Guild Wars 2

Hey there ANet, if someone happens to look at this forum (the Elementalist section that is) some great suggestions have been thrown around for conjures. The best suggestion thus far would have to be the following…

1) Make conjures like Kits, able to go in and out as needed with separate cooldowns, like Engineers kits. (Leave FGS Elite the same as it is).

2) If Not making them like Kits then change the cooldown to something like 30 seconds instead of 60… Or at the very least make the charges a lot higher than 10. 25 Base, 50 traited?

3) New Conjures all together, for example… Summon Elemental Bow, Axe, Shield, Hammer, Greatsword…..

These conjures abilities are determined by the Attunement you reside in. If in Fire, Conjures cause Burning attacks, Water causes chill or torment, Air (Blind or vulnerability), Earth causes Bleeds or Cripples. This gives more use to condition builds.

1. is pretty far fetched so I would really like to see something like #1, if not then possibly #2 as it is just a few number adjustments in your code and easily tested.

Thanks,
~An Elementalist since BWE1

1 takes too much away from engi’s class mechanic.

More charges could be nice, I would like for the weapons to be able to be dropped on the floor when you want to swap out not banished to oblivion. That way it kinda emulates the engi kits but anyone can pick them up and you have to go back to the spot you dropped it in to be able to pick it back up again. I think that’s a good enough compromise that doesn’t take too much away from the engi kit mechanic.

I would also like the usage timer to be removed, however the cool-down would have to start the moment the final charge is spent for balance.

Just make them instant-cast (depending on the conjure, especially earth shield) would be helpful.

Also, not having the auto-attack use up charges would be a good thing (could give fewer charges to balance it out).

Shorter CD’s would be nice, also depending on the conjure. As most of the skills have balanced ICDs as it is, I don’t think it would be imba.

I’d love to see 45 second cooldown conjures, but they’re in a solid place at the moment honestly.

Use them as they are, utility skills. They don’t have to be used to the point that all their charges are exhausted. Pop a conjure, use it’s long CD skills, then drop it an resume your normal build (unless you’re like a Thor build or something)

All they need to do is have conjured weapons replace the weapon abilities of the attunement they are tied too.

Example(s):
Frost Bow would replace Water Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
Flame Axe would replace Fire Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
ect, ect.

That way we don’t lose access to all 20 of our abilities and instead just swap out 5 for each attunement type.

Taldren.7523:

All they need to do is have conjured weapons replace the weapon abilities of the attunement they are tied too.

Example(s):
Frost Bow would replace Water Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
Flame Axe would replace Fire Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
ect, ect.

That way we don’t lose access to all 20 of our abilities and instead just swap out 5 for each attunement type.

That’s actually a really creative idea. I’d love to test this out.

instant cast and break stun. maybe low cd. that’s all.

The biggest problems for conjures atm are the fact that it locks you out of you weapon skills and that you lose it when downed, use mist form, or need to pick up another bundle for whatever reason. I want to propose a solution to these problems that still steers away from making them like engineers kits:

Make conjures act like a second weapon set for the ele that summons it only, while not changing it for any other player picking up the conjure. The cooldown should be equal to other weapon swaps at least, ie 10s, and charges should remain, thus despawning the weapon after 15 or 25(traited) skill uses. Eles don’t use weapons swaps but the architecture is in place anyway, so it wouldn’t be much of an effort dev-wise.

I do like Taldren’s idea too, but this one would still allow us to attunement swap and get certain bonuses like +20 against vuln in water which is so vital for LH builds.

conjures have received multiple rounds of buffs now and they’re still terrible.

losing 21 skills to gain 5 is a terrible design.

Having them replace an attunement or become a swappable weapon set seem like solid ideas.

bradderzh.2378:

1 takes too much away from engi’s class mechanic.

This seems like a pretty insignificant reason not to use a mechanic that clearly works. If anything engineers have too much of the Ele’s mechanic, being able to swap weapon sets without changing their weapons, but you don’t see Eles running around crying about how they had it first. Not to mention the fact that Eles would not be linking conjures to their f1-4 mechanic.

Shockwave.1230:

Taldren.7523:

All they need to do is have conjured weapons replace the weapon abilities of the attunement they are tied too.

Example(s):
Frost Bow would replace Water Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
Flame Axe would replace Fire Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
ect, ect.

That way we don’t lose access to all 20 of our abilities and instead just swap out 5 for each attunement type.

That’s actually a really creative idea. I’d love to test this out.

This would encounter a huge problem in builds where the player swaps attunements mid-cast to gain buffs.

Leuca.5732:

This would encounter a huge problem in builds where the player swaps attunements mid-cast to gain buffs.

I would still make the trade to gain the ability to use my other 15 abilities in addition to having my conjured weapon ability.

Although this would be solvable if ANet would pull its collective head out of … well you know … over Lingering Elements and damage stacking traits.

First and foremost, to be remotely usable, conjures need to be less cumbersome. Picking up and dropping has to go, and so does the inability to access the skills instantly. At the same time, just making them act like kits isn’t a good solution. Conjures are definitely stronger than average weapon skills since their buffs, so they need to be more limited than kits.

My solution for conjures would work like a combination of kits, mantras, and the current mechanic:

*Semi-permanent and freely swappable, like kits
*Need to be prepared on a long cast time, like mantras
*Keep the charge mechanic to maintain balance

Conjures would basically be a secondary weapon that you summoned after a lengthy cast time. Once conjured, that weapon remains with you until you summon a different conjure (or, if FGS, lasts 60 seconds). Unlike regular swaps, the cooldown would be 1 second, like engineer kits. The charge mechanic would serve as a way of limiting their use, and would recover at a certain rate. Maybe 1 charge every 4 seconds, which could be improved to 2 seconds with the Conjurer trait. The Conjurer trait would no longer increase charges to 25, except for the ground-summoned weapon, which does not recover charges.

This remake would fix the main problem with conjures, being their cumbersome mechanics and limited ability to combo with other elementalist skills. It would be internally balanced by charges. Finally, it would make them a very interesting and unique mechanic, distinct from engineer kits.

Rather than charges I think conjures would be better balanced by having a shorter duration than their cooldown, and adjust conjurer to either raise the uptime or reduce the cooldown.

Keeping the need to cast before use but then allowing them to be swapped is definitely a good way to handle it, though.

gandlethorpe.2641:

the main problem with conjures, being their cumbersome mechanics and limited ability to combo with other elementalist skills.

yeah this is really the crux of it – they’re clunky.

the other core issue for me is the fundamentally low defense/HP of Ele makes it very difficult to justify giving up a higher utility/more defensive skill (read: cantrip).

Conjure weaps are pretty fine in their current state. If you look at any dps test LH, FGS, and bow are all either highest burst or highest sustained dps sources in the game. This not only goes for PvE but a couple can be applied in PvP as well such as the bow/fgs in a capture the point objective scenario. I would hardly say that conjure weaps are in deep need of an upgrade and doubt we will be seeing one anytime soon after they recently buffed them however minor the buff was.

Micro Hard.3601:

Conjure weaps are pretty fine in their current state. If you look at any dps test LH, FGS, and bow are all either highest burst or highest sustained dps sources in the game. This not only goes for PvE but a couple can be applied in PvP as well such as the bow/fgs in a capture the point objective scenario. I would hardly say that conjure weaps are in deep need of an upgrade and doubt we will be seeing one anytime soon after they recently buffed them however minor the buff was.

It’s not so much that they are weak, as that they are really difficult to use.

P Fun Daddy.1208:

Micro Hard.3601:

Conjure weaps are pretty fine in their current state. If you look at any dps test LH, FGS, and bow are all either highest burst or highest sustained dps sources in the game. This not only goes for PvE but a couple can be applied in PvP as well such as the bow/fgs in a capture the point objective scenario. I would hardly say that conjure weaps are in deep need of an upgrade and doubt we will be seeing one anytime soon after they recently buffed them however minor the buff was.

It’s not so much that they are weak, as that they are really difficult to use.

one might say, clunky as all kitten.

Main idea I had a while back for Conjures was that they would work like kits, but only for the Ele that used them, only on the one spawned in your hands when the conjure is used, and they’d keep their charges and duration. Basically once a Conjure is used, you gain it as a weapon swap as long as the charges/duration are still there. The bonus stats from it are only applied while actually using the Conjure itself, and any Conjures you pick up off the ground are simply treated as bundles and would be dropped if you pressed weapon swap.

Making only the one the Ele spawns for itself into a temp kit, while letting them keep the ability to swap back to their normal skills, would make Conjures a good deal more useful. Ele can only keep one Conjure “kitted” at a time (using another Conjure simply changes your swappable one, and your old Conjure can still be on CD), so it wouldn’t be absurdly overpowered.

General setup is this, on use, a Conjure slaps the bundle version on the target and the kit version into the Ele’s hands. They can press the weapon swap button to swap to and from the Conjure’s skills, but will only gain the stat boosts from the Conjure while using its skills on their skill bar. If the Conjure runs out of duration/charges, it is poofed and the Ele returns to their normal skills, the bundle version of the Conjure (the one spawned on the ground) will not have this swapping ability. If the Ele currently has an active Conjure and then uses another Conjure utility, then their old one is wiped and their new one is now their new “kit”. Hopefully that kind of change would make Conjures worthwhile and keep encouraging the Ele to be a versatile profession.

Conjured Weapons improved to a certain degree, but what follows is required to unlock a new height of gameplay:

1) no charges
2) swappable
3) nemesis system
4) elite version
5) true conjurer system

extended version

1) no charges: we are already locked out of our attunement swapping mechanic and are already forced to renounce to our 20 skills. Charges are an unfair punishment that prevents the diffusion of conjured weapons as viable option.

2) conjured weapons must be swappable: to keep an eye on balance, you may make so that the conjured weapon will “take the spot” of the attunement you used to summon it. So, for example, if you summon a Frost Bow while attuned to Water, you will be able to swap back to your main weapon but you will only be able to access Earth, Air and Fire: trying to attune to Water will swap back to Frost Bow.

3) nemesis system: this would really be epic. Each conjured weapon should be conceived with a specific class in mind trying to mimic/counter exactly that. Since our class is the “jack of all trades”, give us at least one option to be extremely focused making wise use of the Conjured Weapons mechanic.

4) repeat what you already did with Lesser Elemental, and give us the option to use different
types of Conjured Weapons in our Elite Slot, greatly enhanced

5) following the “play how you want” mantra, let us become true Conjurers: give us the option
to truly focus on conjures, and add ways to enhance our magic as we make use of it (be it through a Power Up system or a point system or whatever you like). Make us conjure armors too, remove the dual summon and let us decide if the conjured weapon is for our use or to be
given to a buddy (this would a giant step for teamplay: let’s say we want to give our Ranger buddy a super bow that only him can make shine in a fight….).
Conjuring the same weapon our foe is using would make us fight on equal ground (good for roaming Elementalists), but giving
a better weapon to an ally would improve his fighting abilities: this would be good for
support-oriented Elementalists

How about conjures as stun breaks and condi removals as a second effect of summoning them or as part of their skills?

If they were instant cast I honestly think they could fit into some builds. Especially earth shield.

Instant Cast, didn’t disappear on drop, Auto-Attack didn’t eat charges ( Charges adjusted to compensate ) , more possible secondary effects similar to how the FGS damages on summon