Guild Wars 2

Can we all agree that this skill is way over powered and could use some re-balancing as well? 1 trait that negates a full condi build class. you could at least make the skill say makes condis 20% less effective or something. but to say that the elementalist is immune to all conditions if health above 90% is crazy. Especially with all the healing an Elementalist can do , even now more than ever with over loads. I’m not a class basher because i have played every class and i know which skills are just ridiculous and need rebalancing. Diamond skin could at least work like Versed in Stone ; a revenants skill jalis iron hammer elite.

Yes, the trait is ridiculous and there are tons of ways to make it more balanced and more fun to play and to design it so it actually takes skill to use it properly.

No1 disagrees about this.

BUT: Currently, Certain Condi-builds are so OP that I don’t mind a strong counter against it.

And if ppl don’t use DS as a counter to condi-builds, the next OP thing will likely just be Necro or sth.

It’s a tricky thing changing that skill without making ele obsolete or without making condi-builds run rampant. :P

how about not making a build that can be stopped dead by one trait? when you streamline yourself to be a one trick pony and then choose to try and fight the one build that stops you dead in your tracks …… maybe you deserve to lose

If condi wasn’t broken as kitten and the only real viable way to deal damage than yeah I would agree with you.

Defiling Treekiller.1632:

how about not making a build that can be stopped dead by one trait? when you streamline yourself to be a one trick pony and then choose to try and fight the one build that stops you dead in your tracks …… maybe you deserve to lose

You can’t really tell if the Elementalist is running Diamond skin bro, so the sarcastic comment was a huge fail. Nor do i even play condition class. I’m just making note to a trait that is over powered.

You can tell if an Elementalist is running Diamond skin, so shut up if you don’t know something!
In the past there was good real dmg, they nerfed it, now they powered up bunker/healer tipe professions, and we are kittened up! Even the condi is better now than real dmg, seriously!

LordOtto.2650:

You can tell if an Elementalist is running Diamond skin, so shut up if you don’t know something!
In the past there was good real dmg, they nerfed it, now they powered up bunker/healer tipe professions, and we are kittened up! Even the condi is better now than real dmg, seriously!

no you can’t tell.. It’s no stone skin , there is no symbol that shows that the elementalist is running Diamond skin. so wtf are you talking about?

You can tell when the first ability you use that normally applies a condition gets and immune message instead.

Unless they are full bunker, DS elementalist doesn’t seem that difficult to kill as long as you have some direct damage.

And all bunkers are hard to kill.

That said, DS shouldn’t prevent control effects. I don’t see a problem with it negating damage since it should prevent people from going full condition. The game would be better if going to the extremes in a build didn’t pay off as much.

I play a necro quite often. The most annoying thing is having your snares resisted since for a necro to make contact you generally need to snare your target since your personal mobility isn’t that good.

Sazukikrah, you have a way long to learn…

You can’t see if a ele/tempest have DS targetting him, there’s no icons that show that. It’s a trait and there’s no immediate effects so no need to make a icon for that.
But Every Tempest use it, then there’s no need to know if the ele have it why he have it for shure.

The “problem” of the DS has appeared pre-hot in some builds that was able to kill any condition class, but that “problem” was only in high tier of spvp, where a good ele was able to heal himself at the right moment to prevent a condi burst. But also take down the hp of a ele was easier, then there was not a real problem if a really good ele was able to kill more or less easy a condi build why there was few eles able to do that.
I was able to kill elementalists with DS when using my Burn Guardian before HoT, for example.

The real problem appear now that there’s a new trait that make the elementalist able to obtain constantly little amount of heals out of the common weapon/utility heal: Elemental Bastion.
That trait make the Auramancer able to heal for 1k when using Celestial Amulet, making him able to heal himself just with a leap toward a field or activating a shout (why give an aura).

That combination make the Tempest able to constantly heal himself just with a easy combo or a shout, mantaining his hp over 90% easy against a condition class or even a direct damage class, adding that heal to the overcharge of water (or anyway every overcharges can give a aura by trait) and all the other heals of the ele.

The problem isn’t (only) Diamond Skin, the problem is that the combination of Diamond Skin and Elemental Bastion make a Tempest able to stay easy over 90%hp and be totally immune to conditions. A Elementalist can’t do that, a Tempest can.
If you add that there’s some classes that now can output a large amount of heal for they’re allies (Druid or other Tempests) inflict a condition to a Tempest is even harder.

The problem isn’t a single trai, the problem is that dangerous combination.

It aint a problem that DS counters condition builds, it is a problem that it counters it too hard. Traits like DS stimulate Build Wars 2.

Yes, a little counter isn’t a problem, before HoT take down that 10% of hp wasn’t a big problem (sometimes was, but not always).
The problem occour when 2 traits couter at 100% a entire kind of builds making you win at 99% against them with 2 passive traits.

Make DS not affect CC or soft CC conditions can be a solution, making the tempest easier to hit. or also put a internal CD on Elemental Bastion of 8 seconds, making the tempest unable to spam that heal all the time, or reduce by half the heal. (a so easy and spammable heal that give you 1k hp every time when in celestial, not even in cleric or similar, is really amazing, barely OP by itself)

You know the stupid thing? Without Diamond skin Tempest dies super fast in the current bunker/condi meta.

Try it, make a Tempest, go Stoneskin, go into PvP. You’ll just melt. I’m honestly starting to believe that Diamond Skin and the Tempest helping cleanse allies condi’s is the only thing stopping this whole Meta shifting to pure condi.

First and foremost, conditions need a nerf across the board before even considering touching Diamond Skin.

With that said, a reasonble change would be to make it effective only in earth attunement like Stone Heart.

The only change needed to make this trait “balanced” in the current meta is making fear an effect rather than a condition. This would make it able for condi reapers to break the threshold with chain fears. This would however not work in the longrun for classes that have pure condi builds.
ie; Condi mesmers runs absolutly ZERO power.

Im not gonna count in condi engineers nor Mallyx/Shiro revs as both of those are generally more of a hybrid class rather than pure condi.

Daharahj.1325:

First and foremost, conditions need a nerf across the board before even considering touching Diamond Skin.

With that said, a reasonble change would be to make it effective only in earth attunement like Stone Heart.

Why would condis need a nerf when people
A: aren’t avoiding the heavy hitters
B: are running builds light on condi cleanse.

Tempest shout builds are much lighter on the cleansing than cantrips.

Everyone else has cut waaaay back.

The meta wouldn’t shift “pure condi” without DS tempests. Rather, people would realize they need condi cleanses, which would mean that other people would stop running as many condi builds since they can be cleansed so easily. Then, an equilibrium would be reached where there were some condi builds, some power builds, and some bunker builds.

The PvP makeup of most teams in higher divisions is as follows: 2 DS eles, 2 other bunkers (druid or mesmer), and one damage spec with high sustain, usually a viper rev or scrapper.

Not only is this boring af, but it’s impossible to counter unless the other team runs the same comp. DS ele is cancer and it is destroying PvP.