Guild Wars 2

After the latest nerfs to Elementalist you really need to communicate with us about where you’re going with the class because right now its becoming worthless.

I don;t really care that they were technically bug fixes why not change the description for evasive arcana so it does produce blast finishers?

Moderator edit, removed CoC infraction from the thread title

Agreed. Unless one likes to play D/D, elementalists’ viability is down to landscape PvE and WvWvW.

I don’t like d/d or WvWvW.

Landscape PvE is getting repetitive.

We need guidance as to the future for the profession, if any.

Guidance?

Elementalists Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
They Got Nerfed Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire
</guidance>

Admittedly it would be nice if someone came along and touched base. I personally would be interested in knowing what kinds of problems the devs are running into on their end with balancing the class. Just to get their perspective on things. With 20 skills at our disposal per weapon set it’s probably like walking a tightrope made of barbed wire. For all I know the reason we don’t get an ele response is because the people working the class are neurotic now from trying to work out the balance issues.

The way I see it is with the elementalist, little changes have the potential to have big ramifications. It’s better to be cautious than slap a buff package together and then suddenly have to nerf the crap out of it because the changes synergized into OP, and there’s a LOT of potential for that, and probably is what resulted in the BWE nerf.

We lost a popular build, but it was because of an unitentional functionality. It sucks it’s gone but if the class is truely crippled now, Anet’s data will reflect it and something will come along to make up for it. Just keep playing and discussing it, and be patient. I’ve seen people literally throwing tantrums over this patch and I honestly don’t think that’s the way to handle it. Yeah it’s a shock, especially if you relied on it, but I really think we need to be more mature about this if we want our concerns to be addressed. It’s like the crying baby on the airplane, you can’t shove it in an overhead compartment, so you ignore it.

I switched to a guardian main after leveling an 80 ele, I now have an 80 guardian with comparable gear and I DO WAY WAY WAY MORE DAMAGE with less button presses and less anxiety playing and am way less squishy, our guild mate who also had an 80 ele went warrior and he is saying the exact same thing. Really as squishy as ele’s are they really should have a damage buff more than anything.

Personally this is what I think they should do to ele’s. I say let you pick 2 elements to main at a time and add weapon switching to ele’s and buff each element so they all do comparable damage and rebalance traits around that. Let people have a chance to change their main elements when retraiting.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Why did elementalists got downed state and D/D changes in the patch before the last one, while the rangers haven’t got anything until this patch, and even then not enough? Because noone at anet frakking cares about rangers it seems!!!111

They’re getting more, they just can’t do everything at once. Read the post by Jon Peters post in the ranger patch discussion.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/General-Patch-Discussion-merged/page/4#post746290

morrolan.9608:

After the latest nerfs to Elementalist you really need to communicate with us about where you’re going with the class because right now its becoming worthless.

I don;t really care that they were technically bug fixes why not change the description for evasive arcana so it does produce blast finishers?

^this. A response from a developer would be greatly appreciated. I’m not normally one to QQ on the forums (you can look up my post history, I have NEVER cried that Ele’s were underpowered and needed major buffs) but right now this morning I feel like I got throat punched and stabbed in the back (I never cried about BS thiefs for that matter either).

My entire spec, and the sole reason I rolled this class, has been gutted/destroyed/removed from the game. I love clothy, mobile, support healers (played a Disc priest in “that other game” for years, I loved it) and now this class will only marginally be able to accomplish that role. I have no desire to even log on and check out the new Lost Shores content because I have to reassess my entire class decision and if I decide to continue playing it (rather than leveling my gaurdian alt) I will have to regear, re-rune, and re-trait it entirely. Probably switch to D/D and put my exotic staff in the bag. All the gold I wasted on the TP buying dwayna runes (some of which came from gem purchases after unlocking more bank slots, I won’t be making THAT mistake again) to make me a group healer was wasted cause strangers blast finishing my water fields doesn’t benefit from my healing power stat and trying to use eruption/geyser on anything but a stationary target (which doesn’t happen in this game) is a near-impossibility. Healing rain only grants regen which barely benefits from +healing power, so why stack a stat I get merely marginal benefit from anymore. I wasn’t stacking it for self-healing, i was stacking it for GROUP HEALING!!

I didn’t even play paid tournaments, only dabbled in tPvP lightly, and when I did so I usually ran D/D (the playstyle is just MORE FUN for PvP) not the impossible to kill staff bunker Ele. But I loved staff support/healing in PvE (a lot of solo’ing Orr) and in WvW, and now that playstyle is dead because the meta in tPvP relies heavily on bunkers. Back to stand/nuke mechanics I suppose, like every other boring class. YES Ele’s were TOO GOOD as that role in tPvP, but so were Guardians and they avoided the nerf-bat.

I suppose it’s time to break out the infamous line, “I for one welcome our new Guardian bunker overlords…”

CurtMonash.3498:

Agreed. Unless one likes to play D/D, elementalists’ viability is down to landscape PvE and WvWvW.

I don’t like d/d or WvWvW.

Landscape PvE is getting repetitive.

We need guidance as to the future for the profession, if any.

WvW and PvE ain’t looking so great either, if you take this “general” change at face value:

“Many skills, items, and traits were applying healing to an infinite amount of targets and have now been limited to 5 targets. "

So you can no longer heal your whole team in random sPvP, your heals in WvW will be radically reduced, and you can’t even heal a dungeon group with Ranger pets, summoned Elementals, Necro Minions, or friendly NPCs present.

Obviously there are no numbers between 5 and infinity, so they didn’t have a choice but to nerf the kitten out of support Elementalists.

in most mmos alot of the more talented players go “elementalist style classes” ones with high skill cap and constantly developing metagame.. i cant say if thats exactly the case on gw2 but i guess people think. because most elementalist players are resilient and adaptable it doesnt matter if they ruin us completely because we can bounce back, however if a guardian or warrior or something is QQing that he cant auto atk me 2 death in 2 seconds even though hes a heavy armour guy.. you can be sure that he will be buffed! lets say for a second that the top 10% of gw2 players suddently decide hey! lets play ranger! you can be kitten sure that ranger tactics and metagame will improve and people will start QQing not cos of the profession but the people who play it.. unfortunately massive nerfs of a single player force the people who want to stay viable in professional standard play to constantly class switch, which can be frustrating…. my 2 cents..

I enjoy playing Staff wielding clothy support classes in MMO’s. Leave my Staff Ele alone! Is that so much to ask???? Apparently!

The thread I started last night was merged with the Evasive Arcana trait and I have gotten an “infraction” due to me calling out the staff. No, I was not “calling out” the staff, and neither is my main gripe with Evasive Arcana. All I wanted was some acknowledgement that Elementalist at least exists.

Yeah, communicate with your playerbase or at least acknowledge they are alive….

They can’t communicate here when they’re busy discussing the next set of buffs planned for the Warrior class.

Milennin.4825:

They can’t communicate here when they’re busy discussing the next set of buffs planned for the Warrior class.

Lol so true

I’d really appreciate some comments from the devs. GW1 came with thorough notes on the rationale behind changes and I think this led to more constructive discussion. Players knew why they made a change, and so it saved a lot of heart ache/allowed a much better and focused dialogue from players.

I have to say though, they’re trying to do too much at once. They’re focusing far too heavily on ‘major events’ which is really cool! However skill balances and things essential to the core game suffer as a result.

They also never say anything in the ele forums. I remember the d/d buff post though…

Leiloni.7951:

I enjoy playing Staff wielding clothy support classes in MMO’s. Leave my Staff Ele alone! Is that so much to ask???? Apparently!

I’m just happy I didn’t waste money on Exotic Armor or Weapons for my Ele. Think how bad you’d feel if you soulbound a Bifrost to an elementalist.

It seems that Anet’s developers has decided to act like BioWare developers and neglect communicating with the community about why some things were done. This is very disappointing considering the fact that the one thing I felt Anet developers had over other MMO development teams is their willingness to engage in thoughtful discussion of with the community.

Heimlich.3065:

Leiloni.7951:

I enjoy playing Staff wielding clothy support classes in MMO’s. Leave my Staff Ele alone! Is that so much to ask???? Apparently!

I’m just happy I didn’t waste money on Exotic Armor or Weapons for my Ele. Think how bad you’d feel if you soulbound a Bifrost to an elementalist.

Well the Legedaries are getting upgraded to be on par with Ascended so those are still worth your time. I do eventually want a Bifrost but that’s so far down the line for me….

As for Exotic weapons and armor, it’s still worth it. They don’t cost much to make or buy and it will be months before any Ascended versions are released. In the meantime, Exotics are quite powerful compared to Rare’s and Masterwork, and given how easy they are to get, I’d say go for it.

Leiloni.7951:

Heimlich.3065:

Leiloni.7951:

I enjoy playing Staff wielding clothy support classes in MMO’s. Leave my Staff Ele alone! Is that so much to ask???? Apparently!

I’m just happy I didn’t waste money on Exotic Armor or Weapons for my Ele. Think how bad you’d feel if you soulbound a Bifrost to an elementalist.

Well the Legedaries are getting upgraded to be on par with Ascended so those are still worth your time. I do eventually want a Bifrost but that’s so far down the line for me….

As for Exotic weapons and armor, it’s still worth it. They don’t cost much to make or buy and it will be months before any Ascended versions are released. In the meantime, Exotics are quite powerful compared to Rare’s and Masterwork, and given how easy they are to get, I’d say go for it.

If I can get back into GW2, I’ll spend my in-game money gearing-out a Warrior or Guardian instead.

Seems I’ll be leveling up the other classes while I wait for ANet to get their heads out of their collective arses and give us an answer on whether we should even consider playing Ele any more.

Vayra.3290:

Seems I’ll be leveling up the other classes while I wait for ANet to get their heads out of their collective arses and give us an answer on whether we should even consider playing Ele any more.

I’m fully confident that ANet will address this.

In GW1, they gave Elementalists two focused updates, part one and part two

Unfortunately, both occurred in 2012, 6 and a half years after they gutted Elementalist play in GW1.

One of the best things Riot does with League of Legends is communication with the community. They not only release “Patch Preview” videos explaining some of the major changes but they frequently go on the forums to discuss and explain even small buffs and nerfs. If something gets nerfed in a way that seems inexplicable, you can bet someone from Riot, often even someone very high up in the chain of command, will find some random player’s thread on the forum and go into detail about why they made the change they made.

The best part is they do it as a normal conversation. There’s almost no corporate doublespeak in these posts. They’ll often be vague when talking about future releases, but they’re never vague in a way that attempts to sidestep the lack of information. They’ll just straight up say, “we can’t talk about this now.”

Comparatively, I’ve been extremely dissapointed with how ArenaNet is handling the Ascended Armor fiasco (literally every time they’ve touched on player concerns about gear creep, they’ve talked around the fundamental issue while pretending to answer the question), and slipping in this change to Elementalists without the patch notes even being easily accessible is profoundly disheartening. I’m losing faith that the company wants to do what’s best for us, not just as Elementalist players but as players of their game. And that makes me sad.

Stop crying and over stating your case. I’m glad anet does things slowly. I would really hate to think of a company that instantly caved into the demands of it’s customers. They make some small changes here and there and see how it plays out for awhile. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you can’t handle the small changes that are coming and going, then perhaps you should play a game that isn’t this new.

New game. Lots of changes. Sure change is hard, but I’m glad they are doing it with a sense of intelligence rather than knee jerk reactions.

Thanks

Blaine Tog.8304:

One of the best things Riot does with League of Legends is communication with the community. They not only release “Patch Preview” videos explaining some of the major changes but they frequently go on the forums to discuss and explain even small buffs and nerfs. If something gets nerfed in a way that seems inexplicable, you can bet someone from Riot, often even someone very high up in the chain of command, will find some random player’s thread on the forum and go into detail about why they made the change they made.

The best part is they do it as a normal conversation. There’s almost no corporate doublespeak in these posts. They’ll often be vague when talking about future releases, but they’re never vague in a way that attempts to sidestep the lack of information. They’ll just straight up say, “we can’t talk about this now.”

Comparatively, I’ve been extremely dissapointed with how ArenaNet is handling the Ascended Armor fiasco (literally every time they’ve touched on player concerns about gear creep, they’ve talked around the fundamental issue while pretending to answer the question), and slipping in this change to Elementalists without the patch notes even being easily accessible is profoundly disheartening. I’m losing faith that the company wants to do what’s best for us, not just as Elementalist players but as players of their game. And that makes me sad.

THIS, so hard
lack of bug fixes, introducing bugs with the bug fixes, everything else I can forgive
but lack of communication is the one thing I cannot. Tell us what’s going on. Seriously. And yes indeed, the reason I like Riot Games is that they communicate extremely well. Falling short of their level is acceptable, but not this far short. No communication at all aside from “check out this new stuff we’re adding” is entirely unacceptable

Read LOTRO patch notes some time. Depending on what class you play, you may love or hate their decisions, but at least they explain them straightforwardly, or even with humor.

Anyhow, the Dragon’s Tooth bug gives me some hope that the complete EA nerf was a bug too — but again, communication is called for.

LightningLockey.5938:

Guidance?

Elementalists Fell Into A Burning Ring Of Fire
They Got Nerfed Down, Down, Down
And The Flames Went Higher
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
The Ring Of Fire
The Ring Of Fire
</guidance>

Is that what you read in the patchnotes? Funny I read something a lil different. “Stupid Eles, roll a WARRIOR!!!”

CurtMonash.3498:

Anyhow, the Dragon’s Tooth bug gives me some hope that the complete EA nerf was a bug too — but again, communication is called for.

Doubtful. It’s much more likely that they’ll reclassify the Dragon’s Tooth and Mist Form CD kitten-ups as “features”, update the tooltips, and mark them as-intended.

You guys should all just spam their twitter with this stuff (I would but I dont do social media). Clearly they read that and clearly they don’t give a rats kitten about this forum.
Its truely a sad state of affairs and it seriously put a nail in the coffin of me ever spending anymore more real money into guild wars.
I had faith, I refused to believe that anet could be this incompetent for long. But hey, they keep proving me wrong.

Spoon.3826:

You guys should all just spam their twitter with this stuff (I would but I dont do social media). Clearly they read that and clearly they don’t give a rats kitten about this forum.

This is actually a really good suggestion. I don’t have a twitter account, but I should set one up for that purpose. It would be much more productive than throwing feedback into this black-hole of a forum.

At the very least, they’ll at least have to try to PR spin if this snowballs into a huge deal. So… I guess that might count as communicating?

Anet come on we deserve a post.That was not a simple tweak you performed here

Anet does not care about our QQ guys they just overkilled the ele

This patch is awesome: new crippling elemental bugs, staff killed, event lagged and bugged to all hell…I know if I was on a trial account, I would sure be convinced to play!

Anet is quick to nerf and very slow and reluctant to fix bugs and buffs. Why bother to experiment with new trait and skill setups and find something that works but ONLY for Anet to nerf them in the next patch?

Besides, the Ele class is still bugged bad, e.g. Acane Power is still not working. This profession is finished as far as I am concerned.

Anyway I have already stopped playing since I heard news of Ascended Gears coming in this patch. After the pacth, I login to test out a couple of skills.. then logout in less than 10 mins.

I still love this game but I think I will stay away from GW2 for a couple of months, hope that more bugs will be fixed and things will improve by then. Save me money too