Guild Wars 2

Currently Fire Aura is quite useless for most classes. I propose here some changes to make it more interesting, making leaping over a fire field an option instead of always blasting it for might.
Other auras have also a more strategic defensive play while the ICD on the fire aura burn and the meaningless might bonus are meaningless to attackers.

Change fire aura to:
apply 1sec burn to attackers (100% chance, no ICD), and remove a condition (1 sec ICD) when you are hit.

The ICD on the cleanse effect makes it not OP and easier to balance, while the no ICD on the burn effect makes it more viable against flurry attacks, making the attacker having to decide if its better to burst or kite/sustain until the aura is gone (usually 3 secs).

This would make fire aura a viable way to deal with condi pressure, without being a complete counter to it. It would make it a viable option to deal with condi classes without completely negating them.
It would still be less reliable than a controlled cleanse, as you need to perform combos to get it and it depends on attackers hitting you, therefore an option but not a full substitute.
It also promote more strategy to the gameplay as you will have to decide if you want more might (blast the fire field) or reduce condi pressure, and attackers will have to decided if their hits will do more dmg to you or just help you remove dmg conditions.

This would mostly change:
Warriors: using leaps over the LB firefield could be a strategy to help mitigate condition pressure and create other options to deal with condition than the cleansing ire f1 spam (not as effective, but an option to open other builds).
Eles: would make fire aura useful and a way to deal with condi pressure that doesnt demand spec in water line. Would also increase the viability of aurashare for fire auras and make traits that increase aura duration more interesting (see below).
Runes: Runes that grant fire aura or increase aura duration would have a better use as they can help you deal with conditions and apply extra burn or hold attackers for 1-2secs longer (if they decide its not worth to hit the fire aura)

Change Elementalist trait “One with Fire” to:
Fire Auras you apply grant 1 stack of might every 2 seconds (on activation and every 2 secs after that). Increase the duration of fire auras by 33%.
This will make fire aura useful for both brawler builds, giving them a way to clear conditions while being focus, and for ranged/support builds that take the trait, by giving them a way to build up might without having to be taking dmg.
It will also promote a more strategic use of fire aura to achieve its full might stack capacity (needs to be constantly applied instead of simply spamming as it is on its current proposed form) and/or resist to condition application.
This would suit the fire line better (slow might generation and sustained dmg) and the overall idea of elementalist auras (used for defense or offense based on trait choices and need).
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Hope the devs can consider this.

Nice. Completely agree. As it stands, eles are once again locked into Water for pvp, due to no added condition cleanses.

Maybe it could match the boon style of Light aura and give 2 seconds of resistance when hit instead. Not really for the idea of straight removal but a moment’s break might not be so bad. Plus then it could be removed.

ronpierce.2760:

Maybe it could match the boon style of Light aura and give 2 seconds of resistance when hit instead. Not really for the idea of straight removal but a moment’s break might not be so bad. Plus then it could be removed.

I think giving immunity (even brief) for condi would be a bit OP as it would prevent other conditions to be applied, while removing a single condition from you per hit per sec would reduce the condi burst/pressure but not completely negate a condi stacking opponent.

lLobo.7960:

ronpierce.2760:

Maybe it could match the boon style of Light aura and give 2 seconds of resistance when hit instead. Not really for the idea of straight removal but a moment’s break might not be so bad. Plus then it could be removed.

I think giving immunity (even brief) for condi would be a bit OP as it would prevent other conditions to be applied, while removing a single condition from you per hit per sec would reduce the condi burst/pressure but not completely negate a condi stacking opponent.

Resistance doesn’t remove nor prevent application. It just suppresses effects for the short duration. So say someone had 5 seconds of 14 bleeds on you. Condition removal would take them all away. REsistance would suppress the ticks for 2 seconds and 3 would go through.

ronpierce.2760:

lLobo.7960:

ronpierce.2760:

Maybe it could match the boon style of Light aura and give 2 seconds of resistance when hit instead. Not really for the idea of straight removal but a moment’s break might not be so bad. Plus then it could be removed.

I think giving immunity (even brief) for condi would be a bit OP as it would prevent other conditions to be applied, while removing a single condition from you per hit per sec would reduce the condi burst/pressure but not completely negate a condi stacking opponent.

Resistance doesn’t remove nor prevent application. It just suppresses effects for the short duration. So say someone had 5 seconds of 14 bleeds on you. Condition removal would take them all away. REsistance would suppress the ticks for 2 seconds and 3 would go through.

I like the idea, but I’m not sure what would be more balanced.
Resistance is a buff, so it can be removed. But at the same time it stops ALL conditions for a moment. If the user can maintain the aura (constant leaps over fields and aura traits or runes) it can keep the buff longer neutralizing conditions.
If it cleanses one condition it removes some pressure, but all other conditions keep acting. Most condi builds apply more than one condition per hit, so the single condi cleanse would remove only part of the effectiveness even if kept longer.

Would be interesting to test both options to see what fits better, balance wise.

In any case, I think the idea of fire aura providing defense against conditions is a good one (magnetic is defense against missiles, frost against sustain dmg, static against burst)

They want some kind of auramancer spec but all the auras don’t really do anything effective.

They need more damage or group utility attached to them.

Fire Fields seem already effective enough and will become even more potent when burning stacks are implemented. I honestly don’t feel that Fire Auras need to become defensive. There are other auras for that.

Secondly, if anything is given to fire auras, it shouldn’t be condi removal/resistance. That is what light fields are for and light projectiles are for.

Now I do recognize that fire aura is very meh if you aren’t in melee or just plain don’t plan on using your face to apply conditions, so perhaps a different type of bonus could be added? Say Might duration? Since boon duration has been taken out of the trait lines, food, gear and runes might be the only place to get that bonus. So maybe upon applying a fire aura, you get a duration of might duration that persists maybe 8sec after the aura disappears.

The same might apply to projectile finishers as well, applying +burning duration for a few seconds after a combo.

Thus, it keeps fire fields as offensive tools and leaves fields like water, light, etc as defensive fields that you provide their own unique advantage to a battle.

Reposted from the Glyphs thread.

As for Fire Aura being buffed, more of the reworked functionality can be shifted onto the One With Fire trait, although this would do no favours for the tooltip in Specialisation view. Thus:
One With Fire

• Fire Auras you apply last longer and grant Might on application. Reflect incoming damage and reduce incoming condition duration
  • 33% Duration bonus
  • 2 x Might @ 10 seconds base duration (I presume the devs had Strength runes or something similar on)
  • Incoming Condition duration: -20%
  • Damage reflection: 5%

The alternative is as ILobo proposed:

lLobo.7960:

Fire aura needs to remove condi on beeing hit (1 condi, 1sec icd), reducing condi pressure on the ele and becoming a option besides water spec, but not beeing far superior to it.
The fire aura trait should provide might for every 2secs of fire aura. This would make chaining fire auras (instead of spamming) another option to stack might without having to use fields and blasts.

We need options, diversity, not nerfs!

So:
One With Fire

• Fire Auras you apply last longer and grant Might on application. Reflect X% incoming damage and cleanse Y Conditions on being hit
  • 33% Duration bonus
  • 2 x Might @ 10 seconds base duration (I presume the devs had Strength runes or something similar on)
  • Conditions cleansed on being hit: 1-2 (This is to make it more granular to balance instead of the feast or famine design of ILobo’s 1 sec ICD cleanse on hit)
  • Damage reflection: 5%

With the amount of incidental condition output nowadays and triple Signet + Lightning Flash builds having an average CD of ~20 seconds (with new Written in Stone trait) this puts the average Fire Aura output at ~20/3 = 6.6 seconds between possible activations.

• So you can cleanse up to 9-18 conditions per minute; well on par with the meta Cleansing Wave/Cleansing Water/Elemental Attunement/Evasive Arcana of 2 × 6 (2 per attunement to Water per minute) + 1 × 6 (1 Water Attunement dodge roll). Total = 18.
• Given that Signets are cooldown limited and require that you take damage to proc cleanse this is a fair tradeoff. Heck, you don’t even get the innate sustain of the meta build out of the bargain.

So an example build would be:
http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=elementalist&traits=%22Fire%20Magic%22,2,5,8-%22Earth%20Magic%22,3,6,8-%22Water%20Magic%22,1,5,8

• Conjurer, One with Fire, Elemental Shielding, Auramancer for AOE Prot, Might and 2 cleanses on hit per Signet. High uptime Frost aura from Soothing Ice to reduce incoming damage.
• Written in Stone for maximum Fire Aura/Cleanse procs.
• Geomancer’s Freedom/Training for snare mitigation and Earth attunement Blast Finishers. This is necessary due to persisting Flames and the loss of Elemental Fury.

Basically one can expect:

• Protection uptime on par with current meta Elemental Attunement setups (3 seconds vs 5, but you can proc Prot with every Fire aura every 6.66 seconds if you rotate through your Signets, and get Frost Aura at 4 seconds per 10). Flame Barrier will also contribute.
• 9-18 cleanses per minute as discussed previously.
• Losing 5 seconds of Regeneration per 10 from Elemental Attunement and 1500 healing from Evasive Arcana is a significant loss, but made up for by Written in Stone permitting Signet of Restoration use on cooldown and higher Prot uptime overall.
• Unfortunately this build is highly defensive and relies almost entirely on blasting Fire Fields to get Fury and Might to compensate, so damage is unreliable. This is offset by unparalleled Boon output for ally support though.
• Boon hate will absolutely demolish this build.

interesting ideas, fire aura definitely needs some defensive part… but I would give that defensive part into the fire trait line, we don’t want to give all eles more cleanses, we need to reduce the dependency on water line…

so how about this?

fire aura apply burn (2 sec to compensate ICD) to attacker and might (2 stacks) to you everytime you are hit (1sec ICD per attacker)

add an effect to One with fire trait, so fire aura now cleanse 1 condition everytime you are hit (1 sec ICD)

I think the condi cleanse on being hit should be innate of fire aura.
Other auras have very nice uses (ice reduce 10% inc dmg and chills – good against sustain, magnetic reflects projectiles – good against ranged burst, shocking stuns – good against melee burst)
Fire aura reducing condi pressure (cleanse on hit, not just plain cleanse) and burning opponents fits the Auras theme very well.

I think the might stacking with fire aura (for proposed ele trait) should not be “on hit”. As this would give eles that don’t want to stay in the combat (backline casters) a way to build might (by managing their fire auras) without having to waste their fire-fields on their feet and without the need of being hit.
Also, I think it should be a pulsing effect on the fire aura (traited) so that stacking might pre-fights is still viable instead of just spamming all auras (signets), but opening up the possibility of a ele to micro-manage his fire auras from range to build up might during the fight.

This would fit one of the purposes of the fire line and give the ele options to stack might from range for different playstyles.

Well the thing is that you wouldn’t want to spam your signets before a fight to build up Might stacks from One With Fire because you would put all your cleanse on cooldown.

I do agree with altering Fire Aura’s basic function to be a little different. Elementalist even with the above build and its ~80% Protection uptime still won’t want to take too many hits.
~80% approximation derived from:

• Protection for 3 seconds per 10 on attuning to Fire (Flame Barrier + Elemental Shielding)
• Protection for 3 seconds per 6.66 on rotating through 3 Signets. (Conjurer + Elemental Shielding). Average = ~4.54 seconds per 10 maximum. Obviously you don’t just want to faceroll signets, so we’ll presume half that time @ 2.25 seconds per 10.
• Protection for 3 seconds per 10 on being Critically Hit (Soothing Ice + Elemental Shielding). Presuming that you are crit at least once in 10 seconds.
• Total Protection uptime = 3 + 2.25 = ~5.25 seconds before Boon duration; + another possible 3 seconds if getting crit = 8.25 seconds possible Prot uptime out of 10 seconds. 10.54 seconds out of 10 Protection uptime possible if you just faceroll Signets at full 6.66 rotation speed.

It would be easier if Fire Aura just made the next X (proposing 3) attacks apply Y (currently 10) seconds of Might so the Elementalist can focus on offense instead of deliberately getting hit. It also makes balancing easier because the number of attacks can be adjusted for balance reasons. Right now the balancing factor is that you have to take damage to get Might with 1 second ICD per attacker; which for Elementalist is suicide to take attacks from more than 1 attacker at a time anyway.

I don’t think that stacking Might pre-fight should be possible just by rotating through Auras. Might is still stackable by Blasting Fire Fields. The above build requires cooldown discipline. Proposing that the Fire Aura simply pulse Might stacks on application doesn’t really encourage skilled play. In combat, near 100% Fire Aura uptime will ensure that your Might Stacks are maintained as long as you attack people; but not before. You have Blasts in Fire Fields for that. The on-attack trigger also eliminates the melee vs range distinction.