Guild Wars 2

This topic was brought up on reddit today (Link) and I wanted to bring it to light on the official forums to get some more opinions on the topic and hopefully get Developer clarification/explanation. Essentially chill increases the attunement swap cooldown. It’s been stated that each attunement swap counts as a ‘skill’ which is why it is affected by chill while regular weapon swaps are not. That being said, attunement swapping also counts as a weapon swap because of sigils (battle, energy, etc.) So, should attunement swaps (which count as both a weapon swap and skill) be affected by chill?

My opinion: I don’t think attunement swapping should be be subjected to chill’s affects. Say I’m running with a Sigil of Energy and I get chilled, increasing the CD on my attunement swaps. Now any other class can hit their weapon swap (or engineer toolkit) and get the benefit of their sigil without the being hindered by chill. But an elementalist’s ability to benefit from their sigil is hindered by chill. This creates a specific disadvantage for elementalists, which in my opinion is unbalanced.

Balgeary.3086:

My opinion: I don’t think attunement swapping should be be subjected to chill’s affects. Say I’m running with a Sigil of Energy and I get chilled, increasing the CD on my attunement swaps. Now any other class can hit their weapon swap (or engineer toolkit) and get the benefit of their sigil without the being hindered by chill. But an elementalist’s ability to benefit from their sigil is hindered by chill. This creates a specific disadvantage for elementalists, which in my opinion is unbalanced.

Does it increase the between-swap cooldowns? That is, the shortened cooldown all attunements go on upon switching into a new one. IMO, I don’t think it matters. Unless you’re envious of the engineer, the other professions don’t get 4 swaps, so just because your newest attunement will recharge 66% longer, you still have 3 more.

Leo G.4501:

Does it increase the between-swap cooldowns? That is, the shortened cooldown all attunements go on upon switching into a new one. IMO, I don’t think it matters. Unless you’re envious of the engineer, the other professions don’t get 4 swaps, so just because your newest attunement will recharge 66% longer, you still have 3 more.

I’m not sure about the between-swap CD, that’s something I’d have to look at. You’re right when you say I have 3 more attunements, but what if I have burned through those, get chilled, and can’t swap back to another one for another 2-3 additional seconds? Regardless, my main point still stands that under chill, an on-swap sigil is less effective on an elementalist than any other profession.

I personally run hydromancy sigil on my weapons for the added chill. So my opinion is going to be biased.

My answer to your question: yes, it should be affected by chill.

I’m an Elementalist, so I understand what you are concerned about. However, if you burn through 3 of 4 attunements and then get chilled, I think you’ve been outplayed at that point.

Chill affects our class mechanic, and, hopefully, it affects the other classes as well (their mechanic, not the weapon swap). Really, I’ve been wondering if chill affects the thief initiative regen since they are resource dependent.

But overall, chill increasing our attunement swaps when we are hit with it seems more “working as intended.”

Asurmir.7956:

Chill affects our class mechanic, and, hopefully, it affects the other classes as well (their mechanic, not the weapon swap). Really, I’ve been wondering if chill affects the thief initiative regen since they are resource dependent.

Doubt about initiative (it’s not a “skill”), but might affect Steal CD tho.
And Burst skills.
And Shatters.
And DS.
And virtues.
And Pets F2.
And Toolbelt skills.

It would make sense.

Chill against an ele is incredibly strong and has always been.Even back in the days of the immortal ele you could effectively take them down by chilling them after they leave water and cover it for the cantrip cleanses.
Tbh i dont know if it is unfair but its certainly another reason why ele will always be pigeonholed into the cond cleanse utilities and trait line.At least chill isnt that common.
Also notice how our cleanse on dodge trait removes burning and chill.One is the best and most easy applied dot ingame that can destroy your 13k hp alone and the other can completely shut down an ele even without the slow mnovement effect

It makes sense, because otherwise Elementalists would be highly resistant to chill’s recharge drawback. With so many skills to use, there’s rarely a time where chill hurts our skill usage, while for other classes, it can delay their key, low-cooldown skills for 1 or 2 seconds. We are always switching attunements and using new skills. So affecting attunements makes sense.

DiogoSilva.7089:

It makes sense, because otherwise Elementalists would be highly resistant to chill’s recharge drawback. With so many skills to use, there’s rarely a time where chill hurts our skill usage, while for other classes, it can delay their key, low-cooldown skills for 1 or 2 seconds. We are always switching attunements and using new skills. So affecting attunements makes sense.

It does make sence but..Can you tell me how it will ever be possible a build without full arcana and water?
I mean if you get chilled 16 sec att recharge rate becomes 48 sec.Of course you wont be chilled for 48 sec but for every 3 sec you are under the condition your skills and att cd are going up for 2 sec.So 6 sec chill and your next water has a cd of 20 sec etc..
People are finding hard to play with 16 sec base att recharge..put a few periods of chill into the mix and lol..i dont think it will work!
I think they should make stop drop and roll an adept trait and possible make its icd count seperately for chill and burning.
Not many use this trait.But if we are gonna leave arcana and water lines ever we need some chill protection imo..
Its simply bad design balancing a class by thinking players will ALWAYS spend 50 out opf 70 points to the same traits every time to make up for the weaknesses you put there.

AndrewSX.3794:

Doubt about initiative (it’s not a “skill”), but might affect Steal CD tho.
And Burst skills.
And Shatters.
And DS.
And virtues.
And Pets F2.
And Toolbelt skills.

It would make sense.

Yes these are all affected by chill, but none of these skills trigger weapon swapping which is my main argument. The on-swap sigil for a chilled elementalist is less effective than another chilled profession’s on-swap sigil.

Toolbelt skills trigger sigils

You must also take into consideration that we have more available to us than other classes ( as far as skills are concerned). Our mechanic (and engineers) specializes in multiple skills, multiple weapon swaps.

For instance, think of how often we naturally trigger the weapon swap sigils as compared to other professions. I think you’ll see that the advantage is still ours, even under the effect of chill.

Asurmir.7956:

Toolbelt skills trigger sigils

You must also take into consideration that we have more available to us than other classes ( as far as skills are concerned). Our mechanic (and engineers) specializes in multiple skills, multiple weapon swaps.

For instance, think of how often we naturally trigger the weapon swap sigils as compared to other professions. I think you’ll see that the advantage is still ours, even under the effect of chill.

Toolbelt skills do not trigger sigils for engineers, swapping kits (flamethrower, grenade kit, etc.) triggers sigils.

I agree that elementalists might trigger this sigil more often naturally, but there is a 9 second internal cooldown for each on-swap sigil to create a balance between elementalist/engineer and classes with traditional weapon swaps. So I can’t burn through my attunements one after the other with a sigil of battle to get 9-12 quick stacks of might. What I’m saying is if it’s balanced naturally (no chill, no additional attunement recharge) how is it not unbalanced when there is chill and additional recharge?