So as many elementalist players agree, the fire trait line is pretty bad, along with some other traits in other trait lines. As it stands, almost no builds run any points in fire except for either aura builds or might/fury stacking builds.
Reasons are that most of the traits are horribly underwhelming, so what could be some good changes? This is meant to be a discussion of ideas and suggestions.
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Fire 5 point minor: Flame Barrier – You have a 20% chance to cause burning whenever a foe attacks you in melee. Only triggers when attuned to fire.
The problem – No elementalist worth their salt would sit in one attunement for very long. The apparent trend for the fire trait line is for people who want to sit in fire attunement and not swap at all, which defeats the purpose of having 4 attunements. Not to mention, this is only a 1 second burn.
The solution – Make Flame Barrier work the same way Soothing Mist (the 5 point water minor trait) does, except without sharing with the group. It would last for 9s and refresh every 3s while in fire. Hell, maybe even have it share with the nearest 5 people, it still wouldn’t be game changing, but it would be somewhat useful.
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Fire 10 point major: Burning Precision – 30% chance to cause burning on a critical hit.
The problem – 1s burn with low chance to activate.
The solution – Make it burn for an extra second or 2 and with a higher chance to proc on crit. Maybe have it work similarly to the Engineer trait Incendiary Powder
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Fire 15 point minor: Sunspot – Inflict damage at your location when you attune to fire.
The problem – All it does is damage. And not very much.
The solution – Have it inflict burn for 2s.
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Fire 20 point major: One with Fire – Flame Barrier’s chance to burn foes goes up the longer you are attuned to fire.
The problem – Flame Barrier is terrible and this trait only promotes the “sit in fire and AA” mentality that NO ONE should follow.
The solution – Change the trait completely or make it so Flame Barrier is shared with allies, and works similarly to Soothing Mist.
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Fire 25 point minor: Burning Rage – Deal 5% more damage to burning foes.
The problem – There is a 10 point major in fire which does the exact same thing.
The solution – Make it 10% more damage, change the 10 point major, or put something completely new here.
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Fire 30 point major: Pyromancer’s Puissance – Each fire spell you cast adds might for 10 seconds.
The problem – Once again, this promotes the “sit in fire and AA” mentality.
The solution – ANet decided to buff this, since it used to give might for 5s. I personally think this should be replaced completely.
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Suggestion: Fire 30 point major – Conjurer – Conjured weapons recharge 50% faster, deal 10% more damage, and are instant cast. Does not affect the cooldown of Fiery Greatsword.
What it would replace – Pyromancer’s Puissance and Conjurer.
Reasoning – Conjured weapons are pretty bad right now. Lightning Hammer sees some play in PvE for massive DPS and in very niche areas in PvP for point control. Most other conjured weapons are completely useless. Fiery Greatsword is very good though, which is why the cooldown of it isn’t affected. However, it will still get the damage boost and will still be instant cast. And I’m sure a lot of you ele players roaming in WvW know what it’s like trying to run from a huge zerg and have to stop to cast FGS, only to have them catch up and kill you during the 1s cast time.
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These are just some suggestions, I may not have the best idea of balance and how this would effect eles in the long run or when combined with other traits.
If you have any thoughts about this post, whether it’s something that could be changed or something new, feel free to respond. I’d like to get some healthy discussion going.