Guild Wars 2

Supreme.3164:

You may be right…but a wrong attitude won’t help eles out of the d/d meta.
In the beginning people were laughing at you for running d/d on ele over s/f…and look now, as I’ve stated in my post above, a sword ele will bring something completely different to the table and to compare it to d/d in terms of number is simply wrong

For all we know sword ele will give the profession , a way to strip boons, gain resistance and maybe slow or taunt.

I don’t do D/D Cele meta anyways, so i wouldn’t really care anyways, lol
I mean, if the sword spec is good, people are going to run that, as easy as that, nothing else to say really, have to wait and see.

But i mean, sure would be great to see some Wu-Tang sword techniques given to the elemtanlist and have different elemental swords, a sword covered with fire in the fire attunement, ice in the ice one, ect.

And as things are and people posting so many skills in each attunement swap, sword might be actually a 2hander, as in, you won’t be able to equip focus or dagger in the other hand? As in, we’re just going to be going around with just one one-handed sword.

One thing I certain, sword and d/d ele will cover different roles.
A sword ele may prove to be a mele debuffer kick kitten ….at the very least we can start saving all those amazing sword skins we’ve seen so far ^^

Supreme.3164:

One thing I certain, sword and d/d ele will cover different roles.
A sword ele may prove to be a mele debuffer kick kitten ….at the very least we can start saving all those amazing sword skins we’ve seen so far ^^

Well, i want to use Twilight on my Elementalist :<

Pls anet ._.

The way I think they may change elementalist class mechanic is the longer you stay in that attunement the stronger that element will be. Fire for example would increase power, higher/ longer burn rates. Possibly reducing CD’s in fire also. Just a thought would give us more incentive to stay in a attunement.

BlackBeard.2873:

For any melee specialization that locks you out of arcana to be viable, the trait-line/spec will need:

-Something better than perma-vigor
-Something equivalent than 6.5s prot, swiftness, regen, might every ~10-11s
-Something competitive with the healing, cleanse, and blast you get from evasive arcana
-Access to lots of free fury (losing the arcana 1 minor)
-Access to even more gap-closers and soft-cc than d/d ele. If it is locked into melee range, it NEEDs a way to stay ontop of its enemy even MORE than d/d ele or else is laughably kitable.

I highly doubt these things will happen. I am not excited about this specialization at all.

I’m gonna tell you right now that at least for PVE and WvW, the meta builds only go 2 in Arcana

There are other traits that can be just as useful as 4-6 in arcana that can be worthwhile not speccing deep into arcana for.

Devildoc.6721:

I’m gonna tell you right now that at least for PVE and WvW, the meta builds only go 2 in Arcana

There are other traits that can be just as useful as 4-6 in arcana that can be worthwhile not speccing deep into arcana for.

what?

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Staff_Backline

Lawful.5314:

Well, personally i think this whole specialization thing is bull, because what is the point of specializing, when you can swap specializations at any time out of combat, like weapons?

It should have been more permament, like, if you pick a specialization, then to change it, you would have to do a long and annoying quest plus pay a lot of mats and gold in the process to reset it.
Kills the whole meaning of “Specialization”.

o_O

No, thank you.

If how they’re going to do it is the exact opposite of what you suggest, where I can swap it freely, I’ll be quite pleased with that myself.

CETheLucid.3964:

Lawful.5314:

Well, personally i think this whole specialization thing is bull, because what is the point of specializing, when you can swap specializations at any time out of combat, like weapons?

It should have been more permament, like, if you pick a specialization, then to change it, you would have to do a long and annoying quest plus pay a lot of mats and gold in the process to reset it.
Kills the whole meaning of “Specialization”.

o_O

No, thank you.

If how they’re going to do it is the exact opposite of what you suggest, where I can swap it freely, I’ll be quite pleased with that myself.

If you watch the vid I linked with the dev talking about it you can swap freely as much as you want so long as you’re out of combat.

Kodiak.3281:

Devildoc.6721:

I’m gonna tell you right now that at least for PVE and WvW, the meta builds only go 2 in Arcana

There are other traits that can be just as useful as 4-6 in arcana that can be worthwhile not speccing deep into arcana for.

what?

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Staff_Backline

Heh, I haven’t had to go with more than 2 in arcana in like, a year and a half.

I go with a lightning rod variant but I actually put into fire or 2 into earth instead of 4 in arcane. IMO more than 2 in arcane isn’t worth it unless you’re going into a celestial PVP build.

I’m kind of disappointed to see sword. Ele already has a melee weapon set and it defines PVP meta. I would have liked to see a strong ranged option instead of the support focus of the staff and gimmicky nature of scepter.

Supreme.3164:

The specialization may well give ele a survivability based on dodges, stronger active defences and stronger attacks.

The devs said that specializations will allow professions to assume not typical roles, so far we can see sword auto-attack that apparently replenish endurance and a trait line that will replace arcana.

What if rest of the sword will give eles some great boon removal skill like revenant?

Ex – sword fire 3 = “flame purification – 20s CD – create a ring of fire that strip 2 boons from each enemy each time they cross it- applies hmm torment? or maybe gain 4s resistance boon”

What if the “arcana” specialization line gives eles more control, resistance boon, boon stripping?

A sword ele with resistance boon, water cleansing, protection from elemental shielding? + boon stripping? + dmg avoidance and more from still unknown trait line…will be more than a challenge for current d/d

my 2cents

My point is that ele is so naturally squishy, any pvp/wvw viable build relies on some incredibly OP defensive mechanics. Specialized ele will need to at least equal these things to be viable, especially in melee. D/D is semi-melee and only works when you tank-up with 6 water/ 6 arcana, and that spec has like 80% prot uptime, tons of healing and cleanses, and perma-vigor. If you reduce the range further, you will need even MORE defense/soft cc to play any kind of bruiser.

Burst will be unviable b/c an ele stuck in melee range built for burst…It’s like playing zerker d/d.

The problem is that the entire class pvp-wise is balanced around OP mechanics in arcana, and taking that away requires just as OP compensation in the new trait-line.

This class is such a mess…

Auren.9142:

I’m kind of disappointed to see sword. Ele already has a melee weapon set and it defines PVP meta. I would have liked to see a strong ranged option instead of the support focus of the staff and gimmicky nature of scepter.

Uh, staff is like living artillery. It’s one of the highest personal DPS weapon setups in the game and is THE highest damage ranged weapon in the game (in the hands of a 6/4/2/2/0 Ele)

Dagger is 450 range, mid ranged skirmish weapon, while scepter is also a mid range at 900.

What we lack is an actual melee range (under 200 range) weapon except conjures.

Ele has two Ranged Weapons and one Close-Ranged Weapon. A real Melee Weapon seems like the most logical next weapon set.

(Not counting Conjures)

Ele in wvw has to attunement dance so the staff loses a ton of dps. It can burst when in fire just like every other ele weapon but its sustained damage is weak overall. Enemies move a lot more in wvw than pve also so you lose a ton of damage there.

Scepter has 900 range on several of its skills, but it can’t be treated like a ranged weapon. It reaches maximum effectiveness when used point-blank, just like the dagger.

There ain’t a frontline weapon that can take put my Staff to rest. Unelss I get the option to wield Sword + Staff like Gandalf. Then I’m all for it!

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

There ain’t a frontline weapon that can take put my Staff to rest. Unelss I get the option to wield Sword + Staff like Gandalf. Then I’m all for it!

I feel the same way. There is just no way I want to be inside 1200 range with the changes to stability.

The descriptions read too much like dagger skills for me to take this as anything other than a curiosity. I just can’t see them giving us another melee when daggers are already in play. I am still leaning towards pistol because it would be truly different than anything else we have today.

Kodiak.3281:

CETheLucid.3964:

Lawful.5314:

Well, personally i think this whole specialization thing is bull, because what is the point of specializing, when you can swap specializations at any time out of combat, like weapons?

It should have been more permament, like, if you pick a specialization, then to change it, you would have to do a long and annoying quest plus pay a lot of mats and gold in the process to reset it.
Kills the whole meaning of “Specialization”.

o_O

No, thank you.

If how they’re going to do it is the exact opposite of what you suggest, where I can swap it freely, I’ll be quite pleased with that myself.

If you watch the vid I linked with the dev talking about it you can swap freely as much as you want so long as you’re out of combat.

I know, still stands to reason what i said.

Would like something more permament to define your choice, than being able to just swap out of combat and become a druid or a shaman, every next fight.

Atleast a system like in Rift would have been keen, where you would have to go to the trainer NPC and pay a bit of gold to reset your current specialization.

I mean, specializations themselves make no sense then, not sure why go through the trouble of adding them, if its the same as just changing your weapon.

Logic, there was no need for specializations when you need to get out of combat to change weapons, and specialization, when you could have just directly equipped the new weapon spec.

Devildoc.6721:

It’s a shame we won’t be able to wield a staff as our offhand with a sword mainhand.

Why does this look similar to mesmer’s Sc/Sw?? It’s the same look.

Coldtart.4785:

Ele in wvw has to attunement dance so the staff loses a ton of dps. It can burst when in fire just like every other ele weapon but its sustained damage is weak overall. Enemies move a lot more in wvw than pve also so you lose a ton of damage there.

Scepter has 900 range on several of its skills, but it can’t be treated like a ranged weapon. It reaches maximum effectiveness when used point-blank, just like the dagger.

Sorry my comments were really focused on PvP and WvW. I find Staff to be a very underwhelming ranged damage option for Ele. It’s a much better support option.

Currently all the damage playstyles of Ele are focused on being close range. Including Scepter!

Why add another melee weapon when we have 4 conjure weapons that do the same thing and two regular weapons that favor being “melee” anyways?

I think you’re vastly underselling Staff as a WvW dps weapon. While its true you can’t have all of the amazing Water and Arcana abilities for support and also do a lot of damage, if you’re willing to live without the area cleansing because your teammates are taking care of it, you can pump out a ton of damage and control.

Lawful.5314:

I know, still stands to reason what i said.

Would like something more permament to define your choice, than being able to just swap out of combat and become a druid or a shaman, every next fight.

Atleast a system like in Rift would have been keen, where you would have to go to the trainer NPC and pay a bit of gold to reset your current specialization.

I mean, specializations themselves make no sense then, not sure why go through the trouble of adding them, if its the same as just changing your weapon.

Logic, there was no need for specializations when you need to get out of combat to change weapons, and specialization, when you could have just directly equipped the new weapon spec.

You take yourself entirely too seriously.

Lawful.5314:

Kodiak.3281:

CETheLucid.3964:

Lawful.5314:

Well, personally i think this whole specialization thing is bull, because what is the point of specializing, when you can swap specializations at any time out of combat, like weapons?

It should have been more permament, like, if you pick a specialization, then to change it, you would have to do a long and annoying quest plus pay a lot of mats and gold in the process to reset it.
Kills the whole meaning of “Specialization”.

o_O

No, thank you.

If how they’re going to do it is the exact opposite of what you suggest, where I can swap it freely, I’ll be quite pleased with that myself.

If you watch the vid I linked with the dev talking about it you can swap freely as much as you want so long as you’re out of combat.

I know, still stands to reason what i said.

Would like something more permament to define your choice, than being able to just swap out of combat and become a druid or a shaman, every next fight.

Atleast a system like in Rift would have been keen, where you would have to go to the trainer NPC and pay a bit of gold to reset your current specialization.

I mean, specializations themselves make no sense then, not sure why go through the trouble of adding them, if its the same as just changing your weapon.

Logic, there was no need for specializations when you need to get out of combat to change weapons, and specialization, when you could have just directly equipped the new weapon spec.

I’ll explain

-> In this expansion we will introduce NEW specializations. Rangers will become druids!
WAAAAAAT THAT’S COOL

VS

-> In this expansion we will introduce NEW weapon choices. Rangers will use staff!
well.. ok.

Kodiak.3281:

If you watch the vid I linked with the dev talking about it you can swap freely as much as you want so long as you’re out of combat.

Wow, thanks for that! You even had it at the relevant part. That’s great news.

Lawful.5314:

I know, still stands to reason what i said.

Would like something more permament to define your choice, than being able to just swap out of combat and become a druid or a shaman, every next fight.

Atleast a system like in Rift would have been keen, where you would have to go to the trainer NPC and pay a bit of gold to reset your current specialization.

I don’t agree with you. I’m pleased with the way they’re doing it myself.

Lawful.5314:

I mean, specializations themselves make no sense then, not sure why go through the trouble of adding them, if its the same as just changing your weapon.

Logic, there was no need for specializations when you need to get out of combat to change weapons, and specialization, when you could have just directly equipped the new weapon spec.

Logic: Before I gained this specialization, I couldn’t use X. Now that I have I can use X whenever I need to.

That makes much more sense to me than my character magically forgetting how to do something I learned and needing to visit (and pay) an NPC to sort between the things I should already know.

CETheLucid.3964:

Lawful.5314:

I mean, specializations themselves make no sense then, not sure why go through the trouble of adding them, if its the same as just changing your weapon.

Logic, there was no need for specializations when you need to get out of combat to change weapons, and specialization, when you could have just directly equipped the new weapon spec.

Logic: Before I gained this specialization, I couldn’t use X. Now that I have I can use X whenever I need to.

More than that, it was also a really important design decision. Specializations give you new content only at the cost of existing content. What is that important? It allows the developers to make way more interesting design choices and opens a venue for balancing a much wider array of mechanics within each class.

Necromancers, for example, have forever complained about not having any stability, but the developers state it is because between their ability to eat disabling conditions, apply those same conditions, and chase opponents, there really is no option but to make the Necro weak to control. But, in a specialization, the developers could, just as an example, take out a lot of the necros chase ability and give them more stability in exchange.

Another example. Guardians have ever complained about their ranged options being overly telegraphed and supporty, but that is so, because guardians have so many responses to ranged damage. But, if everyone’s suspicions are true, the guardian is most likely going to get the Longbow in a specialization, and I would wager they get it at the cost of some of that ability to shrug off ranged attacks.

Hello there!
I don’t know if anyone said what I am about to say but I was too lazy to read everything.

Those skills you are linking are main Dagger skills with some small changes on the auto-attack skills that have different skills available after every attack like most of the melee weapons. Now the only thing that worries me is the Air skills, no shocking Aura..? This is socking and sad!

A thought here is that they will put it on the new weapon maybe? maybe they new weapon will be offhand? I am so curious!

What if sword is confirmed as offhand? but actualy have impact/change for scepter and dagger skills.

Sword main hand, staff offhand.

MyPuppy.8970:

Sword main hand, staff offhand.

YOUUUU SHALLLL NOT PASSSS!!!

Bluefox.9580:

“Chop” actually makes me think axe.

This is The Food Network. You’ve been CHOPPED.

Mem no Fushia.7604:

What if sword is confirmed as offhand? but actualy have impact/change for scepter and dagger skills.

What I think you need to ask yourself is what do you think would be a more interesting combo: Sword/Focus or Scepter/Sword. Since Dagger is on both hands, that isn’t as much of a big deal.

And what about sword/sword? 20 new weapon skills sounds fun. But I’d rather Staff/Sword. Please make my dreams come true. 1200 range aoe + close combat burst.

sword/staff seems balanced.

Elementfury.4632:

The way I think they may change elementalist class mechanic is the longer you stay in that attunement the stronger that element will be. Fire for example would increase power, higher/ longer burn rates. Possibly reducing CD’s in fire also. Just a thought would give us more incentive to stay in a attunement.

I’d absolutely hate a playstyle forcing you to hug one attunement, I play Elementalist for the vast utility choice, not so I can hug one attunement.

I hope else don’t get sword. I was really hoping for double pistol. With a name like tempest, it sounds more like barraging your oponents with elements.

I’d give Sw/D a shot, tbh. Especially if Sword has some CCs … it’d help share the Lightning Rod love.