Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’d like to share with you all which traits (after the big balance patch) I see being feasible and which traits I think may need some work in order to provide this class some diversity when considering trait choices. This is my number one concern, diversity, I simply want choices. Note that I’m strictly basing this discussion with SPvP in mind.

My goal in sharing this information is for Arena Net to take notice and consider tweaking traits which in my opinion will have little to no use in the meta. (post future balance patch).

I have spent ~3,000 hours on this class so I would like to believe that my input and advice is a credible source…lets get started!

Fire Trait changes : http://i.imgur.com/HOLoIGu.jpg.

Minors : The minors all look valuable to me, flame barrier sounds very appealing.
Some people believe sunspot needs a touch-up, the radius could be a little larger I suppose?

Adepts : Burning precision – this trait looks great.
Conjurer – This adept trait could work pretty well with signets. This trait wont be used very often with conjures, Conjures need a lot of work done to them in order for them to ever come close to being apart of the meta.
Power Overwhelming- I have a feeling the other two adepts will always be chosen over this one. Perhaps this trait could be swapped out for something else which won’t directly compete with the other two adepts.

Master : Cleansing fire – This trait is probably the best choice out of all the Master traits IMO, its very strong with Cantrip mastery(now soothing disruption) in mind. How ever I really do wish this trait needed to be used manually instead of being a passive just because I simply like to feel in control.

One with Fire – I think this is a decent master trait but since Cantrips with their amazing condition cleanse are so useful, I don’t know how often this trait will be used. Merge this trait with Pyromancer’s Training?.

Pyromancer’s Training- This is probably going to be the master trait which is least used out of the three. If this was merged with One with Fire I think people would have a hard time deciding between Cleansing Fire and this.

Grand master : Persisting Flames – I’ve always had mixed feelings about this trait… I’ve found it useful when utilizing a Staff weapon but I still don’t feel like this trait is GM worthy. I don’t see this trait being used too often unless some new staff dps meta comes to be. I think it would be nice if Lava font was scratched and something like retaliation was given upon blasting in a fire field. Perhaps this trait could make standing inside of a fire field deal direct damage, this could include standing inside Ring of Fire which currently does no damage.

Pyromancer’s Puissance – I have ALWAYS dreaded this trait with a passion! But perhaps it will be more useful now with the higher duration in mind. My mind is still in a cynical place when thinking about this trait, the might will come easy from other methods, I think the trait should just be sacrificed and replaced with something else that perhaps caters to condition removal, such as “Fire shields now reduce condition duration by an additional 25%” for example. This would synergies well with One with Fire.

Blinding Ashes- This traits going to open up ridiculous potential for 1v1 and its going to be awesome. A 3 second ICD might almost be too good! I’m excited to test this trait out once the patch hits.

Air Trait changes: http://i.imgur.com/sedmwsr.jpg

Minors : Zypher’s Speed- is still pretty underwhelming and pretty much non existent if you consider the amount of access the class has to swiftness, and now super speed. I’d like to see the value changed to 25% movement speed while in air,
or maybe even completely revamped. I don’t think its too much to ask for this minor to become One with Air.

Lightning Strike- as always pretty awesome.

Weak Spot – This trait has only ever given me an additional 3 or 4%
damage at most… I really think this minor trait needs a revamp.

Adept : Zypher’s Boon- Great trait, will still probably be used quite often.

One With Air- This trait mixed with Fresh air could be pretty useful I see this
trait being a potential candidate with a fresh air build. I suggested to move this trait to the first minor.

Ferocious Winds- This may become useful with a scepter/x build, but I don’t see
this trait making it into the meta scene.

Master : Tempest defense – A master trait now?! Wow! The new possibilities! Especially with Lightning Rod in mind! It would be kind of nice to see tempest defense add a slight duration to stun as well so we can maybe buy an extra half a second to benefit from the dmg bonus while target is stunned.

Aeromancer’s Training – I don’t see this trait ever making it into anyones build as
a master trait, this should be replaced with the
Ferocious winds Adept trait IMO.

Inscription – As they are now, glyphs just rub me the wrong way. This Master trait has nothing on Tempest Defense. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of Inscription. IMO glyphs really need to be reworked, ditch the lesser elemental glyph, add something like a trap glyph, make glyph of storms create a storm around the elementalist whom cast it, just some thoughts.

Grand Master : Bolt to the Heart – This may be a very good trait when it gets changed to +20% DMG below 50% HP. But I still HATE the fact that this trait is competing with Fresh Air… BTTH should be a Master Trait and have current values remain the same.

Fresh Air – I love this trait because it opens up a more versitile playstyle, and I think people will still use this trait regardless of base dmg modifier nerfs to air.

Lightning Rod – I see a lot of potential with this trait when mixed with Tempest defense People are definitely going to be using this one more than they do now.

Earth Trait Changes: http://i.imgur.com/fzRs1qr.jpg

Minors – Stone flesh, Earthen Blast are the same, cool cool, but that
Geomancer’s Defense, holy Kittens!

Adept : Armor of Earth – This trait is alright but I don’t see it being picked
over elemental shielding very often due to its high ICD.

Serrated Stones – This will be the adept trait that is probably least used.

Elemental Shielding – This is a big part of why the Dagger/Dagger meta exists
This trait mixed with Elemental attunement is currently
Godlike. I still see this trait being heavily used post
patch.

Master : Stength of Stone – This will probably be the least used trait.

Rock Solid – A fairly decent trait IMO when combined with Ether renewal,
although I just don’t see this being chosen over
Geomancer’s Training since that trait with focus weapon #4
will remove 3 conditions instantly on a 20s ICD.
If rock solid provided a slightly longer stability (4 seconds?)
I could see this being a very promising trait to pick up.

Geomancer’s Training – This trait is going to put the focus weapon heavily
into the meta. This will probably be the go to Master
trait for most elementalists.

Grand Master : Diamond Skin – This trait makes me chuckle… A very useful trait
Although I hate the god mode passive play this provides
vs full blown condi builds.

Written In Stone – I love the 20% signet ICD reduction addition to this trait.
I think the other two GM traits will usually be chosen over
this one but we will just have to see.

Stone Heart – This trait combined with the protection boon and geomancer’s Defense
in mind will make for a pretty interesting bunker. I think this trait will become
quite popular and require more skill to use optimally than people think.

Water trait Changes: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-one-a-primer/

Minors – Soothing Mist is great as always, Healing Ripple oh how we all rely so much on you.
And now Aquatic Benevolence as our new minor! This is amazing!

Adept : Soothing Ice – Holy crap this looks soo good, traits like this might make up for the arcana line being
butchered. I might even go so far as to say this trait is sort of OP since this trait
would mean you have a frost aura up almost 40% of the time while in battle…
Perhaps the Frost aura could be reduced by a second.

Piercing Shards – I don’t see this trait being picked up as it stands currently, it won’t work with lingering Elements I’m assuming.

Stop Drop and Roll – I’m so happy to see this an Adept trait, finally! I think this trait should also remove confusion and/or poison upon dodging so it can compete with Soothing Ice (which is going to also remove a condition with “old faithful” in mind)

Master : Soothing Distruption – This will probably be the go to Master trait, its even stronger than ever!

Clensing Wave – I think this trait needs remove 2 conditions upon swapping water to compete with Soothing Distruption when considering the Soothing Ice + Soothing Distruption + Clensing Wave combo which will exist post patch. This change could also make up for the loss of condition clear we’ll get since the Arcana line was nerfed.

Aquamancer’s Training – Although this trait seems like it could be useful I see this being the least picked one of the three master water traits.

Grand Master : Soothing Wave – This trait is being indirectly nerfed if you take into consideration that Elemental Attunement and Evasive Arcana are both a GM Trait now. I Still think this trait will be useful but may fall out of the meta.

Powerful Aura – With the amount of auras possible next patch this GM trait is looking more promising,
Although I wish it also maybe added an additional second or so to aura duration.

Bountiful power – I don’t see this trait ever being used, even if it offered 4% dmg for each current
boon, it needs something else besides a damage boost IMO.

Arcane Trait changes: http://i.imgur.com/DH70jqk.jpg

Minor – Arcane fury useful as always, Lingering Elements should at least have its description changed so people know it only works with Soothing Mist and Stone Flesh. Arcane Precision giving a 15% reduction on all attunements is pretty darn cool since that will mean we get an 8.7 ICD on attunements with this minor in mind.

Adept : Arcane Energy- I don’t see this trait being used but who knows,
maybe this and Renewing Stamina together will make for a mean acrobatic Thei-I mean Ele.

Renewing Stamina- Forever will be the go to Adept in the Arcana line… This should just become a minor trait IMO, replace it with lingering Elements?

Arcane Abatement – lol…

Master : Arcane Resurrection – I don’t see this being used in a serious build, but who knows maybe when comboing this with some earth traits to reduce DMG taken we’ll see some trollish Ele builds solely focusing on rezing

Arcane Shield – very underwhelming master trait, it would make for a great Adept trait if Renewing Stamina became a minor trait.

Elemental Contingency – I’m guessing if an Elementalist is still going to invest into the Arcana line post future patch, this will be the go to Master trait.

Grand Master : Evasive Arcana – A great trait as all us Elementalists know

Elemental Surge – This is the Arcana GM trait which will probably be least used, if
the immob and chill durations were increased slightly and this skill somehow
sped up the recharge rate of the arcane skills then I could see this
being a valuable trait.

Elemental Attunement – The trait which has basically been the classes bread and butter ever since it originated as an Adept trait.
IMO this trait needs to have the regen/protection duration reduced and then made a base part of the class, this trait is only over the top due to the high protection duration it provides with elemental shielding

Thank you for for your time

-Astro Blackfire

Grimreaper.5370:

Hi, I’d like to share with you all which traits (after the big balance patch) I see being feasible and which traits I think may need some work in order to provide this class some diversity when considering trait choices. Note that I’m strictly basing this discussion with SPvP in mind.

My goal in sharing this information is for Arena Net to take notice and consider tweaking traits which in my opinion will have little to no use in the meta. (post future balance patch).

I have spent ~3,000 hours on this class so I would like to believe that my input and advice is a credible source…Like most of you I just want diversity, lets get started!

Fire Trait changes : http://i.imgur.com/HOLoIGu.jpg.

Minors : The minors all look valuable to me, flame barrier sounds very appealing.

Adepts : Burning precision – this trait looks great.
Conjurer – This adept trait could work pretty well with signets. This trait wont be used very often with conjures, Conjures need a lot of work done to them in order for them to ever come close to being apart of the meta.
Power Overwhelming- I have a feeling the other two adepts will always be chosen over this one. Perhaps this trait could be swapped out for something else which won’t compete with the other two adepts.

Master : Cleansing fire – This trait is probably the best choice out of all the Master traits IMO, its very strong with Cantrip mastery in mind. How ever I really do wish this trait needed to be used manually instead of being a passive

One with Fire – I think this is a decent master trait but since Cantrips with their amazing condition cleanse are so useful, I don’t know how often this trait will be used. Merge this trait with Pyromancer’s Training.

Pyromancer’s Training- This is probably going to be the master trait which is least used out of the three. If this was merged with One with Fire I think people would have a hard time deciding between Cleansing Fire and this.

Grand master : Persisting Flames – I’ve always had mixed feelings about this trait… I’ve found it useful when utilizing a Staff weapon but I still don’t feel like this trait is GM worthy. I don’t see this trait being used too often unless some new staff dps meta comes to be. I think it would be nice if Lava font was scratched and something like retaliation was given upon blasting in a fire field.

Pyromancer’s Puissance – I have ALWAYS dreaded this trait with a passion! But perhaps it will be more useful now with the higher duration in mind. My mind is still in a cynical place when thinking about this trait, the might will come easy from other methods, I think the trait should just be sacrificed and replaced with something else that perhaps caters to condition removal, such as “Fire shields now reduce condition duration by an additional 25%” for example. This would synergies well with One with Fire.

Blinding Ashes- All I have to say is good job Anet, this traits going to open up ridiculous potential for 1v1. A 3 second ICD might almost be too good, we’ll just have to wait and see I suppose.

Fire minors: I feel like they’re underwhelming, Flame barrier sounds only good to have when you want your prot to proc, but not sure if dd eles will go in fire tree. Sunspot is just bad, the radius is so tiny it hardly hits anyone. If you’re squishy, you don’t want to be that near to your target. Burning rage is good.

Fire Adepts: Power overwhelming and conjurer are going to be hardly picked, especially after the LH and IB nerf. Burning precision seems ok, but if burning is really going to stack, it will probably be quite weak.

Fire Masters: Not that excited about these, One with Fire isn’t something I would pick, Burning fire is okay I guess, but it’s passive and the synergy with cantrips might as well be burried with the possibility dd ele won’t go fire. Pyromancer’s training is good.

Fire Grandmaster: They’re all good. On the other hand PP could be buffed a bit, it seems a bit weak compared to the two others. Blinding ashes could have its place but I think eles will need some more dps rather than more defense.

Overall, not really excited about fire traits, they’re okay but could have been much better. They seem to have very little synergy apart from Blinding Ashes and Burning Precision.

Grimreaper.5370:

Air Trait changes: http://i.imgur.com/sedmwsr.jpg

Minors : Zypher’s Speed- is still pretty underwhelming and pretty much non existent if you consider the amount of access the class has to swiftness, and now super speed. I’d like to see the value changed to 25% movement speed while in air,
or maybe even completely revamped.

Lightning Strike- as always pretty awesome.

Weak Spot – This trait has only ever given me an additional 3 or 4%
damage at most… I really think this minor trait needs a revamp.

Adept : Zypher’s Boon- Great trait, will still probably be used quite often.

One With Air- This trait mixed with Fresh air could be pretty useful I see this
trait being a potential candidate with a fresh air build.

Ferocious Winds- This may become useful with a scepter/x build, but I don’t see
this trait making it into the meta scene.

Master : Tempest defense – A master trait now?! Wow! The new possibilities! Especially with Lightning Rod in mind!

Aeromancer’s Training – I don’t see this trait ever making it into anyones build as
a master trait, this should be replaced with the
Ferocious winds Adept trait IMO.

Inscription – As they are now, glyphs just rub me the wrong way. (Except for you Glyph
of Elemental Power, I love you <3) This Master trait has nothing on
Tempest Defense. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of you Inscription.

Grand Master : Bolt to the Heart – This may be a very good trait when it gets changed to +20% DMG below 50% HP. But I still HATE the fact that this trait is competing with Fresh Air… BTTH should be a Master Trait and have current values remain the same.

Fresh Air – I love this trait because it opens up a more versitile playstyle, and I think people will still use this trait regardless of base dmg modifier nerfs to air.

Lightning Rod – I see a lot of potental with this trait when mixed with Tempest defense People are definitely going to be using this one.

I’m gonna say it right away, I’m completely disappointed with the Air tree.

Minors: Horrible. Zephyr’s boon should be just removed. Weak Spot could be moved into its place, then we would have LS as minor master and as GM minor they could bring back Air training. It similar to Burning Rage and definitely would be worth as a Grandmaster minor trait. Removing it completely is just not fair.

Adepts: Zephyr’s boon is meh. If dd ele goes in fire, which has more aura oriented traits, they won’t go air for sure, so this is most likely will be unused. One with air is good, but still doesn’t make up for the loss of Bolt to the heart. Ferocious winds is complete trash if it’s going to be based on healing since we will get no bonus stats from water and I doubt dps eles will take healing power on purpose.

Masters: Inscription is trash, no one cares about gylphs as long as they’re this bad. Tempest defense could be good, Aeromancer’s training is a weaker variation of Air training, I don’t like it. I would rather have flat 10% increase than cca 9% ferocity gain in air + cd reduction.

Grandmasters: Totally disappointed here. Fresh air is mandatory for scepter eles, they lack sustained dps already. Lightning rod probably won’t bring more build variety because cooldowns on cc skills are still too high even with Tempest defense. And no one will take Bolt to the heart in pvp anymore, because you’ll be missing lots DPS without both LR or FA. So they killed one trait.

Overall, the most disappointment here. Air traits seems weaker now, I don’t understand why fresh air needed a nerf. If anything, they should have buffed all weapon skill on scepter because there are so many bad skills, including all AA. That buff to shatterstone in previous balance patch was a giant troll.

Grimreaper.5370:

Earth Trait Changes: http://i.imgur.com/fzRs1qr.jpg

Minors – Stone flesh, Earthen Blast are the same, cool cool, but that
Geomancer’s Defense, holy Kittens!

Adept : Armor of Earth – This trait is alright but I don’t see it being picked
over elemental shielding very often due to its high ICD.

Serrated Stones – This will be the adept trait that is probably least used.

Elemental Shielding – This is a big part of why the Dagger/Dagger meta exists
This trait mixed with Elemental attunement is currently
Godlike. I still see this trait being heavily used post
patch.

Master : Stength of Stone – This will probably be the least used trait.

Rock Solid – A fairly decent trait IMO when combined with Ether renewal,
although I just don’t see this being chosen over
Geomancer’s Training since that trait with focus weapon #4
will remove 3 conditions instantly on a 20s ICD.
If rock solid provided a slightly longer stability (4 seconds?)
I could see this being a very promising trait to pick up.

Geomancer’s Training – This trait is going to put the focus weapon heavily
into the meta. This will probably be the go to Master
trait for most elementalists.

Grand Master : Diamond Skin – This trait makes me chuckle… A very useful trait
Although I hate the god mode passive play this provides
vs full blown condi builds.

Written In Stone – I love the 20% signet ICD reduction addition to this trait.
I think the other two GM traits will usually be chosen over
this one but we will just have to see.

Stone Heart – This trait combined with the protection boon and geomancer’s Defense
in mind will make for a pretty interesting bunker. I think this trait will become
quite popular and require more skill to use optimally than people think.

I think this tree got the most out of the changes, although I’m sad about damage modifiers being gone.

Minors: Stone flesh is okay, I guess. Could have been better. Same with earthen blast. However, geomancer’s defense is good. There will be situations where you would rather have different defense mechanisms, but this is a big buff. I don’t think it makes up for the loss of EA’s, though.

Adepts: Elemental shielding is still the best you can take on dd ele. Serrated Stones are just meh and Earth Embrace will probably be used only by staff eles as it’s been till now.

Masters: Strength of Stone is again a trait for condi eles, I don’t like the idea and definitely won’t be playing it. Rock solid is pretty good, though. I wish they would buff the number of stacks, though. One stack seems a bit weak after the stab changes. Geomancer’s Training looks okay, problem is that it would be a trait fresh air ele would take for the cd reduction on Obsidian flesh and Magnetic Wave, but I’m not sure if fresh air would benefit the most from going into earth.

Grandmasters: This will probably be the line dd eles will take, the traits are pretty good apart from Diamond Skin. I think most eles will take Stone Heart, however I’m afraid it moves the playstyle from dancing through attunements to camp earth. Written in stone is good, too but I feel Stone Heart is a bit better.

Overall, I think the earth tree seems good. They should definitely think about the traits if they can bring more synergy to them. At the moment, it seems like they’re forcing eles to pick 3 attunements (or two + arcana), which they will use and leave the rest.

Grimreaper.5370:

Water trait Changes: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-one-a-primer/

Minors – Soothing Mist is great as always, Healing Ripple oh how we all rely so much on you.
And now Aquatic Benevolence as our new minor! This is amazing!

Adept : Soothing Ice – Holy crap this looks soo good, traits like this might make up for the arcana line being
butchered. I might even go so far as to say this trait is sort of OP since this trait
would mean you have a frost aura up almost 40% of the time while in battle…
Perhaps the Frost aura could be reduced by a second.

Piercing Shards – I don’t see this trait being picked up as it stands currently, it won’t work
with lingering Elements I’m assuming.

Stop Drop and Roll – I’m so happy to see this an Adept trait! Finally! I think this trait should also remove confusion and/or poison upon dodging so it can compete with Soothing Ice. The Elementalist’s potential condition removal has been butchered with the changes made to Elemental Attunement so I don’t think its unfair to have SDAR remove more conditions upon dodging.

Master : Soothing Distruption – This will probably be the go to Master trait, its even stronger than ever!

Clensing Wave – I think this trait needs remove 2 conditions upon swapping water to compete with Soothing Distruption when considering the meta Soothing Ice + Soothing Distruption + Clensing Wave combo which will exist post patch. This change could also make up for the loss of condition clear we’ll get since the Arcana line was nerfed.

Aquamancer’s Training – Although this trait seems like it could be useful I see this being the least picked
one of the three master water traits.

Grand Master : Soothing Wave – This trait is being indirectly nerfed if you take into consideration that Elemental
Attunement and Evasive Arcana are both a GM Trait now. I Still think this trait
will be useful.

Powerful Aura – With the amount of auras possible next patch this GM trait is looking more promising,
Although I wish it also maybe added an additional second or so to aura duration.

Bountiful power – I don’t see this trait ever being used, even if it offered 4% dmg for each current
boon, it needs something else besides a damage boost IMO.

I’m not sure how to feel about water, it is still very strong, but I don’t like some of the changes.

Minors: Mist, Ripple all the same good stuff. However, I don’t agree with Aquatic benevolence being a minor GM trait. Basically, you can go dps with waterline, because you get damage modifiers from it and then you’re stuck with useless GM minor trait. Also, dd ele will lose some of its dps due to no Bountiful Power.

Adepts: Soothing Ice will be the pick. Stop, Drop and Roll is just just bad. Piercing shards could be good, but you’ll be stuck with Aquatic Benevolence. Also, I don’t think it should be just water exclusive, that will make the trait not picked up.

Masters: Soothing disruption is very good. Cleansing wave is okay, but it won’t be used since SD. Aquamancer’s training could be good for dps specs, but then again you’ll be stuck with kitteneless GM minor.

Masters: Cleansing water all the way, this is not going to change. No one will take Bountiful power on dd, for dps specs it could be a solution. Powerful aura could be okay, but it needs to be changed from weapon auras to all auras. Sadly, I’m not a fan of the idea of Auramancer.

Overall, the water line is definitely strong. However, mixing dps and support trait is not good since one minor trait is purely dps and forced on eles who would like to play a power spec with trats in water.

So you just QQ about nerfs and ^^ about buffs? Close this thread please, another l2p issue

Grimreaper.5370:

Arcane Trait changes: http://i.imgur.com/DH70jqk.jpg

Minor – Arcane fury useful as always, Lingering Elements should at least have its description changed so people know it only works with Soothing Mist and Stone Flesh. Arcane Precision giving a 15% reduction on all attunements is pretty darn cool since that will mean we get an 8.7 ICD on attunements with this minor in mind.

Adept : Arcane Energy- I don’t see this trait being used but who knows,
maybe this and Renewing Stamina together will make for a mean acrobatic Thei-I mean Ele.

Renewing Stamina- Forever will be the go to Adept in the Arcana line… This should just become a minor trait IMO, replace it with lingering Elements?

Arcane Abatement – lol…

Master : Arcane Resurrection – I don’t see this being used in a serious build, but who knows maybe when comboing this with some earth traits to reduce DMG taken we’ll see some trollish Ele builds solely focusing on rezing

Arcane Shield – very underwhelming master trait, it would make for a great Adept trait if
Renewing Stamina became a minor trait.

Elemental Contingency – I’m guessing if an Elementalist is still going to invest into the Arcana
line post patch, this will be the go to Master trait.

Grand Master : Evasive Arcana – A great trait as all us Elementalists know

Elemental Surge – This is the Arcana GM trait which will probably be least used, if
the immob and chill durations were increased slightly and this skill somehow
sped up the recharge rate of the arcane skills then I could see this
being a valuable trait.

Elemental Attunement – The trait which has basically been the classes bread and butter ever since it originated as an Adept trait.
IMO THIS TRAIT NEEDS TO HAVE THE PROTECTION AND REGEN DURATIONS REDUCED AND THEN MADE A BASE PART OF THE CLASS, THIS TRAIT IS ONLY OVER THE TOP DUE TO THE HIGH PROTECTION DURATION IT PROVIDES COMBINED WITH ELEMENTAL SHIELDING

-Astro Blackfire

Arcane line took a hard hit. I’m unhappy about these.

Minors: Arcane Fury, Lingering Attunements are the same. Arcane Precision sounds ok, however I feel like they want eles not to go into Arcana anymore.

Adepts: Renewing Stamina is the only reasonable pick there. Falling damage trait is not even worth to talk about. Arcane energy could find its use, but I don’t think it’ll be picked over perma vigor.

Masters: This is just all horrible. These three are just bad, so bad. I honestly don’t know what I would pick there. I might as well leave it empty. Res trait is complete trash, Elemental Contingency is bad, too. You don’t want to run into enemies to get procs, especially when you’re squishy. Final shielding has way too long cooldown to be worth taken.

Grandmasters: Elemental Surge is weak, not gonna be used at all. Like really? Conditions and ferocity in one trait? Not even mentioning going into this tree for dps is pretty sad. Then we have Elemental Attunement and Evasive Arcana competing with each other. I’m really really really upset about this. Especially when everyone knows that these two are crucial for eles. Elemental Attunement should be nerfed a bit (reduced duration on stab and rege) and moved to baseline. It’s not creating any more build options, it’ll just make eles going into Arcana be stuck with one useless major trait. This should be totally reworked.

Overall, very disappointed with Arcana. I hope they will reconsider these changes or might as well stop playing ele.

I am excited about the changes Laraley, and I think you should be too. Don’t worry because in the end I believe everything will be alright, have faith.

WOW.9653:

So you just QQ about nerfs and ^^ about buffs? Close this thread please, another l2p issue

He is not the OP, I would love to hear your constructive feedback about my posts.

Ferocious Winds looks absolutely useless to me. I don’t see any builds going Precision-heavy (probably Zerker and, if you’re feeling adventurous, something to do with triggering condis on crit) having anything to do with Healing. IMO, it’d be better to scrap that trait entirely and putting in something useful, like condi removal on crit for instance.

Grimreaper.5370:

I am excited about the changes Laraley, and I think you should be too. Don’t worry because in the end I believe everything will be alright, have faith.

Kind of like it was from summer of 2012 until 4/15/14? I think d/d with earth/water/arcana (ele contingency is suprisingly good with how tanky it is) and d/f auramancer (with air/earth/water) will be fine, but scepter and staff builds are going to be just bad or overshadowed by other classes.

My high-level traitline assessment:

Fire is bad outside of blindspam. Sunspot is a joke and flame barrier doesn’t work with lingering elements. Flame barrier might work as a minor for auramancer builds (but not really b/c they need to go into air for zephyr’s boon, earth for prot on aura, and water for cleanse). The adepts are honestly bad outside burning precision (and a chance on a chance with an ICD is not really good). Master level are “meh” in that they don’t really give great damage, utility, or survival. At GM only blindspam will work in pvp. Spellslinger is terrible, but I guess caters to pve casuals who will camp fire (although persisting flames is better for them anyway).

Air is more of a utility line, and has good potential in an aura-based build. However, all 3 grandmasters don’t really offer DIFFERENT choices. Lightning rod and bolt to the heart come down to which is higher dps, while fresh air is dps/utility. There are then actually just 2 choices: fresh air (if you want the utility) or whichever other one gives more damage.

Earth is carried by the OP -20% damage within 600 range trait. At adept only ele shielding is strong, while earth’s embrace MAY see spot usage in staff builds. Condition builds don’t work, so condition traits are dumb. Rock solid is decent, but not really good enough at only 1 stack (it was hard to justify when it was 2s unlimited stab). Geomancer’s training is amazingly strong and the only real choice. The grandmaster traits are good, except diamond skin is still terrible design.

Water line is very strong and going to be necessary in most builds. The aura trait outstrips stop,drop, and roll due to cleansing water. Piercing shards is a non-choice because water does terrible damage to begin with. At master, Soothing disruption is the clear choice for most builds b/c cantrips are the only option, while aquamancer’s training might see use in dps builds. Grandmaster is pretty good, but aura-share is worthless if it only applies to weapon skills.

Arcana is kind of a mess. Lingering elements seems pretty useless when the only ones worth lingering are water/earth (enforcing the earth/water/arcana bent). Arcane energy would be interesting if it gave 25 endurance (which is 5/6 of the bar) rather than 25%, but renewing stamina is the only real choice at adept. Master is decent with ele contingency for tanky builds (retal and prot are good), while arcane shield is decent but still bad on bursty builds. At grandmaster the only real choice is ele attunement 90% of the time (the class doesn’t work without it). Evasive arcana is a trap choice and is only really good in-conjunction with elemental attunement. Elemental surge is a joke (as always) unless there is some broken way to pop a bunch of arcanes for some stupid 1-shot.

The problem with putting evasive arcana and elemental attunement on the same line, is that they aren’t DIFFERENT playstyles, and it comes down to a min-max (which goes in Ele attunement’s favor). It seems that the goal is to take the “dodge’s blast” and give that engineers (and see how broken that is with healing turret). Most eles who enjoyed this playstyle with evasive arcana will just play engie.

BlackBeard.2873:

Condition builds don’t work, so condition traits are dumb.

I actually believe that Condition Elementalist will be the next apex build. I don’t tell more.

BlackBeard.2873:

Grimreaper.5370:

I am excited about the changes Laraley, and I think you should be too. Don’t worry because in the end I believe everything will be alright, have faith.

Kind of like it was from summer of 2012 until 4/15/14? I think d/d with earth/water/arcana (ele contingency is suprisingly good with how tanky it is) and d/f auramancer (with air/earth/water) will be fine, but scepter and staff builds are going to be just bad or overshadowed by other classes.

My high-level traitline assessment:

Fire is bad outside of blindspam. Sunspot is a joke and flame barrier doesn’t work with lingering elements. Flame barrier might work as a minor for auramancer builds (but not really b/c they need to go into air for zephyr’s boon, earth for prot on aura, and water for cleanse). The adepts are honestly bad outside burning precision (and a chance on a chance with an ICD is not really good). Master level are “meh” in that they don’t really give great damage, utility, or survival. At GM only blindspam will work in pvp. Spellslinger is terrible, but I guess caters to pve casuals who will camp fire (although persisting flames is better for them anyway).

Air is more of a utility line, and has good potential in an aura-based build. However, all 3 grandmasters don’t really offer DIFFERENT choices. Lightning rod and bolt to the heart come down to which is higher dps, while fresh air is dps/utility. There are then actually just 2 choices: fresh air (if you want the utility) or whichever other one gives more damage.

Earth is carried by the OP -20% damage within 600 range trait. At adept only ele shielding is strong, while earth’s embrace MAY see spot usage in staff builds. Condition builds don’t work, so condition traits are dumb. Rock solid is decent, but not really good enough at only 1 stack (it was hard to justify when it was 2s unlimited stab). Geomancer’s training is amazingly strong and the only real choice. The grandmaster traits are good, except diamond skin is still terrible design.

Water line is very strong and going to be necessary in most builds. The aura trait outstrips stop,drop, and roll due to cleansing water. Piercing shards is a non-choice because water does terrible damage to begin with. At master, Soothing disruption is the clear choice for most builds b/c cantrips are the only option, while aquamancer’s training might see use in dps builds. Grandmaster is pretty good, but aura-share is worthless if it only applies to weapon skills.

Arcana is kind of a mess. Lingering elements seems pretty useless when the only ones worth lingering are water/earth (enforcing the earth/water/arcana bent). Arcane energy would be interesting if it gave 25 endurance (which is 5/6 of the bar) rather than 25%, but renewing stamina is the only real choice at adept. Master is decent with ele contingency for tanky builds (retal and prot are good), while arcane shield is decent but still bad on bursty builds. At grandmaster the only real choice is ele attunement 90% of the time (the class doesn’t work without it). Evasive arcana is a trap choice and is only really good in-conjunction with elemental attunement. Elemental surge is a joke (as always) unless there is some broken way to pop a bunch of arcanes for some stupid 1-shot.

The problem with putting evasive arcana and elemental attunement on the same line, is that they aren’t DIFFERENT playstyles, and it comes down to a min-max (which goes in Ele attunement’s favor). It seems that the goal is to take the “dodge’s blast” and give that engineers (and see how broken that is with healing turret). Most eles who enjoyed this playstyle with evasive arcana will just play engie.

This is some really great insight blackbeard, I do also agree that it is a shame that you have to max out air and fire if you want to take advantage of zypher’s boon with fire shields mainly for example. The arcana line does seem very underwhelming now, so hopefully some offensive builds will come into play and work well or something like 0/6/6/6/0.

In my opinion(Based on speculations) instead of having to take arcana and water line, we’ll now just have to take water and earth line if we want any survivability, we’ll have the option of either choosing fire, air or arcana, but then again who knows as of yet.

Grimreaper.5370:

BlackBeard.2873:

Grimreaper.5370:

I am excited about the changes Laraley, and I think you should be too. Don’t worry because in the end I believe everything will be alright, have faith.

Kind of like it was from summer of 2012 until 4/15/14? I think d/d with earth/water/arcana (ele contingency is suprisingly good with how tanky it is) and d/f auramancer (with air/earth/water) will be fine, but scepter and staff builds are going to be just bad or overshadowed by other classes.

My high-level traitline assessment:

Fire is bad outside of blindspam. Sunspot is a joke and flame barrier doesn’t work with lingering elements. Flame barrier might work as a minor for auramancer builds (but not really b/c they need to go into air for zephyr’s boon, earth for prot on aura, and water for cleanse). The adepts are honestly bad outside burning precision (and a chance on a chance with an ICD is not really good). Master level are “meh” in that they don’t really give great damage, utility, or survival. At GM only blindspam will work in pvp. Spellslinger is terrible, but I guess caters to pve casuals who will camp fire (although persisting flames is better for them anyway).

Air is more of a utility line, and has good potential in an aura-based build. However, all 3 grandmasters don’t really offer DIFFERENT choices. Lightning rod and bolt to the heart come down to which is higher dps, while fresh air is dps/utility. There are then actually just 2 choices: fresh air (if you want the utility) or whichever other one gives more damage.

Earth is carried by the OP -20% damage within 600 range trait. At adept only ele shielding is strong, while earth’s embrace MAY see spot usage in staff builds. Condition builds don’t work, so condition traits are dumb. Rock solid is decent, but not really good enough at only 1 stack (it was hard to justify when it was 2s unlimited stab). Geomancer’s training is amazingly strong and the only real choice. The grandmaster traits are good, except diamond skin is still terrible design.

Water line is very strong and going to be necessary in most builds. The aura trait outstrips stop,drop, and roll due to cleansing water. Piercing shards is a non-choice because water does terrible damage to begin with. At master, Soothing disruption is the clear choice for most builds b/c cantrips are the only option, while aquamancer’s training might see use in dps builds. Grandmaster is pretty good, but aura-share is worthless if it only applies to weapon skills.

Arcana is kind of a mess. Lingering elements seems pretty useless when the only ones worth lingering are water/earth (enforcing the earth/water/arcana bent). Arcane energy would be interesting if it gave 25 endurance (which is 5/6 of the bar) rather than 25%, but renewing stamina is the only real choice at adept. Master is decent with ele contingency for tanky builds (retal and prot are good), while arcane shield is decent but still bad on bursty builds. At grandmaster the only real choice is ele attunement 90% of the time (the class doesn’t work without it). Evasive arcana is a trap choice and is only really good in-conjunction with elemental attunement. Elemental surge is a joke (as always) unless there is some broken way to pop a bunch of arcanes for some stupid 1-shot.

The problem with putting evasive arcana and elemental attunement on the same line, is that they aren’t DIFFERENT playstyles, and it comes down to a min-max (which goes in Ele attunement’s favor). It seems that the goal is to take the “dodge’s blast” and give that engineers (and see how broken that is with healing turret). Most eles who enjoyed this playstyle with evasive arcana will just play engie.

This is some really great insight blackbeard, I do also agree that it is a shame that you have to max out air and fire if you want to take advantage of zypher’s boon with fire shields mainly for example. The arcana line does seem very underwhelming now, so hopefully some offensive builds will come into play and work well or something like 0/6/6/6/0.

In my opinion(Based on speculations) instead of having to take arcana and water line, we’ll now just have to take water and earth line if we want any survivability, we’ll have the option of either choosing fire, air or arcana, but then again who knows as of yet.

The problem is that if you don’t go to Arcana you lose the perma vigor, which is quite important.

To lose “perma” is vigor is not a problem at all….because it should have not be allowed in the first place.

Look I’m an ele main and I have been fighting my fair share of d/d eles who survive solely because of the trait set up, if you go tank you should be allowed to survive yes….but not survive indefinitely regardless of the number of mistakes you do.

Between 2 eles if one takes 5-6 burning speed in his face, the match should end already, it shouldn’t go one forever because the skill difference has already been established, one waste dodges because he can, the other save his dodges, the latter should be rewarded with victory

If this would be allowed then the would be no point for any player to try and attempt to improve himself.

I believe this is what Anet think also, reason why feline grace was nerfed, so unskilled thieves can’t survive by simply dodging ghosts

Supreme.3164:

To lose “perma” is vigor is not a problem at all….because it should have not be allowed in the first place.

Look I’m an ele main and I have been fighting my fair share of d/d eles who survive solely because of the trait set up, if you go tank you should be allowed to survive yes….but not survive indefinitely regardless of the number of mistakes you do.

Between 2 eles if one takes 5-6 burning speed in his face, the match should end already, it shouldn’t go one forever because the skill difference has already been established, one waste dodges because he can, the other save his dodges, the latter should be rewarded with victory

If this would be allowed then the would be no point for any player to try and attempt to improve himself.

I believe this is what Anet think also, reason why feline grace was nerfed, so unskilled thieves can’t survive by simply dodging ghosts

You know there are other specs besides dd ele. And those specs are squishy and need the vigor.

If you go 0/6/6/6/0 you’re not squishy at all and you still get the vigor from soothing disruption, if that still not enough..use energy sigil. If after all this you still think your build is too squishy, then it’s time to spend few weeks to train yourself, the trait set up is not squishy at all by my standards

Now that ele attunement base recharge has been dropped to 10s, there is nothing forcing you into arcana..only old habits

With a 10s recharge you could equip stone heart and make yourself immune to crit for as long as you stay in earth

Supreme.3164:

If you go 0/6/6/6/0 you’re not squishy at all and you still get the vigor from soothing disruption, if that still not enough..use energy sigil. If after all this you still think your build is too squishy, then it’s time to spend few weeks to train yourself, the trait set up is not squishy at all by my standards

Now that ele attunement base recharge has been dropped to 10s, there is nothing forcing you into arcana..only old habits

With a 10s recharge you could equip stone heart and make yourself immune to crit for as long as you stay in earth

Do you even know what fresh air means? Do you know that the spec doesn’t use soothing disruption? Do you realize you lose active defense if you don’t go arcana? And dps, too?

what i will do is sacrifice sigil of fire most likely and put in an energy one.

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

If you go 0/6/6/6/0 you’re not squishy at all and you still get the vigor from soothing disruption, if that still not enough..use energy sigil. If after all this you still think your build is too squishy, then it’s time to spend few weeks to train yourself, the trait set up is not squishy at all by my standards

Now that ele attunement base recharge has been dropped to 10s, there is nothing forcing you into arcana..only old habits

With a 10s recharge you could equip stone heart and make yourself immune to crit for as long as you stay in earth

Do you even know what fresh air means? Do you know that the spec doesn’t use soothing disruption? Do you realize you lose active defense if you don’t go arcana? And dps, too?

Do you realize: current fresh air mostly use cantrip reduction and the trait is being incorporated into soothing disruption?, that now you will max water line and hence take cleansing water most likely? That active defense of frequent dodging can be substituted by revamped earth line?

And do explain how going arcana increase dps of fresh air, now that everything has been removed

Main problem is that I even play 30 fire/air currently so I see things from a different perspective all together, I don’t see at all this loss of sustain on fresh air, if anything the sustain has greatly increased

you take soothing mist in water and cleansing wave, not soothing disruption. you have only one cantrip and even the reduced cd is not worth it if the trait doesn’t increase lf range to 1,2k.

Jekkt.6045:

what i will do is sacrifice sigil of fire most likely and put in an energy one.

It’s your choice like for everything, you need to look things in perspective: things are changing and cry over spilled milk will help nobody, if anything potential buffs we could still gt are overshadowed by all this pointless crying in my opinion.

The amulet will be buffed so let’s say that zerker amulet will have 100 pts added to each one of the current stats, then:

-go 6 water and take bountiful power ( 2% dmg increase for boon)
-go 6 arcana( if you wan dps so badly) and take elemental contingency and elemental attunement that’s : regen, protection, might, vigor, swiftness, retaliation, fury at 2% dmg for boon that’s 14% more dmg on fresh air + buffed stats on zerker

if people can’t see the dmg increase now…I dunno what else to say only that they “really” don’t play ele , as they only ever been able to follow meta imposed by some ESL player, recognized as a GOD, and never really experimented with the class trying to understand every nook and cranny of the profession

Jekkt.6045:

you take soothing mist in water and cleansing wave, not soothing disruption. you have only one cantrip and even the reduced cd is not worth it if the trait doesn’t increase lf range to 1,2k.

Currently there is no reason whatsoever to take soothing wave on fresh air, because a 465s regen won’t magically increase your survivability if you can’t play zerker in the first place.

you are talking about a pseud damage increase here, air training and bolt to the heart both fall off and bountiful power won’t make up for this.

arcana is not worth it anymore because of the buffs that thieves and mesmers get, what do you wanna do with 14% more damage and 6s of protection when they will just be able to a). roast you like a chicken or b). outsustain you with the rejuvenation trait. the earth line is way more tempting and even if i lose vigour and a bit of protection i will get -20% damage reduction when 600 or closer, stone heart and the cd on my invul reduced to 40s.

Supreme.3164:

Jekkt.6045:

you take soothing mist in water and cleansing wave, not soothing disruption. you have only one cantrip and even the reduced cd is not worth it if the trait doesn’t increase lf range to 1,2k.

Currently there is no reason whatsoever to take soothing wave on fresh air, because a 465s regen won’t magically increase your survivability if you can’t play zerker in the first place.

ofc there is, you get the regen “for free” as you will get hit in a fight anyway, you already have enough vigour and you can keep your lightning flash for the right moment. after the changes you will even get the frost aura that will trigger elemental attunement.

fresh air will be a quite “tanky” build with decent dps so i’m interested in playing in on the beta servers when they’re gonna let us test it.

Supreme.3164:

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

If you go 0/6/6/6/0 you’re not squishy at all and you still get the vigor from soothing disruption, if that still not enough..use energy sigil. If after all this you still think your build is too squishy, then it’s time to spend few weeks to train yourself, the trait set up is not squishy at all by my standards

Now that ele attunement base recharge has been dropped to 10s, there is nothing forcing you into arcana..only old habits

With a 10s recharge you could equip stone heart and make yourself immune to crit for as long as you stay in earth

Do you even know what fresh air means? Do you know that the spec doesn’t use soothing disruption? Do you realize you lose active defense if you don’t go arcana? And dps, too?

Do you realize: current fresh air mostly use cantrip reduction and the trait is being incorporated into soothing disruption?, that now you will max water line and hence take cleansing water most likely? That active defense of frequent dodging can be substituted by revamped earth line?

And do explain how going arcana increase dps of fresh air, now that everything has been removed

Main problem is that I even play 30 fire/air currently so I see things from a different perspective all together, I don’t see at all this loss of sustain on fresh air, if anything the sustain has greatly increased

Lol, I don’t know anyone playing fresh air and using Cantrip Mastery. I suppose some people play it, but they sacrifice dps for reduced cooldown on mistorm (?), which is not really that great. Do you even play ele? Do you know the traits in Arcana? You know you get free fury, weakness, might, protection, regeneration, retal and stuff? Doesn’t seem like it.

Supreme.3164:

Jekkt.6045:

you take soothing mist in water and cleansing wave, not soothing disruption. you have only one cantrip and even the reduced cd is not worth it if the trait doesn’t increase lf range to 1,2k.

Currently there is no reason whatsoever to take soothing wave on fresh air, because a 465s regen won’t magically increase your survivability if you can’t play zerker in the first place.

Soothing wave is still better than reduced cooldown on ONE cantrip. You can also take Vital Striking or just put two points in fire/earth. All of these are more useful than Cantrip mastery.

It’s not a pseudo dmg increase at all:

At current zerker base stats
-air training currently only works while attuned to air
-bolt to the heart trigger when target reaches 33% Hp

In my example you get a flat 14% dmg increase from start + increased stats of zerker amulet, the dmg is more evenly distributed and readily accessible from start and in all attunements, not restricted by heavy conditions ( say above 90% health)

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

If you go 0/6/6/6/0 you’re not squishy at all and you still get the vigor from soothing disruption, if that still not enough..use energy sigil. If after all this you still think your build is too squishy, then it’s time to spend few weeks to train yourself, the trait set up is not squishy at all by my standards

Now that ele attunement base recharge has been dropped to 10s, there is nothing forcing you into arcana..only old habits

With a 10s recharge you could equip stone heart and make yourself immune to crit for as long as you stay in earth

Do you even know what fresh air means? Do you know that the spec doesn’t use soothing disruption? Do you realize you lose active defense if you don’t go arcana? And dps, too?

Do you realize: current fresh air mostly use cantrip reduction and the trait is being incorporated into soothing disruption?, that now you will max water line and hence take cleansing water most likely? That active defense of frequent dodging can be substituted by revamped earth line?

And do explain how going arcana increase dps of fresh air, now that everything has been removed

Main problem is that I even play 30 fire/air currently so I see things from a different perspective all together, I don’t see at all this loss of sustain on fresh air, if anything the sustain has greatly increased

Lol, I don’t know anyone playing fresh air and using Cantrip Mastery. I suppose some people play it, but they sacrifice dps for reduced cooldown on mistorm (?), which is not really that great. Do you even play ele? Do you know the traits in Arcana? You know you get free fury, weakness, might, protection, regeneration, retal and stuff? Doesn’t seem like it.

No you don’t know everybody and neither the class!, You only know what’s written in big capital letters on website and call it the only thing that work

You should not talk about DPS like you know what metric of measurement means, because current fresh air build listed on meta battle does 1/3 the dmg of a shatter mesmer and 1/2 the dmg of a d/p thief while having less sustain then both and far less sustain then med guardian.

If you’d be really interested in DPS then you’d be able to play a 30 fire/air ele which deal far greater dmg than anything in the current meta, problem is you don’t want to really play a DPS spec…‘cause you don’t even seem to know what DPS means

-edit- Pls do try to maintain consistency in your statement, to say that cantrip mastery over soothing wave reduce dps is complete non-sense, and where this huge dps buff come from in the arcana line when future fresh air will be able to access all attunements faster than current version?

If they want to making Aura share/support a thing, especially after toning down the Arcana tree, they should really consider doing one of two things.

- Make Powerful Aura and Elemental Attunement 600 radius.

Or

- At the very least, bump EA to 360 to make powerful aura.

It’s weird being one of the squisier classes and having to essentially melds your buffs onto people, and beyond that, it’s even more weird to have an inconsistent buffing area. Does anyone else get this notion?

as i said, even that won’t help if you check how mesmers and thieves have been buffed, you need to go into earth to counter them, in fact the counters are very very good.

by going into earth you will reduce every backstab that would hit you for 6k-7k to 5,5k or less without even doing anything. make use of your auras at the right time and you will half it, stay in earth and the thief will maybe not even hit you for 2k.

i won’t say arcana is bad, but not as good as before. now that we’re able to pick 3 lines we will be able to lessen our counters overall while keeping our strengths (or almost all of it).

air:
- superspeed to kite players that want to chase you with swiftness.
- tempest defense, a great counter to overcharged shot and traited steal.
- fresh air, obvious

earth:
- elemental shielding, strong with soothing ice, tempest defense and fire 5.
- reduced earth cooldowns and -duration on soft cc, more cleanse and more invul
- stone heart. previously you went into earth to get the protection to counter bursts a bit, now you go into earth and you will counter almost all of the burst.

water:
- soothing ice, great synergy with cleansing water and elemental shielding, 3s protection every 10s with regen and a condi cleanse
- cleansing wave, your on demand cleanse without having to dodge.
- cleansing water to get the cleanses you need, very good with water 3.

you can overcome the weakness to conditions that many berserker builds have
you can mitigate direct damage burst very well
all you lose is a bit of damage and vigour.

Jekkt.6045:

as i said, even that won’t help if you check how mesmers and thieves have been buffed, you need to go into earth to counter them, in fact the counters are very very good.

by going into earth you will reduce every backstab that would hit you for 6k-7k to 5,5k or less without even doing anything. make use of your auras at the right time and you will half it, stay in earth and the thief will maybe not even hit you for 2k.

i won’t say arcana is bad, but not as good as before. now that we’re able to pick 3 lines we will be able to lessen our counters overall while keeping our strengths (or almost all of it).

air:
- superspeed to kite players that want to chase you with swiftness.
- tempest defense, a great counter to overcharged shot and traited steal.
- fresh air, obvious

earth:
- elemental shielding, strong with soothing ice, tempest defense and focus 5.
- reduced earth cooldowns and -duration on soft cc, more cleanse and more invul
- stone heart. previously you went into earth to get the protection to counter bursts a bit, now you go into earth and you will counter almost all of the burst.

water:
- soothing ice, great synergy with cleansing water and elemental shielding, 3s protection every 10s with regen and a condi cleanse
- cleansing wave, your on demand cleanse without having to dodge.
- cleansing water to get the cleanses you need, very good with scepter 3 on water.

you can overcome the weakness to conditions that many berserker builds have
you can mitigate direct damage burst very well
all you lose is a bit of damage and vigour.

Unfortunately I believe that arcana is just as strong as before, the elemental attunement change was necessary; a necessary evil that has brought quite few gifts with it

-very strong earth line
-superspeed
-“buffed” fire line
-“buffed” water line ( hoping they unnerf powerful aura as said on stream)
-reduced base attunement charge to 10s CD
-quite few other things.

Going earth over arcana will be a choice not a necessity, the playstyle change same as the end result : you go earth for more defense or arcan for more dps?
To remember that going 30 arcana now will drop attunument CD to 8s ( how does faster access to healing ripple sound?).

You can’t adapt a single playstyle to different variation of the same build, you really can’t

why do you think arcana will give you that much more dps? the only boon that i won’t have from the arcana line is vigour everything else will come from other traits and from pack runes.

i would not pick the % per boon trait anyway even if i go into arcana. and if i do without going into arcana i will only lose 2% of my damage because of mentioned vigour.

Mine was an hypothesis really.
In the build above I have assume you have elemental contigency(you gain retaliation being hit while in fire) + elemental attunement + bountiful power + aquamancer , ideally this is the way you want to follow in my opinion to maximise burst without going fire at all

I really do hope that elemental attunement moved to GM will force hard decisions on players and will make so that an “optimal” build will never be born again (I pray so).

It has become extremely frustrating for me to see shoutcasters not even bothering to go over the build of players using an ele during ESL or similar, all running same trait set up, utilities and runes.

I hope these changes will bring the necessary build diversity to eles, not more a build to rule them all, or you go ele team support or you go ele who benefits the most from dodges.

yeah but all you kinda do with this is trying to achieve what fresh air is right now. this might bring you on par with the amount of damage that the build can currently dish out but what fresh air lacks right now is a way to defend yourself.
i would understand that if fresh air was a top build right now but it’s not.

and why do you wish that for ele? i mean, who even cares as long as the build is good? it’s not like shoutbow has any variety in its build, or medi guard, or thief, or mesmer; it’s the same for all the metabuilds but maybe engi.

Supreme.3164:

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

If you go 0/6/6/6/0 you’re not squishy at all and you still get the vigor from soothing disruption, if that still not enough..use energy sigil. If after all this you still think your build is too squishy, then it’s time to spend few weeks to train yourself, the trait set up is not squishy at all by my standards

Now that ele attunement base recharge has been dropped to 10s, there is nothing forcing you into arcana..only old habits

With a 10s recharge you could equip stone heart and make yourself immune to crit for as long as you stay in earth

Do you even know what fresh air means? Do you know that the spec doesn’t use soothing disruption? Do you realize you lose active defense if you don’t go arcana? And dps, too?

Do you realize: current fresh air mostly use cantrip reduction and the trait is being incorporated into soothing disruption?, that now you will max water line and hence take cleansing water most likely? That active defense of frequent dodging can be substituted by revamped earth line?

And do explain how going arcana increase dps of fresh air, now that everything has been removed

Main problem is that I even play 30 fire/air currently so I see things from a different perspective all together, I don’t see at all this loss of sustain on fresh air, if anything the sustain has greatly increased

Lol, I don’t know anyone playing fresh air and using Cantrip Mastery. I suppose some people play it, but they sacrifice dps for reduced cooldown on mistorm (?), which is not really that great. Do you even play ele? Do you know the traits in Arcana? You know you get free fury, weakness, might, protection, regeneration, retal and stuff? Doesn’t seem like it.

No you don’t know everybody and neither the class!, You only know what’s written in big capital letters on website and call it the only thing that work

You should not talk about DPS like you know what metric of measurement means, because current fresh air build listed on meta battle does 1/3 the dmg of a shatter mesmer and 1/2 the dmg of a d/p thief while having less sustain then both and far less sustain then med guardian.

If you’d be really interested in DPS then you’d be able to play a 30 fire/air ele which deal far greater dmg than anything in the current meta, problem is you don’t want to really play a DPS spec…‘cause you don’t even seem to know what DPS means

-edit- Pls do try to maintain consistency in your statement, to say that cantrip mastery over soothing wave reduce dps is complete non-sense, and where this huge dps buff come from in the arcana line when future fresh air will be able to access all attunements faster than current version?

Seeing as you don’t know what Arcana trait line has, you don’t know the class. Maybe you play too much of your pve build that will fail facing anyone who is decent.

You were the one generalizing how every ele plays your build and those who don’t definitely copied it from metabattle. Anyways, no point talking to you.

Again ele is supposed to be a jack of all trades class, while you bring dps you bring also support; a fresh air ele can apply regen and heals allies..a mesmer can’t; a fresh air can bring team stability..a thief can’t. Without a clear differentiation between professions you will have a situation where 2 or more spots in a team are covered by the same profession.

This is extremely unhealthy for everybody…including the abused class. Just look at the state of our elites, conjure, glyphs…all in shamble because we were never able to get rid of that OP stigma…so this class never received some deserved buffs on unused staff as the devs wanted to avoid a major uproar on the forums.

So let other professions enjoy their specialized role while we save our identity, meanwhile hoping to receive some necessary buffs on UP staff without causing people’s rage

it’s not only staff, there are too many useless weaponskills for ele.
most of the scepter skills (could make a big list here) suck, churning earth sucks, staff is actually one of the better weapons while focus is the best one imo.

all we can do is hope that sword, if that’s our new weapon, will be worthy of a close range damage weapon.

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

Laraley.7695:

Supreme.3164:

If you go 0/6/6/6/0 you’re not squishy at all and you still get the vigor from soothing disruption, if that still not enough..use energy sigil. If after all this you still think your build is too squishy, then it’s time to spend few weeks to train yourself, the trait set up is not squishy at all by my standards

Now that ele attunement base recharge has been dropped to 10s, there is nothing forcing you into arcana..only old habits

With a 10s recharge you could equip stone heart and make yourself immune to crit for as long as you stay in earth

Do you even know what fresh air means? Do you know that the spec doesn’t use soothing disruption? Do you realize you lose active defense if you don’t go arcana? And dps, too?

Do you realize: current fresh air mostly use cantrip reduction and the trait is being incorporated into soothing disruption?, that now you will max water line and hence take cleansing water most likely? That active defense of frequent dodging can be substituted by revamped earth line?

And do explain how going arcana increase dps of fresh air, now that everything has been removed

Main problem is that I even play 30 fire/air currently so I see things from a different perspective all together, I don’t see at all this loss of sustain on fresh air, if anything the sustain has greatly increased

Lol, I don’t know anyone playing fresh air and using Cantrip Mastery. I suppose some people play it, but they sacrifice dps for reduced cooldown on mistorm (?), which is not really that great. Do you even play ele? Do you know the traits in Arcana? You know you get free fury, weakness, might, protection, regeneration, retal and stuff? Doesn’t seem like it.

No you don’t know everybody and neither the class!, You only know what’s written in big capital letters on website and call it the only thing that work

You should not talk about DPS like you know what metric of measurement means, because current fresh air build listed on meta battle does 1/3 the dmg of a shatter mesmer and 1/2 the dmg of a d/p thief while having less sustain then both and far less sustain then med guardian.

If you’d be really interested in DPS then you’d be able to play a 30 fire/air ele which deal far greater dmg than anything in the current meta, problem is you don’t want to really play a DPS spec…‘cause you don’t even seem to know what DPS means

-edit- Pls do try to maintain consistency in your statement, to say that cantrip mastery over soothing wave reduce dps is complete non-sense, and where this huge dps buff come from in the arcana line when future fresh air will be able to access all attunements faster than current version?

Seeing as you don’t know what Arcana trait line has, you don’t know the class. Maybe you play too much of your pve build that will fail facing anyone who is decent.

You were the one generalizing how every ele plays your build and those who don’t definitely copied it from metabattle. Anyways, no point talking to you.

Yeah I’m a pve player whatever you say or desire, if you think to be that great of a personality that you may want to start acting like one, all you’ve been doing for the last couple of days is whining in every thread with the word ele in the title, whining like a spoiled brat whose favourite toy has just been stolen.

Try to present the devs with constructive criticism instead then force your opinion as the only possible reality because guess what…it’s not

Jekkt.6045:

it’s not only staff, there are too many useless weaponskills for ele.
most of the scepter skills suck, churning earth sucks, staff is actually one of the better weapons while focus is the best one imo.

all we can do is hope that sword, if that’s our new weapon, will be worthy of a close range damage weapon.

Yeah so let the devs move elemental attunement to GM or whatever, then maybe..just maybe the community will finally realize that people losing to eles are not exactly the PRO players they want people to think and that really they lost to that ele..because they’ve got outplayed and not because the class is OP( well like now is kinda is with one spec)

As soon the OP stigma drop…maybe we get some deserved buff (wishful thinking, looking at the necro state…I’m not that confident really

the problem with moving elemental attunement to GM and making us pick either attune or evasive is a huge nerf to the ele’s support role. it’s even possible that d/d is not viable anymore because of this when a shoutbow can execute the job better. i talked about that in my thread and when d/d becomes a hardtank people will complain even more, right now you can kill d/d eles, will you be able to kill them when they get damage reduction and stone heart?

They will be tanks yes…but tank with no team support, or not superior self sustain, if elemental attunement would have been left where it is now…then other trait lines would have not received the same level of buffs, ele would have been worst off after the buffing of the other classes.

-no base attunement recharge drop
-no earth defense
-no water line buffs

Now if the team wants support, they will have to pick one or the other, or even better take a shoutbow. A team could take a d/d with elemental attunement and then take a (now buffed) hambow seen as the team support role is taken, or keep the shoutbow and have a EA ele maybe playing as bruiser/skyrmisher..roamer?!

a buffed hambow? seems like you missed that they actually killed the already underused build.

people will take 1-2 shoutbows and 3-4 dps (not necessarily berserker).

With unsuspecting foe as minor and merged merciles hammer now, that may not be the case anymore

merciless hammer is now a grandmaster trait with burst mastery which effectively kills the build by lowering the damage you get from stuns by 20% because you need burst mastery to keep the might up.

It really depends I believe, just an idea but going 6 in arms would allow warriors to use a zerker amulet maybe geomancy instead than intelligence ( given the 50% crit on tun or the 100% crit chance GM) and use 10% dmg increase from minor…just an idea, nothing off the table at this time