Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: This is an idea for a future elite specialisation and was not made in order to replace Tempest. I tried to give close range melee dps options (offensively and defensively) aswell as some options for condition scepter players.

Introduction

Weavers are Elementalists that are capable of weaving elements together, allowing them to use combination effects for their fluid fighting style, using a sword as their main weapon.

While their name sounds harlmess they should not be taken lightly, they are slippery, fast and when things don’t go too well they still have some aces up their sleeves: elemental stances.

Specialisation Mechanic

(weaver attunement spells have an internal cooldown of 8.5s to match them with the attunement cooldown of the arcane line)

Swapping attunement will weave them together, causing an effect at your current location depending on which attunements are used together. Instead of your attunement icons the combination spells will be shown expect for the attunement you’re currently in, which will show its normal icon.

Two attunements will always be tied together, going from attunement A to B will have the same effect as going from B to A.

Fire Attunement + Water Attunement
Steam appears at your location, blinding foes standing in it (smoke field, similar size of a thief’s pistol 5). if a smoke field would be too strong it could simply just be a blind field.

Fire Attunement + Air Attunement
The Air around you explodes, knocking enemies back. (a small knockback similar to engi’s turret knockback. blast finisher).

Fire Attunement + Earth Attunement
Melt the ground below your feet. (lava font, a fire field, similar to ele’s staff 2 on fire).

Water Attunement + Air Attunement
Electrifies water on the ground, creating a lightning field that stuns enemies crossing it.

Water Attunement + Earth Attunement
The ground under your feet turns to mud. (creates gunk at your location, similar to thief’s stolen engi item, applying random conditions, ethereal field).

Air Attunement + Earth Attunement
Magnetize the area around you, destroying projectiles. (a magnetic field that destroys projectiles when you stand in it).

Sword Skills

Fire

Auto Attack:
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time
Slice your foe. 1/2s casting time
Set your sword ablaze to burn your foe with a final strike (1/2s), giving you one stack of might (15s). 1/2s casting time.

Skill 2 – Smoldering Dismemberment:
Deliver a fiery cone slash with increased range. 1/2s casting time, 5 target cleave 15s cooldown

Skill 3 – Star Burst: Pierce the ground with your sword, sending fire blasts along the ground, causing heavy damage to enemies hit. 1/4s casting time, 25s cooldown

Water

Auto Attack
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time
Slice your foe again. 1/2s casting time
Turn into mist, evade for 1/2s, and damage your foe with a final strike. 1/2s casting time

Skill 2 – Slippery Leap:
Dash forward (600 range), leaving an ice trail behind you (narrow long ice field) and chill enemies hit by your strike for 2 seconds. (leap finisher) 1s casting time (whole leap duration) 15s cooldown.

Skill 3 – Ice Prison:
Stab your foe with a frozen sword, engulfing them in ice and stunning them for 2 seconds.
3/4s casting time. 25s cooldown.

Air

Auto Attack:
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time.
Slice your foe. 1/2s casting time.
Teleport to your target, strike them and blind nearby enemy players (1/2s or even 1/4s). 300 range 1/2s casting time.

Skill 2 – Lightning Retreat:
Strike your foe and “bolt” backwards. 1/4s castimg time, 600 range, 15s cooldown

Skill 3 – Invoke Lightning:
Strike your foe with your sword, sending lightning bolts through their body, deriving the bolts to nearby enemy players and causing weakness (6s) to all enemies hit. 3/4s casting time. 15s cooldown.

Earth

Auto Attack:
Chain:
Slash your foe. 1/2s casting time
Slice your foe. 1/2s casting time
Strike your foe, causing a magnetic impulse around you, reflecting projectiles for a very short duration (1/2s or even 1/4s). 1/2s casting time

Skill 2 – Earthen Shackles:
Block incoming attacks for 3 seconds, crippling (2s) and bleeding (6s) them for each time they hit you if they are close to you. 30s cooldown, 3s duration, 240 radius

Skill 3 – Stone Wave:
Leap at your foe (600 range), tearing up the ground, dealing heavy damage and cause cripple (4s). 1s casting (whole leap, leap finisher) 25s cooldown

Stances

Glowing Aura (Healing Stance):
Heal yourself and leave healing orbs behind. intial selfheal around 6000, 1 healing orb per second (400 heal per orb), 8s stance duration, 1s casting time, 40s cooldown

Double Dragon (Fire Stance):
Increase burning damage, gain might and burn foes around you. burning damage increased by 15%, 5 stacks of might (5s), burning radius 240, burning duration 3s, interval 1s,stance duration 5s, 70s cooldown

Maelstrom (Water Stance):
Surround your body with mystic water, healing you over time and removing 1 condition when hit (1s icd per enemy player). 8s stance duration. around 150 heal/s, 50s cooldown.

Enervating Charge (Air Stance):
Your body is charged with electricity, making you run and attack faster. 5s stance duration, 5s quickness and 5s superspeed, breaks stun. 60s cooldown.

Iron Mist (Earth Stance):
Magnetize your body, pulling sand towards you granting Protection (5s) and leave small blinding fields behind when you move. 5s stance duration, breaks stun and 50s cooldown

Elemental Lord (Elite Stance):
Transcend your elemental powers for a short duration, making critical hits reset all attunement cooldowns (1s ICD) and doubling the effectiveness of fury. 10s stance duration, 3/4 casting time, 120s cooldown

Traits

Adept

Minor – Elemental Weaving:
Unlocks Weaver attunement spells, sword mainhand and stances.

I – Hotheaded:
When chilled or crippled, gain superspeed for 3 seconds after using a weaver spell (on attunement swap). cooldown 20s.

II – Combination Benevolence:
Cleanse a condition when you trigger a combo field finisher. (depending on balance this might need an internal cooldown because of the water line)

III – Swirling Aura:
Increases vitality of nearby allies by 150.

Master

Minor – Weaver’s Perseverance:
Combo fields last 2s longer.

IV – Ferocious Stances:
Deal 20% more damage when using a stance.

V – Combination Quickness:
If you successfully use a combo finisher through a combo field, its cooldown is reduced by 20%. (works for projectiles, whirls, blasts, etc it is the combo finisher that gets reduced cooldown, not the combo field). (does not work for attunement weaver finishers like the blast on fire+air).

VI – Malicious Weaving:
Weaver Combination spells apply conditions to nearby foes:
water+fire = 2 stacks of burning for 2 seconds.
water+air = weakness for 4 seconds.
water+earth = immobilize for 2 seconds and 2 stacks of bleeding for 4 seconds.
fire+air = 4 stacks of confusion for 3 seconds.
fire+earth = 1 stack burning for 2 seconds and 2 stacks of bleeding for 6 seconds.
air+earth = cripple for 3 seconds and 4 stacks of bleeding for 5 seconds.

Grandmaster

Minor – Weaver’s Frenzy:
Gain one stack of Weaver’s Frenzy each time you use an attunement combination spell for 10s.
Weaver’s Frenzy: Increases your attack speed by 3% for 10s. Caps at 5 stacks.

VII – Shared Stances:
+20% Stance Duration. Stance durations lower cooldowns of other stances by the same amount (eg. 5s stance lowers the cooldown of stances by 5s, 10s stance by 10s etc. not instant but 1 second each when in a stance). Stance cooldown reduction doesn’t work on on the stance that is currently in use, meaning the healing stance won’t reduce its own cooldown when used. multiple active stances still reduce cooldowns only by 1s and not by 1s per active stance.

VIII – Combination Power:
Combo field finishers have 150% effectiveness. (means water leaps/blasts heal for x1,5 and fire blasts give you 4,5 might stacks which is 4 rounded i think, auras have 1,5x duration and whirl/projectile finishers apply 1,5x their condition duration).

IX – Ether Prism:
Increases your vitality by 300 points based on effective level. condition duration is increased by 50% when wielding a scepter.

This is so beautiful that my heart almost overloaded.

A couple of days ago I came up with an idea for an alternative specialisation. It would allow access to mainhand sword, and the mechanic would be similar to the current tempest: overload attunements, but instead of the current effects, your sword skills would be empowered for a short duration. So you could overload say – fire – and for a while, the whole autoattack chain applied burning, and the other skills could also be empowered. Burning damage could also last longer whilst in ‘overload mode’. In water, each sword swing could heal for a small amount, and so on.

The overload would still be a channel, but now during that channel nothing would happen, and the overload buff would only be granted after successfully channelling. The ele could get a nice aura with sound effects, to let people know that the mechanic is being used.

Locking out the attunement for 20 seconds would still be a thing, to maintain the risk/reward idea, but now, you actually got a high reward. Likewise, if you wanted to overload in the middle of a fight, you would still be susceptible to CC, but the reward would be much greater, and the incentive to pop Armour of Earth/any other stability source to guarantee that overload would actually be worth it.

I honestly don’t know how farfetched this would be, it was just the product of my sadness and frustration with the current Tempest setup.

So why would you play ele if something like this is a chose? You need to keep in mind that it should only be a bit stronger then the base class of ele in mostly one way. This is how you got to think about specialization not as replacements but changers or add ons with the lose of something.

I guess the current Tempest spec is neither a bit stronger than the base class neither it brings anything new to the ele: overloads are way too riskier to be used, and the payoff does not justify being susceptible to CC and being locked out of the attunement, and current offhands can provide more frontline support than what the Warhorn offers. The shouts are not wholeheartedly bad, but the CD in some is too high.

The thing is, even though the elite spec is supposed to open up new play styles, if it barely does that and in a manner in all ways inferior to current specs, then it is going to be a useless specialisation.

joaoantunes.5367:

I guess the current Tempest spec is neither a bit stronger than the base class neither it brings anything new to the ele: overloads are way too riskier to be used, and the payoff does not justify being susceptible to CC and being locked out of the attunement, and current offhands can provide more frontline support than what the Warhorn offers. The shouts are not wholeheartedly bad, but the CD in some is too high.

The thing is, even though the elite spec is supposed to open up new play styles, if it barely does that and in a manner in all ways inferior to current specs, then it is going to be a useless specialisation.

It brings melee support with its boon shairs and pt wide stun brakes.

Nice ideas, but there’s basically 0 chance of them starting over at this point (in open beta) and implementing that much change/work.

You’d be far better off in offering suggestions on how to fix the current tempest than a total rework like that.

Mightybird.6034:

Nice ideas, but there’s basically 0 chance of them starting over at this point (in open beta) and implementing that much change/work.

You’d be far better off in offering suggestions on how to fix the current tempest than a total rework like that.

You realize they promised up to 3 elite specs where only 1 will be on HoT launch right? This could be an idea for a future elite spec.

Raif.9507:

Mightybird.6034:

Nice ideas, but there’s basically 0 chance of them starting over at this point (in open beta) and implementing that much change/work.

You’d be far better off in offering suggestions on how to fix the current tempest than a total rework like that.

You realize they promised up to 3 elite specs where only 1 will be on HoT launch right? This could be an idea for a future elite spec.

Oh did they? No I didn’t know that.

Raif.9507:

Mightybird.6034:

Nice ideas, but there’s basically 0 chance of them starting over at this point (in open beta) and implementing that much change/work.

You’d be far better off in offering suggestions on how to fix the current tempest than a total rework like that.

You realize they promised up to 3 elite specs where only 1 will be on HoT launch right? This could be an idea for a future elite spec.

As long as they are not stronger then the ele base class with out giving up some major tools that ele has. I am not sure where the 3 number your talking about is coming from i understand that they may end up adding endless number of elite spec in the future we may even start to see them come with the LS.

Jski.6180:

Raif.9507:

Mightybird.6034:

Nice ideas, but there’s basically 0 chance of them starting over at this point (in open beta) and implementing that much change/work.

You’d be far better off in offering suggestions on how to fix the current tempest than a total rework like that.

You realize they promised up to 3 elite specs where only 1 will be on HoT launch right? This could be an idea for a future elite spec.

As long as they are not stronger then the ele base class with out giving up some major tools that ele has. I am not sure where the 3 number your talking about is coming from i understand that they may end up adding endless number of elite spec in the future we may even start to see them come with the LS.

this is an idea for a future elite spec^^ i’m not trying to get them off tempest. it’s a concept for a berserk ele that is able to hold its ground without having to rely on earth or water traitlines.

Jekkt.6045:

Jski.6180:

Raif.9507:

Mightybird.6034:

Nice ideas, but there’s basically 0 chance of them starting over at this point (in open beta) and implementing that much change/work.

You’d be far better off in offering suggestions on how to fix the current tempest than a total rework like that.

You realize they promised up to 3 elite specs where only 1 will be on HoT launch right? This could be an idea for a future elite spec.

As long as they are not stronger then the ele base class with out giving up some major tools that ele has. I am not sure where the 3 number your talking about is coming from i understand that they may end up adding endless number of elite spec in the future we may even start to see them come with the LS.

this is an idea for a future elite spec^^ i’m not trying to get them off tempest. it’s a concept for a berserk ele that is able to hold its ground without having to rely on earth or water traitlines.

I get that i am just trying to point out that a lot of ppl want elite spec to be stronger then there stander (in how they respond to the support elite spec we are getting). It would be nice to see a all in dmg elite spec for ele but your going to need to lose def or support effect or both.

Jski.6180:

I get that i am just trying to point out that a lot of ppl want elite spec to be stronger then there stander (in how they respond to the support elite spec we are getting). It would be nice to see a all in dmg elite spec for ele but your going to need to lose def or support effect or both.

Who does? Who has outright said they want a stronger spec? People just want something 1. worth taking 2. different than what we have

Mightybird.6034:

Jski.6180:

I get that i am just trying to point out that a lot of ppl want elite spec to be stronger then there stander (in how they respond to the support elite spec we are getting). It would be nice to see a all in dmg elite spec for ele but your going to need to lose def or support effect or both.

Who does? Who has outright said they want a stronger spec? People just want something 1. worth taking 2. different than what we have

When a ppl complains about dmg being lower on a support spec then the base is outright saying they want the spec to be stronger then the old. I am just saying there got to be limitation on all spec to not be greater then the base spec.

Jski.6180:

When a ppl complains about dmg being lower on a support spec then the base is outright saying they want the spec to be stronger then the old. I am just saying there got to be limitation on all spec to not be greater then the base spec.

Not neccessarily as there are no hard roles and everyone is supposed to (yea I know some can better than others) be able to DPS….so perhaps the dps is undertuned? That will be up to the devs. Don’t think that because some players complain on the forum the devs will blinding increase damage numbers.

the problem with tempest is that the support is low for an all out supporter, so people think its a bruiser like d/d but the damage compared to dd is lower. the survivability of tempest is also lower, the traits have nad synergy, shouts suck and half of the warhorn skills are bad and all overcharges are useless most of the time.

if you wanna give a toyota to people that already own a ferrari they won’t be impressed if it’s a rival in the same category.

but that’s not what this thread is for, i’d like feedback for my stuff, not for tempest^^

Jski.6180:

When a ppl complains about dmg being lower on a support spec then the base is outright saying they want the spec to be stronger then the old. I am just saying there got to be limitation on all spec to not be greater then the base spec.

No, people are giving feedback that the Tempest spec doesn’t give enough support to offset the damage loss. Not only that, the damage portions of the Overload (the Fire/Air ones) don’t do enough damage to warrant using them.

Feedback is good, the Tempest is not where it should be and needs buffs as it isn’t even matching current builds.

update: added names to most of the skills and currently working on traits.

Fire Attunement + Water Attunement
Mist appears at your location, blinding foes standing in it (smoke field, similar size of a thief’s pistol 5).

That would allow Eles to have stealth upon blasting the field, so nice

psst, don’t say it too loud :P

YES, PLEASE Anet, make next elite spec looks like this. It is so cool. Much better in every way than Tempest.

updated:

traits completed
names for everything except auto attacks added

the general idea behind traits was to add ways of increasing damage, ways of increasing the usability of combo fields and combo finishers aswell as some stuff for condition players to increase the viability of scepter rabid builds. (ofc this also makes condi dire strong but i balance my stuff around pvp stats). the weaver is by no means only designed for sword.

feedback would be appreciated so feel free to comment on whatever you like

Y u no designer?

But seriously, this looks much fun. I am 100% sure you’ve skipped balancing issues with core specs, but thematically speaking it’s much fun and requires some wisdom when traiting. From an initial look, I’d change 3rd skill from fire auto-attack to either: 1 stack for 4s, or 2 stacks for 2s. As it is now it’s a little overpowered for an auto-attack. Also, the might part is unecessary.

Thanks for sharing! I thought about this a while ago, but your general idea is much smoother. You could try making an elite spec focused on burning and burning traits, and traits which somehow aid players to make burning damage, etc (all things burning). :P

@Edit
Oh, and no. No smoke field. Once you add it the ele will go unbelievably overpower.

Valento.9852:

Y u no designer?

But seriously, this looks much fun. I am 100% sure you’ve skipped balancing issues with core specs, but thematically speaking it’s much fun and requires some wisdom when traiting. From an initial look, I’d change 3rd skill from fire auto-attack to either: 1 stack for 4s, 2 stacks for 2s. As it is now it’s a little overpowered for an auto-attack. Also, the might part is unecessary.

Thanks for sharing! I thought about this a while ago, but your general idea is much smoother. You could try making an elite spec focused on burning and burning traits, and traits which somehow aid players to make burning damage, etc (all things burning). :P

@Edit
Oh, and no. No smoke field. Once you add it the ele will go unbelievably overpower.

i tried to keep everything in mind regarding balance with the core class but without testing it’s possible that something just didn’t come to my mind^^

the auto attack should be fine, necro can have even faster might stacking in shroud and with reaper, also you won’t be sitting in fire all the time nor will be be auto attacking all the time so i think it should be fine. also half a second burn is around 70 damage on a marauder build without might.

i was sure some people would complain about a smoke field :P if it would really be too op another possibility is to go for a steam field that blinds and acts as a fire field.
ele has a smoke field since headstart, people just don’t know it^^ it’s on trident earth 5, so stealth is possible :P tbh i think it would be well balanced on ele, after all it would only be 2-3s, not like thief or mesmer.

i think if i tried to make an elite spec around burning people would want to burn me at the stake :P

1. Your elite skill is spades better than any elite the elementalist currently has available to them (excluding FGS for movement), which seems to make it a no-brainer that you’re going to take it in nearly all situations. There needs to be a bit of a tone-down here, since I doubt ANet will buff the others to be in-line. This ability will likely get you somewhere about 6-7 attunement swaps depending on how well you utilize it, and it currently has a CD of only 100s in your idea. In its current form, I couldn’t see this elite having anything less than a 150s CD, especially with the trait you have to lower the CD of stances by over 40 seconds just through using them and 20% increased duration, which is basically a 33% reduction on this skill, putting it at actually about 66s CD

2. ON TRAIT III and IX: You’re taking away one of the key weaknesses of elementalist that allow them to have such high dps, utility, and basically everything else by giving them a potential additional 4,500 health just through traits. The elementalist is meant to have lower hp than the other classes; this is the trade-off they make for getting all that they have.

3. ON TRAIT I: This is such a lackluster trait that I doubt it would ever even be considered an option in its current state. Chill reduces movement speed by 66%, superspeed increases it by 50%, so you’re still at a 15% detriment here. At the very least, this would need to cleanse the chill for a 20s CD on 3s active, and I honestly still wouldn’t look at it unless it applied to other movement-impairing conditions like cripple and immobilize.

4. ONE TRAIT II, MASTER MINOR, VIII (assuming this one also increases condi removal from combo field interaction): Another weakness of the elementalist that adds counterplay is that their condi cleanse is mostly tied to their water attunement skills, so they have to specifically go into that attunement to save themselves from melting, which means a player can condi spike an elementalist on the tail-end of their water attunement rotation for maximum effect. With these traits, you’re removing a LARGE part of this counterplay from the game, which is not only too strong, but something that I feel shouldn’t be done.

5. ON TRAIT IV: I’m sorry, but what is this? 20% more damage on a master trait that could basically equate to always having 20% increased damage in all combat scenarios provided you don’t drag the fighting out and provided you manage your stances well? Let’s look at elementalist and see how broken this trait really is when applied to them. Let’s assume you want to go full glass dps and not taking arcane, which will provide you with: Bolt to the Heart for 20% on foes under 50% hp; Burning Rage for 10% against burning foes; and 10% while attuned to fire – also, on the occasions where you get a foe disabled, Tempest Defense for 20%. Do you not see how broken an additional 20% damage could make elementalist? Also, 80% potential increased damage to elementalist while some other professions are struggling to get near a 30-40% modifier? Doesn’t seem balanced to me.

6. ON MASTER MINOR ALONE: Is this REALLY needed? From the way the rest of this is reading, this just seems like a bit of wishful, WISHFUL thinking.

7. ON TRAIT V: There is no ICD listed on this. Plain and simply, it is so broken without one.

8. ON TRAIT VI: I actually see nothing particularly wrong with this one, but I feel it could see some abuse when used in conjunction with the elite stance. I feel an ICD (a short one; something maybe like 2s) could be applied to the trait and still function whilst adding a bit more thought to weaver play, since then you’d have to plan your attunement swap spamming with the elite to get off whichever of these conditions you actually want vs. others.

9. ON TRAIT GRANDMASTER MINOR: I see nothing particularly OP about this one by itself, but with the damage modifiers that elementalist already has, I feel 15% attack speed may be able to be abused with the elite stance. Perhaps 2% per stack would suit this better?

10. ON TRAIT VII: I feel this has already been addressed as being a bit too powerful, especially if the stance already in use reduces its own CD. With how strong the stances you have are, this trait could really be broken down into one or the other, and I feel people would still consider taking it.

11. Your sword auto-attack chains are too strong. Reflecting projectiles, equivalent of distortion, a (albeit short-range) blink that blinds (which basically means the blind would be undodge-able…), equivalent of ~12 stacks of might just for attacking w/o rune of strength… Honestly, I don’t know what to tell you here other than that these are BrokeN with a capital B and an N as well, because why not.

12. Your attunement weave effects are just OP, especially when used with the elite. In rapid succession, you could go Fire > Water > Air > Fire… to continually blind, stun, and knockback your enemy. Also, smoke fields haven’t been given to elementalist on purpose, I feel, so I doubt they will be given to them in the future. Doing so may push ele to a point where thief is no longer needed, which isn’t what I think ANet wants.

All-in-all, I really have no idea how to fix these problems; I just wanted to point out the things I noticed on my first read-through that seemed broken. Some may not be, oh well. Anyways, off to work. Great idea regardless of the criticisms I have for many of the things you’ve come up with.

Legerdemain.1365:

snip

1. this would require you to run a full stances build which most people would not do i guess. but i see your point so i could see the cooldown being increased to around 120 or 125 to have the cooldown with the trait in a best case scenario at around 90.

2. elementalists don’t really have such great dps as you think, in pvp berserk elementalist is actually one of the lower end damage dealers right now. this trait was mostly designed for condition builds or cleric builds because you usually don’t want to fight with 11,6k hp.

3. superspeed increases the movement speed by 100%, not 50% so it cancels chill out, it’s an interesting idea to add cripple to the list.

4. that’s exactly the reason why elementalists are forced to go into water with all of their builds, this trait is to add build variety. not all weapons have a combo field or a combo finisher and not all weaver spells are a combo field. what this would add is basically just an over-time condi cleanse and not a burst condi cleanse so you could still just condi bomb an ele when you know what fields he can use. a problem could be if eles run water + this trait so i can see an internal cooldown on it if needed.

5. this trait is completely balanced. again: i don’t think anybody would run a full stances build and popping all of your utilities would mean certain death against most skilled players. elementalist lost a lot of damage when air training was removed and bolt to the heart became a grandmaster, overall 30% damage, those 20% while in a stance are justified.

6. it’s a nice addition to the weaver mechanic and helps with the general playstyle of doing interesting things with your combo fields.

7. why is this trait broken? you can only use your combo finisher once, so on a leap with a 25s cooldown you get 5s off when you combo it through a field. why is that broken?

8. i was actually thinking about this, but i would have given it a 8s icd instead of only 2s. 2s in combination with the elite might not be too bad. this one’s number tweaking and testing aswell.. if it would be too strong an internal cooldown would be needed. the conditions are designed to be more of a damage help than a burst so most of them deal around 1500-2000 damage over time or less with an immob and so on and should encourage condition players to switch through attunements than rather stay in earth/fire all the time.

9. the reason this is +3% instead of +2% is because a full rotation (in case you don’t take arcana) is around 10 seconds which is 4x attunement swap, giving you +12% so maintaining 15 is not that easy, especially if you get stunned in between. now tbh this is number tweaking and the auto attacks which profit the most from this one are not designed to deal crazy damage but rather act as defensive abilities in the sword weaponset and the attack speed would help with the scepter/staff autos a bit because they’re on the slower end. if i could actually test this and find that 15% is too fast i would tone it down to 10% with a bit of a longer duration.

10. i put this in the trait’s description now, the stances don’t reduce their own cooldowns, needed to clarify that a bit. this one is also number tweaking and i feel like it’s a tricky one and could make the stances either op or useless if they recharge too fast / too slow.

11. the reflects, blinds and evades are very short, they are 0.5 or 0.25s in duration and would only stop projectiles or blind attacks right when you hit the 3rd auto hit when your enemy used their skills. now for the fire auto, most of the time you won’t be in fire and most of the time you won’t be auto attacking. necros have better ways of stacking might and nobody complains about this either so i feel like it’s pretty balanced, if anything i would reduce the 15s might to 10s.

12. the attunement spells have an icd of 8.5s, i need to clarify that a bit better aswell.

thanks for your feedback

This is basically a spec line that just makes playing the Elementalist similarly to the current meta even more powerful. Two extra seconds on any combo field? Spamming projectile finishers through big cooldown fields to get them off cooldown pretty much instantly?

This proposal is only well thought out if you’re looking for something that will make Elementalists basically play the same, except far more powerful, not if you’re looking for something that actually changes their play style.

The masteries are supposed to be horizontal progression, not vertical progression. They aren’t supposed to be a stronger version of what we have, but something new.

Aetrion.8295:

This is basically a spec line that just makes playing the Elementalist similarly to the current meta even more powerful. Two extra seconds on any combo field? Spamming projectile finishers through big cooldown fields to get them off cooldown pretty much instantly?

This proposal is only well thought out if you’re looking for something that will make Elementalists basically play the same, except far more powerful, not if you’re looking for something that actually changes their play style.

The masteries are supposed to be horizontal progression, not vertical progression. They aren’t supposed to be a stronger version of what we have, but something new.

it’s not the field that gets a reduced cooldown but the projectile/leap/blast.

i don’t know why you think this is the same as the current meta, the sword is a duellist weapon… obviously i have also made traits that help staff skills and scepter skills but there is literally nothing in it for a d/d ele other than stances for which you’d have to drop cantrips and fire/earth line.. and there is also no burn spam on it, only the fire stance which is designed for condi eles.

No burning on any of the Sword Fire Abilities? Condi ele is never going to be viable in sPvP

Jekkt I really like this as a specialization, I mean some skills need fine tuning (the heal is a little to strong imo) but all over amazing! I really wish this was a spec, I even like the name for it

Taldren.7523:

No burning on any of the Sword Fire Abilities? Condi ele is never going to be viable in sPvP

sword is not designed as a condi weapon^^ but weaver offers certain traits for condi players that want to use scepter or dagger. one of them being the hp traits that allowes you to play rabid and the other one being the conditions per weaver spell.

Embrace The Bold.7619:

Jekkt I really like this as a specialization, I mean some skills need fine tuning (the heal is a little to strong imo) but all over amazing! I really wish this was a spec, I even like the name for it

thank’s and glad you like it^^ i agree some stuff still needs fine tuning but i think having the skills a bit stronger at first but in a good shape is a better approach than having skills that underperform and you first need to figure out how to make them stronger^^ in my case it’s just numbers i think. now if anet made this specialisation i could test it for them and give them feedback on numbers xP

Your cooldowns are out of whack, that healing skill, while cool, is an insane cooldown (let alone your “fire stance”). For example, the current Tempest heal heals at base 6400 on a 25 second cooldown and is AoE. I think across the board you need to shave some 10 seconds off of your stance ideas, otherwise your stance cooldown reduction trait becomes nearly mandatory (almost like how reducing cooldowns of cantrips). Look at Warrior Stances, they’re at max 60 second cooldowns. I wouldn’t pass that mark on any stance save the elite otherwise you risk the chance of them not being used.

While your CDR mechanic is interesting, I’d rather just do away with it and reduce the cooldowns as they are and add in a different trait. CDR traits are generally boring and not fun to use (as you can see by how they bunched the CDR traits we already have with other traits). I’d keep the stance duration though and slap it into another trait.

that’s why the heal heals for 9200 on 40s cd which is 230/s and should be on par with the other heals on a non healing power build:

signet is 202/s
ether is 275/s
glyph is 196/s
arcane is142-284/s
(tempest 256/s)

it has the potential to be very strong traited but is also on par with the other heals untraited so if you decide to play weaver with stances this is the way to go, if you don’t want the trait you can still pick the heal but you also have the options to pick a different heal, like signet of resto for example or the arcane in pve.

the reason i put the fire stance on a higher cooldown is because of the problems with burning right now. if i actually had a way to test it and the cooldown would “feel” too long for what the skill does i would reduce it. assuming you deal 300/s burn with your build it’s 5 stacks of burning (aoe) for 3 seconds which is 4500 damage + 15% to all your burns.

i actually like the idea behind the way this cooldown reduction works and it encourages smart play with your stances if you combo them well.

sorry for the wall of text. i’m really torn on this. i like it a lot, but i have a lot of reservations about it, too.

SWORD

i feel like sword is just a replacement for dagger mainhand.

the ideas for sword feel like each element is just repeating the other elements. there is an autoattack chain skill, there is a mobility skill, and then there is something else. in other words, all the elements feel the same. there’s not enough to differentiate between them. there’s no reason to swap attunements except for the spell that’s cast on swap. and i think this also gives elementalist too much mobility.

now to explain how it feels just like dagger meta. for dagger, there’s a cones. on sword, there’s cones. dagger has point blank AoEs. sword has point blank AoE’s. dagger has leaps and teleports. sword has leaps and teleports. dagger is melee range. sword is melee range

the only real difference is the autoattack chain. on. every. single. attunement. oh, and one riposte style skill. and that the one handed sword takes all the best stuff from mainhand AND offhand daggers and puts them all on one mainhand. nobody would ever take dagger mainhand again!

STANCES

i would like the stances more if they were NOT tied one stance to 1 element, giving us the same boons / conditions from other skills we already have that do the same basic thing.. if we’re ever going to get anything new, we have to stop making utilities of each element for every utility line. so far, only glyphs and arcane skills are brave enough for that, but even glyphs have 4 versions, each based on which attunement you’re in.

as for cantrips, i do appreciate that you’re trying to offer alternatives to them. but to do so, the defense has to be moved onto the weapon itself. otherwise new utlity skills will be pigeonholed into being long cooldown crap that doesn’t add anything new to the class. i personally refuse to take more than one cantrip on ANY of my elementalist builds because of the long cooldowns. (also note that i refuse to play ele in PvP as long as d/d cele cantrip ele is the only viable build, as i really hate that build)

SKILLS

the skills you propose don’t really offer anything new to the class. they pretty much only offer up the same old buffs and conditions that we already have, in the same attunements. (smoke field and autoattack chain being the exceptions) even the stances don’t offer anything really new to the class. (except for healing orbs, and quickness)

TRAITS

hotheaded, on the other hand, is too difficult to use. why not just say “swapping attunements grants superspeed and cures crippled, chill, immobilize. 20 second cooldown” but even then it doesn’t feel new and exciting. it’s too much like the “gain superspeed when attuning to air” trait that we already have.

there are a few traits however, that offer some of the best ideas of your proposal though. traits offering cooldown reduction based on making combos is actually rather brilliant. i wonder if their new tech allows for this (the tech that allows for reduced cooldowns based on how many targets get hit, etc)

it’s actually very fitting that Ele would get the “grant 150 vitality to nearby allies” trait, since we’re the squishiest base class.

GENERAL COMMENTS

if there was no melee spec for ele already, i’d really go for this idea. it’s really awesome. the trouble is, it’s going for the same role as D/D ele. the same role as Tempest. front line attack and support. as someone who loves to nuke at range, i am really feeling left out. (and yes, i’m aware that d/d cele cantrip ele is thought of more as a bunker, but honestly, it does a lot more damage than a typical bunker)

the weaver mechanic really encourages attunement swapping, which is a good thing. i fear though, that it would only encourage spamming all the skills on cooldown, which reminds me of longbow knockback rangers. you’ve cleverly omitted any downsides to the spam everything on cooldown playstyle, which i think is a bad idea.

this weaver spec considerably lowers the skill floor for elementalist, which is good, as it offers an easy to play build for elementalists in PvP, which we are lacking. but it doesn’t raise the skill ceiling, and would therefore get boring for the high skilled players. there is power here, and high reward for low skill, but there’s less risk due to all the mobility. i fear this idea would essentially be the new 100b warrior.

you’ve made another good frontline power spec, when elementalists don’t really have a good condition spec at any range. and i really think i’ve read more complaints about lack of true condition spec (before Tempest feedback), than lack of a melee spec.

Much better than the Tempest. Very well thought out and more useful than tempest in any kind of game mode. Only if anet would take a look at this….

Forgotten Legend.9281:

snip

that’s not true, the skills work in a different way on each attunement and do not replace each other. while they all try to give you active defense they’re built in a way where attack X is more useful than attack Y so camping an attunement will be very bad.

the leaps are 2x 600 ranger on 15s/25s each, ride the lightning for example is 1200 on 40s so it won’t be more mobility.

the cone on sword works in a completely different way than fire grab on dagger. fire grab is a burst skill that hits 1-2 targets while smoldering dismemberment is more like maul or arcing slice on ranger/warrior intended to catch running targets or cleave on downed bodies/large groups of mobs.

the only leap on dagger is magnetic leap which needs you to immob a target first, it is more of an engage/kite skill than the leaps on sword which are a burst skill and an escape skill.

the sword is designed to give dps builds active defense, it’s not designed to heal you or to outsustain foes but it’s acting and reacting. people would maybe stop taking dagger for dps builds (which is intended, that’s the sword’s role after all) but celestial elementalist would still pick dagger mainhand.

the ELEMENTalist is designed around elements and so are all its utilities, i don’t see anything wrong with this tbh, it’s the class’ design after all.

that’s your problem if you refuse to take cantrips or to play d/d ele, that mindset won’t get you anywhere.

that stances offer a lot new stuff, new mechanics unique to ele, and again, you can’t give the ele conditions like slow or torment, they simply don’t fit and giving the ele access to confusion is already a brave step.

hotheaded used to be “get superspeed when chilled” but i don’t like passives so i added the on weaponswap. on a melee weaponset you don’t want to get kited, so this fits perfectly.

what you keep forgetting is that dagger is not a true melee set, dagger is a hybrid close/midrange weapon where the sword is designed as a melee weapon with ways to close gaps. most of the attacks have a 120 range (that’s the general sword range afaik) and are 2 target cleave (except for some of them).

weaver played with sword is a frontline dps, not a support.
weaver played with staff is a backline support
weaver played with condi scepter is a midrange condi bunker

if you want to nuke people at range you should play fresh air, if they give the scepter some QoL with some damage number increases the build should be fine.

weaver offers a very high skill ceiling with all the combos and the decision making you can achieve on it and spamming skills would harm you more than benefit you. key to this is knowing when to use what, not to spam stuff.

maybe i see stuff in a different way because i only play pvp with almost 3000 matches on eles, having played all kind of builds from condi to fresh air, staff and daggers, be it celestial or berserk.

i respect your opinion but i do not share it. i’m still grateful for your feedback

@Jekkt, I will PM you once I’m finished with the core idea of a new elite spec, I’d love to read your concept implementation of it. If you don’t mind, of course!

sure, feel free to pm me. i think i won’t be able to go much into detail the same i did with weaver but like, give a general idea of what i think about it. i’m working on something not gw related atm^^

basically what i’m saying that is that your weaver spec is designed ONLY for PvP, and there’s nothing there for ranged nukers. if you give ranged staff nukers more in the spec, instead of just “more support”, which staff already has in spades, i’d be much more interested.

you and others complain about how Tempest mainly gives more lackluster support to front-liners, but then you went ahead and did the same thing to staff builds in your concept spec.

sword is melee close range
weaver swaps are all melee / point blank range
the only stance worth taking is the earth one (the air stance is the same as the air shout, except for quickness, and the water stance requires me to get hit to remove conditions?!? and i don’t need the might from fire stance as a staff user…)

the only things that affect ranged users is one scepter trait and one trait giving a damage bonus while using a stance.

basically, there’s no ranged damage options. there’s nothing here to encourage me as a staff user to take this spec over tempest. because it offers me the same exact thing: more point blank effects with the f1-f4 keys.

that’s your problem if you refuse to take cantrips or to play d/d ele, that mindset won’t get you anywhere

i also said i refuse to PvP with my ele as long as this is the general attitude toward elementalist builds in PvP. i hate the build because it’s total cheese, not because of the skill level it takes to run it well. i respect the skill it takes to run it well.

when i want to get up in someone’s face, i use a different class that’s designed with melee autoattack chains, like warrior or guardian. i don’t try to turn the elementalist into a melee class, though i do respect that others want that playstyle. i’m not opposed to it, just offer me more as a staff user. and please remember that staff already offers more support than the entire Victoria’s Secrets catalogue.

now, since i’ve mentioned that i feel stances don’t offer me anything as a staff user (except for earth stance) i’ll try to come up with other ideas that i feel would benefit a staff build, differently than the tools we already have. it may take me awhile. and i might not be able to post again for a week due to my work schedule (kinda hard to post on GW2 forums while driving an 18-wheeler).

i do like this spec, i just think it needs some work. i think i’ll also offer some trait ideas, too…

what you kind of misunderstand is that this elite specialisation concept is not designed as a ranged nuker, if i wanted to do that i would have added rifle or pistol as the weapon, not a sword. what you want could be the theme of a different future elite specialiation, why do you need to pack everything into one? mine is designed for close range dps, interesting stuff with combo fields and some goodies for scepter condi players.

staff will never be viable as a ranged nuker in pvp just because of the way the weapon works. it’s slow and ground targeted, so you can walk out of everything. if you want a ranged nuker it needs something that is fast and hits hard with kiting potential, not something that makes you a walking freekill if you play marauder staff.

here’s some ideas for stances. i didn’t suggest anything for heal because your healing stance was the best of the ideas.

Enervating Charge 6s (cd: 45s): incoming conditions get converted into 2 seconds quickness.

Rust 10s (cd: 60s): your attacks/spells apply one of the following random conditions: poison (3s), bleeding (6s), weakness (2s), vulnerability (5s)

Ash Cloud 6s (cd: 25s): Surround yourself with smoke that moves with you. (combo field: smoke).

Iron Mist 5s (cd: 35s): stun break, convert 3 conditions into boons, gain 500 toughness

Elemental Lord 15s (cd: 120s): stun break. grant 3s (1 stack) stability every 3 seconds. strike your target with an arcane blast for critical damage every time you swap attunements. (this would synergize with arcane traits)

yes, i know i didn’t base the stances around boons. that’s because stances in general in the game are supposed to add affects that can’t be removed. boons can be removed or converted into conditions.

i went with the above suggestions to offer a variety of defense, offense, and support options. the smoke field would really qualify as the only real group support option, but also offers defense through combos.

enervating charge and iron mist are designed to offer alternatives to both cantrips and water spec line.

ash cloud and enervating charge are both designed as offense options.

i felt elemental lord should continue encourage attunement swapping, since the weaver mechanic does as well. i felt it should synergize with arcana spec, since PvPer’s never leave home without it, and yet still offer offense for non melee, non arcana builds. i did feel that your version of the stance was way too powerful with arcana traits. 1 second cooldowns on attunement swaps is just way too powerful.

we could always add another trait to add boons on stance use, but i feel that arcana line offers plenty of boons already.

i do understand that with the shorter cooldowns i offered, that your cooldown trait would probably be overpowered, so the cooldown reduction would have to be changed to 2-3s per stance used. reducing the cdr would definitely require adding a boon to stances to remain in the GM tier.

malicious weaving i feel is powerful, since it applies a long AoE condition every time you swap attunements, but it’s only powerful in close combat. it’s actually a good risk vs reward trait, and i feel it would synergize well with Rust, and even glyph of elemental power, regardless of weapon set chosen. i think it offers a little too much control on short cooldowns though.

combination benevolence does step on water spec’s toes too much, imo. which is another reason i offered more condi removal tools on the stances. so this trait could be removed.

further comments on the weaver spells. there is a lot of control available there. the knockdown, cripple, and immoblize just might need longer icd’s.

now, i personally would also replace hotheaded with something else, for the reasons i mentioned earlier (steps on the toes of air trait)

new adept traits:

Lightning Speed: movement skills evade for 3/4 second (synergizes with dagger, staff, and even cantrips)

Swift recovery: breaking a stun grants superspeed (synergizes with cantrips, glyphs, signets, traits)

PS: somehow i missed the GM minor trait on my first read through. i really like it. it actually gives all weapons something to look forward to. overall. the traits you suggested are pretty good.

Jekkt.6045:

i don’t know why you think this is the same as the current meta, the sword is a duellist weapon… obviously i have also made traits that help staff skills and scepter skills but there is literally nothing in it for a d/d ele other than stances for which you’d have to drop cantrips and fire/earth line.

50% stronger blasts, 2 second extended fields, weavers frenzy.

Basically the only thing that would happen with this spec is people would use the exact same build as the current meta except drop water from it, since all that’s used for is the 20% extra damage while using ice bow.

You can even get those 20% back by getting ferocious stances and firing off Elemental Lord before you go for the burn.

Like I said, overall this is simply a straight upgrade to the meta, and I don’t see anything in it that would make people go for an entirely different approach.

Aetrion.8295:

Jekkt.6045:

i don’t know why you think this is the same as the current meta, the sword is a duellist weapon… obviously i have also made traits that help staff skills and scepter skills but there is literally nothing in it for a d/d ele other than stances for which you’d have to drop cantrips and fire/earth line.

50% stronger blasts, 2 second extended fields, weavers frenzy.

Basically the only thing that would happen with this spec is people would use the exact same build as the current meta except drop water from it, since all that’s used for is the 20% extra damage while using ice bow.

You can even get those 20% back by getting ferocious stances and firing off Elemental Lord before you go for the burn.

Like I said, overall this is simply a straight upgrade to the meta, and I don’t see anything in it that would make people go for an entirely different approach.

yeah but you’re talking PvE, PvE was never balanced and will never be. where balance matters is PvP, the only thing that’s important for PvE is that everything can be done with all classes, not that you get stuff like “no necros or rangers” in lfg.

Jekkt.6045:

what you kind of misunderstand is that this elite specialisation concept is not designed as a ranged nuker, if i wanted to do that i would have added rifle or pistol as the weapon, not a sword. what you want could be the theme of a different future elite specialiation, why do you need to pack everything into one? mine is designed for close range dps, interesting stuff with combo fields and some goodies for scepter condi players.

staff will never be viable as a ranged nuker in pvp just because of the way the weapon works. it’s slow and ground targeted, so you can walk out of everything. if you want a ranged nuker it needs something that is fast and hits hard with kiting potential, not something that makes you a walking freekill if you play marauder staff.

i think YOU misunderstood. i’m not asking for this spec to BE a range nuker spec. i’m asking for something to compliment a range nuker in PvE, too. I’m asking for some benefit outside of PvP game mode, too.

if you’re designing an elite spec, you can’t ignore the design of the core class all in the name of “specializing”. look at dragonhunter. it offers ranged (longbow) and close (traps) options. the same with chronomancer (wells, shield, traits for phantasm respawn). even Reaper offers ranged options with their shouts. and their traits still offers something for ranged users with chill synergies.

all i’m saying, is that Weaver needs to offer something to all elementalists or it won’t be worth even considering until after a full fledged ranged nuker spec is introduced. what i’m saying, is that you’re shooting your own idea in the foot if you ever want it taken seriously.

Anet is giving us a close ranged support / DPS spec in Tempest, but they still offer ranged users something. if the next elite spec is ALSO a close range spec but DOESN’T offer long ranged users anything, the forums will explode again.

PS: the changes i offered in the other post, would maybe help aleviate some of the hate for how UNviable staff is in PvP. some quickness might help with all those slow lumbering attacks. and maybe those new versions of stances would be better for a staff ele than those really long recharge cantrips. i know they’d make PvE more fun, regardless if i took staff or sword…

Forgotten Legend.9281:

here’s some ideas for stances. i didn’t suggest anything for heal because your healing stance was the best of the ideas.

Enervating Charge 6s (cd: 45s): incoming conditions get converted into 2 seconds quickness.

Rust 10s (cd: 60s): your attacks/spells apply one of the following random conditions: poison (3s), bleeding (6s), weakness (2s), vulnerability (5s)

Ash Cloud 6s (cd: 25s): Surround yourself with smoke that moves with you. (combo field: smoke).

Iron Mist 5s (cd: 35s): stun break, convert 3 conditions into boons, gain 500 toughness

Elemental Lord 15s (cd: 120s): stun break. grant 3s (1 stack) stability every 3 seconds. strike your target with an arcane blast for critical damage every time you swap attunements. (this would synergize with arcane traits)

Lightning Speed: movement skills evade for 3/4 second (synergizes with dagger, staff, and even cantrips)

Swift recovery: breaking a stun grants superspeed (synergizes with cantrips, glyphs, signets, traits)

PS: somehow i missed the GM minor trait on my first read through. i really like it. it actually gives all weapons something to look forward to. overall. the traits you suggested are pretty good.

enervating charge: incoming conditions converted to quickness, i think the whole warrior community would come with forkpicks at you for this one. it’s basically berserker stance on steroids :P

rust: i’m not a fan of rng effects and it is kinda similar to the one glyph we have that deals conditions based on the attunement you’re in when used.

ash cloud: i like that one, might be a bit strong. i went for little blind fields on one of my stances for a little counterplay, so that you “lure” enemies into your fields by walking backwards and kite them. the field on yourself might be op.

iron mist: the problem with this is, protection is always better than armor. i already mentioned the reason why i designed my version of it with blind fields.

elemental lord: usually elite skills (in case this is still supposed to be an elite) have a casting time of 0,75s+ so giving it a stunbreak is okay but sometimes difficult to use, and i’m not really a fan of it. the effect of it is okay, like the air minor but on all attunements. the reason why i went for cooldown reset on crits was because to me “elemental lord” is about overcoming the boundaries of your elements.

in general for my stances i went (most of the time) for a half boon and half effect approach, half of my stances are boons, like the protection on iron mist, and the other half of it is an effect that you can make use of, blinding trail behind you.

lightning speed: while “on movement skill” traits can be interesting i feel like paired with an evade they’re not that special, especially because burning speed and burning retreat already evade. ride the lightning can only be stopped by immobilizing right before it, so nothing would change for this with an evade. magnetic leap would be the only skill benefitting from this, usually a skill you use when you try to get to somebody, not when you try to escape.

swift recovery: revenant has an identical trait and i would not pick it because you have to break stun in order to use it. so if you are chilled and you try to get away you first need to get cc’ed if you want to negate the chill.

Forgotten Legend.9281:

Jekkt.6045:

what you kind of misunderstand is that this elite specialisation concept is not designed as a ranged nuker, if i wanted to do that i would have added rifle or pistol as the weapon, not a sword. what you want could be the theme of a different future elite specialiation, why do you need to pack everything into one? mine is designed for close range dps, interesting stuff with combo fields and some goodies for scepter condi players.

staff will never be viable as a ranged nuker in pvp just because of the way the weapon works. it’s slow and ground targeted, so you can walk out of everything. if you want a ranged nuker it needs something that is fast and hits hard with kiting potential, not something that makes you a walking freekill if you play marauder staff.

i think YOU misunderstood. i’m not asking for this spec to BE a range nuker spec. i’m asking for something to compliment a range nuker in PvE, too. I’m asking for some benefit outside of PvP game mode, too.

if you’re designing an elite spec, you can’t ignore the design of the core class all in the name of “specializing”. look at dragonhunter. it offers ranged (longbow) and close (traps) options. the same with chronomancer (wells, shield, traits for phantasm respawn). even Reaper offers ranged options with their shouts. and their traits still offers something for ranged users with chill synergies.

all i’m saying, is that Weaver needs to offer something to all elementalists or it won’t be worth even considering until after a full fledged ranged nuker spec is introduced. what i’m saying, is that you’re shooting your own idea in the foot if you ever want it taken seriously.

Anet is giving us a close ranged support / DPS spec in Tempest, but they still offer ranged users something. if the next elite spec is ALSO a close range spec but DOESN’T offer long ranged users anything, the forums will explode again.

PS: the changes i offered in the other post, would maybe help aleviate some of the hate for how UNviable staff is in PvP. some quickness might help with all those slow lumbering attacks. and maybe those new versions of stances would be better for a staff ele than those really long recharge cantrips. i know they’d make PvE more fun, regardless if i took staff or sword…

but staff just isn’t a long range nuke weapon, it’s an aoe zone weapon, that’s the difference. scepter can be a ranged nuke weapon but it needs some quality of life updates so other than trying to change the role of the staff i’d rather have a real range nuke weapon like a rifle with magical bullets for it. tempest tries to give the elementalist something that is already present in the form of d/d, close range support with heals and cc, tempest does the exact thing (and tempest is not dps).

sword takes a different approach and is even more close ranged than dagger and is built around active gameplay with reactive defense, 2 target (mostly) cleave weapon with mobility. it does not give support and the cc it offers is selfish and not team oriented.

you cannot try to give stuff to the whole core class, i already tried to give conditions a bit of love and addressing the low hp pool of some builds. putting everything into one elite specialisation kind of removes the purpose of future ones.

as an example, for a ranged elite specialisation one grandmaster could be a trait that increases the range of scepter staff and rifle (if the weapon was rifle) by 300, making scepter 1200, staff 1500 and rifle 1000-whatever. (i would keep rifle from getting 1500).

PS:

please forgive me for my passionate responses. i really don’t mean to come across so negative. i’m just as frustrated as you are with the Tempest spec, even though i sound like a sterotypical “fanboi.”

this discussion does in fact point out to me how hard it is to come up with a spec that pleases everyone, even though it’s very well, thought out.

even though we disagree on different points, i offer golden brown delicious crispy bacon to you for this concept. it really wouldn’t surprise me if Anet takes some of these ideas into consideration for a future spec.

i get your point and i can understand your frustration, just what i’m trying to tell you is that trying to put everything that is needed and could be nice and intersting into one elite specialisation could a) overload it (pun not intended) and b) lower the overall quality and possibilities of what you could do with it on its own.

after all they are called “elite specialisations” so they try to specialise in one thing and i myself would be angry if ranged dps for elementalist was mixed together with something just to have something. i do like the idea of a rifle, a pistol or even a shortbow and if it ever comes i want it to be done right, the same goes for sword^^

i would feel honored if arenanet took some of my ideas and heck, i would even like to work for the balance team but sadly it will still take some years until i have my game design bachelor.

@Jekkt, sent you a PM with an Arcanist elite spec idea. It’s all about chaos and dangerous gameplay!