Guild Wars 2

I would like to preface this post by saying that although ele’s could do with some improvement I do not believe they are in the dire state that seemingly the rest of this sub forum do <3 Also I have to split it into a comment because of the character limit

I have been having quite a bit of success running a Dagger/Dagger ele in sPvP (and tPvP) recently with around 200 games using it but currently I feel there could be some improvements made the weapon set (mainly Main Hand Dagger)

Fire:

• Dragon’s Claw - Personally I like this skill it promotes you being near your target (as you should with Dagger Main Hand) but doesn’t punish you over much for being at a longer range
• Drake’s Breath - Right now a problem with this skill is that when both you and the target are moving it can be a bit unreliable with when it hits so I’d like to see the hit box expanded (but the same range) so it’s a bit more reliable.
• Burning Speed - This skill is overall in a good place damage wise imo but one thing it could do with is having an extra second of Burning added to the explosion so you can reliably hit a Fire Grab that benefits from the Burning because right now without condition duration the burning is over before your Fire Grab hits
• Ring of Fire - In a good place right now
• Fire Grab - This suffers from the same hit box problem that Drake’s Breath does, often when it looks like a Fire Grab has hit you will get a miss so expanding the hit box or if there is another way of reliably making it hit would be appreciated

Water

• Vapor Blade - In a fine place
• Cone of Cold - Suffers from the same problem as Drake’s Breath with reliably hitting foes, it would also be nice to have the healing co-efficient boosted from 0.36 —> 0.5 but it isn’t needed
• Frozen Burst - Right now this skill deals around half the damage of Sigil of Hydromancy which also has a 9 second cooldown. Frozen Burst does have the benefit of you being to choose when you want to trigger it without any side effects (i.e. switching weapons) however it has a ~50% longer cooldown and half the damage. In light of it being more reliable I would like to see the damage boosted by 20-30%
• Frost Aura - Currently Fine
• Cleansing Wave - I would like to see it remove 2 conditions but right now it’s in a good place so doesn’t need a change

Air

• Lightning Whip - Since the buff last patch this is really nice
• Lightning Touch - Probably the worst skill on Dagger currently, it hit’s for about 40% of the damage of Lightning Whip (when both parts hit) and suffers from the same targeting problems as Fire Grab. I’d like to see the damage doubled and maybe an increase in the weakness duration because currently you’re just better off auto attacking than using it
• Shocking Aura - Really love this skill and think it’s great
• Ride the Lightning - I love this skill but right now it has the problem of stunning you in certain circumstances. The way it works currently is it predicts where the enemy is going to be when you would hit and sends you in that direction. If they change direction then you reach where they would have been, you stop moving and Ride the Lightning continues until it has completed its 2 second duration (1 second per 600 range) so for example if you fire it and someone would have been 600 range away where it predicts then it will lock you in place for 1 second until it completes it’s 1,200 range timer. This would be easy to fix by making it so Ride the Lightning automatically detonates/ends when you reach where they would be regardless of if an enemy is hit or not.
• Updraft - Love this skill as well but it would be nice to have a timer for the knockdown in the tooltip

Earth

• Impale - Fine with this skill as well though it could do with some more range
• Ring of Earth - Would like to see 3 bleed stacks with 6 seconds rather than 1 with 12 seconds to make this skill feels more meaningful but not needed by any means
• Magnetic Grasp - The pulling is still quite clunky but other than that it’s a great skill
• Earthquake - Great skill overall
• Churning Earth - Often this skill isn’t worth using but it does have it’s niche for example when you have no interrupts and want to punish people for ressing an ally or to try and force a dodge. I noticed on the bug compilation thread that there was a bug listed that this skill goes on its full cooldown if you cancel it/it’s interrupted, that’s intended behaviour because you aren’t casting, it you’re channeling it and all channel spells that are interrupted mid duration get full cooldowns

That wraps up the skill changes and that’s pretty much everything I wanted to cover apart from 2 traits i would like to see improved to help Dagger/Dagger as well.

Water
Powerful Aura - I would love to see this trait get an extra addition to it, originally I wanted reduced aura cooldown but that would conflict with the attunement cooldown traits so I settled on increasing the duration of auras by 20% (this means Shocking Aura has a 6 second duration and Frost Aura an 8.4 second duration) just to make it more desirable.

Arcana
Renewing Stamina - Personally I feel that this trait could do with a boost from 33% to 50% to allow Elementalists to stay in close combat more reliably because of dodges but once again it’s not needed

If you made it this far tyvm for reading <3

TL;DR – Mostly quality of life changes with a few buffs

the only issue I saw on there was the cleansing wave change. As someone who routinely procs 2+ cleansing waves every 10 seconds I think that might be a little too much condition removal.

aye that’s why i said it’s something I’d like but isn’t needed

Churning Earth is great where it’s at.

You ever use it with Lightning Flash?

ye it’s great with Lightning Flash <3 I don’t want it changed personally I like it just where it is

Shadow Dragon Ad.2409:

Arcana
Renewing Stamina - Personally I feel that this trait could do with a boost from 33% to 50% to allow Elementalists to stay in close combat more reliably because of dodges but once again it’s not needed

What is your crit chance? Renewing Stamina does not have an internal cooldown, so if you have a high crit chance it can stack up it’s duration very quickly. There have been sometimes when I will end a fight and mouse over my vigor boon and it will still have 40 seconds left on it.

Technically speaking, you just need to crit 3 times every 5 seconds to keep the buff up. (It also happens to work great with multi hit moves). It is essentially perma vigor in combat if you have sufficient crit.

Personally I have 18% base but have perma fury so usually 38% crit, I guess with berserkers amulet it’s already really good I just dislike how squishy it leaves you. Maybe a nice rework would be to give it a 100% chance on crit but an internal cooldown?

I think D/D is missing weapon swap. I noticed how you mentioned how certain skills need more range; I agree.

Hence I think they should add weapon switch like all other classes in the game while balanced.

I just wish earth 3 wouldn’t miss so often.

True Earth 3 , fire 2 , 5 misses too much , also ice 2

I rarely use fire 2, Fire 5 pisses me off with how much it misses. I only use ice2 to heal myself.

ive never had issues with fire 2, 5, or water 2. I think you guys might be doing something wrong :<

earth 3 is shenanigans though.

Ukaei.8694:

I think D/D is missing weapon swap. I noticed how you mentioned how certain skills need more range; I agree.

Hence I think they should add weapon switch like all other classes in the game while balanced.

I didn’t suggest more range, I think their current range is suited to D/D it’s just they’re unreliable when it comes to hitting.

On the note of weapon swapping for Ele’s, just no lol it would completely break them. They’re hard enough to balance as it is with 20 abilities with 40 it would just be absurd.

Shadow Dragon Ad.2409:

Ukaei.8694:

I think D/D is missing weapon swap. I noticed how you mentioned how certain skills need more range; I agree.

Hence I think they should add weapon switch like all other classes in the game while balanced.

I didn’t suggest more range, I think their current range is suited to D/D it’s just they’re unreliable when it comes to hitting.

On the note of weapon swapping for Ele’s, just no lol it would completely break them. They’re hard enough to balance as it is with 20 abilities with 40 it would just be absurd.

“Impale – Fine with this skill as well though it could do with some more range”

I’m I delusional? I don’t think so. I hope though that they can somehow bring about weapon swap while balanced.

Being locked as a D/D mele type with no option to switch to range with decent damage is a disadvantage.

As a Warrior I can be upfront and in your face and when I want to take it easy and safe I can switch to my Rifle/Bow and pew pew from afar.

“Impale – Fine with this skill as well though it could do with some more range”

I’m I delusional? I don’t think so. I hope though that they can somehow bring about weapon swap while balanced.

Being locked as a D/D mele type with no option to switch to range with decent damage is a disadvantage.

As a Warrior I can be upfront and in your face and when I want to take it easy and safe I can switch to my Rifle/Bow and pew pew from afar.

Ah ye i forgot about Impale o.o that was more a something that would be nice to see rather than something that is needed. It would also only be a 100 range increase so it has the same range as Dragon’s Claws so not exactly what I’d call a ranged option

Shadow Dragon Ad.2409:

“Impale – Fine with this skill as well though it could do with some more range”

I’m I delusional? I don’t think so. I hope though that they can somehow bring about weapon swap while balanced.

Being locked as a D/D mele type with no option to switch to range with decent damage is a disadvantage.

As a Warrior I can be upfront and in your face and when I want to take it easy and safe I can switch to my Rifle/Bow and pew pew from afar.

Ah ye i forgot about Impale o.o that was more a something that would be nice to see rather than something that is needed. It would also only be a 100 range increase so it has the same range as Dragon’s Claws so not exactly what I’d call a ranged option[/quote]
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@Shadow Dragon Ad

Admit. It’s because you starve for an option to pew pew from afar like the rest of the professions.

The subconscious is pure. You want WEAPON SWAP for range orieted combat as a D/D Elemtalist. =P

I’m guessing the OP is speaking from a PVP perspective, because my opinions differ on a few things.

Personally I think it’s VERY odd for a ranged class to be expected to be “up close and personal” using what are essentially “focus” items. I only use D/D myself simply because the set of abilities for the other weapons are, in my own opinion, lack a certain degree of synergy. And the staff (I love staffs in other MMO’s) is just a plain niche weapon that is awful for solo’ing with (my opinion of course).

Dragons Claw: This relies on the player being as close as they can get to the target in order to do maximum damage. Which isn’t a good situation for a supposed “glass cannon” to be in. If the “arc” was smaller, then maximum damage could possibly be achieved without having to be practically stood on top of the mob (assuming a small target).

Dragons Breath: For me, is mostly ok because I’ve learned to NOT use it when kiting sideways, but to use it when the target and myself are running either towards one another or away. The same goes for Fire Grab.

Side note: Just like how CoC doesn’t apply any vulnerabilty buff or chilled effect on targets, DB doesn’t seem to apply the Pyromancer’s Puissance buff from the Fire Trait. Which I find odd.

Vapour Blade: This is one thing I find odd about the OP’s comments. They want to change Dragons Breath because it misses, but think that Vapour Blade is fine even though that misses too for the same reasons.

Cone of Cold: As mentioned earlier (see DB above), CoC doesn’t apply any vulnerabilty buff or chilled effect on target. Unlike Water 1 and 3 respectively. Surely it should apply a debuff to the target?

Impale: I do agree that this needs to have the same range as Fire 1 D/D.

Churning Earth: Far too long a cast time in my opinion. When you try to use it immediately after Earth 4 (the knockdown) then the mob is already on its feet and beating on you whilst you are still casting CE. Perhaps it should be a 3 second cast time.

Last note: Give us the option to weapon swap, but have the weapon slots bound to specific attunements. For example: Slot 1 could be fire attunement with D/D in it. Slot 2 could be Earth attunement with S/D. This way, the Elem is given the flexibility of weapon swapping, but is bound to a specific set of weapon abilities linked to a specific attunement.

So, in other words, Elem’s should be given 2 options that are only changable out of combat:

Option 1: Just as it is now. Benefit: More flexibility in attunement swapping. Drawback: No weapon swapping during combat.

Option 2: Benefit: Weapon Swapping allowed. Drawback: Each slot is locked to an attunement of the player’s choosing.

Tarkaroshe.8370:

Dragons Claw: This relies on the player being as close as they can get to the target in order to do maximum damage. Which isn’t a good situation for a supposed “glass cannon” to be in. If the “arc” was smaller, then maximum damage could possibly be achieved without having to be practically stood on top of the mob (assuming a small target).

I have to disagree with this one because as D/D you’re not meant to be glass cannon and it’s useful if you’re sure you won’t be hit.

Tarkaroshe.8370:

Dragons Breath: For me, is mostly ok because I’ve learned to NOT use it when kiting sideways, but to use it when the target and myself are running either towards one another or away. The same goes for Fire Grab.

I can agree with this but often that just can’t happen in PvP, also would there be anything wrong with being able to hit it when strafing in PvE?

Tarkaroshe.8370:

Vapour Blade: This is one thing I find odd about the OP’s comments. They want to change Dragons Breath because it misses, but think that Vapour Blade is fine even though that misses too for the same reasons.

That’s the intended behaviour of Vapor Blade it’s a projectile that moves in a straight line rather than a cone skill that is having reliability issues with targeting

Tarkaroshe.8370:

Cone of Cold: As mentioned earlier (see DB above), CoC doesn’t apply any vulnerabilty buff or chilled effect on target. Unlike Water 1 and 3 respectively. Surely it should apply a debuff to the target?

It would be nice for it to but it does quite a bit of damage and some healing so it’s not needed

Tarkaroshe.8370:

Last note: Give us the option to weapon swap, but have the weapon slots bound to specific attunements. For example: Slot 1 could be fire attunement with D/D in it. Slot 2 could be Earth attunement with S/D. This way, the Elem is given the flexibility of weapon swapping, but is bound to a specific set of weapon abilities linked to a specific attunement.

So, in other words, Elem’s should be given 2 options that are only changable out of combat:

Option 1: Just as it is now. Benefit: More flexibility in attunement swapping. Drawback: No weapon swapping during combat.

Option 2: Benefit: Weapon Swapping allowed. Drawback: Each slot is locked to an attunement of the player’s choosing.

Personally I think that you already have a massive amount of flexibility with Ele just from the ability to switch attunements and both of the suggestions would be hard to balance. The way Ele works skill wise is you gain far more flexibility in one range (more so than anything else) but lose the ability to be effective at a different range.

my issue with d/d are the cone abilities. They seem… flakey at best. maybe change them to dd’s with pierce so this way it can, like now, hit multiple enemies but wont suffer from going off in a wrong direction, not going up any kind of incline and would negate any issues coming from lag (either personal or server lag).

Hope you’ve got someting for necro main hand dagger too. Right now it’s the only 130 range non cleaving weapon in the game. I realize not directly on topic for elementalists but they are both dagger casters and if you’re going to touch up ele mainhand dagger (which you should) you should also touch up necro mainhand dagger while you’re at it.

Karl McLain

We do have some improvements in mind for the elementalist’s main-hand dagger, along with reworking the downed state a bit. Keep in mind that you might not see this for a bit, but it is in the works.

That’s nice to hear.

Karl McLain.5604:

We do have some improvements in mind for the elementalist’s main-hand dagger, along with reworking the downed state a bit. Keep in mind that you might not see this for a bit, but it is in the works.

You. Are. My. Hero. Thank you for at least saying this. I know it might be asking a bit much…. but is there anything else in the works for the ele? I just feel that the other weapons and traits and utility skills need some work too. But now I know this is being worked on at least on some level and I am much more content. Thank you very much!

Karl McLain.5604:

We do have some improvements in mind for the elementalist’s main-hand dagger, along with reworking the downed state a bit. Keep in mind that you might not see this for a bit, but it is in the works.

ETA?

Karl McLain

We do have some improvements in mind for the elementalist’s main-hand dagger, along with reworking the downed state a bit. Keep in mind that you might not see this for a bit, but it is in the works.

Tyvm for the response <3

Eicherjw.3926

ETA?

Right now I imagine they’re more focused on getting the PvP (private servers, ranking, paid tournaments etc) parts sorted and letting the meta continue to develop (for example retal guardians have only popped up in the past 1-2 weeks)

Thank you for the confirmation that you’re looking at these things. Hope it isn’t too far out (if it is I hope we get more bits of info along the way).

Only a change for main dagger? Other weapons ( scepter for example ) need a little revision imo.

I agree with the Op’s suggestions, I would just like to add that it’d be nice if Magnetic Grasp caused a leap effect whether it hits or not. It’s nice to have a movement effect on each weapon set, and having Earth’s only work when there’s an enemy in range (and the direction of travel) weakens it. I think it would still be perfectly balanced as it does little damage and has a built-in delay as you wait for the “grapple” to fire outwards.

Karl McLain.5604:

We do have some improvements in mind for the elementalist’s main-hand dagger, along with reworking the downed state a bit. Keep in mind that you might not see this for a bit, but it is in the works.

As a dagger lover (and a downed-state hater, lol!) this is very good news.

Any chance you could also look into our elites? They’re a bit disappointing and lackluster.

Elite skills for elementalist definately need looked at more than main hand dagger skills.

The pet is great….for pve. For pvp, its mostly worthless.

Tornado is a death sentence most of the time. Limited usefulness.

The sword is fun, but also a death sentence.

Weapon Swapping? I think once conjures get a few more tweaks and trait support, we should see them being used to give range versatility to the elementalists.

Woah woah, what is my eye seeing? The first dev message on the state of the elementalist?! Complete and utter radio silence broken?! Some kind of improvement promised for the elementalist down state?!

Gentlemen, this is a day to remember.

Karl McLain.5604:

We do have some improvements in mind for the elementalist’s main-hand dagger, along with reworking the downed state a bit. Keep in mind that you might not see this for a bit, but it is in the works.

hugs you

I’m happy we have received a post like this. Thank you

With regards to the suggested changes in the OP, they look quite nice
Would it be broken for firegrab to have a lower cooldown? Not a significant drop, but just so I can use it a bit more often in PvE anyway.

Something that puts me off using d/d is just being up in the mobs’ faces. ‘Flexibility’ is limited to a single range. Flexibility at a single range can be good! Although I think there are more drawbacks from being locked into a single range. In PvE I can think of examples where the floor is lava, the boss spawns in the centre. You’re unable to do anything meaningful until someone pulls him onto land, whereas other profession can change. When he’s pulled onto land, you’re far too squishy to be up close and personal… Although if anyone has experiences of d/d against major bosses, that’d be cool to share!

In an example where you’re fighting generic monsters, your ‘flexibility’ is often necessary to perform efficiently in the encounter. Other professions, while not as ‘flexible’ because they don’t have attunements, do absolutely fine anyway and often outperform you.

Overall, I think being able to function at two different ranges is a much better advantage than swapping attunements. Of course, this is slightly off topic, so a story for another day

Nice changes suggested

Karl McLain.5604:

We do have some improvements in mind for the elementalist’s main-hand dagger, along with reworking the downed state a bit. Keep in mind that you might not see this for a bit, but it is in the works.

thanks for popping in and let us know this

Lightning touch should be instant and a blind IMHO. Dagger/Dagger setup really lacks a blind.

I do think scepter could use some work too. Dragons tooth goes without saying, so does fire grab. Few of them can be made easier to hit without relying on stuff like Signet of Earth or luck.

Also why are all aura’s on daggers? Or am i wrong? I believe my S/D ele had just one aura which was on off hand dagger water. This sort of limits the already small amount of builds you can make. Gief scepter an aura?
I kinda like OH dagger save for RTL bugging out ofcourse.

Aether McLoud.1975

Lightning touch should be instant and a blind IMHO. Dagger/Dagger setup really lacks a blind.

I think that would essentially just be replicating the #3 skill of Scepter a bit too closely

Don’t expect fixes anytime soon = don’t expect me to play or recommend this class anytime soon

Crunch Rest.2945:

Don’t expect fixes anytime soon = don’t expect me to play or recommend this class anytime soon

It’s for the best that those changes are properly tested and polished, instead of getting rushed and then either being useless, or overpowered and nerfed right after.

DiogoSilva.7089

Crunch Rest.2945

Don’t expect fixes anytime soon = don’t expect me to play or recommend this class anytime soon

It’s for the best that those changes are properly tested and polished, instead of getting rushed and then either being useless, or overpowered and nerfed right after.

What that person said <3

Ok, for a starter, i dont pvp, so anything pvp is unknown to me.

But i run D/D in dungeons. Its not bad, but im allways the first one down.
WHY do i HAVE to use a staff in dungeons. Why cant i use my daggers and be usefull?

I thought we where free to use w/e weapon we wanted , but obviousy d/d in dungeons makes me a melee, where i get 1 shot killed most times with my robe made out of butter…..

I dont like the staff as much. Too many skills you have to stop and channel. I like being on the move the whole time. D/d is perfect for this.

In a perfect world I’d like to see:

• All the attacks buffed to 400 range, especially Impale, which has a long animation * time. Or they could just make Impale animate and cast faster, that would work.
• Dragon’s Claw should pierce, right now it’s inferior to Lightning Whip since the fix.
• Burning Speed could be buffed to 750ish range, 600 isn’t much of a charge distance.
• The 2 auras could have their cooldowns lowered slightly.
• Vapor Blade and Frozen Burst buffed in damage.
• Magnetic Grasp needs to be reworked entirely. Should probably pull the target to you, and the projectile needs to be less obvious and move faster.
• Better healing coefficients in general for the class as a whole.

Churning Earth – if it is indeed being Channeled and not just a long cast time, then it should have some effect during the Channeling phase like AoE Cripple to offset the full cooldown on interrupt.

And no I dont consider a power good when you have to use a Util Slot Cantrip to make the thing work. As fun as that is, its a stop-gap measure for an otherwise less than stellar power.

If you add in the Cripple during Channel, it at least forces an opponent to use a Dodge to escape. At the moment they just curtsey or bow, say “Good day sir”, and stroll out of the area whistling a cheerful tune and a jump-click of the heels, without a care in the world.

Refutation to red

• 400 range for dagger weapon is too long. We already have long enough range(300~600) considering our weapon is dagger. Also faster Impale would be too op.
• Fire attunement is doing fine damage overall, while lightning attunement has been done relatively lower damage. Lightning Whip buff gave us little bit more damage option when we are attuned to lightning. Let’s take that and not ask more.
• Almost all dash skills have 600 ish range except few skills. 600 is fair enough. Also we have Ride The Lightning for main dash skill(even though it often drives me rage). Some professions don’t even have 1200 range dash skills, remember. We already have very good dash skill. Moreover, if you change Burning Speed’s current dash range, you will have even harder time to ‘hit’ enemies sometimes.
• Shocking Aura already has very short cooldowns. Frost Aura is the one which has slightly longer cooldowns. I honestly don’t think it matters though.
• Magnetic Grasp is good enough skill itself. It doesn’t need to be changed. However, the bug that stuns ourselves should be fixed asap.
• Vapor Blade indeed has low damage. I’d also like to see slight damage buff of this. Frozen Burst, which I’m told Hydromancy Sigil deals even more damage than this skill, can be slightly buffed as well, but since its main purpose is chilling so I don’t care the damage tbh.
• Seriously, no. We are one of the few professions that has numerous healing skills already. Devs want to nerf our healing skills atm. I don’t want it gets nerfed, but also don’t expect healing coefficient would even goes up.

Your ideas generally making dagger skills to overpowered. I personally don’t think dagger skills need that many changes or buff. Although damage buff for Vapor Blade would be sweet. It does too low damage atm.

Magnetic Grasp doesn’t work when chasing a target, because the 900 range is checked from when the very slow projectile was launched and not the distance between you and the target upon landing.

And I didn’t mean that you would get more Impales per second, I just meant that it would animate faster so that when chasing a target it would not just continually hit behind them.

Let’s assume your theory is true(because I honestly have no idea whether it is true or not). Try to use Magnetic Grasp when you are little closer to target then. You are aware of what the problem is, then you can fix it yourself. Pretend its range is not 900, but somewhat between 600-700. Also knowing some tips will significantly increase the odds of grasping the target, such as using it after observing the target uses up its endurances, or use quick gap closer (any dash skills or Lightning Flash) right before use Magnetic Grasp.

600-700 range is really not that bad with gap closer skills. With RTL > Lightning Flash > Magnetic Grasp, we can cover nearly 2800 or even more range in a few seconds. Magnetic Grasp should be the last gap closer you use, unless you are sure the target will be grabbed. A lot of skills are projectiles. Magnetic Grasp is just one of those projectile skills.

About Impale, I feel so much empathy with you. I know its frustration. I had so many experiences where I only hit the ground their behind while they running away – it’s because we are using dagger on our main hand. Like I stated on the last post, I believe it’s the cross we should bear. We are using daggers after all. Thankfully, we have some options to overcome the situation. We can use Lightning Flash to close the gap quickly and spam Impale on the target again, or we can switch attunement to fire and use Burning Speed then own them with whatever your combo.

PS: Oh I just realized I really didn’t catch your point red. Increasing animation speed would be not bad at all, as long as it keeps its spec(rof, damage, bleed stack etc). Boy, it will be sweet.

Here’s an improvement I’d like to see to the windborne dagger skill …

Movement skills break immobilize when a main hand dagger is equiped.

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

Here’s an improvement I’d like to see to the windborne dagger skill …

Movement skills break immobilize when a main hand dagger is equiped.

Well I’d like to see the original Windborne Dagger effect actually kicks before we talking about any improvement