Guild Wars 2

Ele’s have had a roller coaster ride in wvw since launch. They had the Downed State vapor form buff ages ago,
Theyve been nerfed (d/d)
They still have Non-LOS advantages (Dragon Tooth, Meteor Shower) that kill siege
They have wierd quirks (Meteoer Shower >>>Tornado trick)
They were trying to make staff more supporty but really only earth #4 was buffed imo

Its time to just BALANCE the ele instead of making them either weak or OP in cetertain areas. Why not just polish them. Fix the dragon tooth exploit on siege at the very least. Vapor Form seems OP cuz the other downed things I pop stability to stomp, an ele can always get out of the stomp. Buff staff a little more.

Lastly, Balance Metoer Shower. Its good but prone to exploits and it takes ages to cast for legitimate casters. Yes a strong spell deserves it but maybe find some way to make this a workable skill that doesnt imbalance things (Make it a true 100b spell-lock that you cant morph/swap attunements).

I enjoy my ele but feel like it is just too scattered now. You can do some shady things to make your ele OP in wvw but legit players or players with high morals are weaker ele players since they dont do the dragon tooth/tornado-MS things.

EDIT: Also nerf FGS mobility

What pray tell is this Dragon Tooth exploit, and this Meteor Tornado exploit?

Eles are weak really. I don’t see reason to nerf their downed and I have no idea what exploit you referring to for meteor shower.

The dragon tooth exploit is the non line-of-sight aspect of it. It can be used to hit siege on top of the wall and behind gates once you get it targeted.

The meteor shower exploit he is talking about is something many eles use to get more damage out of meteor shower. It’s not really an exploit. Basically you cast Meteor Shower and then use your Tornado elite to boost your damage as the Tornado form gives buffs to your power, precision, and vitality. It doubles all of them so you can get some pretty huge numbers if you want.

At least I think that’s what he talking about.

I’ll feel bad for Els once they are relegated to Ranger status in WvW.

JJBigs.8456:

Vapor Form seems OP cuz the other downed things I pop stability to stomp, an ele can always get out of the stomp. Buff staff a little more.

Thats like the only reason a glass d/d ele is sorta kinda almost viable in small group roaming. Go in on a suicide run dumping as much damage as you can into as many as you can hopefully downing a few. Then you down use vapor form to stay alive long enough for your teammates to stomp.

Anyways, I do agree the ele needs a lot of work, but I don’t agree with your suggestions.

My ele with her t3 armor and Incinerator sits in LA while my thief and mesmer do work in WvW.

Sreoom.3690:

I’ll feel bad for Els once they are relegated to Ranger status in WvW.

I haven’t touched my ranger in so many months. XD

To be honest, Dragon’s Tooth is the only “meta” advantage the Ele has in WvW compared to other professions (think about perma stealth Thieves, Mesmer’s portal’ing Golems faster and forces inside fortifications) after The Focus can’t destroy siege shots any more. Dragons Tooth is a 900 range skill, so you have to get very close to a wall to be able to target that siege engine on the wall anyway. This is not “OP”.

The changes planned at the Dec 10th update do not make the Ele better (see discussions about Elemental Attunement, Renewing Stamina & especially Cleasning Wave on the Ele forums), it could even be the cause for more Water & Arcana heavy builds.
I agree that Ele still needs balancing for WvW, but as far as the possible changes to the class are known to the players, I do not think that we will get what we think is needed soon.

Tibstrike.2974:

The meteor shower exploit he is talking about is something many eles use to get more damage out of meteor shower. It’s not really an exploit. Basically you cast Meteor Shower and then use your Tornado elite to boost your damage as the Tornado form gives buffs to your power, precision, and vitality. It doubles all of them so you can get some pretty huge numbers if you want.

That works with pretty much any transform and persistent effect. Necros are even better at it with wells and lich form.

Caffynated.5713:

Tibstrike.2974:

The meteor shower exploit he is talking about is something many eles use to get more damage out of meteor shower. It’s not really an exploit. Basically you cast Meteor Shower and then use your Tornado elite to boost your damage as the Tornado form gives buffs to your power, precision, and vitality. It doubles all of them so you can get some pretty huge numbers if you want.

That works with pretty much any transform and persistent effect. Necros are even better at it with wells and lich form.

Oh yeah. I know. I don’t think its bad either. You can even hop in an omega golem for a big boost!

@OP yea no. Meteor shower is fine. Cast time, AoE, and everything. Tornado is working as intended. Of the things you mentioned, only dragon tooth needs fixing. It should be ground targeted or something else self target (on your location) when there’s no selected target.

Also staff lightning 2 and 3 need a remake imo for fresh air builds (faster cast time, potentially weaker skills). Give staff at least 2 skills that don’t feel ‘heavy’.

Ele 1v1 is lacking in a lot of areas. I don’t know how they would fix it though. For one, scepter water 2 needs a remake for PvP. It should either be a blast finisher or short water field at least.

Gorani.7205:

The changes planned at the Dec 10th update do not make the Ele better (see discussions about Elemental Attunement, Renewing Stamina & especially Cleasning Wave on the Ele forums), it could even be the cause for more Water & Arcana heavy builds.

Requoting for the absurdity of it – moving the best & most required traits in water and arcane higher in water and arcane to reduce the need to spec high water and arcane, clearly a brilliant strategy…

Ele suffers from the same problem it has always suffered from since launch:

• staff totally pidgeonholed into support and bunkering
• focus significantly weaker than O/H dagger
• stupidly-designed skills on sceptre: fire auto, dragon’s tooth, water auto, shatterstone
• requirement to spec in arcane for class to be minimally playable
• horrible utility balance: glyphs, signets, conjures all useless
• horrible trait balance: fire & earth lines useless
• numerous joke traits throughout all trees (all classes suffer this, but Ele most of all)
• consequently, virtually no build diversity: fresh air GC gimmick build or high water/arcane, those are your choices

new issues created since launch:

• D/D roaming killed, nerfed in 5 consecutive (un)balancing patches
• increased requirement to spec in 20+ water/20+ arcane due to moving the 2 most required/class-defining traits to master level.

I am sure ele will have its chance at flavor of the month again. I remember months back when I saw complete clans switching to dagger eles. I am talking 20+ dagger eles running around having pretty much the best of everything. They still seem pretty strong if you know what your doing. It could be worse they could be as usless as ranger.

“eles OP”……… I have heard it all, I have, truly…..

are you serious? again another thief complaining on the forums wanting eles to be nerfed even more since they have to blow an elite to get away from you and mist form into a portal when you do catch up and kill them.

the only bug meteor shower has is that it has no aoe circle to enemy players.
literally all this thread is, is nerf ele so much so that the class is even more useless than rangers.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

I am sure ele will have its chance at flavor of the month [stuff]

You’re referring to before eles (dagger) received probably the largest sequence of nerfs of any class in the game. “Flavor of the month” doesn’t happen by itself.

I would like to see eles polished on the small scale/roaming side (dagger, scepter, focus skills). Sort of like how thief sword 3, pistol 1 and 2, dagger 3 and 4 have all been redesigned to be more interesting. It would be nice if staff was made less 1-dimensional though I’m more happy with staff overall more than the other sets.

Sadly the Dec 10 patch isn’kitten It’s a nerf for what I’m running but at least it will possibly open new trait options. Maybe a step in the right direction for that at least.