Guild Wars 2

I have been very sceptical about ANet’s approach to balancing the elem in the past, but this upcoming patch is insanely well thought!!

Everybody is blinded by the fact they introduced a new condition haha, but look how awesome are the buffs to the elem!

-Build diversity: achieved
-Faster paced combat: achieved
-Removed useless traits: achieved

Please take a moment to look at the patchnotes and see how clever they are. I am impressed!

Zelyhn.8069:

I have been very sceptical about ANet’s approach to balancing the elem in the past, but this upcoming patch is insanely well thought!!

Everybody is blinded by the fact they introduced a new condition haha, but look how awesome are the buffs to the elem!

-Build diversity: achieved
-Faster paced combat: achieved
-Removed useless traits: achieved

Please take a moment to look at the patchnotes and see how clever they are. I am impressed!

I think it’s more like

-Build diversity: achieved somewhat (good start)
-Faster paced combat: achieved for staff and scepter (remains to be seen in actual gameplay)
-Removed useless traits: more work needed, we still have some useless stuff in the filler traits and things like 20% cooldown reduction should be more like 40% considering they are not for a weapon, but for an attunement.

I speak mainly for PvE, so let’s see:
-Fresh air is awesome all around, it synergizes with lingering elements and reduces the need for arcana at the same time = build diversity
-Persisting flames: fury share was what made d/d-f very viable in PvE, now we can share fury in scepter and staff as well, and not just a bit! =build diversity
-Staff improvements =faster paced, damage
-bountyfull power: water traits no longer give you more damage than fire traits= build diversity
-10% crit damage on arcane spell (air trait) = awesome!

Yes there are still some useless traits, but many less!

Zelyhn.8069:

I speak mainly for PvE, so let’s see:
-Fresh air is awesome all around, it synergizes with lingering elements and reduces the need for arcana at the same time = build diversity
-Persisting flames: fury share was what made d/d-f very viable in PvE, now we can share fury in scepter and staff as well, and not just a bit! =build diversity
-Staff improvements =faster paced, damage
-bountyfull power: water traits no longer give you more damage than fire traits= build diversity
-10% crit damage on arcane spell (air trait) = awesome!

Yes there are still some useless traits, but many less!

The extra 10% crit damage is negligible… should be 20% extra at the least.

Swim.6830:

Zelyhn.8069:

I speak mainly for PvE, so let’s see:
-Fresh air is awesome all around, it synergizes with lingering elements and reduces the need for arcana at the same time = build diversity
-Persisting flames: fury share was what made d/d-f very viable in PvE, now we can share fury in scepter and staff as well, and not just a bit! =build diversity
-Staff improvements =faster paced, damage
-bountyfull power: water traits no longer give you more damage than fire traits= build diversity
-10% crit damage on arcane spell (air trait) = awesome!

Yes there are still some useless traits, but many less!

The extra 10% crit damage is negligible… should be 20% extra at the least.

10% crit damage is really decent! and it comes at almost no cost: if you trait for damage then you necessarily have 30 in air, so plenty of room to choose this; then it’s just one utility slot for arcane wave, 10 points in arcane and you have your quasi-perma 10% bonus. That’s a 4% damage increase on a dps build, it’s just a good option to be able to choose when you have dps-checks

I also like most of the changes. But I’d love to see a change in conjure-mechanics … but the changes aren’t official yet so there is still hope

The changes seem awesome, though conjures and focus seem missing from the list, I am very happy if these changes happen though, step in the right direction for sure.

Zelyhn.8069:

Swim.6830:

Zelyhn.8069:

I speak mainly for PvE, so let’s see:
-Fresh air is awesome all around, it synergizes with lingering elements and reduces the need for arcana at the same time = build diversity
-Persisting flames: fury share was what made d/d-f very viable in PvE, now we can share fury in scepter and staff as well, and not just a bit! =build diversity
-Staff improvements =faster paced, damage
-bountyfull power: water traits no longer give you more damage than fire traits= build diversity
-10% crit damage on arcane spell (air trait) = awesome!

Yes there are still some useless traits, but many less!

The extra 10% crit damage is negligible… should be 20% extra at the least.

10% crit damage is really decent! and it comes at almost no cost: if you trait for damage then you necessarily have 30 in air, so plenty of room to choose this; then it’s just one utility slot for arcane wave, 10 points in arcane and you have your quasi-perma 10% bonus. That’s a 4% damage increase on a dps build, it’s just a good option to be able to choose when you have dps-checks

The buff you get lasts 15 seconds. Traited, the cooldown of Arcane Blast is 16 seconds.

Perma +10% Crit Damage.

PinCushion.7390:

Zelyhn.8069:

Swim.6830:

Zelyhn.8069:

I speak mainly for PvE, so let’s see:
-Fresh air is awesome all around, it synergizes with lingering elements and reduces the need for arcana at the same time = build diversity
-Persisting flames: fury share was what made d/d-f very viable in PvE, now we can share fury in scepter and staff as well, and not just a bit! =build diversity
-Staff improvements =faster paced, damage
-bountyfull power: water traits no longer give you more damage than fire traits= build diversity
-10% crit damage on arcane spell (air trait) = awesome!

Yes there are still some useless traits, but many less!

The extra 10% crit damage is negligible… should be 20% extra at the least.

10% crit damage is really decent! and it comes at almost no cost: if you trait for damage then you necessarily have 30 in air, so plenty of room to choose this; then it’s just one utility slot for arcane wave, 10 points in arcane and you have your quasi-perma 10% bonus. That’s a 4% damage increase on a dps build, it’s just a good option to be able to choose when you have dps-checks

The buff you get lasts 15 seconds. Traited, the cooldown of Arcane Blast is 16 seconds.

Perma +10% Crit Damage.

15 != 16
That’s why I said quasi-perma

Let me see, lightning flash no longer breaking stun = useless as a survivability tool.

Cleansing fire no longer breaking stun = no reason to ever slot it.

The staff improvements are nice, but they come at a cost of losing a huge survivability tool for ele’s actually running staff…. and staff ele’s are the ones that need to tool the most.

Some of the changes they made to the other abilities make no sense and still don’t give me a reason to ever use them.

Nerfs to builds that are competitive and buffs to builds that are nowhere near competitive and still won’t be after these changes.

I’m convinced ANet doesn’t play this game. Nobody considers ele to be at the top of the meta anymore, so why are they still nerfing it into the ground.

Once they fix Flamewall to something useful, I will love them, haha.

I’m looking over the leaked patch notes, if they’re real; does this impact the current 0/10/0/30/30 d/d builds, seems to again, nerf more boon/cantrip playstyle?

DarkSider.1079:

I’m looking over the leaked patch notes, if they’re real; does this impact the current 0/10/0/30/30 d/d builds, seems to again, nerf more boon/cantrip playstyle?

It’s a slight nerf to the damage output with Boutniful Power going from 2% per boon to 1% per boon and that Lightning Flash/ Cleansing Fire are no longer stun breaks.

There really will only be a small change to the playstyle and you will do slightly less damage now. I personally never slotted Cleansing fire, and really used Lightning Flash offensively or to get out of AOE, the 900 range will more often than not give you a good space to let the stun wear off anyway and then you can RTL away (if you have it that its).

This main buff seemed to be about bettering Staff and giving a few new builds to work out, and only slightly nerfing the popular 0/10/0/30/30 build. And most people who used that build wanted to be tankier anyway, so the damage loss isn’t huge, and could be made up for with gear or a sigil of force. I wish they gave something in return for taking that damage away (healing wise or something like that).

Uhhh. Anyone who says this “achieved build diversity” is a bit foolish. Guess you’ll have to see for yourselves come Tuesday.

I see this as a HUGE buff to my playstyle: Rock solid is now a “Master” ability!!! Gaining stability for 2s (3 or 3.2 s with boon duration) every time I switch to earth = swap to earth—> ether renewal!!! This is better than previous mist-form—>ether renewal b/c I can do it all the time!!! The lightning flash change doesn’t bother me that much, and the buff to signet of air makes the new bunker meta:

0/0/20/20/30 using signet of air to get around (and break stun) and relying on attunement swaps for fury. This also makes up for the loss of bountiful power by doing more condition damage, and the new salt stone (at the adept level for earth) makes up for it, utilizing all those bleeds we put out.

But i dont get it where is the point of nerfing bountiful power ? This trait wasnt even OP or anything , it was just fine. It’s an 8 % dmg buff from the boons u can get with attunment swap , that should be ok , i mean every other class can do somethin like that to.(buffing dmg from skills or traits)

vizups.3824:

But i dont get it where is the point of nerfing bountiful power ? This trait wasnt even OP or anything , it was just fine. It’s an 8 % dmg buff from the boons u can get with attunment swap , that should be ok , i mean every other class can do somethin like that to.(buffing dmg from skills or traits)

Bountiful power makes sense b/c it is in a defensive tree (water), and buffed damage so much that it was hard to give it up to spec into another tree. If you had to pick between 30 water and 20 water + 10 somewhere else for more damage, 30 water turned out better for both damage (due to bountiful power) and utility (from a water GM trait).

Yeah but now u cant trait into water because u will lack dmg , but if u not trait into water u will lack survivability.

Agriope.4523:

Uhhh. Anyone who says this “achieved build diversity” is a bit foolish. Guess you’ll have to see for yourselves come Tuesday.

The opposite can be said as well. Guess you’ll have to see for yourself come Tuesday.

covenn.7165:

Let me see, lightning flash no longer breaking stun = useless as a survivability tool.

Cleansing fire no longer breaking stun = no reason to ever slot it.

The staff improvements are nice, but they come at a cost of losing a huge survivability tool for ele’s actually running staff…. and staff ele’s are the ones that need to tool the most.

I, a Staff Ele, survive find without either of these two utilities now. So this change is all benefit for me.

covenn.7165:

Let me see, lightning flash no longer breaking stun = useless as a survivability tool.

Cleansing fire no longer breaking stun = no reason to ever slot it.

The staff improvements are nice, but they come at a cost of losing a huge survivability tool for ele’s actually running staff…. and staff ele’s are the ones that need to tool the most.

I still see Lightning Flash as a good survivability tool for movement sake. If you use it while stunned you could avoid a burst and move far enough away that the stun wears off and move more. Is it optimal? no. I don’t like the change. And a 5 second cooldown reduction does NOT make up for the loss of a stunbreak.

will be fun to pressure someone with the new and improved churning earth + flash combo :p I always thought they would increase the damage, since other teleports didn’t have damage it’d be more of a niche.

emikochan.8504:

will be fun to pressure someone with the new and improved churning earth + flash combo :p I always thought they would increase the damage, since other teleports didn’t have damage it’d be more of a niche.

Lighting Flash hits a target for about the same damage as a Lightning Whip. You can get a nice 2k crit with it. Now it’s going to crit for over 3k easily.

I’m already starting to fool around with some interesting combos. Vapor Blades + Weak Spot is stacking vulnerability quite high and quite fast. Stack vulnerability to about 15; quick swap to Earth for a Churning Earth + Lightning Flash. Boom.

^ It only hits as much as one strike of lightning whip, not a full lightning whip. But yeah the bursting will be nicer now along with the new grounded adding a bit of innate defense.

I’d have to agree that the small buffs don’t make up for the loss of stun break though. Probably intentional to get people off cantrips.

I see it as a buff, or at least a balancing move not a nerf. Specializing in cantrips has a ton of benefits, overshadowing all other types of utilities. Spreading their positive effects and reducing their cool-downs is okay.

I’m sure that some children see removing the training wheels from a bicycle as a nerf. Having 3 stunbreaks with inherent benefits of their own and more traited benefits is a bit like training wheels. Try playing an all-kit engineer then come back to cantrip elementalist and tell me you need a stun-breaking-condition-removing-regeneration-and-vigor-giving skill in every single utility slot.

The buffs to rock solid and grounded are awesome. 0-30-20-10-10…….

Well a nerf is part of balancing, so it’s still a nerf. It’s just that it was a nerf in the right direction for making things equal. You’re right’ overall the update looks good as a buffing for eles as a whole and reaches towards their goal of equalizing different build options.

My comment about small buffs not making up for were because I can’t see much point in taking LF over an other skill in a non /d build since it’s status as a pseudo stun breaker is weaker than a regular one like signet of air. Point is it won’t have nearly as much utility outside of cantrip as it did before so I feel like it may become one of those meh skills ignored in most situations. Of course I’ll see whether or not that’s the case after the patch I guess.