Guild Wars 2

I don’t care that we’re nerfing Diamond skin (by a lot, mind you), I don’t care that the new effects are completely not thematic with the earth trait line, but why the hell does diamond skin still need to be tied to a health threshold?

There were so many good ideas about how DS could be reworked before the balance preview annoucement like the following:

Gain resistance on attunement swap (with ICD most likely),
Gain longer duration resistance on swapping to earth,
Pulse resistance when (activating/channeling certain skills)

Of course, none of those were listened to, instead we get told that DS will be about removing conditions. But this? This new diamond skin didn’t make the trait any less situational, any less terribly designed, in fact it might even be worse.

Why do we have a trait that literally becomes nonexistent as soon as our health is dropped below a certain health threshold? This new DS pushes users towards full sustain bunkers even more than the old one.

Why can’t we just have a proper, active trait (with reasonable effects) that is in play all the time?

Shadowflare.2759:

I don’t care that we’re nerfing Diamond skin (by a lot, mind you), I don’t care that the new effects are completely not thematic with the earth trait line, but why the hell does diamond skin still need to be tied to a health threshold?

There were so many good ideas about how DS could be reworked before the balance preview annoucement like the following:

Gain resistance on attunement swap,
Gain longer duration resistance on swapping to earth,
Pulse resistance when (activating/channeling certain skills)

Of course, none of those were listened to, instead we get told that DS will be about removing conditions. But this? This new diamond skin didn’t make the trait any less situational, any less terribly designed, in fact it might even be worse.

Why do we have a trait that literally becomes nonexistent as soon as our health is dropped below a certain health threshold? This new DS pushes users towards full sustain bunkers even more than the old one.

Why can’t we just have a proper, active trait (with reasonable effects) that is in play all the time?

It’s a good thing that there are 17 other grandmaster traits… Seriously though, Diamond Skin isn’t a mandatory thing, and classes like necro that apply condi’s at the rate you cleanse them will have to hit you as hard as they can just to drop you to 75%. Of course, I think ele warrants buffs elsewhere with the removal of celestial.

Cecilia.5179:

Shadowflare.2759:

I don’t care that we’re nerfing Diamond skin (by a lot, mind you), I don’t care that the new effects are completely not thematic with the earth trait line, but why the hell does diamond skin still need to be tied to a health threshold?

There were so many good ideas about how DS could be reworked before the balance preview annoucement like the following:

Gain resistance on attunement swap,
Gain longer duration resistance on swapping to earth,
Pulse resistance when (activating/channeling certain skills)

Of course, none of those were listened to, instead we get told that DS will be about removing conditions. But this? This new diamond skin didn’t make the trait any less situational, any less terribly designed, in fact it might even be worse.

Why do we have a trait that literally becomes nonexistent as soon as our health is dropped below a certain health threshold? This new DS pushes users towards full sustain bunkers even more than the old one.

Why can’t we just have a proper, active trait (with reasonable effects) that is in play all the time?

It’s a good thing that there are 17 other grandmaster traits… Seriously though, Diamond Skin isn’t a mandatory thing, and classes like necro that apply condi’s at the rate you cleanse them will have to hit you as hard as they can just to drop you to 75%. Of course, I think ele warrants buffs elsewhere with the removal of celestial.

every class has 3 grandmaster traits per spec line to choose from so it’s okay if we make one out of 3 terribly designed
Why should we have to avoid the problem instead of fixing it? What you’re saying is a terrible excuse.

The trait shouldn’t have a health threshold, shouldn’t have what is “supposed to be OP” effect. I just want it to be a normal grandmaster trait that is interactive for the user and its enemies, what’s wrong with that?

I’ll trade you a grandmaster trait. you can have empathic bond. Heck, forget the whole transferring to the pet thing, since ele’s don’t have pets, we’ll just have it remove conditions, period!

New diamond skin change is interesting to me. I’m interested to see how it’s actually going to play out in practice, rather than just in the numbers.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

I’ll trade you a grandmaster trait. you can have empathic bond. Heck, forget the whole transferring to the pet thing, since ele’s don’t have pets, we’ll just have it remove conditions, period!

New diamond skin change is interesting to me. I’m interested to see how it’s actually going to play out in practice, rather than just in the numbers.

I’m gonna guess you’re joking but honestly, I’d take that trade. People were joking about DS having the same effect as signet of water before, and I’m close to saying I’d even take that over this current one.

health threshold traits on a class with 11k base health and 1888 base armor

that said, I think it’s fine, because of perma protection being possible, and the change being a buff for after the threshold is broken

Shadowflare.2759:

Gain resistance on attunement swap,
Gain longer duration resistance on swapping to earth,

this would have been a REALLY bad idea though

hint: it’s possible to attunement swap 6 times every 9 seconds

Stone Heart – speaks for itself
Stone Mind – should have been the new Diamond Skin

Stone Mind: – Reduce the amount of condi damage received from conditions for every condition on you. Damage reduced by 2% per condi stack. Max 20 stacks.

(moderate dmg reduction as needed)

reikken.4961:

health threshold traits on a class with 11k base health and 1888 base armor

that said, I think it’s fine, because of perma protection being possible, and the change being a buff for after the threshold is broken

Shadowflare.2759:

Gain resistance on attunement swap,
Gain longer duration resistance on swapping to earth,

this would have been a REALLY bad idea though

hint: it’s possible to attunement swap 6 times every 9 seconds

And then you lock yourself out of attunements.

for having literally 100% uptime on resistance? a very good trade

reikken.4961:

for having literally 100% uptime on resistance? a very good trade

That depends entirely on what duration the base resistance is set at with consideration of boon duration buffs. And if you’re dancing through attunements strictly to fulfil this, you do barely anything in any attunements, and definitely not overloads, but I guess that’s a given as hardly anyone takes arcane and tempest together anyways.

Resistance also has far more counterplays.

Regardless, this isn’t relevant to the topic at hand anymore, considering this is not the effect that they decided to go with, you can argue whether it’s a good or bad idea, I can still say that the new DS effect, with its health threshold, remains a terrible design.

well yeah. have you never played fresh air ele? you use one or two burst or utility skills and then swap. and any duration that doesn’t result in 100% resistance uptime for fresh air builds would make it useless for non fresh air builds

but what counterplays does resistance have? when it can be reapplied every 2 seconds. boon strip doesn’t help against that

Anyway, on topic, I don’t like that the new DS still forces ele into a tanky heal sustain build to be useful (a build that will be notably less possible to achieve), but at least it is an improvement on the old design.

Cecilia.5179:

Shadowflare.2759:

I don’t care that we’re nerfing Diamond skin (by a lot, mind you), I don’t care that the new effects are completely not thematic with the earth trait line, but why the hell does diamond skin still need to be tied to a health threshold?

There were so many good ideas about how DS could be reworked before the balance preview annoucement like the following:

Gain resistance on attunement swap,
Gain longer duration resistance on swapping to earth,
Pulse resistance when (activating/channeling certain skills)

Of course, none of those were listened to, instead we get told that DS will be about removing conditions. But this? This new diamond skin didn’t make the trait any less situational, any less terribly designed, in fact it might even be worse.

Why do we have a trait that literally becomes nonexistent as soon as our health is dropped below a certain health threshold? This new DS pushes users towards full sustain bunkers even more than the old one.

Why can’t we just have a proper, active trait (with reasonable effects) that is in play all the time?

It’s a good thing that there are 17 other grandmaster traits… Seriously though, Diamond Skin isn’t a mandatory thing, and classes like necro that apply condi’s at the rate you cleanse them will have to hit you as hard as they can just to drop you to 75%. Of course, I think ele warrants buffs elsewhere with the removal of celestial.

It is completely mandatory, and Necros and Revs will not have to take you below 75%. They will just nuke you.

Yep, resistance on swapping to earth was always the best replacement trait imo. It allowed counterplay, and was universally useful.

reikken.4961:

well yeah. have you never played fresh air ele? you use one or two burst or utility skills and then swap. and any duration that doesn’t result in 100% resistance uptime for fresh air builds would make it useless for non fresh air builds

but what counterplays does resistance have? when it can be reapplied every 2 seconds. boon strip doesn’t help against that

Anyway, on topic, I don’t like that the new DS still forces ele into a tanky heal sustain build to be useful (a build that will be notably less possible to achieve), but at least it is an improvement on the old design.

If fresh air build are the only problem, then just add an internal cooldown to the trait…Make it such that only swapping ‘normally’ would give you the resistance buff.

Resistance has far more counterplays than the old DS simply because it actually lets you apply conditions, that difference is night and day. With the aforementioned ICD, this gives enemies more than enough windows of opportunity.

The new DS still has the glaring problem become useless once you drop past 75%, and since enemies can drop poison and chill right from the beginning, as well as the ease at which conditions are applied these days, means that cleansing will never be enough, and the lower health threshold will most likely be just as easy (if not easier) to break as the old 90% health threshold. And that’s ignoring burst from power builds.

So now we have a trait that will easily be made non-existent. How is that an improvement.

Don’t worry, it is a moot point. Ele is going back to being unusable with the removal of celestial. No amulet provides sufficient defense for a bruiser role, and eles don’t have the mechanics to play any other role due to terrible class design.

Keep arguing if you want, but it is wasted breath for at least another year when they just rebuild the current working ele build b/c they have no idea how to make anything else.

BlackBeard.2873:

Don’t worry, it is a moot point. Ele is going back to being unusable with the removal of celestial. No amulet provides sufficient defense for a bruiser role, and eles don’t have the mechanics to play any other role due to terrible class design.

Keep arguing if you want, but it is wasted breath for at least another year when they just rebuild the current working ele build b/c they have no idea how to make anything else.

I might agree with you, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are still opportunities to change. As bad as everything is, GW2 is still one of the better options on the market and as long as I’m still here I will try to push for change, especially if it’s asking for better design reworks. Better than just sitting here and taking their terrible decisions without voicing my opinion.

Arenanet design philosophy:

Lets take this passive trait. AND MAKE IT EVEN MORE PASSIVE.

Brilliant.

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

Arenanet design philosophy:

Lets take this passive trait. AND MAKE IT EVEN MORE PASSIVE.

Brilliant.

Well it could have been worst, they could have add
“Condition applied on you see their duration decreased by 3% per conditions” or something…

lol the new trait will be unusable its awesome.

Think about it logically. They put a ton of condis on you. So your health drops. Then you no longer get the clear. Its pretty obvious how bad the new trait will be. It is win-more. Logically bad. Because defensive traits when you have high health = when you dont need them. So its terrible.