Guild Wars 2

Greetings, all. It’s been a while, but I’m back. I’m having a lot of fun, and I feel like the Elementalist is almost where it needs to be. Nevertheless, I have a few ideas to contribute.

This thread is exactly what it says on the tin — a short wishlist regarding Elementalist skills. Feel free to agree, disagree, criticize, comment, flame, or otherwise discuss my ideas. Contributions will be added to this post via edit.

Forthwith the list!

Scepter:

• Dragon’s Tooth: Here, I actually have two wishes: the ability to manually target Dragon’s Tooth; and/or a 10-20% reduction in the delay prior to impact
• Shatterstone: I feel this ability could also use a 10-20% reduction in the delay prior to impact
• Water Trident: I would like to see this ability inflict Chilled, as well — on its own, the Scepter does not have any ability to Chill targets
• Rock Barrier (Hurl): I would like to see each rock hurled inflict 3 seconds of Crippled — on its own, the Scepter does not have any way to Cripple targets

Focus:

• Flame Wall: Though this ability functions primarily to generate combo effects, I wouldn’t mind seeing its damage increased somewhat and/or its cooldown reduced by 5 seconds
• Fire Shield: Most people seem to agree that this skill could use a buff; I feel its duration could be increased from 5 to 8 seconds, and the duration of Burning could be increased from 1 to 3 seconds; note that this would apply to Fire Auras applied from all sources (such as combo fields). If that is not sufficient, Fire Aura could also apply Vigor — although that could easily be added with a Tier 1 Fire trait.
• Freezing Gust: I feel it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to increase the Chilled duration of Freezing Gust from 3s to 5s; the addition of a small area-of-effect might justify its cooldown (which is significantly longer than that of Frozen Burst, which provides a similar effect at point-blank range).
• Comet: I think this ability could use a reduction in cooldown, from 25 to 20 seconds; a slight increase in area of effect could also work

Dagger:

• Fire Grab: I feel as though this ability could benefit from one of two things: a 5-second cooldown reduction; or a conditional method of reducing the ability’s cooldown

Staff:

• Magnetic Aura: Magnetic Aura seems a little… lackluster by comparison with Magnetic Wave; perhaps it should apply Stability for 3-5 seconds in addition to its current effects (note that this would also apply to Magnetic Auras from earth combo fields, if such existed — thanks, Ryld)
• Unsteady Ground (Courtesy of Navzar): Navzar feels this skill could use a cooldown reduction or a damage boost; though I agree on a slight cooldown reduction (on the order of 5 seconds or so), I would also consider the possibility of extending the Cripple duration from 2 seconds to 3-5 seconds. To me, Unsteady Ground is more an area-denial skill than a DPS skill — and a skill that simultaneously traps foes in an area AND does high DPS is potentially problematic.

Utility:

• Glyph of Elemental Power (WARNING: POSSIBLY OP): Now effects all attunements, instead of the attunement in which it was activated (so, after activating it, you can switch to Fire attunment for a chance to Burn things, Air attunement for a chance to cripple things, etc.). It might need to have its cooldown increased if this change is implemented.
• Glyph of Storms: This ability is wonderful, but I have two suggestions: allow Lightning Storm to apply Weakness for 5 seconds in a slightly larger area; and to slightly increase the area of effect and Chilled duration for Ice Storm
• Glyph of Lesser Elementals (courtesy of Kamui): No limited duration on the summon. Basically make them function like a Necromancer minion and keep them around until they die. In addition, have their special attack be what replaces the Glyph skill itself (Necro minions, Ranger spirits, and Guardian spirit weapons all get this) so that we can fire them on command instead of them being used randomly. Note: To implement this properly, the Elemental would need a “dismiss” command, so you could switch Elementals as necessary. Likewise, whether the Elite version of this glyph would function similarly would need to be discussed, owing to the possibility of having two permanent Elementals simultaneously. Finally, each Greater Elemental has three skills, so Kamui’s suggestion does not translate directly to the elite version of this skill. I like the spirit of the idea, which is why I included it here, but it might need a little work.

Discuss.

Just a note though, Magnetic Aura isn’t possible in any way other then the skill. There’s no Earth field.

Good call.

I could have sworn Unsteady Ground was a combo field, but you’re right, it’s not. =)

I’ll edit the OP to reflect this.

Glyph of (Lesser) Elementals: No limited duration on the summon. Basically make them function like a Necromancer minion and keep them around until they die. In addition, have their special attack be what replaces the Glyph skill itself (Necro minions, Ranger spirits, and Guardian spirit weapons all get this) so that we can fire them on command instead of them being used randomly.

Kamui,

I like that suggestion (also like the X reference — it’s been a LONG time since I saw one!).

I’ll add your suggestion to the OP.

Flame shield is almost useless, it’s a shield that provides no protection it burns for 1 second if you’re hit, it lasts 5 seconds and only gives u 1 stack of might per hit and why is it on a 40 second cooldown?

I’d like to see flame shield buff. If hit 3 times while in flame shield it explodes, dealing x damage to enemies within a 300 radius. and burns them for 3 seconds.

Ryld.1340:

Just a note though, Magnetic Aura isn’t possible in any way other then the skill. There’s no Earth field.

There is a rune set. Gain Magnetic Aura on 20% hp. I think its Superior Rune Of Earth

- conjure weapons as bundle like engi kits
- rework almost all traits
- give celestial some attributes for each arcane point or at least increase the damage.

ele should have the most damage of all classes since it has the lowest armor and lowest heal, not war that has the most heal and armor toghether…will you ever understand this dear developers?

Kamui.3150:

Glyph of (Lesser) Elementals: No limited duration on the summon. Basically make them function like a Necromancer minion and keep them around until they die. In addition, have their special attack be what replaces the Glyph skill itself (Necro minions, Ranger spirits, and Guardian spirit weapons all get this) so that we can fire them on command instead of them being used randomly.

totally agree.

On weapon stability sounds really strong imo. Seeing how magnetic aura is already a good skill I feel this could push it over the top. For the rest, I agree with your listing and find it quite reasonable.
For extras:
For glyph of storms I think lightning storm needs an increase on the individual strike aoe and fire storm a bit of extra damage or an occasional burn.
I think unsteady ground could use a bump similar to what you suggested for fire wall.
Lastly, as others have mentioned, fire shield needs a buff as well.

Aedil.1296:

- conjure weapons as bundle like engi kits
- rework almost all traits
- give celestial some attributes for each arcane point or at least increase the damage.

I agree with the bit about Conjured weapons working like Engineer kits; adding to the OP.

Though I think some of the traits need to be looked at, I’m a little less concerned about them. Simply put: in terms of usage, abilities see more use than individual traits.

ele should have the most damage of all classes since it has the lowest armor and lowest heal, not war that has the most heal and armor toghether…will you ever understand this dear developers?

I don’t agree.

Elementalist is perhaps one of the most versatile classes in the game, with a number of options for applying conditions, dealing area-of-effect damage, applying boons, and setting up combo fields. It can act as a long-range combatant, support, or close-range DPS class (granted: Elementalists are a tad squishy).

One of the reasons I’ve stuck with Elementalist so far, despite trying out Mesmer, Necromancer, Guardian, and Ranger, is this: if you build an Elementalist correctly, and if you play it right, you can apply almost every condition and boon in the game consistently and on-demand. Elementalists may not have the most damage output for any single ability, but the net effect can be synergistic.

I’m fine with this. I far prefer my Elementalist over any of the other classes, which seem like one-button wonders.

Navzar.2938:

On weapon stability sounds really strong imo. Seeing how magnetic aura is already a good skill I feel this could push it over the top. For the rest, I agree with your listing and find it quite reasonable.
For extras:
For glyph of storms I think lightning storm needs an increase on the individual strike aoe and fire storm a bit of extra damage or an occasional burn.
I think unsteady ground could use a bump similar to what you suggested for fire wall.
Lastly, as others have mentioned, fire shield needs a buff as well.

I agree with this. I’ll mention it in the OP.

Your suggestions are kinda OP IMO.

Things I agree on:

• dragon’s tooth requires changing, it’s pretty much designed to be frustrating to use in present incarnation. Designing for frustration is never a good strategy. Retune it to hit more reliably and reduce the damage as needed. Same with shatterstone.
• sceptre fire #1 and water #1 could be retuned a little as well.
• focus needs a fair amount of love. The fire field (fire #4) could for e.g. cause burning for 4+sec instead of 1, possibly cripple for 1sec as well. A fire field that causes 1sec of burning (~320dmg) is pretty kitten underpowered.
• focus air #4 (swirling winds) became useless when it stopped destroying siege projectiles (IMO a poor decision), especially when earth #4 is a reflect on short CD. Air #4 could perhaps cause 3-4x stacks of confusion, a condition otherwise unavailable to Eles, in addition to current effect. Might make some kind of ?/F condi Ele viable.
• Focus water #4 is also kinda underwhelming, a low dmg single target chill. IMO rework this skill entirely into a movement skill, e.g. a 600 range leap, like burning speed but with a chill trail effect. More than anything focus needs to provide a mobility option comparable to ride the lightning or dagger will almost always be the better option.

mjharrison.3209:

Your suggestions are kinda OP IMO.

Could you be more specific on that? I feel the discussion could benefit from criticism, and I like smart people who disagree with me.

On to your other comments:

• sceptre fire #1 and water #1 could be retuned a little as well.

I get the impression that the #1 abilities are primarily intended to be “lite” — they are functionally autoattacks. Combining them with Glyph of Elemental Power can actually produce some profound effects (chain Weakness, Burning, and Chilled are NOT fun).

• focus needs a fair amount of love. The fire field (fire #4) could for e.g. cause burning for 4+sec instead of 1, possibly cripple for 1sec as well.

I think the entire Elementalist community is with you on the need for a Fire Shield and Flame Wall buff; the only problem with your suggestion is that Fire is typically associated with Burning, Might, or Vigor, not Crippled.

I think adding Vigor to Fire Shield might be sufficient.

• focus air #4 (swirling winds) became useless when it stopped destroying siege projectiles (IMO a poor decision), especially when earth #4 is a reflect on short CD. Air #4 could perhaps cause 3-4x stacks of confusion, a condition otherwise unavailable to Eles, in addition to current effect. Might make some kind of ?/F condi Ele viable.

I like the idea of Swirling Winds causing Confusion.

• Focus water #4 is also kinda underwhelming, a low dmg single target chill. IMO rework this skill entirely into a movement skill, e.g. a 600 range leap, like burning speed but with a chill trail effect. More than anything focus needs to provide a mobility option comparable to ride the lightning or dagger will almost always be the better option.

The way I see it, Focus #4 is designed specifically to apply a ranged Chill effect, to either catch a distant target, or prevent a distant target from closing with you. The problem is, its cooldown is currently too long, and the Chill duration too short, to do what it’s supposed to be doing. I’ve done my best to address that in the OP, though I concede it might not be enough.

Good points!

Oh sorry, I should have been more specific. When I said bump unsteady ground, I was thinking more towards increasing the damage and maybe a slight cooldown reduction since the effect is weak overall. That being said, increasing cripple works too

Navzar.2938:

Oh sorry, I should have been more specific. When I said bump unsteady ground, I was thinking more towards increasing the damage and maybe a slight cooldown reduction since the effect is weak overall. That being said, increasing cripple works too

I don’t use staff much, but from what I remember, Unsteady Ground is primarily used not for its damage, but for area denial. Combining Cripple + lots of damage could be too good (owing to the fact that it traps you in the area), so I’m actually fine with its damage being low. On the other hand, there is nothing to keep players in a Flame Wall, so I’d prefer its damage went up. =)

I want a smoke field instead of a fire wall with the focus.

Truebanana.5936:

I want a smoke field instead of a fire wall with the focus.

Heh, my first thought was, “We aren’t Theives!” =)

How about with Unsteady Ground instead? That’s a combo field without a combo field.

Truebanana.5936:

I want a smoke field instead of a fire wall with the focus.

This would actually be a nerf for PvE Eles that want to use Focus. As it stands, as crappy as Firewall is, at least it is a long lasting Fire Field, which we can still use to stack Might. Making it a Smoke Field would be bad for us. >.<

There is no smoke without fire, so it’s still fire related and enginner also have a smoke field

I know that there is almost nobody using focus in www (i saw something like 3-4 fighting with that in almost 1 year) and i think it’s not the best weapon for PvE.

Truebanana.5936:

I know that there is almost nobody using focus in www (i saw something like 3-4 fighting with that in almost 1 year) and i think it’s not the best weapon for PvE.

Well, I find I prefer dagger-dagger in PvP (I use an auramancer build), but in PvE, I far prefer scepter-focus to dagger-dagger or the staff.

• Dagger-dagger forces you to get close to bosses, and Elementalists are squishy; since boss fights can happen at almost any time in PvE, running around with dagger-dagger isn’t necessarily the brightest idea, because a build that’s good with dagger-dagger is not necessarily good with scepter-focus (I use a Fresh Air build with scepter-focus).
• To me, scepter-focus is infinitely preferable to the staff in PvE. When using the staff, you use fire for damage, air and earth for control+damage, and water for healing. With scepter-focus, you use fire for AoE, air for single-target damage (plus control), water for control and healing, and earth for protection and control. I like it better — it feels like you have more options for controlling one or more opponents. Glyph of Elemental Power helps even further.

I would like a rework for Shatter Stone . The current version is underwhelming and too similar to Ice Spike in Staff.

Here are some of my opinions:

1. The delay is fine but the cast time could use a reduction. 1s cast time is a bit much as you could do more by just auto attack in water. 1/2s or even 1/4 s cast time seems reasonable to me.
2. It could have a more unique and interesting second effect such as one of the below:
   *10 stacks of vulnerability in a 10s CD (instead of 4 stacks with 2 s CD)
   *Remove a boon when hit
   *Remove a condition to self or ally in the AoE
   *Chill for 1 s
   *Do double damage to movement impair foes.
   *If foes is chill or cripple, extend the duration by 2s (Similar the Air Blast from Engi’ Flamethrower which extends the duration of burn by 2s)

I dont mind if the CD is adjusted to match the effect. As of now it is a spam-able skill that is not worth to spam

In a similar note, Ice Shards (scepter water auto) could use soem adjustment as well. It helps to proc crit or effect, thou the dmg is rather lacking. You hurts yourself more than your enemies if they have retaliation. Not to mention, Air auto and Earth auto are also multi-hit and can fulfill the same roles.

@OP-

GoEP – Needs to continue to work exactly the way it does now. No change needed except taking the stun break and putting it somewhere it makes more sense.

Glyph of Storms – Range increased to 1200 would be a good change too.

Unsteady ground – Make it a combo field

Other minor changes in staff:

Earth 5: Make this a cone instead
Air 2: Make instant cast
Air 3: Make cone and increase effect

Arcana:
Increase radii of all staff abilities to match blasting staff. Replace blasting staff with other staff specific ability that doesn’t shackle staff users to 20 arcane.