Guild Wars 2

Elementalist

Arc Lightning skill: Now strikes enemies that it passes through.
Conjured weapons:
Now stop autoattacks and cannot be autocast.
Now properly appear in the player’s hands upon casting.
Signet of Air skill: Updated the passive buff’s description to appropriately indicate the movement speed granted.
Elementalists can no longer use the Mist Form skill to instantly rally if they go down exactly at the end of the Tornado skill.
Changing attunements no longer causes players to start autoattacking.
The Sunspot, Electric Discharge, and Earthen Blast traits no longer trigger when changing attunements while out of combat.
Evasive Arcana trait: Plays an effect if the elementalist dodges while in water attunement.

no balancing, just fixed a few things that was annoying me.

seems like they focused on engineer this patch. he.

Arc lightning for sceptre is pretty interesting now. Zzzzzzap!

No nerfs this patch. Some love to SnD eles.

It looks this patch is dedicated to engineers, but I think they deserve that.

Some love for S/x and I hope they will continue to work on that weapon some more on that in the next patches.

Quickness was nerfed which is affecting elementist indirectly. Some professions will be less bursty which is making them bit less dangerous and will give eles more time to react. I’m pulling this out of my kitten, but it also made eles bit more comparable with some other professions as their burst got toned down so they are bit less ahead in that area.

kubetz.3058:

It looks this patch is dedicated to engineers, but I think they deserve that.

Some love for S/x and I hope they will continue to work on that weapon some more on that in the next patches.

Quickness was nerfed which is affecting elementist indirectly. Some professions will be less bursty which is making them bit less dangerous and will give eles more time to react. I’m pulling this out of my kitten, but it also made eles bit more comparable with some other professions as their burst got toned down so they are bit less ahead in that area.

It affect the elementalist even more so, if you are one of those people that run bunker. You don’t have to worry to much about burst taking you down.

This patch is a huge nerf to thieves. They can’t burst me down and they have to can’t instantly go back into stealth.

Yea it’s a round about buff to Eles to be sure since we have less to worry about Quickness not only in a competition to do damage but also having to react to that damage.

Makes me want to dust off the old 20/0/30/0/20 build and see if I can make it again without a Stunbreaker with a ton of Toughness/Vitality.

Finally fixed F2 autoattacks.

That fix to stop you from attacking/autoattacking when changing attunement is easily the best thing in this entire patch. It was so annoying when you were traveling somewhere, switched to air attunement and zapped some creature, slowing you down.

nice ‘official’ patch notes… though perhaps i should withhold judgement until all the ninja changes are uncovered

Bleh. Still gotta go staff if I want effective ranged capability.

It certainly wasn’t a patch focused on elementalists, but glad to see some fixes to inconvenient/ annoying bugs.

There’s a bug right now with Water 1 of Dagger where it “looks” like it’s going further than it should. In a quick WvW testing which was verified by 2 other eles, the shot goes to around 900 range but in fact it only hits at 600 range.

Waraxx.4286:

seems like they focused on engineer this patch. he.

Not sure that was a good allocation of resources, if the Eng forum is anything to go by.

Zenguy.6421:

Waraxx.4286:

seems like they focused on engineer this patch. he.

Not sure that was a good allocation of resources, if the Eng forum is anything to go by.

And yet by simply making KR individual cooldowns instead of global it would probably have gone over pretty well.
As it is multikit is completely screwed.

So… anyone find a stealth change yet? XD

Navzar.2938:

So… anyone find a stealth change yet? XD

Under professions—general.

It’s a letdown that they didn’t make non-cantrips more viable and generally do positive changes to underused weapons and traitlines for the ele, which they said they would in general.

No build diversity this time around.

Zenguy.6421:

Waraxx.4286:

seems like they focused on engineer this patch. he.

Not sure that was a good allocation of resources, if the Eng forum is anything to go by.

Most of us are happy, some of us just hate how 100nades is completely destroyed now. But im enjoying my awesome new turrets~

Penguin.5197:

Zenguy.6421:

Waraxx.4286:

seems like they focused on engineer this patch. he.

Not sure that was a good allocation of resources, if the Eng forum is anything to go by.

Most of us are happy, some of us just hate how 100nades is completely destroyed now. But im enjoying my awesome new turrets~

Most of us are not happy, most of us think turrets are still terrible.

Penguin.5197:

Zenguy.6421:

Waraxx.4286:

seems like they focused on engineer this patch. he.

Not sure that was a good allocation of resources, if the Eng forum is anything to go by.

Most of us are happy, some of us just hate how 100nades is completely destroyed now. But im enjoying my awesome new turrets~

Accelerant Packed Turrets is still the only reason I can find to take them.

Although that trait with Deployable Turrets is a ton of fun.

Solo.9027:

Arc lightning change makes scepter somewhat attractive but theres still the speed/inflexibility of dragons tooth dragging the weapon down. The rest of the ele changes are bug fixes in my opinion, still glad to see them.

Now i’m waiting for the undocumented patch notes thread.

Actually Arc Lightning just got really good for me. My setup is glass cannon/mobility S/D and I carry a staff around too. I went for precision/power/condition damage and I cause vulnerability, bleeding, and burning on crits.

Having arc lightning hit multiple people is a very nice buff. I really like having less reason to switch to staff. Now S/D is even more viable for small groups. Staff is still needed for any big groups though :/. Until Dragon’s Tooth isn’t kittenedly easy to avoid that will be the case.

I’m still not too interested in scepter. Arc lightning did low damage, and now it does low damage in a line.

The total dps of arc lighting is like someone spamming dragon tooth every 6sec but arc lighting does not miss. It is nice to hit 3-5 enemies with it. With this changes make all air attunement weapons have the highest auto attack damage against multple opponents.

Ulion.5476:

The total dps of arc lighting is like someone spamming dragon tooth every 6sec but arc lighting does not miss. It is nice to hit 3-5 enemies with it. With this changes make all air attunement weapons have the highest auto attack damage against multple opponents.

On my usual scepter build (note I even use the air X trait), dragon’s tooth crits for 4k while arc lightning does 2k on a full channel. Dragon’s tooth isn’t channeled and you can use other skills while it’s on cooldown. Arc lightning’s damage is pathetic and it’s not easy to hit multiple targets unless you’re in the perfect position. FYI arc lightning will only hit up to 2 additional targets. Its damage and multi-target buff still doesn’t justify me using it regularly and so it’ll remain a filler while everything else is on cooldown. The uselessness of this skill is only rivaled by the scepter water auto, but I’m fine with that since I only go into water attunement for its heals.

I posted a problem I had with Tidal Wave today in the bugs forum. I am not sure if it is a true bug or a freaky problem I had, so others might want to check it out and report back.
Problem I encountered was that Tidal Wave did no damage at all, just flashing “Missing” all the time, even when you went through small groups or “against the wall” in an cornered situation.
Confirming the bug or dismissing it as a singular event would be nice.

Really love the bug fixes in this patch, as well as the elementals gaining my agony resistance.

Kirbyprime.2645:

There’s a bug right now with Water 1 of Dagger where it “looks” like it’s going further than it should. In a quick WvW testing which was verified by 2 other eles, the shot goes to around 900 range but in fact it only hits at 600 range.

That’s probably so it will also hit on the way back on targets at max range.

Anyone already figured out if they ninja’d in some undocumented nerfs again?

Adastra.9821:

Ulion.5476:

The total dps of arc lighting is like someone spamming dragon tooth every 6sec but arc lighting does not miss. It is nice to hit 3-5 enemies with it. With this changes make all air attunement weapons have the highest auto attack damage against multple opponents.

On my usual scepter build (note I even use the air X trait), dragon’s tooth crits for 4k while arc lightning does 2k on a full channel. Dragon’s tooth isn’t channeled and you can use other skills while it’s on cooldown. Arc lightning’s damage is pathetic and it’s not easy to hit multiple targets unless you’re in the perfect position. FYI arc lightning will only hit up to 2 additional targets. Its damage and multi-target buff still doesn’t justify me using it regularly and so it’ll remain a filler while everything else is on cooldown. The uselessness of this skill is only rivaled by the scepter water auto, but I’m fine with that since I only go into water attunement for its heals.

The usefulness of arclightning pretty much requires you to play to it’s strengths. When you do it can be really good.

1. You have an instant DD and instant blind made to be used with it. Blind is very useful for stomping btw.

2. It does lots of little small hits so it’s perfect for on crit effects. This is likely why it’s in the precision focused tree and has a 60% chance to cause vulnerability as it’s last minor trait.

3. Instant skill such as all the arcane skills work well with it. Arcane shield is defense/offense that doesn’t interrupt your flow of damage. Arcane missle adds to your ranged spike damage. Arcane power can be used in combo with Arcane missle, the DD, and then other skills of your choice.

4. You are considered to be channeling so all channeling buffs including toughness from the 10 point earth major trait apply. This also includes the air based Zyphr’s focus, giving you 100% endurance regen as a 10 point major trait.

5. Have you tested the damage of it while built for it? (10% more dmg while in air, 20% faster air cooldowns, 20% more damage to foes under 25%) I also have bleed procing so I get 5% more damage to bleeding foes from salt stone. As well as the burning based damage boosts and 30% chance to burn on crit.

I mean yeah, I still think Scepter needs a little up tweaking. But Arc Lightning isn’t really bad off. It’s other parts of Scepter that need the real love. I still melt people all the time with my air scepter Ele. Arc lightning provides the steady DPS, I burst with arcane missle and lightning strike, give myself a little more durability/dmg with arcane shield, and usually set them on fire early with signet of fire.

I think the air buffs (lightning arc, lightning whip) in general go in the wrong direction. Instead of making them AoE, they should deal better single target damage. Damage-wise, air is generally lacking in damage when compared to fire.

Ralathar.7236:

…snipped…

1. I’m aware that air 2,3 are both made to be used while channeling. I love having instant blinds. I even try to run signet of air (you can find more of my thoughts on this in my post history when the run signets buff came) and try to run elemental surge for more instant blinds.

2. The problem for using arc lightning to proc on crit sigils is you’ll usually have to give something up (usually raw damage or some kind of defensive stat) to have a decent crit rate because you don’t have the luxury of zephyr’s boon. There are also internal cooldowns associated with these abilities including those from sigils and traits so they don’t actually proc as often as you think they do. I’ve already tried to use this a few months ago but the internal cooldowns just makes it not worth building around. Arcane precision is total crap (10% to proc on crit with an icd I think of about 5 seconds iirc).

3. No, you don’t want to waste arcane power with arcane blast because it already crits. You don’t want waste it to channel arc lightning either. While arcane blast it can hit around 1.5-2k, there are better utilities out there usually in the survivability department. I’m aware arcane skills are instant cast abilities but did you stop to think they can also be casted when you’re not channeling arc lightning? I’ll admit you can chain all the instant cast abilities together for a pretty big spike (air minor 2, air 2, arcane x2, and maybe a sigil proc) but now you’re starting to talk about building around instant spikes and not arc lightning per se. Also, any cantrip > arcane shield in most cases.

4. There are better traits to take in their respective trees. I’ve tested whether vigor stacks with arcane 7 and it doesn’t. I assume it’s the same for the air trait during channeling or that would be seriously OP. Arcane 6 and water 3 make this trait obsolete so you can take air 6 and 10 in the air tree. I guess if you’re not going to take points in either of these trees, it serves as a way to regen some endurance (see 5).

5. I’ve already said I take air 10. I also take air 6. Air 9 will shave off 1 second for lightning strike’s cooldown and that’s hardly worth much. If I took it, it would be for RTL and anything else is just a bonus (I still don’t). Any half competent opponent will be all over your butt and you’ll want to get out of air attunement fast. The channel can also easily be broken simply by weaving in and out of your LoS.

Taking a bleed proc on crit sigil is a complete waste of a perfectly good slot. In a team fight, there’s a good chance your opponent is already bleeding. If you’re building for arc lightning, chances are you’re not a condition build. Also, you’ll need to spec at least 10 into earth.

So your build seems to be 20/30/10/x/x with signet of fire, arcane blast, and arcane shield. Most people will tell you you’re out of your mind building without arcane, water, or any cantrip (i.e. glass cannon built around arc lightning…) You might do fine in zerg vs zerg or a duel against the average player provided you’re skilled enough yourself but the moment you meet anyone with an above average skill level, you’re probably going to melt whether in W3 or s/tpvp. There’s a reason why eles were considered to be free food in the first months of the game before the infamous 0/10/0/30/30 bunker build came along (and its S/D adaptation). I forsee an eventual nerf to cantrips and am waiting for it so the most vocal whiners can go back to thieves/mesmers/warriors (lol) and do agree it’s over the top.

I think the scepter is mostly fine. I only want a dragon’s tooth that isn’t so difficult to land or to hit harder for the amount of work I have to do to land it, and a better fire (for non-condition or faster cast)/water/air auto attack.

Adastra.9821:

snip

It’s a versatile build that can adjust to the circumstances. For small scale I use scepter/dagger, arcane shield, arcane blast, and signet of fire. Moderate to soft targets fall pretty quickly. Harder targets I build up to 16 stacks of vulnerability on and then maintain 6-10 while I burn them 1 out of every 3 seconds and maintain like 4+ stacks of bleeding on them. Not even using the best Earth or vulnerability runes yet (darn you alts).

I can switch weapons at will and do just fine, the precision/power/condition stat choice means I always hit very hard with everything. I stay alive via positioning, evasion, and arcane shielding.

My build is actually: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhImObkR2wjEAkCtEKIwQRGaIecRDWA;TMAjKOVM1A

For siege and large amounts of people I switch to staff. Utility skills include the pertinent combo at the moment drawn from Arcane Shield, Armor of Earth, Mist Form, Glyph of Storms, and Frost Bow. All depends on how “hot” things are. Likewise I have been known to flip a few major traits for extended sieges. I find for sieges that the bleeds and burns actually help out quite alot. The DOT damage numbers let me see easily what is siege and what is people, as well as where the people are moving to so I can aim followup AOE’s. The 10 points into water is just enough to let me patch people up a bit at need.

Is it your cookie cutter build? No, but then I almost always run unorthodox builds. I don’t feel like I’m just free food. There are certainly things out there that will eat me but overall I feel very capable and I only get stronger with allies.