Hi,
I feel like the ele elites in spvp / wvw are kinda underpowered in comparison to other professions. In PvE you have fiery gs which Is nice for boss battles, and in wvw you can use it to run away or chase enemies, but except of glyph of elementals you have no elite that helps you in a face to face combat, and the glyph is much inferior to other professions’ elites such as mesmer moa or invisibility, every necro elite, engi supply crate, ranger rampage etc.
I was thinking and it kinda bothered me that ele has two conjures that are associated with the same element (fire axe and fire gs), so I was trying to come up with an idea how to change it and one of my ideas was to change the fiery greatsword to an Arcane Greatsword.
The point of this sword is that the number 1 skill (auto attack) will be an arcane skill, and each one of the other 4 skills will be associated with each one of the elements (fire, water, air and earth), delivering a condition and gaining a boon. The elite itself will count both as a conjure and an arcane skill (which means it will benefit from traits that associate with these types of skills), summoning it on top of enemies deals damage to them and maybe dazes them briefly (instead of fiery gs burn), and the bonus attributes for picking it up would be 260 power and 180 ferocity. It should have a super cool model too. I tought of a few options what each skill of this sword could be (if you have better ideas let me know):
Skill 1 (Arcane): Does damage and always crits, counts as an arcane skill so it has great synergy with Air(VII), Water(II) and Arcana(XII).
Option 1: Arcane Slice / Dice / Strike (melee chain attack). First two attacks deal damage and always crit, last attack deals more damage, crits and dazes enemies in a cone (could work well with Air(XIII)
Option 2: Arcane Barrage (short – mid range attack). Pretty much like Flaming Wave (fiery gs skill 1) but shoots arcane missiles instead of fireballs. Always crits, maybe daze on the last missile?
Option 3: Arcane Ray (long range attack). Like mesmer auto attack on greatsword, but always crits.
Skill 2 (Fire): An attack that damages and burns the enemy and grants might to the caster.
Option 1: Fire Strike (melee attack). Similar to Maul, one strong attack that grants might and burns enemies.
Option 2: Fire Blast (ranged AoE). Stick the sword in the ground, creating a fire blast that deals damage in a large radius at a target location. Friendly targets inside the blast radius gain might and enemies burn.
Skill 3 (Water): An attack that deals damage and chills the enemy and grants vigor to allies.
Option 1: Frozen Whirlwind (whirlwind attack). Whirl to target direction, damaging and chilling all enemies in your path while gaining vigor.
Option 2: Tsunami (Piercing AoE attack). Similar to shockwave (ele staff 5), sends a huge wave of water in a line, dealing damage and knocking away all enemies in the way while granting vigor to allies.
Skill 4(Air): An attack that damages the enemy and confuses it / leaves it vulnerable while granting fury to the caster.
Option 1: Lightning Frenzy (melee attack). Same as 100blades, each attack give 1-2 sec of fury and 1 stack of confusion / vulnerability.
Option 2: Call Thunder (ranged AoE Attack). Raise your sword towards the sky, calling a thunder that damages and knocks down enemies at target location, delivering confusion / vulnerability to enemies and fury to allies.
Skill 5(Earth): An attack that deals damage and immobilize / bleeding to enemies and grants retaliation to allies.
Option 1: Earth Bind (Large PBAoE attack). Works like rangers Entangle, but inflicts only immobilize (no bleed) and for a shorter duration. Ram your sword into the ground, causing the earth around you to bind your enemies, immobilizing them. Allies in the area gain retaliation.
Option 2: Mass Impale (Large PBAoE attack). Ram your sword into the ground causing stone spikes erupt from the ground damaging and bleeding all enemies in the area. Allies gain retaliation.
That is about it, I think that my favorite set of skills is (this is a melee set of skills):
1: Arcane Slice / Dice / Strike
2: Fire Strike
3: Frozen Whirlwind
4: Lightning Frenzy
5: Earth Bind
And then you could go for very powerful rotations, like 5, 4, 2, 3. This will make the elite more of a combat skill than a run-away skill (wvw / spvp speaking of course). Also it will nerf the fiery gs in PvE (I admit I love dealing enormous damage to a boss against the wall, but this is kinda overpowered in my opinion).
A ranged set of skills would be:
1: Arcane Barrage / Arcane Ray
2: Fire Blast
3: Tsunami
4: Call Thunder
5: Mass Imaple
Tl;dr – the idea is to change the fiery greatsword into an arcane greatsword that grants attacks from every single element and arcane attack in addition, making it a combat skill instead of a run-away skill (wvw / spvp speaking).