Guild Wars 2

So, i love condition builds My Mesmer is Condition, My Necromancer is condition and have started a Engineer looking at condition builds. This got me to thinking about my Elementalist, who was my first Level 80 character.

This is where i was met with disappointment, despite the potential it just cant do condition builds well (if at all)

Diamond Skin, is a VERY nice trait for conditions. However that is about it. Out of 15 Minor traits:

1) Flame Barrier – weak, requires to be attacked in Melee (range doesnt count?) and to be in the Fire attunement

2) Burning Rage – Not to bad

3) Weak Spot – Pretty decent, depends on ICD

4) Arcane Precision – 10% chance is too low in my opinion anyone know what these conditions are?

So out of 15 Minor traits 4 involve conditions, 2 of which require a specific attunement(fire) Weak Spot depending on the ICD is pretty decent, Arcane Precision needs a buff, make it 50% chance on Crit hits with say a 5second cool down would be a decent start.

Fire(Condition Duration) and Earth(Condition Damage) clearly seem to be the trees that should contain the most condition traits.

1) Burning Fire – decent trait
2) Burning Precision – Decent trait, depending on ICD and if it needs to be in Fire
3) Serrated Stones Decent, rather it give chance crit to cause bleeding than 5% damage
4) Diamond Skin, Excellent.

So out of the 2 “Condition” trees and 24 traits, it has 4 for conditions which is kind of sad.

Anyway, onto my idea:

Adding an “Arcane” Attunement. In this Attunement you would have access to a more varied assortment of conditions, i mean currently its either Bleeding or Burning, Fire or Earth for conditions.

Along with this new Attunement we would see the Arcane Power tree become a more concentrated tree. Now some of the traits would need to be moved/changed and i know how people dont like change but here me out ^^

1) Arcane Mastery – This could stay the same, i would Arcane Wave, Arcane Power, Arcane Blast and Arcane Shield, well tweaked:

Arcane Blast: Blast your foe dealing Critical damage, deal more damage per a condition on the target

Arcane Wave: Blast nearby foes dealing critical damage, deal more damage per a condition on the targets

Arcane Power: Next 5 attacks deal critical damage and inflict a random condition to the target

Arcane Shield: Block targets attacks, each block inflicts a random condition. if hit by 5 attacks it explodes causing a mini Arcane Wave attack

2) Elemental Surge: Same effects as before however “Arcane” added which inflicts a random condition when swapping to Arcane.

3) Evasive Arcana same as before, added “Arcane” This would cause a Arcane skill.

4) Elemental Attunment: Same as before added “Arcane” this would mean that swapping to Arcane would give something. Maybe Retaliation? (any other ideas welcome)

The Arcane Tree would have either Condition Damage or Condition Duration moved to the tree with Boon Duration going the other way

Traits like Arcane Resurrection, Renewing Stamina and Windborne Dagger would all be moved/absorbed into traits in other trees. AR and RS into Water and WD into Air would seem more suitable

Skills wise for Dagger/Dagger:

Main Hand:
1) Arcane Lash (Dark/black version of Lightening Whip) This would be a 3 stage Auto attack that would deal damage and cause conditions. Thinking Bleeding, Bleeding, Vul with each one taking 1/2second to do. Durations would be 3-4seconds but the damage of the attack would be a bit lower to compensate

2) Arcane Blade: This would send out a a dark blade (visually dark version of Vapor Blade) that would bounce 5 times between targets that deals damage and inflicts Conditions to enemies and random boon to allies

3) Corrupt (for a change of Arcane lol) Breath: This would deal a simialr kind of attack as Drakes Breath but again a darker version (visually) that deals damage and inflicts either several conditions or High stack of 1 condition – maybe have it so that it deals more damage for the conditions on the target?

Off Hand:
4) Arcane(lol) Ring This would be again similar to Ring of Fire visually foes that enter/leave this ring takes damage and is inflicted with random conditions

5) This would be a AoE, similar to Chruning Earth Maybe Arcane Explosion. a quicker casting Churning earth but would deal about 1/2 the damage of Churning Earth but with more Conditions added Something like Poison(5 seconds), Bleeding 5 stacks(10 seconds), Burning(5seconds)

Thats just an example, trying to sue version of skills the class already has access to, just darker ones both in action and visuals.

So their it is, what do you guys think – any ideas you could add or changes you would make. Now i know not everyone will be happy with this, but alas you cant please everyone.

An example of Staff skills:

1) Chaotic Chain (Dark version of Lightening Chain) – Hit multiple foes dealing damage and inflicting random conditions

2) Chaos Burst(Dark version of Flame Burst) Damage and inflict conditions at to the target and nearby enemies

3) Chaotic Geyser (Dark version of Geyser) – Deal damage and infliction conditions to those at target location, lasts 5 seconds

4) Chaotic Aura – Block the next attack, inflict Torment on Blocked attack, lasts 2 seconds

5) Chaos Shower (Dark version of Meteor shower) call down a dark storm, targets take damage and are inflicted by conditions each time they are hit – each hit deals splash damage

I like the idea. But it is too different of a gameplay change, adding an F5 skill would be too dramatic of a change. lol I just assume they want to keep their original model of f1-f4.

Also because Eles play with having so many long CD powerful attacks, I think it would be too OP. Perhaps if they increase the time on attunement changes to compensate, but then again it would throw off so many people who have their chains so embedded into their muscle memory. I personally wouldn’t like it.

How about a relatively low CD elite that puts you into an Arcane State for a certain amount of time. Your skills would become the ones you described. It would be useful even for non condition builds because the conditions would keep ticking even when the person goes back to their regular attunements.

Then they could give the arcane tree a trait that could decrease Elite spell CDs.

Or they could add a trait that would give your next X amount of spells a 100% chance to cause a condition when you change attunements. The condition would be dependant on the attunement you are going to, or coming from. This I think would play well with the reduced CD on attunement swaps from the arcane tree.

But I would not recommend giving Ele’s any conditions they don’t already have. Unless it’s confusion on Arcane skill casts. I just feel like arcane skills are like a blunt hit to the head. And would also make arcane skills more situational, instead of just a spell you use when on CD. Like a few stacks of confusion for a very short time.

I like the idea of Arcane Utilities doing more damage to targets with conditions on them. Though I feel like they are powerful enough already. I see them reducing the damage of arcane skills if they add more functionality.

The problem currently, is they cant do a condition build they have 2 conditions, split between 2 trees, you go Air means you lose both, you go water you lose both and you can only have one at a time NO class could make a condition build work on this.

Yeah i agree with the f5 being an issue, i am not quite sure another away around it. Unless you with with pure traits for it, which would again be the Arcane tree with moving a few things around. If Arcane was going to be the condition tree it would need either Condition damage or Condition duration swapped with Boon duration.

The problem is that currently you are FORCED into changing attunement. No matter the build, no matter the weapon you have NO choice but to swap attunements this alone is the WRONG way they designed the class in my opinion.

Most of the “high damage” skills for example Churning Earth have to long a cast time and to long a cool down, its to easy dodge Churning Earth thanks to the insane cast time.

I would see it has:

Fire – More Burst damage
Air – Movement, Damage
Earth – Low damage but takes hits
Water – High support
Arcane – Conditions

In it’s current state a Condition build just cant be done, damage is to low, not enough conditions for damage and pressure.

They could remove the conditions from the other Attunements, adjust damage to compensate and make F5 the ONLY tree for condition damage. They could have it so that other trees offer boons/ control conditions such as Vul, Weakness and such but keep the pure damaging conditions in F5

The problem with all the powerful attacks is – how easy they are to dodge, i dont think i have ever been hit by Churning Earth for example. So while they are powerful they can be dodged or even had CC used while they are casting.

The lack of constant condition application would be it’s downfall. It would be like spiking a ton of conditions, which would synergize well with the upcoming white damage, but if the enemy removes them quickly, then you would have to wait a while in order to re-apply them.

Maybe allowing Fresh Air trait to temporarily allow you to switch to any attunement, and then on swap resume the cool down, would fix this.

I think the easiest fix for conditions would be to simply move damage and CD numbers on skills across the board, and have them add conditions. Boring fix though.

diversecape.1465:

The lack of constant condition application would be it’s downfall. It would be like spiking a ton of conditions, which would synergize well with the upcoming white damage, but if the enemy removes them quickly, then you would have to wait a while in order to re-apply them.

Maybe allowing Fresh Air trait to temporarily allow you to switch to any attunement, and then on swap resume the cool down, would fix this.

I think the easiest fix for conditions would be to simply move damage and CD numbers on skills across the board, and have them add conditions. Boring fix though.

The possible skills listed are my own, i am sure that Anet could come up with some better and more balanced ones. It wouldnt exactly be a lack of constant ones as if you are a Condition build you would spend most of you time in the “Arcane” Attunement anyway.

The Attunement swap i think should be 10seconds anyway from a base point. With a Autoattack that is conatbtly applying them (like Necro Scepter) it would still be enough i think for the Build. The cool downs for the skills would need to be balanced to make sure they are neither to low or to high

Ah ok, the confusion was that I assumed you meant removing conditions from the other attunements.

diversecape.1465:

Ah ok, the confusion was that I assumed you meant removing conditions from the other attunements.

Yeah you could even go further:

Fire + Arcane = using these 2 trees would mean access to conditions and decent/good damage.

Air + Arcane = Using these 2 tress would give access to control, Stuns and movement as well as conditions

Water + Arcane = Using these 2 trees would give access to damaging controls and control (chill) as well as healing

Earth + Arcane = you would be able to swap to Earth when they try to nuke you, still having access to slight conditions but the importance of the toughness to save you.

So you could trait depending on how you want to play, Going Earth and Conditions would be a bunker/Condition build, Going Water/Conditions would be a support+condition build

As stated, the other trees would need to be tweaked here and there, but i think it could work. i would basically mean having 2 trees that you use the most rtaher then being to jump through hoops for conditions and such you could pick what tree other then Arcane you want to concentrate on.

Dont like bunkers? split between Support, control or damage
Dont like healing? Split between Bunker, control or damage

For example.

Then we would pretty much have a version of Weapon swapping. No one uses the same range weapons on both sets, though our range wouldnt change what we could do in them would so we wouldnt be forced with ONLY using conditions after burst conditions, we could go fire and see if we can damage them into death for example or maybe into Earth and see if we can outlast them

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Along with this new Attunement we would see the Arcane Power tree become a more concentrated tree. Now some of the traits would need to be moved/changed and i know how people dont like change but here me out ^^

1) Arcane Mastery – This could stay the same, i would Arcane Wave, Arcane Power, Arcane Blast and Arcane Shield, well tweaked:

Arcane Blast: Blast your foe dealing Critical damage, deal more damage per a condition on the target

Arcane Wave: Blast nearby foes dealing critical damage, deal more damage per a condition on the targets

Arcane Power: Next 5 attacks deal critical damage and inflict a random condition to the target

Arcane Shield: Block targets attacks, each block inflicts a random condition. if hit by 5 attacks it explodes causing a mini Arcane Wave attack

I like your ideas to tweak the arcane skills, this would be fun even if nothing else changes imo

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Skills wise for Dagger/Dagger:

Main Hand:
1) Arcane Lash (Dark/black version of Lightening Whip) This would be a 3 stage Auto attack that would deal damage and cause conditions. Thinking Bleeding, Bleeding, Vul with each one taking 1/2second to do. Durations would be 3-4seconds but the damage of the attack would be a bit lower to compensate

2) Arcane Blade: This would send out a a dark blade (visually dark version of Vapor Blade) that would bounce 5 times between targets that deals damage and inflicts Conditions to enemies and random boon to allies

3) Corrupt (for a change of Arcane lol) Breath: This would deal a simialr kind of attack as Drakes Breath but again a darker version (visually) that deals damage and inflicts either several conditions or High stack of 1 condition – maybe have it so that it deals more damage for the conditions on the target?

Off Hand:
4) Arcane(lol) Ring This would be again similar to Ring of Fire visually foes that enter/leave this ring takes damage and is inflicted with random conditions

5) This would be a AoE, similar to Chruning Earth Maybe Arcane Explosion. a quicker casting Churning earth but would deal about 1/2 the damage of Churning Earth but with more Conditions added Something like Poison(5 seconds), Bleeding 5 stacks(10 seconds), Burning(5seconds)

Thats just an example, trying to sue version of skills the class already has access to, just darker ones both in action and visuals.

So their it is, what do you guys think – any ideas you could add or changes you would make. Now i know not everyone will be happy with this, but alas you cant please everyone.

1) Necro scepter 1

2) Mesmer staff 1

3) Lets make it interesting, 3 sec channel new condition every 0,5 sec that you’re hit by the breath: STUN – 0,5 sec → CRIPPLE – 2 sec → TORMENT – 3 stacks 6 sec → BLEED – 3 stacks 10 sec → POISON – 5 sec → BURNING – 4 sec

4) Mesmer Chaos storm

5) Good idea, would love the bleeding to be torment to further avoid bleed caps, or split 2 torment 3 bleed to make cleansing harder

Edited for easier reading on nr 3

Xhean.3452:

1) Necro scepter 1

2) Mesmer staff 1

3) Lets make it interesting, 3 sec channel new condition every 0,5 sec that you’re hit by the breath: STUN – 0,5 sec -> CRIPPLE – 2 sec -> TORMENT – 3 stacks 6 sec -> BLEED – 3 stacks 10 sec -> POISON – 5 sec -> BURNING – 4 sec

4) Mesmer Chaos storm

5) Good idea, would love the bleeding to be torment to further avoid bleed caps, or split 2 torment 3 bleed to make cleansing harder

Edited for easier reading on nr 3

Yeah i took some ideas from other classes on how they deal conditions, changed the appearance though to be darker versions of skills the Ele already has to make it still seem ele.

Yeah the Necro Scepter Auto is a pretty solid skill, of course the ele version wouldnt be as strong, i mean a constant Poison being applied via a auto attack chain? O.o

I was thinking more of Mirror Blade then the Staff auto, due to the fact that it would have a cool down and such so not spam-able

An interesting idea i personally would remove cripple and bleeding. Poison, Burning and Torment would be pretty solid as well as a AoE interrupt but would have a smaller range and radius then some of the AoE interrupts out there.

Dont really see it, as while IN the ring they wont be getting conditions, its just when they enter or exit.

Yeah i agree with the bleeding. It could even be changed to just do Poison for 5seconds and have 5 stacks of Torment for 10seconds and 1 stack of Bleeding for 10seconds