Guild Wars 2

I was thinking about the core of the elemental build problem. It really does come down to the arcane trait line and its relationship to attunement recharge rate.

I was inspired by the warrior trait line Discipline which offered 1% bonus damage per 10 points.

So, what if our attunement recharge was a base 12 1/2 seconds, and the arcane trait line offered a flat 1 second cool down per 10 points.

I think that alone would open up more build possibilities.

@Asurmir ^ This or anything like it.

I have only one comment on this. Do a search of your topic and see how often it has been mentioned over the last 7 months. Seriously take a look. That is not an insult to you but that’s how little they care.

Yep. 12 second cooldown reduced to 9 with 30 in arcane would be solid and something that’d help a fair bit.

Course, it’s hard not to go to 20 in arcane anyway, 10 is all but required, for elemental attunement. 20 is well on its way too, for vigor on crits.

Do we really need an Attunement Recharge Rate stat, anyway? Why can’t it just be a base 10 seconds like most other forms of weapon swapping?

All the long base cooldown does currently is lock us into spending at least 20 points in Arcana, and it’s not like bunkers would get anything more out of other trait lines if they had the option.

Evasive Arcana is really THAT GOOD anyway.

Asurmir.7956:

I was thinking about the core of the elemental build problem. It really does come down to the arcane trait line and its relationship to attunement recharge rate.

I was inspired by the warrior trait line Discipline which offered 1% bonus damage per 10 points.

So, what if our attunement recharge was a base 12 1/2 seconds, and the arcane trait line offered a flat 1 second cool down per 10 points.

I think that alone would open up more build possibilities.

In beta that warrior trait gave a 1% burst damage increase per trait point (30% at max). It was nerfed quite heavily.

Would be nice if they followed suit on the elementalist (but split the difference, as you suggest, base 12 sec and 1 sec reduction per 10 trait points).

IMO:

1) Buff the 5 point minors for Earth, Fire and Air (Fire and Air need to be useful at least – and it’d be decent if all 4 were party-wide buffs like soothing mists)
2) Remove attunement recharge rate. Replace it with “Lingering Elements Duration”; 30 points makes it last, say, 10 seconds total (with the 5 seconds from the 15 minor)
3) Have the cooldown reduction traits reduce a single attunement’s recharge to the current value at 30 Arcana (So: “Pyromancer’s Alacrity: All your fire weapon skills recharge 20% faster. Fire Attunement recharges 60% faster.”)

There goes half the necessity for Arcana while still keeping it useful in its own way.

BlackBeard.2873:

Evasive Arcana is really THAT GOOD anyway.

I second this fact

@TheGuy
I take no offense to what is true. I have also posted about this very topic before.

It seems like we are beating a dead horse, but it has been a problem for a very long time. I’ve attempted to go into pvp with no points in arcane. It doesnt work. Mainly because the 15 seconds is too high.

Mesmers, Thieves, warriors, Guardians, Rangers, necroes and engis can ignore their special trait line and still be effective.

Elementalist need to be able to do the same.

Asurmir.7956:

@TheGuy
I take no offense to what is true. I have also posted about this very topic before.

It seems like we are beating a dead horse, but it has been a problem for a very long time. I’ve attempted to go into pvp with no points in arcane. It doesnt work. Mainly because the 15 seconds is too high.

Mesmers, Thieves, warriors, Guardians, Rangers, necroes and engis can ignore their special trait line and still be effective.

Elementalist need to be able to do the same.

Hey I try to fight the good fights too.

I agree about the other classes to a degree. Illusion (mesmer) might be the only exception because it is so good due to Illusionists Celerity and Beast Mastery (ranger) to a lesser degree (especially now that quickness is nerfed) for Zephyr’s Speed and Loud Whistle. However, your’e right no other class is so dependent upon their class mechanic trait line.

However, elementalists are in the unique case where the class mechanic stat is the main draw of the line for most builds, which suggests Attunement Recharge Rate is too valuable compared to other class’s mechanic stats.

Dingle.2743:

However, elementalists are in the unique case where the class mechanic stat is the main draw of the line for most builds, which suggests Attunement Recharge Rate is too valuable compared to other class’s mechanic stats.

Well the reason I didn’t say that is because it is not true. Mesmer shatter CD reduction is still a good reason to go a full 30 in shatter. Same with BM and stat points for the pet because it really does push them to 50% of your damage. Add the fact that both those lines play into a lot of different build for those 2 classes the situation is comparable.The difference between this and ele is that both those classes have a few viable builds outside the class mechanic traitline completely.

I am a sticker keeping over inflation and exaggeration to a minimum. Other classes do have strong mechanic lines like ours. The main difference is we don’t have any true viable builds outside it.

To be fare old school bunker DD x-x-30-30-x didn’t really rely on Arcane. Not too many seem to be around from those days lol.

I have come to see that the recharge rate is necessary, because it force us to pace ourselves. Think about switching in to fire and air attunement too eary, most of my skills on cooldown—disrupting my flow of combat. So, for the elementalist, Im glad that we have this kind of mechanic. At the same time, i recognize that it isnt able to stand alone like the rangers per or the guards virtue…on and on—you get my point. So, I would like to see that happen.

And as someone said before, we’d still trait into arcane 30. Its just so worth it. I just want to help out my staff and scepter brothers too.