Guild Wars 2

Problem; Lack of reliable unique defense mechanism.

Explanation:

When you ask a random player what are the different defense mechanisms of the different classes you will get mixed answers, but most often than not you get this;

-Mesmer; Clones, stealth, daze, chaos armor/storm.
-Guardian; Boons, heals, blinds, aegis, holy heals!
-Warriors; Banners, healing signet, blocks, health pool.
-Necromancers; Large hp pool, DS, chills, fear.
-Thieves; Stealth, teleports, blinds, killing the enemy
-Rangers; dodges, spirits, traps.
-Engis; heals, heals, condition immunity, turrets, blasted heals

But without a second thought, when asked about elementalists these are the 2 only answers you get; heals and cantrips.

For ages the elementalist class has had their entire survival mechanism tied up to these 2 things. Notice how most classes have an innate defensive mechanism, usually one tied directly and strongly to their class mechanics such as clones/stealth for mesmers or stealth.blind for thieves, making them some of the most durable classes despite their deceiving squishiness.

Healing got hit several times with changes to water/arcane, I will mention some of the ones that hit the harder: halved healing on dodges, 10 seconds ICD on dodge heal, 5 ICD condition removal on applying regeneration, [the now reverted] healing signet nerf. This destroyed a lot of synergy such as removing condition on healing rain, or activating 2 cantrips on quick succession for double healing. On top of that, cantrips are vastly outperformed by skills which other professions have on half and even 4 times smaller CD, mist form having a 90 secs CD or armor of earth 75 CD for only 6 seconds of stability and protection in a selfish matter when skills such as guardian shouts can have it in as short as 24 seconds party wide.

Another great hit was the mistform and ether renewal synergy wich was crucial for taking some pressure of you, leaving mist form in a current terrible state where you are actually doing yourself more damage because thats 3 seconds in which you cant do anything at all, conditions still tick, and the enemy can just reset, reposition or precast skills without any worries, making it a newb trap skill.

Another problem is that inherently, cantrips and healing is tied very much to water, and to certain extend arcane which makes the boons last longer, and is much needed for the long recharge time of weapon switch, as well as dodges and the most mandatory blasting staff.

But how do we create a class that can selfsustain itself and still remain true to itself?

Solutions:

Auras and glyphs. Yes, most people already forgot about them, but auras are incredibly awesome. Some of them are very useful, some of them are incredibly useless and sometimes you wish your blast finisher had blasted the water field not the ice field instead.

here are some suggestions;

-Fire trait tree activating a glyph gives you an aura based on attunement for 3 seconds, 5 secs ICD.
Elementalists have little access auras, glyphs are severily underused, usually the elite is used because nothing else is worth it, I would gladly give up my elite for another utility. With this, new builds are open up, synergy with fire/air traits could be introduced too.

-Fire aura burns one condition on you every 1 second per hit, and 1 boon from the enemy every 3 seconds on hit. Change the fire minor trait from instead of burning to instead apply a fire aura for 2 seconds every time you attune to fire.
Why? Because right now fire aura is almost a joke when it comes to defense terms. 1 second burning isnt enough to deter anyone from attacking, neither will they care much about those 3 potential might stacks if you are dead.

-Frost Aura: Cant be crit while this aura is on, remove the 10% damage decrease. applies 3 stacks of chill, on the third one it creates an ice cage much like the one from the frost bow.

-Air aura. Pretty solid, although it would be great to implement super speed on it for around 1 second that it activates.

-Magnetic aura: great vs range, terrible everywhere else. Reduce physical damage by 20%, condition duration of applied conditions by 40%. It is supposed to be the earth-defense aura, yet it proves very innefective vs physical attacks which you would expect “earth” to be able to handle.

These are my suggestions for bringing active defense that is strong and reliable onto the table without turning the table towards DPS. I find that although autoattacks and CD on some skills on eles could use some buffs, I find them in a nearly good state. Giving defense might give them the much needed boost into a functional defense mechanism unique to the class.

I still hate the fact that auras are supposed to be OUR thing, yet mesmers have pretty much exclusive access to the best aura in the game. Chaos Armor is way above and beyond what any of our auras can do. It’s the best aura in the game and we don’t have access to it. I’d argue it’s better than all of our auras combined (at least fire + ice those pretty much suck).

Also why the frack don’t we have a glyph that gives us an aura depending on attunement? Instead of the trainwreck that is glyph of elemental power?

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

I still hate the fact that auras are supposed to be OUR thing, yet mesmers have pretty much exclusive access to the best aura in the game. Chaos Armor is way above and beyond what any of our auras can do. It’s the best aura in the game and we don’t have access to it. I’d argue it’s better than all of our auras combined (at least fire + ice those pretty much suck).

Also why the frack don’t we have a glyph that gives us an aura depending on attunement? Instead of the trainwreck that is glyph of elemental power?

Ice aura is pretty good, I will never turn down 10% damage reduction and chills.

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

I still hate the fact that auras are supposed to be OUR thing, yet mesmers have pretty much exclusive access to the best aura in the game. Chaos Armor is way above and beyond what any of our auras can do. It’s the best aura in the game and we don’t have access to it. I’d argue it’s better than all of our auras combined (at least fire + ice those pretty much suck).

Also why the frack don’t we have a glyph that gives us an aura depending on attunement? Instead of the trainwreck that is glyph of elemental power?

You gave me two ideas. The first one is actually not new: Glyph of Elemental Shielding, Instant, 60s CD. Gain an Aura based on your current element. Breaks stun.

The second is: Make Chaos Armor mechanically an Aura. It doesn’t matter that the elementalist doesn’t have direct access to it, but blasting a ethereal field for partywide fury+swiftness+protection would be a nice option.

Auras are a nice utility+defensive mechanism (well, except fire aura) and offer great synergy with traits (fury+swiftness, protection, can be shared). The down side is that we barely have access to them.

+1 for fire aura on fire attunement.
+1 for reworking fire aura.

One of the reasons I was thinking of making the aura 3 seconds long and having a special effect the 3rd second is because I believe they can be rewarding for both the player and the attacker.

For example, the frost aura is pretty much straight forward, and the idea of the ice cage came from a quest in Mount Maelstron where there is an NPC that gives you a weapon, and after 3 autoattacks you can convert the undead into an ice cage. Either you bare the 2 chills and stop for one second, or attempt to finish off the ele and bear the ice cage trsting your teammates to destroy it, or you can even pre-cast an aoe around yourself preventely to destroy the icecage once it is casted on you. For the ele, this could mean a life-or-death breathing second, a chance to get back on your feet.

The reason why I chose the minor trait on fire to give only 2 seconds is because getting the boon off everytime could be too strong, but if you actively try to, you can atune to fire, cast the glyph and you get 5 seconds aura, enough to make the enemy think it twice to attack you since it wold be burning a potential 5 conditions.

Although the earth one could be slightly too strong, I admit, perhaps the condition reduction could be limited to 30% their duration or something like that, numbers can be tweaked, but it cant be so negligable that it wont be worth it, like the current frost aura.

I used to think that defense was, or could be, the best offense. Then I learned a few things about strategy.

Though, admittedly, auras could use a buff and come in larger quantities. That would be a very neat, unique, and defining class characteristic. However, their weapon skills need to be massively overhauled, especially some of the Staff ones.

How about giving Eles Chaos Armor in the form of “Arcane Aura”?

The nerf to Mist form was the most terrible thing to happen to my play-style.
It was a huge nerf to eles that used that combo.

It’s funny to see them try to find a solution in their livestream to elementalist lack of survival ability, when they are the ones that broke it in the first place.

Mistform-heal WAS the solution.

IMO a solo version of Elemental Attunement should be baseline, with 15 pt water and soothing mist switched, then a trait added that restores the AOE version.

I don’t have a problem with healing as the core Ele defence mechanic, but it has to be accessible — that is you shouldn’t have to devote 15+ water for the heal and 20+ arcane for the protection in every build.

I would like to add that there already exist a few ways to access auras better, and to get better benefits from auras.

Fire Magic IX: Whenever you activate a signet, gain a Fire Shield.
Earth Magic V: Auras grant 3 seconds of protection when applied.
Air Magic I: Auras grant 5 seconds of fury and swiftness when applied.

Currently, I use a signet/aura build on my elementalist, wielding dual daggers (which give 2 auras on the weapon skill bar), Signet of Restoration, and usually 2 other signets as utilities.

Regarding signets:
- Signet of Restoration is one I rarely activate; only in emergency situations.
- Signet of Fire provides a long-duration burn and has a short cooldown (especially when traited). The passive effect may or may not be useful, depending on build.
- Signet of Water has a passive effect that is often overlooked, and a very underwhelming active effect (except in certain boss fights). Still, it has a very nice cooldown (especially when traited).
- Signet of Air has a great passive effect for use outside combat. In combat, it can be activated in a pinch for a multi-target blind effect AND a stun-break. Very useful defensive ability to have.
- Signet of Earth has a nice passive effect. The activated ability (immobilize) is not useful when using daggers, but with staff it could be better.

In my opinion, the auras by themselves are too weak. Adding either the Earth Magic V trait (Protection) or Stability as part of the basic effect of all auras would go a long way towards fixing this.
- The above solution would fix Fire Shield, Shocking Aura and Magnetic Aura sufficiently.
- Frost Aura’s 10% damage reduction should either stack with the protection boon, or should be reworked to give another effect. Perhaps regeneration?
- Alternatively, the durations of auras (and their associated trait boons) could be doubled.

The signets could also use a boost (although a smaller one).
- I believe that Signet of Restoration and Signet of Air are in a good place right now.
- Signet of Fire is a borderline case: it is a nice addition to a critical damage build, but the active effect (a long-duration burn) is easily removed and boring.
- Signet of Water needs work. Its passive effect is interesting enough, but its active effect is near-useless. With the re-write of the Soothing Wave trait, I propose using the old version of that trait as a new active effect for Signet of Water: have it remove a condition upon activation, and grant regeneration on top.
- Signet of Earth’s passive bonus to toughness is probably all right. Its active effect is underwhelming, though, especially when compared to Signet of Fire. It either needs a secondary effect (like daze) on activation, or its cooldown should be drastically reduced.

In my opinion, the team who originally balanced the elementalist utility skills and auras were too strict. The signets and auras were given a very low baseline, so that the fully-traited bonuses were balanced with other professions. The result was that the utility skills of fully traited elementalists are now on par with non-traited non-elementalists. This unfortunately means that fully traited non-elementalists have far better utility skills than fully traited elementalists.

i’m still in favor of having a trait which gives us an aura on attunement and just removing all auras from weapons and replacing them with much needed defensive/movement skills. That and also our base attunement swapping should be 9 seconds and arcane should give boon duration and aura duration instead.

Auras do need a rework. They would allow eles to survive longer (currently we melt to conditions/burst) and support builds would become viable.

The changes I found most interesting:

- Air trait VII: Inscription: Grants an aura associated with your current attunement when using a glyph.

or:

- Glyph of Elemental Protection (replaces glyph of elemental power)
Breaks Stun. Cooldown 45 seconds. Grants an aura associated with your current attunement.

On the other hand, fire aura really needs a rework. Currently it’s a useless hability that doesn’t affect the gameplay in any way. Since elementalists are really weak vs conditions, I believe the proposed condi cleanse would be nice.

Fire aura: Cleanses one condition every time you are struck.

Another option:
Fire Aura (2 seconds): As long as Fire aura is active, block up to 3 incoming attacks. When the aura expires it cleanses one condition for each blocked attack.

These changes would make the ele not so squishy and create a new Support role in PvP.

It would be really interesting to see an elementalist RTLing to one low HP team mate and give him the fire aura that blocks and then heal him.

Or maybe giving a shocking aura to a mate being chased by a thief and interrupt the burst and land some damage.

You could also give a frost aura (+ protection) to reduce 43% damage on a friendly target that was turned into a moa.

This game really needs team cooperation, there are so many options…

It makes me a bit sad thinking of Guild Wars 1 where earth had more than a few abililities to turn an elementalist into an unstoppable tank if no one brought enchantment strip.
(I can remember a random PVP battle where my team died, but no one could kill me for 3 minutes because of armor of earth, sliver armor, stone strikers and mantra of earth).

lol who need these when you got kinetic armor XD they should add a trait to earth magic that procs the elementalist heavy additionnal toughness for 4 second every time they score a critical strike with a spell or something

Shadowfall.6543:

It makes me a bit sad thinking of Guild Wars 1 where earth had more than a few abililities to turn an elementalist into an unstoppable tank if no one brought enchantment strip.
(I can remember a random PVP battle where my team died, but no one could kill me for 3 minutes because of armor of earth, sliver armor, stone strikers and mantra of earth).

We don’t want elementalists that last 3 minutes deffending a node right?

Let’s look at the auras:
Magnetic Aura: When attacked with a ranged attack, retaliate by reflecting the attack back.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against ranged opponents

Shock Aura: When attacked, retaliate with hard cc.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against melee ranged opponents

Frost Aura: When attacked, retaliate with soft cc, decrease incoming damage by 10%.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against physical attacks

Fire Aura: When attacked, retaliate with burning and gain might.
-Enables you to… What? It has no real defensive value…

If you look at those Auras, you got:
Earth: vs ranged
Shock: vs melee
Frost: vs physical

so why not:
Fire: vs conditions?

Fira Aura: When Struck, retaliate by setting your opponent on fire. Reduces incoming condition duration by 30%.
Not like Ele got a hard time cleansing conditions, but ele still got a rather small health pool.

To be honest, “When struck, remove a condition” sounded just too broken

naphack.9346:

Let’s look at the auras:
Magnetic Aura: When attacked with a ranged attack, retaliate by reflecting the attack back.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against ranged opponents

Shock Aura: When attacked, retaliate with hard cc.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against melee ranged opponents

Frost Aura: When attacked, retaliate with soft cc, decrease incoming damage by 10%.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against physical attacks

Fire Aura: When attacked, retaliate with burning and gain might.
-Enables you to… What? It has no real defensive value…

If you look at those Auras, you got:
Earth: vs ranged
Shock: vs melee
Frost: vs physical

so why not:
Fire: vs conditions?

Fira Aura: When Struck, retaliate by setting your opponent on fire. Reduces incoming condition duration by 30%.
Not like Ele got a hard time cleansing conditions, but ele still got a rather small health pool.

To be honest, “When struck, remove a condition” sounded just too broken

it’s not broken, it only lasts 2 seconds. If the opponent is a monkey that only spams condis then he must be punished for doing that ^^

naphack.9346:

Let’s look at the auras:
Magnetic Aura: When attacked with a ranged attack, retaliate by reflecting the attack back.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against ranged opponents

Shock Aura: When attacked, retaliate with hard cc.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against melee ranged opponents

Frost Aura: When attacked, retaliate with soft cc, decrease incoming damage by 10%.
-Enables you to stand toe to toe against physical attacks

Fire Aura: When attacked, retaliate with burning and gain might.
-Enables you to… What? It has no real defensive value…

If you look at those Auras, you got:
Earth: vs ranged
Shock: vs melee
Frost: vs physical

so why not:
Fire: vs conditions?

Fira Aura: When Struck, retaliate by setting your opponent on fire. Reduces incoming condition duration by 30%.
Not like Ele got a hard time cleansing conditions, but ele still got a rather small health pool.

To be honest, “When struck, remove a condition” sounded just too broken

As with the rest of our Auras what A-net will do is “When struck, remove a condition*(1 second cool down)*”. He forgot to add that part. There will always be a cool down but with Fire Aura’s current CD on focus i believe 3 or 4 seconds duration would be much more approirate. For a 2 second duration they would have to reduce the cool down to at least 25 or 30 seconds.

in fact I DID include the 1 per second condition burned per hit, although forgot to specify it i the frost one, but i think it is understood, considering that all auras share a similar mechahic

Remember that any buff to aura is also an indirect buff to everyone else around who can get auras via combos. All those leaping warriors getting fire aura…

idk if anyone has ever suggested this before, but a great way to make aura’s more part of our defense would be to do something like this.

Get rid of the elemental attunement trait and just make it part of the elementalist (which it should already be) , replace the trait with one that gives you an aura when you swap to an attunement depending on the attunement, with some kind of icd to keep it balanced

funny, isnt it? The class which was supposed to use auras as its mechanic its the one with least access to it. Anyways, reducing the leap fire aura to 2 seconds could do it. Now fire staff #2 has another use other than making the enemy press Q one time. It brings support without the need for water!

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

I still hate the fact that auras are supposed to be OUR thing, yet mesmers have pretty much exclusive access to the best aura in the game. Chaos Armor is way above and beyond what any of our auras can do.

And worse, it’s not actually that strong.
It’s just that Elementalist auras are horrendously weak. :S

In addition Aura Rework Suggestions, here’s a few Water Line suggestions:

GM Trait Powerful Aura moves down to Master Trait. Makes Elementalists a bit more viable in groups without investing too much.

Remove Adept Trait Shard of Ice and add GM Trait Chaotic Aura

Chaotic Aura – Aura duration +1(or 2) second/s. Adds a “Chaos Armor-like” effect on auras. Applies random boons and conditions when struck by an enemy. 1 second ICD, gives Aegis (5s) when Aura ends. Only applies to caster. Chaos Aura effect lasts 5(?) seconds.

Boons:
Retaliation 3s
Regeneration 3s
Vigor 5s

Conditions:
Blind
Cripple 3s
Weakness 3s

Why make this change?
It will obviously make ALL auras stronger and be more defensive overall. Being struck will give you defensive boons and gives conditions which makes enemies think twice before hitting you.

The boons you get are not similar to any existing traits that gives you boons on Aura Activation. The conditions you apply help you as well defensively. As of now, people just need to pop stability to ignore the CC effects of Shocking Aura and Frost Aura, adding these effects makes Auras more viable when traited.

Problems?
Aura changes. If the changes to Auras turn out to be too good, moving the trait Powerful Aura to Minor Trait will prove to be a wrong decision.

As of now, the Water and Arcana trait line seems fine as they are. I’m putting this in Water trait because it seems to have the best synergy with a defensive trait line.

Its synergy with Fire’s Embrace. I haven’t thought deep enough if it will be OP if paired with a Fire’s Embrace and a signet build. Will it be a pure defensive build or people can make it possible to make offensive as well?

It doesn’t change the fact that you still have to bury yourself 30 points in the Water trait line.

Being the “one-true-build”. There aren’t a lot of build varieties for elementalits and we don’t want every single ele running the same build.

How long should the Chaos Aura effect last? Is 5 seconds too long? I think 3s is too short but 5s can be too long. If your enemy is stupid enough to keep attacking you, the boons and conditions you apply will stack up. If you’re lucky, you can even get more than 10s+ Vigor. However, this makes your enemies think twice before attacking you. We can make Vigor like 3s but 3s is too short for a boon like Vigor.

Thoughts?