Guild Wars 2

Everyone loves the conjure skills. They’re tons of fun, and quite useful. The lightning hammer hits hard and has that nice second Static Field and the knockback. The frost bow can be dropped right after a combo field for extra combos (I’ve managed to get as much as 20-25sec chill by myself thanks in part to this bow).

Every profession gets multiple traits that benefit each of their groups of utility skills. We have only one trait for conjure weapons. Going up to 25 charges instead of 15 is nice, if only they lasted long enough to always use those 25 charges instead of the weapon timing out with 5 left.

It’d be really nice if we could see some additional trait support for the conjure skills. Maybe a 20% shorter recharge couple with 20% longer duration for the second weapon on the ground? Maybe something that lets us drop them and pick the same one back up? Maybe one that adds extra combo finishers/fields to some of the skills? I’m not too picky, but I’d really like to see more major traits to use for such a great line of skills.

Agreed! Elementalist traits are pretty dull at the moment, so this would be interesting.

Why can’t conjured weapons just last longer? Like 20 minutes… Or indefinitely? I doubt it would be OP since the charges prevent them from being spammed.

Just make the skill go on cooldown once the weapon is un-summoned/dropped.

I too have had similar thoughts! It’s not that conjured weapons are terrible skills, and can in fact be quite useful when coordinating with a teammate, but without traits to give them a little more oomph I feel that they fall short of other options.
It’s about what you give versus what you get: you give up a utility slot, to get, what? more skills? for the profession with the most skills already? I just don’t see the point when I could be using that slot for an extra cantrip or signet.

After a little brainstorming I think that each trait line should have a trait for its respective weapon. Here are some ideas I’ve come up with.

Fire Trait (replaces the +10 charges):
Every fifth charge with a Lava axe/Fiery Greatsword, you summon a lava font at your target’s location.

Air Trait:
Gain shocking aura and swiftness (8-10s ?) whenever you equip a lightning hammer.

Earth Trait:
Gain retaliation and stability (4-5s) whenever you equip an earth shield.

Water Trait:
Every third charge of your Frost Bow removes one condition from you and nearby allies.

Arcane Trait:
All conjured weapon skills now act as arcane skills.

Obviously there’s a fair amount of sway to these, but they’re just meant to be examples for what I think conjured weapons need before I consider using them on my toolbar (in PvP at least, I use them all in PvE just for the novelty of it!).

@ Burrfish, that’s one heck of an idea and actully makes a heap of sence.

Honestly, they need a lot of work for PvP. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone using one in SPvP yet, and maybe only occasionally in WvW during the betas. Honestly, it would be nice if they could auto-attack and only have the 2-5 skills use a charge. More standard type traits to just generally buff would be cool. Not so much specific ones.