Guild Wars 2

We had such https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5zjK7ITpQ and such https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5zjK7ITpQ times…eles have been buffed to be viable in PvE and PvP at least.

Just to summarize the latest confirmed announcements:
1.) Cele amulet will get a big reduction in overall stats —> Ele in PvP was (besides Rangers) the least viable class in PvP before the Cele amulet changes
2.) Evasive arcana and Elemental attunement won’t be selectable together with the new trait system…if Ele isn’t capable anymore of granting proper group support, what’s it’s role in HoT? Together with the cele amulet changes, it’s certainly not DD, nor group support. If changes to RTL could be withdrawn, it’d be at least a fast roaming class.
3.) There was one proper PvP dmg spec: Fresh Air. Gone now with the changes to Bolt to the Heart.
4.) Icebow and Lightning Hammer will get nerfed to the ground. Ele in PvE was for a very long time not a viable option at all. Lately ele was a superior DD to the cost of the lowest base health pool. Ele was mainly abused for might stacking and its conjured weapons – now that conjured weapons are more or less gone: what’s the roll of the Elementalist now with those changes? Lowest base health and only mediocre demage.

So what I’m asking all of you: where do you think is the Elementalist heading to? Certainly the ele is moving away from a superior dmg class in PvE. What could be its dedicated role in the future? Defensive healing bot for the upcoming “challenging group content”? Please don’t make this another rant thread – meta builds are changing constantly…I’m really curious where the Ele could be heading to in the near future.

I am looking at the PvP side here. Many things you say are right, but i cannot agree that bolt to the heart kills all fresh air builds. Players like phantaram already used super speed with fresh air builds. Additionally, lightning rod + tempest defense might be a cool synergy, not sure.

Really don’t see the loss in damage from a PvE perspective for Staff builds.

In Fire you had 10% fire dmg, 20% fire cool downs, and Puissance. You still get all that plus an additional Adept trait which most likely will be the burning on crit because the other options are terrible.

Air line used to be Bolt to the Heart then up to Tempest Defense (for 20% damage with Icebow 5 stun) or 4 points just for the added Precision and a dead trait. You still get the same Bolt to the Heart and Tempest defense while staff with a useless trait in the Adept slot cause none are good for DPS.

From here you got two choices. You can go after Renewing Stamina again and get the Vigor, a useless Master trait and I guess Evasive Arcana. Alternatively you can go Water, get Piercing Shards (20% damage in Water and extra Vuln duration from crits), Aquamancer’s Training (10% damage while above 90%) and bountiful Power (2% damage per boon). Frankly the water seems like the obvious choice if you can deal without Vigor.

Until or if they do something with Fire Adept, Air Adept and Arcane Master those trees always going to involve taking useless stuff to get what you want. That’s nothing new for the Elementalist all told and instead of having it be limited to Fire/Earth/Air it’s now Fire/Air/Arcane with useless major traits in it.

Kodiak.3281:

Until or if they do something with Fire Adept, Air Adept and Arcane Master those trees always going to involve taking useless stuff to get what you want. That’s nothing new for the Elementalist all told and instead of having it be limited to Fire/Earth/Air it’s now Fire/Air/Arcane with useless major traits in it.

The sad part is, they actually think the useless garbage traits are “good.” There is just such a disconnect between reality and their perception, it inspires absolutely no hope.

Your PvE conclusion is completely false. Ele wasnt in the PvE meta previously because it hadnt really been discovered and people just went for warrior stacking. Its a god tier class in PvE and has been since the beginning (just took a while for people to realise). And its not just because of might stacking and conjures. It also has the highest damage in the game. The most AOE in the game. And huge versatility and range of utility. Even with icebow being nerfed it should still be the number one PvE class. PvE Staff build is getting buffed and that was already the highest damage build in the game.

spoj.9672:

PvE Staff build is getting buffed and that was already the highest damage build in the game.

I don’t really care that much about PvE, but just fyi, the damage is getting nerfed pretty hard because important damage modifiers in certain lines (esp. air) are going away. Also, being held to just 3 lines prevents going and taking a bunch of low-tier damage modifiers (including stone splinters, a 10% damage buff that is now MIA).

Also, nerfing LH means they want everyone to play staff (or tempest) in pve. However, I am pretty sure eles won’t have the highest damage anymore in pve, but that damage WILL require dumb AI to stand in a field and die.

All that was ever needed to make staff ele significantly weaker was reduce the power/possibility of stacking.

Essentially Water line is the new meta. It has amazing defenses and amazing benefits for DPS builds. I think you’re going to struggle to create a build that doesn’t include water cause it’s the only tree we have that is just has cool stuff in it regardless of spec. Auras? It has you covered. Support? Yes indeed. DPS? Look no further.

Every other line is lackluster (0-2 options in each major) with almost 100% of the cool stuff in the Grandmaster tiers. Lackluster lines simply mean they will be chosen based on what you need. Need more CC focus? Air. Planning on sitting in fire and doing DPS? Fire. Need some melee survivability? Earth. All these other lines are very boring and while the Grandmaster traits might be pretty cool the rest of the line is like, “I guess I will take this option because it’s the best option out of all these terrible options.” like “I guess I’ll take 10% dmg on Fire/20% cool down cause it’s better than a condi cleanse I don’t need with Might on cantrips on stupid long cool downs and that aura one which is so forgettable I have to look it up to even see that it does more Might.”

Don’t say this to complain, just kinda how it is with our choices.

Wooden Potatoes did a video where he talked about what he though of the new Ele traits. He kept posing the idea of an auramancer, which I think is an extremely cool idea. I don’t really see how it would be extremely useful in PvE, but I could see it used in PvP and WvW.

Kodiak, you do make a very good point. There aren’t a whole lot of skills that make you say “wow, this could have some really fun and interesting applications.” In fact, most of the build choices are very straight-forward. The fact that water is going to be in basically all-builds just moves the line that we are pigeon-holed into from arcana to water. It still makes builds incredibly boring.

Water is a great line regardless of build, and 100% necessary b/c it is the only option for truly reasonable condi cleansing (in conjunction with cantrips for regen procs and/or ele atttunement). Even if you aren’t going for the condi cleanse (b/c you are d/f and want to rely on your earth focus for that), you still go water to go with air/earth because it is the best damage line too.

If you aren’t going to yolo, earth is also a must-take for that OP -20% damage minor, and protection if you are playing auras.

Fire is just so lackluster, and only gets taken if you want to go auramancer and are willing to live with utilities that just say “press this button for a fire aura.” It will probably even be necessary for auramancers b/c the number of auras from weapon skills is low, depending on the cooldown of the passive procs. If you are relying on passive procs to keep your auras up…well that is an awfully boring playstyle.

Air is mostly utility, but won’t see pvp use if you aren’t building fresh-air. Staff ele just won’t be viable anymore, so no lightning rod. Bolt to heart even at 20% damage below 50% won’t do much more damage than fresh air, which gives you access to air autos + lightning strike. The problem is that there aren’t truly DIFFERENT choices at the top level, its just damage, a different flavor of damage, and another flavor of damage at GM with some very angular utility below it.

Arcana will still be good b/c vigor is going to be necessary on most builds, but if they aren’t a face-tanking bruiser (who will take ele contingency), there is only garbage at the master tier.

Perhaps the changes to this line, which removes a lot of easy ways to sustain and keep up with the big boys, will allow them to lower the CD’s of a lot of our utilities. Since like 80% of our survival relied on traits, and that is getting nerfed, maybe they can give us utilities that are on-par with everyone else. Of course, this won’t happen, but one can dream…or just play engineer.