The point of this thread is to round up the most important feedback to the specialization changes.
We all know that agreement and cooperation are not very common on the (ele) forums. Let’s try for once to work towards a compromise, for the sake of the profession and game we all love.
This thread is a discussion thread. In a day or two we’ll take the most important conclusions and condense them into a neat little document that carries a good bit of weight, so we can be sure at least that gets heard.
I’ll get the discussion going. MAKE SURE YOU POINT OUT WHAT YOU AGREE WITH, NOT JUST DISAGREE.
High-level impressions:
Fire magic: This line has a clearly defined purpose and multiple viable paths
Air magic: This line seems to have lost a fair bit of appeal, mainly due to lost raw damage and flimsy adepts.
Earth magic: This line again has a clearly defined defensive purpose. Geo defense is incredibly strong. Multiple paths possible. Some possible compensation for loss of stone splinters?
Water magic: Strong, versatile line. Well rounded. Clear purpose.
Arcana: In need of a viable master trait. Only one currently viable and well-defined path.
Close-up: Traits worth commenting on.
Pyromancer’s puissance in its current version has no real function. This may well change depending on what mainhand sword fire attunement brings. All other fire magic traits seem fine. Conjurer’s viability is heavily tied to lightning hammer’s though. I’m unsure why they feel like the hammer needs nerfing. Power overwhelming is quite bland but can live with that.
Ferocious winds, aeromancer’w alacrity and bolt to the heart are worth commenting on. I get what you’re trying to do with ferocious winds(zealot’s 66060 dps staff ele that can camp fire as well as water), but fact remains it’s a pretty bad trait overall. Adept air magic could really use a solid trait since both others have quite niche usefulness. Main comment on aeromancer’s alacrity is to please add air training to it. 150 ferocity is 50-70 percent less damage than a 10 percent modifier would be, which seriously hurts fresh air builds both in pve (d/f) and pvp (s/f). Bolt to the heart really needs to be brought up to executioner/close to death level.
The addition of many incoming damage modifier traits beg the question of whether or not they’ll stack multiplicatively or additively (I believe they’re additive atm). If additive, geomancer’s defense will be problematically strong, if multiplicative it will just be strong. Only other things worth commenting on are the loss of stone splinters, which was incredibly strong but kind of makes sense to not have in earth magic anymore.
Soothing ice is very strong. Its current version of 4s frost aura feels incredible. I believe 12s would make a bit more sense. It would be an excellent source of proccing aura traits without providing the incredible uptime of frost aura.
Elemental contingency needs some minor tweaks in order to have an option worth taking in master tier. Swiftness when hit in air and/or regen in water would go a long way. I wouldn’t mind losing the retal for either or both. I think most of us are not a fan of the ‘when hit’ mechanic but it might be a necessary evil to distinguish from elemental attunement. Making the revive aura trait work with aurashare would be quite nice too.
Elemental attunement becoming grandmaster makes swiftness availability very problematic to almost all traditional pvp builds. I’d hate to have to run traveler rune/signet of air just to get around. I don’t feel like ele is one of the classes that was meant to lack swiftness from a balance perspective such as necro/guard/mes, so I hope you’ll either give us windborne dagger somewhere reachable or give us an alternative way to gain some swiftness. Maybe windborne dagger baseline.