Guild Wars 2

This is REALLY exciting! Do you guys think it might be possible to spec into condi builds through burning (+Signet of Fire)? Always felt like we’re out of place when compared to guardians. WE ARE the elementalists here, ANet, we manipulate fire! heh

We’re getting a survival buff but our damage is getting nerfed (bleed and burn nerfs to allow condi stacking).

There is also a celestial nerf incoming, and our elites are still useless.

Xillllix.3485:

We’re getting a survival buff but our damage is getting nerfed (bleed and burn nerfs to allow condi stacking).

There is also a celestial nerf incoming, and our elites are still useless.

I think they’ll make a second pass at our condition-applying skills, increasing stacks (such as scepter earth #1, or fire #1).

Useless elites are useless. That’s an unchanging fact, and I kind of give up on them getting rid of all this stuff.

Yea really I thought they would do some more work with weapon skills, and trying to make something besides cantrips useful for utility but these are alot of changes to come in one update and to much change at one time could potentially destroy the game. They will probably see how the new meta starts to form then bring more changes. These are good though changes though. Fresh air got a good buff to utility and shouldnt have much of a problem with 2 other specializations to help survive. I think staff aura sharing is going to be very viable, and d/d is my least fav set but that also will be less dependent on boons to survive if you go into earth and get the 20% damage reduction trait in melee

sirrrock.7940:

if you go into earth and get the 20% damage reduction trait in melee

It’s 10% now

Hooray! Thank you anet! EA being a minor is like a dream come true.

Literally almost crying tears of joy... They listened...

Blasting Staff was going to be baseline right? I can’t find it in the prepatch notes..

Yes it is sad to see almost 0 changes to glyphs and elites. I’m happy we aren’t getting gutted, but it feels like they only did a numbers pass since we got the last reveal along with the EA change. I mean, I actually use tornado in pvp… But its pretty bad. I’ll find maybe 0-2 times a game to pop it for some use. (usually it helps secure stomps if we just downed 2+ enemies, as well as remove ppl from points who are downed.) The damage of the elite is horrible… I’ve never, ever, downed someone with the elite. Give it a ranged attack (900 yards), a ranged blind (900 yards), and keep the knockback melee, but also add a 600 yard aoe pull for a fourth ability.

So many changes missing from this update.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Goodbye lingering elements

I will

not

miss you

What?! This was a key element to the Elementalist, how you won;t miss it?!

I cannot believe it does no longer exists…

Jaetara.4075:

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Goodbye lingering elements

I will

not

miss you

What?! This was a key element to the Elementalist, how you won;t miss it?!

I cannot believe it does no longer exists…

It only affected a few traits…

Sayuri.9541:

Literally almost crying tears of joy… They listened…

They listened, indeed, on some obvious things, but many changes are making things worse.

So… lets see

Still no viable defensive options in fire/air/earth… check
Almost all builds still forced into arcane… check
Offensive water gm trait removed and earth minor damage reduction nerfed to make up for EA being made a minor (= even more reason to be forced into arcane) … check
Pvp “meta” virtually unchanged after 3+ years (well itll be 0/0/6/6/6 instead of 0/0/2/6/6, but still)… check
Every future balance change made around said meta build (guessing here, but who doesnt doubt this) … check

Oh joy, we are saved.

And no, this isnt a totally pessimistic post, i’ll still play my ele every day and enjoy it. But it wont be nearly as interesting as it could be if EA stayed as a gm and the other traits were balanced around that, instead of basically running the same exact builds post patch as we always have. Yawn.

When Burning Ashes actually becomes per-target ICD then we may see some variation (from earth to fire) but until then…

karl is our savior he saved us from something. Something horrible, I don’t know what it is but he saved us. At least it could have been way worse.

I mean we started out with being forced into arcane and ended up back where we started, a pessimist would say the displacement was 0, an optimist would day the distance was 360. Before 00266 after 00666 PROGRESS!!! fools.

Well PvE builds changed from 66200 to 66006 (FRA=Fire aiR Arcane, also, I am french so I really like this spec name). That’s something!

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Well PvE builds changed from 66200 to 66006 (FRA=Fire aiR Arcane, also, I am french so I really like this spec name). That’s something!

Well PvE, is PvE. I mean for most of PvE except fractures you can probably sneeze and still a favorable outcome.

PlatinumMember.5274:

karl is our savior he saved us from something. Something horrible, I don’t know what it is but he saved us. At least it could have been way worse.

I mean we started out with being forced into arcane and ended up back where we started, a pessimist would say the displacement was 0, an optimist would day the distance was 360. Before 00266 after 00666 PROGRESS!!! fools.

Yea, karls saved us (partially) from himself! Yes, every pvp ele is still taking arcana 100% of the time. Water is now being taken 90% of the time (fresh air builds might deviate into earth or fire if blinding ashes ever becomes per-target). However, I don’t think we have 0 displacement. We might be going from 00266 d/d to 0/6/0/6/6. While going into earth is certainly much more tanky, the quality of the traits just can’t compete with how incredibly strong air is. With ele attunement + ele contingency, you have more than enough to get 100% prot uptime. The amount of damage + mobility you get from going into air more than makes up from the -10% damage in melee (which is the biggest gain). From a higher level, fresh air is one of the five strongest traits available to the class, and the synergy with one with air (now at 3s) is very powerful for a melee d/x spec. You might even be able to play dagger/focus with such a build.

Sure, it is the same role (bruiser) as always, but at least there are a few options.

I asked phantaram what he thought, and he said that he wouldn’t pick earth since it doesn’t give you any extra damage. He said for cele builds you’d want fire for the damage, burn uptime, and blinding ashes, and for zerker specs you’d want air for, well, obvious reasons.

It will be interesting to see what tempest and sword (if it is sword at all) will bring to the table.

Thomas.8130:

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

If you can figure out a condition build that sits in fire, let us know. Or any condition build for that matter…

Condi builds still seam unrealistic for Elementalist, as the usage of Earth line. I was hoping things would get more balanced but still most of our skill categories are weak and trait lines unbalanced. Some traits are not even debatable, no one will ever use them and some other are good but weak if you compare them to what other classes are getting. Our damage got nerfed and our options are limited as always!

So, please we are not saved we are just not completely destroyed yet.

BlackBeard.2873:

PlatinumMember.5274:

karl is our savior he saved us from something. Something horrible, I don’t know what it is but he saved us. At least it could have been way worse.

I mean we started out with being forced into arcane and ended up back where we started, a pessimist would say the displacement was 0, an optimist would day the distance was 360. Before 00266 after 00666 PROGRESS!!! fools.

Yea, karls saved us (partially) from himself! Yes, every pvp ele is still taking arcana 100% of the time. Water is now being taken 90% of the time (fresh air builds might deviate into earth or fire if blinding ashes ever becomes per-target). However, I don’t think we have 0 displacement. We might be going from 00266 d/d to 0/6/0/6/6. While going into earth is certainly much more tanky, the quality of the traits just can’t compete with how incredibly strong air is. With ele attunement + ele contingency, you have more than enough to get 100% prot uptime. The amount of damage + mobility you get from going into air more than makes up from the -10% damage in melee (which is the biggest gain). From a higher level, fresh air is one of the five strongest traits available to the class, and the synergy with one with air (now at 3s) is very powerful for a melee d/x spec. You might even be able to play dagger/focus with such a build.

Sure, it is the same role (bruiser) as always, but at least there are a few options.

What you said is technically true for only d/x. I was speaking in general terms. As a person who hates the bruiser play style of d/x, this doesn’t really change anything.