Guild Wars 2

1. Empathic Bond: This trait is really poorly designed and implemented. It’s annoying to me as a ranger that I can’t clear when I want to, and it’s annoying to people I fight that their condis are removed randomly and automatically! It’s also annoying to my poor pet which takes all my condis up its rear.

Solution: Change this trait to remove conditions upon pet swap, possibly move it to the beastmastery trait line.

2. Reaper’s Protection: It’s just flat out annoying to be feared for 3 seconds because you landed a good CC on a necromancer.

Solution: ? Possibly gain life force when CCed, would have to be tested

3. Incendiary Powder: I’m sorry, this trait needs to go. Engineer’s most damaging condition on a completely undodgeable, random proc is not skillful.

Solution: Remove incendiary powder as a trait, give Engineers compensation with things like more condi clear, better autoattacks, lowered cooldowns on elixirs, etc. This would help solve engineers hardcountering thieves but being hardcountered by necros.

4. Renewing Stamina: Arenanet needs to decide whether eles should have: permanent vigor, high protection up time, good condi removal, or high passive healing. Because at the moment they have all 4. They have already nerfed other classes access to vigor, and now would be the perfect time to nerf eles vigor, as the class is currently a bit overtuned.

Solution: Maybe give vigor on using an arcane skill (?), or change this trait to something else entirely.

infantrydiv.1620:

1. Empathic Bond: This trait is really poorly designed and implemented. It’s annoying to me as a ranger that I can’t clear when I want to, and it’s annoying to people I fight that their condis are removed randomly and automatically! It’s also annoying to my poor pet which takes all my condis up its rear.

Solution: Change this trait to remove conditions upon pet swap, possibly move it to the beastmastery trait line.

I don’t main Ranger, but I do play one and Empathic Bond is pretty strong, for sure. I think that any build – including Ranger builds – looking to fight on point need approximately 3+ cleanses per 10 seconds to have adequate clear; and indeed builds like 00266 D/D Ele or CI/Burst Mastery Warrior and the Ranger node fighter builds of 2013 and early 2014 seem to have that as a key feature as well.

The issue here is that pet swap is 20 seconds (16 traited). 3 cleanses per 16-20 seconds is a pretty significant downgrade for the advantage of having control over the cleanse. The depth of clear would have to be finagled as well. Should it be 6 cleanses per swap to match the old output? That’s CI levels of clear, with the caveat of killing your pet. A change like this would have major consequences for the node fighting builds of Ranger.

infantrydiv.1620:

2. Reaper’s Protection: It’s just flat out annoying to be feared for 3 seconds because you landed a good CC on a necromancer.

Solution: ? Possibly gain life force when CCed, would have to be tested

A lot of the counter-CC passives like Reaper’s Protection or Last Stand or Mirror of Anguish are on long cooldowns and in Master Tier because they provide almost full mitigation; whereas partial mitigation against CC like Engineer’s Protection Injection (doesn’t cover Condition burst) is on shorter cooldowns and in Adept Tier. I think that making RP provide that kind of partial mitigation would require it to be moved down to Adept Tier. But what trait could it replace? Dark Armour? Keeping RP at Master Tier with that kind of partial mitigation would be a pretty significant nerf to Necro’s counterpressure.

infantrydiv.1620:

3. Incendiary Powder: I’m sorry, this trait needs to go. Engineer’s most damaging condition on a completely undodgeable, random proc is not skillful.

Solution: Remove incendiary powder as a trait, give Engineers compensation with things like more condi clear, better autoattacks, lowered cooldowns on elixirs, etc. This would help solve engineers hardcountering thieves but being hardcountered by necros.

I think making a lot more matchups more 50/50 would be nice. Even having Condi Necro be like 70/30 against the current meta Engi builds would be an improvement. That said, removing IP would require a practical rework of how Engineer functions as it does at the moment; with all the balancing, re-balancing and re-re-balancing it would entail after such a huge shakeup. I don’t think Anet will be willing to take that plunge.

I think it might be safer to change IP such that it requires a skill floor. Like:
Incendiary Powder

• Critical hits grant you Incendiary Powder charges. You may not gain more than 1 charge per second. (Prevents GK/FT dominating the crit-seeking arena). Charges last up to 5 seconds. You may store up to 3 charges.
  • Using a Toolbelt skill expends your charges. Each charge makes your next attack cause a Flame Burst; inflicting Burning on up to 3 foes for 2 seconds per charge. 15 second cooldown.

On next attack subjects IP to every single mechanic that players can use to avoid damage; whilst maintaining the on crit requirement by building charges with Crits. 6 seconds of Burning in 3 applications means that the possibility of growing Burning past 9 total seconds – is extremely difficult. It locks bonus Condition duration to 50% and 100% breakpoints.

After that, nerf Balthazar Runes to 30% as it should be, and Napalm Specialist to 25% as it should be. Thus, 100% Burning Duration is still achievable, but not without sacrifice; and overall uptime, assuming no Blocks, Dodges, Invulns or Aegis will be capped at 80%. 12 seconds of Burning is no joke, to be fair; but again, there is a lot more windup, a lot more counterplay, and a lot more investment required. Given how situationally valuable each Toolbelt skill is; I would say that this is enough of a nerf. Add a vocal cue like “Trogdor!” or “Killing it with Fire!” or “Light ’em up!” as enough charges are reached as well; and IP will become a lot better cued.

The reason why eles have all 4 of the things is because they have the lowest armor and health ingame. Dont forget that you have to sacrifice utilities to get vigour and auras for protection. Its not like they get it all passively. And after all you can rip/corrupt the boons which is a direct counter to ele. Hi mes thief necro.

Vigour for arcane skills is useless because no defensive ele uses an offensive skill so you would just force something upon them and the trait will die. After all the vig/reg for cantrips is used to cleanse condis and not because you want to have perm vigour. If you do that conditions will be the death of you.

If the new trait is of a similar benefit we could talk about it.

infantrydiv.1620:

4. Renewing Stamina: Arenanet needs to decide whether eles should have: permanent vigor, high protection up time, good condi removal, or high passive healing. Because at the moment they have all 4. They have already nerfed other classes access to vigor, and now would be the perfect time to nerf eles vigor, as the class is currently a bit overtuned.

Solution: Maybe give vigor on using an arcane skill (?), or change this trait to something else entirely.

There’s already a trait that gives Energy on Arcane use; it’s just that no-one takes it

I think that the problem with Ele at the moment is again; not so much with the class as it is Runes and Sigils. The 25 Might stack D/D Ele is a threat not so much because it is highly defensive, but that it is also pretty offensive. 25 Might Burning from Drake’s Breath hits like a truck; yet eating the full channel without Might isn’t even that threatening. I think when Pirate Runes were nerfed in Might Duration and now no Ele runs it; it’s pretty telling of what exactly is propping up the class.

If you nerf Hoelbrak, Strength rune to 30% bonus duration, and Battle Sigil down to 15 seconds (even 12 seconds), you will see a significant change in Cele D/D Ele’s threat profile.

I remember when the change to Renewing Stamina was shouted down back in December 2013 because Ele really didn’t have a lot else going for it back then. Now that Cleansing Water has had its ICD taken off, and Double Sigils are in, I wouldn’t argue strongly otherwise, but again, it isn’t so much that D/D Ele is defensive so much as it is strongly offensive at the same time.

I do think, however, that all this will do is just make D/D Ele take Battle/Energy instead of Battle/Doom. The synergy of Vigour with Evasive Arcana is just too great to pass up; and you’ll still be stuck with dodges every 5 seconds on Ele. Then you’ll have to nerf Energy Sigil.

With regards to a class specific nerf I won’t disagree with the change; but I think Elementalist really, really needs to grow beyond 40+ in Water and Arcana and if anything, this change makes 30 points in Arcana even more important for the 6 second Vigour breakpoint.

I’ve got a few ideas down as to how Ele might move away from Water and Arcana.

I think that overall, Elementalist suffers when it’s not running anything but double-triple Cantrip and without Elemental Attunement/Evasive Arcana. No other build for Elementalist comes close in matching the survivability to damage ratio but here’s a few ways other things can be brought up for relative balance:

• Shaving Signet of Restoration to heal at its current level when hitting a foe ; but less when just stow-cancelling Lightning Whips into the air.

Overall, Vigour and Condition cleansing for Elementalist should be shifted from Traits into Utilities. For example:

• Signet of Water now cleanses 1 condition on dodge. If an attack is evaded, 2 conditions are cleansed instead.

• Arcane Energy buffed to 33 Energy instead of 25.

• Healing Rain to apply only 1 stack of Regeneration for 10 seconds, but cleanse every pulse. Thus Cleansing Water is less powerful with it.

• Healing Ripple to have its base value decreased and its scaling improved. It should be difficult unless running a Cleric Amulet to make it heal past 1.5k. Celestial makes it heal 1.6k right now with 6 points in Water. Same with Cleansing Wave; it should be difficult to exceed 2k without a Cleric Amulet; yet it heals 2k on Celestial.

• Glyph Heal to cleanse 1 condition specific to Attunement; i.e. Burning for Fire, Chill for Water, Bleed for Earth, Weakness for Air. Also to make its cooldown 20 seconds instead of 25.

• Burning Fire to instead cleanse 1 condition when Blasting a Fire Field; and Burning 3 foes in a 240 Radius for 2 seconds.

• Adding a trait in Master Earth or Master Air Magic that causes Arcane Skills to cleanse 1 condition on use.
  • Same thing for Signets, but maybe in Fire? Perhaps make Fire’s Embrace make the Fire Aura also cleanse 1 condition on application, but only when traited.

• Diamond Skin should be reworked to instead transfer 1 condition on next attack to Foe after attuning to Earth. Hard Counters are bad design.

Overall this would shift Elementalist away from the high sustain that it enjoys with 4+ in Water to less sustainy lines; whilst aiming to keep Cleanses per 10 seconds around 3; but requiring more interaction for both its sustain and its cleanse. Obviously full Cleric’s Staff support should be still viable but this means lower base values and higher scaling such that only Cleric or other high Healing power amulets can attain such levels; with Celestial being less valuable.

EDIT: I cannot into spoilers.

Jekkt.6045:

And after all you can rip/corrupt the boons which is a direct counter to ele. Hi mes thief necro.

The only class that can reliably strip boons is Mesmer. Thief can’t do kitten about the boon spam of certain Ele & Guard builds ever since Larcenous Strike nerf. Dunno about Necros, their utilities to strip them are probably on too high CD’s to do it reliably.

Trait dark path to corrupt boons and you can corrupt 2 boons + chill every 15s. Wrecks every ele.

Jekkt.6045:

Trait dark path to corrupt boons and you can corrupt 2 boons + chill every 10s. Wrecks every ele.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW7Yjc0UebfNG3wfbighSyW4Di+ACgzlykIKA-TZRHwAC3fIwRAAZZABXEAAPAAA

Actually, it’s 12 seconds fully traited; and this is a build that’s basically fully “counterbuilding” against Ele with double corruptions. If Ele wasn’t so predominant right now Necro would be building for the team and running Epidemic.

This isn’t to deny that double corruptions on Necro isn’t strong; nor is Reaper’s Protection not toxic; but it does say something about the current state of Elementalist when a Necro is running a GM trait, CDR, and a Utility slot just to corrupt Boons. 2013 Necro running Epidemic and Withering Precision/Enfeebling Blood would get eaten up by current 2014 D/D Ele.

In addition, corrupting the Might is hardly guaranteed given Elemental Attunement/Elemental Fury’s sheer boon variety of output: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necro-Boon-Removal-Priorities

Necro would win because of counterbuilding, but not 100%, and not without taking significant damage as the Might is not guaranteed to be corrupted. And for Elementalists like Phantaram (he duels Condi necro and wins 4:1) it isn’t even a full counter.

I consider myself a good ele and when i fight necros like teh prototype i have a very hard time and he does not use the dark path trait afaik. Imo if an ele fights a necro of equal skill the necro should win (same goes for mesmer) because you can kite the ele if you use your skills well, soft/hard cc and teleports.

You can also compare the current celestial classes. Warrior is a beast on point but can be kited off point by eles and even more by rifle engi. Ele is stronger or equally strong as a rifle engi on point but can be kited by the engi off point.

It all depends on the situation / builds and ofc personal skill. As i always say pvp is very balanced atm. (Aside from some stupid passives)

MonMalthias.4763:

In addition, corrupting the Might is hardly guaranteed given Elemental Attunement/Elemental Fury’s sheer boon variety of output: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necro-Boon-Removal-Priorities

Necro would win because of counterbuilding, but not 100%, and not without taking significant damage as the Might is not guaranteed to be corrupted. And for Elementalists like Phantaram (he duels Condi necro and wins 4:1) it isn’t even a full counter.

The boons from attunement swaps aren’t really the problem: it’s more about the constant, passive, and frequent boon procs from the most popular runesets and sigils that were boosted in April (mostly Strength and Pirate). Combined with the hidden priority list for corruptions it means that you hardly ever get to remove the most powerful boons like stability (they’re just buried too deep), and whatever you do remove will get reapplied within seconds!

I honestly think that d/d ele is ok – it’s the runes that need rebalancing.

manveruppd.7601:

MonMalthias.4763:

In addition, corrupting the Might is hardly guaranteed given Elemental Attunement/Elemental Fury’s sheer boon variety of output: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necro-Boon-Removal-Priorities

Necro would win because of counterbuilding, but not 100%, and not without taking significant damage as the Might is not guaranteed to be corrupted. And for Elementalists like Phantaram (he duels Condi necro and wins 4:1) it isn’t even a full counter.

The boons from attunement swaps aren’t really the problem: it’s more about the constant, passive, and frequent boon procs from the most popular runesets and sigils that were boosted in April (mostly Strength and Pirate). Combined with the hidden priority list for corruptions it means that you hardly ever get to remove the most powerful boons like stability (they’re just buried too deep), and whatever you do remove will get reapplied within seconds!

I honestly think that d/d ele is ok – it’s the runes that need rebalancing.

Right, that’s what I was saying in the first part of my post when I mentioned how Pirate Runes were dropped by Ele soon after the changes; and how changes to Might Duration on Hoelbrak and Strength runes, and Battle Sigil would have a significant impact on the damage output of D/D; thus necessitating that D/D build less tanky to compensate – Stone Splinters making a comeback over Earth’s Embrace – or be forced to take more DPS oriented Utilities; such as Arcane Wave. Either way, the output of D/D Ele is reduced so the confluence of a Tanky build is more difficult to boost up with ludicrous Might.