Guild Wars 2

Elementalist
In this iteration, we’re looking at some specific improvements to dagger weapon types in addition to general utility and miscellaneous updates. Abilities with very long cast times have been reduced to no longer provide extended interruption openings.

Impale: The aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.13 seconds. The damage of this ability has been increased by 20%, and the duration of bleeding has been increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.

Burning Speed: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds.

Earthquake: The recharge time of this ability has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.

Drake’s Breath: The damage of this ability has been increased by 40%.

Cone of Cold: The damage of this ability has been increased by 20%. Its base healing has been increased by 10%. Fixed a skill-fact bug that displayed this ability’s healing contribution lower than its actual levels.

Ice Spike: The casting time for this ability has been reduced from 1 second to 0.75 seconds. Aftercast of this ability has been reduced by 0.5 seconds.

Healing Rain: The casting time of this ability has been reduced by 0.3 seconds.

Lightning Surge: The damage of this ability has been increased by 10%.

Glyph of Elemental Power: The trigger chance of this ability has been increased from 25% to 100%. Weakness duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. Internal cooldown can now be shared between elementalists. This ability will no longer apply conditions to nonenemies.

Signet of Fire: The burning duration of this ability has been readjusted from 2 stacks for 10 seconds to 4 stacks for 6 seconds.

Signet of Air: This ability now inflicts 8 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds in addition to applying blind in a radius of 240 around the target.

Ether Renewal: The casting time of this ability has been reduced from 3.5 seconds to 2.75 seconds.

Harmonious Conduit: Updated the tool tips for overload skills to display stability granted when an attunement is overloaded while this trait is equipped.

Elemental Surge: Immobilize duration has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds.

Ice Bow: Ice Storm damage has been doubled in PvP only.

I expected nothing and i’m still let down.

there is no pleasing some people, especially after many players have asked for ages to bring D/D some love again, they arnt forcing u to go D/D u can still use staff, what did u want them to do with staff? Make it so u can just face roll everything?

I like staff. Can still be used,

But now I can use D/D and have some slight variance in build variety, better than what we had.. Don’t complain at buffs man,

WHOOOOOOOOOOO!

C’mon Anet! C’moooooon!

Finally Glyph of elemental power is no more kittening useless! And ether renewal casting time reduction, godkitten it yes! Finally!

http://i.imgur.com/I1QlwV0.gif

I’m pretty content. No nerfs! Woohoo!

Really glad to see GoEPower get a rework…it really needed it. Thankful for the Staff QoL changes and buffs to the Signets and Ether Renewal too. Offhand Dagger was buffed too, with Earthquake!

Would’ve liked to see Scepter buffs, but I’ll take it. Hopefully Ele can be meta in soloqueue now…we’ll have to wait and see.

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I don’t know…old issues stay the same…how to survive without both toughness and healing power in pvp…

that ice bow buff…. interesting!

But it’s not that bad overall…maybe some new builds will pop out…

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I’m definitely gonna try it out in hotjoin. Those buffs to Drake’s Breath, Burning Speed, Impale and Signet of Fire are very encouraging. Might be time to take Fire/Water/Arcane and go to town, we’ll see.

Mr Godlike.6098:

I don’t know…old issues stay the same…how to survive without both toughness and healing power in pvp…

that ice bow buff…. interesting!

But it’s not that bad overall…maybe some new builds will pop out…

I hope so. At least other classes’ sustain took a hit, so maybe we might be finally able to do a DPS build.

The Glyph of Elemental Power and Signet of Fire are… interesting.

Is power d/d viable now for PvP?

Valento.9852:

The Glyph of Elemental Power and Signet of Fire are… interesting.

That did make my eyes light up. lol
As I said earlier, I haven’t played my tempest in a very long time, and been dying to try a viper’s build. This patch is just begging for it now.

Masculus.4817:

I expected nothing and i’m still let down.

Um…. these are significant buffs and meta changing what do you want?! I cant even image the buffs you want.

I think this will bring back d/x ele as a dps.

Jski.6180:

Masculus.4817:

I expected nothing and i’m still let down.

Um…. these are significant buffs and meta changing what do you want?! I cant even image the buffs you want.

I think this will bring back d/x ele as a dps.

kitten right bro! XD
That glyph change is like the final gift to power builds, anybody who played ele for years can easily see what I mean

It’s all so very exciting.

Hmm, nice changes for core ele I suppose.

Looks like burn ele might be thing…checking with wanderer

Ancient Ranger.3276:

Internal cooldown can now be shared between elementalists.

Can someone spell this out without typos. Does this mean I can cast it once in each attunement with independent CDs or does each attunement get it’s own effects with independent ICDs?

The wording on this is horrible and I can’t log in to test.

Well condition eles got some love.

A bunch of underused stuff got buffed. I don’t really know why people are complaining, this is exactly what ANet should’ve been doing for ages.

Glenstorm.4059:

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I’m definitely gonna try it out in hotjoin. Those buffs to Drake’s Breath, Burning Speed, Impale and Signet of Fire are very encouraging. Might be time to take Fire/Water/Arcane and go to town, we’ll see.

Exactly what I was thinking, Fire is now viable in PvP. Ele still needs sustain though so idk if we can really say no to Tempest just yet.

Huskyboy.1053:

Glenstorm.4059:

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I’m definitely gonna try it out in hotjoin. Those buffs to Drake’s Breath, Burning Speed, Impale and Signet of Fire are very encouraging. Might be time to take Fire/Water/Arcane and go to town, we’ll see.

Exactly what I was thinking, Fire is now viable in PvP. Ele still needs sustain though so idk if we can really say no to Tempest just yet.

I wouldn’t be so sure about condi ele yet…and if look at changes it almost feels like it’s not worth at all to use tempest in any offensive build (in pvp)

I’m genuinely very surprised to see almost entirely buffs.

However I do feel a little bit…. hard to describe.
They are nice changes and some of the skills needed it!

But… I just feel that there are other things that needed more love first.
I think because the skill updates come so rarely, I just want to see a bit more… across all professions, not just elementalist.

Mr Godlike.6098:

Huskyboy.1053:

Glenstorm.4059:

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I’m definitely gonna try it out in hotjoin. Those buffs to Drake’s Breath, Burning Speed, Impale and Signet of Fire are very encouraging. Might be time to take Fire/Water/Arcane and go to town, we’ll see.

Exactly what I was thinking, Fire is now viable in PvP. Ele still needs sustain though so idk if we can really say no to Tempest just yet.

I wouldn’t be so sure about condi ele yet…and if look at changes it almost feels like it’s not worth at all to use tempest in any offensive build (in pvp)

I was thinking of using Overload Fire/Wildfire to maintain burning, and Overload Earth/Dust Storm for more bleeds. Not sure if it’ll actually work, we’ll see. The other option is to go Earth instead of Tempest in order to be able to spam Signet of Fire/Earth more often; would probably use Focus in that case.

Glenstorm.4059:

Mr Godlike.6098:

Huskyboy.1053:

Glenstorm.4059:

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I’m definitely gonna try it out in hotjoin. Those buffs to Drake’s Breath, Burning Speed, Impale and Signet of Fire are very encouraging. Might be time to take Fire/Water/Arcane and go to town, we’ll see.

Exactly what I was thinking, Fire is now viable in PvP. Ele still needs sustain though so idk if we can really say no to Tempest just yet.

I wouldn’t be so sure about condi ele yet…and if look at changes it almost feels like it’s not worth at all to use tempest in any offensive build (in pvp)

I was thinking of using Overload Fire/Wildfire to maintain burning, and Overload Earth/Dust Storm for more bleeds. Not sure if it’ll actually work, we’ll see. The other option is to go Earth instead of Tempest in order to be able to spam Signet of Fire/Earth more often; would probably use Focus in that case.

Good idea. Blinding Ashes adds a good soft CC and helps tremendously with survivability if you go Earth over Tempest.

Huskyboy.1053:

Glenstorm.4059:

Mr Godlike.6098:

Huskyboy.1053:

Glenstorm.4059:

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I’m definitely gonna try it out in hotjoin. Those buffs to Drake’s Breath, Burning Speed, Impale and Signet of Fire are very encouraging. Might be time to take Fire/Water/Arcane and go to town, we’ll see.

Exactly what I was thinking, Fire is now viable in PvP. Ele still needs sustain though so idk if we can really say no to Tempest just yet.

I wouldn’t be so sure about condi ele yet…and if look at changes it almost feels like it’s not worth at all to use tempest in any offensive build (in pvp)

I was thinking of using Overload Fire/Wildfire to maintain burning, and Overload Earth/Dust Storm for more bleeds. Not sure if it’ll actually work, we’ll see. The other option is to go Earth instead of Tempest in order to be able to spam Signet of Fire/Earth more often; would probably use Focus in that case.

Good idea. Blinding Ashes adds a good soft CC and helps tremendously with survivability if you go Earth over Tempest.

Before HoT came out I used to run a D/F build with Fire/Earth/Water, Signets of Restoration, Fire, Earth and Air, FGS for mobility. With Settler amulet (no longer available) and Sigil of Doom it was a surprisingly good dueling build that had the potential to catch people off guard. I wonder how a similar build with Viper might fare now, maybe with Scepter even. The increased healing on Cone of Cold and the Vuln stacks on Signet of Air (which already works quite well in conjunction with Blinding Ashes) are both very welcome, and maybe GoEPower might be worth taking now for more condis (2 3-second burning stacks every 5 seconds <3)

Ulion.5476:

Well condition eles got some love.

I’m very, very happy right now.

Superior Rune of Balthazar + Signet of Fire + Glyph of Elemental Power + Cleansing Flames.

=0

Edit: I am so making a new build right now.

Abelisk.4527:

Superior Rune of Balthazar + Signet of Fire + Glyph of Elemental Power + Cleansing Flames.

=0

Edit: I am so making a new build right now.

http://i.imgur.com/mYSnWtd.jpg

burning speed cd reduction, the dream is real boys

Abelisk.4527:

Superior Rune of Balthazar + Signet of Fire + Glyph of Elemental Power + Cleansing Flames.

=0

Edit: I am so making a new build right now.

Can confirm. We will see nerf threads in a few days about burn Eles.

I’m trying out a build with D/F, Carrion Amulet/Balth Runes/Smoulder Signet, Earth/Water/Tempest, ER/CF/SoF/GoEP/Rebound. It’s a very selfish build. No good healing for allies or condition cleansing for them. But the burning burst is insane. My concern with its viability is how easily the utilities’ burning will be cleansed. Glint Revs will also heal through it easily unless you can bait out their heal. That’s how you’ll win fights. You need to bait their cleanses. SoF has a low CD and GoEP lasts a long time so you can maintain some decent burning even in Water Attunement. It’s pretty awesome. With the downstate change, Reaper viability will probably diminish, so we may not be as needed for a support role anymore, at least not for them.

people jumping on the condi ele hype train—about time.

Huskyboy.1053:

Glenstorm.4059:

Mr Godlike.6098:

Huskyboy.1053:

Glenstorm.4059:

Redfeather.6401:

Do you guys think this will make a viper’s tempest worth it?
I haven’t played my tempest in ages, and been slowly acquiring viper’s armour.

I’m definitely gonna try it out in hotjoin. Those buffs to Drake’s Breath, Burning Speed, Impale and Signet of Fire are very encouraging. Might be time to take Fire/Water/Arcane and go to town, we’ll see.

Exactly what I was thinking, Fire is now viable in PvP. Ele still needs sustain though so idk if we can really say no to Tempest just yet.

I wouldn’t be so sure about condi ele yet…and if look at changes it almost feels like it’s not worth at all to use tempest in any offensive build (in pvp)

I was thinking of using Overload Fire/Wildfire to maintain burning, and Overload Earth/Dust Storm for more bleeds. Not sure if it’ll actually work, we’ll see. The other option is to go Earth instead of Tempest in order to be able to spam Signet of Fire/Earth more often; would probably use Focus in that case.

Good idea. Blinding Ashes adds a good soft CC and helps tremendously with survivability if you go Earth over Tempest.

blinding ashes also adds another nice cover condi for burning, I also liked to use the 50% chance on normal hit to add vuln for 10 sec , with 2 sec icd. makes getting the burns off harder.

Wow, I can keep my D/WH / Staff, nice job anet, Good to see some stuff got a buff.

i hardly play ele as i dont like the support role it has. but condi ele was strong and now even stronger as the burst now compensate the lack of self sustain ele has.
still will have problem versus thief evade dodge

tempest is not that needed with condi any more but still good

I love the change to GoEP – it was always one of my favorite utilities, but never fit into a build. It has such a high skill-cap, and now is more usable.

I have been toying around with a hybrid damage (sage) ele and have a couple of iterations that are both pretty decent.

First, a few notes on traits:
- Arcana works very well with sage. The burns from EA dodge stack very well with the glyph.
- Water is an obvious choice, esp. with arcana for all of that cleansing goodness
- Fire seems very offensive, but sage is a bruiser build and this just doesn’t seem to fit. Taking fire seems to promote a pure condi build. Blinding ashes can give some defense, but its too random with all the random burn procs. This traitline has potential if the opposing team is very condi, but you end up very selfish.
- Earth is ok, if you want to play sort of like the old d/d ele. You would take written in stone, combined with SoR and Earth Signet, and probably earth runes (toughness, plus a magnetic aura, plus extra prot duration. This build does decently as a bruiser (but still not much hard mitigation) while still cleansing and protection-ing your team in a group fight.
- Tempest works pretty well with latent stamina, invigorating torrents, and elemental bastion to cleanse condis like a mofo (as current build does), but also gives you quite a few more dodges (like the old days of sigil of energy giving a full dodge and vigor at 100% doubling your dodge rate). This also gives some excellent team support, but not negligible dps. If you take tempest, you take soldier runes if the enemy team is heavy condi (you can cleanse like crazy between water swaps + water dodge + auras cleansing + shouts cleansing) or something else (strength, earth, fire, flame legion, hoelbrak, and scrapper seem like decent choices)

I personally feel like the water/arcana/tempest has the best promise, but earth might be a close second.

dagger fire ele got a significant buff. And the glyph. Also fire and air signet is now intresting. I makes me considder signets again …. I just don´t play daggers. Would have taken offhand dagger if buffed seriously but did´t happen.

BlackBeard.2873:

I love the change to GoEP – it was always one of my favorite utilities, but never fit into a build. It has such a high skill-cap, and now is more usable.

I have been toying around with a hybrid damage (sage) ele and have a couple of iterations that are both pretty decent.

First, a few notes on traits:
- Arcana works very well with sage. The burns from EA dodge stack very well with the glyph.
- Water is an obvious choice, esp. with arcana for all of that cleansing goodness
- Fire seems very offensive, but sage is a bruiser build and this just doesn’t seem to fit. Taking fire seems to promote a pure condi build. Blinding ashes can give some defense, but its too random with all the random burn procs. This traitline has potential if the opposing team is very condi, but you end up very selfish.
- Earth is ok, if you want to play sort of like the old d/d ele. You would take written in stone, combined with SoR and Earth Signet, and probably earth runes (toughness, plus a magnetic aura, plus extra prot duration. This build does decently as a bruiser (but still not much hard mitigation) while still cleansing and protection-ing your team in a group fight.
- Tempest works pretty well with latent stamina, invigorating torrents, and elemental bastion to cleanse condis like a mofo (as current build does), but also gives you quite a few more dodges (like the old days of sigil of energy giving a full dodge and vigor at 100% doubling your dodge rate). This also gives some excellent team support, but not negligible dps. If you take tempest, you take soldier runes if the enemy team is heavy condi (you can cleanse like crazy between water swaps + water dodge + auras cleansing + shouts cleansing) or something else (strength, earth, fire, flame legion, hoelbrak, and scrapper seem like decent choices)

I personally feel like the water/arcana/tempest has the best promise, but earth might be a close second.

Nice ideas, but a couple of problems with the build.

• Any tempest build would not work without Harmonious conduit unless running in an organized team. Overloads are to precious just to blow it off on a random CC. Good players can just CC you and it’s goodbye overloads. Metabattle has Invigorating Torrents as the trait slotted but WTS/AGs use Harmonious Conduit more often.

• Soldier runes is meh, what do you use it for? I am assuming you are using GoEP, LF, X. So unless you take a shout, you only use the rune for the heal and rebound (1 condition every 75 seconds only) Not worth it right?

• Latent stamina is good yea, so Is Arcane precision, its just perfect for a condition build, pair it up with GoEP.

• Another good debate is Final Shielding vs Arcane Resurrection. Final shielding is good yea but its on a 75 second CD. Arcane Resurrection gives a little bit more team support + it synergizes really well with Elemental Bastion

• I would take a Might stacking rune for the build to boost more DPS like hoelbrak. Radiance is also a very good rune to consider.

• Water vs Earth is another good debate. If you chose to run focus, Obsidian flesh benefits a lot from the Earth line. You also get more sustain via Protection. Water is still good but your OF is on a 50 second cd.

I hope you reply.

I already run earth, arcane, tempest with focus in WvW and prefer it over water.
With arcane durability rune is to good here … Gear is a mix of viper and celestial.
works well for me and i will rethink about the signet changes which are quite good.

Staff Air #2 I hoped for a cleave or area blind with single dmg

StickerHappy.8052:

Nice ideas, but a couple of problems with the build.

• Any tempest build would not work without Harmonious conduit unless running in an organized team. Overloads are to precious just to blow it off on a random CC. Good players can just CC you and it’s goodbye overloads. Metabattle has Invigorating Torrents as the trait slotted but WTS/AGs use Harmonious Conduit more often.

I basically never overload with this build. I just take tempest for the additional sustain from auras (healing and cleanse), and endurance on vigor application. If you are going to overload frequently, invigorating torrents gets the nod, but I play this bruiser like old d/d ele as a side-point build with good teamfight/skirmish support, not a primary healer. I have experimented with dagger offhand b/c I hate being slow, and it works pretty well. Focus is probably better with all the projectile hate and invuln, but the fire field from dagger off-hand works well to both might stack, apply good burning, and that aura from earth 3 leap gives you that cleanse, heal, and vigor/endurance. Also, I just love being able to RtL between points.

Example build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYn0XC9XiFNAeOAcYiFTAr4EUADBEVgAQDwdsmWjrA-TJRHABAcCA4Z/BCeAA3XGAA

• Soldier runes is meh, what do you use it for? I am assuming you are using GoEP, LF, X. So unless you take a shout, you only use the rune for the heal and rebound (1 condition every 75 seconds only) Not worth it right?

I was taking “feel the burn” as it has good dual-purpose cleanse (due to regen), gives you a free dodge in teamfights (thanks to Latent Stamina, which is seriously under-estimated trait). If I weren’t taking feel the burn, I 100% wouldn’t take soldier. That is one area that is still up for grabs.

• Latent stamina is good yea, so Is Arcane precision, its just perfect for a condition build, pair it up with GoEP.

I think you mean renewing stamina. I was following the old ele “build for max sustain”, and renewing stamina does have good synergy with latent stamina (in tempest). I think either way would work fine, as the weakness from arcane precision is the best proc, while burning and other procs are helpful. I think its just a matter of if you want more dodges or a little bit more pressure.

• Another good debate is Final Shielding vs Arcane Resurrection. Final shielding is good yea but its on a 75 second CD. Arcane Resurrection gives a little bit more team support + it synergizes really well with Elemental Bastion

I was actually taking elemental contingency, to get that 100% prot uptime, plus the vigor in water also synergizes with latent stamina (another 10 endurance). The retal in fire isn’t bad for some extra pressure in a brawl.

• I would take a Might stacking rune for the build to boost more DPS like hoelbrak. Radiance is also a very good rune to consider.

I am starting with strength runes (a good standard), but really do like rune of the earth to help with that prot uptime and provide a little more toughness. Leadership is also good for general boon duration (30%!!!). I am not the biggest fan of radiance, especially because I am taking cleansing water over aura-share.

• Water vs Earth is another good debate. If you chose to run focus, Obsidian flesh benefits a lot from the Earth line. You also get more sustain via Protection. Water is still good but your OF is on a 50 second cd.

I hope you reply.

I personally think the debate is more earth vs. tempest. The water/arcana synergy is excellent, and one of the facets of ele I enjoy most (all those heals from water swap + water dodge-roll). For me, earth pairs best with focus, and shores up your access to protection, while giving you less access to dodges and less effective protection. With earth, my build would probably look like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodhcMovhFNwzB8RMsBYVacDeDoVwFYEMPgAwEA-T5QIABzXGAgHAgG7PAA

Which has pretty good toughness to brawl, great projectile hate, and decent pressure, but less overall healing and team support. It is probably more well-rounded as a side-node holder, but I prefer tempest to shine more in 2v2s and 3v3’s while still having decent 1v1’s. I’m still not sure if you can compete with druids/scrappers on a side-node. Focus def. helps vs. DH and rev. The hardest fight would probably be warrior, who can easily stick in-range and just spend so much time ignoring all your soft and hard cc while dishing out huge damage.

Aaaaaaaand Glyph of Elemental Power is back to nothing special xD

Ele still remain the hardest profession to master and to perform with, no cheesy specs to use, nothing to carry you…your victories thx to your skills 100%, you still need to go through hundred blocks, invulnerability and other passive crap..with your mediocre dmg and high attitude for dodges….basically playing ele atm is hardcore gw2

I am very endureable and still have a better playing experience and performance with ele over warrior. What i am not clear at the glyph is what is with the ICD now. If it´s 5 seconds shared over all 4 elements then the 100% is better but not enough to make it a useful utility over others. The text is a bit strange.
Had no time to try much till now. Tried eather renewal. Still high CT got interrupted as expected :-) but it´s noticable better.

Wolfric.9380:

I am very endureable and still have a better playing experience and performance with ele over warrior. What i am not clear at the glyph is what is with the ICD now. If it´s 5 seconds shared over all 4 elements then the 100% is better but not enough to make it a useful utility over others. The text is a bit strange.
Had no time to try much till now. Tried eather renewal. Still high CT got interrupted as expected :-) but it´s noticable better.

Got very excited about the changes…then realised that nothing has really changed ele is still “bunker full heal or die”, still ridiculous after cast on almost everything, still pitiful dmg unless you go full jihad build with zero sustain….luckily Civilasation 6 is released tomorrow

Supreme.3164:

Wolfric.9380:

I am very endureable and still have a better playing experience and performance with ele over warrior. What i am not clear at the glyph is what is with the ICD now. If it´s 5 seconds shared over all 4 elements then the 100% is better but not enough to make it a useful utility over others. The text is a bit strange.
Had no time to try much till now. Tried eather renewal. Still high CT got interrupted as expected :-) but it´s noticable better.

Got very excited about the changes…then realised that nothing has really changed ele is still “bunker full heal or die”, still ridiculous after cast on almost everything, still pitiful dmg unless you go full jihad build with zero sustain….luckily Civilasation 6 is released tomorrow

Good luck with your social life with civ 6.

I have had a LOT of fun with Ele since the update. It does not feel OP yet we can kill ppl now while still having a bit of support.

To those trying out Condi/hybrid builds: what amulet(s) have you been having success with?

Viper’s is still a bit too glassy for me.
Rabid and Wanderer seem promising.
Sage’s seems to me to be a logical choice due to Ele’s healing abilities, but I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.

Also, are you having trouble surviving still?

GoEP has been nerfed back down, can anyone confirm the new effects?

I did some testing and I think that:

1. Burning Speed – it’s good change, now it’s possible to use this again with fresh air so…so we kinda have our pve d/w build back!

Drake’s Breath and Cone of Cold: dps on zerk somewhere between 4-5k so it’s not very impressive in pvp…and easy interrupt so can’t say it’s big deal…specially without fury and if mender is used.

Glyph of Elemental Power: looks like for at least 2 balance patches glyph got some love…skill stack burn with sceptre like a charm but on something such glassy like ele do you really want to drop cantrip or shout for something like this (in pvp)? Personally this would be something much better if inscription trait wouldn’t give such boon c*** that doesn’t add any survivability to glyph skill’s.

Signet changes: overall it’s good direction but water needs some buffs too (if it work like similar ranger signet…dreaming)

Ice Bow: Probably this the best thing in this patch. Ice storm+ piercing shards trait and now you can do something bad on downstate people and those who want to ress them (specially after THIS PATCH) it’s fun to use even on meta mender build!

Rest: either meh or ok changes

Conclusion: look like most of these changes were for sake pve so some people should be happy…now it’s possible to create good burn viper build (already seen people getting 33 burn stacks).

In case of pvp nothing much will change (ice storm might shake things a bit). Without new amulet (thougness+healing power) can’t do much 1v1 with top classes (besides thief’s). Condi seems like new way for us but we can’t get to this burn stack’s if we die faster than necro! In new ranked soloq ele will stay the same – class that can’t carry games and again I will have to stick to druid (meh). ESL will still use healbot – big aoe heals without targeting or charging is never bad…at least if your team is named Denial…

Because it’s probably last balance update in this year it’s safe to say that 2016 was horrible year to main ele in pvp….tempest is garbage if you look at other elite spec’s – it’s such bad design and it’s constantly it’s keep’s being nerfed.

Yea HoT was totally worth it…I will not buy next expansion if ele won’t get any active defences but more boon bulls***.