Guild Wars 2

Arc Lightning: The damage of this ability has been increased by 25% in PvP only.
Arcane Shield: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 60 to 40 seconds in PvP only.
Final Shielding: The cooldown of this trait has been reduced from 75 to 60 seconds The health threshold for activating Arcane Shield has been increased from 25% to 50%.
Glyph of Elemental Harmony: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 25 to 20 in PvP only.

Never used arcane shield at all in pvp but it did need a cd reduction. The buff to Arc lighting is very nice. Scepter builds AA normally does 25% less damage than dagger. After this buff it will be more about if you can get the full cast off with scepter or stay in melee with dagger.

We need these changes for WvW.

Ulion.5476:

Arc Lightning: The damage of this ability has been increased by 25% in PvP only.
Arcane Shield: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 60 to 40 seconds in PvP only.
Final Shielding: The cooldown of this trait has been reduced from 75 to 60 seconds The health threshold for activating Arcane Shield has been increased from 25% to 50%.
Glyph of Elemental Harmony: The cooldown of this ability has been reduced from 25 to 20 in PvP only.

Never used arcane shield at all in pvp but it did need a cd reduction. The buff to Arc lighting is very nice. Scepter builds AA normally does 25% less damage than dagger. After this buff it will be more about if you can get the full cast off with scepter or stay in melee with dagger.

I don’t see why arcane shield can’t be a global change, I doubt it’s going to become the defacto choice for most eles in PvE when they need survivability and WvW it would help deal with thieves.

Arc lightening is a pulmonary impact invitation if ever I saw it and again PvP only?! They’re afraid we’re going to tickle people to death with it in WvW or heaven forbid using sceptre again in PvE. Would love to have sceptre as a viable option for fresh air without having to essentially use a conjured weapon.

Edit: With the amount of unlockable being given out arcane shield really doesn’t justify the 60s cool down. Glyph heal on 20s CD globally would be far too strong in PvE but not that bad everywhere else imo. It would become the no brainer heal for ele in PvE especially when traiting glyphs.

These are good changes.

Gotta admit, I’ve raised an eyebrow at some of the buffs being PvP-only, particularly since some of those skills were nerfed in the past for PvP reasons to begin with. In Guild Wars 1, I don’t think there were any split skills that had weaker stats in PvE than in PvP.

I can understand why Lava Font went that way, but I really don’t see 25% more damaging Arc Lightning turning scepter ele into the new raid DPS meta.

i also think this could have been done globaly. Its a great step. I always liked acane shield and often used it traited with brilliance.
And now the glyph buff … This one is something to try out air again.

draxynnic.3719:

Gotta admit, I’ve raised an eyebrow at some of the buffs being PvP-only, particularly since some of those skills were nerfed in the past for PvP reasons to begin with. In Guild Wars 1, I don’t think there were any split skills that had weaker stats in PvE than in PvP.

I can understand why Lava Font went that way, but I really don’t see 25% more damaging Arc Lightning turning scepter ele into the new raid DPS meta.

If only they changed arc lighting from channeled to a burst skill, I would use it alot more.

I like these changes but without old cooldowns on air scepter will still underperform against anything

…eh…season 5th…ele still healbot…staying on druid…

Minoru.1237:

We need these changes for WvW.

I too, would like this… Scepter is underutilized in every game mode, I do not see why it can’t be done for WvW/PvE too.

The arc lighting change is kinda pathetic. Yeah, let’s make autoattacks do more damage than everything else in the game. Sound fun, doesn’kitten And since when is “it?” a curse word?? wat

i love the scepter gameplay (fire can line up some burst with fang and phoenix) and air has the Sith lightning

too bad that this changes are PVP only

Well lightning whip still scales better than arc lightning but the dps comparison is very close with the change. Scepter lacked enough burst to finish runners so they had 2 options. Increase the burst damage or AA damage.

To be honest I love this change… Now we need an after cast time reduction on dragon thoot, a Phoenix cooldown reduction and 1 more stack of vulnerability on shatterstone and we will fine

I also hope that these change will be add to pve too

lucadiro.4519:

To be honest I love this change… Now we need an after cast time reduction on dragon thoot, a Phoenix cooldown reduction and 1 more stack of vulnerability on shatterstone and we will fine

I also hope that these change will be add to pve too

I think they’re doing this so they can have some people testing it, then they will add to PVE.

Tomiyou.3790:

The arc lighting change is kinda pathetic. Yeah, let’s make autoattacks do more damage than everything else in the game. Sound fun, doesn’kitten And since when is “it?” a curse word?? wat

Wtf… How Arc Lighting does more damage than everything else

Minoru.1237:

We need these changes for WvW.

You mean pve well pvx (as in wvw is the gen able to use all armor and food) most of them seem ok for it i am not sure if it would make staff ele unkillable due to all the blocks and evasion. Though i would like to see a arcain tempest x d/d ele with max shields and cdr in though shields.

I also have a feeling that if they where going to add these changes to all game types it would take a lot longer and the %+ would not be as big. Kind of a KISS thing and making it spvp only.

No complaining allowed. You coulda been a rev

steve.2945:

lucadiro.4519:

To be honest I love this change… Now we need an after cast time reduction on dragon thoot, a Phoenix cooldown reduction and 1 more stack of vulnerability on shatterstone and we will fine

I also hope that these change will be add to pve too

I think they’re doing this so they can have some people testing it, then they will add to PVE.

Sorry if I ask but lol…. Test what?
Air scepter auto will still be inferior to Dagger auto.
And the others change doesn’t have any impact at all in pve…
Nor in WvW to be honest

If you’re running Demo / Mara + Rune of Rage / Air, the damage for Arc Lightbing will go up from about 2k per channel to 2.5k per channel. Let that sink in.

Keep in mind people that these may not be the full list of changes. The guardian changes said there are some sustain shaves but that’s simply not true looking at the list. So I think there’s more to it. Also I don’t think for a second that there are no changes to 3 of the professions.

These changes are absolutely amazing! I was already doing well against many players with water/air/arcana demolisher build.

Arc lightning was a much-needed change, and other auto-attack changes aren’t needed with fresh air (hint, channel arc lightning then swap, after the first hit you can get back to air again and get a free swap burst). However, this should not be pvp-only. Scepter is basically useless in pve, even worse than pvp, because the autos are SOOO weak (and pve mobs are quite tanky). Maybe in the future we can see this make its way into pve-land!

Arcane shield change is the absolute BEST!!! You mean I can actually have defense more than once in a blue moon?!?! <3

Glyph change is VERY strong. I already swapped half the time between glyph heal and signet heal. Signet lets you stay aggressive, but traited glyph heal is basically full-heal every 16s. This is especially strong with demolisher’s amulet, as this heal has high base healing, which works great with the toughness the amulet provides. I might even then take GoEP for extra sustained damage or weakness with the trait. Its worth considering and a great change.

I am quite impressed. Just worried about the buffs to sword thieves, which were historically even more of a bane to scepter ele than anything.

lucadiro.4519:

steve.2945:

lucadiro.4519:

To be honest I love this change… Now we need an after cast time reduction on dragon thoot, a Phoenix cooldown reduction and 1 more stack of vulnerability on shatterstone and we will fine

I also hope that these change will be add to pve too

I think they’re doing this so they can have some people testing it, then they will add to PVE.

Sorry if I ask but lol…. Test what?
Air scepter auto will still be inferior to Dagger auto.
And the others change doesn’t have any impact at all in pve…
Nor in WvW to be honest

Testing changes and buffs between PVP and PVE. For sometime now, we were complaining that they had no real players testing the changes before they hit.

Abelisk.4527:

If you’re running Demo / Mara + Rune of Rage / Air, the damage for Arc Lightbing will go up from about 2k per channel to 2.5k per channel. Let that sink in.

I think it is closer to +600 damage on a full channel with the Fresh Air ferocity buff, assuming every damage tick crits. Running Marauder + Pack will do ~2500, estimated around ~3100 when the patch hits (might be more, like ~3700 if it’s 1.25 multiplier applied to each tick). Cast time is long anyway so it’s still some marginal DPS over 3.5s. Not counting the damage from Air/Blood/Fire sigils which people might be running. I’m thinking of testing quickness bursts with Agility/Rage Sigils.

With the lower cooldown on Arcane Shield/Final Shielding we will probably start seeing more builds taking the Arcane traitline. I’m sure someone will try it in the support build too.

Tomiyou.3790:

The arc lighting change is kinda pathetic. Yeah, let’s make autoattacks do more damage than everything else in the game. Sound fun, doesn’kitten And since when is “it?” a curse word?? wat

It’s actually fairly common across the game – autoattacks, for most professions, are where most of their damage comes from. The other weapon skills are intended for tactical use, not something you simply add to a rotation to do damage.

Some of those skills do happen to increase your DPS, but they generally have some other condition or effect that means that simply spamming them on recharge isn’t always the best you can do. Lightning Strike is probably the closest to a ‘press this on recharge to increase DPS’ skill, but even there you might actually want to hold off for a spike.

Regarding air scepter specifically, it has the problem that damage is pretty much all it can do (there’s a blind on a 10s cooldown, whoop-de-doo), but that damage isn’t actually all that great. Buffing Lightning Strike would increase the spike capability, which would probably just encourage Fresh Air builds that swap to air for Electric Discharge and Lightning Strike before swapping to something else. Buffing Arc Lightning buffs the sustained damage. That seems to be the route they’ve chosen.

draxynnic.3719:

Tomiyou.3790:

The arc lighting change is kinda pathetic. Yeah, let’s make autoattacks do more damage than everything else in the game. Sound fun, doesn’kitten And since when is “it?” a curse word?? wat

It’s actually fairly common across the game – autoattacks, for most professions, are where most of their damage comes from. The other weapon skills are intended for tactical use, not something you simply add to a rotation to do damage.

Some of those skills do happen to increase your DPS, but they generally have some other condition or effect that means that simply spamming them on recharge isn’t always the best you can do. Lightning Strike is probably the closest to a ‘press this on recharge to increase DPS’ skill, but even there you might actually want to hold off for a spike.

Regarding air scepter specifically, it has the problem that damage is pretty much all it can do (there’s a blind on a 10s cooldown, whoop-de-doo), but that damage isn’t actually all that great. Buffing Lightning Strike would increase the spike capability, which would probably just encourage Fresh Air builds that swap to air for Electric Discharge and Lightning Strike before swapping to something else. Buffing Arc Lightning buffs the sustained damage. That seems to be the route they’ve chosen.

Dunno, still disagree with that mentality. Tho, I would rather see what these changes will do to the whole playstyle, before I complain more. Honestly, even if Arc Lightning changes nothing, Arcane Shield on 40s is amazing imo. Especially for Air Overload.

Great changes, but wont change that much playstyle of fresh air. Other viable styles of eles in high competive gameplay i cant see, d/d wont bring the needed sustaine without cele, staff is too slow and can be easy outplayed. Fresh Air is not this bad with the changes but in all, it lacks on mobility to do a good job. What u can do isnt good enough to replace a thief as +1 or even a rev, doesnt matter he got nerfed.

It is the right way, but not enough, we are fixed to focus and exaclty this wont change without deeper analysis and changes.

slow and gentle in the right direction, its good to see Anet DO actually recognize the gaps in meta gameplay for ele.

Great changes…shame are not global but I can see where they’re coming from, furthermore the ele is fine in PvE/WvW so can’t complain about these decisions.

….Sure it’d be great if at the very least, the change to Final shielding would become global, that trait has been weak for years

For say wvw ele need something to let it fit into the constion meta. Ele is the only class that lacks a specialized condtion dmg or more then 2 types of constions dmg effects.

I think ele needs to get added effect from there burn say a boon duration -% (burning faster though boon not a true boon removal but still some counter play) and bleeds that also have a healing -% (fire rocks into ppl should have a lingering effect beyond bleeding “toxic earth”) .

Hi, been really loving the changes so far. Here is a build that utilizes all of the buffs. Vamp runes is my personal preference (small dps boost and helps maintain health). Haven’t tested with diamond skin, but it might actually be the better option.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdhUMonhdOwkB8RM0AYSFIA8BnUQHYGWFyrQUA-TJBFQBA4BAEwyAE4EAoj9HAA

Now we just need retro Fire traits rolled back June 22 2015 and Arcane vigor trait rerolled. Cough celestial amulet locked for elementalist only. Behold it’s a new expansion!!!

oh yes i would love to get blinding ashes back to 5s ICD :-).
And woops.. this is it Frowny :-). I personaly also like arcane brilliance traited but glyph at 20s is top. Well maybe it´s time to test base ele again ….

Yea so far I love the changes. Glyph is now the best solo heal and arcane shield cd seems prefect now. I consider arcane brilliance, I think that I need a tankier build to use it. Even if I have multiple targets around me for the big heal, I would probably die anyways.

Wolfric.9380:

oh yes i would love to get blinding ashes back to 5s ICD :-).
And woops.. this is it Frowny :-). I personaly also like arcane brilliance traited but glyph at 20s is top. Well maybe it´s time to test base ele again ….

They just need to make the icd on blinding ashes per person not per activation like glyph of elemental power. Then having a 10 sec icd would not be so bad because its a blind of every one ever 10 sec not just a blind on a burning effect every 8 or 5 sec.

The 50% hp on the passive shield seems like it will help core staff ele in wvw and pve. I am not sure how ele is in spvp (i do not play spvp).

After playing with the changes, I just feel like s/f ele still isn’t sufficient vs. the alternatives (daredevil, revenant, or even burst mesmer).

The damage just isn’t there, and is almost completely reliant on hitting phoenix, which ends up being mitigated quite often thanks to all the invulns and free evades everywhere.

On other classes, if you miss your burst, there is max of 10s before you can go again. On ele, that number is 20s.

These changes move the needle in the right direction, but s/f ele still remains only unranked viable. When people only play meta specs, it just can’t keep up.

Well you have a few burst option with scepter. Earth/Air for bleeds and direct damage burst, Fire/air hard hitting burst, or you can do a water/air burst. I have not ran into to many revenant but I do well against the other classes in 1v1 fights with a S/W air/water/tempest build.

BlackBeard.2873:

After playing with the changes, I just feel like s/f ele still isn’t sufficient vs. the alternatives (daredevil, revenant, or even burst mesmer).

The damage just isn’t there, and is almost completely reliant on hitting phoenix, which ends up being mitigated quite often thanks to all the invulns and free evades everywhere.

On other classes, if you miss your burst, there is max of 10s before you can go again. On ele, that number is 20s.

These changes move the needle in the right direction, but s/f ele still remains only unranked viable. When people only play meta specs, it just can’t keep up.

Been playing in ranked with no issues. Only had about 10 matches though. What build you using?

FrownyClown.8402:

Hi, been really loving the changes so far. Here is a build that utilizes all of the buffs. Vamp runes is my personal preference (small dps boost and helps maintain health). Haven’t tested with diamond skin, but it might actually be the better option.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdhUMonhdOwkB8RM0AYSFIA8BnUQHYGWFyrQUA-TJBFQBA4BAEwyAE4EAoj9HAA

Try to switch arcane with tempest and take marauder, you have a great survivability and good aoe damage from overloads … it is quite strong . I find not having overload a loss

a full offensive build might go air/arcane/tempest. It would be more fluid and have more air overloads due to more swaps outside air.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdnMIC9MgdOAOYCcYilGAToCEA+gFZhrQUw9y2ZHtA-TJBFQBE4EAoj9HAwDAIglBAA

Condi removal might be an issue, especially with low HP. Overloads with lower elemental CD´s is nice. I miss is a bit when using my fire build. You can opt classic maurauder here or you go full crazy glass with destroyer (don´t underestimate the condi potential). Leadership rune is a good choice too but the drains are tempting :-).

Here an offensive version. Less power but more protection uptime. For me protection is the key to ele survival.

Might try this one out myself :-). Fear it´s a squishball, but not shure with shocking auras, shield and OK protection. It´s not for long term servival.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJArdnUMA9MgdOAmMAcYiFJAztxOZzsCLgAQFsYP2EOCA-TJBGABA8AAQa/B/LDY8JAAA

I refuse to be a tempest with scepter. Id rather take out earth for tempest too

I’ve played an unhealthy amount of standard air/water/arcane fresh air, and have some mixed feelings.

Firstly, it feels really strong. The changes are very noticeable. It’s hard to kill and unlike before the patch, actually a threat when ignored.

However, the winrate just isn’t there. Like I and others said a couple times, the issue with fresh air is and always has been that it doesn’t bring enough value. Doesn’t have enough impact on a match. No portal, no stealth, no real mobility and bad to mediocre cleave. its +1 is average, since its damage output remains at the low end. Its strengths are survivability and almost impossible to avoid damage, same as always, but the survivability only really matters if you’re worth focussing in the first place, which you’re not, most of the time.

I think I’ve almost 60 matches played or so, and I’ve ranged from mid platinum to high gold.

Like I said though, it’s a lot better than before (perhaps better than ever). If you’re comfortable with being placed slightly below where you belong, it’s worth playing.

Gokil.2543:

I’ve played an unhealthy amount of standard air/water/arcane fresh air, and have some mixed feelings.

Firstly, it feels really strong. The changes are very noticeable. It’s hard to kill and unlike before the patch, actually a threat when ignored.

However, the winrate just isn’t there. Like I and others said a couple times, the issue with fresh air is and always has been that it doesn’t bring enough value. Doesn’t have enough impact on a match. No portal, no stealth, no real mobility and bad to mediocre cleave. its +1 is average, since its damage output remains at the low end. Its strengths are survivability and almost impossible to avoid damage, same as always, but the survivability only really matters if you’re worth focussing in the first place, which you’re not, most of the time.

I think I’ve almost 60 matches played or so, and I’ve ranged from mid platinum to high gold.

Like I said though, it’s a lot better than before (perhaps better than ever). If you’re comfortable with being placed slightly below where you belong, it’s worth playing.

Fair points. As a duelest and +1 its decent, offering good survivabilty, but its still a relatively slow roamer. As far as 1v1 is concerned I felt that it was on par with most of the builds besides condi warriors and dh’s.

To be fair, it does play like a jack-of-all-trades dps build which is what anet wanted for ele’s. I feel pheonix on 10s cd and another 25% boost to air auto could do the trick

They need to do something about the cast times and after cast for the other skills to aid in fluidity. Maybe have Phoenix clear another condi as well.

Now if only they’ll buff offhand dagger. Full offense s/d ele might become a thing (one can hope). But that will never happen with the sub-par damage and ridiculously long cooldowns on offhand dagger. We’ll never take a thief’s place, I’m not foolish enough to think that. But we might atleast be able to compete with rev and mesmer.

FrownyClown.8402:

BlackBeard.2873:

After playing with the changes, I just feel like s/f ele still isn’t sufficient vs. the alternatives (daredevil, revenant, or even burst mesmer).

The damage just isn’t there, and is almost completely reliant on hitting phoenix, which ends up being mitigated quite often thanks to all the invulns and free evades everywhere.

On other classes, if you miss your burst, there is max of 10s before you can go again. On ele, that number is 20s.

These changes move the needle in the right direction, but s/f ele still remains only unranked viable. When people only play meta specs, it just can’t keep up.

Been playing in ranked with no issues. Only had about 10 matches though. What build you using?

I played air/water/arcana for a good 15 matches, and it just…isn’t there. The build survives well if you are smart about positioning and and timing your defenses, but the damage just isn’t that great. The sustained damage is better, but still nothing to brag about, and the time between phoenixes (your primary burst) is just too long. Besides air burst and phoenix, everything has a huge cast-time/delay and is rarely worth using for damage (the blinds are great in small fights/1v1’s, earth is worth queueing up for extra damage, but (many times even dragon’s tooth on a downed body isn’t worth it because the person is ressed before it lands).

Sure, the spec does ok in 1v1s, but often means you give up the point (esp if the guy is tanky), and its good in +1s, except for the fact that you are slow as hell as far as map mobility goes.

All in all, still just a really bad version of a thief, which does SO MUCH MORE DAMAGE nowadays.

Nikkinella.8254:

Now if only they’ll buff offhand dagger. Full offense s/d ele might become a thing (one can hope). But that will never happen with the sub-par damage and ridiculously long cooldowns on offhand dagger. We’ll never take a thief’s place, I’m not foolish enough to think that. But we might atleast be able to compete with rev and mesmer.

Dagger is just bad damage AND bad defense, nowadays. There just isn’t any saving it when compared to the insane HoT power-creep.

Have someone tried to go fire arcane air? I’m without internet since One week and can’t play untill next week so couldnt try it

The glyph traited + cd reduced at shield should be a nice help to that yolo spec, and with that you can still 100-0 someone, and throw phoenix more often

I’m not saying it can be viable, metà etc etc just want to know if someone tried it and how it work now

I play fire/earth/tempest. I tried a lot diffrent and all had its merits. But that one seems to be most compftable for me. I always had be concerned about movement speed of that build but got used to do overloads (or healing glyph in air) if i need to run faster …
the damage i get out of it with sage (i find it better i nsolo Q then menders) is noticeable. The downcleave from fire OL hurts. As rune sodiers is most solid in PvP. in WvW the build rocks and is unexpected there i am more viper/rabid/cele with durability rune. I can burn down oponents in seconds if they don´t watch condies and cleanse ….

BlackBeard.2873:

FrownyClown.8402:

BlackBeard.2873:

After playing with the changes, I just feel like s/f ele still isn’t sufficient vs. the alternatives (daredevil, revenant, or even burst mesmer).

The damage just isn’t there, and is almost completely reliant on hitting phoenix, which ends up being mitigated quite often thanks to all the invulns and free evades everywhere.

On other classes, if you miss your burst, there is max of 10s before you can go again. On ele, that number is 20s.

These changes move the needle in the right direction, but s/f ele still remains only unranked viable. When people only play meta specs, it just can’t keep up.

Been playing in ranked with no issues. Only had about 10 matches though. What build you using?

I played air/water/arcana for a good 15 matches, and it just…isn’t there. The build survives well if you are smart about positioning and and timing your defenses, but the damage just isn’t that great. The sustained damage is better, but still nothing to brag about, and the time between phoenixes (your primary burst) is just too long. Besides air burst and phoenix, everything has a huge cast-time/delay and is rarely worth using for damage (the blinds are great in small fights/1v1’s, earth is worth queueing up for extra damage, but (many times even dragon’s tooth on a downed body isn’t worth it because the person is ressed before it lands).

Sure, the spec does ok in 1v1s, but often means you give up the point (esp if the guy is tanky), and its good in +1s, except for the fact that you are slow as hell as far as map mobility goes.

All in all, still just a really bad version of a thief, which does SO MUCH MORE DAMAGE nowadays.

Nikkinella.8254:

Now if only they’ll buff offhand dagger. Full offense s/d ele might become a thing (one can hope). But that will never happen with the sub-par damage and ridiculously long cooldowns on offhand dagger. We’ll never take a thief’s place, I’m not foolish enough to think that. But we might atleast be able to compete with rev and mesmer.

Dagger is just bad damage AND bad defense, nowadays. There just isn’t any saving it when compared to the insane HoT power-creep.

Yeah, unfortunately. offhand dagger will need some huge buffs to be viable again. But I doubt that will happen especially with bad players already complaining about “Invincible eles doing huge damage”. because our auto attack can apparently 1 shot people now and arcane shield lets us block more than guardians, while we can heal our whole team to full because apparently ele can have more than 6 utility slots and can somehow have all our shouts and defensive skills at the same time…… freaking morons.