Guild Wars 2

So I’m just starting to level an elementalist, so take this with a large grain of salt, but I think a big problem with the ele traits is that specializing in anything aside from arcana cripples the player simply by discouraging the use of the class mechanic of attunement swapping (without enough benefit, although this is a tangential argument). What I feel would be a trait that would encourage the specialization into the other traitlines while still encouraging/synergizing with the attunement swapping mechanic would be a grand master trait that will allow you to come back to that attunement after swapping out of it very quickly ( basically shortening a specific attunements cd by a significant amount ), perhaps filling the minor slot of the grandmaster with reduce <attunement’s> cooldown by <20-50%>. That way, even though you are able to specialize in one (or two) field(s), you are able to switch out quickly to the other attunements to cover either mobility/damage/defense/healing/ w.e you need at the moment and then switch back to your specialization. I feel like this would allow people to diversify out of going purely into arcana. Not sure how this would work with Elemental Attunement, ( like if you’d be able to stack might ridiculously ). Would need balancing for sure, but in my humble opinion, such a trait would allow for people to specialize while still making use of the class mechanic.

A good idea. It’s been suggested before, or variants anyway. Another idea is just to set attunement cooldowns to a base of 9 seconds and change the stat modifier in arcane (to something basically useless like the warrior’s +1% burst damage per 10 trait points if nothing more useful works).

Allow each trait line 3 choices instead of two; Attunement Recharge rate being the third. If chosen in one trait line it is now not accessible in others.

As I’ve suggested many times, Base attunement recharge should be 12 seconds instead of 15…with 30 in arcane still taking it down to 9 as it does now.

Still desirable to go arcane, still worth doing, but no longer crippling to not do so.

The issue you describe has been pointed out by Eles over and over since beta.

I’ve also suggested the exact same solution you proposed a number of times on this forum.

Ele is a really frustrating class. It requires 20+ points in arcane just to play, and if you want a stun-break and a butt-saving skill (again, required because of low HP, low armour), you have to take one or more cantrips, which in turn obliges you to spec in water.