcana because it is OP. If everyone is using it, it must be overpowered so it deserves nerfs. Same reason why warriors run only heal signet.

observer z.6725:

Every ele runs arcana because it is OP. If everyone is using it, it must be overpowered so it deserves nerfs. Same reason why warriors run only heal signet.

Your logic is flawed. Just because everyone uses it doesn’t mean that the trait is OP. It’s just one of our stronger traits that makes eles at least somewhat playable in PvP. Nerf this trait and even the small fraction of eles that are left will vanish from the battlefields. In addition our build that people most complain about (fresh-air burst) doesn’t even use this.

Lucidity.5947:

We are balanced for having low health, armor, and high cool down defenses…the one thing we have going for us is plentiful boons. . just imagine being a glass staff ele, getting pounced on by a thief that can 3 shot you.

This.

are there any options to reducing brokenness in our eles? these are my best ideas for making the arcana tree a normal build route instead of a class required trait line…does anyone else have any ideas? im interested in other peoples ideas for fixing this glaring ele issue, as well.

Outside of the cleansing Wave of evasive Arcana I don’t find the trait to be a big deal. If Cleansing wave was frozen burst how much would you really value that trait.

I think we’re more reliant on 15+ water than arcane now.

Realistically, PVP Eles will always be reliant on water/arcane until (a solo version of) Elemental Attunement is baseline, with something like the current 15 water skill swapped with soothing mist.

Elemental Attunement reminds me of the guardian Inspired Virtue minor trait (activating a virtue grants a boon to party members). It’s extremely good, but since it’s only a 5pt minor talent, it doesn’t restrict builds too much. Maybe as an interim, Elemental Attunement could be the 5pt in Arcana and move the other minors around.

Though from playing around with Elementalist, it seems that Arcana is just so good because the other trait lines are just that bad.

For the “OP trait” argument:
Yes, it’s really good and everyone takes it. But that only means it’s too good compared to other trait choices. Mandatory “choices” suck but they don’t make the profession overpowered.

Elem attunement definately needs to be core to the class.At least in a self only form and have the trait make it an aoe support tool. Altough id prefer if it stays aoe
Its indeed a very strong trait but at the same time its also a triait that.. you either get or you kitten yourself.
Which means that theres something really really wrong with the ele class.Nothing should be so depended on a trait and if it is then the trait should dissappear asap.
Actually even evasive arcana could be a baseline. They would just have to decrease the damage multipliers and put a 1/2 sec delay on lighting strike (still instant activation for the sake of fancy combos :P ) and ele would be in a great place.
The thing is simple.Having 20 (mediocre) skills alone isnt a worthy class mechanic for the squishiest class. Having a20 skills and integrated buffs might as well be!
If its too strong it wont be in a bunker support spec (since those would aim to make those boons aoe thus taking te elem att trait anyway).If its too strong in air burst builds just put casting times/delay times to make them telegraphed ,as you already should ahve done and start nerfing damage multipliers