Guild Wars 2

Introduction:
In this thread I will make a series of suggestions that I believe will help to create more varied elementalist builds by addressing 2 critical issues: 1. The reliance on water and arcana for sustain and 2. Dependence on constantly swapping attunements. I intend to do this entirely through the revision of traits.
Overview:
As a class, the elementalist has a small health pool with low base defensive stats. It is meant to compensate for this with high sustain. However, at the moment, the water and arcana trait lines hold all of the elemenalist’s sustain and are arguably necessary if an elementalist intends to survive for an extended duration. Some have suggested fixing this dependency by increasing the elementalist’s base defensive stats, but I believe that this would be the wrong approach. By altering traits, I hope to decentralize the elementalits’s sustain in a balanced fashion.
Concerning attunement swapping, some have suggested reducing base attunement recharge while simultaneously reducing the attunement recharge gained by investing in the arcane trait line. I believe that this is the wrong approach. Giving all elementalist builds the ability to rapidly dance through attunements would only serve to further homogenize our playstyle; we would be treating a symptom, not a cure. Instead, I believe that adding more traits such as pyromancer’s puissance—traits which reward the elementalist for remaining in a single attunement for a longer duration—would make non-arcana builds more viable. Some may argue that building around a single attunement would reduce the profession’s skill cap; however, I would argue instead that a build that wishes to remain in a single attunement would require more skill than one that constantly cycles through attunements. This is because switching attunements would carry a heavier tradeoff, and each attunement could be used tactically. Rather than rushing through our attunements in a dash to make use of as many powerful cooldowns as possible, we would instead attempt to remain in the attunement that best suits our current role. I hope that the changes proposed in this thread can accomplish this without negatively impacting the balance of the profession.
Disclaimer: I have played Guild Wars 2 since beta, but in that time, I have really only experienced its structured player versus player. I have not played a great deal of world versus world or PvE and therefore cannot speak towards their balance. All changes proposed in this thread pertain only to the balance of tpvp. Additionally, while many of these proposed changes are direct buffs to traits, I do not intend to buff elementalists as a whole. We have a few viable builds in tpvp, and I do not wish to see them become overpowered. I only wish to open up other roles and avenues. This is not a qq thread.

Fire Magic:
Flame Barrier: This should be given an internal cooldown, a higher trigger chance, and instead of burning, it should give a fire shield. This fire shield should trigger all effects associated with aura application. Suddenly, this trait can be built around, doesn’t rely on boring, unanswerable procs, and has actual counterplay. Considering the strength (or lack thereof) of fire shield as an aura, I believe that a 30% trigger chance for a 5 second shield on a 20 second internal cooldown would be balanced, but as always, numbers are variable depending on balance.
Lava Tomb: The problems surrounding Lava Tomb are the same problems surrounding all downed-state traits in tpvp: they’re too situational to be worth the resources. If Lava Tomb also reduced the damage taken while in a downed state, it would help you survive the cleave while your team gets off the rez, making it a more attractive trait as a whole. Overall, I like this type of trait: powerful and situational. The more situational a trait is, however, the more powerful it should be. That is why I believe that this trait deserves the above buff.
Burning Fire: Conceptually, I’m not sure what to think of this type of trait. I like that it gives the player a way to take otherwise unrelated utilities, but it’s unlikely that someone would take all of these utilities together, especially now that cleansing flame no longer breaks stun. Also, even if for some reason someone decided to run all of these utilities together, this trait would not be worthwhile. Signet of fire already provides more than enough burning, and it will almost certainly be hit by a cleanse before it expires, wasting the extra 3 seconds. It works a bit better with cleansing flame, but because it already applies burning, it runs into the same problem. The cooldowns of flame axe and fiery greatsword make a paltry 3 seconds of burning laughable. Keep the burning, but add a condition cleanse (self only) on top of it. I’m not sure if this will fix the trait, but I think it would be a step in the right direction.
Ember’s Might: Burning Rage’s twin brother isn’t a very exciting trait. It doesn’t make attacking a burning target feel very impactful, it merely gives you a slight statistical increase over time. Instead, this trait should read “attacks against a burning target have a chance to trigger an explosion of fire”. Basically, this would work like Sigil of Fire except instead of criticals, it would trigger off attacks against burning targets. The internal cooldown and damage coefficients are variable depending on how the trait affects balance. Personally, I believe that it should have damage comparable to sigil of fire yet should have a longer internal cooldown (in the 10-15 second range). This would make focusing a burning target feel more satisfying and impactful.

Fire Magic (cont’d):
Spell Slinger: Whenever I read this trait I hear a monotone voice drone something along the lines of “So yeah if you take this and run cantrips you’ll deal a bit more damage in the long run.” I don’t want “damage in the long run” out of my traits, I want skill-based, situation, rewarding opportunities. Instead of 3 stacks of might for 15 seconds, this trait should give you 10 stacks of might for 3 seconds. That way, when you lightning flash to your target and hit cleansing flame in the same split second to enable the fire grab you were casting, you and your fleeting 20 might stacks feel like you’ve accomplished something today.
Burning Precision: This is another one of those “damage in the long run” traits that rewards passive play and prolonged fights rather than awareness and skill. Instead of burning targets when they take a critical hit, this trait should increase the chance to critically hit burning targets. That way, a player is rewarded for focusing the target he just lit on fire and trying to time his bursts on targets that won’t immediately cleanse the burning. The exact % by which crit chance should be increased is up to the balance team. I think 7% would be reasonable (5% probably too little, 10% probably too much), but I don’t know that for sure.
Internal Fire: I actually don’t have a problem with this trait. It rewards you for sticking in a single attunement, which is a pretty hefty tradeoff considering that for an elementalist, sitting in one attunement means locking yourself out of 75% of your abilities. I’m hesitant to change this trait. Any less damage and it might become unusable, any more damage and it might become overpowered (10% more to burning speed+fire grab+double arcane burst is no joke).
Sunspot: Melee range, pitifully low damage, not much going for it. However, simply increasing the damage coefficient won’t help anyone. All it will do is give elementalists another source of cheesy, unanswerable instant-speed damage. Instead, sunspot should be a delayed ability along the lines of dragon’s tooth, but perhaps with a slightly shorter delay. Also, it shouldn’t just be a little puff of flame. It’s called sunspot, not fire-fart. I’m talking short delay, then a brief laser beam from the sky like Zeus playing with a magnifying glass. It can keep its shoddy direct damage coefficient, but it should add a few seconds of burning to anyone, because honestly, this is fire attunement we’re talking about.

Fire Magic (cont’d):
Pyromancer’s Alacrity and One With Fire: The elementalist’s “20% cooldown reduction” abilities are a bit awkward by themselves considering they only reduce the cooldowns of one quarter of your abilities, more than half of which will be back up by the time you reach the attunement again anyway, and if Flame Barrier receives the changes suggested above, One With Fire won’t really have a place anymore. Instead, this is where we go about resolving elementalists’ addiction with rapid attunement swapping. The new trait will keep the name One With Fire. At base, it gives 20% cooldown reduction to fire abilities. However, the longer you remain in fire attunement, the shorter the cooldown of your fire abilities becomes; this will continue until a cap is reached. As soon as the elementalist swaps out of fire attunement, the cooldown reduction is immediately lost. This encourages the elementalist to remain in fire attunement and punishes them if they are put into a situation where they are forced out of it. The exact numbers are difficult to pin down, for now, I think the trait should read “Fire weapon skills recharge 20% faster. This bonus increases to 30% over 10 second while in fire attunement. The bonus is lost once the elementalist leaves fire attunement”. I think this would result in more intelligent play from elementalists.
Feed the Fire: This trait takes the place of Pyromancer’s Alacrity. It’s one of the traits intended to draw a portion of an elementalist’s potential sustain away from water and arcana. Once taken, this new trait would cause you to be healed by a portion of all burning damage you deal. That is to say, each tic of burning that you applied to an enemy will heal you proportional to the amount of damage dealt by that tic. It is extremely important that this trait scales with condition damage, not healing power. It should only act as viable sustain if the elementalist has invested heavily into burning uptime and burning damage. As always, the number is extremely tricky. I believe that being healed for 20-30% of burning damage would not be unreasonable, but I might be way off. It might also be possible to have a set amount of healing that triggers each burning tic but only scales with condition damage in order to avoid a bunker ele taking this trait and abusing the high base damage of burning. Regardless, I believe this trait and others like it are necessary if you want tpvp elementalists to allocate their resources away from water/arcana.
Conjurer: I am at a loss. I don’t really see conjured weapons in tpvp, so I can’t really speak as to whether or not this trait would be taken. It isn’t critical, and I’m not touching it.
Fire’s Embrace: This is an extremely cool trait that I hope will be taken more once other trait lines become more accessible.
Burning Rage: We’ve already altered this trait’s little brother, so it would be fine for this trait to remain the same. It’s still a fairly stale, minor damage boost, but at least it’s still conditional and relies on the player attacking the correct target. Also, it’s a mandatory trait, so I’m hesitant to make it powerful/specialized. It should stay as it is.
Persisting Flames and Pyromancer’s Puissance: Theses are both powerful, distinctive grandmaster traits that impact your playstyle. It is my hope that if the trait line is given the proper tools, these traits will begin to see play.

Air Magic:
Zephyr’s Speed: Self only, inactive when out of combat (i.e. roaming i.e. when it would be most useful), and doesn’t stack with swiftness (making it do absolutely bunk for most eles using it). However, akittens core, this trait isn’t a bad concept. It feels exactly as an air minor trait should: some a subtle yet powerful advantage over time. Now we only need to work on the “powerful” part. Make it work outside of combat, share it with your nearby allies (just as you share soothing mist), and if that isn’t enough, jack it to 15% (though not any higher, in my opinion). This should make it feel impactful again.
Zephyr’s Boon: I love this trait and don’t think it should be changed. It provides a powerful advantage when running auras and feels distinct.
Zephyr’s Focus: It’s been a long, long time since I tested this trait, so I’m not sure if it has any bugs associated with it. As long as it functions with all channeled skills, it may act as a way to reduce dependency on arcane VI. I’m hesitant to propose any changes for this trait.
Quick Glyphs: In my understanding, glyphs are the only utlity that an elementalist can run 5 of, giving this trait great potential power. If glyph of renewal wasn’t bugged to high heaven, if glyph of storms had either a shorter cooldown or a useful storm outside of sandstorm, and if there was some way to increase the health pool of lesser elementals, this trait may see play. Generally, I believe that abilities don’t see play because they don’t have powerful enough traits to support them. In this instance however, it’s the abilities that reduce the potency of the trait. That said, even with 3 of 6 glyphs bugged/unviable, this trait is an appealing choice. Keep it as it is.
One With Air and Aeromancer’s Alacrity: I say give it the same treatment as Pyromancer’s Alacrity and One With Fire. Move it to master, keep the name One With Air, and make it 20% cooldown reduction with an additional 10% if you camp in the same attunement for a full rotation. This will gives air-lovers a tool that isn’t fresh air when they want to shoot more lightning bolts.

Air Magic (cont’d)
Soothing Winds: This is an example of exactly what a trait should not be: entirely passive, unable to impact your playstyle, and unrewarding even if built around. Increasing its scaling would not help to solve this problem; even if this granted healing power equal to 100% of your precisions and became an overpowered staple of the elementalist, it would still be excruciatingly boring. Instead, this trait is where we give the air trait line its sustain. The new trait should read “Critical Hits with air weapon skills grant 1 second of regeneration”. It can keep its 5% precision to healing power; it won’t affect much anyway. It’s important that this trait only gives regeneration on confirmed critical hits and only when in air attunement; it should also only give regeneration for 1 second but have no internal cooldown. It is also important that this trait give regeneration rather than a direct heal. The purpose of this trait is to reward builds with high critical hit chances for remaining in air attunement without giving defensively-geared bunker eles with another source of healing. The short duration of the regeneration and the frequency of its application ensures that, while the elementalist receives constant healing while in air, this healing quickly dissipates as soon as the elementalist is forced into a different attunement. This trait will provide sustain to elementalists that do not invest greatly into water and arcana without becoming another tool for elementalists who DO invest heavily in water and arcana.
Bolt To the Heart: Already a powerful staple in many tpvp elementalist builds. Doesn’t need any more juice; keep it as is.
Arcane Lightning: Most current s/d burst builds run two arcane utilities and rely on critical damage, yet air X is still a better choice than this trait. I love its theme, and it begs to be built around, particularly when used in combination with arcane power in a d/d build. I think that if it were made an adept trait rather than a master trait, it would be more appealing.
Electric Discharge: Cheesy and instant, but if there was ever a place for that, it’s here in the air trait line. I’m fine with this trait.
Please note that this leaves two master trait tier slots empty. They will be filled by the following two traits:
Speed Advantage: Deal 10% more damage when moving faster than your target. I think this trait could result in some interesting playstyles involving swiftness uptime, timing bursts while an opponent is stunned, and avoiding conditions such as cripple, chill, and immobilize. My only fear is that some aspect of this game’s programming prevents an effect like this from being implemented. If that is the case, then I guess a flat damage bonus when we have swiftness up would suffice. It would be boring, but I don’t have any other ideas.
Blurred Speed: Gain 1 second of distortion when you attune to air (with a 10 second internal cooldown to prevent fresh air abuse). Promotes skilled play, discourages mindlessly cycling through attunements, can be used like Rock Solid is used to secure dunks, rezzes, prevent stuns, negate bursts, and generally outplay people. It comes with a tradeoff, as always: if you attune to air purely to secure a burst, then you’ll be wasting the cooldown.

Inscription: Solid yet less common for the same reason that Quick Glyphs is solid and less common. I’m convinced that if a few of the glyphs are fine-tuned (and if Glyph of Renewal actually gets off its fat duff and starts DOING things), then this trait will see play. I’d prefer to leave it unchanged.
Air Training: A staple in many current builds. Would be OP if buffed, unused if nerfed. Promotes thoughtful play and the correct timing of abilities (to a degree). I like it.
Weak Spot: It’s passive, relies on mindless procs, and only results in a bit of additional damage over the course of a longer fight, yet I still like it. It promotes focused fire and rewards high crit frequency. Also, it’s a mandatory trait, so its passive nature can be forgiven, in my opinion.
Tempest Defense and Fresh Air: I think these are beautiful examples of grandmaster traits that each encourage different playstyles (both of which involve shooting lasers out of one’s eyes). I’m hesitant to change them.

Earth Magic:
Stone Flesh: I’m perfectly fine with this trait. It looks earthy, it feels earthy, it smells earthy, and it’s not half bad.
Obsidian Focus: I think it should be changed to a flat damage reduction rather than a bonus to toughness. This would help alleviate the dependence on water for condition removal. Not a lot, but it would help. 10-20% less damage taken would be enough, I think, to encourage this trait. Keep in mind that it is extremely conditional, so the effect should be powerful to match. Even with this trait, I don’t think we’ll ever see an elementalist able to spam channeled skills.
Signet Mastery: This trait is powerful. Signets are powerful. With fire more accessable, I hope to see more signet+aura cheese. This trait should remain as it is.
Serrated Stones: I love the inclusion of this trait and I think it would be used more if elementalist were less dependent on water and arcana.
Elemental Shielding: Another cool trait that I would not change for reasons listed above.
Stone Splinters: A substantial benefit that impacts playstyle and punishes poor positioning; I like it.
Earthen Blast: Should be changed for the same reason Sunspot should be changed, and in the same way to boot: Add a short delay and slap some bleeding onto it. Given its name, I’d also encourage it to be a blast finisher. This might take some pressure away from evasive arcana and would allow for some interesting combos. Also, it has “Blast” in the name; quit confusing people, Arena Net.
Strength of Stone: If this affects condition damage as well (a solid portion of earth’s damage), then I’m all for keeping this trait as it is.
Rock Solid: Another solid (heh) trait that takes emphasis away from mindless attunement swapping. Many of the changes proposed in this thread may make Rock Solid more viable.
Geomancer’s Freedom: If I wanted these conditions gone, I would simply invest more heavily into water and arcana and cleanse them. This trait needs a bit extra to make it worthwhile. 3 seconds of protection when hit by one of these conditions on a 10 second internal cooldown might make this a more appealing choice.
Geomancer’s Alacrity: I believe that this should be renamed One with Earth and be given the same treatment as One with Fire and One with Air for the same reasons.
Enduring Damage: High risk, high reward. Are you willing to go against the evade-spam meta for some extra damage? I hope so, because this is a cool trait and should stay as is.
Written In Stone: Is essentially just a strong passive buff, but it feels flavorful and encourages more signet use, so I think it should stay.

Earth Magic (cont’d)
Diamond Skin: It’s passive, isn’t not worthwhile even when one builds around it, is impossible to play around, and doesn’t really fit its name. There are two avenues that I believe could help fix this trait. First and foremost: have enemies deal less damage to you proportional to the number of unique conditions they have. I’m not sure if that sort of effect is possible to program, but it would feel unique and would allow for marginally more intelligent play than a flat buff to a single stat. Secondly, you could have each successful attack in earth attunement provide a unique stacking buff that reduces damage taken. This buff would immediately dissipate once the elementalist leaves earth attunement or exits combat. Personally, I think it should stack at 1% per attack and cap at 20%, and it should affect condition damage as well as direct damage. Both of these options fit the theme of the earth line and encourage different playstyles.

Water Magic:
Soothing Mist: This trait along with Arcane V have become so necessary to an elementalist that people are starting to forget that they’re optional. I’ve met players who sharing boons on attunement swap and providing massive aoe healing is just something that elementalists DO. They’ve evolved from optional traits to core mechanics so much so that even the devs appear to be balancing the class around them. This must change. I’m not here to make elementalists into gods; I’m only here to diversify our builds. This cannot be done with buffs alone. May the MMO gods forgive me, but for the betterment of elementalists as a whole, I believe that Soothing Mist and Elemental Attunement must be nerfed. In the case of Soothing Mist, I think the base healing should be reduced, but the scaling with healing power should increase such that a proper support elementalist will still receive the same (if not slightly greater) benefit as he does now. The nerf doesn’t have to be tremendous, but I think a small reduction would go a long way toward the diversification of builds. Changes on Elemental Attunement are listed further down.
Aquamancer’s Alacrity: This trait should switch places with Arcane Abatement, should be renamed One with Water, and should be given the same treatment as all other attunement cooldown traits again for the same reasons.
Arcane Abatement: To note, this is now an adept trait. Now, to be clear, I cannot speak for this ability’s use in PvE. In PvP, however, people commonly look at falling damage traits and say “they’re worthless, but at least each class has one, so everyone gets a wasted slot”. At first, I was inclined to agree, but the more I think about it, the more appealing these traits feel. Akittens core this game should be about good positioning and the exploitation of situational advantages. I believe that these traits offer that opportunity. As it stands, the only problem is that the bonus effect is weak relative to the cost of the ability. Not only do you need to give up a superior position, you also need to inflict some degree of damage onto yourself. If I set up this ability and pay such a steep cost, I want to GOOMBA STOMP people. To that effect, here are my proposed changes to Arcane Abatement (for tpvp only):
Fire: Meteor Shower
Water: Healing Rain
Air: Static Field and Lightning Storm (as seen in Glyph of Storms)
Earth: Churning Earth
All spells would trigger immediately upon receiving the falling damage with no cast time (The churning earth would not require a channel, the meteor shower and healing rain would be instant, etc.)

Water Magic (cont’d)
Shards of Ice: I have the same problem with this that I had with Spell Slinger: the effect is too minor and lasts too long to be exciting or counterable. Instead of 3 stacks for 6 seconds (1 stack in the case of arcane power), this trait should add 10 stacks for 2 seconds (3 stacks in the case of arcane power). This makes arcane and signet abilities scary and impactful and promotes more skilled play.
Soothing Disruption: Is a great trait that is still viable even after the nerf of cantrips. I wouldn’t see it changed.
Piercing Shards: Provides one hell of a damage bonus for your arcane skills, but not much else. I like it, and I hope someone finds a way to build around it if any of the changes suggested here are implemented.
Cleansing Wave: This trait speaks for itself. It should not be changed, and if it is changed, it should not be buffed.
Vital Striking: Another conditional trait that strongly rewards situational play. I’d prefer to keep it as it is.
Healing Ripple: I think this is actually in a good place right now.
Stop Drop and Roll, Bountiful Power, and Arcane Precision: Last I checked, this trait triggered its icd even if burning or chilled weren’t removed. That’s pretty bogus, and it should be fixed if it hasn’t been fixed already. Also, I agree with general sentiment that it should replace Bountiful Power as water 25 and that Bountiful Power should replace Arcane Precision.
Frostburn: This trait replaces Stop Drop and Roll. This new trait causes chills you apply to damages your enemies. It would function much like Terror, but with a much smaller coefficient, of course. Personally, I believe it should deal approximately 70% the damage of burning in order to be balanced, but I am unsure. I want this trait to be powerful and build-defining, so it may be best to move it to grandmaster and relocate Powerful Auras to master tier. I would like community feedback on this concept.
Cantrip Mastery: A powerful trait for powerful abilities. It should remain as it is.
Soothing Wave: I have no problems with this trait. It might see play alongside Frostburn, if that mechanic is ever implemented. Until then, I’m hesitant to propose any changes for it.
Cleansing Water and Powerful Aura: In my opinion, both of these traits are fine where they are. It might be neat to see Powerful Aura made into a master tier trait so it could be combined with Written in Stone, Elemental Shielding, and Fire’s Embrace, but that might be too much. Also, if Soothing Winds receives the suggested changes, Cleansing Water will need its internal cooldown more than ever. Still, I don’t think the two would be too abusable together. Most builds that run Cleansing Water have no trouble triggering it every 5 seconds.

Arcana:
Arcane Fury: Cool, flavorful, and encourages mid-cast attunement swaps for easy crits. I use it, I like it, and I wouldn’t change it.
Arcane Mastery: Once Elemental Attunement gets what’s coming to it, this may see more play. It should not be changed.
Arcane Resurrection: In tpvp, this ability does not confer enough of a bonus to justify it situational use. If it also caused the elementalist to take reduced damage while reviving an ally (much like armor of mercy does) it may become usable. Currently, surviving the cleave is just as important as reviving the ally quickly.
Arcane Retribution: The funny thing about Arcane Power is that you really need to set yourself up in order to use it properly. Otherwise the crits will be burned on meaningless things such as vapor blades or churning earth cripple tics. Instead, I think this ability should refresh the cooldowns of your arcane utilities and should trigger at 50% life. That way, when YOU are the one in control of your abilities, not some proc. Also, despite how it may look, this trait should in no way subsume Final Shielding. This trait only gives you an extra shield if you choose to carry one in a utility slot. Final Shielding will still be a fine choice for those who carry non-arcane utilities.
Final Shielding: This ability is actually fairly good, but is completely eclipsed by Elemental Attunement. Even though this ability is a passive trigger, it gives you a predictable window to get away with plays that would otherwise be interrupted. It might benefit from a reduced internal cooldown, but I can’t really say.
Elemental Attunement: This is the single most important trait that elementalist builds revolve around. It is the center of the profession. It is a mechanic that the elementalist is balanced around. To change this, it needs to be toned down. The regeneration and protection granted when attuning to water and earth should be reduced from 5 seconds to 2 seconds. The trait will still be good; it won’t be nerfed to the ground. It will be a sad day for elementalist, but this has to happen. I should stress, however, that Elemental Attunement should only be nerfed once the elementalist receives viable alternatives.
Renewing Stamina: I have no problems with this trait. I hate dodge spamming as much as the next guy, but at least this thing requires you to land critical hits with some frequency.
Lingering Elements: The Soothing Mist extenderer will have something else to do once air 5 and fire 5 start doing things. I don’t think this should be changed.

Arcana (cont’d)
Vigorous Scepter: Currently, this trait permanently increases your stamina regeneration by 20% when you have a scepter equipped. It’s also located right next to a trait that permanently increases your stamina regeneration by 100% when you have a scepter equipped (assuming you can crit now and then). That’s a little awkward if you ask me. This trait should be scrapped and replaced by the following:
Powerful Artifacts: Increase the range of scepter and focus abilities from 900 to 1200. This opens up new avenues for new playstyles and revives a completely dead trait.
Blasting Staff: As it is, this is not a trait; it is the “Staff Tax”. If you want to use a staff, you must take Blasting Staff, not because it’s good, but because you’ll be worthless otherwise. Personally, I’d like to see two things happen to get this trait on its feet. First, increase the base area of staff abilities equal to half the bonus of the previous blasting staff (i.e. without any traits, Lava Font and Ice Spike are 25% larger than they currently are, Lightning Surge is 50% larger, Eruption is 12.5% larger, etc…). Then, if this trait is taken, it further increases the area of staff abilities such that they equal the current area of staff abilities when blasting staff is taken. This is to say, staff abilities are no bigger than they are now if you take blasting staff, but they are larger than they were before if you do not take blasting staff. Secondly, staff abilities should cause 5 seconds of cripple to their target with a 15 second internal cooldown. This would help staff elementalists maintain distance from their target as well as make staff abilities in general feel more impactful. When I slap someone with a burning rock from space, I want them to feel Shell Shocked, not annoyed.
Windborne Dagger: I actually like this trait as it is. 25% move speed is no joke if you aren’t built for swiftness uptime. If it continues to not see play, changes may be considered, but at the moment, it may be best to keep it as it is.
Arcane Energy: Kill elemental attunement and watch this trait grow. I think it’s fine.
Evasive Arcana: Most elementalist builds take this trait because they need to go deep into arcana anyway, and while they’re there, this is the best thing to pick up. I have no meaningful suggestions for it, but I don’t think it’s keeping elementalists pinned to a particular build.
Elemental Surge: If Arcane Retribution is changed in the recommended fashion, I believe this trait will see more play. It should not be changed.

Conclusion:
Think of this post as a collection of suggestions rather than a single, cohesive overhaul of the profession. I’m not here to change the world; I simply want to help brainstorm ideas to create more varied and viable elementalist builds and playstyles. If you have any further ideas or feedback, feel free to post them.

I personally think that Water tree (all the healing) is why the class cant be buffed. I would have loved to see earth tree to be a bit more condition heavy when it comes to traits. I also hate all the traits that only work in specific attunement.

I think reducing attunement swap cool down from 15 to say 12 seconds would really help allow people to be a bit more experimental when it comes to builds the fact that we pretty much have to go at least 20 in Arcane just to reduce to cool down to a reasonable amount is really damaging

Does WBD work if you have the 25% movement increase utility? To me it doesnt stack, i am not sure if thats a bug or its simply not allowed to be stackable.

First of all, WOW. Very lengthy but also very well written and thought out. I really liked your emphasis on active play rather than passive, by removing or modifying traits that simply change stats. Making Spell Slinger more dependent on timing for bigger rewards was absolutely brilliant. Also, changing some traits to fit a “pure attunement” playstyle got me to agree with you even more. I really liked the idea of pyromancer’a puissance and seeing more traits in a similar vein.

I do, however think that changing attunement should always be a positive thing, not a negative thing, even if you wanna stay in an attunement for longer periods. No, changing attunement should, like you said, not be based on rotation, but need. A need for a specific spell, even if it means changing out of an attunement with lots of benefits. Pyromancer’s puissance is a great example of this, but Diamond skin isn’t. I don’t wanna hesitate to change out of earth, in fear of losing stacks. So I think Diamond Skin should be changed to promote active thinking rather than rote.

I still think evasive arcana should be changed, or split into minor traits. Maybe adept so 20/20/20/20/20 builds actually become possible and a “balanced elementalist” archetype will emerge amonst the purists. But that’s just my opinion.

Again, great post! Thoroughly enjoyed reading it all.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I personally think that Water tree (all the healing) is why the class cant be buffed. I would have loved to see earth tree to be a bit more condition heavy when it comes to traits. I also hate all the traits that only work in specific attunement.

I think reducing attunement swap cool down from 15 to say 12 seconds would really help allow people to be a bit more experimental when it comes to builds the fact that we pretty much have to go at least 20 in Arcane just to reduce to cool down to a reasonable amount is really damaging

Does WBD work if you have the 25% movement increase utility? To me it doesnt stack, i am not sure if thats a bug or its simply not allowed to be stackable.

Healing and mitigation traits such as Feed the Fire, modified Soothing Winds, Geomancer’s Freedom, and modified Diamondskin are meant to draw some of the elemetnalist’s necessary sustain away from water.
Within the post itself I focus strongly on why normalizing attunement cooldown by decreasing its base recharge rate would negatively impact elementalist build diversity. This would be treating the symptom, not the disease. If base attunement recharge were reduced, then yes, many builds may begin investing outside of arcane, but from looking at them, you wouldn’t be able to tell. Elementalist playstyle would continue to revolve around brainlessly hopping from attunement to attunement in a mad dash to expend as many cooldowns as possible such that they do not go to waste. New traits may be taken, but in a practical sense elementalists would be homogenized.
This leads us to traits that reward you for remaining in a single attunement. Currently, I’m guessing you don’t like these traits because, in general, they aren’t very good. This is because most of them fail to take into consideration the price and elementalist must pay when remaining in a single attunement for an extended duration of time. In order to compensate for this, I propose in this thread that these traits be given more powerful effects to properly reward the player for accepting the trait’s drawbacks. For examples of this, see modified Diamond Skin, modified Soothing Winds, Pyromancer’s Puissance, and all of the modified One with “X” traits.

I strongly believe that reducing the impact that the Arcana line has on attunement recharge would be a grave error and would greatly harm the diversification of elementalist builds in the long run.

Also, no, Windborne Dagger does not stack with other movement increasing effects. This is not a bug. Only take it if you do not build for permaswiftness and do not take Signet of Air.

The main reason I play with 30 points in Arcana is because of Evasive Arcana. It’s just so much fun dodging about doing stuff. Unless they remove the trait, I don’t think I’ll ever go without…

As for water, I’m not running 30 points anymore. My main build includes glyphs so I decided to boost them a bit more. However, it’s still tough to go any lower than 15 points because the heal/condition cleanse on swakitten o useful….

I really like your ideas it was an enjoyable read. A few comments/changes on some of these though:
In the Air traits, your changes would leave you with 1 empty master trait only to be filled with either Speed Advantage or Blurred Speed. I really like both of these but I prefer Blurred Speed as I think Speed Advantage would be more difficult to implement and would probably come with few bugs.
Blurred Speed also synergizes well with mid-cast channel skills (Meteor shower, Churning Earth, Ether Renewal) which would be pretty fun to play around with.
I also like your ideas about the delayed Sunspot and Earthen Blast as it would require precise position if you want to take full advantage of the effect.
Stone Flesh: How about “Gain 1 toughness per level while attuned to earth, this effect increases by 10% every second staying in earth (up to 100%)” Of course you lose this boost upon leaving, but keep the original (80 toughness at 80) if you have Lingering Elements.
For the first variant you proposed for Diamond Skin, the coding is already in-game with unique conditions (i.e Mesmer’s iWarlock), but either one of the two would be a nice increase. Also, another variant would be to lower the defensive part and add a little offensive (i.e max 10% damage reduction, 5% increase in damage cause by conditions) idk, it would be nice to have for those who want a little more for condition builds.

Wow, what a long read – but it was worth it. First of all, please bold the trait names to break the wall of text. Maybe add an empty line between trait tiers. Your thread would be wasted if nobody reads it. That said, I’m impressed by your work and your thought you’ve put in here and I actually agree with all your suggestions.

One comment on Zephyr’s Focus: A recent patch added a visible buff it that trait is active. I recently used it with S/F and the only skill which activates it is Arc Lightning, but I guess it works with Churning Earth and Meteor Shower and Ether Renewal as well. I’m still not impressed by that trait.

That was a long but interesting read. (You might consider using bolding and other formatting to make it easier to read. /ninja’d/thief’d/whatever’d)

As posted in other threads, I’d like to hear peoples thoughts on changing the attunement swap cooldown to begin when swapping to an attunement rather than away.

Here are some additional things to think about in no particular order:

TRAITS. WHAT BE? WHAT DO?

Things blatantly stolen quoted from the wiki:

Traits are used to enhance a character’s skills and other actions.

Traits are passive abilities that can enhance skills, provide additional effects, provide bonuses to damage and attributes, and modify other actions.

TRAITS WHAT BE?

What do traits do for a character within GW2?
-Traits are a form of customization and optimization for characters.
-Traits allow for diversity between different builds within the same trait line through added utility and functionality, specialization, or changing the functionality of abilities that the character can perform.

What can be some issues with traits?
-Traits can be counter to the intended direction for a class, if elementalists are meant to attunement dancing then traits that reward a player for staying in a single attunement for an extended duration seem out of place.
-An individual traits power level can vary significantly.
-The different tiers of traits should divide traits according to power level, this will not always be the case.
-The power of trait is not always immediately clear while reading it or while using it. Power is mostly easily seen when it is visibly added to a skill, such as gaining regeneration and vigor from cantrips. Following this, power is not nearly as easily seen when an ability becomes specialized or its functionality changes, evasive arcana prior to its popularity would be an example of this.

What do I think?
-I divided traits into the three categories of adding utility and/or functionality, specialization, and changing functionality. These categories can stand as some way to talk about different traits what they do and where they belong. They are not necessarily exclusive to where a trait belongs nor are they exhaustive in what they include of the currently traits lines.
-I think of the three tiers primarily being divided by adept tiers adding utililty and/or functionality, the master tier specializing, and the grandmaster tier changing functionality.
-I feel that some traits within lines encourage sticking to a single attunement despite the direction indicated by Devs recently that they want the elementalist switching between attunements which is likely also reflected in the cooldowns and often more limited effects of elementalist skills.
-I disagree with the placement of certain traits as grandmaster (diamond skin) as the effective power of the skill is largely hidden and, from what I have read, seems to have a low amount of power for a grandmaster trait even when traited and geared for while not fundamentaly changing the functionality or playstyle of the character that takes the trait.

TRAITS WHAT DO?
-If the defining trait of a grandmaster trait is that it changes play styles, what can be changed for the elementalist grandmaster traits?

-Is changing game play patterns what grandmaster traits should do?

-Do passive traits at the grandmaster tier provide noticable effects that are clear to the player or other players?

-Additionally, if we the current push for elementalists is to attunement dance, where does this place traits that emphasize a style of play that involves limiting attunement swapping to a minimum?

-Four attunements and Twenty skills, its why elementalists have longer cooldowns, simpler effects, a lack of chains on their weapons skills, and don’t have a weapon swap. Are these changes necessary for elementalists to be balanced (probably) and what do they mean for builds and game play patterns that do not attunement dance?

-Simpler perhaps is to ask, what play styles should be supported and promoted for elementalists? Which ones should not be supported?

What SHOULD traits be/do? (TL;DR)
-What do you think traits should do?
-Which ones to you love? Which ones do you hate? Why?
-What traits do you notice? What ones do you not notice? What can be done so you do notice?
-ETC. (be specific please)

…I think thats enough for now.

Azunai.5974:

First of all, WOW. Very lengthy but also very well written and thought out. I really liked your emphasis on active play rather than passive, by removing or modifying traits that simply change stats. Making Spell Slinger more dependent on timing for bigger rewards was absolutely brilliant. Also, changing some traits to fit a “pure attunement” playstyle got me to agree with you even more. I really liked the idea of pyromancer’a puissance and seeing more traits in a similar vein.

I do, however think that changing attunement should always be a positive thing, not a negative thing, even if you wanna stay in an attunement for longer periods. No, changing attunement should, like you said, not be based on rotation, but need. A need for a specific spell, even if it means changing out of an attunement with lots of benefits. Pyromancer’s puissance is a great example of this, but Diamond skin isn’t. I don’t wanna hesitate to change out of earth, in fear of losing stacks. So I think Diamond Skin should be changed to promote active thinking rather than rote.

I still think evasive arcana should be changed, or split into minor traits. Maybe adept so 20/20/20/20/20 builds actually become possible and a “balanced elementalist” archetype will emerge amonst the purists. But that’s just my opinion.

Again, great post! Thoroughly enjoyed reading it all.

Thank you for the feedback. I understand your point concerning the way in which traits like the new Diamond Skin and One with X punish attunement swapping. However, I should note that Pyromancer’s Puissance punishes attunement swapping as well. For every second you spend outside of fire, it’s a second you spend losing might stacks rather than gaining them. It’s not as hard-lined of a tradeoff as the ones listed in my post, but it is a tradeoff none-the-less. That said, it may be better to have the stacks from the modified Diamond Skin dissipate gradually rather than abruptly. It all depends on the strength of the stacks, the amount you can hold at a time, and the speed of their dissipation. More than anything, I don’t want to see people take a trait like modified Diamond Skin yet continue to mindlessly rotate through their attunements because they know they won’t lose much if they do.
I understand your sentiment, but until elementalists receive some further incentive not to constantly swap attunements, they will continue to do so.
Again, thank you for the constructive feedback.

pmnt.4067:

Wow, what a long read – but it was worth it. First of all, please bold the trait names to break the wall of text. Maybe add an empty line between trait tiers. Your thread would be wasted if nobody reads it. That said, I’m impressed by your work and your thought you’ve put in here and I actually agree with all your suggestions.

This.

Posts that are just big unbroken blocks of text are quite difficult to read. It would behoove you to go back and add in some formatting to make them more user-friendly.

Blaine Tog.8304:

pmnt.4067:

Wow, what a long read – but it was worth it. First of all, please bold the trait names to break the wall of text. Maybe add an empty line between trait tiers. Your thread would be wasted if nobody reads it. That said, I’m impressed by your work and your thought you’ve put in here and I actually agree with all your suggestions.

This.

Posts that are just big unbroken blocks of text are quite difficult to read. It would behoove you to go back and add in some formatting to make them more user-friendly.

Yes, the bold text didn’t carry over when I pasted the text, and I did not at first know how to add it because I am become forum noob. Now, however, the bolds are boldier, the texts are textier, and the posts should be more readable.

Thanks for pointing that out. Hopefully it looks better now.

LordEarle.9754:

I understand your point concerning the way in which traits like the new Diamond Skin and One with X punish attunement swapping. However, I should note that Pyromancer’s Puissance punishes attunement swapping as well.

For this, the Might stacking i wonder if we could ever get a trait. Likely in Arcane that would replace such traits and give us different boons for the attunement we are in.

Fire = Stacking Might
Water = Stacking Regen(?)
Air = Stacking Swiftness
Earth = Stacking protection(?)

This way we would be able to replace the traits that would give these (or similar) benefits and replace them with something else?

Not sure about Water or Earth boons, stacking wise they would just be stacking duration which would cap at say 10seconds but be reapplying every 2seconds while in the attunement that way we would still get a benefit from them in another attunement for like 5-10seconds which ever would be more balanced. Might would stacking up to 5 stacks like it does now.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

LordEarle.9754:

I understand your point concerning the way in which traits like the new Diamond Skin and One with X punish attunement swapping. However, I should note that Pyromancer’s Puissance punishes attunement swapping as well.

For this, the Might stacking i wonder if we could ever get a trait. Likely in Arcane that would replace such traits and give us different boons for the attunement we are in.

Fire = Stacking Might
Water = Stacking Regen(?)
Air = Stacking Swiftness
Earth = Stacking protection(?)

This way we would be able to replace the traits that would give these (or similar) benefits and replace them with something else?

Not sure about Water or Earth boons, stacking wise they would just be stacking duration which would cap at say 10seconds but be reapplying every 2seconds while in the attunement that way we would still get a benefit from them in another attunement for like 5-10seconds which ever would be more balanced. Might would stacking up to 5 stacks like it does now.

This is an interesting idea; however, I don’t think it meets the criteria of an interesting trait. If it were taken, how would it be built around/played around? If every single spell granted the elementalist a boon, it would not affect the elementalist’s playstyle or cause the elementalist to think about the use of its abilities. Instead, the elementalist would play exactly as it did before, moving from one attunement to the next, except now it would have yet another source of passive, free boons. It would be more like Arcane V on roids, and duration caps on the attunements would further pressure the elementalist to continue switching attunements lest it miss out on valuable boon uptime, reducing thoughtful play and promoting spam.

This is a cool idea, and in the long run a trait like this might be implemented as a grandmaster arcana trait. Until then, however, I don’t think elementalist builds that revolve around frequent attunement swapping require any more love from the trait lines.

Thank you for taking the time to write this up. This is probably the first “elementalist rework” I’ve ever read from someone who really understands both what the elementalist is and what it needs. I’ve always resented the dependence of water and arcana, as well as ANet’s neglect of the other lines, and the unviability of focusing on a certain element. The supposed “master of adaptability” is so far from the case, and makes engineers laugh.

I really hope the balance team reads some of these ideas and takes them to hear.

LordEarle.9754:

This is an interesting idea; however, I don’t think it meets the criteria of an interesting trait. If it were taken, how would it be built around/played around? If every single spell granted the elementalist a boon, it would not affect the elementalist’s playstyle or cause the elementalist to think about the use of its abilities. Instead, the elementalist would play exactly as it did before, moving from one attunement to the next, except now it would have yet another source of passive, free boons. It would be more like Arcane V on roids, and duration caps on the attunements would further pressure the elementalist to continue switching attunements lest it miss out on valuable boon uptime, reducing thoughtful play and promoting spam.

This is a cool idea, and in the long run a trait like this might be implemented as a grandmaster arcana trait. Until then, however, I don’t think elementalist builds that revolve around frequent attunement swapping require any more love from the trait lines.

Yeah it wouldnt be as interesting, however i think that using this trait would mean that other traits with similar effects could get replaced with something else. It would only give up to 10seconds so casting more and more wouldnt be able to take you past that.

As i said it would be used more to free up traits that could be better used to really make the class a bit more interesting. It could even be made that the moment you switch, the boons are lost to kind of stop the constant switching.