Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I just thought I’d make a page from what I noticed about the new Traits and to see if I can’t start up a discussion about it. Just like the title suggests I noticed that the CD on BA was reduced to 3 seconds instead of 5. Do you guys think this will be viable? How would you change it?

Also coming from a “Control”-mentalist point of view, these Trait changes really won’t effect distribution considering Elemental Surge wasn’t even touched… (I would have liked to see the duration of the immob increased by at least 1 second, but I guess I ask too much…) what do you guys think? Control-mentalist more viable after the change or less? I think Condi-Ele will still be a bit weak (minus the 1-2 builds that focus around bleads).

it’s kinda a buff for condi signet builds and you can go for fire earth and water/arcana now.

I don’t think condi ele will be much more viable than it is now. Can’t say I’m unhappy about that, though.

I don’t think it that it will be used exclusively for condition elementalists though. It could be used as a nice damage mitigation bonus for hybrid/zerker builds. I mean having one blind (from air evasive arcana) proves supremely effective when dueling. So to dish it out on critical hits or when you are struck with a fire aura (and fire auras will be easier to gain) could prove an essential survival trait for a lot of ele builds. Against sluggish builds like hammer warriors the 3s-ish cd would reeeeeeally slow them down.

Ultimately though i can’t really tell how eles will play out compared to the other classes. The 20% dps reduction and up-time on auras could be awesome yet moving elemental attunement up to grandmaster and at the same time taking the 30% boon duration off the line might hurt too much. Could go either way considering changes to other classes.

Blinding ashes is now GM trait worthy. The 5s icd before was around master tier in power level and this reduction to 3s is an 80% buff. Trait is very, very good now imo.

Rocketmist.5436:

Blinding ashes is now GM trait worthy. The 5s icd before was around master tier in power level and this reduction to 3s is an 80% buff. Trait is very, very good now imo.

I suppose so but the fire line still seems a bit weak. The master traits are just bad.

Yeah I agree, they did make the cleansing fire trait better by making it trigger at 5 conditions instead of 3 now. That being said it is still pretty meh. The fire aura trait really boils down to how they rework burning damage/stacking. But yeah I think all 3 adept traits are stronger than all 3 master traits in fire :P

Laraley.7695:

I don’t think condi ele will be much more viable than it is now. Can’t say I’m unhappy about that, though.

It won’t.

I have over 1600 hours on my ele in one of two condition builds, I play them because I think they’re fun (or thought, nowadays they just feel frustrating and my Ele is collecting dust) but in spite of being able to take them wherever in PvE (because anything works in most PvE) and even some WvW, they suck, along with all Elementalist condition builds.

Nothing is going to fix the ele’s condition builds until we get longer condition durations and shorter ramp uptime on the condition application from our weapon skills. It is completely ridiculous that using our class mechanic (attuning) causes our conditions to fall off faster than we can switch between the elements that apply them.

I currently use Blinding Ashes as my “For Fun Dueling Build” which is power based. Sure, it got buffed but as long as the ICD is not per target, I don’t think it will be THAT useful for group skirmishes.

They can bring it up to 5s ICD as long as it is per target or better yet, 3s ICD per target but I guess it would be too broken.

Elemental Surge…they combined it with Arcane Lightning, but forced us to pick it over the ‘core’ Elementalist traits. Very lame by Anet.

As for condition builds, they will still suck. We need access to different conditions or the ability to rapidly re-apply them.