Guild Wars 2

Do the devs play test their builds for each class? Especially, the elementalist! I’m not a game developer, but I am an avid gamer and based on my experiences with the ele, other classes in gw2, and other games, I must say that the ele is in need of some serious love.

Proposed changes:

1. Raise the base health to 18k

2. Eliminate or reduce Attunement cool downs to 3 seconds without putting points in arcana, so arcana will need to fulfill another roll other than lowering Attunement cool downs. I don’t know what, so maybe the community has ideas?

3. Cool downs for all utility skills should be reduced by a significant amount…balance this out! I personally don’t like to play anything with a cool down higher than 30secs. The elementalist is about speed…so make this happen! Or, if we must have the longest cool downs in game, then those skills should be the most powerful and flashy!

4. Give eles stealth like the thief and Mesmer or give else’s more evasion…the upcoming patch gives a bit more evasion, but it is not enough.

5. Give us a Greatsword as an actual weapon set that is PvP DPS/control based (wish list)

6. D/D builds can obtain more survivability with the new blinding ashes trait, but there should be more control given to the class just like what the Mesmers have (daze, confusion, distortion) let the D/D ele be a strong control/mobility build and through control they can sustain their survivability rather than just healing

Final thoughts: I am not asking to make the elementalist overpowered; rather, I think these changes would actually make this class playable to most people and simply more fun to play for all. Should class balance be based on traits and abilities, or play style? I, for one, support the former.

To all you elementalists and those who desire to be one…show this thread a little support, even if your ideas are different.

To the Devs…no disrespect is intended…GW2 is a great game and I only want it to get better!

Disclaimer: my main is a guardian and Mesmer, but I have dabbled in the elementalist a lot in spvp

I almost thought this was a serious post

1) No. 18k would be over kill. 13k-15k would be more ideal.

2) Something like effectiveness of Arcane skills could be interesting.

3) I agree, some of the weapon and utilities are overkill on the cool down front.

4) No. No more stealth. they could just up our defensive options by adjusting our heals and defensive skills.

5) Would much prefer Pistols and/or Hammer myself. Or they could just make Conjure weapons actually viable. Excluding FGS, though when its used more for mobility than anything else that says something.

6) Personally don’t like the trait and it will become niche and barely used after a while. We have decent survivability, we just need tweaks to healing and starting health.

What made you think it wasn’t serious? Yes, it is a serious post.

Zephyron.7081:

What made you think it wasn’t serious? Yes, it is a serious post.

The fact you want ele to have 18k health.
The fact you want the attunement swap to be 3 seconds.
The fact you want ele to have stealth

…

Raising base health by 8k, making attunement cooldowns 3 seconds, and adding stealth were what convinced me you must be trolling.

Edit: Oh hey, ArmageddonAsh beat me too it

I dont agree on the 18K health and the stealth, but im all for the attument swapping. If its not 3 seconds, make it 10 seconds like all professions have. And the fact you would potentially get more swap bonusses then someone else, is just the mechanic of the ele. Some shatter, some burst, some stealth, and the ele swaps (sounds weird).

1. Not gonna happen and it makes no sense whatsoever.

2. I hate being locked out of some skills because of swap cooldowns, but 3 seconds is way too low. I’d rather we had 10 seconds like everybody else. The only way to make swaps so low is by adding ICDs to some traits to prevent the swap from being overpowered.

3. This I agree. The cooldown is ridiculous, especially on #4 and #5 skills. Yes, we have 20 skills, but when you need to use 3 or more skills to do the same thing Warrior does using one skill, and with triple the cooldown, something is wrong. 50 seconds cooldown for a telegraphed knockdown is ridiculous.

4. Stealth? No way in hell. How does this even make sense? As for evasion, I don’t get why you want more. We can already get perma vigor. Yes, you need to trait for it, but it’s okay since dodging is so powerful.

5. I’m all in favor of new weapons for every class, even if this will probably mess up the balance.

6. I think survivability will come on its own if cooldowns are reduced. Higher cooldowns made sense at some point due to the number of skills available for ele (although I don’t think they should have both, high cooldowns AND lackluster effects).. Why are utility cooldowns so stupid? I mean we have a 6 second stability + protection on a 90 sec cooldown. Guardians get the same minus one second for the entire party every 30 seconds.

They should just take away the CD for focus skill 5 in earth…

I have a better idea…for devs…

They have overnerfed almost any single skill ele has….and tried to compensate with traits…

The result is 0 build diversity…

Do the opposite maybe..

some extra health wont be bad, also if they can make traits with health threshold more viable like final shielding – Arcana III rise it up from 25% like to 50% and make it benefit from aura traits, most because you can get downed like from 40% to 0 in a serious fight

I feel the ele mostly needs some of their nerf reverted…
They made sense when they were implemented, but with the buffs other classes got, the ele is now lacking…

Lol I’m sorry but I play Ele and this is ridiculous. I agree that some of the things you mentioned to be changed but not as drastic as you said.

Ele base health should he brought up to around 15 (18k? Lol)
Attunement swaps should be at 10 sec and arcane should be used for something else. (3 sec? Just wow)
Some of the CD’s should be reduced such as RTL

That’s it. Stealth should 100% never be put anywhere else in the game. It’s horrible as is. And the other new balance changes along with the new traits will help the defense enough with the base he brought up.

I understand it was a wish list and I shot for the moon…18k health I think is reasonable considering the light armor and low toughness, but 15k is good too. Ask for more than you can get, right?

Why all the hate on stealth? I love the way stealth is done in this game…compared to WoW, you can’t be stealthed 100% of the time by just clicking one button. It takes a level of skill to use stealth effectively. The Mesmer has both stealth and shatters, why shouldn’t the ele have stealth and Attunement swaps?

Besides, you shouldn’t be able to see a lightning strike coming, so stealth in air Attunement would be kitten!

I don’t really consider Attunement changes a true weapon switch. Yes, your abilities change, but not as drastically as going from a Greatsword to a bow. Part of the fun of an ele is the Attunement switching…if not 3 secs, then 5secs, because you need to be switching in order to pull off the same things other classes do with less skills available.

I know I’m not as experienced in the ele as some, but I have played a lot of spvp with it, and kitten it, I work a LOT harder to achieve the same results I get from my easy mode Mesmer and guardian and especially the god mode warrior currently is. I am certainly not a troll, nor am I trying to be.

The problem with your post is that you preface it by questioning the devs. Insinuating that they don’t play the class and maybe don’t realize it needs buffs. Then you follow with OP suggestions that makes me question if you play ele? I wouldn’t want any of your suggestions cause I know how over the top it would make ele.

As difficult as it is for me to say this, I will wait for the patch and try out some builds and see how everything goes before making a rant about Ele.

I do agree with a lot of OPs points though not all.

Zephyron.7081:

I understand it was a wish list and I shot for the moon…18k health I think is reasonable considering the light armor and low toughness, but 15k is good too. Ask for more than you can get, right?

Why all the hate on stealth? I love the way stealth is done in this game…compared to WoW, you can’t be stealthed 100% of the time by just clicking one button. It takes a level of skill to use stealth effectively. The Mesmer has both stealth and shatters, why shouldn’t the ele have stealth and Attunement swaps?

Besides, you shouldn’t be able to see a lightning strike coming, so stealth in air Attunement would be kitten!

I don’t really consider Attunement changes a true weapon switch. Yes, your abilities change, but not as drastically as going from a Greatsword to a bow. Part of the fun of an ele is the Attunement switching…if not 3 secs, then 5secs, because you need to be switching in order to pull off the same things other classes do with less skills available.

I know I’m not as experienced in the ele as some, but I have played a lot of spvp with it, and kitten it, I work a LOT harder to achieve the same results I get from my easy mode Mesmer and guardian and especially the god mode warrior currently is. I am certainly not a troll, nor am I trying to be.

I can see both points of view. What you are suggesting is a more fundamental change to this game. When people think “18k health”, they immediately imagine some Ele with 30 in earth and water being indestructible. When you mention 3s swaps, they immediately imagine some crazy boon build with (again) an indestructible, or extremely overpowered Ele. It sounds like you’re suggesting something that would change much more than what you have stated. (In other words, if they gave 3s swaps, they’d change the way boons are obtained.)

I think you have some really great ideas! They just need to be taken with a grain of salt.

What I meant about the play testing is that I find it extremely obvious how the elementalist is the weakest class in the game. So, either the devs did this by design or there is some sort of disconnect. Now, before anybody puts their nuts in a vice, let me clarify:

It seems, to me, that it takes much more time investment and dedication to become as proficient at the ele class than any other class in the game. This disparity is clearest when compared to a warrior or Mesmer.

The suggestions I made are ones I feel will would make the class more fun and obtainable. Fun is the operative word. If you agree, great, if not, then do you have any better ideas? It is always easier to poke holes at someone else’s ideas, but do you have any of your own to offer in order to expand on a meaningful discourse?

That is truly the purpose of this thread…hopefully people get the creative juices flowing and share. There will always be more bad ideas than good ones, but that is how brainstorming works.

In addition, I also understand that many players want a more difficult class to play that is less forgiving, because it is more rewarding for them when successful.

Again, it comes down to how one views class balance: Should class balance be based on traits and abilities, or play style?

The question is rhetorical, but the bottom line is this: the elementalist, IMHO, needs a significant boost one way or another.

If you give Elementalists a damage boost, all problems will be solved.

Long cooldowns will be logical to have, since they will do a lot of damage.
You can then trait a bit more on defense, ignoring damage-helping traits and have more HP and armor, if you want to hybrid out.
Attunement swap will be balanced out too, since you’ll need it less to survive and deal damage. Now, you can’t survive nor deal damage if you don’t do the elemental dance, which locks you on Arcane for being able to do something.

Having a HP+armor boost on a MAGE-class is dumb. We should be squishy, but with HIGH damage to compensate for that. Seems they forgot to implement the damage.
High risk – Should have a high reward. I LOVE the risk and want it to stay – I just want my reward.

Zephyron.7081:

I understand it was a wish list and I shot for the moon…18k health I think is reasonable considering the light armor and low toughness, but 15k is good too. Ask for more than you can get, right?

Why all the hate on stealth? I love the way stealth is done in this game…compared to WoW, you can’t be stealthed 100% of the time by just clicking one button. It takes a level of skill to use stealth effectively. The Mesmer has both stealth and shatters, why shouldn’t the ele have stealth and Attunement swaps?

Besides, you shouldn’t be able to see a lightning strike coming, so stealth in air Attunement would be kitten!

I don’t really consider Attunement changes a true weapon switch. Yes, your abilities change, but not as drastically as going from a Greatsword to a bow. Part of the fun of an ele is the Attunement switching…if not 3 secs, then 5secs, because you need to be switching in order to pull off the same things other classes do with less skills available.

I know I’m not as experienced in the ele as some, but I have played a lot of spvp with it, and kitten it, I work a LOT harder to achieve the same results I get from my easy mode Mesmer and guardian and especially the god mode warrior currently is. I am certainly not a troll, nor am I trying to be.

How about you think about thematic justifications for those changes… Since more than almost any other game, GW2 is consistent with its themes. Stealth is not something an Elementalist should have access to. Rock based immunity, Water based healing, Air based mobility, those all make sense.

An Elementalist having a massive base health pool doesn’t make sense either. Their power is in magic, not might or brute force.

The only thing that thematically makes sense would be reducing attunement cooldowns. And that would honestly break the game. Not only would certain air traits become stupidly overpowered, but being able to constantly have access to everything would eliminate meaningful choices from their playstyle and lean toward a much more faceroll playstyle of bounce through all the attunements, stack all the buffs and throw all the spells at the target until they die. While I personally would prefer that kind of flexibility, it would require a complete overhaul of the entire class. 8 seconds minimum, but I could definitely see 10 working.

These guys are calling you a troll because what you asked for would literally make Eles the only viable class. Even without any changes to other classes (even the healing sig nerf) no other class could compete with an ele. The current warrior would look like the current ele in comparison. It would be a joke. You’re just really bad at game design is what I’m trying to say.

Good Proposal.

You do know there is a Price?

The Price,

My Proposal

-Remove Ride the lightning
-Remove all Bursts
-Remove Invincible Diamond Skin

(you already have signet of earth, armor of earth, mist form, Earth Trait- Obsidian Focus, Earth’s Embrace, Elemental Shielding, Rock Solid, Air Trait-Tempest Defense, Shard of Ice)

Than Diamond Skin?

Not Overpowered?

You serious?

-Remove the Arcane Trait
-Remove all Glyphs Spells
-Remove all Conjure Spells

Fair Price, yes?

There is a far easier way….

Revert all nerfs but RTL range

Puff D/D, S/D ele suddenly viable and not OP….
It would still be far behind warrior

RTL is a necessity… anyway unless every single mobility skill of other profession get seriously nerfed (250% nerf minimum same treatment as ele)
For the other nerfs they can be just kept alongside putting some of arcana traits as base profession mechanics (elemental attunement should be, and evasive arcana should drop to 20 arcana).

Or another balancing way…

If ele is about versatility, cooldown of almost every skill should be reduced by much (really much, you still have attunements to avoid you abusing rotations).

To compensate for that traits should be nerfed (expecially stuff like fresh air ._.)….the only thing ele has is the chance to access MANY skills+utilities fast…but only ONCE, then ele becomes useless…

This leads ele to be viable only as a burst profession…1HIT or die because CD will prevent you to continue the fight.

Promoting a playstyle like th current burst ele but balanced on a prolonged fight rather than on a single burst.

That means ele would have to press 2389472935723 buttons to achieve a costant dps flow and pressure, but mistakes and CC would be a direct counter.

WIth those changes sustained combat would be more effective.

What i’d like to say:
stop nerfing skills and buffing traits i think after 2 years its clear its not working….