Guild Wars 2

Elementalist Attunement and Traits Revamp idea’:

The elementalist attunement, traits changes:

First of the basic mechanic of the elementalist:
Attunement swapping. While I don’t see this going away I have placed my changes around the attunement and made them into a usage in the same way as other classes have it instead of simply just being a “weapon swap”, i have also tried to avoid the forced “Spam swapping” which is only to get the boons, futhermore i have looked through all traits and made adjustments to some of them to make each and every one of them “attractive” and/or “useful”.

i am open to other suggestions on my idea’s so dont hold back if you got some great thoughts. on the other hand if your just here to scream stupidly without taking some time to think about the ramifications of these changes then don’t comment (but who are we kidding if thats the case you properly didnt even read this -.-)
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Attunement swapping will have a cd of 5 seconds and cannot be reduced:

Using an attunement twice in a row will trigger a skill based on the attunement and at the same time trigger a global attunement cd of 15 seconds to all attunements (meaning 15 second you can’t swap to any other attunement)

So if you click/use the attunement you are already in then you will activate the ability of that attunement and 15 sec cd on all attunements.
we will call this “Overcast” (name taken from the overcast function in gw1)
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Overcast Effects:

Fire 0,5 sec cast time: targetable on ground: will trigger an aoe fire rain which causes moderated dps in an large aoe , last for 5 seconds (ticks dmg each 0,5sec.)

Water, 0,5 sec cast time: targetable on ground: causes an aoe heal which heals a single time for high amount.

Lightning, instant cast time/channel: a single target nuke, blast a big lightning 3seconds channel from the elementalist to the target, does Heavy single target dmg(ticks each 0,5 second).

Earth 1/3 second cast time: Creates a bobble with 300 range from elementalist that knocks back all enemies within the 300. Knockback knocks enemies 300 back.
The bobble then absorb up to 10.000 dmg (25.000 in pve) or last for up to 5 seconds. Enemies can’t enter the bobble (collision and can’t get stuck inside it)

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same of the traits from arcana have an extra effect which is added to these when used. look at the bottom for these.
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Feats: due to these changes on the attunement any attunement switching feats will need to be redone, other feats which I felt needed changes I have included as well:
Starting with arcana’s secondary boost “attunement recharge decrease” will now be a decrease to the recharge time of the Activation of the attunement ability instead. (this should stop the forcing of arcana points and actually give possibilities for new focus’s)
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Fire Traits :

XII (pyromancer’s puissance); last for 15 seconds instead of 10.

X (one with fire); 20 seconds cd. Your next burn effect causes double dmg.

IX (fire’s embrace); when activating a signet you gain fire shield for 10 seconds

VIII (conjurer); conjured weapons got unlimited charges and does 10% more dmg.

VII (pyromancer’s alacrity); all staff skills have their cd reduced by 20%

V (burning precision); 75% chance to cause burning for 3 seconds on crits, this can maximum apply the effect once per skill use. (channel skill will add maximum 1 apply of burning per channel)

IV (spell slinger); when using a cantrip gain 3 stack of might for 30 seconds

III (Ember’s might) each applying of burning gives 1 stack of might for 10 seconds.

II (burning fire) the listed skills inflict 4 second of burning on the targeted enemy.

I (lava tomb) createds a lava font when downed on top of you, stay’s until dead or revived. Deals 33% more dmg while downed
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Air Traits :

XII (fresh air): 25% chance on crits that Overcast cd is reset. 15 seconds cd (will only proc the cd when Overcast have been used and therefore is on cd).

XI (tempest defense) same effect it got now but 45sec cd. but 20% more dmg to any target which is CC’ed, cripple, immobilized, stunned, knockdown, daze, feared, float or sink.

X (air training) all direct spells does 15% more dmg to targeted enemy.

IX (aeromancer’s alacrity) all dagger skills have their CD reduced by 20%

VIII (inscription) grant a boon depending on your attunement when using a glyph: fire 4stacks of might 10seconds, air 20 seconds of swiftness, water 20 seconds of regen, earth 5 seconds of protection.

VIII (arcane lightning) fires a “lightning strike” (scepter skill) when using an arcane skill.

VI (bolt to the heart) deals 20% more dmg to targets over 70% health.

V (soothing winds) gain 40 extra precision for each signet equipped.

IV (one with air) move 25% faster while attuned to air.

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Earth Traits:

X (geomancer’s alacrity) all your scepter skills recharge 20% faster.

IV (serrated stones) bleeds and burns you apply last 20% longer and deals 5% more dmg to burned or bleeding foes.

III (earth’s embrace) cd 75 second

I (obsidian focus) gain 2 seconds protection per second of using a channeling skill up to max 6 seconds. 20seconds cd.

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Water Traits:

X (soothing wave)mist form, frost bow, and signet of water grants 6seconds regen and causes 2 second chill to targeted enemy on use (frost bows skills is effected by the chill on use but not the regen).

VIII (arcane abatement) takes 50% less falling dmg. When taking falling dmg, or being knockdowned, creates a spell around the elementalist depending on your attunement: fire ring, healing wave, static field, earthquake.

VII (stop drop and roll) dodging removes 1 condition 10seconds cd.

VI (vital striking) takes 10% less dmg when target over 90% hp

V (cleansing wave) 10 second cd. Same effect

IV (piercing shards) when attuned to water your spells heals 10% more.

III (soothing disruption) when using cantrips the elementalist is healed for a small amount and gain regen and vigor for 5 seconds.

II (shard of ice) arcane and signet skills causes 5 stacks of vulnerability to target for 10 seconds on activation.

I (aquamancer’s alacrity) your focus cd’s recharges 30% faster.

(bountiful power) gives 1% more healing for each boon on you.

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Arcana Traits :

XII (Elemental surge) when using a sigil glyph or arcane skill cause an effect on target depending on attunement: fire=burning 5 sec, water=chilled 3sec, air=blinded 5sec, Earth=immobilized 1sec

X (arcana energy) arcane and signet skills restores your endurance 50%.

V (elemental attunement) when using Overcast gain a boon depending on your attuned element: fire=5stacks of might 10sec, water= regeneration 10sec, air=swiftness 10sec, earth=protection 4sec. any boon gained in this way will be overwritten by the next use of Overcast (if we reuse it and have 2second swiftness left you will have 10 sec instead of 12 since it overwrites it.)

IV (final shielding) when your hp reaches 25% gain arcane shield. 45seconds cd.

III (arcane retribution) gain +20% crit rate for 8 seconds when using your Overcast .

II (arcane resurrection) revive ally 10% faster, when reviving gain 6seconds reflect, 60 seconds cd.

(arcane fury) 10% chance on critical hit to reduce cd on Overcast by 1 second (only works when Overcast is on cd)

(lingering elements) add’s an extra 10% effect to each primary effect of Overcast, 10%more dmg to fire,lightning, 10% more healing to water and 10% more duration to earth (does not affect arcane precision effects.)

(Arcane precision) apply an additional effect on Overcast skills depending on the attunement:
Fire: (on firerain) causes burn for 2seconds per second.
Water: cure up to 2 conditions.
Lightning: stuns target for 1,5 seconds at hit
Earth: adds reflection to the bobble for 5 seconds.

no thoughts on this idea and changes?.
too much text and too many changes to follow maybe?

Mind clearing the clutter a bit?
Mentioning traits that don’t actually change is making this a bit of tl;dr.
Also tricker = trigger, courses = causes.

On to the matter at hand, this attunement switching//activation seems a bit excessive when it comes to earth, even tho reflection is quite clutch by nature.
Other attunement effects need more detail about them.

Air training’s description is vague, as there is no indirect or direct spell descriptor anywhere in the game.

What happens to evasive arcana?

Weapon cd reduction is a nice idea even though 30% is too much.

Fresh air might be better off with an ICD clause instead of a crit-based.

Arcane lightning is a follow-up perk as the arcane blast for example lands I assume, that would help with hapless warriors or w/e whining about non-telegraphed hits according to the current fresh air trend, however on arcane power it could get rather ridiculous. (Scepter air 3+arcane power.)

Axelifus.3269:

Mind clearing the clutter a bit?
Mentioning traits that don’t actually change is making this a bit of tl;dr.
Also tricker = trigger, courses = causes.

i only listed the trait if there was an alteration to it. i assume that if we are speaking about balance on a certain class people need to know what the current function of each trait is or check it if you are in doubt.
writting what they do and then what is changed would take ALOT more space and its already a very long post, so thats why i didnt include something which should already be known

:: fixed the spelling error ty

On to the matter at hand, this attunement switching//activation seems a bit excessive when it comes to earth, even tho reflection is quite clutch by nature.
Other attunement effects need more detail about them.

Air training’s description is vague, as there is no indirect or direct spell descriptor anywhere in the game.

on earth: i wasnt quite sure how an activation of an defensive ability should go and defensive boons seemed to be the best way.
been rethinking it and you are right its too clutty like this: have changed it to be a cooler and different effect.

else any suggestion on which effect might be a better active for earth?.

on air trainer its pretty clear when you use a skill if it is a direct skill. direct skills need a target to hit anything and can’t be placed on the ground.
in gw2 we got direct or ground target spells.
maybe i would make that a part of the description but it would get very long again if i set all these explanation for the basics in it so thats why i didnt:)

Axelifus.3269:

What happens to evasive arcana?

nothing it stays as it is only listed stuff which got changed.

Axelifus.3269:

Fresh air might be better off with an ICD clause instead of a crit-based

yes you are right, it needs a CD so it doesnt trigger two, tree times in a row and refrashes the active ability which could become op.

added the cd.

Axelifus.3269:

Arcane lightning is a follow-up perk as the arcane blast for example lands I assume, that would help with hapless warriors or w/e whining about non-telegraphed hits according to the current fresh air trend, however on arcane power it could get rather ridiculous. (Scepter air 3+arcane power.)

i have taken this into consideration.
the amount of dmg this adds is not very large at best we are looking at an extra hit on an arcane skill with 13 second CD (at minimum) which then adds a skill that have a 4 seconds CD. while its a nice boost its not very strong and to do this you would use 2 traits and a utility (or 1 if its 15 sec cd on the arcane skill) this is the highest effect it can have and on some burst build it would be worth taking, but i cant see it breaking anything or making any setup op. however it would add the possibility of this trait being usefull and more reason to use arcane skills.

but i am open to suggestions on this one as well.

and ty for your input would be nice with more

The stunbreaker on earth is a bit too much, perhaps some stability (merging with rock solid).
Also evasive arcana along with the attunement active reset and cdr might make some far too spammy combos even for ele.

I like the idea of Attunement Activation. Feels like I would get the effect of ‘overcharging’ an attunement for a second.

I really like the idea of Attunement Activation. If I could suggest an alternative name for this mechanic, it would be “Overcast”—this is something that existed in Guild Wars 1 and was unique to the elementalist, so I think it would be a nice homage

I like the idea of Overcast because it really makes the ele a jack-of-all-trades. It’s like the Mesmer’s shatters and the Guardian’s virtues rolled into one, but not quite as strong individually as those mechanics. What I’d also suggest to reduce simply spamming Overcasts is that after activating an Overcast, rather than putting all attunements on a higher cool down, to immediately put all the skills of only its corresponding attunement on a long cooldown called “Overcharge recharge” (say 30 seconds with 0 Arcana investment), forcing you to switch attunements or rely solely on your utilities. So if you spam all your Overcasts, you’ll be extremely vulnerable. This forces tactical use of Overcast, and also enables Overcast effects to be powerful:

Fire Overcast: Final Flame: strong targeted explosion, with burning applied to affected targets when traited.
Water Overcast: Torrent: Moderate targeted heal, removing 1 condition on affected allies when traited.
Air Overcast: Thunderclap: Strong ranged single-target attack, with a short stun applied when traited.
Earth Overcast: Crystal Wave: Strong targeted AoE bleeding, applying Stability to allies when traited.

OR, for a more interesting effect, Overcasts could have effects OPPOSITE to their attunements:

Fire: Rejuvenating Inferno: Moderate AoE heal around you, with 1 condition removed from surrounding allies when traited (healing is typically water-related)
Water: Frostburn: Moderate-strong burning applied to target, AoE around target when traited (burning and AoE is usually fire-related)
Air: Windblade: Strong targeted AoE bleed, adding crippled when traited (AoE DoT/cripple is usually earth-related)
Earth: Obsidian Bolt: Strong single-target damage, stunning target when traited (single-target dps/stun is usually air-related.)

Arcana’s secondary stat bonus could then govern Overcast recharge rate rather than attunement recharge rate, and non-Overcast attunement recharge rate could be set at a flat value, although I do think 5 seconds is a bit too low—maybe 10-12 seconds would be better. Arcana could also have its traits modified to affect and improve Overcharge effects. Elemental Attunement could be removed to compensate. In addition, each traitline could have a Grandmaster trait that improves that specific attunement’s attunement as describe above.

…of course, the chances of any of this happening are next to zero, but it’s still fun to theorize I like your ideas a lot.

Glenstorm.4059:

I really like the idea of Attunement Activation. If I could suggest an alternative name for this mechanic, it would be “Overcast”—this is something that existed in Guild Wars 1 and was unique to the elementalist, so I think it would be a nice homage

Yes overcast isn’t a bad name for it. Will change it now.

Glenstorm.4059:

I like the idea of Overcast because it really makes the ele a jack-of-all-trades. It’s like the Mesmer’s shatters and the Guardian’s virtues rolled into one, but not quite as strong individually as those mechanics. What I’d also suggest to reduce simply spamming Overcasts is that after activating an Overcast, rather than putting all attunements on a higher cool down, to immediately put all the skills of only its corresponding attunement on a long cooldown called “Overcharge recharge” (say 30 seconds with 0 Arcana investment), forcing you to switch attunements or rely solely on your utilities. So if you spam all your Overcasts, you’ll be extremely vulnerable. This forces tactical use of Overcast, and also enables Overcast effects to be powerful:
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My reasoning behind putting a global cd on attunement switch is to prevent you from being able to use “several” overcast in very short time.
I imagine the overcast as being Very powerful when used (not op powerful but shroud type powerful), meaning if you can spam 4 different in a row it’s too op. as an alternative the power per skill would have to go down and then they would feel “weak” or like normal which I really don’t envision them as, I envision it as something which would set the ele aside. Like when a necro go in shroud your first instinct is “kitten need to deal with this NOW”, same kind of feeling is needed once you see example “an ele start channeling his lightning overcast which does massive dmg too you if you don’t negate it” but then you know that the ele is stuck in that attunement and you can abuses that if you are really good.

As a bonus I imagine this will remove a lot of the “spammy” nature which the correct attunement system have, where you feel you are wasting rotations if you don’t constantly switch attunements for lingering and field/finisher. I find the extreme switch a bit too much and its part of the issue with the current ele (simply it gets too confusing to keep 100% track of everything with it. Making the ele extremely hard to play and taking away from the reaction able nature of the game because you use more focus on micro managing skills constantly. With the lower base attunement cd I also think this will allow people to switch when needed and else stay in the attunement needed for their purpose)

Glenstorm.4059:

Fire Overcast: Final Flame: strong targeted explosion, with burning applied to affected targets when traited.
Water Overcast: Torrent: Moderate targeted heal, removing 1 condition on affected allies when traited.
Air Overcast: Thunderclap: Strong ranged single-target attack, with a short stun applied when traited.
Earth Overcast: Crystal Wave: Strong targeted AoE bleeding, applying Stability to allies when traited.

OR, for a more interesting effect, Overcasts could have effects OPPOSITE to their attunements:

Fire: Rejuvenating Inferno: Moderate AoE heal around you, with 1 condition removed from surrounding allies when traited (healing is typically water-related)
Water: Frostburn: Moderate-strong burning applied to target, AoE around target when traited (burning and AoE is usually fire-related)
Air: Windblade: Strong targeted AoE bleed, adding crippled when traited (AoE DoT/cripple is usually earth-related)
Earth: Obsidian Bolt: Strong single-target damage, stunning target when traited (single-target dps/stun is usually air-related.)

I think they should stay in style with their attunement, trying to do dmg and getting stuck in a healing attunement would majorly suck :P

Spells are more or less the same, like ground target better on flame to keep in line with the aoe theme of it.

Bleed for earth I think would give it too many dmg overcast. And earth is seen as the defensive so I think a good defensive ability is more in line and would add for a more useful overcast

Glenstorm.4059:

Arcana’s secondary stat bonus could then govern Overcast recharge rate rather than attunement recharge rate, and non-Overcast attunement recharge rate could be set at a flat value, although I do think 5 seconds is a bit too low—maybe 10-12 seconds would be better. Arcana could also have its traits modified to affect and improve Overcharge effects. Elemental Attunement could be removed to compensate. In addition, each traitline could have a Grandmaster trait that improves that specific attunement’s attunement as describe above.

…of course, the chances of any of this happening are next to zero, but it’s still fun to theorize I like your ideas a lot.

Well the recharge rate on overcast is already getting lowered by arcana
I set it to 5 seconds because at 10-12 you feel forced to switch attunement when not really needed to insure you get the defense of you might use and it locks you out of your skills for too long. 5sec may be a bit low 6-7 might be better. But I don’t think it should be higher than that because it provokes another type of less reactionary play (simply because once you switched you can’t react and switch back for a very long time which I think is a problem with the current attunement also because of how the skills are divided on it.)

Yer that is true, but which traitlines would you then remove to make room for such a trait. And what more could you add to the overcast without it crossing into the realm of op?

honnestly, I take :

Fire (20)
V (burning precision); 75% chance to cause burning for 3 seconds on crits
III (Ember’s might) each applying of burning gives 1 stack of might for 10 seconds.

Earth (10)
I (obsidian focus) gain protection while channeling skills

Water (10)
I (aquamancer’s alacrity) your focus cd’s recharges 30% faster.

And I already know that elementalist are overpowered with your suggestions. because, with a S/F setup in air atunement, you’ve got perma protect, perma burn, at least 15 might stack and when things goes bad, you just have to switch to earth for 4s invul every 35s.

EDIT : Oh and this made me laugh (I don’t think this thing can be done)
VI (vital striking) takes 10% less dmg when target over 90% hp

Dadnir.5038:

honnestly, I take :

Fire (20)
V (burning precision); 75% chance to cause burning for 3 seconds on crits
III (Ember’s might) each applying of burning gives 1 stack of might for 10 seconds.

Earth (10)
I (obsidian focus) gain protection while channeling skills

Water (10)
I (aquamancer’s alacrity) your focus cd’s recharges 30% faster.

And I already know that elementalist are overpowered with your suggestions. because, with a S/F setup in air atunement, you’ve got perma protect, perma burn, at least 15 might stack and when things goes bad, you just have to switch to earth for 4s invul every 35s.

EDIT : Oh and this made me laugh (I don’t think this thing can be done)
VI (vital striking) takes 10% less dmg when target over 90% hp

actually you are missing alot in that setup but ty for bringing it up.

for “perma” or close to perma prtoction you would need to use nothing but arc lightning which have a Terrible dps becouse you are forced to stay in lightning spec permanent then (soo not op at all).
it’s 3,5 seconds cast time, meaning at best you will end up with roughly 3 stacks of might. (assuming it works like every other channel/aoe which can only apply affects once per skill) even if we allow it to do more then once per skill (aoe skills would start to stack crazy amount of might so that would not happend, and doesnt work either in the current system) we are talking 7stacks of might.
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so:
arc lightning with lightning strike as only dps source (perma burn as well but the dps from this is still very low). perma protection and 3-4 stacks of might.
to be honest this would be REALLY weak if that was your tactic to do it like this, it would however add to the S/F build and would be a nice boost to its survivability if that was what you where aiming for, but in no way would it make it op
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VI is 100% durable, they already use the exact mechanic which is needed to do this on everything which requires “over/under” x% hp, just as example “water: VI: does more dmg when you are over 90% hp”, “lightning: VI does 20% more dmg when target is under 33% hp” these two traits is in the game with those effects right now. so its diffinately possible to do this

You don’t get it and you are wrong when you say : assuming it works like every other channel/aoe which can only apply affects once per skill .
Mesmer Fantasms use channel skill and each hit cause bleed on crit (have you ever tried iprotector with the trait that allow fantasm to bleed on crit? It’s awesome). You can stack a lot of bleed with axe 2 on Necromancer (and I do it all the time while in Necromancer). Same for Rapidfire on rangers longbow… etc. It would be a shame if it wouldn’t. The only effect that trigger only once on a chain/aoe skill are effect that have ICD. Now, sure my argument would be completly null if you dare to add ICD on you traits.

Each time you crit you’ve got a chance to trigger the trait. You crit and hit a lot in a chain lightning. It’s not 1 hit every 3,5s it’s 1hit/s + lightning strike every 5s (can be cast while chain lightning without breaking it). So, with 10 s might on burn you can stack (at best) 12 might stack just with autoattack and 2. Now, take arcane blast for an extra stack every 20s and the attunement double tap you want to introduce every 15s. or just enhance a little your boon duration and you gain even more might stack. Feel free to add a sigil of strengh with this to hit your 25 stack.

With this, your burn (if you go Condition damage) will hurt a lot and no one will be able to remove them, because you reapply them instantly. Thanks but we already saw that burn can destroy balance with dhumfire (which have a long ICD) on necromancers and they are pretty limited in term of might stacking ability.

Even more crazy, you’ve got the new runes of the noble 40% might duration + condi damage. With this, you’ve got already a pretty good dps but…

Who care about protection when you are not in range to be hit? so when foe are far, let’s have fun with earth attunement and add 3 bleed every 2 seconds with our burns…

I’m sorry to say it but one thing that held down the necromancer is his poor ability to stack boons while Elementalist may lack ability to stack condition (well… it’s already easy to stack 13 bleed stack an burn all the time with a bit of soft cc) but are almost godly when it come to stack boons. For me what you want break balance.

PS : I saw that you didn’t comment on the 4s of perfect invulnerability every 35s. Do you really think it’s balanced?

Dadnir.5038:

You don’t get it and you are wrong when you say : assuming it works like every other channel/aoe which can only apply affects once per skill .

even when it does more than once and we assume you got 60% crit rate, that’s 15crit hits over 10 seconds, giving you 11 applying of burning=11 stack of might’s.
not as if its breaking.
(the might stacks is nothing new, you can do the same already with pyromancer fire trait while using a lot higher dps skills) the burn though gets too high too fast I think. The whole issue is easily fixed by simply putting in the description that the burn can maximum proc once per skill.

This basicly eliminates the abusive setup you wanted to make.
Now the setup will be adding burn almost permanently with the channel skills (arc lightning and stoneshard) but will last only as long as the channel 3 seconds, and around 3stacks of might.

not gonna be op, the dps output of this is so low it would barely be able to get through a wars passive regen
But will allow for some new and exciting setup towards condition dmg

However the permanent protection on both earth and lightning could be a bit much that you are right with. Have changed the skill too:
I (obsidian focus) gain 2 seconds protection per second of using a channeling skill up to max 6 seconds. 20 seconds cd.

which should fix the issue which we could have with build focused on only using the channeling skills to abuse this.

edit: condition builds on ele have always been useless and not variable at all.
MAYBE this would give it the edge for a condition build to be variable, doubt it a bit though but it does give the option to try and see if you can make a useful condition build, the problem is you have no way of effectively mass stacking conditions and its incredibly easy to use Condi removal to reset the Condi buildup and you have to restart it. and even at max stacks you can reach you are still subpar to athor condition users and don’t come near to their survive while keeping the conditions up

on the 4 sec invul every 35 sec and forced to use focus. ow yes! its diffinately not op when compared to what other classes gets of equel defense skills. you seriously think that focus will be op with it?, seriously?

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ps: ty for pointhing these out and jumping around on them helps alot to get a better view on the traits and what needs a bit of changes.

I love your idea with the “Overcast”, haven’t read all the trait changes though

Gorni.1764:

I love your idea with the “Overcast”, haven’t read all the trait changes though

tyvm

if you get time to read the traits don’t be shy to write if there is any of them you find broken. are tweaking them if we find stuff which is broken.

just thought i would give this a little bump for more input

Some good ideas that i picked up

- Instant Lava Font
- Detonatable Eruption(Different effects)
- More reliable gust
- A non projectile auto-attack
- Lesser delayed skills.

a little bump now that we got “overloading” which is basically the “overcast” i asked for.
although i think my idea is better overall, and have abilities more diverse and overall usefull for all weapon sets ^^