My Personal Elementalist Wishlist

My Personal Elementalist Wishlist

in Elementalist

Posted by: Knote.2904

Knote.2904

After playing Ele for quite some time (played tons in the beta) and up til now after release, I’ve gotten a good grasp for the profession and would like to point out some of the things I’d (personally) like to see change.

Of course these are all opinions, and I’m not expecting or demanding to see all or any of these changes, and some may possibly overbuff the class. Some of this may be considered nitpicking as well, but read on if you like.

Also a warning : this is a VERY long post.

To start with, I’ll talk about the Attunement system. First off, I absolutely love the mechanic, and for the most part flows very well, and feels like true spellweaving at times, which is what hooked me to the profession. That said I feel the super long cooldowns make it feel clunky at times.

Considering how important it is to make full use of all 4 elements, in terms of dmg, utility/cc, and survivability, the Arcane trait tree becomes so important since attunement cooldowns are sooo long. And the way attunements go on cooldown (cd starts after LEAVING an element) further maximizes your down time in a certain element. I feel this promotes a spammy playstyle (ex. Go to water, dump cooldowns, go to air dump cooldowns, go to earth dump cooldowns.), of course this usually happens when saving certain cooldowns isn’t super important.

But for those times when you DO need to save certain important cooldowns, you’re punished for even touching that element before you need said cooldown by either being locked out of it for a long time, or being stuck with poor dmg. I honestly feel they should do a slight redesign of the cooldown system by just bringing down the cooldowns slightly, lowering Arcane Tree’s recharge bonus, and changing the way cooldowns start (by ENTERING an element rather than exiting). Of course it’d require a change to certain traits that cause effects on swaps, which is why it would be a slight re-work.

To take it a step further, what if Attunements simply had no cooldown whatsoever? I mean Engineer’s get away with it.

Jump in med kit, pop swiftness/fury, jump into grenades, dump all your grenades, jump back to pistol and pew pew, jump bomb run away and dump bombs then quickly into med kit and dump heals, come back to fight with grenade and dump some more, then pistol/shield and block/reflect, back to bomb use smoke, use big bomb to invis, back to med kit. And on and on and on. Sure in a short time window this describes Elementalist as well, but my point is Kit’s don’t have any cooldowns/penalties whatsoever, so why weren’t Attunements designed that way?

Anyway, now for weapon skills..

(edited by Knote.2904)

My Personal Elementalist Wishlist

in Elementalist

Posted by: Knote.2904

Knote.2904

Staff – Fire

Very few issues with this element.

Fireball – Painfully slow cast time at times.

Lava Font – Would like the dmg to start immediately when dropped.

Burning Retreat – The fire field border seems to be microscopic, hardly EVER burns anyone. Fire fields in general seem to be very inconsistent relative to one another.

Staff – Water

For the most part I think this also does it’s job quite well, a solid big Ice Spike when you’re swapping around, chill field and healing rain are just godly. (I hate that you can’t move using Healing Rain though. =p)

Geyser – can be a really annoying ability to use just because of it’s size, I wouldn’t mind seeing it become bigger at the loss of it’s combo field, or just be instant cast or something.

Water Blast – I think this is poorly designed, the dmg is laughable, and it’s only effect is a splash melee ranged heal which encourages sitting in this element to auto for heals, but then since melee is discouraged from just sitting on top of targets w/o moving, it’s just not very good. Maybe increase the dmg a little bit, and maybe stack a debuff or buff on you that can be detonated for a splash of healing when you change attunements or use a non water skill/attack.

Staff – Air

Something that’s always slightly bothered me about the air Element is that it’s not really a dmg element like fire is. It’s more of a cc/utility powerhouse with dmg in 2nd place to fire, which is is fine and all but it kind of makes the air element boring to use I find since you don’t have many attacks to use. And I was under the assumption that Air would be the other dmg element opposed to Fire. Like Fire/Air = offense, and Water/Earth = defense, with Fire being aoe dmg, and Air being spiky single target dmg.

Lightning Surge – I would like to see Lightning Surge have a slightly faster cast time, and hit a bit harder, as it is now it’s not that much of a hard hitting skill compared to it’s auto attack and is quite slow especially as an important blind skill. If necessary make the dmg single target and the blind aoe.

Chain Lightning – I’d like to just see it be a tiny tiny bit faster. (cast speed)

Gust – I would like to have a faster projectile and maybe make it not travel on the ground. Making it a third dmg skill for Air Staff could be a possibility.

Windborne Speed – I think this skill is excellent all around, wouldn’t change a thing.

Lightning Field – I have a huge love/hate relationship with this skill. On one hand I love it’s unique mechanic of stunning on the border (Veigar send’s his regards), but on the other it’s a PITA to accurately use, and I don’t think I will ever be able to insta stun anyone by accurately dropping this so the border lands on someone, even w/smart ground targeting off. Basically it’s a very unreliable skill and is generally only useful for kiting or “soft immobilizing” smart people, who usually have teleports anyway.

Maybe Lightning field should just stun regardless, as long as they’re in the circle, and hitting the border can cause big dmg or even make it a pulsing stun, 1s daze/stun every 1.5-2 seconds, similar to DotA’s Enigma.

Staff – Earth

Stoning – Decent auto, dmg isn’t spectacular, but can stack weakness, not super interesting, but not bad at all.

Earthquake – I used to really love this element in beta before Earthquake got a massive nerf in it’s radius, granted the range was pretty insane, but was also necessary most of the time to make up for the huge delay. Also was probably reduced for WvW reasons.

What I’d like to see now is have that annoying channeling/cast time thing removed, then just simply condense the ability, less delay, less dmg/bleed. Maybe even lower cd by 1 second to match if necessary.

Magnetic Aura – Beautiful.

Churning Earth – Long ago before beta for some reason I was under the impression that this skill was basically a barrier like Guardian skills that blocked people from crossing. I was quite dissapointed when I realised it just simply crippled.

I’m not a major fan of this skill since the only thing it accomplishes is, well, crippling stuff, and not even for a really long time, the fact that it’s a wall/line aoe is what hurts it the most. Not sure what to suggest, maybe make it stack some small bleeds? I tend to just dump it on immobilized or stationary targets, would be neat if it did some bleed dmg.

Shockwave – I think it’s a great skill, the aiming of it can be very wonky at times, but I don’t have any suggestions.

(edited by Knote.2904)

My Personal Elementalist Wishlist

in Elementalist

Posted by: Knote.2904

Knote.2904

Sceptre – Fire

Flamestrike – Kind of interesting since it’s the only auto that stacks burning, but since the way burning stacks compared to bleed I think it feels less satisfying. And the fact that it’s pretty crap for power based builds. Don’t have a suggestion.

Dragon Tooth – Ground Target please, that’s about it.

Phoenix – Great ability, a bit slow but I like it. It would be interesting if it could steal boons, based on the way the ability works lol, but that won’t and shouldn’t happen. =p

Sceptre Water -

Ice Shards – Ok-ish dmg, but it doesn’t really do anything outside of being good for procs. Maybe just make this skill stack vulnerability instead?

Shatterstone – I really wanna like this skill, the sound/animation is just so satisfying and I love the concept of being a super short cooldown rapid spam aoe. The vulnerability duration it stacks is amazing but what makes it god awful is the animation it forces your character into. My suggestion : make it not hold up your character.

Water Trident – Not really interesting at all, basically just used to dump at your feet for a little heal once in a while. Maybe give it some offensive purpose.

Sceptre Air -

Arc Lightning – Not a huge fan of this one, mainly because of how the dmg scales up, I would prefer if it was just a consistent stream of dmg, but I won’t care either way. Only other use is to proc stuff.

Lightning Strike/Blinding Flash – I think this is quite poorly designed, you might as well just stick this skill on auto cast. Should just merge this with Blinding Flash and average out their cooldowns. 8 second perhaps. Then replace #2 slot with a new dmg skill.

Sceptre Earth -

Stone Shards – Pretty amazing for bleed stacking, and TBH I’m really surprised it was left un-touch where as Necro Sceptre and Engy pistol auto’s were both nerfed quite a bit. I guess they thought you would be swapping often with Ele anyway. Unfortunately because of the way Attunement cooldowns work, Condition Ele’s are usually forced to sit in an Element to actually do dmg.

Rock Barrier – Interesting skill mechanic, though it doesn’t really feel that good to use. Just pop it whenever its not on for some extra toughness, the activation is awful. Give the activated shards a bleed perhaps, would be good for bleed burst.

Dust Devil – Just bring back the whirl finisher please.

Dagger MH Fire -

I like everything about this set. Would be nice if Burning Speed aimed based on camera.

Dagger MH Water -

Vapor Blade – I love the way this skill works, makes me super happy. However, make it so it doesn’t dissapear when hitting a wall or invulnerable targets.

Cone of Cold/Frozen Blast – Decent skill, ok dmg, kind of a weak heal but not useless. I think I would prefer they just remove Frozen Burst and make Cone of Cold apply a 1s chill. Then add a new skill to round out the set.

Dagger MH Air -

Lightning Whip – Really nice dmg, it misses often though.

Lightning Touch – Weakness is nice and all, but this skill is still underwhelming, give it some more dmg and/or make it aoe? This is one of the examples of Air being boring to use.

Shocking Aura – Prettykittengood.

Dagger MH Earth -

Impale – Decent but I would probably either have it fire faster or give it more range. Feels like it should be 600 like water.

Ring of Earth – I’d like to see this do 2-3 bleeds with a shorter duration, or maybe have it apply a very short protection.

Magnetic Grasp – Besides all of the bugginess with this skill, I would just like to have the cast/channel remove and let you cast while using it. Feels pretty clunky charging to someone and not being able to attack right off the bat.

(edited by Knote.2904)

My Personal Elementalist Wishlist

in Elementalist

Posted by: Knote.2904

Knote.2904

Offhand Fire -

Ring of Fire – Really nice skill, I like everything about this skill, the fire field applying 5s burn makes it actually feel threatening, doing decent Direct Dmg as it explodes makes it an actual attack. I’d like to see other fire fields feel as good.

Fire Grab – Not sure if this should get any changes, but personally I wouldn’t mind seeing the delay/cast time removed, the CD lowered, in turn for maybe less dmg, so it’s a more consistent attack. Some would probably hate me for that though.

Flame Wall – Doesn’t feel very satisfying as a fire field. Since it’s only purpose is literally being wall of fire it should be punishing to run through or sit on, make it 5s burn like Ring of Fire or actually give it some good direct dmg for anyone standing on it.

Fire Shield – God this skill feels awful, 3s duration, only 1s burns, 40s cooldown, and nothing else. Only good use for this is proccing aura traits. Don’t really know what to suggest other than lowering the cd, and increasing the duration. Maybe give the skill apply a boon or something, retaliation? lol

Offhand Water -

Frost Aura/Cleansing Water – These are both excellent abilities, however 40s does seem a bit steep, maybe 30 or 35 seconds?

Freezing Gust – 3s chill on a 25s cooldown. Ugh, why? Compare this to Spinal Shivers. For starters, bring the cooldown down to atleast 20s, and maybe tack on some regen or something.

Comet – Pretty nice skill imo, wouldn’t change anything.

The one problem I have with dagger vs focus offhand as far as water goes, dagger is more offensive/melee and focus is more cc defensive/ranged, but dagger offhand has cleansing waters, I’m ok with that, but why doesn’t focus water atleast grant regen or something?

Offhand Air -

Ride the Lightning – No problems with this skill as far as design, I know it has issues with bugginess and auto targeting. I generally do fine since I’ve gotten used to having auto target off though lol.

Updraft – Amazing skill. Since you’re basically evading backward, would be neat if it was actually an evade.

Focus Air skills I don’t have a problem with, would be nice if Swirling Winds gave swiftness though.

Offhand Earth -

Earthquake – Pretty great skill would be nice if you could move using it, but w/e.

Churning Earth – Definately a hit or miss skill (literally), pretty much requires your teleport to ever use successfully, most of the time. The main issue I have with the skill is that the cripple doesn’t happen as soon as you start channeling, it’s delayed quite a bit.

There are many ways they could go with this skill, some has suggested using it while moving, they could just condense it like Eruption, or maybe make it a turtling skill, while channeling you gain toughness/protection or just straight up invuln, though that could be too good.

Magnetic Wave/Obsidian Flesh – These skills are AMAZING. Makes focus definately worth taking, I just wish focus water was as defensive focused.

I’m not going to go over anything else, although as far as traits go, they should probably stray away from traits that require sitting in a certain element and have more that work across all of them. A good example is the fire trait that burns on crit.

For those of you crazy enough to waste your time reading this, feel free to post/add to this lol.

(edited by Knote.2904)

My Personal Elementalist Wishlist

in Elementalist

Posted by: MarzAttakz.9608

MarzAttakz.9608

Yip good points all round, some may be a little extreme but overall I like your thinking.

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