Range damage require tools to stay at range
also base stats would help a little, mesmers get a triat that increases stats while wearing a certain weapon, example, arcana VIII which increases the radius of AoE with staff would also give 100 vit/tough
[GoM] Gate of Madness Server Elementalist|Guardian
Legendary SoloQ
Legendary SoloQ
Moving to scepter, the recent buff to arc lightning is nice..but really not necessary in my opinion, what the scepter need is more base damage for the auto-attack, this would go a long way to increase the viability of scepter.
Flamestrike
Given the burning effect, this auto-attack need really no damage increase, in a condition build you can easily top 1.2k every 2s
Ice shards
Yeah the base damage should be doubled, no discussion about that, there is no condition damage.
Arc Lightning
Fine as it is, being a channeling skill, it allows the use of lightning strike and blind, hence the lower damage compared to (an improved) ice shard or others, would be justified
Stone shards
Again very good auto-attack if you go condition build, decent otherwise.
Additional changes I’d like to see:
Dust Devil
Damage increased to 400 base damage, leave the blind component
Finally let’s talk about the focus, I like this weapon for : swirling winds, magnetic wave, obsidian flesh and comet…the rest need improvement to make it more appealing for eles players
Fire Shield
The increase to 5s , shows that the devs do read these forums ^^, unfortunately the might effect on hit really doesn’t add anything to this skill, I say remove the latter and add instead a 1-2s retaliation on hit or a 2s weakness
This skill become extremely strong if you have a condition build, as an opponent can pretyt much kill himself in no time ( a burning effect of 600 dmg for second on hit), still for other builds the burning effect cound little hence why I propose to add a decent 2nd effect
Flame wall
Apply a 3s cripple for every second foes stay on it, this will make the skill extremely good for area denial and control, something that an ele should have plenty
Freezing Gust
79 base damage?…pls let’s have a great 600 base damage or 400 damage + an additional 1s to chill effect bringing it up to 4s chill, this would make landing phoenix at range that much easier
Gale
It should be our burst initiator, so let’s have a 30s CD and leave the 2s KD add a 400 base damage on top or have 40s CD but 800 base damage
Swirling Winds
Great skill but could do more, it should give 10s swiftness in my opinion, this would solve focus ele mobility problems
I agree with this in a whole. It is much harder to kite in this game with a staff than other mmo.
They dont have to go cheap with more stuns but can add more slows to our enemys and give us the blinks that mesmer got or run speed that dd ele has.
Staff just isnt right.
3570K @4.2 560 TI, 212 evo, Hyper X 128gb ssd Haf 912 Biostar tz77
also base stats would help a little, mesmers get a triat that increases stats while wearing a certain weapon, example, arcana VIII which increases the radius of AoE with staff would also give 100 vit/tough
No thanks. Staff AoE area is a silly trait for WvW, I don’t want to see it become a “necessity” for some 100 vit/tough increase.
For staff, Fire 4, Water 4, Air 3, and Earth 2, 4, & 5 are all abilities to help you get away or prevent a melee character from quick closure. Learn to use the tools you have.
No thanks. Staff AoE area is a silly trait for WvW, I don’t want to see it become a “necessity” for some 100 vit/tough increase.
It’s already a necessity, imo. Even if you’re a zerger, the extra area for heals and speed themselves make it worth it, not to mention the getaway tools having more surface area.
All those moves have much longer cooldowns than any melee users gap closers. Also the effects are pitiful.
I play a thief and have never had a staff ele slow me down for more than 2 seconds. The only time one ever got away was dropping air 5 well right next to their base.
Staff needs love. I’m no expert but there is no denying it. I don’t care for zerging at all so it never gets used by me.
3570K @4.2 560 TI, 212 evo, Hyper X 128gb ssd Haf 912 Biostar tz77
Fire Shield is ok, but it would need to trigger on ranged attacks too to be actually useful.
If you can read this then it is proof that ArenaNet’s moderators just, kind and fair.
iam going to impersonate a class designer.
“LOL, you want range on a class, that we design to be melee only,
you know Dagger/Dagger, the only build we made viable…DOH !!!
the lowest hp / armor and survival, is just to make it more enjoyable for you.
You will thank us later when you have finaly killed your first DUO critter, and you see how increadibly FUN it was, and how awesome it was that you survived a DUO critter attack…
Well, cant chat more now, have to go play my mesmer and thief. bye bye”…
iam going to impersonate a class designer.
“LOL, you want range on a class, that we design to be melee only,
you know Dagger/Dagger, the only build we made viable…DOH !!!
the lowest hp / armor and survival, is just to make it more enjoyable for you.
You will thank us later when you have finaly killed your first DUO critter, and you see how increadibly FUN it was, and how awesome it was that you survived a DUO critter attack…
Well, cant chat more now, have to go play my mesmer and thief. bye bye”…
Lol I get the sarcasm and it’s justified, but the real problem is I think devs were scared eles would be deemed too OP if they jad something effective from range.
Before BWE1 people were already screaming on how OP scepter ele was….the scepter/staff (scepter more than staff) got nerfed pretty hard..now it’s time to reintegrate some of those nerfs
-edit-
Please support this thread, regardless if you agree or not , pls leave a post, the more people interested in an effective range option for eles or why it’s fine as it now, the more attention we’ll get from the devs and maybe we’ll get something of a compromise
Regards
For staff, Fire 4, Water 4, Air 3, and Earth 2, 4, & 5 are all abilities to help you get away or prevent a melee character from quick closure.
My staff elementalist is awfully useful in WvW. Yes, when I get splattered, it is often because someone closed on me. Every build, every class should have tradeoffs. My ele can scrub siege off walls and rain death on enemy groups. She can area heal allies and stop enemies. Gotta be a weakness somewhere. When I get too tired of being squooshy, I go play my warrior for a while. If he wants to get siege off a wall, he needs a trebuchet.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Best-and-worst-classes-for-WvW/page/2#post1735204
In that thread, elementalists are consistently listed in the top 2 most useful WvW professions.
Staff is weak 1v1 PvP, but I don’t see how to buff it without OPing the class in larger WvW fights.
Geros Rainhall, Warrior, et. al.
Tarnished Coast
Tarnished Coast
For staff, Fire 4, Water 4, Air 3, and Earth 2, 4, & 5 are all abilities to help you get away or prevent a melee character from quick closure.
My staff elementalist is awfully useful in WvW. Yes, when I get splattered, it is often because someone closed on me. Every build, every class should have tradeoffs. My ele can scrub siege off walls and rain death on enemy groups. She can area heal allies and stop enemies. Gotta be a weakness somewhere. When I get too tired of being squooshy, I go play my warrior for a while. If he wants to get siege off a wall, he needs a trebuchet.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Best-and-worst-classes-for-WvW/page/2#post1735204
In that thread, elementalists are consistently listed in the top 2 most useful WvW professions.
Staff is weak 1v1 PvP, but I don’t see how to buff it without OPing the class in larger WvW fights.
To have a whole weapon set being useful only in a particular situation and in a single game mode…it’s not ok, other staff users are equally useful in wvwvw while not losing too much in PvP, of course staff users won’t be as strong as mele users, but still you should be able to hold your own for a little while be using effective kiting skill…of which the ele staff lack, the only useful ones got huge CD and can save your life for 2-3s at most
The staff lack strong single target skills outside lightning surge, at the very least they can add damage to flame burst and slighty buff gust and unsteady ground…these changes would hardly make staff OP anywhere
(edited by Arheundel.6451)
Posted in the other staff thread, reposting parts here
My problem is that the staff has no gap creators outside of the mandatory cantrips that give you a few seconds of breathing room. Even if you have inhuman reflexes and react instantly, the staff is so slow that your opponent is already all over you with multiple gap closers in their weapon sets and/or utilities.
Once you’re in a fight, you’re committed to it since you can’t run away due to the disparity between gap closers and creators. Also, you’re also forced to a melee fight since you can’t create any distance, which is why casting AoE at your feet while running around like a headless chicken is effective with a more tanky build.
Double base chain lightning damage might be a little too much for an attack that can chain and home in on targets at 1200 range. I would love to have double base damage of course but we might have a problem when I can one shot illusions (if built for it).
While the weapons could still use some tweaks I don’t think we’re too bad off. If you make major changes to damage across weapons, what you’d also be doing is improving the damage of bunker builds. A new S/F bunker that hits harder than the current S/D is grounds for nerfs. Our bunker builds are already considered unkillable, do too much damage, and are overpowered by a large margin. Damage increases will worsen that problem.
What I’d like to see are improvements to the trait lines that aren’t arcane and water. Give me a reason to take those damage traits over survivability traits. Of course such traits would be at least a master trait so I can’t do something like 10/10/0/30/20 and cherry pick the best damage traits with tons of survivability. Make those 20-30 points worth putting into.
I would love to see a master or grandmaster fire trait, allowing you to swap fire fields for smoke fields (makes sense to have that option, right? Fire generates smoke).
Persisting Flames would be a fine trait to replace.
Might, fire auras and burning damage being traded for blindness and invisibility, ensuring that weaker weapon sets and builds that rely on damage (like damage builds that aren’t particularly popular) get a chance, but sacrifice extra damage as a tradeoff for survivability. Bunkers would not benefit from it, as it lies deep in fire, and you can’t hold points being invisible.
(edited by Malcastus.6240)