Guild Wars 2

Elementalists have now been SAVED! EA and EA have now been moved into different trait tiers, so now we dont have to delete our Elementalists! Thank you arenanet for not destroying elementalist for me.

But Arcana still only has two good major traits.

Goodbye lingering elements

I will

not

miss you

Laraley.7695:

But Arcana still only has two good major traits.

The revive speed trait could be decent in pvp, I mean some support staff eles run mercy runes just to be a tanky point holding rez bot.

nearlight.3064:

Laraley.7695:

But Arcana still only has two good major traits.

The revive speed trait could be decent in pvp, I mean some support staff eles run mercy runes just to be a tanky point holding rez bot.

Maybe, but I really don’t like these specs. It doesn’t change the fact there are so many useless traits.

BATMAN.6794:

Elementalists have now been SAVED! EA and EA have now been moved into different trait tiers, so now we dont have to delete our Elementalists! Thank you arenanet for not destroying elementalist for me.

I thought it’s moved to minor trait ?

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Goodbye lingering elements

I will

not

miss you

It’s funny that they remove it right when they made it useful. We could have had permanent super soothing mist, lingering +25 movement speed and/or 150 power. Lingering elements would be better than 10% boon duration actually.

We got some niiiiice buffs.

-Baseline Attunement swap being 10 seconds is in itself pretty huge.

-All the Training traits now reduce cool downs by 33%! AND have other awesome effects rolled into them. Geomancer’s Training in particular is amazing, especially for Focus users.

-Bolt to the Heart is now the Elementalist Executioner! Good buff.

-Powerful Aura has been reworded to “When you apply an aura to yourself”! Hopefully this means auras you gain via traits, Leaps, Blasts and runes too. I think this is why they got rid of Fire’s Embrace; the group uptime on Protection/Fury/Swiftness would be pretty OP otherwise. Still, I don’t think they should have gotten rid of the trait altogether, since it kinda screws over some signet condi builds.

-One with Air has been significantly buffed, could be really helpful to skilled players.

-Ferocious Winds is no longer completely useless now, lol. Helps make up for not being able to take BttH and Fresh Air together.

-Rock Solid states “2 seconds of stability.” I wonder if they mean 2 stacks. If true, then it’s a nice buff.

-New Fire Adept Minor is decent. Sunspot now helps non-melee Eles too.

-At least now each tier of Arcana has a decent trait (Renewing Stamina, Final Shielding, Evasive Arcana.) I do hope they upped the trigger chance for Arcane Precision. Also, hooray for the EArcana Cleansing Wave being un-nerfed!

-ICE BOW 2 and 3 BUFFED, 4 NOT nerfed!

-Tornado/Whirlpool and Ether Renewal now have synergy with all the cantrip traits. Still don’t think Tornado is worth taking though, but we’ll see.

-Looks like they’re finally programming the damage buff to Fiery Charge into the game, with an additional 10% buff.

-New Burning Precision has same ICD as Blinding Ashes! Blind spam ftw. Hopefully the ICD is per enemy and not global. I don’t like that this now competes with Burning Fire, but I’ll live.

-I do think Aquatic Benevolence and Soothing Power should be switched, with the former being buffed back to 25% and the latter being nerfed, maybe to 100-150%. At least this way, the GM minor trait will do SOMETHING for you regardless of your build.

What we lost:

-Inherent stats from traitlines. This hits us hard especially since we tend to depend on the Vitality and Boon Duration from Water/Arcana. Hopefully they compensate us well for this. I don’t math very well but the burning changes look good to make up for the lost condi duration from Fire, but someone who DOES math well can feel free to correct me.

-Fire’s Embrace is gone, but I understand why given how Powerful Aura was buffed.

-Lingering Elements. Pfft, GOOD RIDDANCE.

-Still need skill reworks, especially for stuff like Shatterstone, Fire Shield, Freezing Gust, Glyphs, and all our Elites.

But all in all, I really cannot complain. This is exciting!

Glenstorm.4059:

-ICE BOW 4 BUFFED!

No

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Glenstorm.4059:

-ICE BOW 4 BUFFED!

No

? Explain please?

IB got a buff to 2 and 3, not 4

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

IB got a buff to 2 and 3, not 4

Ahhh silly me, I always confuse Frost Volley and Ice Storm. Thanks, will edit my post. Still good changes though!

Pretty stoked and completely surprised how much they listened to.

3s of superspeed an no cooldown on freshair? mobility eles incoming

Kodiak.3281:

Pretty stoked and completely surprised how much they listened to.

Really? I think the only thing they listened to was not to keep EA as a gm trait, rest seems a bit random.

Kodiak.3281:

Pretty stoked and completely surprised how much they listened to.

Same. ANet managed to pull through. Somehow I think if there hadn’t been 876234 threads saying “what the kitten?” they may have thought they could get away with it. But I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they realized from the first objections that the nerfs were stupid.

So… good job, ANet. You’ve regained some of my faith in your ability to balance the game.

If by save you mean only daggers and scepter (fresh air). if you are a staff, you just shake your head and be glad, it is less horrible than anticipated.

PlatinumMember.5274:

If by save you mean only daggers and scepter (fresh air). if you are a staff, you just shake your head and be glad, it is less horrible than anticipated.

Haha, I play fresh air and I don’t like the changes. I was hoping the spec would be shifted into a bit more skilled play from having so much instant stuff.

I think maybe staff eles would be viable somehow as a heal spec since ele will be able to give everyone a healing signet. 414 heal per sec is not bad.

Laraley.7695:

PlatinumMember.5274:

If by save you mean only daggers and scepter (fresh air). if you are a staff, you just shake your head and be glad, it is less horrible than anticipated.

Haha, I play fresh air and I don’t like the changes. I was hoping the spec would be shifted into a bit more skilled play from having so much instant stuff.

I think maybe staff eles would be viable somehow as a heal spec since ele will be able to give everyone a healing signet. 414 heal per sec is not bad.

agree, I mean who doesn’t enjoy being a gloried heal bot.

Oh well. I have a necromancer to fall back on…hopefully. I am glad Robert is the necro guy.

Buff one of, if not the strongest class in virtually every game mode —> save game.

Sounds legit.

Laraley.7695:

Kodiak.3281:

Pretty stoked and completely surprised how much they listened to.

Really? I think the only thing they listened to was not to keep EA as a gm trait, rest seems a bit random.

Uh what?

They revamped the Fire Line which prior to the changes was fairly hum drum. The 150 power in Fire Attunement vs a Chance to gain Fire Aura when you attune to Fire? Buring Fire moved to Adept? Ferocious Winds in Air now Ferocity based on Precision instead of Healing Power? Bolt to the Heart no longer 20% under 33% and a proper 20% under 50%? What’s crazy is the list goes on!

There’s a lot there man they changed from the initial round of !@#$ery they originally had.

honestly i’ve been running a staff build in pvp, and it’s worked very well for me, and it has received nothing but incredible buffs. I’m so thrilled to play with these changes.

(my build is a 2/0/0/6/6 clerics build, pretty good at 1v1 and sometimes 2v1, and absolutely excellent in 2v2 or more. it can hold a point very well)

Kodiak.3281:

Laraley.7695:

Kodiak.3281:

Pretty stoked and completely surprised how much they listened to.

Really? I think the only thing they listened to was not to keep EA as a gm trait, rest seems a bit random.

Uh what?

They revamped the Fire Line which prior to the changes was fairly hum drum. The 150 power in Fire Attunement vs a Chance to gain Fire Aura when you attune to Fire? Buring Fire moved to Adept? Ferocious Winds in Air now Ferocity based on Precision instead of Healing Power? Bolt to the Heart no longer 20% under 33% and a proper 20% under 50%? What’s crazy is the list goes on!

There’s a lot there man they changed from the initial round of !@#$ery they originally had.

The change to bolt to the heart was known since they first showed the traits. These things they changes actually should have been done ages ago, just from pure logic. I don’t see any good traits that would actually open up a wider build diversity, I also can’t say I don’t feel like I’m not forced into traits and skills. And I definitely don’t see any encouragement for skilled play. While these buffs are reasonable, they shouldn’t have had to be done in the first place.

The only thing I’m missing is RtL. Once that get’s un-nerfed to a 25 sec cooldown 1200 charge, I will be ecstatic. That’s literally the only thing left that I have issue with.

Tei.1704:

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Goodbye lingering elements

I will

not

miss you

It’s funny that they remove it right when they made it useful. We could have had permanent super soothing mist, lingering +25 movement speed and/or 150 power. Lingering elements would be better than 10% boon duration actually.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the soothing mist change, then they got to the Arcane tree. Hopefully they roll that into another trait.

Tei.1704:

It’s funny that they remove it right when they made it useful. We could have had permanent super soothing mist, lingering +25 movement speed and/or 150 power. Lingering elements would be better than 10% boon duration actually.

Agreed. Also forgetting 5s of cannot be crit if you picked up the trait in earth too. Would make for a very bunker build with lingering elements, in fact it would make it possibly better than EA!

Generally I think the traits are pretty good, coulda done with more love for the glyphs, signets maybe a little love too. Will have to see how it all merges together, that 3 full trait lines is gonna be very strong for all.

I was expecting the nerf hammer of death on Ice Bow and like… I mean… and then Fiery Rush… Well..! Okay! I’m not complaining. This is great. This very good.

I am pleased. I am very pleased.

Raif.9507:

The only thing I’m missing is RtL. Once that get’s un-nerfed to a 25 sec cooldown 1200 charge, I will be ecstatic. That’s literally the only thing left that I have issue with.

It’s officially forgiven in my book. This more then makes up for it.

Most of the changes are good, but as long as Elemental Attunement is in the Arcane, we’re going to be stuck taking Arcane.

Water is still a given too, so every PVP/WVW is still going to end up as Arcane + Water + ?, which overall is a bad outcome.

The other thing is, with the damage reduction down to 10% from 20%, Earth looks pretty weak now.

Glenstorm.4059:

We got some niiiiice buffs.

-Baseline Attunement swap being 10 seconds is in itself pretty huge.
-All the Training traits now reduce cool downs by 33%! AND have other awesome effects rolled into them. Geomancer’s Training in particular is amazing.
-Bolt to the Heart is now the Elementalist Executioner! Good buff.
-Powerful Aura has been reworded to “When you apply an aura to yourself”! Hopefully this means auras you gain via Leaps, Blasts and runes too. I think this is why they got rid of Fire’s Embrace; the group uptime on Protection/Fury/Swiftness would be pretty OP otherwise.
-One with Air has been significantly buffed, could be really helpful to skilled players.
-Ferocious Winds is no longer completely useless now, lol. Helps make up for not being able to take BttH and Fresh Air together.
-Rock Solid states “2 seconds of stability.” I wonder if they mean 2 stacks. If true, then it’s a nice buff.
-New Fire Adept Minor is decent. Sunspot now helps non-melee Eles too.
-At least now each tier of Arcana has a decent trait (Renewing Stamina, Final Shielding, Evasive Arcana.) I do hope they upped the trigger chance for Arcane Precision. Also, hooray for the EArcana Cleansing Wave being un-nerfed!
-ICE BOW 2 and 3 BUFFED, 4 NOT nerfed!
-Tornado/Whirlpool and Ether Renewal now have synergy with all the cantrip traits. Still don’t think Tornado is worth taking though, but we’ll see.
-Looks like they’re finally programming the damage buff to Fiery Charge into the game, with an additional 10% buff.
-New Burning Precision has same ICD as Blinding Ashes! Blind spam ftw. Hopefully the ICD is per enemy and not global…
-Personally, I’m annoyed that I can’t take both Burning Fire and Burning Precision, but I’ll live.

What we lost:

-Inherent stats from traitlines. This hits us hard especially since we tend to depend on the Vitality and Boon Duration from Water/Arcana. Hopefully they compensate us well for this. I don’t math very well but the burning changes look good to make up for the lost condi duration from Fire, but someone who DOES math well can feel free to correct me.
-Fire’s Embrace is gone, but I understand why given how Powerful Aura was buffed.
-Lingering Elements. Pfft, GOOD RIDDANCE.
-Still need skill reworks, especially for stuff like Shatterstone and Glyphs.

But all in all, I really cannot complain. This is exciting!

Where is this info coming from? Do you have a link?

Thanks!

Never mind, found it: http://dulfy.net/2015/06/15/gw2-ready-up-skill-and-balance-changes-livestream-notes/#Elementalist_Changes

MrSilver.5269:

Never mind, found it: http://dulfy.net/2015/06/15/gw2-ready-up-skill-and-balance-changes-livestream-notes/#Elementalist_Changes

Was going to post the reddit link but you beat me to it

They also said they would put up all the notes later, I expect here on the forums.

MrSilver.5269:

Where is this info coming from? Do you have a link?

Thanks!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/39y6n9/ready_up_skills_and_balance_livestream_notes/

The Good:
They did do some very good changes, and it is a step in the right direction. They deserve great credit for the work done so far. If you can get a fire-aura every time you attune to fire (the major-minor trait says this), and a frost-aura on-crit (depending on cooldown), I can see an aura-mancer build with fire/earth/water working pretty well.

Fresh air will be interesting, and I can see it going air/arcana/X where that X could be either earth (earth CD reduction for focus skills + reduction of movespeed impairing condis is very good) or water (for cleanse + a little damage).

I think d/d AND staff will still be max-tank, but you will see some people go air/water/arcana (for fresh-air on the d/d set) and try to be more offensive. This might be good because it just grabs all the strongest traits eles have (fresh air, cleansing water, the arcana standards).

The also did a decent job at making SOME of the “non-existent” traits (sunspot, ferocious winds, lingering elements, flame barrier, etc.) usable or replaced them.

What still needs work:
- The terrible utilities and weapon-skills still need to be fixed. With the removal of “aura on signet,” signet builds will no longer be thing, but some people will still use SoR and signet of air. Nobody will use signet of fire and signet of water still, and only rarely earth. Glyphs are still bad (besides GoEP), and no word on conjures besides ice-bow. I am not sold on FGS being very good, with the mobility nerfed, I’m not sure a little bit of damage is going to do all that much. More importantly, they should reduce the ICD. I also don’t think ether renewal will be very good, even with full-cantrips, if it remains a cast time of “forever.” (screaming: kill me trickery thief)

- Even at 25% movespeed, I think zephyr’s speed is pretty bad, especially if it doesn’t linger. Most eles are still going to have ele. attunement, and get swiftness (which will over-write the bonus for the entire duration. Those who don’t, but take one-with-air also give up all benefit of this trait. It is not good that it conflicts with so many things in its own line. Likewise, pyromancer’s puissance is just BAD. Even if you are a fire-camping PvE ele, you want persisting flames (for all that lava-fonty goodness + fury). I can’t think of an ele build that would ever use this trait. What is really the problem, is that Pyromancer’s Puissance doesn’t really fit a DIFFERENT build to one that would want persisting flames.

- I still feel like 95% of all builds are going to want to go into arcana still. It just has such STRONG defensive traits (renewing stamina, ele attune, evasive arcana) that no other line can even begin to compare to. Maybe that is just the only way b/c they don’t want to reduce the effectiveness of the EA’s, but it also hurts build diversity a LOT. Even an auramancer-build is just better off giving up fire or air to get arcana and share better benefits.

Overall:
- The class was saved from being deleted by pvp, but still needs some works on its skills and lack-luster trait options in many lines. Every line has some great choices, but there are also many false choices that, to anyone experienced, are worse in just about every situation.

Nice analysis BlackBeard

BlackBeard.2873:

Overall:
- The class was saved from being deleted by pvp, but still needs some works on its skills and lack-luster trait options in many lines. Every line has some great choices, but there are also many false choices that, to anyone experienced, are worse in just about every situation.

Do you really believe that? That elementalist was at any point something that was so terrible in PvP that it was in danger of being “deleted”?

Because I’ve got rangers insisting that they’re the pariahs of PvP.

My experience must be atypical as kitten. But hey at any rate, glad to hear you’re impressed with the changes.

Don’t jump to conclusions before we see all changes in action. They don’t look terrible but we won’t know how it compares to other classes before we get to play it all.

CETheLucid.3964:

BlackBeard.2873:

Overall:
- The class was saved from being deleted by pvp, but still needs some works on its skills and lack-luster trait options in many lines. Every line has some great choices, but there are also many false choices that, to anyone experienced, are worse in just about every situation.

Do you really believe that? That elementalist was at any point something that was so terrible in PvP that it was in danger of being “deleted”?

Because I’ve got rangers insisting that they’re the pariahs of PvP.

My experience must be atypical as kitten. But hey at any rate, glad to hear you’re impressed with the changes.

It wasn’t at the moment, no. It could have been if they went with the changes they proposed a few weeks ago.

Laraley.7695:

CETheLucid.3964:

BlackBeard.2873:

Overall:
- The class was saved from being deleted by pvp, but still needs some works on its skills and lack-luster trait options in many lines. Every line has some great choices, but there are also many false choices that, to anyone experienced, are worse in just about every situation.

Do you really believe that? That elementalist was at any point something that was so terrible in PvP that it was in danger of being “deleted”?

Because I’ve got rangers insisting that they’re the pariahs of PvP.

My experience must be atypical as kitten. But hey at any rate, glad to hear you’re impressed with the changes.

It wasn’t at the moment, no. It could have been if they went with the changes they proposed a few weeks ago.

I think in both scenarios that’s a gross exaggeration, but whatever. We got the better of it.

Saved? I guess if saved means strengthening existing builds, while killing off fringe builds, then sure…

Pyromancer’s Puissance might not be great for a power build, but I can see it being useful in a condi build, since the might would boost that. And if tempest gets sword, we may see a faster auto attack, which could may PP into a very powerful trait

CETheLucid.3964:

Raif.9507:

The only thing I’m missing is RtL. Once that get’s un-nerfed to a 25 sec cooldown 1200 charge, I will be ecstatic. That’s literally the only thing left that I have issue with.

It’s officially forgiven in my book. This more then makes up for it.

No it doesn’t, it’s not even close. The reason for the RTL nerf was because it was a movement skill that ignored chill/cripple/swiftness/super speed. People complained that save for immobilize, there was no counterplay. All movement skills now will function like the old Ride the Lightning and here we are with this kitten, half working Ride the Lightning.

CETheLucid.3964:

BlackBeard.2873:

Overall:
- The class was saved from being deleted by pvp, but still needs some works on its skills and lack-luster trait options in many lines. Every line has some great choices, but there are also many false choices that, to anyone experienced, are worse in just about every situation.

Do you really believe that? That elementalist was at any point something that was so terrible in PvP that it was in danger of being “deleted”?

Because I’ve got rangers insisting that they’re the pariahs of PvP.

My experience must be atypical as kitten. But hey at any rate, glad to hear you’re impressed with the changes.

Yes, it was at one point. Back when S/D thieves ripped more boons off than they do now, elementalist was pushed out of the meta so hard it was amusing to watch. Same thing when they changed the healing co-efficients of some of the healing skills.

This is no different. The elementalist wasn’t “saved”. It was preserved. No really awesome new builds have emerged, Blinding Ashes is still meh if it isn’t an ICD per target. Old builds (most of them) were generally preserved, auramancer was made to be a little better (save that 20s ICD on the frost aura trait).

Raif.9507:

CETheLucid.3964:

Raif.9507:

The only thing I’m missing is RtL. Once that get’s un-nerfed to a 25 sec cooldown 1200 charge, I will be ecstatic. That’s literally the only thing left that I have issue with.

It’s officially forgiven in my book. This more then makes up for it.

No it doesn’t, it’s not even close.

You don’t have a say in what I do and don’t forgive. That’s up to me.

Raif.9507:

CETheLucid.3964:

BlackBeard.2873:

Overall:
- The class was saved from being deleted by pvp, but still needs some works on its skills and lack-luster trait options in many lines. Every line has some great choices, but there are also many false choices that, to anyone experienced, are worse in just about every situation.

Do you really believe that? That elementalist was at any point something that was so terrible in PvP that it was in danger of being “deleted”?

Because I’ve got rangers insisting that they’re the pariahs of PvP.

My experience must be atypical as kitten. But hey at any rate, glad to hear you’re impressed with the changes.

Yes, it was at one point. Back when S/D thieves ripped more boons off than they do now, elementalist was pushed out of the meta so hard it was amusing to watch. Same thing when they changed the healing co-efficients of some of the healing skills.

This is no different.

Funny how none of those things ultimately succeeded in removing Ele from the meta, and they were nerfs… but you’re comparing one of the best buffs the Ele is about to get to those times?

Do I have that right?

CETheLucid.3964:

Funny how none of those things ultimately succeeded in removing Ele from the meta, and they were nerfs… but you’re comparing one of the best buffs the Ele is about to get to those times?

Do I have that right?

Uhh… they did remove ele from the meta at that time. ANet had to reduce the amount of boons a S/D thief could rip in off of you and had to change the stats on the Celestial amulet to bring ele back into the fold.

This isn’t one of the best buffs ele has gotten, this is preserving the ele builds that exists (sans signet auras) in the new mastery system. The only good thing coming out of this is the reduced attunement swaps, no ICD on Fresh Air and maybe blinding ashes depending on how the ICD works (per target or in general).

I like many of those changes.

Trait change are “fine” i guess.

On my mind, they should swap Aquatic Benevolence with Soothing Power, nerf soothing power to +100%, add to aquatic benevolance +100% to soothing mist.
A bit silly since now taking adept minor means taking master and gm (but we still see this kind of thing for every class so not really an issue). But at least it solves the issue of ele beeing forced to kitteneless trait when running low healing power.

For air, Bolt to the heart beeing a mere copy of executionner is meh

For fire, i dont like the fact that auto cleansing fire compete with burning precision, it remove all form of defense in fire since you need burning precision to synergyze with Blinding ashe, who need by the way to be ICD per target (and maybe nerf the ICD if it become per target)

What really sucks is the total lack of rework to weapon and utility skills
scepter’s AA
RTL
Staff in general
Elite
etc.

Raif.9507:

Uhh… they did remove ele from the meta at that time.

I’ll have to take your word for it then?

Raif.9507:

This isn’t one of the best buffs ele has gotten.

We disagree.

CETheLucid.3964:

Raif.9507:

Uhh… they did remove ele from the meta at that time.

I’ll have to take your word for it then?

Raif.9507:

This isn’t one of the best buffs ele has gotten.

We disagree.

So according to you, the best buff ele received were a deserved nerf to the thief and a stat enhancement for a certain stuff (that everyone can enjoy). Definitely “ele” buff Kappa
If you buff/nerf ele by in fact not touching ele, that’s maybe the proof that ele is badly designed

Looks like good changes

Mattmatt.4962:

CETheLucid.3964:

Raif.9507:

Uhh… they did remove ele from the meta at that time.

I’ll have to take your word for it then?

Raif.9507:

This isn’t one of the best buffs ele has gotten.

We disagree.

So according to you, the best buff ele received were a deserved nerf to the thief and a stat enhancement for a certain stuff (that everyone can enjoy). Definitely “ele” buff Kappa
If you buff/nerf ele by in fact not touching ele, that’s maybe the proof that ele is badly designed

Something about this buff being a nerf to thieves, Kappa’s, claim Ele wasn’t touched at all and are badly designed.

Even though prior mention of stat enhancement for certain stuff that everyone can enjoy.

They weren’t touched at all and doing nothing for ele’s is proof that they’re badly designed.

Yes? Maybe? I… honestly can’t decipher what you’re trying to say here. I tried.

Mattmatt.4962:

So according to you, the best buff ele received were a deserved nerf to the thief and a stat enhancement for a certain stuff (that everyone can enjoy). Definitely “ele” buff Kappa
If you buff/nerf ele by in fact not touching ele, that’s maybe the proof that ele is badly designed

Or that balance is about a classes interactions with traits, utilities, weapon skills and the way other classes affect such choices either positively or negatively.

Right now I can see even though necros got some really short ends of a lot of sticks they got a lot of condi transfer and boon corruption, could certainly be a headache to high boon classes like guardians, mesmers and that other light armour class I can’t quite remember.