Guild Wars 2

Heres an idea that could potentially open up more options for builds, this would allow for much more diversity opposed to the current mandatory 30 arcana and 15+ in water.

-Elemental Attunement becomes a passive part of this class
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elemental_Attunement

-Lingering Elements (which only effects the minor adept traits) gets fused into the 1 point arcana trait.
-the new 3 point trait in the arcana line is then replaced with renewing stamina.
-A 10 second reuse timer on attunements becomes the norm, regardless of points spent in arcana.
-The 3 point traits in Fire, Air, Water and Earth become a natural part of swapping to an attunement.

Heres the catch

If the reuse on attunements is an affixated 10 seconds that means the Arcana line needs a second perk (the current two perks for putting points into the Arcana line are boon duration and attunement recharge reduction) I propose that the Arcana lines new second perk make the current 3 point traits in Fire/Air/Earth/Water, scale in effectiveness. (which are a passive part of this class for the sake of this conversation) Sunspot, Electric Discharge, Earthen Blast and Healing ripple will start off with a lower effectiveness level than they currently have, as you spend more points into the Arcana line you will then gain bonus effectiveness for Sunspot/ Electric Discharge/ Earthen Blast/ Healing ripple. In order for this change to not bring the elementalist into an overpowered state, the 3 point traits after becoming a passive part of the elementalist, should then get toned down in overall effectiveness.

During the winters day festival Anet released a patch which affected the Elementalist, their goal was to make spending 6 points into the Arcana line not as vital. They lowered the overall cooldown of attunement recharge by 3 seconds making the base recharge 13 seconds, but then they moved Elemental Attunement from an Adept trait to a Master trait. This contradicted their goal.

Elemental Attunement*(A Master trait in Arcana)* is perhaps the most important trait on an elementalist. Without this trait the elementalist loses a great amount of survivability therefore making them rather fodder. If Elemental attunement became a natural part of this class then going 20+ points into arcana would not become so mandatory. 30 points into arcana would still be quite effective since the GM trait Evasive Arcana is an additional heal added to the class when dodging in water attunement.

Erm – No thanks. While changes need to be made – this isn’t one of them. they should just make Elemental Attunment into the class mechanic but make it affect only the ele with a Master trait that makes it affect allies.

this way the ele will still have Elemental Attunement without the need to go 20 into Arcana and will still have the option of making it affect allies (thus no change) with a trait. However those of us that run quite a bit in Solo could then have the option to move a few points around. Combing Lingering Elements with Arcane Fury and creating a new 3point trait would be quite great as well.

Currently, going 4 at least into Arcane Power line is pretty much a must of most, if not all Ele builds builds as the Regen and protection help SO much with our survivability

They could also make it so that attunement swap is 10seconds all the time and that Arcane Trait line affects something else, i wouldn’t go with your change personally. This being if you are anything higher than 4 you will only have 2 of the 3 point traits in other trait lines without having a terribly weak build.

With it being about Arcane Power, maybe it could be used to increase the effectiveness of Arcane skills?

for example. Every 2 points into Arcana would grant:

Arcane Shield = 1 extra block from Arcane Shield. and decrease cool down by 5 seconds. So if running 6 into Arcana it would mean that the shield blocks 6 attacks and the cool down would be 50seconds.

Arcane Blast = 10% Extra damage + something This would mean going 6 into Arcana would increase its damage by 30% with some other to be determined affect. Maybe Condition transfer? 2 conditions transferred for every 2 points spent in the tree?

Arcane Wave = Not quite sure about this one, the added affect could be AoE boon removal? like 2 boons per 2 points for a possible 6 boons removed.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

With it being about Arcane Power, maybe it could be used to increase the effectiveness of Arcane skills?

It needs to be tied to class mechanic in some way (i.e. attunements and attunement swapping) to be consistent with the profession designs.

I do like the idea of incorporating elemental attunement in as a base feature (for self only), although they would probably need to reduce the durations so it’s not too powerful by default.

I think giving the 3 point minor traits by default is too good, especially for water and air magic. Perhaps incorporating the 1 point minor traits into attunements by default could work out though. Those traits give you some kind of passive “change” while in the attunement, so you don’t end up being in a situation where using an attunement provides you no special affect other than letting you use different skills.

I don’t really mind the notion of having a flat cooldown on attunement swapping, although I don’t know if I’d set it at 10 seconds by default. Then they could just have the “passive” effects of each attunement buffed by points in arcana (i.e. the 1 current 1-point minor traits). I’m worried that might be a little lackluster though (i.e. fire), or possibly quite strong (i.e. if air got up to like 25% movespeed or something).

I too am stuck with 4 in arcana every time, even when I make a crazy build that doesn’t use elemental attunement (which I suffer for greatly).

see attachment
problem solved, also leave elemental attunement as it is and move it to the grandmaster bracket as a quip to all the keyspamming boon junkies who conformed to arena net’s horrible vision of what elementalist should be

cheshirefox.7026:

see attachment
problem solved, also leave elemental attunement as it is and move it to the grandmaster bracket as a quip to all the keyspamming boon junkies who conformed to arena net’s horrible vision of what elementalist should be

^^^ +1 this

Yamsandjams.3267:

I do like the idea of incorporating elemental attunement in as a base feature (for self only), although they would probably need to reduce the durations so it’s not too powerful by default.

Besides allowing PVP Eles to finally spec out of arcane for non-joke builds, a solo version of Ele attunement would also make Ele a lot more forgiving for levellers and Ele newbies – a very common complaint.

The skill floor buff is especially needed now it takes so much longer to get traits when levelling.

cheshirefox.7026:

see attachment
problem solved, also leave elemental attunement as it is and move it to the grandmaster bracket as a quip to all the keyspamming boon junkies who conformed to arena net’s horrible vision of what elementalist should be

This would be a stupid and simply broken change, it would be nothing more than a huge nerf. We’re trying to find ways of making it so that ele aren’t so reliant on Arcane trait line – Elemental Attunement is a HUGE part of the classes defense. Moving it up to grandmaster would limit the builds even more and make the class weaker.

1) Make Elemental Attunement part of the class mechanic
2) Make the current Elemental Attunement apply it to allies

3) Combine Lingering Elements with Arcane Fury
4) Add new 3 point trait

5) Move Arcane Precision to Grandmaster slot and change proc chance to 50% on a hit.
6) Move Elemental Surge to Grandmaster Minor

As for making the attunement cool down 10 second by default, it would leave us needing something for Arcane Power Line. Something they could do:

Introduce a class mechanic that buffs a specific stat while in a certain attunement. For example:

Fire: Power Increase
Air: Ferocity Increase
Earth: Condition Damage Increase
Water: Healing Power Increase

Then make it so that the Arcane Power trait line buffs these stats further. Thinking something like a standard 100stat increase at base and a 25point stat increase for every point spent in Arcane Power?

Am I the only one who thinks attunement swapping shouldn’t have a cooldown, but add ICDs to on-attunement swap traits? Right now chill fooks me more than any other class and engis do 20 skills better than the tetramage archetype.

Yamsandjams.3267:

I think giving the 3 point minor traits by default is too good, especially for water and air magic. Perhaps incorporating the 1 point minor traits into attunements by default could work out though. Those traits give you some kind of passive “change” while in the attunement, so you don’t end up being in a situation where using an attunement provides you no special affect other than letting you use different skills.

The whole point of having the Arcana line make the current 3 point traits scale in effectiveness, is so they wouldn’t become OP.

Renny.6571:

Am I the only one who thinks attunement swapping shouldn’t have a cooldown, but add ICDs to on-attunement swap traits? Right now chill fooks me more than any other class and engis do 20 skills better than the tetramage archetype.

I’d love it if attunement swapping didn’t have a cooldown and the elemental attunement buff had a cool down just like evasive arcana does. This is an idea thats been brought up several times, it would open up many amazing combos for the ele making it that much more of an intuitive class design. The problem is several things would have to change. The 3 point traits would also need a cool down, fresh air would become irrelevant (but thats an easy fix, just have it lower electric discharges cool down), some of the cool downs would more than likely need to be revamped, but not many since the CDs are already pretty high on a good majority of our skills. I’d truly love this change more than anything because I enjoy playing the Elementalist for its complexity, I just don’t see it happening though because its a lot of work to make this change a reality.

I have a feeling that the only way they are going to break Ele builds’ favoring of Arcana is to make part of the 3 and 5 point traits in each element give attunement recharge reduction for that element and have the Arcana profession recharge rate reduction points still count for all the elements, but not as much reduction as putting that many points in an individual element. You would still be able to flip to non-specialized elements for their utility, but not as often as the ones you favor, and with the number of points that max level characters get it would be impossible to favor only one element.

Lingering Elements represents a blending of attunements and is correctly placed as an Arcana trait. However, Elemental Attunement and Evasive Arcana are so favored, I would recommend splitting them up as part of the 3 and 5 point trait respectfully for each element with the 3 point one giving the boon for that element to yourself only (in addition to the current trait) and the elemental dodge spell at 5 points substituting for the “do more damage when…” trait at that level eles now have. They can move Elemental Contingency down to master level and perhaps have the full Elemental Attunement trait as a grandmaster trait. That would leave them only one grandmaster trait to fill in Arcana, not a huge change. It would be interesting to see the “do more damage when…” traits get condensed to a single grandmaster trait of doing more damage for each condition on the target…

The problem is that doing both of these would complicate the simple one line minor traits that eles currently have. But, no one ever said elementalist isn’t a complicated profession.

While swapping attunements is clearly the overall design of the class, is anyone else concerned that Elemental Attunement is simply too strong to be given to the class freely? Tons of other classes have mandatory traits to consider in their specs and several don’t have the luxury of it being a 4pt trait, but a 6pt one.

And why make the claim that Elemental Attunement is the issue and not say Cleansing Wave, the other trait most consider mandatory in their builds as an elementalist?

I do agree that build diversity is quite bad on the Ele with 8 points tied up at a minimum and most would consider 10 or even 12 points to be far more realistic. But Elemental Attunement is simply too powerful to be a freebie or even an adept trait and would likely need to be nerfed considerably.

Is it worth the risk?

Atherakhia.4086:

While swapping attunements is clearly the overall design of the class, is anyone else concerned that Elemental Attunement is simply too strong to be given to the class freely? Tons of other classes have mandatory traits to consider in their specs and several don’t have the luxury of it being a 4pt trait, but a 6pt one.

And why make the claim that Elemental Attunement is the issue and not say Cleansing Wave, the other trait most consider mandatory in their builds as an elementalist?

I do agree that build diversity is quite bad on the Ele with 8 points tied up at a minimum and most would consider 10 or even 12 points to be far more realistic. But Elemental Attunement is simply too powerful to be a freebie or even an adept trait and would likely need to be nerfed considerably.

Is it worth the risk?

Elemental Attunement used to be an Adept trait. Do you understand why this trait is vital? Without protection the Elementalist has taken a fairly reasonable hit on their survivability. The regeneration is nice, the might and swiftness are mere icing on the cake. Giving this trait as a passive bonus won’t mean the Elementalist spirals out of control, it just means they will be able to take a few more hits with a dps/hybrid build, and receive a very small bonus to their damage if they aren’t already running a might stacking build. Without 30 into the arcana line they lose a heal, with out 15 points in water they lose a heal. That is what makes the Elementalist potentially so tanky, that and their mobility + dodge rate. Elemental Attunement is a small, but valuable part of their defense.

With my idea of making the 3 point traits a passive part of the elementalist and an affixated 10 second reuse on attunements, the Arcana line could then boost the effectiveness of these 3 point traits(which are passive by class design for the sake of this conversation), meaning they start out very weak but grow in strength as you spent more points into Arcana. A hybrid build focusing on dps won’t benefit nearly as much from healing ripple. I think this could work and if it was done right the elementalist wouldn’t become OP. It should be small boost in survivability for hybrid dps builds if anything.

cheshirefox.7026:

i could just as easily argue that the minor master tier traits or lingering elements should be an instrinsic elementalist function

Atherakhia.4086:

is anyone else concerned that Elemental Attunement is simply too strong to be given to the class freely

the 3pnt traits {minor master tier} are offensive and defensive benefits for those who invested in certain traitlines
lingering elements (if paired with arcane fury) would provide a waxing and waning effect of attunements
elemental attunement seems like it would be a great intrinsic function, but it is boon based

with all that said, i will return to my self quote borrowed from this issue posted in another thread.. they all seem like a good idea, but i think it is obvious which one is most rational {and probably the easiest to adjust on arena net’s side of things}

to respond to Atherakhia, i do not think that elemental attunement is too powerful, but it is a crutch many elementalist players feel is a necessity.. and no one can blame them with the trainwreck elementalist has become

not that anyone cares what i think
but i think moving lingering elements leftward would benefit a wide spectrum of elementalist builds and playstyles.. there is room to adjust the 1pnt {minor adepts} down the road.. elemental attunement is simply too boon specific and only geared toward so many playstyles and builds, a commendable idea but sadly it is not one that will revitalize elementalist for the long run..

of course, beggars can not be choosers.. it is ultimately arena net’s decision to humor Any of the above concerns

I was working on a slightly similar idea once, where the master trait Elemental Attunement became a passive, but still different.

Sadly all the stuff I wrote I thought wouldn’t be useful to anyone, but another “how about this?” post, being forgotten, as Anet likely isn’t going in a new direction, especially now that the ele isn’t nigh useless as it was pre-patch.

At least I can agree that 30 arcane shouldn’t be as necessary in builds, as it currently is.

Atherakhia.4086:

While swapping attunements is clearly the overall design of the class, is anyone else concerned that Elemental Attunement is simply too strong to be given to the class freely? Tons of other classes have mandatory traits to consider in their specs and several don’t have the luxury of it being a 4pt trait, but a 6pt one.

And why make the claim that Elemental Attunement is the issue and not say Cleansing Wave, the other trait most consider mandatory in their builds as an elementalist?

I do agree that build diversity is quite bad on the Ele with 8 points tied up at a minimum and most would consider 10 or even 12 points to be far more realistic. But Elemental Attunement is simply too powerful to be a freebie or even an adept trait and would likely need to be nerfed considerably.

Is it worth the risk?

No I don’t think it’s too strong, I think base ele is too weak.

I also think EA is more like a core class mechanic than a trait.

I play 6 classes regularly so I’m not biased.