Guild Wars 2

Just wondering, how will this affect us?
Surely it will affect 100% of the staff builds around there.

But what about D/D or S/D ? As D/D most of our skills are AoE, even if we mostly use them for single target, would this actually nerf D/D builds? S/D also has some AoE used for single target dps, im a bit worried.

D/D elementalist is by far the most fun spec/profession I’ve played in the game, so I’m extremely worried. It seems they will want us using autoattack alot if they nerf all our aoe…we have what? two single target spells? Autoattack classes are the most boring.

As for staff, they’d have to rework most of the skills….

I’m a bit peeved they go and spout-off about this stuff on their livestream with no context or explanation.

Extremely disappointed. If they nerf staff, as much as it pains me to do so i think i’m just going to give up on it and roll with the D/D x/x/x/30/30 build. It already took me an unnecessarily long time to clear mobs in Orr with with constant strafing, kiting and laying down AoEs that not only do little damage, but also rarely connect.

I will be curious how much the nerf will be. All the weapons elementalists use have the majority of damage they do AOE. We wind up using aoe vs single targets even when in pve due to there being almost no single target spells/specs.

I think scepter has the most pure single target abilities. I have not really seen any problems with elementalists DPS its mostly been complaints about our durability in a bunker build and mobility. Most have built out of glass cannon magey builds to go higher vitality water/arcane bunker builds. Better to do some damage and live than do moderate high damage with no HP and die.

Q: Do you find any profession to be out of balance

Ele bunker, roamer, thief one shot combo, mesmer portal
Ele bunker is really strong, on our watchlist
Mesmer portal is giving us problems –giving that tool onto other classes

Enjoy ur eles as much as u can, cause we are going down.

The ironic thing is people went bunker ele because of the elementalists weak damage makes a glass cannon build not very viable so they plan to fix bunker eles by lowering the already mediocre damage hehe interesting.

I really hope this supposed AoE nerf will not hit staff very hard. It’s all staff has is aoe’s. If they nerf AoE’s give ele better options for single target damage. Staff honestly makes me feel like a easy target if i don’t people to back me up, i thought the idea behind the AoE’s on staff was to sacrifice survivability for AoE damage, area control aswell as some support tools. All this will do is push the rest of the ele’s over to D/D.

did you really expect anything less from them, only have to look at the Ele in gw1 and how they nerfed them into the floor.

I play staff Ele and i’m quite concerned on how they are going to make this a viable class to play at all.

I’m flabbergasted they could say what they did with a straight face. Really, really disappointed.

The thing with Staff is that out of all 20 of our skills, only 2 are single target, (Lightning Surge and Shockwave.) heck, all of our auto attacks are AoE. There is Gust, but it’s a knock back that doesn’t deal any damage. Quite funny pushing around baddies without pulling aggro though :P.

I’m not sure how anet will implement this nerf, but if it’s just a damage reduction all round, staff is getting no more playtime from me.

they have their eyes on ele bunkers? oh man, there goes d/d. im not rolling a 4th 80. i’m done after this if it happens!

I hope that they are just nerfing the damage to secondary targets on Staff (full damage on target, 50% aoe on fireball/chain lightning). Still, there would be a problem with ground-targeted AoE since there is no primary target. I’m worried.

Say goodbye to the elementalist population….again.

IF they bring our UP builds up to par i wouldn’t be so kittened about the D/D eleven….

Obviously a net listen more to “cry for nerf” people rather than people who play that class….

Unsure whether i should reroll or quit for another game…

Another nerf another day.

(I am seriously losing hope with game developers…)

Here’s a fun fact-the only (ONLY) weapon set that the ele can take to not have a single aoe is a S/F in air attu.
Its gonna be so much fun to play when they nerf 75% of our skills xD

now i will stop craft my legendary dagger… D/D ele will be nerfed as hell.
Some times i think that developers dont play their own game…

they may as well remove daggers from ours weapon set, as they will become utterly useless after the nerf; and get rid of the staff too, while you are at it.
Well, at least give us a sniper rifle…

The damage on our attacks is so lousy if you’re running defensive stats (which is REQUIRED), I don’t know how they could even go about nerfing it. 2 digit damage?

If they nerf damage they better raise the target cap.

Grevender.9235:

they may as well remove daggers from ours weapon set, as they will become utterly useless after the nerf; and get rid of the staff too, while you are at it.
Well, at least give us a sniper rifle…

May as well just remove the class from the game if we are just going to keep getting nerfed ..

Hey, this will be the 3rd game I’ve played that mages got overnerfed and population of which died.

So much for gw2 and “play your own style” (more like “play the nerf man”)

roostapro.9827:

Grevender.9235:

they may as well remove daggers from ours weapon set, as they will become utterly useless after the nerf; and get rid of the staff too, while you are at it.
Well, at least give us a sniper rifle…

May as well just remove the class from the game if we are just going to keep getting nerfed ..

Hey, this will be the 3rd game I’ve played that mages got overnerfed and population of which died.

So much for gw2 and “play your own style” (more like “bunker guardian or thief)

Fixed

roostapro.9827:

Grevender.9235:

they may as well remove daggers from ours weapon set, as they will become utterly useless after the nerf; and get rid of the staff too, while you are at it.
Well, at least give us a sniper rifle…

May as well just remove the class from the game if we are just going to keep getting nerfed ..

Hey, this will be the 3rd game I’ve played that mages got overnerfed and population of which died.

So much for gw2 and “play your own style” (more like “play the nerf man”)

I feel you, just look at us engies. Every single major monthly patch nerfed us in one way or another and look where we at now :/ Heres hoping the eles dont go the way of the engie

OK guys at first I was like “wtf you gotta be kidding, them smoking some bad kittens over at AHQ” Forgive the teenage drivel I’m being overly dramatic on purpose, I gave up on teenagers long ago.

Then I spent a few minutes thinking about it a little deeper and you know what popped into my pigeon sized noggin? Awesome sequences of big hunks of meat swinging big bad kitten sharp pieces of metal, wholesale slaughter as magical big red numbers pop up all over the screen. The kinda numbers that make Elementalist’s go “COOOO!”

Now that, my dear colleagues, could well be the AOE adjustments that they were hinting at, not our magnificent flaming space rocks that travelled for eternity or our titanic slabs of frigged ice, all responding to a splendid gesture while waving our staves about.

Think about it for a second or two longer before proceeding to run to the bunker like it’s 21/12/2012 all over again. Me thinks it won’t be as bad this time, remember we started the race pre-nerfed before release, perhaps they’ll take pity on our poor souls.

It WILL be bad, whatever happens. That’s mostly because – that’s just my theory of course – raw data crunched to decide that bunker Ele or AoE required a nerf bat on teeth is mostly taking into account the chorus of qqing of nabs without (or nearly without) taking into account TIME.
When the game started, Ele sucked very bad, that’s common knowledge, but with time passing, certain players reached unexpected heights of skill and THAT’S what makes the difference.
Despite the funny urban legends out there, 95% of Elementalists are just jumped on the bandwagon only to discover a weak class which very unlikely will faceroll anyone else than someone noober than the player using it.
As someone already pointed, it would be way better to give very hard-to-master counters to certain classes that may benefit from this kind of balance, rather than a blind bat nerfing on a whole system upon which Elementalist is largely based on.

I think this is the final straw (anvil?) that broke the camel’s back. You can’t create a class with almost 100% AoE damage and then nerf AoE damage. They won’t be competitive.

ANet doesn’t know what they’re doing. If this goes through, it’s game over.

I’d bet 100 gold (if I had it)…

They will reduce the radius of AoE and/or the timers while increasing the damage. They adjusted the same things a lot in GW1. They also played around with AoE settings during the GW2 alpha.

If the damage goes down, the amount of players/enemies hit needs to go up. That being said Anet doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing

Caffynated.5713:

I think this is the final straw (anvil?) that broke the camel’s back. You can’t create a class with almost 100% AoE damage and then nerf AoE damage. They won’t be competitive.

ANet doesn’t know what they’re doing. If this goes through, it’s game over.

Feel the same way you do. It’s senseless to blanket nerf because people can’t figure out what to do when they stand in big red circles with fireballs falling in them. Dodge problem evaded.

And to quote A.net saying AoE damage is too close to Single target damage. Sure our AoE damage is on par with single target damage, but our single target damage is average at best.

Yet more proof that Anet don`t play/understand their own game,
/facepalmdeskfloor

I´m hoping that they´re not as stupid as to create a class with almost exclusively aoe skills and then blindly nerf each and every aoe.

Jay.3284:

If the damage goes down, the amount of players/enemies hit needs to go up. That being said Anet doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing

It will moast likley do the oposite. Seriusly, Meteor Shower as it is now is super OP. It’s a HUGE radial with a long range. Skills that does this amount of damage to so many people should be limited to PBAOE. skills.

I see solo Elementalist nuking down 12 lvl 84 mobs using 2 skills in about 5 seconds. Imagine how destructive this is in WvWvW when you have 5 Elementalist covering the same area. The areas should be smaller, for more dmg. Or be at melee range. Even at Melee range i feel the area might be to big.

Modimor.4319:

It will moast likley do the oposite. Seriusly, Meteor Shower as it is now is super OP. It’s a HUGE radial with a long range. Skills that does this amount of damage to so many people should be limited to PBAOE. skills.

I see solo Elementalist nuking down 12 lvl 84 mobs using 2 skills in about 5 seconds. Imagine how destructive this is in WvWvW when you have 5 Elementalist covering the same area. The areas should be smaller, for more dmg. Or be at melee range. Even at Melee range i feel the area might be to big.

Elementalists nuking down 12 mobs in 5 seconds with 2 skills… that can only hit 5 targets at a time…

Troll.

Modimor.4319:

Jay.3284:

If the damage goes down, the amount of players/enemies hit needs to go up. That being said Anet doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing

It will moast likley do the oposite. Seriusly, Meteor Shower as it is now is super OP. It’s a HUGE radial with a long range. Skills that does this amount of damage to so many people should be limited to PBAOE. skills.

I see solo Elementalist nuking down 12 lvl 84 mobs using 2 skills in about 5 seconds. Imagine how destructive this is in WvWvW when you have 5 Elementalist covering the same area. The areas should be smaller, for more dmg. Or be at melee range. Even at Melee range i feel the area might be to big.

Meteor shower i can understand using some tweaking, it’s a very powerful skill but it’s the only AoE i can think of that would draw good amount of attention to ele’s. Most elementalists here are concerned about cross the board skill nerfs for ele’s since majority of every skill is an aoe and many of them don’t always connect the damage to intended targets since most AoE’s can be dodge rolled or walked away from.

Yeah, being on the watchlist probably doesn’t portend well for the d/d ele sad to say. I think the main issue revolves around what’s right with the spec rather than what’s OP. While the ele traits are nothing to get excited about, the 60 core points for a d/d ele create a synergy that is uncommon with other professions I have played. The spec seems more complete and thought through. What comes out of the traits and abilities is a spec that is fun to play and effective. It’s too bad that balance has to be about nerfing. Sure, peaks and valleys need to be addressed, but why not focus on introducing the kind of counter play amongst the classes that will raise the level of the game. I think they alluded to this but the watchlist comment and AoE nerf sounds like it will combine to be a large nerf to what is probably the best job they’ve done in class design. We’ll just have to wait and see how far they take. I hope they don’t erase the good work they’ve done.

In wvw meteor shower not used to deal damage but to deny area to he other team. It’s damage needs to be high enough to get players to not stand in the area and try and tank the damage. Meteor shower also requires us to stand in place while we cast it with a very obvious animation. making us very easy to take down while trying to use it. And I’m ok with that trade off.

I’d be very disappointed in Anet if eles got nerfed and thieves, which are so brokenly OP, were left as they are.

So I’ve gathered my thoughts a bit.

Anet’s description of an elementalist is:

“Elementalists are multi-faceted spellcasters that channel elemental forces, making fire, air, earth, and water do their bidding. What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.”

I’ve always enjoyed paying ranged DPS classes. I enjoy the risk of being a glass canon. I can F-you up, but I’m squishy as a slug. But it seems Anet no longer wants this playstyle to exist. I don’t like playing stealth classes, and I much prefer range to melee. I’ve been happy to trade survivability for that range (for balance). but it seems that isn’t good enough anymore.

If nerfing AoE damage resulted in making us the undisputed masters of single target ranged DPS I’d accept it (I’d miss AoE’s but w/e). Ranger could be viable, but they are jut as broke as non d/d bunker eles. (they’re balanced for pet damage, and I don’t ike pets) But ele just don’t have that option, and I see no evidence of Anet contemplating that.

I know I’m not everyone, and other people enjoy different things. One of the things that attracted me toGW2 was the (maybe fleeting) feeling, that this game gave freedom to many different play styles.

Hospis.4607:

I’d be very disappointed in Anet if eles got nerfed and thieves, which are so brokenly OP, were left as they are.

Thieves are single target so nerfing all AoE is effectively like buffing thieves. Regardless I expect thieves to receive a 50% buff to damage and have an additional 2-3 seconds placed on all stealth abilities to compensate for culling being fixed soon.

Meteor Shower OP? Oh that’s rich. You’d be lucky to have it hit a target more than once, given how few meteors are given, and the horrendous pause after the first meteor hits the ground. Coupled with that, the damage per hit isn’t that great either.

Q: Elaborate your plans for changing AoEs

• This is not a quick fix, we are getting a lot of data.

• If your skil does 10 damage to a single target, if you have another skill that have the same opportunity cost but deals 8 damage to 5 targets, the AoE skill is better – we don’t want you to use AoE skills on single target mobs.

• Maybe add a new mechanic where mobs are resistant to AoE damage.

• In PvP and WvW we see people using AOEs on enemy players rezzing other etc

Meteor Shower may not even hit your target at all, at the randomness of the how the meteor drops. You can just be standing put in one place and get hit only once! How is that even OP is beyond me.

They just want to make WvW defending keeps/garrisons to use siege only and not a bunch of eles casting meteor shower to weaken the horde while the melee-ers charges into the horde!

I have already expected a nerf for meteor shower months ago, but they didn’t do it, now they are saying we are going to nerf it soon, so no point complaining about it anymore. Have to learn to live with the nerf.

Maybe it is time I change my staff ele to something else. No point doing staff now or dagger. Maybe I will go full support and stand at the back and heal,heal and heal. Oh, wait, AoE nerf. Heal AoE also affected. Cool, now how should I play my ele?

Vissarion.6509:

Q: Elaborate your plans for changing AoEs

• If your skil does 10 damage to a single target, if you have another skill that have the same opportunity cost but deals 8 damage to 5 targets, the AoE skill is better – we don’t want you to use AoE skills on single target mobs.

Too bad I, as a staff ele can’t switch to single target.

SirDrygan.1823:

Cool, now how should I play my ele?

The same way, with less damage. Because, Ele damage is so OP you know. I may finally give in and start a Warrior in case this is bad. Uninstalling the game sounds like a reasonable option as well.

Talindra.4958:

they could introduce a trait for all profession that protect them from ele’s aoe for certain period of time while they are 1) resing allies, 2) not attacking 3) etc etc.. and not nerfing ele’s aoe, because AOE is ele’s most important defence mechanism. and also only most offensive mechanism.. single attack from ele’s weapon are weak to other classes.

As they nerf a your “defense”, they will share the Mesmers “defense”…

So don’t feel sad, you can still run away faster then most classes can

I am predicting staffs will be like this:

skill 1 staff no longer will damage enemies standing near the target
skill 2 area of affect will be reduce
skill 3 fire burst will only hit your target only
skill 4 only 50% change to cause burning
skill 5 damage reduced by 30%

There you go, staff ele will practically be nothing more than a statue in LA.

SirDrygan.1823:

I am predicting staffs will be like this:

skill 1 staff no longer will damage enemies standing near the target
skill 2 area of affect will be reduce
skill 3 fire burst will only hit your target only
skill 4 only 50% change to cause burning
skill 5 damage reduced by 30%

There you go, staff ele will practically be nothing more than a statue in LA.

Those nerfs seem a little overboard, but they’ll be balanced by the extra 15GB of free disk space you’ll have.

Macha.9160:

Talindra.4958:

they could introduce a trait for all profession that protect them from ele’s aoe for certain period of time while they are 1) resing allies, 2) not attacking 3) etc etc.. and not nerfing ele’s aoe, because AOE is ele’s most important defence mechanism. and also only most offensive mechanism.. single attack from ele’s weapon are weak to other classes.

As they nerf a your “defense”, they will share the Mesmers “defense”…

So don’t feel sad, you can still run away faster then most classes can

Are you high man, because the only thing coming out your mouth is smoke. Please explain or get a clue, the door to “makes no sense” is that way, the same place that Q&A belongs.

MarzAttakz.9608:

Macha.9160:

Talindra.4958:

they could introduce a trait for all profession that protect them from ele’s aoe for certain period of time while they are 1) resing allies, 2) not attacking 3) etc etc.. and not nerfing ele’s aoe, because AOE is ele’s most important defence mechanism. and also only most offensive mechanism.. single attack from ele’s weapon are weak to other classes.

As they nerf a your “defense”, they will share the Mesmers “defense”…

So don’t feel sad, you can still run away faster then most classes can

Are you high man, because the only thing coming out your mouth is smoke. Please explain or get a clue, the door to “makes no sense” is that way, the same place that Q&A belongs.

First, you think your are funny to say someone else is high?
Second, i meant that you got a passiv speedbuff(even if you have to trait for it). Not every class got this. So, even if you can’t do anything anymore because of an incoming nerf, you sir, can at least flee out of a combat(against classes which don’t have those)
Third, my comment was sarcasm, sorry that you couldn’t or just didn’t want to understand it.
Fourth, have a nice day. walks out of the door and feels preety

Someone suggesting Meteor Shower is op? I don’t even know what to make of this. It’s honestly one of the most balanced skills in our set if not any set. Long cast time, obvious animation, wide as hell but unlikely to hit any single player more than once in most situations. Moderately high cooldown. Able to be interrupted. Only good as an area denial and siege breaker to anyone but a glass cannon. And if your MS is doing enough damage to be “op” then you’re paper to be killed by necros and rangers aoeing the wall you’re undoubtedly on because if you were anywhere else you would be insta gibbed by even the humblest of bunker guardians.

Since when is it a problem that people were dropping AOEs on players trying to ress others?

Have any of you ever been playing this game, as any profession, and felt that it was “too good” for people to try to AOE you in WvW or something as a few of you ressed someone?

Those nerfs seem a little overboard, but they’ll be balanced by the extra 15GB of free disk space you’ll have. [/quote]

I had me a hearty giggle upon reading this.