Guild Wars 2

I can’t belive you guys fell for that cheap PR stun with elemental attunement….

Anybody in the right mind wouldn’t make that Elemental Attunement a grandmaster compeating with evasive arcana ( 3 pages of forum complaints after the announcement was made, backs up my point) . They did it so it will lower your expectations , They knew it all along and played this coin …. so now you’ll say “oh look! they listen to us , elementalists are saved”

But did you watch the livestream ? Didn’t it bothered you how they spent 10 minutes on elementalist and 1 hour on engineer ?

How not even 1 explanation for the changes, to why they did what, to why they think it’s ok , and etc …. and how carefully and detailed they went over skills &traits on engineer. Created for them new traits (Lock On , and others; look them up to see your face drop) took care of engineer’s vulnerabilities ( cure conditions ) , improved every elite , gave them F5 , reduced bazilion of cooldowns.
How they even further dumbed down the ranger ? and so many QOL changes to other classes.

Hell, that person(you know who!) didn’t even knew if Geomancer freedom is an existing ele trait , or it was newly added . Shame! Shame ! Shame! like Cercei Lannister . Shame!

Look at ele changes :
- 1/3 of them are “Movement speed adjustments no longer affect the intended travel distance.”
- 1/3 are modifications on skills that apply burning / these are no buff or QOL ; just what every condi-skill in the game gone through
- 1/3 attuments cooldown reduced which in fact it’s a covered up wanna-be-buff since by going in arcana we would’ve got 10 sec cd anyway

Now ask yourself these :

Did we get F5? NO
Did they improve out garbage elites? NO
Do we have elites ? NO but enginner need to have AOE moa now , improved CRATE , improved mortar ( water field + blast finisher)
Did we got any improvement on our utilities ? NO
Did they make conjures , slot worthy (earth shield to be a stun break , etc )? NO
Can we get out of arcana? NO
Can we get out of water ? NO LEL at Ether renewal(the only other way to cure conditions ) being a cantrip now , nerfed it by making it 18 cd sec which means you have to go water to take the cantrip cd reduce
Can we have viable build without cantrips ? NO
Any traits about improving vitality ? NO

Any help for staff Air2,Air3,Earth2,Earth5 ? NO
Any blasts added to staff skills ? NO
Any help on scepter ? NO
Any help on Ride the lightening? NO
Can we have Mistform unnerfed back ? NO

Did they fix Flame shield (aura) to reduce condi duration 20 % , like in tooltip? NO

Did we get any of the new stuff ? ( Resistence , Slow , taunt (on earth shield, could be ) NO
Any QOL ? NO oh blasting staff , yeah cool …. , but how is this helping the others taht don’t play/ don’t wanna play staff?
Can we .. ? NO
i didn’t even finish what I wanted to .. ? NO

So what did ele got ? Oh .. bits of this , bits of that … something , something … Fire auras, and untold Internal Cooldowns on traits ….

Do i like that this class is hard to master and play ? YES
Do i like that i’m doing 3 x effort for mediocre result, and not be rewarded for trying that hard to set-up a combo of 5 spell, in 3 attunements for 1500 dmg … ? NO

Am i going to play this anymore ? ….
(pls, don’t start with “oh ,but wait for tempest ….” )

Well, everyone is anticipating too much, this goes for you too. I say wait until core changes are available and experiment, then you can decide. Only things that I think they should fix are condi builds (inexistant), and crappy elites (elementals still the way to go, but they crappy too).

I can’t really compare to engie (another class I play and love), engie will be literally re-made, and they will surely nerf some skills if they’re out of place.

Hey op hf out there and send me your stuff while you quit kthx.

I’d add to the list that RTL is untouched regardless of the fact that the reason it was nerfed in the first place no longer exists.

None of our weapon skills were touched… which sucks.

I dont 100% agree about trait, i think we can create decent build with only water OR arcane. I’m not entirely satisfied with trait change, but it a step in the right direction.

On the otherhand, i totally support you for the remaining. ele need a lot of rework to its skill (weapon, utilities and elite)

Hm, yeah. That was exactly my thought. They buffed some stuff that didn’t really need a buff, but I doubt they read the ele forums. There have been suggestions for a long time:

Increase radius of heals, since most of them are just too small > they decreased SM
Improve elites > No word about elites
Improve scepter and AA > didn’t change one thing about scepter
Create wider build diversity > locked eles into traits and skills even more

And this goes on and on. I find it funny that in many trait lines there are barely three traits I would consider taking. While people are happy about EA being a minor, I wonder why they didn’t actually add some good trait to Master in Arcana. Elemental Contingency is just plain bad and Final Shielding is not much better either.

Also, this:

Ride the Lightning: Movement speed adjustments no longer affect the intended travel distance.

is just hilarious. Shows how they know the class.

Laraley.7695:

Hm, yeah. That was exactly my thought. They buffed some stuff that didn’t really need a buff, but I doubt they read the ele forums. There have been suggestions for a long time:

Increase radius of heals, since most of them are just too small > they decreased SM
Improve elites > No word about elites
Improve scepter and AA > didn’t change one thing about scepter
Create wider build diversity > locked eles into traits and skills even more

And this goes on and on. I find it funny that in many trait lines there are barely three traits I would consider taking. While people are happy about EA being a minor, I wonder why they didn’t actually add some good trait to Master in Arcana. Elemental Contingency is just plain bad and Final Shielding is not much better either.

Also, this:

Ride the Lightning: Movement speed adjustments no longer affect the intended travel distance.

is just hilarious. Shows how they know the class.

I read that in the notes and just facepalmed IRL. I just… I don’t even… words.

Laraley.7695:

Also, this:

Ride the Lightning: Movement speed adjustments no longer affect the intended travel distance.

I must admit I facepalmed when I read that too

I have always thought, that a properly played Ele is one of the strongest classes in game. I still think that.
I agree, the elites need to be looked at, but is Anet dumbing some lines down intentionally so that Tempest looks more attractive?

DresdenAllblack.1249:

I have always thought, that a properly played Ele is one of the strongest classes in game. I still think that.
I agree, the elites need to be looked at, but is Anet dumbing some lines down intentionally so that Tempest looks more attractive?

Well, that seems to work for them. Talking about nerfs and then slightly buff things instead and people go crazy about ele being saved, which is ridiculous. Ele wouldn’t need to be saved if they didn’t decide to nerf it in the first place So, I suppose it will be similar with tempest. They’ll just hand out a few not so important changes, then introduce tempest, which will be average but people will go crazy because there’s seriously nothing new now. I was looking forward to play new builds and test things out. Did we get some new and fun traits? Can’t say we did. I don’t think the ele meta will shift.

Things that still REQUIRE a pass:
Tornado (Redo)
FGS (slight Buff to distance traveled to compensate)
Most glyphs
Some signets (now that they removed FE)
Conjures (not just frostbow…and make them instant cast)
A couple weapon skills (scepter autos, scepter 2 water, 3 earth, 4 water, and a few more)

These should come before the expansion. I love the elementalist, but they are missing some important changes.

Don’t leave some skills behind in the dust. One of the worst things about the elementalist is that they have so few viable utilities and elites. They make up for it with weapon skills being versatile and having cantrips. But please, don’t limit yourselves during this time of change. It is now the time to change these nearly worthless skills.

Quoting myself.

PlatinumMember.5274:

We did not get buffed contrary to popular belief. Or maybe we did get buff, but only if you play d/d and may d/f.

Apparently staff and s/d, signets, gylphs and arcane skills do not exist (not even going to mention conjures).

They goal was to add build diversity but with this change, it is still going to be arcane, water for 90% of the builds out there. So what really changed? I am arguing nothing did, it could have been worse but that is a terrible position to be arguing from.

I agree with OP tbh. Elementalists take a huge hit to armor & hp but w/o the defensive skills to back it up. This is what forces everyone into water/arcane. A glass cannon elem is the easiest to kill character in all of GW but isn’t anywhere near the top in terms of damage. This class is borked in a multitude of ways and I’ve stopped playing it LOOOONG ago waiting for some changes… Still waiting… Right now I play power necro when I want to feel like a caster. More survivable AND more powerful than an equivalent ele build.

We’ll have to see how things shake up but unless there are HUGE buffs in the works, it will make little difference to elementalists’ place in the hierarchy.

guess who is making sure engi isn’t getting the shaft

Elementalist get nerfed once more, while other classes get boosted. God help us!

I agree we’re cornered to cookie cutter builds.

Yeah I agree with alot. Pretty much Ele will go like this:
Arcana Line and Water Line are a must,which leaves you with only 1 other choice. Out of your 3 “choices” 2 are taken from get-go.
Then people are gonna use healing signet,because it’s the best thing to use. No one in pvp is gonna use Ether Renewal,because people with skill will wait for that,then stun/interupt it, gg dead ele.
All 3 cantrips in Utility and FGS as Elite,so you get some mobility through 3 and 4.

If you would have listened to the stream, Karl (who does elementalist along with thief) was not in to talk about the changes. The person talking about the Ele work was not one of the ones working on it (but he did work on engi).

Wait the guy who does thief also does ele? this explains a lot when it comes to the surplus of useless utilities and traits with both classes, and the complete pigeonhole to 1 build type (although, thief look like they got it a bit better than ele right now, they can at least fill the burst and roaming roll, where our support roll is arguably trash right now)

Cronstintein.7182:

I agree with OP tbh. Elementalists take a huge hit to armor & hp but w/o the defensive skills to back it up. This is what forces everyone into water/arcane. A glass cannon elem is the easiest to kill character in all of GW but isn’t anywhere near the top in terms of damage. This class is borked in a multitude of ways and I’ve stopped playing it LOOOONG ago waiting for some changes… Still waiting… Right now I play power necro when I want to feel like a caster. More survivable AND more powerful than an equivalent ele build.

We’ll have to see how things shake up but unless there are HUGE buffs in the works, it will make little difference to elementalists’ place in the hierarchy.

LOL… Power Necro more survival…
Guess people really take Hot-Join seriously.

Toxsa.2701:

LOL… Power Necro more survival…
Guess people really take Hot-Join seriously.

Actually hes right, Power necro is far more survivable than Fresh air (any wep) just due to deathshoud alone. Its not a hard to play build, play it for a bit and you’ll realize how much survivability you really have when playing it to its full potential (most people don’t even play it well and still dominate) It also has peirce and aoe, and brings condi clear. When you add in the effective use of staff, CCs, utilites (you know those things we have but only really have 4 of) and even elites the power necro is hands down better than fresh air.

Im sorry… Power necro more survivable then S/F fresh air? If you have a decent ele playing S/F it can be quite a bit of a challenge to kill them, with all of the invulns, reflects, and blocks…no Im sorry.

Anhomedog.7968:

Im sorry… Power necro more survivable then S/F fresh air? If you have a decent ele playing S/F it can be quite a bit of a challenge to kill them, with all of the invulns, reflects, and blocks…no Im sorry.

You’re wrong.
The “good” fresh air eles seems to be “unkillable” because they’re good at running when anybody sneeze in their direction, but once you run away…you then realize..that the enemy has just achieved their objective and nobody will care if you’re still alive or not because you were not able to do your job and your team just lost the team fight.

Once focused a fresh air has zero sustain once the long cd invulnerability is gone and all that is left to do is for you to run, if you remain you’ll just insta die

Anhomedog.7968:

Im sorry… Power necro more survivable then S/F fresh air? If you have a decent ele playing S/F it can be quite a bit of a challenge to kill them, with all of the invulns, reflects, and blocks…no Im sorry.

4s of Invuln on a 50s CD
3s of Reflect on a 25s CD
6s of Projectile Destruction on a 30s CD
3 Blocks on a 75-60s CD

You basically have 4 – 7s to kill someone if you start to get focused and good luck actually escaping afterwards. You also barely have any cleanses. There’s a reason why Thieves and Mesmers are much better at bursting.

Seriously, just make an engineer…it is ele 2.0, and has so many OP options and combinations that there will be MANY great build options.

Like staff ele? Just take mortar kit and do the same thing, but without being useless in a 1v1.

Like tanky d/d ele – just play celestial engie to get MORE damage, similar mobility, and way more control!

Like burst ele – you will probably be able to play zerker engie b/c of the “reveal on-hit” trait will prevent 100% thief counter, with plenty of free “proc” damage to get some big bursts.

Even though ele will have some very strong stuff with this next patch, its just a different variation of the same crap that will work – bruiser d/x builds or super-tanky staff builds. And yes, you will still be pigeon-holed super-hard into arcana/water b/c anet has no idea how to balance the class.

While your complaints might have some merit, be thankful every minute of you life that you aren’t Necromancer right now. Imagine if Fiery Greatsword did 10k damage of burning to you if you used it for the full duration, or if your heal was nerfed, applied a ton of vuln to you every time you used it and the only way to make it slightly better made it apply more conditions to you. On top of that, imagine having two places on the same build with Elemental Attunement vs Evasive Arcana kind of problems.

They may have not given us the best of the changes, but be thankful that they didn’t nerf us like necro.

Cecilia.5179:

While your complaints might have some merit, be thankful every minute of you life that you aren’t Necromancer right now. Imagine if Fiery Greatsword did 10k damage of burning to you if you used it for the full duration, or if your heal was nerfed, applied a ton of vuln to you every time you used it and the only way to make it slightly better made it apply more conditions to you. On top of that, imagine having two places on the same build with Elemental Attunement vs Evasive Arcana kind of problems.

They may have not given us the best of the changes, but be thankful that they didn’t nerf us like necro.

I do agree with you, we may not be the best around but we still have the tools to do some serious dmg while having fun

Except for the part where they “played us with Elemental Attunement” – I believe they really were daft enough to consider proposed change.

On other points 100% agreed with op.

BlackBeard.2873:

Seriously, just make an engineer…it is ele 2.0, and has so many OP options and combinations that there will be MANY great build options.

Like staff ele? Just take mortar kit and do the same thing, but without being useless in a 1v1.

Like tanky d/d ele – just play celestial engie to get MORE damage, similar mobility, and way more control!

Like burst ele – you will probably be able to play zerker engie b/c of the “reveal on-hit” trait will prevent 100% thief counter, with plenty of free “proc” damage to get some big bursts.

Even though ele will have some very strong stuff with this next patch, its just a different variation of the same crap that will work – bruiser d/x builds or super-tanky staff builds. And yes, you will still be pigeon-holed super-hard into arcana/water b/c anet has no idea how to balance the class.

The ignorance in the forum…

Mokittenoes pathetic damage pre-patch even if it’s immobile, I doubt Mortar will receive too much dps buff post patch really. It’d be more of a utility kit,
Staff Ele still remain the highest AOE damage dealer.

Toxsa.2701:

BlackBeard.2873:

Seriously, just make an engineer…it is ele 2.0, and has so many OP options and combinations that there will be MANY great build options.

Like staff ele? Just take mortar kit and do the same thing, but without being useless in a 1v1.

Like tanky d/d ele – just play celestial engie to get MORE damage, similar mobility, and way more control!

Like burst ele – you will probably be able to play zerker engie b/c of the “reveal on-hit” trait will prevent 100% thief counter, with plenty of free “proc” damage to get some big bursts.

Even though ele will have some very strong stuff with this next patch, its just a different variation of the same crap that will work – bruiser d/x builds or super-tanky staff builds. And yes, you will still be pigeon-holed super-hard into arcana/water b/c anet has no idea how to balance the class.

The ignorance in the forum…

Mokittenoes pathetic damage pre-patch even if it’s immobile, I doubt Mortar will receive too much dps buff post patch really. It’d be more of a utility kit,
Staff Ele still remain the highest AOE damage dealer.

Talking about pvp….Everything is viable in pve. You are right, fire-camping staff is probably the best (and most boring) ele pve build, but balance doesn’t really mean much for pve outside of “hardcore” pve-players, who should honestly play a different game (if difficulty matters to them).

Tactu.4867:

Hell, that person(you know who!) didn’t even knew if Geomancer freedom is an existing ele trait , or it was newly added . Shame! Shame ! Shame! like Cercei Lannister . Shame!

Hahaha this made my whole day. Very nicely written post anyway, I can’t stop reading it. It always amazes me how much the ele community is more creative and eloquent. So much that I fail to see why we are so misunderstood.

Tactu.4867:

Do i like that i’m doing 3 x effort for mediocre result, and not be rewarded for trying that hard to set-up a combo of 5 spell, in 3 attunements for 1500 dmg … ?

Maybe stop playing with Nomad gear