Guild Wars 2

I see many suggestion of spell reworks, or trait changes. Most of the time I find them very dull because they are just pale copies of other spells and traits in-game or because they are redundant. In this thread I would like to talk about creative spell and effects that could be used to make new skills or reworks traits. Feel free to contribute.

These ideas are just suggestion to increase the creativity of future suggestions
The occasional numbers, use, and source of these spells and effects would have to be discussed for balance, but this is not the intent of this thread.

Dying star
Description:
For a short duration after cast time, all damage received is also absorbed in a fireball growing above your character. At the end of this charging time, the fireball explodes and deal AoE damage around you in a medium aoe. The damage dealt is augmented by a percentage of the damage stored during the absorption time.
Notes:
The growing fireball remains effective even if your character is CCed or downed.
Such spell would allow for timely bursts, as well as a new way to deter foes from attacking you.
Theme:
Fire. Growing sun, feeding the fire

Overheat
Description:
Every 10 seconds that you spend in the fire attunement, you overheat the air around you for 3 seconds, in a small AoE bubble around you. This overheated air acts are a fire combo field. The overheated air blurs the line of sight of enemies: they cannot see through it.
Note:
This allows you and your allies to hide behind this bubble, untargetable, but you would still receive attacks if targeted before hiding.
This spells creates an incentive to stay in the attunement.
Theme:
Fire. Mirage in the desert

Devouring fire
Description:
When you burn your enemies, every instance of burning (every second of the effect) eats the endurance of your enemies by a small amount (5%). Every instance of burning decreases the recharge time of your fire attunement by 3s.
Note:
A mechanic similar to fresh air.
Theme:
Fire.

The burden of Atlas
Description:
A melee hit that inflicts direct damage equal to your target’s armor.
Note:
Punish targets for having high armor.
Theme:
Earth. Overweight, deadly gravity.

Bound to the Ground
Description:
After spending 8 seconds in the earth attunement you gain the Bound to the Ground effect. This buff lasts for as long as your remain in this attunement. Bound to the Ground affects all enemies in a medium radius around you. If enemies affected use a mobility skill (or teleportation) they get damaged a bit and weakened (weakness for a short duration). Short global ICD.
Theme:
Earth.

Levitate
Description:
Rush high in the air for a short duration, before returning to the ground (trigger on-fall effects). While in the air all your spells have a 300 increased range, your projectile speed is increased, and melee attacks cannot reach you.
Note:
This would synergize with the water trait that create a spell on fall.
Theme:
Air.

Draining water
Description
Morph into a snaky water monster and jump into your target. While inside your target you are invulnerable, unable to take action apart from switching attunements (like mist form). This effect last for a short time (5s), during which you drain your target’s health by small amounts per second and heal yourself. The target can dodge roll to force you out of its body.
Note:
A mechanic similar to the karka’s.
Attunement switching in this form is convenient to land Sun Spot and Earthen Blast on your target for example.
Theme:
Water. Virus, karka.

These are some example of what I consider to be creative ideas. I will add more as they come to my mind, I have new concepts every minute!

Do you think these could be interesting ideas to play with?

Anything that’s a water ability and doesn’t just heal/cleanse is good :P

@ Wryog
I think I can think of more like that

Ultimate compassion
Description:
If an ally with less than 50% health touches you, your water attunement is recharged.
Note:
A mechanic similar to fresh air.
Theme:
Water

Perfectly fluid
Description:
When you successfully evade an attack, for 10s the cooldown of the next utility spell you use is halved. Medium ICD.
Theme:
Water.

Life link
Description:
Link your life to that of your nearby allies for a duration. Any direct damage received by you or your allies is split evenly between the linked allies. The shared damage is non-lethal.
Note:
Allows for a smoothing of combat and practically empowers AoE heals.
Theme:
Water.

Cold hearted
Description:
You deal double damage to downed targets. In water attunement, hits you land on downed targets push them away by 200 units.
Note:
Allows for some vicious play with downed targets for capture points in PvP.
Theme:
Ice.

instead of freezing gust on focus do Tsunami!! Knock back 900 range aoe in a line. Giant wave!

Glyph of Elemental Atunement. Attacks now do direct damage ignoring armor.

Vaccuum
create a vaccum around enemy making them weakened (10 sec) and stunned (3 sec).
Any enemy that comes too close to the vaccuum aoe receives the same effects.

Rebound lightning flash
teleport targetted foe towards targetted location.

Barricade
earthen wall that you stomp up out of the ground to stand on. This way melee can’t target you for its duration and you can only use ranged on them. Dissipates if you drop off of it. (works well with the water trait that gives combo fields upon falling damage).

Overheat/burning speed
give quickness to enemy but also make them take 50% more damage and stay burned for its duration.

improvement on auras:
let them be small aoe-combo fields so if you’re throwing projectiles through your fire aura they cause burning and such.

Swimsasa Stoon I think you misunderstood what this thread is about.

yea, its actually pretty hard to think of cool creative spells and effects…
But barricade where you create your own highground does comply with the rest of the thread right?

Another suggestion:
Elemental Atunement elite. Transform into an elemental (fire elemental while in fire atunenement, water while in water atunement etc.).

Yes your Barricade spell is a nice idea! It is creative

There are plenty of cool spell ideas from existing games like DotA.

Sticky mud: give foe a debuff for 15 sec that lets them stick to other foes for 3 sec. Also stickedon foes get crippled for stickduration. Can also add a llittle dmg to itt
Stick occurs when they get to close to others

May be off mark here, but how about a short knockback on eruption?
Animation justifies the hassle.

I always thought it would be interesting if elementalists had mechanics that made it advantageous to be in one type of terrain or another. In fact I initially got the impression that this might be the case when watching some of the early skill videos. IE, water spells do something specific while you’re standing in a river and fire spells do something else while you near a lava flow. But the terrain isn’t varied enough in a lot of zones to make this useful very often.

So I thought… maybe alter it to include combo fields? It wouldn’t really give the same feel as commanding the river around you, but it would make it more practical.

Also…

Zelyhn.8069:

Levitate
Description:
Rush high in the air for a short duration, before returning to the ground (trigger on-fall effects). While in the air all your spells have a 300 increased range, your projectile speed is increased, and melee attacks cannot reach you.
Note:
This would synergize with the water trait that create a spell on fall.
Theme:
Air.

I love this. Anything that adds more vertical elements is great in my book, and the synergy with the falling traits is even better. Would be interesting if you could cast it on allies, allowing them to use their falling spells as well.

I’m gonna suggest mainly some skills I would love to see on a one handed sword for the elementalist:

Fire

Sun Beam (pretty much the same like out of the aspect arena minigame)
Description: Sunlight-laser with mediocre range
Note: Would be a nice autoattack, comparable to the greatsword #1 of mesmer, just lower range, shorter casttime
Theme: Sun, Fire

Speed of light
Description: Dashing forward, inflicting dmg, blind and burn to every enemy you pass through
Theme: Sun, Fire, Light

Living Sun
Description: You channel the power of sun and fire, blinding enemies near you (not blinding like it is now, rather blinding with bright sunlight like in the sanctum sprint), inflicting burn and dmg every second.
Theme: Sun, Fire

Water/Ice

Cold Shield
Description: You turn yourself into an ice block for 3 seconds to become invulnerable, but while being freezed you can’t move or use any kind of spells. You gain regeneration and become healed for a certain amount while being freezed. The ice block can still be attacked and destroyed, so you get released and vulnerable again. Enemies attacking the ice block become chilled (1 second ICD). You can’t interrupt the freezing time on your own.
Note: Would be a strong defensive spell, comparable to the mist form, but better counterable and more useful for PvE.
Theme: Ice

Avalanche
Description: You jump and dash forward then, riding on top of an avalanche that knocks down foes, deals low dmg and chills them.
Theme: Ice, Snow

Air/Lightning

Overcharge
Description: You overcharge a single foe with lightning, slowing him down. When he gets hit by a certain amount of your lightning attacks in time, he explodes, dealing AoE dmg and getting stunned (only the overcharged foe).
Note: The debuff would last around 5 seconds, the slow would be something like 20 percent and to make him explode you would need something like 5 air-attacks. Would especially work well on sword offhand combined with scepter mainhand.
Theme: Lightning

Earth

Quicksand
Description: Your foe sinks into quicksands, getting slowed down more for every second and getting immobilized after 3 seconds. The slow disappears immediatly, if the foe leaves the quicksand area.
Theme: Earth, Sand

Sand Pillar
Description: You raise a sand pillar out of the ground, dealing dmg to enemies in the target area and knocking them away from the center of the pillar.
Theme: Earth, Sand

Zelyhn.8069:

Levitate
Description:
Rush high in the air for a short duration, before returning to the ground (trigger on-fall effects). While in the air all your spells have a 300 increased range, your projectile speed is increased, and melee attacks cannot reach you.
Note:
This would synergize with the water trait that create a spell on fall.
Theme:
Air.

This would be amazing.

Khalic.3561:

So I thought… maybe alter it to include combo fields? It would really give the same feel as commanding the river around you, but it would make it more practical.

Exactly. Elementalists harnessed the power of the elements. They command elementals, they should also command natural elemental environment. Pure logic to me. It could be used as a new “group” of utility skills more likely though. Game mechanic could “sense” a water elemental object, which would be a river for exmple and this would be the only way for us to use a special water utility skill on it, that’s based on commading natural elemental environment. Thinking further, a special air utility skill, that’s based on commading natural elemental environment could be used only in the open areas, not in caves, houses, etc. Also it could differ in relation to a specific type of object. For example, we could summon a water wurm from a river, but then again we could get different skill in the place of this certain special water utility skill, when we would be using it on a block of ice. This would be good for any profession actually, a warrior could be the only class to do a decent damage with about any lumber found in the field or actually create a temporary weapon from various objects (Similar mechanic to conjures of the eles). A mesmer could create environmental illusions, turning a lava into water, while the illusion would shatter and deal damage from lava, if someone would step into it. A necromancer could create a minion from a dead foe, one minion at a time and only for 60 seconds. Who wouldn’t want to have a humanoid as an additional minion? (Created from a dead bandit for example) It would be really, really fun to interact with the environment more.

Living sun would be hilarious, get a few eles in a zerk and win by epilepsy.

conjured weapon- double lightning swords.

ice roots: roots of trees, made of ice, growing from the ground toward the enemy.

lightning dog: like the pheonix, just with a lightning dog that doesn’t reaturn and blind the enemy+doing dmg.

elite- elemental dragon, dragon with earth body, tail made of ice, air/lightning wings and magma head.

mud gayzer: gayzer of mud that does dmg+crippling enemies.

fire pillar- a pillar of fire that moves towards the enemy and explodes on hit.

ice crystals- An aoe skill that works simillar to fire meteors but instead of the meteaors there will be an ice crystals poping from the ground. the area will be smaller( but not much smaller) and the crystals will affect chill on hit. ( http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110323203330/fairytailfanon/images/4/4a/Ice_magic_1.jpg )

Khalic.3561:

I always thought it would be interesting if elementalists had mechanics that made it advantageous to be in one type of terrain or another. In fact I initially got the impression that this might be the case when watching some of the early skill videos. IE, water spells do something specific while you’re standing in a river and fire spells do something else while you near a lava flow. But the terrain isn’t varied enough in a lot of zones to make this useful very often.

So I thought… maybe alter it to include combo fields? It would really give the same feel as commanding the river around you, but it would make it more practical

I really like this idea. How about an arcana trait (perhaps the master-level minor trait):

Receive a buff while standing in an elemental combo field. The effect is 1.5 if you are attuned to that element:
- Fire: +150 Power
- Water: +150 Healing Power Ice: +200 Vitality
- Air/Lightning: +300 Precision (air fields are rare)
- Earth/Smoke: +200 Condition Dmg

Alternatively, two ideas:

1. Having some kind of overcharge: Utility skills that have one effect, but similar to warrior burst, get “charged up” by using skills from that attunment/meeting specific conditions:

Ex: Whirling Sun: Shoot out an intense whirling beam of fire energy for damage
- Uncharged: 200 dmg
-2x charge: 300 dmg
-4x charge: 600 dmg
-6x charge: 1000 dmg

2. A set of utility skills that have a long cooldown, but whose cooldown decreases by 3s every time you use a skill from that attunement.

Ex. Static shock
Cooldown: 100s
Cast time: 0.75 s
Range: 900
Damage: 500
Damage and stun an enemy with a powerful bolt.
This spell’s cooldown is reduced by 3s every time an air attunement skill is used. The recharge rate doubles while attuned to air.

Guys let’s keep this thread for creative ideas, i.e. ideas that use new factors or new ways providing old effects.

Ptolomy’s Sticky Mud, Peter Buch’s Living Sun, Cold Shield, Overcharge and BlackBeard’s Static Shock are creative ideas.

Zelyhn.8069:

Dying star
Description:
For a short duration after cast time, all damage received is also absorbed in a fireball growing above your character. At the end of this charging time, the fireball explodes and deal AoE damage around you in a medium aoe. The damage dealt is augmented by a percentage of the damage stored during the absorption time.
Notes:
The growing fireball remains effective even if your character is CCed or downed.
Such spell would allow for timely bursts, as well as a new way to deter foes from attacking you.
Theme:
Fire. Growing sun, feeding the fire

-snip-

Draining water
Description
Morph into a snaky water monster and jump into your target. While inside your target you are invulnerable, unable to take action apart from switching attunements (like mist form). This effect last for a short time (5s), during which you drain your target’s health by small amounts per second and heal yourself. The target can dodge roll to force you out of its body.
Note:
A mechanic similar to the karka’s.
Attunement switching in this form is convenient to land Sun Spot and Earthen Blast on your target for example.
Theme:
Water. Virus, karka.

These are my favourite of your suggestions. I especially like the draining water one, i found it hilarious fighting those karka.

Sadly i can’t really think of anything to add at the moment i’m just not as creative as you. I’ll be back though after a long think.

As I mentioned in another thread, new elemental themed utilities! I want to be a fire elementalist. Can’t do that with the attunement system, but I could still load by bar with fire spells and have access to fire utilities even in water attunement.

Speaking of creative spells. Know who can get real creative with spells? Anet.

Mark Spells

Mark of Rodgort
Casts a mark upon target enemy and enemies within 180 radius of target. Targets hexed by this spell have 4 seconds of Burning applied when targets take direct damage.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 40 seconds

Glimmering Mark
Casts a mark upon the target enemy that inflicts moderate damage to target and enemies within 120 radius of target each second. Targets effected also suffer 1 second of Blindness per second.
Duration: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 50 seconds

Hex Spells

Incendiary Bonds
Target foe is hexed for three seconds. At the end of the duration, foe explodes with fire dealing high damage and inflicts 4 seconds of Burning to enemies within 240 radius of the target. Also triggers of the foe goes down or is defeated.
Duration: 3 seconds
Cooldown: 30 seconds

Deep Freeze
Target foe is hexed and chilled for three seconds. At the end of the duration, target foe is frozen solid, unable to move or act for 2 seconds. Frozen state activates early if chilled is removed prematurely or if enemy goes down.
Duration: 3 then 2 seconds.
Cooldown: 50 seconds

Enchantment Spells

Splinter Armor
Cast an enchantment on target ally or on self of there is no ally targeted. Target character gains armor of rock splinters, getting a 25% chance to block incoming attacks. Apply 3 stacks of Bleeds to foes in melee when an attack is blocked in this way. This skill breaks any stuns the enchanted character is in when cast.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 60 seconds

Double Dragon
Cast an enchantment on target ally and yourself. Both enchanted characters now inflicts 2 seconds of Burning with all attacks and do moderate fire damage per tick to enemies within 240 radius of either character. Does double damage if target is in both character’s radius. If no ally is targeted, cool down for Double Dragon is halved. This skill breaks any stuns the enchanted character is in when cast.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 60 seconds

Wards

Ward Against Foes
Place a ward on the ground with a 300 radius. Foes within the ward move 50% slower for the duration.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 75 seconds

Ward Against Melee
Place a ward on the ground with a 300 radius. Allies within this ward have a 25% chance to block melee attacks.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 75 seconds

Ward of Stability
Place a ward on the ground with a 300 radius. Allies within this ward gain stability.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 75 seconds

Ward Against Harm
Elite Skill. Place a ward on the ground with a 300 radius. Allies within this ward gain Regeneration and Protection, and gain a 25% chance to block incoming attacks.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 150 seconds

I’m not really creative, so I took my ideas for the elementalist skill list for gw1 while changing them to suit gw2.

Slippery Ground:
Freeze the ground around you knocking down foes who move with it (possible 1 sec ICD)
Duration: 4 sec
Combo: Frost
Cooldown: 60 sec

Ash Blast:
Damage foes nearby the target with ash. Foes that are burning are blinded
Cooldown: 15 sec

Trait Sliver Armor:
Gain Retaliation for 5 sec when switch to Earth Attunment
Earth Grandmaster level

Smoldering Embers:
Create smoldering embers at target location damaging and burning foes who enter it
Duration: 6 sec
Combo: Smoke
Cooldown: 45 sec

Earth grand master trait: Trigger a blast finisher when attuning to earth.

Although i don’t know how useful this would be for staff builds, as your only weapon skill blast finisher needs to be placed before your field.

Thunderstorm

Type: Elite Skill

Create a thunderstorm around you. Any enemy that stays inside it has a 50% chance to be stunned for 2 seconds, can only be affected every 4 seconds. Deals 300 damage each second and has a chance to stun.
Active Time: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 180 seconds

Major Trait: All elite skills have a 20% reduced cooldown.

I like the idea of your skills. The turn into a water serpent and move into the enemies body is interesting.

I would like to see some delayed skills and maybe some more morph type skills.
Super Magnet
When a foe is immobilised he gets a 5 second debuff. If the foe dodges within this 5 seconds he becomes a super magnet pulling all foes within a x radius to him.

Some more interactions with the element, as mentioned by Khalic. Earth would be the biggest here (earth everywhere), unless:
Volcanic Eruption
Morph the ground around you creating a split in the plate and pouring lava in a x radius with x life. Earth (or fire) skill that makes a base for fire skills. Not a fire field, it is a morph field (causes your fire skills to change when standing in the field). The longer this skill channels the more life (and visual effect) the lava morph field will have (similar to how staff fire 5 works).

While standing in Volcanic Eruption, burning is applied to you of your base condition damage every second (as a different burning affect, as not to get in the road of enemy burning effects) and your fire skills are changed into lava morphing skills. Changing to water while in the lava field will nullify the field (turning it back into earth) and remove the burning from you.

Lava Spray Fire 1
Channel similar to sceptre air 1: Drain lava from the Volcanic Eruption, reducing its life by 1 per channel damage, and spray that lava on your foes causing damage and burning.

Lava Ball Fire 2
Channel: Manifest a Ball of lava in front of your character to roll in a strait line at your foe. The lava explodes (blast finisher) where it ends.

Lava Pool Fire 3
Create a fire field at target location using 3 life.

Lava Explosion
Cause medium damage in a radius around you, also a blast finisher.

Molten Shield Fire 5 in Volcanic Eruption
Turn the lava around you hard, creating a shield that provides protection for 5 seconds, a Magnetic Aura and grants retaliation for 5 seconds. This destroys the Volcanic Eruption (no matter how much life it has)

Spring of Water
Morph the ground around you creating a Spring of Water. While standing in the Spring of Water you are inflicted with vulnerability (stacks to 3, is a different vulnerability to normal to not get in the road of enemy skills). Your water skills change into Spring of Water morph skills. The spring has x life and changing to fire will destroy the spring (turn it back to earth, no matter how many life is left). This is not a water field.

Aqua Current Water 1
Similar to water 2 on the dagger, drains life per tick of channel

Splish Splash Water 2
Aoe heal for 5 life of the Spring

Icy Viens Water 3
The water in the field rushes through your veins, freezing solid and providing 10% damage reduction for 3 seconds. As a side effect you are chilled for the duration. Changing to fire and burning damage will remove the effect. Costs 5 life of the morph

Ice Blades Water 4
Channel the water from the Spring into sharp blades that deal damage and apply bleeding to your foe. 2 life per blade.

Frozen Ground Water 5
Freeze the spring for 5 seconds, destroying the spring in the process (regardless of life left, requires 10 life to use). This removes the vulnerability from you but chills you for 10 seconds and chills foes for 1 second for each second they remain. Also, downed enemies in the field are unable to do any action and cannot rally or be revived for the 5 second duration.

discuss

I’m back with more skill inspired from gw1

Blizzard:
Create a blizzard at target location damaging, chilling, and blinding foes
Blizzard Duration: 10 secs
Chill: 1 sec every sec
Blind: 2 sec every 3 sec
Cooldown: 45 sec

Water Master Trait: Swamp Water
All water fields you create now cause poison

Thunderclap:
Damage and daze you’re foe. If you’re foe is weakened then they are stunned
Daze duration: 1 sec
Stun duration: 1 sec
Cooldown: 50 sec

Relentless Wind:
Damage and chill you’re foe. If you’re foe is immobilized they are knockedback
Chill duration: 3 sec
Cooldown: 35 sec

Create 5 eartpillars that surround you. When a foe touches a pillar it collapses dealing damage and knocking them down. When a pillar is knocked down you get 5 secs of protection
Maybe also versions of another element. Intention is so that foes have to be careful not to knock down the pillars