Guild Wars 2

Anyone else feel that we have very limited access to auras? (Exception is the D/D weapon set).

I wanted to make a thread to get some feedback/tips from the community so I can add them to my other thread.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Suggestions-for-improving-fixing-eles/first#post2388416.

Anyway, these are my suggestions.

Tempest defense/Rune of earth/Rune of fire – The cds on these have to be brought down. Maybe 30 or 40 sec cd would be good. (fire needs 20 – 30 imho).

Focus Fire 4 – Cd should be brought down.

Staff and Scepter need one of their skills turned into an aura. Staff has access to frost armor via blasting the ice field but that is really too situational, it also has magnetic aura but that is still 1 aura vs D/D which has 2 (3 if you leap finish the fire field and 4 if you spec/rune for it).

TLDR: Auras are our thing. Make it feel like that by giving us better access to encourage aura traits.

I made a thread about making signet actives be auras that correspond with the given element.

Air signet > shocking aura
Etc

I still think it would be a cool idea IMO

^Would definitely make signets more appealing. They’re still kinda blah.

let glyph of elemental power give us auras corresponding with the element we’re in.
Then I’d be happy.

Benji.9203:

I made a thread about making signet actives be auras that correspond with the given element.

Air signet > shocking aura
Etc

I still think it would be a cool idea IMO

I’ve suggested this idea before as well. However, the duration of these would have to be shorter then the 3 sec. Since air has had its cd upped to 30/24, might be more viable now. Remembering that Air had 20/16 before. A 20 sec air aura would have been over the top.

As it stands, I think that this trait would be good if they improved the fire aura. Something like Burn foes around you as well as attacking foes.
Or, increase fire damage by 10% and burn attacking foes.
Or, fire aura applies more then 1 sec buring.
Or, fire aura applies 1 sec of burning to attacking foe, you also gain 1 stack of retaliation for the duration of the aura.
Or, fire aura burns foes attacking for 1 sec and removes 1 condition (or, removes chill and bleeding).

I also think the Gain fire aura on sig activation should also reduce signet cast time by 50% (not including the heal).

More Aura access would be awesome. Actually, how cool would it be if it Auras were positioned as our profession’s key active defense, rather than heavy investment in Water and pounding heals like crazy?

I think it’d be pretty right if each weapon set had access to 3-4 of the auras in some way, make it more of a “oh it’s an ele, watch out for their auras!” Sort of thing, ATM only D/D really has Auras, sure staff and focus have like 1 but that’s kinda meh….

A few suggestions I’ve seen on it were:

1) Make the lingering Attunement trait give you an aura based on the Attunement you swapped into

2) make signets apply the corresponding aura

3) apply them to glyphs

4) attach them to the 15 or 25pt trait in each tree.

Benji.9203:

I made a thread about making signet actives be auras that correspond with the given element.

Air signet > shocking aura
Etc

I still think it would be a cool idea IMO

This is a very nice idea although I would see some people complaining about losing the earth/fire signet immob&burning.

This got me thinking. They could add a trait like the Fire 9 trait in all other trait lines giving us 3-5 sec of frost/shocking/magnetic auras on use of signets. This would definitely bring back signet builds.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

let glyph of elemental power give us auras corresponding with the element we’re in.
Then I’d be happy.

This is another nice idea. GoEP being a stunbreak should be defensive so it should give an aura of your attunement for 5-7 sec.

Along these lines, I feel Glyph of storms giving a field for each storm would make that glyph a very nice one as well.

I have always liked glyphs more than signets/cantrips because they are that much more tactical.
Want might? Use glyphs in fire.
Regen? Water.
Speed? Air.
Protection? Earth.

Sadly, my glyph build is obsolete now that conditions are the heavy meta so Ether Renewal is just too good compared to GoEH.

TGSlasher.1458:

Or, increase fire damage by 10% and burn attacking foes.
Or, fire aura applies more then 1 sec buring.
Or, fire aura applies 1 sec of burning to attacking foe, you also gain 1 stack of retaliation for the duration of the aura.
Or, fire aura burns foes attacking for 1 sec and removes 1 condition (or, removes chill and bleeding).

The easiest thing they can do is to make fire shield passively apply 1 second burn on nearby enemies (360 radius) every second while giving the caster 1 stack of might every second.
This would bring it on par with the other auras.

Blaine Tog.8304:

More Aura access would be awesome. Actually, how cool would it be if it Auras were positioned as our profession’s key active defense, rather than heavy investment in Water and pounding heals like crazy?

ANet should learn to place good defensive mechanisms in fire/air/earth trait lines so that we are not forced into water.
Making fire aura better would help fire defense a lot and improving air (just a little) would help air too. (Tempest defense cd should be 30 sec and the 20% damage to stunned targets should be removed + Glyph traits should be improved).
Earth has some good traits, but it can still be made better with bug fixes.

I still say fire aura should reflect a percentage of the damage back at the attacker. Kind of like retaliation, but better. something unique to fire aura to actually make it worth using. Retaliation just does 200 dmg+ and amount determined by whatever your power is and some other junk. It would be better if fire aura reflected damage based on your opponent’s power, not yours. perfect defensive weapon against the GC thieves who love to backstab solo roaming eles. It’s not like we can run away from them anymore now that our mobility is nerfed to hell and back. Might as well make them think twice about stabbing us with fire aura. Get stabbed, notice the thief is there, pop a signet or glyph or whatever in fire attunement, thief continues to spam 2 mindlessly, thief dies. Then we laugh and dance on them, or like I usually do, throw rose petals on them then lay on them while the flowers bloom all around me.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

let glyph of elemental power give us auras corresponding with the element we’re in.
Then I’d be happy.

That’s one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard. It would make a lot of sense and give every weaponset access to every aura. Brilliant.

Demon.5082:

TGSlasher.1458:

Or, increase fire damage by 10% and burn attacking foes.
Or, fire aura applies more then 1 sec buring.
Or, fire aura applies 1 sec of burning to attacking foe, you also gain 1 stack of retaliation for the duration of the aura.
Or, fire aura burns foes attacking for 1 sec and removes 1 condition (or, removes chill and bleeding).

The easiest thing they can do is to make fire shield passively apply 1 second burn on nearby enemies (360 radius) every second while giving the caster 1 stack of might every second.
This would bring it on par with the other auras.

I had though of that. However, as it stands, there are 4 auras.

Water + Fire, punish both ranged and melee
Earth, Punishes ranged only (and the odd axe through)
Air, Punishes Melee only (and the odd ranged attack, which is actually melee)

Adding a burn in x area makes this more anti melee unless pressuring a ranged foe (but if your both ranged this aura would be worse then it currently is).

My latest idea:
Burn attacking foes and gain might. Fire aura also removes burning and chill and makes you immune to burning and chill for its duration.

I run Staff most of the time, and the only thing I want is Burning Retreat to be a Leap Finisher. That gives me all 4 auras. I think our access to auras is already pretty good, and have been trying to work out a build that really leverages it to the max.

Currently, the 10-point Earth trait (Elemental Shielding?) is so cheap that I can’t pass it up. Blast finish an Ice field and give everyone Frost aura AND protection. I might add Zephyr’s Boon to the mix as well, but I’m not sure I want that much aura spamming. They’re nice when you need them, but if I position well then I don’t really need them that much. Still, it might be nice for buff-stacking allies.

PinCushion.7390:

I run Staff most of the time, and the only thing I want is Burning Retreat to be a Leap Finisher. That gives me all 4 auras. I think our access to auras is already pretty good, and have been trying to work out a build that really leverages it to the max.

Currently, the 10-point Earth trait (Elemental Shielding?) is so cheap that I can’t pass it up. Blast finish an Ice field and give everyone Frost aura AND protection. I might add Zephyr’s Boon to the mix as well, but I’m not sure I want that much aura spamming. They’re nice when you need them, but if I position well then I don’t really need them that much. Still, it might be nice for buff-stacking allies.

Staff … all auras if burning retreat was a leap finisher, where do you get Air aura? FYI leap through static field is a daze. :s who would have though.

TGSlasher.1458:

PinCushion.7390:

I run Staff most of the time, and the only thing I want is Burning Retreat to be a Leap Finisher. That gives me all 4 auras. I think our access to auras is already pretty good, and have been trying to work out a build that really leverages it to the max.

Currently, the 10-point Earth trait (Elemental Shielding?) is so cheap that I can’t pass it up. Blast finish an Ice field and give everyone Frost aura AND protection. I might add Zephyr’s Boon to the mix as well, but I’m not sure I want that much aura spamming. They’re nice when you need them, but if I position well then I don’t really need them that much. Still, it might be nice for buff-stacking allies.

Staff … all auras if burning retreat was a leap finisher, where do you get Air aura? FYI leap through static field is a daze. :s who would have though.

The build I’ve been toying with lately incorporates Tempest Defense. It somewhat compensates for the otherwise terrible melee defense on staff, and the extra crit helps make up for staff’s fairly bad damage.

Unfortunately there aren’t enough trait points to get the build I really want, which would include Powerful Auras. Can’t run Staff without 20 Arcane. Almost can’t play an Ele without 20 Arcane.

Auras would need to be buffed quite a bit (at least in duration/cooldown if not in their actual effects) before I would even consider building around them.

Benji.9203:

I made a thread about making signet actives be auras that correspond with the given element.

Air signet > shocking aura
Etc

I still think it would be a cool idea IMO

The problems is that with air/earth/ice sigils equipped with D/D you would essentially have immunity from ranged damage. And the problem would only be worsened by constant buffs… and then there’s the ice elemental trick.

Conncept.7638:

Benji.9203:

I made a thread about making signet actives be auras that correspond with the given element.

Air signet > shocking aura
Etc

I still think it would be a cool idea IMO

The problems is that with air/earth/ice sigils equipped with D/D you would essentially have immunity from ranged damage. And the problem would only be worsened by constant buffs… and then there’s the ice elemental trick.

What ice elemental trick?

PinCushion.7390:

TGSlasher.1458:

PinCushion.7390:

I run Staff most of the time, and the only thing I want is Burning Retreat to be a Leap Finisher. That gives me all 4 auras. I think our access to auras is already pretty good, and have been trying to work out a build that really leverages it to the max.

Currently, the 10-point Earth trait (Elemental Shielding?) is so cheap that I can’t pass it up. Blast finish an Ice field and give everyone Frost aura AND protection. I might add Zephyr’s Boon to the mix as well, but I’m not sure I want that much aura spamming. They’re nice when you need them, but if I position well then I don’t really need them that much. Still, it might be nice for buff-stacking allies.

Staff … all auras if burning retreat was a leap finisher, where do you get Air aura? FYI leap through static field is a daze. :s who would have though.

The build I’ve been toying with lately incorporates Tempest Defense. It somewhat compensates for the otherwise terrible melee defense on staff, and the extra crit helps make up for staff’s fairly bad damage.

Unfortunately there aren’t enough trait points to get the build I really want, which would include Powerful Auras. Can’t run Staff without 20 Arcane. Almost can’t play an Ele without 20 Arcane.

I have been playing ele with 10 arcane for a while. Though I wouldn’t go staff without blasting staff, which is a shame. The other classes weapon traits aren’t as important unless maxing damage (a lot being CD on x weapon skills or X% Damage when using x weapon). We get the life blood of staff traits, don’t take it and you suffer. Yet Anet is trying to push us out of water / arcane builds.

Aether McLoud.1975:

Conncept.7638:

Benji.9203:

I made a thread about making signet actives be auras that correspond with the given element.

Air signet > shocking aura
Etc

I still think it would be a cool idea IMO

The problems is that with air/earth/ice sigils equipped with D/D you would essentially have immunity from ranged damage. And the problem would only be worsened by constant buffs… and then there’s the ice elemental trick.

What ice elemental trick?

Keep one ice elemental out at all times and use daggers. The ice elemental always opens up with a melee frost attack that leaves an ice field, magnetic grasp to the enemy and get a free frost aura, repeat each time the ice elemental attacks for ridiculous uptime on frost aura.

Unfortunately due to the elementals having such horrid AI and being unable to attack a moving target this doesn’t really work in SPvP. But it’s great for dungeons, PvE, and works in a well coordinated WvW group.