Guild Wars 2

Hi! I know there have been a few of such threads, but I think I found the core of problems.

I was thinking for some long time and probably I already got it:

THE CORE is:
Elementalist have his 4 attunments, which all used and swapped create much versality, surely can give goodam power if used correctly as well. It creates enormous amount of combos compared to other professions… Pro players will quickly learn to use those combos in case ele is buffed and Ele may quickly become OP.

Now, how to cure it?
My idea is: ONE WITH THE ELEMENT/ELEMENT AVATAR option.

So, let’s say while swapping through elements you found yourself in a very unpleasant situation. You need (for example) instant lots of healing.

You attune to water and than press the water attunment once again. You channel for 1 second and than become Water Avatar (“One with the water”). All of your other attunments get disabled for like 1 minute, in which time you get a boost on your water skills + you take a form of water giving some special skills (for example "cure condition eveny 5 seconds + enemy attack pass through you as through water every 5 seconds).

Now why would that help? Because current Elementalist restrictions come from your ability to swap attunments! If ANET will bost some attunment skills players may find a deadly combo between them etc. They create powerfull posibilities, which pro may abuse, yet newbies will never find or learn to use- and so PRO eles play on the level of any other player while NOT-PRO get disqualified.

BACK TO IDEA:
When you become avatar of some element your skills in that element get boosted and your ~ button becomes additional skill curing the leaks in your build.
The result is: you become like other professions- having only 6 skills on the bar (no weapon swapping). No deadly combos, strightforward pros and cons! You can be finally boosted for this short time without a fear you will get OP!

Your healing water skills may take less time to cast, your attack may deal more damage, because they will not be combined with other elements for some time!!!

And waht about this 6th skill (under ~ button)? It will become the skill, which your current atunment lacks in. Ele was designed to swap attunments, so staying in 1 will surely make you in need of something. For example Water will need some damage dealer. So ~ skill should become some kind of missle in this way.

In Fire ~ should become some control skill, as Fire lacks in such (for example “clay chains”, which slow enemies down and deal some small damage if they move).

I hope it would be kinda easy to understand and strightforward to implement. Surely easier than buffing and nerfing Ele skill by skill for the next half a year
And, first of all, It will only make Elementalist class more funny: increase amount of possible playstyles in a very easy-to-control way, balance the class safely and add what each Elementalist must have dreamed off
“You didnt let me join the raid? Now I am avatar of Fire, and Im going to do an epic raid of Elementalist only! MUAHAHAHA!!” ;D

yaaay…exactly what we need …more skills -.-"….(sarcasm)

1. ANet is too lazy to do something of this magnitude
2. How …..the **** ….would you trait that -.- (Most reasonable would be at grandmaster, but that still limits you to only 2 ….and if you put it into arcane ….25 skills for 1 trait …not OP at all XD)
3. You would need much more then 1 skill under ~ to fill the void …especially in PvE …or you would die with Water/Air because of uselessness
4. In dungeons, you would be the KING of uselssness, because of that 60 seconds lockdown
5. Air would be totally useless XD ( 2 good skills in any set XD)

Just to point out “few” of the problems you would bump into ^^

The best fix for Ele will be something simple, ie: increasing/decreasing numbers on skills and traits, adding effects to existing traits/skills, but not creating new mechanics/skills/animations.

If it’s too complicated or would require too much development work, it won’t happen. Balancing Elementalists just needs to be what it is at face value (balancing), which can be done entirely by simply adjusting certain numbers in very specific, intelligently chosen places.

Elementalists do not need wide sweeping changes that completely redesign the class.

The problem is that this “Few Numbers” may take hell long :|
And it will again turn out that some ProCoxes will find a way to use it and win 3:1…

What I did is just a suggestion: If you wish to swap attunmens and make corss-attunment combo you will be able. And those who wish to focus on something will have their chance as well. Such “Complication” will in fact make the whole Elementalist much less complicated :P

Sounds like a great idea for a new elite, but not a new function of the F1-F4 keys. For starters, it goes against the philosiphy behind the elementalist class, switching between attunments regularly to suit the situation. If there was anything the elementalist needed, it would be a slight decrease in the cooldown between attunment switching.

Man I’m so sick of hearing “U gotz comboz day so powerfool”. I’d trade every single field for akittenstat boost at this point.

I definately think Avatars of elements should be elite skills. Where it’s a transformation that lasts a minute and has a cooldown of 3-5 minutes.

Avatar of Fire: Should have things like, immune to burning, enemeies standing too close to you catch fire. You can have a wide spread of cleansing fire to remove conditions from allies, meteor shower obviously… and whereever you move you leave a short trail of fire behind you. You’d also have a flare type skill and you do more damage to burning foes.

Avatar of Water: Your fluidity means you cannot be immoblized, you have a much more epic version of soothing mist which gives regeneration to nearby allies. You can create healing springs, and make the ground slippy so foes have a chance to fall over every 3 seconds.. or something. You also have a skill, like ice spike where you drop cold water on your enemies, making them vulnerable.

Avatar of Air: Air would be about movement, medium amounts of damage but high maneuverability. You would have high endurance regeneration, and would be able to grant this to your allies. You would have skills like ride the lightning, and teleport. Possibly you cannt be hit by arrows since you’re made of air. You are incredibly swift and allies also gain swiftness when standing near you.

Avatar of Earth: You are immune to bleeding and poison. You can create a wall of stalacmites which act like a shiled for a short time. You can stomp and interupt foes. Allies near you gain protection and take less damage. You also have a sandstorm skill, and an obsidian flesh skill.

Ideally these avatard wouldn’t use the same skins as the elementals you can summon. These would also be super elite skills costing 30 point each. Or maybe more.

Making it more complicated than it is won’t help, quite to the contrary. And reducing the number/complexity of skills will ruin what’s individual and fun about it. It’s the one class I think they’ve put a lot of work into for this reason.

Structurally, I think the class is perfect as it is, it just takes far too much work to make it effective in its current state. Other classes attack you without breaking a sweat ala Hannibal Lector calmly killing someone with a hammer to the sound of classical music whilst you’re mashing keys in spastic frenzy just to stave off even a mediocre attacker.

The only change I think it needs is more obvious outcomes to polarised speccing. If you spec power/‘Glass Canon’ you currently get more glass and less canon. It clearly needs a boost to dps-output in this capacity if we’re going to be that squishy. Similarly, if you spec for support/survivability you lose dps output AND it’s not nearly as supporty/survivable as it should be in this form so a little boost here is needed too to make it worth while.

Now, the only teeny weeny inchy problem with boosting the ele, is the very high potential it currently has to spew out damage if played right (or under the effect of finger stimulants) even in its current state so boosting either traited dps or survivability would make anyone who is currently effective as an ele turn into a beast leading to much forum whinging and calls for nerfskittenomfgs etc.

Still something needs to be done, it’s such a pain in thekittento play, it makes a man want to take the easy road and roll a special needs warrior.

The problem with ele isn’t the attunements really, or the skills. All we need is our existing skills to be fixed, (tooltips included) and better synergy for traits.

Alongside this, a small damage boost would be appreciated too.