Guild Wars 2

Did anyone see the thing on Twitch? Give me a lowdown of the Elementalist changes.

I missed it too

Skill previews, condi damage floaters, and ground targeting have great quailty of life improvements.

Eles got:
Earth shield changed as previous, still useless
Staff Water 3 now has a larger radius
Staff earth 4 acts like a very short line of warding (3s) on a 30s CD
Staff fire 1 now increases radius with blasting staff
Trait “One with air” now gives 1.5s of “superspeed” (100% in-combat run speed, roughly the same as ooc swiftness) on swap to air, yourself only (note this is still useless as it just over-writes your swiftness from elemental attunement)

Moral: Play another class for another 6 months.

Edit: fixed the duration of superspeed: it is 1.5s, not 2s.

Seriously …. ???

BlackBeard.2873:

Trait “One with air” now gives 2s of “superspeed” (100% run speed) on swap to air, yourself only

ICD?

BlackBeard.2873:

Skill previews, condi damage floaters, and ground targeting have great quailty of life improvements.

Eles got:
Earth shield changed as previous, still useless
Staff Water 3 now has a larger radius
Staff earth 4 acts like a very short line of warding (3s) on a 30s CD
Staff fire 1 now increases radius with blasting staff
Trait “One with air” now gives 2s of “superspeed” (100% run speed) on swap to air, yourself only

Moral: Play another class for another 6 months.

Well that’s extremely underwhelming.

Axelifus.3269:

BlackBeard.2873:

Trait “One with air” now gives 2s of “superspeed” (100% run speed) on swap to air, yourself only

ICD?

It didn’t appear there was one, since they mentioned it working well with fresh air.

where you getting the data from?

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2

Elementalist was the first class shown. They are talking about warriors now.

I’m supremely disappointed.

Puppychow.2563:

Axelifus.3269:

BlackBeard.2873:

Trait “One with air” now gives 2s of “superspeed” (100% run speed) on swap to air, yourself only

ICD?

It didn’t appear there was one, since they mentioned it working well with fresh air.

Yea, they said it works with fresh air, but so does elemental attunement. Maybe it will actually be good, but I have a feeling we will still be useless….sorry, less than useless.

Everything is as they mentioned before, some good stuff but they didn’t take our comments about slow casting speeds for auto attacks into account.

Major AOE nerf.

They did say that this was just the “big” and “cool” changes that they wanted to show us now, and that more were in wait for the release.

I’m of the “wait and see” group, if other classes get tuned down, it might be enough for Ele’s to be viable again. I don’t think we need a buff…just a rework of useless skills cough focus cough. We’ll know for sure tomorrow.

Pretty much this balance update only benefits eles due to the update in the targeting system.

Overall the patch enhance every class pretty decently except the ele.

BlackBeard.2873:

Puppychow.2563:

Axelifus.3269:

BlackBeard.2873:

Trait “One with air” now gives 2s of “superspeed” (100% run speed) on swap to air, yourself only

ICD?

It didn’t appear there was one, since they mentioned it working well with fresh air.

Yea, they said it works with fresh air, but so does elemental attunement. Maybe it will actually be good, but I have a feeling we will still be useless….sorry, less than useless.

why take superspeed for 2 seconds? Answer you don’t.

This AoE nerf — is it that targets who block or dodge count for the target cap, or is there something else on top of that?

Pretty much ele dmg remains low, you still die easy, and you may see bunker staff eles in pvp again but thats a big maybe.

They said there is alot more stuff that wasn’t in the preview they did so we will have to see what those look like. I like the unsteady ground change though. I kind of feel there was more they where going to show for ele but got sidetracked with showing the condition damage and ground floater changes and the trait UI changes.

The new unsteady ground would have been more useful with a stun. It just delays your death by 3s.

2s of super speed every 5s, with swiftness inbetween, can make fresh air builds pretty awesome at kiting/ escaping/ chasing. Look at it this way: it’s a weaker Ride the Lightning every 5s.

I’m not sure how effective it might be for general map movement, or even while in combat, but let’s not call it underwhelming before testing.

Fireball will become stronger for farming if you’re using blasting staff. It had a 180 radius in the video, I believe? The staff trait adds 60 radius, which means fireball’s base would have to be 120… while it’s at 90 currently. Another buff, maybe? Or maybe I’ve seen the wrong numbers. Can’t remember.

I agree that the superspeed can be awesome, so let’s wait to see it before we say it sucks.

DiogoSilva.7089:

2s of super speed every 5s, with swiftness inbetween, can make fresh air builds pretty awesome at kiting/ escaping/ chasing. Look at it this way: it’s a weaker Ride the Lightning every 5s.

I’m not sure how effective it might be for general map movement, or even while in combat, but let’s not call it underwhelming before testing.

Fireball will become stronger for farming if you’re using blasting staff. It had a 180 radius in the video, I believe? The staff trait adds 60 radius, which means fireball’s base would have to be 120… while it’s at 90 currently. Another buff, maybe? Or maybe I’ve seen the wrong numbers. Can’t remember.

The third option of ground targeting will make staff users the more viable, this new air trait will make them the fastest staff users in the game.

The new unsteady ground represent a 3th block available to staff eles, placed in a choke point will give me enough time to place 2-3 aoe thx to the new targeting option

what is this new ground targeting?

Super speed looks interesting I currently run 20 earth I use to be a big fan of zephyr’s boon more for the fury but I don’t feel I have to have it anymore since I do everything with in 3.5 seconds usually in each attunement. I’ll definitely check the trait out though.

Zelyhn.8069:

what is this new ground targeting?

When you press the button for your cast the targeting area shows once you release it the skill is activated.

So no more pressing it 2 times to let off your ground targeted skills you press hold move to desired cast area and release.

BlackBeard.2873:

Trait “One with air” now gives 2s of “superspeed” (100% run speed) on swap to air, yourself only (note this is still useless as it just over-writes your swiftness from elemental attunement)

Wait, so its still a major trait then?

Honestly, who would drop bolt to the heart/zephyrs boon/air training/alacrity/fresh air/etc.. for that? Even the experimental stuff like arcane lightning/soothing winds/zephyrs focus sound more useful by comparison.

I am sincerely hoping its a replacement for zephyrs speed as the 5 point minor. That was the trait for which we have been asking for a change since speed boosts dont stack. Maybe they could just drop trait4 for something entirely new?

Also, the fireball change sounds nice but it would have to be pretty spectacular to get me to spec into blasting staff again.

The one with air change is interesting. Will have to see how it plays out in actual fights, but I wouldn’t underestimate it yet.

lol, Super Speed? Really?

Does it actually work and surpass 33% movement speed?

Last time I checked the Engineers “Super Speed” toolbelt skill doesn’t work properly and that skill been around since beta.

Why should I expect that trait to work properly? I bet you gold it doesn’t.

Well, it seemed you could run at normal speed.

it ignores snares and makes you run like out of combat with swiftness which is good.
It also greatly enhances your leaps last time i checked.Try super speed and rocket boots to get an idea on an engi :P

Omg i just went back on my engi and retested it…Holy kitten this thing is fun!!!

I can’t wait to throw a crippling shield at a thief, and miss, while he immobilizes me.

katniss.6735:

I can’t wait to throw a crippling shield at a thief, and miss, while he immobilizes me.

I dont know if they fixed elem surge and arcane power..If not go ahead and immob him too.Without spendin a resource like ini for pistol 2,with less trait investment than his venoms ,at similar cooldown..Although the immob change frankly seems stupid and it probably is gonna break the game somehow and i ll hate it

BlackBeard.2873:

Skill previews, condi damage floaters, and ground targeting have great quailty of life improvements.

Eles got:

Earth shield changed as previous, still useless

Staff Water 3 now has a larger radius
Staff earth 4 acts like a very short line of warding (3s) on a 30s CD
Staff fire 1 now increases radius with blasting staff
Trait “One with air” now gives 2s of “superspeed” (100% run speed) on swap to air, yourself only (note this is still useless as it just over-writes your swiftness from elemental attunement)

Moral: Play another class for another 6 months.

What change specifically to earth shield?

I wouldn’t take surge over arcana, just like I won’t be using shield still.

I didn’t think they’d keep the unsteady ground cd; I’m surprised. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to land multiple lava font ticks.

Fireball has always had its radius increased with blasting staff, as with water blast and lightning surge.

Super speed is quite interesting. I’m guessing it won’t stack with swiftness as with all other speed boosts.

Also, it seems like glyph of renewal will now be ground targeted instead of a random person in a radius. Although I never used it, you could precast glyph of renewal and LF to a target and still get 1200 range out of it. In this case, it can be a nerf depending on your perspective.

One with Air makes it viable to play without “V” in arcana line when swapping attunements, as you will still get the swiftness boost. But having them both gives an over-ride of each other, or a stack effect? The tooltip says haste (which makes me think I can stomp someone faster :p), but then it relates to speed under that, which makes it seem like it’s swiftness and not haste as we know it.

One with Air mentioned at 8:20

The ground targeting change (Fast Cast With Ground Targeting) in staff, and with lightning flash are truly great, mentioned before this part listed above. No more double-clicking. This is huge.

for those who missed it.

Nova Stiker.8396:

lol, Super Speed? Really?

Does it actually work and surpass 33% movement speed?

Last time I checked the Engineers “Super Speed” toolbelt skill doesn’t work properly and that skill been around since beta.

Why should I expect that trait to work properly? I bet you gold it doesn’t.

Engineer’s super speed works just fine. I’ve been playing engineer almost exclusively the past couple of months, and I run that utility skill quite often since it’s a lot of fun. It sets forward movement speed at 400 (same as out of combat swiftness) regardless of whether you’re in combat or not (whereas normal forward movement speed in combat is 210), which is pretty massive. More importantly, it also ignores cripple and chill’s movement debuff modifier. It’s great for both escaping and chasing.

That elementalists will have access to 2 seconds of this, potentially on a 5 second cooldown with fresh air, is definitely worth trying out.

[EDIT] Also, this was to highlight some of the larger features. They mentioned that the actual changelog is much larger than they could mention in the video, so let’s adopt a wait-and-see approach first before blowing up. But I do like one with air.

Nova Stiker.8396:

lol, Super Speed? Really?

Does it actually work and surpass 33% movement speed?

Last time I checked the Engineers “Super Speed” toolbelt skill doesn’t work properly and that skill been around since beta.

Why should I expect that trait to work properly? I bet you gold it doesn’t.

Safe to assume you haven’t used Engi recently then. There’s a cap of 33% movement speed (out of combat). However, in combat you move slower. With the 100% speed boost in combat, you’re able to move as fast as a 33% out of combat speed. Makes for an easy escape.

Full Developer Livestream notes from Dulfy:

• Glyph of Storms – In each attunement it show you what spell it casts when you are hovering that skill.
• Staff has a change with Unsteady Ground, similar to Line of Warding from Guardian but it only lasts 3 seconds with 30s cooldown. Enemies cannot cross the line created by the Unsteady Ground skill for 3 seconds. It give staff more utility that the developers felt was lacking.
• Conjure Earth Shield – Shield Smack (#1 skill) is now a combo of 3 skills and there is a reordering in the way your combos show – they now show from top to bottom (i.e. 1st attack on top, last skill on bottom). Also 2nd skill has being changed to Stone Sheath.
• Increased staff autoattack healing (Water Blast), increased base radius of Geyser (from 180 to 240) to make staff into a better support weapon.
• One with Air – Air trait – now grant you super speed on swapping to air attunement for a short duration (100% speed for about 1.25 seconds) . Give ele more mobility and the trait was broken before anyways.

See Dulfy’s page for more details & pictures: http://dulfy.net/2013/10/14/gw2-october-14-developer-livestream-notes/

Really? None of you people play engis do you? Superspeed is incredible. It allows you to move at twice out of combat run speed regardless of conditions or combat. With fresh air and no ICD, we’d have even better access to it than they do.

Elementalists can’t have nice things. Their skills and traits always have to be a kitten version of that from another class.

1.25 seconds neh

Khalic.3561:

Really? None of you people play engis do you? Superspeed is incredible. It allows you to move at twice out of combat run speed regardless of conditions or combat. With fresh air and no ICD, we’d have even better access to it than they do.

That’s assuming no changes to the way the boon/buff will work. I think if it gets added like that it wont be long until it gets nerfed. It should NOT be unaffected by things like Cripple and such especially if it has no internal cool down or anything

Is the staff viable in 1v1s? Does the scepter have a sustained damage option without going Fresh Air squishy super burst?

No?

Rats.

I made a new guild: One With Nerfs [ELES]

katniss.6735:

I made a new guild: One With Nerfs [ELES]

Invite me!

Ele got nerfed. again. earth 4 is a nerf for a skilled player. 3 seconds wall for a 30 seconds cooldown? you have to be kidding me.

so ele already was the weakest class, now even weaker.

Earth 4 was nigh useless before. Now it will be very valuable, despite the CD. Thanks Anet!

Man, there is a lot of whining going on here, even though noone has seen or tested the final changes yet. Don’t think there is enough cheese to go around, sadly.

Currently it looks good. The superspeed will be a great addition to burst builds. Who needs 20% shorter CDs or +10% damage in air, when you get a grand mobility buff, even with the short duration. It will be good for staff and focus eles, who are lacking in mobility.

A shame they didn’t give us all the details, but looks good for sure.

Malcastus.6240:

Earth 4 was nigh useless before. Now it will be very valuable, despite the CD. Thanks Anet!

Man, there is a lot of whining going on here, even though noone has seen or tested the final changes yet. Don’t think there is enough cheese to go around, sadly.

Currently it looks good. The superspeed will be a great addition to burst builds. Who needs 20% shorter CDs or +10% damage in air, when you get a grand mobility buff, even with the short duration. It will be good for staff and focus eles, who are lacking in mobility.

A shame they didn’t give us all the details, but looks good for sure.

sadly, the earth 4 was PERFECT in 1v1ing melee classes, just run around on your 10 seconds lasting 4 and enemy would be constant crippled while you could maintain a great distance from the said attacker.

Also what do i like more a wall of 3 seconds to knock back some ppl in wvw vs big zergs or a 10 seconds wall wich cripples them all…

Its about how you use the skill. and just because its underused because people dont get it. doesnt mean as a die hard staff user using it in all sorts and forms that its bad.

oh and btw, the 1,5 speed boost really isnt enough to get away from classes wich actually still just outrun you except when you go full fresh air build.

In PvP people aren’t always silly enough to trample through your Unsteady Ground. Good players avoid it, from my experience. Now you can much more easily stop groups, create distance and potentially combine it with attacks.

You can dodge through the current Unsteady Ground, while you can’t with the new one, if it works as told. A huge difference.

Regarding what you said about superspeed. While you can’t outrun people, you can CC them before using it, giving you that extra mobility needed. Usually you don’t have to keep outrunning someone, but manage to get from A to B (your team, keep, etc.). That time you buy yourself, can be enough for x skill, heal or utility to go off CD. To me that means a lot in a fight, especially using staff or focus.

It looks like it has potential. We’ll see how it fares in testing tomorrow.

Malcastus.6240:

In PvP people aren’t always silly enough to trample through your Unsteady Ground. Good players avoid it, from my experience. Now you can much more easily stop groups, create distance and potentially combine it with attacks.

You can dodge through the current Unsteady Ground, while you can’t with the new one, if it works as told. A huge difference.

Regarding what you said about superspeed. While you can’t outrun people, you can CC them before using it, giving you that extra mobility needed. Usually you don’t have to keep outrunning someone, but manage to get from A to B (your team, keep, etc.). That time you buy yourself, can be enough for x skill, heal or utility to go off CD. To me that means a lot in a fight, especially using staff or focus.

It looks like it has potential. We’ll see how it fares in testing tomorrow.

Good players indeed dodge roll once, and then twice … and then when they notice your running in a CIRCLE inside of it, theyr gonna get hit byt the cripple if theyr gonna try to fight you. im not saying run away, im saying run in circles inside it so the effect actually becomes effective.

3 seconds is too low, you will see it soon,

creating distance when your still one of the slowest moving classes is quite useless if your gonna get outrunned anyway. i dont really get how to combine 3 seconds with attacks when all attacks of my ele take atleast 30 seconds to recharge…, including this one…..