Guild Wars 2

I heard lots of doom/gloom for S/X builds post past due to ‘IB and LH being nerfed’. I dont believe LH will be nerfed into non-use, and I believe IB will still have its situational burst/cc.

I started to make a new build based on the new traits and knowing I can only pick 3 trees. I was surprised by what I got. Biggest changes are bolded.

If you’re a S/X obviously you’ll want conjurer.
Conjurer: Gain a Fire Aura for 5s when an ally picks up a conjurer weapon or you use a signet; Conjure weapons have 10 more charges
New mechanics to that mean everytime you use a signet or someone picks up a conjure you get fire aura (shield that when attacked grants might and burns attackers)

One With Fire: Fire Auras you apply last 33% longer and grant 2 stacks of Might when applied.
They completely reworked what this trait even does. Now, everytime you cast a signet or someone picks up a conjure you get 2 stacks of might and fire aura.

Persisting Flames: stays the same, same fire field/blast rotation minus arcanes.

Zephyr’s Boon: Auras grant fury and swiftness for 5s when applied.
This trait is the same, except now its the only dps oriented trait we have as an adept since Bolt to the Heart is now a GM. What this means now though is everytime you cast a signet or someone picks a conjure you gain 2 might, fury, swiftness and fire aura.

Piercing Shards: While attuned to water, your spells deal 20% more damage to vulnerable foes. Vulnerability lasts 33% longer.
Obvious conjure camping trait as always but now with vuln duration added.

Aquamancer’s Training: same damage mod except now its a master trait only.

Powerful Aura: Auras you gain from weapon skills are also applied to nearby allies.
This is the same trait, but with the new stuff above it adds the interesting twist of everytime you cast a signet or someone picks up a conjure EVERYONE gets 2 might, fury, swiftness, and fire aura

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Powerful_Aura

This sets an interesting idea for Eles of stacking a decent amount of might/fury/swiftness/fire aura/other auras outside the typical fire/blast combos which we still have in abundance in this build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFEQJArdhcMKgW3wsBf0ADAC5mLLGOQkCiyA-TRROwAjU+BY/Bi6BAr+jMlgAA-e

If we’re able to GM all 3 traitlines after this patch goes through, I see going into Tempest’s Defense: Surround yourself with a Shocking Aura when disabled. Deal 20% more damage to stunned or knocked-down foes.
and Bolt to the Heart: same damage mod as before.
However I also now see the Air tree as the first to go if something better comes along with this new aura synergy/damage mods.

With new guardian traits where they gain 20% in symbols I see having fire fields covered even more likely than before. Not to mention the added benefit of a stun breaker, another blind, an actual heal, occasional use for fire sig, or even more group support from someone picking up your conjures beyond 1-2 abilities and dropping.

What do you guys think? Will this be a thing at least in the short term?

I think this is an interesting idea. It may be a good option if it can give the party a decent amount of might and provide comparable damage to PS warriors. Staff might still come ahead but you bring up a good point with potential light field builds from guardians.

Also having party might AND fury being completely covered by one class means warriors could go back to high personal DPS specs (assuming, of course, that the ele can really bust out the might and the party can easily make up the difference). There’s no telling what we will get with the elite specs that are to come but if they are good air could be dropped potentially.

Powerful Aura: Auras you gain from weapon skills are also applied to nearby allies.

Sorry, signets and conjured won’t grant allies aura. Even aura from traits won’t. Only the 2 aura directly from the weapons do that. It’s a meh Grand Master trait. Very meh.

Sunshine, in the livestream they said they were looking into buffing Powerful Auras to apply ANY aura the elementalist acquires onto the elementalist’s allies. They acknowledged how weak Powerful Auras is in its current form.

Since there is really only 2 auras on long cooldowns on any weapon set combo, why would ANY elementalist waste a GM slot to aura share? especially when you look at thief and GM Venom share trait, you can at least see that up to 5 venoms can be on a thief’s skill bar at a time. (heal, up to 3 utilities, and an elite). In comparison, Powerful Auras needs a buff to ever be competitive.

I agree it needs to be buff too. It’s too weak in its current form. After the buff, your auramancer build will work, but it won’t be restricted to just S/X

I was concerned about that as well Sunshine. So I wiki’d it to find out, check the ‘notes’ section at the bottom. Its also why I included a wiki link to Powerful Auras. It works with traits that apply auras as well, even specifically mentioning these (now reworked) traits.