Guild Wars 2

Hey there,

Phyrak here

I’m currently spending my free time looking into a way in which elementalists can stay in a single attunement as an option to bouncing around

These are including additional effects to conditions
Passive buffs whilst in the attunemt – ref juggernaut whilst in fire as an example

I am also looking into making an ‘arcane’ element

Keep in my that this is all theory and I run the numbers with a couple of friends to make sure that keeping to a single element won’t overrule the others

The aim is to expand the builds and allow for more diversity

I know that everyone loves going full avatar with all the elements

But if someone were to have a personal synergy with a specific element, why take that way from them?

Please be constructive

From the responses I get from this, I will change and evolve the traits and passive that each element gets

Thank you for reading

-Phyrak

Staying in a single attunement is generally foolish unless you’re using staff in PvE, in which case you’re in fire for the majority of the time.

The reason is simple; you’re basically limiting yourself to only a small fraction of your skillset. This is an ineffective way to play, so you have to make the choice and decide whether or not you want to be a good elementalist or a subpar/bad one.

Elementalists using dagger mainhand should be making sure they have high might uptime with a good rotation using all the blast finishers in their attunements (and fury if they’re using persisting flames), making use of the wonderful utility of focus (magnetic wave, obsidian flesh, swirling winds, comet, flamewall, etc), and scepter users have terrible DPS yet high burst and might stacking capabilities so they’ll certainly need to be swapping attunements frequently to make proper use of the weapon.

Please re-read above statement

I am spending time of my own to give some potential options for builds that stay in single element

Please be constructive as to how a single element can be improved for those who want to do it

There are a few on the forums who do like doing it

I didn’t play guild wars 1 but I have heard that there were some pretty devastating single element builds

Please try and think of ways of which single element builds could be improved rather then attacking those whom appreciate something out of the ordinary

The aim is allow for both single element and dancers to function under the same roof

Okay

50 views

People, please let your creative juices flow

Any GW1 players whom played a single element, please give your input as it is greatly appreciated

On a personal note – I’ve done fire, air and earth for single elements
I’m going to do water tomorrow then run my ideas by a few close friends whom play the game for balance

Then I shall put them onto the forums

Arcane element coming soon tm

Please be positive and constructive if at all possible for sometimes the toxicity of the dancing can be a little too much for those I’ve read whom have had similar ideas

-Phyrak

well, back in the days, i had echo and arcane echo on my echonuke, plus a nec to bip me if necessary. you COULD rearrange for some necs to share their death shroud and a bite from their lichcake.

there’s only one single situation when staying on one element is probably ok: if you run a max dmg build and equip summoned weapons like icebow or LH. a lot of dps comes from LH already, so just stay in water and keep bashing their skulls in.

also: gw1/gw2 ele are not comparable. please do not attempt to do it, you will only hurt your brain. nobody will ever understand what izzy did back then.

I checked your post history and you seem obsessed with this kind of thread, Single attunement builds are useless, the only one that can get away with it is fire staff. You cannot be “devastating” while sitting in water attune 24-7, it’s mathematicly impossible.
This thread seems to be very ignorant however.

Anyways, good luck with your build crafting.

Game development, animation and concept are all about persistence

Look at the in game items

Let’s the legendaries for example – how does one obtain such a thing?
Perisistance is the answer

I am a stubborn optimist – with some sort of hope that the devs will look at the amount of times this has been mentioned and have it implemented in game

I’ll even run the numbers for them if they want :P

I’ve done the numbers run before

At this current moment – single attunemt is useless because there is only a little bit of thought put into it

Currently I have many a page devoted to different branching ideas of each element

Before I do the entire write up – I would like to see what the community thoughts are…but it seems all those whom are usually in favour of such things and usually contribute well to said topic haven’t seen it

Please at least try and be positive

Just one creative thought that doesn’t bash ones hopes

Perhaps it could be the one that gets the ball rolling

erm.... what? i cannot grasp the meaning of your post, plx edit to something i can understand

Of course you could stay in one attunement. But it’s really not worthwhile..Your damage would be just “normal” or even less then that depending of your equipment – while staying in one attunement. Stacking might is what’s makes the damage decent and gives some great group support.
If there’s a second elementalist in the group you could stay like 90% attuned to air and use your conjure Weapons if you’re going for the fresh air build.

But obviously it’s super useless to stay in one attunement all the time. Even a Staff Ele wouldn’t do that – he should be always swapping between Fire/Earth for the additional blast finisher and Water of course if any support is needed.

The aim is to give it viability

The devs have been trying to push a potential to stay Ina single attunement – ref diamond skin for earth or aquatic benevolence for water if you want to pay a healer

This post I read earlier – if they allowed the gain of traits through sticking to the single element to give self synergy as some potential synergy with those around

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Our-condition-builds-need-help

…while I really don’t agree with the idea of sitting in one element, I will point you towards the one remotely viable build I’ve seen which does exclusively camp in a single attunement.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/WvW-Elementalist-Stone-Heart-Conjuror/first#post4135598

Since build editor is down right now, summary is it’s an s/f ele build that revolves around the Stone Heart trait and requires you to never! ever! leave earth!, includes a solid amount of condi removal via Ether Renewal/Cleansing Fire/Cleansing Fire trait iirc, and then focus on conjure weapons for damage/the invuln of focus to buy time in tricky situations and the scepter AA to stack bleed when conjures aren’t up. It’s honestly a pretty troll build and not something you could run in the average scenario but it’s funny for roaming/casual wvw since enemies are usually pretty confused about what you’re doing…

Like others have said above though, the only way builds like this are viable is because of conjure weapons for damage, and even then it’s so far from maximizing the potential of ele that it’s really not worth it. This build in particular takes advantage of the only grandmaster trait that actually does make you sit in one attunement for its benefit….unlike diamond skin/aquatic benevolence, and I’m not really sure what gave you the idea that they did?

While I do like the idea, the current ele is just too catered to avatar mode. There are too many rewards to jumping attunements. Personally, I want single elem builds.

You’ll need to address 2 things mainly:
1 – you need a huge (equating the magnitude of losing 20 weapon skills) pay off for staying in 1 element
2 – you need to address having separate cd’s for each skill in each attunement (which translates to stepping on avatar toes)

Alrighty let’s do this.

FIRE : 6/2/4/2/0

Conjure based

Puissance//persisting
conjurer internal fire bolt to the heart stone splinters serrated stones vital striking

WATER

Conjure based

2/2/4/6/0

conjurer bolt to the heart stone splinters serrated stones vital striking piercing shards AQUATIC BENEVOLENCE FOR THE LULZ

AIR

based

6/6/0/0/2

persisting flames pyromancer alacrity burning precision fresh air air training bolt to the heart renewing stamina

EARTH

Conjure-signet based

4/2/6/2/0

fire embrace burning precision zephyr boon written in stone elemental shielding signet mastery shard of ice (mad vuln yo)

And there you go.

Single element builds that work with conjures mostly except for air where you just go d/x or s/x and throw a combo when needed then get the hell back in air.

Super cerial stuff.

The closest thing to what you’re trying to achieve is the s/f fresh air build imo. It’s not bound to the classic rotation style.

The point of fresh air is attunement switching. Just go fire staff ele, that’s the only meta build camping one attunement in combat. It does pitiful support, and you should still swap out of combat for swiftness/ condi removal, but there you go. What’s the point of playing an elementalist if you don’t like attunements, though?

It’s the appeal of the RPG

You want to play aggressive but be able to want to be able to support, play a guardian

You want to play assassin, play a thief and ahift your traits into burst damage

You want to play a caster?

Don’t like Mesmer’s or Necro’s

The elementalist is the one for you!

Oh, you like the way one skillset works in particular…too bad, as there are very few options to allow for strong single attunemt vs dancing

This game is all about choice is it not?

By giving us the choice to stay in a single attunement, this could give rise to some powerful builds

Fire: gains additional boons and conditions upon burn application
Air: interrupt specialist as well as boons on crit
Earth: movement control specialist/ addition conditions based on bleed and weakness application
Water: transfers conditions/ transforms own conditions into boons

Something like this would allow for some major single element attunement as well as some potential refinement to how a single element works

At the moment, I have 30 new traits – 10 traits each
I’m currently working on water
Arcane attunement will be a struggle but I’ll come up with something!

Now, I’d we were to look at the gem shop and at the potential of single elements

Who wants to cosplay Zuko in game! XD

I’m game!
Here’s an earth elementalist build I’ve been halfheartedly theory-crafting.
It may not make much sense at first, bu there’s a reason for things.

Earth (X) is kind of the key, it allows for massive toughness to contribute to massive condition damage. Using carrion rather than dire stats, and testing in the PvP dps trials, 3k bleeds stacks are reasonably easy to maintain.

Fire signet provides the burning while staying in earth. There’s also some condi-removal with extra burning, and a heal with aoe regen.
It may have trouble with lots of little mobs, but well placed ring of fire and a dragon tooth or two should provide enough aoe burn to tick them down.

Main theory of the build is to bring up rock barrier, use fire signet whenever it’s off cooldown, and then stack bleeding with stone shards. Use the blind and intterupt strategically, and hurl rock barrier when a useful field is down.

Last thing, the elite skill doesn’t matter, pick your own potion there.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFUQJArYlUzpxh1NwsB0RMwBgEOwiCjPF7VpzA-TBSAwAaUCSx8XO9EBORAAegAXV+hU9ne7PQIAfzBA-e

Trust me I wish there was a way, I loved WoW mage, specializing was fun but GW 2 wants you to be ADD with ele. You’ll either have to roll a mesmer which in pve only sword is viable and clones die in wvw zerg or necro which is unwanted pve.

Play something else or play the elementalist properly. I remember last year the developers were telling us how a majority of the population only stick to one attunement, which is why they don’t want to give us a second weapon in combat.

Sucks for us that plays the elementalist properly.

silvermember.8941:

Play something else or play the elementalist properly. I remember last year the developers were telling us how a majority of the population only stick to one attunement, which is why they don’t want to give us a second weapon in combat.

Sucks for us that plays the elementalist properly.

I don’t believe attunement shifting his playing the class properly, not the way it’s done at least. Optimal, sure. All we are doing his abuse the cooldown to pump more damage, most of the time in a perfect order. That not the way it’s should be. We should be shifting attument when needed, not to boost dps. Lot’s of mob, fire. the team low on heath, shift to water. Got to the boss, shift to air.

That the way the class should be played. Like most class do with their second weapons set, we should respond to what the game throw at us with the attunement.

I know my Ele would be higher level if it’s was the case, rotation are boring…

I’m not saying take away the dancing

People who can dance properly and effectively should be commended

As you said silvermember, they may be doing something about it

But it will hopefully be just to buff single elements then do anything to those who enjoy dancing

Update: all for elements completed – 40 new traits with synergy throughout the elements with utility slots
Currently working on the arcane element traits/ dancing specific traits/ selectable minor traits depending on if you’re a dancer or not

Arcane skills coming soon

Bishop.8432:

That the way the class should be played. Like most class do with their second weapons set, we should respond to what the game throw at us with the attunement.

I know my Ele would be higher level if it’s was the case, rotation are boring…

I don’t know what you’re on about.

Classes with second weapon sets are intended to utilize their skills in whatever ways they benefit the most with. If you’re only responding with your skills, you’re not in control of the fight. You should be anticipating the enemy, as opposed to just reacting.

I also find it kind of peculiar that you find rotating through all of an ele’s attunements to use different spells boring, especially because it seems like you’re insinuating that camping one attunement and using the same skills over and over again wouldn’t be boring…?

Hmm… lol.

I just don’t think that more key press = more fun.

Then I’m afraid ele isn’t exactly suited for you.

Hey guys I want to try and make a character that doesn’t utilize my classes main mechanic at all and please don’t tell me I’m stupid for doing do or I will get snippy!

oxtred.7658:

Then I’m afraid ele isn’t exactly suited for you.

Too bad he is right.. I t doesn matter if its 2 keys or 200 keys if they are gonna be the same order each time and be used without actually reacting or caring to how your enemy (ai/player) respond to it..
Every half decent ele knows that to keep the dps up you need to constantly swap(unless pve staff) which makes using key skills the right time very hard..which then leads most ele players to spam and waste cds left and right knowing that there are more than 10 sec before they can get there again anyway.
Honestly after you get over it..seeing elementalist players feels like watching a horror film of poor cd use and cds preservation
There are far more intriguing playstyles in games these days that can revolve around far less skills that allow you to react..
If you dont believe me then try to think..how come the class with the most skills is actually the most predictable (par fresh air) right now?

Thank you for your positivity @Avead

Currently working on single element F2-4

For all elements + arcane

Following as such

Attack
Utility
Defense

Currently looking at how boons can be of an influence into various elements which lack it when staying there

Thank you to all those whom are actually contributing positively

When I’m done with ele’s I’ll post up all I have written

-Phyrak

Edit: I’m also figuring out how to make conjures kit style or give each conjure a different way of working in each element – my hopes are that there will be an option to do both

A button to select whether you want it as a kit or as a slightly more powerful temporary item

You do understand you get bonuses for switching and you are severely limiting yourself without them.

I’m currently making a warrior build without using weapons. I use physical attacks to take down my ennemy, along with damage on dodge. I know it’s not really optimal, but it works! I killed a moa yesterday, he couldn’t react with that bull’s charge/kick/stomp combo. If anet could buff no weapon users to make them on par with weapon users, it would promote build diversity.

I like your idea op. Unfortunately the Ele mechanic isn’t meant to be stuck on a single attunenment no matter how much effort you put into it. Believe me because I have tried your suggestion long time ago for extended period of time with no avail. The only way you can make this possible is if the skills had no to very short cool down and the damage was increased a bit. In such scenario I would always stay on air attunenment as s/f because it has everything to counter any type of playstyle.

oxtred.7658:

I’m currently making a warrior build without using weapons. I use physical attacks to take down my ennemy, along with damage on dodge. I know it’s not really optimal, but it works! I killed a moa yesterday, he couldn’t react with that bull’s charge/kick/stomp combo. If anet could buff no weapon users to make them on par with weapon users, it would promote build diversity.

Pretty much identical to what the OP wants, yep.

That aim of all of these are as suggestions

The fact that some people would like to keep to a single element may be a way of finding some powerful builds if some of the suggestions above were implemented – look at the f key changes as a way of balancing out the lack of dancing

The whole aim of this topic was for build diversity

I know that the current dancing mechanic is there for those who enjoy the dancing but the thing is that you need to be absolutely perfect with it – even a decent internet connection with no dropping out

For some people, that’s not possible

Then there are others whom those who are against such are thing are disregarding

There is a strong RP base in this game

If your wanted to RP as a specific elemental caster yet the game doesn’t allow you to, then you’re not going to do much RP-ing in the group your with damage wise

I hope this clears the air a little

- Phyrak

If your rping that’s cool bro but you can’t expect a company to change a class they designed just because some rpers don’t want to leave water attunement.

You are not asking for build diversity and your not going to “discover” some new build. You were told you are wrong and now it kinda seems you are being a bit repetitive and maybe even petulant.

This topic is useless and it was useless the past 3 or 4 times someone tried to make a case for it, and believe me they made better ones than you are.

If you want to rp with a 600 ping and faceroll everything, you gonna have a bad time.

Next time I shall hurl a lightning bolt right at your face, or a fireball.

Ooh i know.

You can RP an elemental ranger!

Icebow and elemental glyphs, switch attunements like A kittenIN MOOD RING WHY DONT YOU.

People these days man.
People these days.

My main is not an Ele (it is Engi), but I do have an 80 ele and will put forth my thoughts on this anyways.

I think it is important to define the objective very carefully. Is your objective to be able to sit in one attunement and never switch? I expect the current traits/abilities do not support such a play-style. I think, however, if you want to prioritize using one attunement, it may work, if you’re willing to switch to other attunements from time to time for specific useful utility spells. You may find a build that benefits from sitting in fire attunement most of the time, for example, but still need to be willing to switch to water for a chill or heal, or earth for an immobilize or reflect. If your objective is that you’ll never switch attunements, I think you will be at an inherent disadvantage.

I have considered similar scenarios on Engi and came to these results – refusing to use a resource that you have available always puts you at a disadvantage. However, you may find a build that happens to benefit from staying in one attunement much (but not all) of the time. I can’t say for sure, however, if such a build would be competitive or just passable.

Here is a taster of what I have for fire

I still haven’t run the numbers yet but that’ll happen soon

current traits I have

a passive – like juggernaut to help with survival

Toxic smoke – poison when you blind

Melted defense – apply vuln when you burn

Choking haze – confuse on blind

Burning Rage – gain fury when you burn an opponent

Ember’s Allure – gain protection when you burn
Cleansing Flame – cleanse 3 conditions off self and allies/ 350 AOE on self? 15 sec CD on burn

Combustive Flames – 3 burn ticks create a blast finisher/ 10 sec CD

Cauterize – heal yourself based on burn damage

Regenerative Flame – your fire fields grant regeneration to allies

Burning mirror – Aura’s gain reflection and apply burning to outgoing projectiles

For having fire as your ‘secondary’/ out of attunement

you gain

10% chance to burn on hit
7% chance to flame blast on hit

So, this would all be optional – there would be a magic button which would allow you to stick to favored element and gain specific way of healing ones self and helping allies whilst being in one attunement

I’m still working out the way of swapping minor traits but that’s a long run thing

enjoy

-Phyrak

With the feature pack update out now, I thought I’d offer my two cents.

It’s already been said before, but I have to agree, Staff ele can easily get away with staying in JUST fire attunement. Though even then, you’d be limited to pure damage and burn, when you’ve got chill, vulnerability, bleed, weakness, stun, blind, knockback, splash heals, regeneration, projectile reflect, swiftness, and immobilize to go with it.

You’re GREATLY limiting yourself by staying in one attunement. But, with the feature pack live, and with the signet changes made, you aren’t as limited as before =/

I think, with a power/condi dmg/ANYTHING ELSE build, you could make it work a lot better than it ever did before =/ I can’t think of traits off the top of my head, but I believe that Signet of Earth, which now gives bleed as well as its usual conditions and toughness boost, Cleansing Flame for survivability, an Arcane attack (preferably the blast finisher), and Arcane Brilliance could make it work.

Hope this helps somewhat o-o

Altogether

Around 50 new traits and 40 new skills

Also included arcane attunement which is based around boons and buffing allies with slight randomization of conditions to afflict enemies

Now comes to typing it out and putting it onto here :P

-buffs with protection-

Anything else I should include into the buffs to single element before I type it up?

-Phyrak

The problem here is that you’re trying to use a very old and very frail argument. Anet likes Rp and the lore is rich but it isn’t a key focus, and it shouldn’t be either. They don’t have enough resources to keep wvw,PvE, and PvP players happy unfortunately rp’ers are gonna come even after that.

I suggest only using a single-attunement build in pve only,
using it with staff only, and specializing in that attunements trait line.

air- would give u CC, AoE damage
fire- direct dmg, and burning
earth- CC, condi, support via weakness
water- support healing, vulnerability

Magi -u can combine water and air trait lines.
Rampager – Earth and Fire(gives you burning on crit.),
or Air and Fire(again using burning on crit),
or Earth and Air trait lines(requires staying in earth mostly) takes u giving out vulnerability on crit and using weakness from AA- giving a nice support build.

Just some thoughts I’ve had for making a single-attunement build
I made the magi build successfully. Using number two for damage.
I wish they didnt get rid of the ‘holy-trinity’ I lvoe healing, and dearly miss it….

tbh, staying in one attunement for PvE-staff has always been better even though most people don’t know it.

That build is already there. Staff is a pretty much stay-in-a-single-element weapon for PvE, because each element goes to such extremes.

I think the idea behind every other weapon set was to encourage you to switch a lot, because that’s how Anet wanted them to be played. So unless you want them to completely redesign those weapon sets, it’s probably a no.

Of course, if you don’t care about optimisation, you can just stay in a single element, for example, you can pop the air CD trait and stay in air on s/d. CDs will be low enough and skills active enough to make it not boring. You’ll be doing microscopic DPS, but that’s the price you gotta pay I guess.