Guild Wars 2

I get that the explanation we received was very very poor because the person was not involved with the development of the changes…. but was there no one else that was involved that could have done it?

It was incredibly lacking, I mean it was basically reading the powerpoint presentation and the two going “did something change? anyone know if it did? Anything relevant here?”.

Seriously, I felt it was almost a disrespectful presentation that made it seem, in my opinion, that elementalist is being treated like an afterthought by ANET.

Having said that, another question that I pose is if lingering elements was completely scrapped or made baseline. Don’t get me wrong, Elemental Attunement not conflicting with Evasive Arcana is great and I am glad that ANET realized that it would be absurd to have core mechanics being a choice.

But now that we finally have minors in all element lines that could work with lingering elements, did it really not even make the cut to be baseline? If so, why? It was a useful trait that certainly deserved to be baseline to help our elements mesh together, so why the cut?

Edited: Grammar. Now I know and knowing is half the battle. GI Joe!

One thing that made me feel the same way, but I have since reconsidered:

Soothing mist, the water trait affected by lingering elements, continues to tick for 7-10 seconds after switching attunements. That is baseline. I had lingering elements for so long, I never realized that only fire, earth and air benefit from lingering elements. While it would be really cool with some of the new trait changes (25% movespeed in air, 150 power in fire), I like the feeling of switching to these elements to recieve the benefits. It seems too strong with the new traits.

I hope that helps. For me, once I checked and realized this changes almost nothing for my water healing soothing mist, I felt better. And I like moving fast in air, and dealing more damage in fire to compensate.

I don’t fault them for the quality of the presentation – it is nice to present it at all.

As for lingering elements – I think it is 100% dead. It never worked right (things like water lingered anyway, things like fire/earth didn’t work for most of the time), was not really that great, and restricted them big-time in the design department. Now, it also makes a lot less sense, as you can no longer “dip” into many lines to pick up lingering bonuses from each. Finally, it has no synergy with “tempest” meaning it would be even MORE worthless for arcana/tempest/x eles.

I thought this too, but for what it’s worth, the gain was still far greater than the loss here.

Yup that “presentation” had strange “vibe”. Almost as if they were telling us “we don’t play ele, we don’t care, somebody was tasked with changing ele but he probably doesn’t play or care either”.

Lingering elements is pointless. Best thing to do about it(and easiest to balance in long run) is to have each passive trait last for x sec after getting applied. Have it applied on attunement then ever second. With added cleanse effect on attunement switch if lingering is not desired. That way you get benefit instantly and its easy for “balance team” to buff/nerf as needed. <- this is how it imo should have been done, idk if thats the case though.

Cecilia.5179:

I thought this too, but for what it’s worth, the gain was still far greater than the loss here.

lol, not sure about that. An ele wil get completly wrecked in a 1v1 agains’t mesmers, thieves or engies after this patch.

Their buff is so much substantial than our aura stuff. And our damage got nerfed, their damage got buffed.

Azel.4786:

It was a (sic because it keeps changing to kitten if I leave the “an”) useful trait …

Just wanted to chime in grammar wise for OP that “a useful trait…” is correct (as opposed to an) because useful is pronounced like “YOUsfull” with a hard consonant ‘y’ sound.

But I totally agree that anet considers eles as an afterthough and that they should have made lingering elements baseline, nerfing soothing mist’s duration to compensate if necessary.

Was about to say ‘a useful’ as well…

When I tested Lingering Elements many moons ago, the only thing it actually worked with was Soothing Mist. It added 0-5 seconds I believe, depending on when you swapped attunements.

Did not know about the “a useful”, good to know. Thanks.

Back on topic, I don’t think they need d to nerf Soothing Mist duration to compensate, it has been nerfed enough due to the significant radius cut, but the loss of the 150 toughness bonus will definitely hurt us.

The power and the speed bonus are also very good. Maybe ANET could do the other approach of giving an equivalent duration for the bonuses to compensate for the loss of lingering elements…. Just cutting it off is too punishing for no reason.

We never got the 150 toughness.

dietzero.3514:

We never got the 150 toughness.

Not quite 150, you are right. It will be 150. We had 120 from stone flesh, which made a difference. (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stone_Flesh)

I don’t really understand why we won’t have the Lingering Elements anymore. This is an essential to the elementalist mechanic, tool. They could just make them last a bit less, like 3 sec instead of 5, if they believe is going to be stronger after the minor’s changes, but erase it… that’s lame and sad…

As for the presentation it isn’t like it was the first time they’ve had a person who didn’t work on the changes talk about them while it doesn’t feel good at least they do not center most of their ‘banter’ around jokes about elementalist so that is something.