Guild Wars 2

In the past I used to think that each weapon set should offer the same options under the same circumstances, that was a wrong line of thinking, after some consideration I realized that Anet want to define a specific role for each weapon set and people can then choose their favourite playstyle from there.

This is what I think of each weapon set currently:

-staff
I thought that a ranged burst option for eles would have been viable but it appears as Anet think differently, I presume that a skilled ele able to snare/burst any target from 1200+ range is not really a favourite scenario for Anet, imagine a ranged version of a dagger ele, if that would be the case then we’d take over the role of sniper from rangers, so the support/artillery role is most likely what Anet got in mind for staff users.

A playstyle good for the lovers of the mage archetype and a mage was always in a party casting fireballs while being protected by a warrior, therefore I doubt a staff roamer role will ever be possible and maybe that’s good like that, while in group I enojy play staff and when built properly you can survive long enough for help to come, sure I don’t like to depend on others by the fields which can be layed down by a staff ele are impressive.

In sPvP you should forget about using a staff, 90% of players won’t bother using any of your fields or shielding you from harm, in tPvP once people realize how effective fields can be ( E.G fire field + projectiles finisher= burning bolt) then we’ll see more use of staff eles as effective field generators

-dagger/dagger
No need for introduction, a favourite among eles and the simple reason is because is the only weapon set which allows you to play in an indipendent way, not to say that it’s the most effective playstyle to win, but the majority of us love to get personal, have a fight and some kills without any support from others
The weapon set in itself deal far less dmg than staff and scepter/focus but the sustained dmg and the soloability make it a great option at the moment, nothing mcuh to say every single skill is useful and thx to this and ele never run out of steam ( for the immense frustation of the enemies XD)

-scepter/focus
Here it’s where the pain start, it’s difficult to define exactly what scepter is supposed to be, burst? condition dmg?ranged sustain?
There are quite few good concepts but the majority are plain design failures, the main issue is this combination of aoe and single target skills in a single weapon which deliver a below average result.

Why don’t go all the way in the single target department?

What ele needs is a 1vs1 specialised weapon set capable of quick and unforgiving burst, a burst which would surpass staff and dagger/dagger, there are several factors which must be considered before anything.

-Fire/Air traits
The fire traits are the worst, very plain traits that clearly have not been updated since the end of the development phase, to make these traits attractive a lot must be offered to compensate an ele leaving the common arcana/water line, in practice the water line is the only trait line you can’t leave home without.
Having 10k HP with professions able to burst you down in 1-2s for the same amount, has forced players to heavily invest in water, that they like it or not.

-Evasive skills
One of the main advantages of d/d is the ability to constantly outmanoeuvre the opponent, a weapon set which premiate good gameplay, what about adding some kind of evasive skill to the scepter/focus set?! Just a couple of gap creator on short/reasonable CD ( 12-15s) would be ideal

Before improving the traits, it is necessary to improve the weapon set , I take scepter and focus as a single weapon set in order to avoid a burst build with mobility, just like in the mesmer case, it’s better to leave the roamer/PBaoe specialist role to the d/d users, I strongly believe that sinlge target burst dmg is what the scepter/focus combination should be.

So this is how I envision the skills on scepte/focus:

-SCEPTER-

-Fire
1)Flamestrike: base dmg increase from 100 to 200, attack rate reduced to 1.1s

2)Dragon’s tooth: change to ground target, but instant effect like necro wells

3)Phoenix : make it a little bit faster, otherwise no drastic changes necessary

-Water
1)Ice shards: apply 2 stacks of vulnerability, 10s duration

2)Shatterstone: Make it instant effect like necro wells, increase base dmg to 400 and CD to 5s

3)Water trident: increase base dmg to 400

-Air
1) Arc lightning= increase base dmg by 20%

2)Lightning strike = apply 3s weakness

3)Blinding flash= no changes really

-Earth
1)Stone shards : no changes

2)Hurl: increase base dmg to 400

3)Dust devil: change to “on single target”(no travel animation), auto-target and instant cast, remove the blind and now apply 2s immobilize and 3s cripple

Reserved for updates