Guild Wars 2

Leo G.4501:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

No way, they do that. It’s hard enough to balance Ele as it is.

That’s what people said about a new profession in general…and added weapons to professions.

People are really too worried about extreme balance. That stifles innovation and fun, to an extent. Diablo 3 is currently suffering greatly from that. Guild Wars 1 had a ludicrous number of skills to try to balance, but they still pulled it off just fine. More than just fine, to be honest.

Laki.7160:

Leo G.4501:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

No way, they do that. It’s hard enough to balance Ele as it is.

That’s what people said about a new profession in general…and added weapons to professions.

People are really too worried about extreme balance. That stifles innovation and fun, to an extent. Diablo 3 is currently suffering greatly from that. Guild Wars 1 had a ludicrous number of skills to try to balance, but they still pulled it off just fine. More than just fine, to be honest.

Guild wars 1 never pulled if off. You just have a nice tint rose glasses.

A lot of skills in guild wars 1 were either useless in one mode. Useless because they was significantly better version of the same skill. A combination of skills completely trivialized and broke the game and sometimes allowed heroes to play the game successsfully with little to no input from the player and player character.

Guild wars 1 was just a whack a mole balancing fortunately for the balance team since 80% of the skills were worthless the balancing was slightly easier.

Either way, I believe the new specializations are a PvE-only progression system. It won’t be available for PvP and perhaps WvW. I’ve always thought that separating PvE and PvP would be the best course of action, even if that separation is only temporary, i.e. the new skills are only available in PvE until more balancing actions take place for them and then migrate the skills to PvP.

Of course you’d get the same backlash of “nerfing PvE for PvP” from the crowd…

Leo G.4501:

Either way, I believe the new specializations are a PvE-only progression system. It won’t be available for PvP and perhaps WvW. I’ve always thought that separating PvE and PvP would be the best course of action, even if that separation is only temporary, i.e. the new skills are only available in PvE until more balancing actions take place for them and then migrate the skills to PvP.

Of course you’d get the same backlash of “nerfing PvE for PvP” from the crowd…

It would be odd if it dose not make it into pvp and even if it was just a pve thing it would be in WvW. That kind of the ideal of WvW open pvp and pve is a major part of that.

In my mind specializations will be similar to race skills in that they wont be in pvp due to balance reasons but will be available in wvw.

silvermember.8941:

Laki.7160:

Leo G.4501:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

No way, they do that. It’s hard enough to balance Ele as it is.

That’s what people said about a new profession in general…and added weapons to professions.

People are really too worried about extreme balance. That stifles innovation and fun, to an extent. Diablo 3 is currently suffering greatly from that. Guild Wars 1 had a ludicrous number of skills to try to balance, but they still pulled it off just fine. More than just fine, to be honest.

Guild wars 1 never pulled if off. You just have a nice tint rose glasses.

A lot of skills in guild wars 1 were either useless in one mode. Useless because they was significantly better version of the same skill. A combination of skills completely trivialized and broke the game and sometimes allowed heroes to play the game successsfully with little to no input from the player and player character.

Guild wars 1 was just a whack a mole balancing fortunately for the balance team since 80% of the skills were worthless the balancing was slightly easier.

Seems I struck a nerve with you. And no, they aren’t rose tint glasses. I was playing Guild Wars 1 less than a month ago. Your 80% estimation is nonsense, and offtopic again.

I would be very surprised if the new specializations were PvE only. PvPers would be up in arms (myself included) if that were the case, especially since specializations are going to be how Arenanet intends to add content to GW2 from here on out.

Maybe they’ll give us an Arcane Archer, next question would then be: Long- or short-bow? I am also really curious whether the unique profession mechanics they were talking about were replacement for, say the attunement system for the elementalist, a modification of it, or something else entirely.

I read an article recently (which seems to have disappeared) in which Colin confirms that Heart of Thorns will release with each profession being able to have ONE specialization.

He also implies that future updates/xpacs will include more specializations for each prof.

Jski.6180:

It would be odd if it dose not make it into pvp and even if it was just a pve thing it would be in WvW. That kind of the ideal of WvW open pvp and pve is a major part of that.

Laki.7160:

I would be very surprised if the new specializations were PvE only. PvPers would be up in arms (myself included) if that were the case, especially since specializations are going to be how Arenanet intends to add content to GW2 from here on out.

And here I thought the PvP crowd (at least the majority of them) were “up in arms” to obtain/maintain balance with the current skills and were against adding new skills. Most of the argument against skill additions via weapons was how it would upset balance and that Anet struggled with current balance as it was.

We’ll have to see, thought. I honestly don’t give a flip and hope Anet introduces dozens and dozens of more options within the year of the expansion. Any hoopla about PvP balance can be taken care of by simply disbarring those new skills from PvP until more balance can be achieved.

As a Conjurer I would like to make more than just weapons of elements. I want to conjure monsters that allies can merge with temporary! Yay now that’s sounds cool.

I think specializations sound like you have to give up something to get something. For instance, give up access to the arcana trait line and arcane skills to get a new trait line, new heal, and 4 new utility skills. This would allow them to not worry about the new traits/skills being OP in combination with the current best builds, especially those tricky arcanes with their instant-cast bursts.

They will also be able to avoid balancing issues by adding new “sets” to the core class in the future so you can’t take 1 really strong skill from “battle mage” and combine it with a really strong trait/skill from “archemage”

FrownyClown.8402:

if the secondary profession is better overall then the normal one than it will be used but if it isnt then it will never be used.

That’s true for every single one of the classes. I’m going to Specialization in the one that does more DPS.

Ravenfire.4095:

I think specializations sound like you have to give up something to get something. For instance, give up access to the arcana trait line and arcane skills to get a new trait line, new heal, and 4 new utility skills. This would allow them to not worry about the new traits/skills being OP in combination with the current best builds, especially those tricky arcanes with their instant-cast bursts.

They will also be able to avoid balancing issues by adding new “sets” to the core class in the future so you can’t take 1 really strong skill from “battle mage” and combine it with a really strong trait/skill from “archemage”

Well they did say mechanics of the class change when changing specializations, so it would make sense for the bottom trait tree for all classes to change when specialization because that is usually linked to the profession mechanics.

Also they said some skills will be shared between the two. But some kills will be unique to one or the other.

Hmmm i wouldn’t say no to becoming an Aspectalist… the skills would become those in the aspect arena… f1/f2/f3/f4 would become Sun/Wind/Lightning/Whatever.

after man years of the necro forum asking for greatswords and they finally get it. BELIEVE IN YOUR DREAMS.

i’m totally without idea at this point… I would love to see my elementalist with bows that we can enchant… Or a build with sword/dagger like the thief…
Also Colin here (http://www.pcgamer.com/guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns-interview/) said that they thought outside the box… so all bets are off now for our elementalists

Caelmir.2514:

I think a conjurer that equips the existing weapon conjures in the F1-4 slots would be interesting. It would keep all of the existing traits and mechanics intact while completely changing the play style. Fire Axe for ranged offense and skirmish. Lightning hammer for melee offense and control. Earth Shield for defense and Frost Bow for healing and support. I’m excited just typing about it!!

You got a good way of thinking there. Reading that I have a few suggestions/changes to add.

Adding the 4 minor conjuers to the F1-F4 slots. This would eliminate the limited usages you get out of one weapon and looking at it’s skills type would kind of give the incentive to changes attunements also. Thought going the “Conjurer”-way would have to be beneficial to the Fiery Greatsword aswell. Some options:
1. Unlimited use for 2-3 minutes (recharge time or a bit less.) Since it’s not so OP anymore with the wall-rush it. Thought it wouldn’t really be an Elite anymore would it?
2. Make the the Fiery Greatsword (usage amount + timed) and the other conjures more potent.

My own idea to add:
Specialization name: Ethereal
Has kind of divine effects. Maybe something in the way of ghosts, afterlive etc.. No clue tbh. haha Which might add another attunement in the traits (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Arcane) → Arcanist wouldn’t be possible since I read, if the info was correct, that you would swap one trait line for a new one. And you can’t swap Arcane for Arcane. :P UNLESS you swap one of the other 4 for another Arcane?

Next to the above mentioned I had something in mind regarding combinations of elements. → The last airbender ish avatar. In fact an Ele is already a kind of avatar thingy using all 4 elements?

Caelmir.2514:

I think a conjurer that equips the existing weapon conjures in the F1-4 slots would be interesting. It would keep all of the existing traits and mechanics intact while completely changing the play style. Fire Axe for ranged offense and skirmish. Lightning hammer for melee offense and control. Earth Shield for defense and Frost Bow for healing and support. I’m excited just typing about it!!

MangoMonkey.7582:

Caelmir.2514:

I think a conjurer that equips the existing weapon conjures in the F1-4 slots would be interesting. It would keep all of the existing traits and mechanics intact while completely changing the play style. Fire Axe for ranged offense and skirmish. Lightning hammer for melee offense and control. Earth Shield for defense and Frost Bow for healing and support. I’m excited just typing about it!!

You got a good way of thinking there. Reading that I have a few suggestions/changes to add.

Adding the 4 minor conjuers to the F1-F4 slots. This would eliminate the limited usages you get out of one weapon and looking at it’s skills type would kind of give the incentive to changes attunements also. Thought going the “Conjurer”-way would have to be beneficial to the Fiery Greatsword aswell. Some options:
1. Unlimited use for 2-3 minutes (recharge time or a bit less.) Since it’s not so OP anymore with the wall-rush it. Thought it wouldn’t really be an Elite anymore would it?
2. Make the the Fiery Greatsword (usage amount + timed) and the other conjures more potent.

My own idea to add:
Specialization name: Ethereal
Has kind of divine effects. Maybe something in the way of ghosts, afterlive etc.. No clue tbh. haha Which might add another attunement in the traits (Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Arcane) -> Arcanist wouldn’t be possible since I read, if the info was correct, that you would swap one trait line for a new one. And you can’t swap Arcane for Arcane. :P UNLESS you swap one of the other 4 for another Arcane?

Next to the above mentioned I had something in mind regarding combinations of elements. -> The last airbender ish avatar. In fact an Ele is already a kind of avatar thingy using all 4 elements?

I really like the conjurer idea. I also thought of a something similair, but what should happen to the current Elementalist skills.

The new Specialization for the Elementalist will be called, the “Mendeleev”
She has gained such control over the Elements that she is able channel a
different element through a Sword in each hand and combine them in unique
ways to create new devastating attacks and annihilate her foes.

She will be Fierce and Beautiful!

Healer specialization, a viable full-support role. I don’t care what the name it; Ringmaster, Priest, Cleric, Bischop, Saint, as long as it heals.

One can dream.

I really hope the new specialization won’t be just one element with the ability to swap weapons. The reason I play ele is the sort of complexity it brings. It’s what it makes so much fun for me. Also that wouldn’t work much with the weapons we have now because the long cooldowns are balanced for having twice as much skills, they would have to rework all the current weapons.

I like the idea of battle mage, sword is a fun weapon and I think for ele it would be cool to be able to use one. I’m not a fan of maces at all, they seem so heavy and slow.

Personally, I would like if they just brought a new element or added a 5th one without giving us a new weapon, that’s an option, too. With ele it just seems so difficult to bring a new weapon and come up with 20 new skills. We could only get a main hand or off hand, too.

I really really really hope we’ll get some new cool elite, though. I like fgs but having an elite that’s a game changing would be cool.

Well they aren’t adding new weapons into the game, so my idea of an elemental based Martial Artist (using fist weapons) is a no-go.

They did however mention that the secondary profession would do something that the current profession can’t – and to that end I would say for Elementalist;

“Blademage” Close-mid range combatant that uses temporary elemental imbuements on their weapons to add further function and effect to their default skills.

Weapons: Sword, Shield, Axes (dual-wield), Greatsword.

F-skills: Elemental Imbues. Unlike attunements which indefinitely change the element you fight with, Imbues will be temporary buffs that augment all 5 of your existing weapon skills. The skills themselves behave similarly between each element for a weapon, but will have increased effects for the duration of the imbue. Imbues last for 5 seconds with a 15 second cooldown. An example of an imbue would be something like the Air Imbue, which could increase the range, attack-speed, and knockback/blowout of a weapons effects (gap closers would gain more range as well), or Fire Imbue, which would cause all attacks to stack burning on the target whilst increasing the size of any AoE’s and increasing crit chance.

All weapons have default “unimbued skills” that have default functions like gap closers, crowd control, damage – the 5th skill is special in that you channel it to reduce the cooldown on your elemental imbues by 2 seconds for every 1 second it is channeled. This 5th slot becomes a new/unique skill that is entirely dependent on what element you have imbued. Cooldowns on each weapon skill are retained regardless of the elemental imbue, but may be reduced through Imbue traits.

Skill Types:

• Terrain: Enchants a large radius around the Blademage to a specific element, altering the nature of the landscape for all parties (affects allies and enemies, but not the casting Blademage). Wind will cause players to be forced in a particular direction for 5 seconds. Earth will cause the ground to shake, crippling everyone in the area.
• Fury Armors: Enchants the Blademage with a specific element, modifying their attributes for a short duration. Air Fury will encircle the Blademage in a tornado, increasing their movement speed by 100% for 5 seconds, and also increasing attack speed by 100%. Ice Fury will encase the Blademage in ice for 5 seconds, negating all damage and causing all attacks to immobilize targets.
• Signets: Amplify the effects of a specific elemental imbue passively, can be activated to immediately refresh the cooldown of that specific element. Example: Air Signet; all air attacks grant Swiftness for 3 seconds, refreshes the cooldown on Air Imbue upon activation.
• Ley Points: Ranged ground-target effects that imbue small sections of the ground with on-step triggered effects. Each Ley Point can be cast twice before going on cooldown. When an enemy steps on the effect, it is triggered and causes an effect. Example; “Hot Spot” – places a fire ley point on the ground, when an enemy steps on it – it erupts for AoE damage and 6 seconds of burning on each affected target. Lasts for 30 seconds or until stepped on.

Anyways, just some ideas I came up with just now. I have no idea what the secondary profession will be for Ele, but that just makes me more inspired to imagine. I’m thinking of rolling as either Ele or Engi when HoT drops due to the potential for them to have very fun secondary profs.

Melanie.1240:

Healer specialization, a viable full-support role. I don’t care what the name it; Ringmaster, Priest, Cleric, Bischop, Saint, as long as it heals.

One can dream.

One can dream indeed since “support” roles haven’t really been fixed/balanced yet to be viable in majority of the game other than either WvW or Big Boss battles in PvE. But that’s my opinion.

To be honest I do think the first round of specializations is going towards a somewhat supportish concept. From what I’ve heard about the Druid. But Anet can surprise me again with some awesome innovative style to a “Druid.”

I want Gandalf’s dual wielding staff and sword, that’d be awesome

Dear A-Net…

Please god… no no no.. Do Not make our alternate profession a pet-based mage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc

If anything, I’d love to see a more CC type class that focuses Stun / Immobilization in Air… Fire walls, Earth magnetic pulls, etc.

Demarca.4062:

Dear A-Net…

Please god… no no no.. Do Not make our alternate profession a pet-based mage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc

If anything, I’d love to see a more CC type class that focuses Stun / Immobilization in Air… Fire walls, Earth magnetic pulls, etc.

Coming from mesmer, which relies a lot on pets… I also would try to avoid Pet-heavy builds if you can. Ranged pets seem to have an ok time, so that might be alright. Melee pets are just very prone to path-finding issues, AoE damage, and trouble staying in range.

I see the Ele in a good spot… We’ve got AoE ranged options, thief-like close options, and solid middle-ranged options with scepter.

It may not be popular, but I’d like to see a MH sword “tanky” option as well. Something kind of “battle-mage” would fit well. A pro-active block or two like the Mesmer has, some area weakness and chill, plenty of cleaves and stability.

Just give us the ability to weapon swap between Staff and them a D/D or S/F etc… That’s all I want…. seriously. Done. Totally happy.

Honestly, if the Conjure Master idea doesn’t pan out, then simply allowing Eles an in combat weapon swap would be the ideal solution.

It would open up huge gameplay options and comboing ability, with the only question being how to balance it.

Example, you hit Churning Earth on Dagger #5, then switch to Scepter/Focus, would Obsidian Earth on Focus #5 be on cooldown, or would all skills have separate cooldowns?

Given that most of the skills on our bars already have much higher CDs then nearly every other profession, I don’t see it being game-breaking to have all skills on all weapons keep their individual, separate CDs.

Of course, having a weapon swap might give up some of the “flavor” of the profession, but I still think that given the number of skills the Elementalist has, on both existing weapons and Conjures, its a better option to have a Conjure Master or weapon swap ability before ANet considers adding another weapon with a new set of 20 skills.

Simply balancing and/or focusing the existing skillset might be more beneficial, such as making D/D all about PBAoE, Scepter ranged single target, Focus ALL defense and Staff ranged HIGH damage AoE.

Also revert RtL!

Kaleban.9834:

Given that most of the skills on our bars already have much higher CDs then nearly every other profession, I don’t see it being game-breaking to have all skills on all weapons keep their individual, separate CDs.

You may not but others likely will. Personally, I’d be underwhelmed if all Ele got was a weapon swap (with accompanying nerfs to keep 40 weapon skills in line) or they simply got the conjures as attunements. But then I’m not a min/maxer. I play the game for fun and interesting gameplay so I crave something that hasn’t been done rather than rehashes of what we have. There have been plenty of ideas for weapon skill-sets for sword, warhorn, torch, etc on the forums specifically crafted to by posters to be “what ele doesn’t have” which would be exactly what I’m looking for! A slight altering to the profession mechanic would just be icing on the cake.

Just a shower thought: Alchemist specialization where the f1-4 abilities and some weapon skiolsmdeal with converting friendly and enemy combo fields.

I’m pretty sure it will be sword. Probably only main hand.

Melee build. Role depending on attunments as always. Not much to add to Eles. They already have everything. (Support, dps, CC, conds, healing)

Elementalist is my first and main character in GW2 and I would gladly sacrifice new weapon for some super ultra-overkill spells.
Something like dragon slave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1U9ESUBpmA

Leo G.4501:

You may not but others likely will. Personally, I’d be underwhelmed if all Ele got was a weapon swap (with accompanying nerfs to keep 40 weapon skills in line) or they simply got the conjures as attunements. But then I’m not a min/maxer. I play the game for fun and interesting gameplay so I crave something that hasn’t been done rather than rehashes of what we have. There have been plenty of ideas for weapon skill-sets for sword, warhorn, torch, etc on the forums specifically crafted to by posters to be “what ele doesn’t have” which would be exactly what I’m looking for! A slight altering to the profession mechanic would just be icing on the cake.

I would argue that Eles already have everything, its just that its spread across attunements and weapons in a rather hodge podge, mishmash organization, Focus being the most obvious offender.

If ANet were to “focus” the existing skillsets on Ele for each weapon, I think you’d find there really is nothing missing:

Melee – MH Dagger, OH Dagger focus on big PBAoE spells
Range Single Target – Scepter
Range AoE – Staff
Control – Focus

For example, Earthquake and Magnetic Grasp should be on Focus (KD and Immobilize, with Magnetic Grasp working as an PBAoE immobilize, and then Magnetic Wave as the chain skill) while Obsidian Flesh and Churning Earth should be on OH Dagger in keeping with the PBAoE theme (and needing survivability). Dagger #3 could then just be Magnetic Leap on a 12 sec CD, removing the target requirement, and offering a blast finisher at the point of impact. Another example, Comet and Cleansing Wave would switch places, again in keeping with each weapon’s focus.

Focus Air is decent, but Focus Fire needs a complete re-work, as Fire Shield is incredibly pathetic for a #5 skill, and Flamewall is pretty lackluster as well, given how both AI and players move in this game. I’d change Focus Fire to lava themed skills, that burn, cripple and/or are impassables like Unsteady Ground.

Going with the theme of refining and focusing, Ele skills could then be further broken down per element, so Fire would be big AoE, Lightning single target, Water damage+heals, Earth conditions+control.

I’ve argued this before, that the problem holding back the Elementalist is being TOO general across all weapons and attunements, and that ANet should re-work a lot of the skills to better fit a specific weapon’s purpose, and also fit with each individual element’s theme.

I honestly don’t see what a new weapon, such as a MH Sword will bring to the Elementalist, when we have so many skills already that with a little tweaking and refinement could seal up any performance gaps easily.

Okay, I’ll start with what we know about specializations:

• Each profession gets 1 specialization. That means there won’t be a pyro-, aqua-, terra and aeromancer specialization.

• The specialization gets at least one new weapon. Because elementalists have 20 weapon skills, we will get only one 2H weapon or a new MH+OH combination.

• The specialization should not be a plain improvement, the base class should stay viable, too. I guess the specialization will not only lose some utilies and traits but also a weapon set so that the base elementalist has something unique.

• The specialization changes the class mechanic/the F1-F4 skills. I think the specialization will keep the attunement mechanic to allow mix+matching with old weapon skills. I don’t think we’ll get single-attunement weapon skills + weapon swap. I really like the conjurer idea, but the problem is that we wouldn’t have a “normal” weapon set if we get the 4 conjures on F1-F4.

So the question is how can we keep the attunements but give them a new feel? My suggestion: Attunement switching doesn’t have a cooldown anymore, but the weapon skills share a cooldown accross attunements. For example, using Shocking Aura puts also Burning Speed, Frozen Burst and Magnetic Grasp on cooldown, but it would be possible to switch to fire for Drake’s Breath and switch back to Air for Lightning Whip immediately. Elemental Attument needs an ICD, Fresh Air would be one of the traits unique to the base elementalist and the arcana traitline wouldn’t reduce the attunement CDs but the weapon skill CDs.

This mechanic could work for both battle mage types (fast switching for optimal damge) or supportive types (you have always the important tools ready)

Lets see what everyone else is already getting that we know of…

Mesmer: Shield
Ranger: Staff
Thief: Rifle
Engineer: Hammer
Necromancer: Greatsword
Warrior:?
Guardian:?
Elementalist: ?

Seeing as how so far they’ve gone for the least skills they need to make. I think we’ll be getting a main or an offhand, which means Torch, Shield, Warhorn, Sword, Axe, Mace, or Pistol.

Its important to note that so far the pattern is ONE weapon, not a SET of weapons. Also in keeping with the Theme of the xpack, its likely to be Nature, Utopia, Tech, or Mursaat in nature.

So I see…

Mace, with a Tech-magic name.

Yea. I mean I really have a love/hate relationship with my Ele.

On the one hand, I hate how we’re pretty much pigeon holed into a single gear type if you want a mix of defense and offense cause of our base low HP for various activities in the game where HP matter (such as WvW). Our low base HP means I’m either always gearing for HP or forced into the Water tree (which just sees nerfs cause everyone spec’d into water for such a long time) and Arcane tree to help out with the schizophrenic attunement swapping also by design to access all our tools (which then also sees tons of nerfs too). If we were given more base stats, we could veer away from such trees more freely and possibly gear setups.

On the other hand, in the hands of a good player, Elementalist can pretty much do just about anything. We’re considered one of the highest DPS classes for high end PvE. We’ve got options for solo roam WvW. We got options for zerg WvW. We do great at event/bag farming. We have tons of group support (might stacking, field generation, etc). We’re currently considered one of the better classes for SPvP these days. I mean there’s really no place in the current game we can’t find a place in as an Elementalist and that’s awesome.

The only thing we really don’t have as a class is a short/mid range weapon. Most weapons fall into the 450 (melee), 600 (mid), 900 (mid-long), 1200 (long) ranges. We have 450 (Dagger), 900 (Scepter), and 1200 (Staff) but no 600 range (outside of Dagger Water). Not that there’s a huge demand for it and honestly Scepter can play pretty close like that (for Boon stacking) but it’s really only gap we don’t have.

Kaleban.9834:

~snip for organization~

“I would argue that Eles already have everything, its just that its spread across attunements and weapons in a rather hodge podge, mishmash organization, Focus being the most obvious offender.”

One could certainly say that, but one could also argue, the existance of certain types of skills does not mean it is a supported and effective combat style of play. For instance, just because Warrior Axe has a mid-range axe throw skills doesn’t mean Warrior has a pertinent skill-set of mid-range offense to effectively combat someone purely at such a range. Instead, they focus on movement to close those gaps.

“Melee – MH Dagger, OH Dagger focus on big PBAoE spells
Range Single Target – Scepter
Range AoE – Staff
Control – Focus”

Well, that isn’t everything. There are various types of skill-sets, tactics and styles that other professions are capable of that aren’t available to Elementalist and could be adapted to more fit Ele’s styles, especially if specializations are viewed as something sort of like “varying styles” of the same profession.

“For example, Earthquake and Magnetic Grasp should be on Focus (KD and Immobilize, with Magnetic Grasp working as an PBAoE immobilize, and then Magnetic Wave as the chain skill) while Obsidian Flesh and Churning Earth should be on OH Dagger in keeping with the PBAoE theme (and needing survivability). Dagger #3 could then just be Magnetic Leap on a 12 sec CD, removing the target requirement, and offering a blast finisher at the point of impact. Another example, Comet and Cleansing Wave would switch places, again in keeping with each weapon’s focus.”

You can certainly have your own personal opinion on the current skills. I have my own, and while I disagree with your proposed changes, that doesn’t make the ideas bad. But they are ultimately irrelevant to the discussion.

“I honestly don’t see what a new weapon, such as a MH Sword will bring to the Elementalist, when we have so many skills already that with a little tweaking and refinement could seal up any performance gaps easily.”

Rebalancing current skills could certainly be a topic of discussion but if this were on the table, it surely would have been tried. Precedence says the devs are only willing to alter/add/subtract current skills, not change or swap them.

As far as what a new weapon could accomplish, just search in the Ele boards. I’ve read and written a few and these were thought of before we knew of specializations are alterations to profession mechanics were in the realm of discussion.

Leo G.4501:

Rebalancing current skills could certainly be a topic of discussion but if this were on the table, it surely would have been tried. Precedence says the devs are only willing to alter/add/subtract current skills, not change or swap them.

As far as what a new weapon could accomplish, just search in the Ele boards. I’ve read and written a few and these were thought of before we knew of specializations are alterations to profession mechanics were in the realm of discussion.

Rebalancing happens all the time. As for the precedent set by ANet devs so far, they’ve literally done everything but moving them around on a weapon. Its the logical next step, especially on a profession like Eles who need, more than anything else, a logical consistency to the existing weapon sets.

On to what new weapons could accomplish, well yes, adding new skills does new stuff. However, Eles already possess between double and triple the number of skills other professions do. So if ANet can’t figure out how to make use of those skills, and balance them properly, what makes anyone think that adding a new weapon, with more skills will make any difference in gameplay or effectiveness?

Would I like to see an Ele dual wielding swords, whipping around a “land-spear” or even swinging from vine to vine with a bullwhip Indiana Jones style? Sure, more options are always nice, but not at the expense of making current options work properly.

Kaleban.9834:

Rebalancing happens all the time. As for the precedent set by ANet devs so far, they’ve literally done everything but moving them around on a weapon. Its the logical next step, especially on a profession like Eles who need, more than anything else, a logical consistency to the existing weapon sets.

I guess that’s one way to see things. A step can be a barrier in and of itself after all. I think it’s unlikely, all the same.

Kaleban.9834:

On to what new weapons could accomplish, well yes, adding new skills does new stuff. However, Eles already possess between double and triple the number of skills other professions do. So if ANet can’t figure out how to make use of those skills, and balance them properly, what makes anyone think that adding a new weapon, with more skills will make any difference in gameplay or effectiveness?

Well some people are fine with how things are and just want something new. I certainly want something other than dagger to pair with focus as scepter is getting quite stale.

Kaleban.9834:

Would I like to see an Ele dual wielding swords, whipping around a “land-spear” or even swinging from vine to vine with a bullwhip Indiana Jones style? Sure, more options are always nice, but not at the expense of making current options work properly.

And you know the old saying: can’t please everyone all of the time…or something like that.

Leo G.4501:

And you know the old saying: can’t please everyone all of the time…or something like that.

No I get that, and I agree, which is why I argue that fixing what we have is more important than introducing new stuff that likely will be just as broke.

I mean, after all this time, all the skill updates, etc., Focus Fire #5 is still simply a Fire Shield on a 40 second cooldown. You can Burning Speed and Magnetic Leap every 15 seconds for the exact same effect. I think that’s ridiculous.

My fear is that all the content that is being introduced (new weapon, masteries, specializations, etc.) will make the likelihood of logically balancing the Ele’s skills even less. And while some people want new shinies, I would suggest that a majority would prefer useable skills and consistent/logical balance.

I’m really hoping they go down the pyromancer , geomaster, aquamancer , aeromancer root from the original gw1

I think they will start with the aquamancer and fully implement a great support character with the ability to weapon swap and 2 new sets of traits

arcane swordsmen would be cool adding arcane power to your elemental attacks or something.

How about a traitline that removes the hit cap for AoE?

First specialization will probably be main hand axe pyromancer
Later on you will get the geomancer with shield, aquamancer with trident and aeromancer with spear

Deleven.7508:

I had an idea. Maybe a future specialization will be for an elementalist to become an aspect master like the Zephyrites. Instead on the normal attunement swaps you would switch between sun, sky, storm and crystal. It would be a bit too altering to do this for all of the elementalist weapons, so it would only be applied to the main weapon that they would add, and it would likely also have to be a 2 handed weapon so that the off hand wouldn’t cause problems.

The next release isn’t likely to be this though, as they are likely to be getting a 1h sword, but maybe a future specialization this will be true.

At first I was thinking something like Pyromancer or Geomancer where they moved away from attunements and had weapon swapping but only one element.

Then I saw this Zephyrite themed idea.

They need to do this.

There are going to be >totems< (unconfirmed, but very possible)
Like in story there is a gnarr that spawns a water totem.

pee out water. poop out earth. fart out air. throw up fire. this is the specializations.

whatever it is, i hope they give us a rifle

It would be awesome if the skills are a combination of the attunement you are currently in and the attunement you were in, Like lingering elements but with weapon skills

Roar of the fire-lightning dragon!