My five cents on ele’s reworked traits: (all is my opinion and posted to constructive discussion)
FIRE:
I was actually hoping that with the +4 trait points this could be interesting, but – Minors are horrible and others don’t offer much in the way of variation.
MINOR:
Flame Barrier:
This is a weird one. If you think about it, it is basically the focus 5 skill fire shield– similar cooldown but with a lower duration due to the randomness and possibly procing it twice during the cooldown. It is a sad day indeed for focus users when this is either a better/worse version of its 5 skill.
This also is a difficult one to adjust specially since if you increase the 20% trigger chance this will be almost essential for aura elementalists (and far better than focus 5 skill) as it will proc all their boons every time they switch to fire.
I would suggest to remove this one and replace it with Burning Precision (which is not adapt trait worthy). However, Burning Precision would switch to being on hit (10% trigger chance seems reasonable) but take away the duration increase on burning.
Sunspot:
Continues to be just bad except for close bursty builds, 180 radius is far too little – maybe it gets more useful with the sword if it has a shorter reach (hope not!), but for any other elementalist weapon staying at such a close range is a bad idea specially if you are attuning to fire.
I would suggest a radius increase, depending on the increase, a reduced damage would be fair.
Burning Rage:
Good, no change.
ADEPT
Burning Precision:
Not adept trait worthy, I would suggest to bring Blinding Ashes down to adept, but with a higher ICD (10s). It then would combine with the burning duration.
Conjurer:
A misleading trait. This is not a conjurer trait, this is a signet trait pure and simple.
First of all, I would suggest a major rework on conjurer skills. My dream would be for them to be meshed into one Glyph skill and become an Elite. The Elite would basically work by giving you access to all conjure weapons (with appropriate nerfs and adjustments) and when you swap elements you swap between conjured weapons.
In this scenario, Conjurer part of this trait would be fused with Inscription from Air and would then be moved to Arcane trait line as a Grandmaster. (Removing Elemental Surge from the Arcane trait line).
The real part of this trait (fire shield when activating signets) is good and would become its sole trait.
Power overwhelming:
A buff to condi damage based on power is horrible idea. Power and Condition are generally mutually exclusive. You either kill fast with power or you get high sustain and wear them down with condition damage, it hardly makes sense to have both. Additionally, disputing condi damage with condi duration is not ideal.
This should be scraped and replaced with a bonus to power based on vitality or toughness. Would make more sense.
MASTER: Some interesting options
Pyromancer’s Training
Decent for those that like fire, but again, I find it very odd that we have so many traits aimed at given % damage boost for being in a single element – we basically have to pick the same generic trait so many times if we want to continue switching between elements or we have to focus on a single element – which is hardly a good thing.
One with fire:
Interesting as well, but this is a wasted opportunity for the clear goal of having aura elementalists. At the very least the might boon should apply to any auras – it is strange that fire has a trait that only benefits fire auras and water, air and earth synergy so well with aura skills. Alas, it is still good combo with conjurer on a signet build (might stack to oblivion).
Burning Fire:
Not a bad trait for condi removal and the might on cantrips is good for cantrip builds and when this triggers it means you trade 3 condi for 3 might stacks, a reasonable contender.
GRANDMASTER: why oh why….
Persisting Flames:
Lava font on you when you go down is horrible. The combination is effectively pure fluff. Persisting flames should have come with a radius increase to fire fields.
Pyromancer’s Puissance:
Same old same old, good for might stacking, but requires staying too long in fire to get a real benefit from it. I would suggest that it could be triggered in other elements due to lingering elements….
Blinding ashes:
Is just a bad grandmaster and should be replaced with something else. I would prefer it was something that helped to clear conditions, maybe a condi clear grandmaster trait that cleared one condition when you blast a fire field or you gain fire shield.
This way, the grandmaster traits become a choice between Crit (Persisting Flames) Power (Pyromancer’s Puissance) or Sustain (New condi clear trait).