Guild Wars 2

(I tried to find a suggestions forum but there are none so I’m posting it here.)

It might be that I’m only a PvE elementalist hence the PvE only point of view, but does anyone else find the grandmaster traits to be very… well, lackluster?

I mean, the idea of spending so many trait points in one particular line is to be able to specialize, right? Yet, for a class that is supposed to swap attunements when needed, we suddenly hinder ourselves if we swap out of our preferred element after specializing in a trait line.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the initial grandmaster trait be some sort of effect that affects all the other elements and then have the second trait be related to the core concept of the element?

For example, wouldn’t it make sense that this:

Burning Rage: 5% more damage vs. burning foes

Pyromancer’s Puissance: Gain 1 stack of might for 5 seconds each time you cast a fire spell.

Persisting Flames: Fire fields last 30% longer.

Be made changed into something like this?

Burning Rage: 15% more damage against foes while attuned to any element.

Pyromancer’s Puissance: Gain 15 stacks of power each time you cast a fire spell. (Max 150 power and ends on down or attunement switch).

Persisting Flames: This is fine (imo).

This way, players will have something to aim for when specializing and won’t face severe penalties when switching out of their favored element. At the same time, players will have a valid goal to reach for when they do spend that last 5 points to get the 2 traits that reflects the core concept of that particular line of magic (in fire’s case, damage, lots of damage).

Well, I do feel that burning rage is a bit small, but if you have your foes constantly burning, that’s a 5% damage buff, which isn’t too bad.
Pyromancer’s Puissance is actually awesome, I think. The question is how fast can you cast fire spells? How many stacks can you build in 5 seconds? I think it would work great for a boon build. If you go up the arcane line, you get tons of boon duration and extend that 5 seconds. You start stacking might from the other sources available to the Ele and you’re gonna be drowning in might stacks. A little more is always helpful.

Pinkerton.5643:

Well, I do feel that burning rage is a bit small, but if you have your foes constantly burning, that’s a 5% damage buff, which isn’t too bad.

Burning rage is absolutely too small of a bonus. An extra 5 would make it actually worth the 5 more points needed to get it. Also, my idea was more of an attempt to make the traits actually be synergetic with the other elements. We are able to switch to other attunements, so if people have grandmaster traits from one particular element switch to another, we lose them. In my opinion, that’s a really big penalty.

Pinkerton.5643:

Pyromancer’s Puissance is actually awesome, I think. The question is how fast can you cast fire spells? How many stacks can you build in 5 seconds?

With 20 in arcana, I can maintain about 5 stacks for about 1-2 seconds before it drops down to 4.

For all but arcane, yes.

For arcane.. evasive arcana = best thing ever (EVERY dodge is a blast finisher, even on cd)

Quintal.6594:

For all but arcane, yes.

For arcane.. evasive arcana = best thing ever (EVERY dodge is a blast finisher, even on cd)

Technically, the arcana trait line affects everything so that doesn’t have to have changes all. What I’m hoping for is that Anet will make it more worthwhile to dump more trait points in 1 particular line without causing big time penalties when switching.

Elementalists have to be able to switch elements at a moment’s notice so that means we immediately lose any sort of benefit from a specialized trait (besides dealing with an un-specialized element and the lack of bonuses) and lose some of the effectiveness.

The idea of having the set grandmaster trait that affected everything is my view of what could be done mitigate that loss of effectiveness when specializing in 1 element, not just dumping points in arcana (which affects everything).

Well there’s something nice to use, but not all are great indeed, then again I don’t think every trait is supposed to be great.

I used a D/D build with 30 fire/air 10 water build before in PvE and it rocked. You could easily stack 10+ might in combination with Battle Roar and the 60% vulnerability on crit meant I was regulary stacking 10+ stacks of that on mobs as well. Air 30 is rather crappy though, I just used one of the lower lvl traits in that slot. If it wasn’t for 50 precision you’d be a lot better off leaving Air at 25.
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Earth 25 is crap, you want to dodge, but both the 30 traits are pretty good. 2s stability with a pretty short CD is great for stomping people in PvP and the signet trait is great when you play with lots of signets.

Water 25 is again nothing great, but the 30 trait that removes a condition when applying regeneration is great against condition stacking. Combine it with Arcane V and Water V and attuning to Water alone will already remove 2 conditions. Then use healing rain and you can remove another 4 conditions. The aura one can be great at the right times.

Arcane 25 is dependant on how big the chance is. If it’s something like the 60% on the Air 25 it can be pretty nice. Also Evasive Arcana is darn good.

So all in all, the last Water traits might be a bit conditional and Air could definitely use something better. Except for that I don’t think any off them are really that bad. Also you can swap em around whenever you’re out of combat, so it’s not that bad when they’re a bit conditional if you know what you’re up against. Slot the right traits for the next encounter and afterwards swap them again. Especially in PvE you can switch around a lot once you know what’s gonna happen.

I like having builds that don’t require you put 30 points into an element. I don’t think I’d like a revision that made going 30 points into an element mandatory.

That said, ele traits in general are definitely underwhelming and could do with an across the board boost in effectiveness.

Yukishiro.8792:

I like having builds that don’t require you put 30 points into an element. I don’t think I’d like a revision that made going 30 points into an element mandatory.

That said, ele traits in general are definitely underwhelming and could do with an across the board boost in effectiveness.

I wasn’t trying to imply a buff that made the 25/30 traits mandatory, but to make them appealing enough to actually want to use them.

The problem is that once you spend those extra 5/10 points, then you are pretty much committed to that one element and once you switch out of that element, you lose your investment into that particular element (hence the idea of having that particular element granting a buff that affects all other spells and not just that attunement).