Guild Wars 2

So, i haven’t been playing GW2 for a few months now and i noticed they changed how Conditions work, and isntead of burning stacking in duration and lasting longer, letting you rotate through all 4 of your attunements and still be able to keep the target burning until you get back to fire.

Now they just run out faster but stack in intensity, how does this look for you guys?

Are the changes for the better or worse? Is burning useless or even better now despite not lasting?

I do not like it.

The changes they made to conditions just make then game less complex. I can understand why they needed to change how conditions work for the sake of balance, but I find the result uninteresting.

On the other hand, now I feel like more of my actions have a significant impact. This is especially true in the context of group play, since the burning output of all players is more effective.

5 stacks of burn with about 1k condition damage will do 2k+ a second. It does really well vs classes that lack condi clear but you will struggle vs guardians and condi necros.

Balance issues aside i just love it now..So many elementalist skills combos ,even fire line itself got a huge boost in value cause of that.
Like now dodging in fire with ea is a valuable offencive tool.
Or carefully placing ring of fire so that enemies pass over isntead of just using it at point black for some aoe damage ,same for all fire fields.The value of these skills got much higher.Fire aura also is now a constant damage increase since it doesnt overlap with the other burns.
Focus fire got an effectiveness increase in fire skills simple due to traits (longer auras) and burning .
Im not convinced on a pure condi build for ele in pvp cause of condi variety.
But now hybrids should take burning very seriously on their combos and rotations now..like giving priority to rotations that give more burning instead of more raw dps
In essence i can say that for me burning change(and traits change of course) changed quite a bit how i play my ele actually and for that i love it !

So I ran my old condi build in wvw. Apoth/Dire mix EWA and perplexity. Its cheesier than condi mesmer.

It makes burning on staff sorta function. It’s so low compared to d/d that it makes you realize how much Staff needs improvements.

I like that now skills like Flamewall and Fire Shield are actually punishing to players who stand in the wall/continue hitting me with the shield up. It is also more important than ever to actually cleanse the burning from skills like Drake’s Breath instead of tanking it. So I think it actually helps promote skilled play. I’ve been having a lot of fun with burning over the past week.

That said, I do believe nerfs are incoming. I really hope they don’t over-nerf burning though, as it’s a significant portion of our DPS.

I don’t like it either. Because IMO, burning is op now. I guess what’s about to happen is this: People will get a clue of how OP celestial d/d ele with 10011 spec currently is, the number of elementalists on pvp servers will rapidly grow and the rest of the players will complain about it. At some point, the nerfhammer will hit us like a truck, destroying other aspects of elementalists that were strong. Consequently, ele will be trash in pvp for a long period of time.

I’d like to see burning nerfed (for elementalists) right now instead of having them wait and overnerf us like they did couple of times before.

While probably a bit too good, the burning changes are the single thing that made condi eles playable now. I really hope that when they nerf it (which they will/must) that they think of us (and Guardians) too: we only really can stack burning, no other damaging condition so we SHOULD comparable damage with burning alone when specced for condis compared to classes like engi and necro that can bomb you with 4 different damage condis.

Also all those ~10k burning ticks you see in videos are only available in pve with food and sinister gear… both not available in pvp which has lower stats anyway overall.

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

While probably a bit too good, the burning changes are the single thing that made condi eles playable now. I really hope that when they nerf it (which they will/must) that they think of us (and Guardians) too: we only really can stack burning, no other damaging condition so we SHOULD comparable damage with burning alone when specced for condis compared to classes like engi and necro that can bomb you with 4 different damage condis.

Also all those ~10k burning ticks you see in videos are only available in pve with food and sinister gear… both not available in pvp which has lower stats anyway overall.

Agreed. Before this patch, condi eles were a joke/novelty. Now they’re actually viable, and it’s only because of how good burning is. A knee-jerk over-nerf would kill this newly viable play style. Not good for diversity.

Why would you want to play condi ele anyways? How boring must that be? Rely on perplexity and burning damage to win battles? Boring as kitten really.

Either way, burning will most likely be nerfed because it’s utterly ridiculous right now lolol

blitzkrieg.2451:

Why would you want to play condi ele anyways? How boring must that be? Rely on perplexity and burning damage to win battles? Boring as kitten really.

Either way, burning will most likely be nerfed because it’s utterly ridiculous right now lolol

I was referring to SPvP. I personally find a S/F signet condi spec to be more engaging than a relatively brainless D/D cele build. And, since Perplexity runes are unavailable in SPvP (for a good reason) it does take some effort to build up and maintain burns and bleeds.

Of course, with burning how powerful it is right now, it could use some tweaking. But on the flip side, everything else hits hard, so it still takes effort to survive. Regardless, it’s anything but boring IMO.

Build diversity is a good thing.

It’s ok I guess I wouldn’t run a condition focused build on my Ele I have my Necro and Engi for that. Right now Engi’s are having fun withe the power/cele builds, but my Engi is still setup for conditions and messing around Flame thrower is strong now and inciendiary ammo plus the flamethrower tool skill with firearms+inventions+alchemy or tools and the new mortar kit blows my Necro’s condition build out of the water.

Many things are different now it still needs more time to play out. Direct damage is still king and even more so now.

Glenstorm.4059:

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

While probably a bit too good, the burning changes are the single thing that made condi eles playable now. I really hope that when they nerf it (which they will/must) that they think of us (and Guardians) too: we only really can stack burning, no other damaging condition so we SHOULD comparable damage with burning alone when specced for condis compared to classes like engi and necro that can bomb you with 4 different damage condis.

Also all those ~10k burning ticks you see in videos are only available in pve with food and sinister gear… both not available in pvp which has lower stats anyway overall.

Agreed. Before this patch, condi eles were a joke/novelty. Now they’re actually viable, and it’s only because of how good burning is. A knee-jerk over-nerf would kill this newly viable play style. Not good for diversity.

Pure condi ele weren’t great however hybrids that focused on covering conditions like bleed/burning/torment while having the proper power builds, were actually really strong, i used to run one of those and it did much better than d/d cele, however not as much survivability, still enough.

Well, the more i read about the changes, the more i think this is a step into the right direction.

I would love to see burning be a viable source of damage, instead of just an annoying lingering condition, as it was in the past.

However if its too strong, then surely they will have to done it down a bit, but i would love to see more builds focused around burning and not direct damage.
And as someone said, since elementalist only has burning condi and other classes have 3-4 damage conditions, i would like to see that burning do a considerable enough amount of damage by itself to compete against those classes aswell.

I got my face stomped in by a condi ele while I was on my mesmer… I melted faster than I could pop Decoy.

Cecilia.5179:

I got my face stomped in by a condi ele while I was on my mesmer… I melted faster than I could pop Decoy.

Mesmers always were pretty hard countered by condition specs this isn’t something new though.

Cecilia.5179:

I got my face stomped in by a condi ele while I was on my mesmer… I melted faster than I could pop Decoy.

that might of been me lol. I am on henge of denravi and was roaming with it yesterday for awhile.

I don´t like the changes. Its a nice try but it stacks to easy for eles and what i read guardians.
I preferd the duration stackign and higher base damage, but i agree that not stackign damage from multiple players was anoying. The best thing would be to stack burn from multiple players but otherwise keep the old system, so each player has its own burning uptime.
I would like any “Nerf” that brigns up basic damage from burning, but greatly reduces stacking. It can also be done buy looking into each class. But then i fear it might just kill traits and builds if not done mindful :-/.

Wolfric.9380:

I don´t like the changes. Its a nice try but it stacks to easy for eles and what i read guardians.

That was the problem with burning before. Elementalist could stack it so high that it became irrelevant. Before elementalist could stack burning upto 1min in duration but that can get cleansed in no time. Fights do not last that long to make it useful in pve and no burn use to do the full duration when spec for it. In pvp condition removals are a necessity so any burn over 10s are useless. That was what it was like if someone decided to spec for burning before this update. I am glad A-net is taking their time to get more data before rushing into a fix. Elementalist and Guardians condition builds were limited before now they have good niche.

Xillllix.3485:

It makes burning on staff sorta function. It’s so low compared to d/d that it makes you realize how much Staff needs improvements.

d/d is high risk high reward. Staff is like low risk and high reward all things considered.

Killyox.3950:

Xillllix.3485:

It makes burning on staff sorta function. It’s so low compared to d/d that it makes you realize how much Staff needs improvements.

d/d is high risk high reward. Staff is like low risk and high reward all things considered.

What? Only in PvE.

Yeah, staff has way more risk and way less reward than d/d and d/f in PVP.

Yesterday i did run with the zerg using staff instead my usual S/F. … While the range is fine i did´t like it. But condies where no threat. I got constantly hit by them and had only my cleansing flame as removal (i did run glyphs yesterday and air instead of water) but they were no immidiate threat. I always hit ground by being bursted down. I go down 1-3 times with my S/F (F/E/W) in 1-2 hours WvW. With Staff i got finised at least five times in less then one hour yesterday…. But i know i can contribute more in keep fights with the staff … But i did´t feel like not doing much even when my metor and storm glyph did hit the enemy group.

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

While probably a bit too good, the burning changes are the single thing that made condi eles playable now. I really hope that when they nerf it (which they will/must) that they think of us (and Guardians) too: we only really can stack burning, no other damaging condition so we SHOULD comparable damage with burning alone when specced for condis compared to classes like engi and necro that can bomb you with 4 different damage condis.

Also all those ~10k burning ticks you see in videos are only available in pve with food and sinister gear… both not available in pvp which has lower stats anyway overall.

Not true, I’m able to obtain 10-12k burn tics in spvp with my ele, using a very specific build. (If all my “conditions” are met, which they usually are not when fighting someone who runs around and clears conditions). Is the build reliable though? ROFL hell no, die like a wet noodle being sliced with a katana.

I’m torn. I am enjoying it, but I know this won’t stand for long. The amount of damage from burning, and burning stacks is insane now among many many classes. Burning is its own meta now.

Other than that, its precisely how Zelyhn puts it.

Grimreaper.5370:

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

While probably a bit too good, the burning changes are the single thing that made condi eles playable now. I really hope that when they nerf it (which they will/must) that they think of us (and Guardians) too: we only really can stack burning, no other damaging condition so we SHOULD comparable damage with burning alone when specced for condis compared to classes like engi and necro that can bomb you with 4 different damage condis.

Also all those ~10k burning ticks you see in videos are only available in pve with food and sinister gear… both not available in pvp which has lower stats anyway overall.

Not true, I’m able to obtain 10-12k burn tics in spvp with my ele, using a very specific build. (If all my “conditions” are met, which they usually are not when fighting someone who runs around and clears conditions). Is the build reliable though? ROFL hell no, die like a wet noodle being sliced with a katana.

But you can’t balance classes around what they can do against a non-moving golem. You have to balanced them around what’s actualy doable in a real match.

I really hope they wont finetune with a sledgehammer…

I have an ele what used to be my main for a few month but now I main a guardian.

my build if anyone would ask:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Bs-g;1NFV10G3wF-90;9;4nQO;0147236036;9;1Bk-2Bk-21V

(if anyone call this burn-abuser build … I don’t know what to say?
it’s a hybrid…)

If they nerf the Burn’s damage and not the application I might go back to the standard power medi build in sPvP…

… but after a few years it becomes BOOORING….l

..and you Elementalist will also give up on condi builds (respect for a few forum-posters who forced these while it wasn’t popular…).
And Rangers
And Warriors
And so on…

in a way the changes were amazing and in a way they are frustrating. usually duels between d/d eles were endless if both of them were good enough. now i managed one to end after 10 seconds when both were celestial. the problem is, if you play a fire water arcane build many burns are passive.. so they do not require a lt if skill sadly.

it’s a step forward with a step backward.

Jekkt.6045:

in a way the changes were amazing and in a way they are frustrating. usually duels between d/d eles were endless if both of them were good enough. now i managed one to end after 10 seconds when both were celestial. the problem is, if you play a fire water arcane build many burns are passive.. so they do not require a lt if skill sadly.

it’s a step forward with a step backward.

Though to be fair, if the fight ended after 10 seconds, there were only 2 opportunities (at max) for burning to proc from crits

The word passive gets thrown out a lot these days yet I’d argue that we’re still one of the least passive classes by far. Everyone has “x on crit” and “x on %health” traits and I’d argue in a fast-paced combat game like GW2 at least some of these are needed – also most other classes don’t have as many buttons to press as we do so again some passive procs are needed for them not not completely play by rotation.

Ya it seems good burning is eles only true condition dmg the classes bleeds can never be on part with other classes due to how slow ele stacks them. It also changes burning to be a new “burst” type of conduction dmg not just a remake of bleed but with very locked in dmg amounts.