Guild Wars 2

Going to try to make these ideas as simple and “realistic” as possible. By realistic, I mean they could actually be implemented w/o too much trouble. But, these are just my ideas. I’ll also give alternative change ideas for some skills.

Fire (Almost perfect as is IMO)

Fireball Change 1 : Splash Radius increased to 300 from 90.
Fireball Change 1 : Reduced base dmg by 10%.
Fireball Change 1 : Reduced cast time to 3/4 second, from 1 second.

Fireball Change 2 : Splash Radius increased to 180 from 90.
Fireball Change 2 : Reduced cast time to 3/4 second, from 1 second.

Reason : Basing my change on the idea that Fire = AoE dmg while Air = Single Target dmg.

Lava Font : Radius increased to 180, up from 120. (Blasting Staff boosts by 60)

Reason : The radius is incredibly small w/o blasting staff is can be hard to aim accurately as a ground targeted skill that ALSO takes 4-5 seconds to do full dmg. Same reason Necro Marks base radius were increased.

Water

Water Blast : Increased Heal Radius to 600 from 120.

Reason : This should be obvious, the current heal splash radius is worthless

Ice Spike Change 1 : Reduced cast time to 1/2 seconds from 1 second.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Increased cooldown to 5 seconds from 4 seconds.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Increased vulnerability stacks applied to 8 from 5.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Is now a blast finisher.

Reason : Cast time reduction is necessary to make it less clunky. The cooldown increase is to balance it for being a blast finisher, with the slight vuln increase to make up for the new cooldown. Blast finisher adds utility and synergy with your own water fields.

Ice Spike Change 2 : Reduced cast time to 1/2 seconds from 1 second.
Ice Spike Change 2 : Increased base dmg by 10%.

Reason : Gives it a boost in offensive power so it become a solid primary attack for the water tree since it is it’s only offensive option when you’re ever stuck in this attunement.

Geyser : Increased radius to 180 from 120. (Blasting Staff increases by 60)
Geyser : Duration increased to 3 seconds from 2 seconds, overall healing is the same.

Reason : Radius increase is desperately needed, same reason as Lava Font. Duration nerfs the upfront healing a bit but buffs it’s water field utility.

Frozen Ground : Reduced cooldown to 35 seconds from 40 seconds.

Reason : The spell doesn’t deserve a full 40 seconds IMO, I’d reduce it to 30 seconds but went with 35 seconds just to be safe.

Air

Chain Lightning : Tooltip renamed to “Lightning Bolt”.
Chain Lightning : Now only hits 1 target, down from 3.
Chain Lightning : Increased base dmg by 60%.

Reason : Reinforces the idea of Air = single target dmg, and the 60% dmg boost puts it just slightly above where the current Fireball dmg is.

Lightning Surge Change 1 : Tooltip renamed to “Chain Lightning”.
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Now chains to up to 5 targets (can bounce between 2 targets)
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Reduced cooldown to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Reduced base dmg by 30%.

Reason : Between the animation and having an instant chain lightning effect makes this incredibly satisfying. The reduced dmg makes up for it being able to hit the primary targets 3 times (bouncing off 1 other target), as well as the reduced cooldown. Letting it bounce between 2 targets allows single target “spike dmg” and is fitting thematically.

Lightning Surge Change 2 : Tooltip renamed to “Chain Lightning”.
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Now chains up to 5 targets (1 hit per unique target)
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Reduced cooldown to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Reduced base dmg by 10%.

Reason : Turns this into a solid aoe attack with blind utility, the reduced cooldown brings in line with the other #2 attunement abilities, plus this and the auto are the only attacks in Air Attunement.

Gust Change 1 : Is now a frontal cone aoe instead of a projectile.
Gust Change 1 : Range reduced to 600.
Gust Change 1 : Now cripples for 2 seconds.

Reason : This was always a very awkward ability to use defensively on targets up close, and the knockback isn’t as useful on targets far away. The cripple just makes the short knockback more useful by itself. Overall makes this more of a defensive skill

Gust Change 2 : Increased projectile speed by 30%.
Gust Change 2 : Increased projectile aoe width by 50%.
Gust Change 2 : Cooldown reduced to 25 seconds, down from 30 seconds.
Gust Change 2 : No longer triggers Air auto attack.

Reason : Alternative change that’s easier to implement and is in line with the current version, the projectile speed and width increase helps make it more reliable to hit and a slightly better aoe knockback. It also is a bit clunky to use when you have #1 on auto.

Gust Change 3 : Tooltip renamed to “Vortex”.
Gust Change 3 : Is now a ground targeted ability that pulls enemies toward the point.
Gust Change 3 : AoE radius set to 600.
Gust Change 3 : Now has a 3/4 second cast time, up from 1/4 second.

Reason : A more extreme change, not only makes it more fun, but very useful for comboing with staff aoe’s and especially Static Field. Would be just like Temporal Curtain for Mesmers, and would have a growing vortex animation on the ground while being cast as a telegraph.

Windbourne Speed : Increased radius to 600, up from 240.

Reason : The aoe is way too small as is making it a chore to buff allies with it, especially when you try to use it as a clutch “cripple/immob/chill” cleanser. Alternatively could be 450 radius.

Static Field : Adjusted animation border to match the effect border.
Static Field : Now does dmg each time an enemy passes through the border.

Reason : The border doesn’t seem very accurate in a lot of situations, the extra damage helps to punish people for running through it constantly and gives it some extra offensive capability.

Earth

Eruption : Cast time reduced to 1/2 seconds, down from 1 – 1/4 seconds.

Reason : The cast time is absurdly long, and it already takes a good 3 seconds to detonate so it’s not necessary, reducing it makes it far less clunky to use especially with such a short cooldown.

Magnetic Aura : Reduced duration to 3 seconds, down from 5.
Magnetic Aura : Reduced cooldown to 15 seconds, down from 30 seconds.

Reason : Allows for more skillful reflect opportunities, as well as makes it more useful for Aura related traits with the lower cooldown.

Unsteady Ground : Now applies 3 stacks of Torment (6 seconds).
Unsteady Ground : Now applies 4 seconds of Cripple.
Unsteady Ground : Now refreshes its conditions on pulse instead of apply.

Reason : Other posters have suggested adding Torment to UG and I think it’s a great idea. The refreshing conditions means it will only ever apply 3 stacks of Torment or 4 seconds of cripple and staying in the aoe only refreshes them to that point. This makes it better for when enemies only walk through briefly, and gives extra dmg on enemies that continue standing on it by keeping Torment on longer. Of all the abilities that would be changed, this needs a change the most it’s the weakest staff skill.

Shockwave Change 1 : Tooltip renamed to “Grasping Earth”
Shockwave Change 1 : Is now a targeted ability.
Shockwave Change 1 : Now applies 3 bleeds (10 seconds), up from 1 bleed (20 seconds).
Shockwave Change 1 : Now uses the animation from downed skill “Grasping Earth”.

Reason : Makes this a solid and reliable single target immobilize, and also is vastly cooler than the original.

Shockwave Change 2 : Increased projectile speed by 30%.
Shockwave Change 2 : Increased projectile aoe width by 30%.
Shockwave Change 2 : Now applies 2 bleeds (10 seconds), up from 1 bleed (20 seconds).

Reason : Same treatment as Gust change, just makes it more reliable and a slightly better aoe ability, not to mention the extra impact.

Extra change ideas for traits.

My goal here is to eliminate the significance of the Arcana trait line bonus : Attunement Cooldown Reduction, which restricts Ele builds too much.

Attunement Bonus Rework

Fire Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Raging Fire”
Water Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Soothing Mist”
Air Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Zephyr’s Fury”
Earth Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Stone Flesh”

Raging Fire : Gain 1 might (4 – 6 second dur.) every 2 seconds. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Soothing Mist : Heal x amount every second. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Zephyr’s Fury : Gain 15% movespeed and 1 precision per level. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Stone Flesh : Gain 2 toughness per level. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.

5 Point Minor Trait Reworks (The current Attunement Bonuses)

Flame Barrier : Tooltip renamed to Improved Raging Fire.
Flame Barrier : Now applies Fire Attunement bonus “Raging Fire” to nearby allies.

Zephyr’s Speed : Tooltip renamed to Improved Zephyr’s Fury.
Zephyr’s Speed : Now applies Air Attunement bonus “Zephyr’s Fury” to nearby allies.

Stone Flesh : Tooltip renamed to Improved Stone Flesh.
Stone Flesh : Now applies Earth Attunement Bonus “Stone Flesh” to nearby allies.

Soothing Mist : Tooltip renamed to Improved Soothing Mist.
Soothing Mist : Now applies Water Attunement Bonus “Soothing Mist” to nearby allies.

Arcana 15 Point Minor Trait Rework (Currently Lingering Elements)

Lingering Elements : Tooltip Renamed to “Prismatic Elements”.
Lingering Elements : Now gives you 3% extra dmg for each Attunement Bonus affecting you.

Final Changes

Attunements : Base cooldowns reduced to 10 seconds, down from 16.

Arcana Trait Bonus : Now increases Attunement Bonus duration by 5% per point.

With these changes, Attunements now have a 10 second cooldown baseline, and each Attunement has their bonuses built into the Attunement itself w/o traits. The 5 point traits in each tree allow you to share those bonuses with allies.

And finally, you can get up to 150% duration increase on attunement bonuses with 30 in Arcana making 4 second bonuses last 10 seconds. With enough swapping, the 15 point minor trait “Prismatic Elements” can give you up to 12% bonus dmg when you maintain all 4 lingering bonuses.

This makes it so you no longer HAVE to go 20-30 into Arcana to have manageable attunement cooldowns which can otherwise be crippling to be without, but going deep Arcana is still a very attractive option.

I found this thread because I was searching for someone who wanted that exact change to gust. I think the projectile is so slow that it will never hit someone over 600 range, so changing it to that range is fine by me.

In particular, I completely agree that it should act as an instant cone knockback however I think 30 second cooldown is fine. Players have to be able to counter it however, so a 1/4 or 1/2 second cast time might be in order for them to see a dodge-able animation.

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Fire should be our AoE attunement, so increasing the splash radius of fireball to 300 is a great idea, but the damage should be reduced (maybe to that of the current chain lightning) to balance it.
I also think flame burst could be castable whether or not you’re facing your target, because most of the time I find that it doesn’t manage to cast because I’m not perfectly facing the target, and I think it should be one of those “cast while escaping” spells.

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Water autoattack is useless. The damage is terrible, the healing splash radius is impossible to use effectively. I can’t believe it made it this far with that radius. However, a 500heal on autoattack can not have 600 radius, it would be too easy to make elementalist a healing class in that situation, 300 seems better. Although to me it should apply regeneration or chill the target for 1s.

Then there’s Ice Spike. I think that’s a very needed change because I think it’s a waste to have to use up the earth attunement cooldown to get a blast finisher in our geyser. I have a problem with it only stacking 5 stacks of vulnerability for 10 seconds because it has such a slow cast + landing + cooldown, that a single elementalist is only ever able to put up 10 stacks of vulnerability at a time, whilst sacrificing a lot of potential damage from other attunements and 8 stacks seems much better without being too overpowered.

Geyser doesn’t need a radius buff imo, it’s a very strong heal and with blasting staff it has a nice radius. Adding an extra second can be vital to other players getting an extra blast or leap finisher in, mostly because of reaction times.
Frozen ground could do with a reduced cooldown. In my opinion no weapon skill (across all professions) should have anything more than a 30second cooldown, but that’s an other issue.

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Earth is nearly fine. Eruption does great bleed damage as well as direct damage, it should take time to erupt, but I agree the cast time should be reduced. Also, if it fails to cast, the animation should NOT continue, as it’s very deceiving and can lead to failed combos and wasted attunement swaps!

The elementalist class should not have torment. Torment as the name implies is a dark skill that can be applied by “dark” and tormenting classes. Mesmer, thief and necromancer are the perfect professions for this kind of condition. (On a side note, condition warriors desperately needed it as a cover up condition, but I don’t agree with them having it to be honest, as it doesn’t fit the profession, and the way it applies stacks over time is slightly too strong.)
Instead, if you were to buff grasping earth, I would make it more like temporal curtain : It should apply 5 seconds of cripple every time someone walks over it, without reapplying it on that player until 5 seconds have passed, making for 10seconds maximum of cripple on a 30s cooldown, which is the same as now, except more reliable.

Don’t change shockwave! It’s a great skill, but it does need to be a faster projectile

Air attunement is definitely the single target attunement, dagger and scepter implemented it just fine, but ArenaNet mixed things up when making staff spells, making our single target capibility very low.

For this reason, the 1 and 2 spells should be swapped, and the 2 spell should have higher damage on the primary target, with 30% less damage on each successive bounce, meaning it doesn’t get too powerful when vsing Rangers.

Windbourne speed needs a bigger radius, and Static Field needs to be fixed to actually fit its animation.

Sorry I’ve mainly repeated what you said, but that’s because I agree with most of the changes.

The changes in attunements and traits is definitely a step in the right direction, but I fear it would be too strong this way, as having fast attunements without traiting can be quite overpowered when adding in bonuses for each attunement and making the bonuses last, and it would make the arcane tree almost useless. Another option would be to have default attunement recharge be 12seconds and the second arcane minor trait could reduce it by 2 seconds. Or the arcane tree reduces it by 1% per point (going down to 9second recharge) and the second minor trait affects the boon like you said.

I think it’s difficult for them to entirely change attunements and their traits without having lots of elementalists complain about it on top of all the players complaining about an overpowered buff.

However I do think attunements are too essential to the profession for them to NEED to be traited in cooldown, unlike virtues, burst skills, steal and shatter skills, where it isn’t necessary to reduce their cooldowns for them to be viable.

Legendshunter.6590:

Air attunement is definitely the single target attunement, dagger and scepter implemented it just fine, but ArenaNet mixed things up when making staff spells, making our single target capibility very low.

For this reason, the 1 and 2 spells should be swapped, and the 2 spell should have higher damage on the primary target, with 30% less damage on each successive bounce, meaning it doesn’t get too powerful when vsing Rangers.

Windbourne speed needs a bigger radius, and Static Field needs to be fixed to actually fit its animation.

Sorry I’ve mainly repeated what you said, but that’s because I agree with most of the changes.

The changes in attunements and traits is definitely a step in the right direction, but I fear it would be too strong this way, as having fast attunements without traiting can be quite overpowered when adding in bonuses for each attunement and making the bonuses last, and it would make the arcane tree almost useless. Another option would be to have default attunement recharge be 12seconds and the second arcane minor trait could reduce it by 2 seconds. Or the arcane tree reduces it by 1% per point (going down to 9second recharge) and the second minor trait affects the boon like you said.

I think it’s difficult for them to entirely change attunements and their traits without having lots of elementalists complain about it on top of all the players complaining about an overpowered buff.

However I do think attunements are too essential to the profession for them to NEED to be traited in cooldown, unlike virtues, burst skills, steal and shatter skills, where it isn’t necessary to reduce their cooldowns for them to be viable.

Thanks for your feedback, I agree with basically 90% of your first post, and I’d be ok with Unsteady Ground just applying a flat set of bleeding instead of Torment, it was just for flavor. However I don’t think you should deny a small thing like that just because of theme alone, the gameplay elements of Torment would fit the ability very well IMO.

I also disagree that Geyser doesn’t need a radius boost, I feel it definately does, for the same reason Necro Marks got a boost, you shouldn’t have to have that trait to make it decent. This would be more of a quality of life change than anything, being so small makes it a PITA to use. Same goes for #2 in Fire, even though I didn’t change it. Blasting Staff should just be a small bonus to these.

I don’t think having 10 sec cd base Attunements would be overpowered at all though, in fact Engineers don’t have ANY cooldowns swapping between kits/weapons, it doesn’t make ability cooldowns faster, it just gives you flexbility. Engy doesn’t get stuck in Toolkit for 5-10 seconds forced to use a melee auto.

Although having shorter cooldowns can affect the skills that proc effects when swapping, if necessary those effects could be nerfed slightly to balance them, like the Lightning Blast when swapping to Air, there shouldn’t even be such untelegraphed burst like that and Fresh Air anyway. =p

I did think of suggesting what you said though, making the cd 11-12 seconds then making Lingering Elements (15 point minor trait) reduce it by 2 seconds.

Also I really don’t think this would “kill” Arcana, the major traits are still extremely desirable, and attunement bonuses in my suggestion would be potent enough that the duration bonus and even bonus dmg for keeping them would be strong.

But yeah, as you said attunement cooldowns are too mandatory, being locked out of elements for 16 SECONDS, is unacceptable, and basically forces you to just blow all your long cooldowns as soon as your in an attunement because you won’t have it when you need it, and all this does is reinforce the spammy nature of this game which isn’t a good thing.

Again going back to Engineers, they can pop toolkit to use a pull or pry bar, pop back into weapon, then immediately go back to toolkit if they need their shield block, Elementalists don’t have that luxury, if you pop into Air to use your attacks/knockback then to Fire and need to go back because you need Lightning Field, you can’t, so you’re usually better off just “spamming” instead of intelligently saving cooldowns.

ATM I’m just wondering why I can’t +1 a post more than once…
Maybe if anet get more people to work on classes we could see these changes but right now all of those suggested changes look like they’d be too much for them.

Wryog.5073:

ATM I’m just wondering why I can’t +1 a post more than once…
Maybe if anet get more people to work on classes we could see these changes but right now all of those suggested changes look like they’d be too much for them.

I think it’s a combination of them being careful (since they’re not splitting balance) and w/e coding troubles there are when it comes to implementing certain changes.

But honestly, the only changes I really want are the QoL fixes to Staff (like radius increases/cast time reductions) and the change to the Air attacks. The Arcana changes I would love so much, mainly just not having to go 30 Arcana to have decent cooldowns.

I still think it’s just a problem with being understaffed. Not enough people to make the changes and test them probably.
Still, we can hope that maybe some day they will get rid of the 4 teams for casual PvE updates(living story) and put them to work on something to really change the game.
And what you suggested looks like it would really change the game for elementalists.

On the subject of staff changes, I don’t think Blasting Staff should have its current function. Base aoe should just be increased 25% on aoe staff skills. Blasting Staff should be reworked to avoid its requirement for staff to really work everywhere you bring it, while still being appealing for certain situations.

I like your changes to fire, but I think it needs more than that. It’s our damage element but the only reliable damage it has is in the first two skills. I think Flame Burst should have some initial aoe damage to help facilitate a choice between power and condi builds. Burning Retreat having a small burst of aoe damage upon activation would hardly be OP because if you are in Fire your opponent can expect it anyway if they charge you in melee. I don’t think it should be as big or strong as Burning Speed but it’s definitely lack luster. Meteor Shower also needs to be usable while moving. Movement is so crucial to the staff because it has so much trouble if it gets caught in melee.

I don’t think Ice Spike needs to be a blast finisher. We should be keeping away from adding so many finishers to promote more active and thought out combinations. However, I do think it needs an animation time reduction (not cast time reduction) because it’s so telegraphed that even if you can’t get out of the circle you can still dodge it way too easily. I think the vulnerability is fine; it’s better to play it safe with those kinds of effects.

I like your cone effect idea for Gust, but I don’t think it needs a cripple. I think Static Field should stun every time it’s crossed; it poses no threat after the first time somebody enters the field and the fact that it only gives swiftness with blast finishers compounds this problem.

I think a problem with your change to Eruption is similar to that of Ice Spike; it’s so telegraphed that it will still be way too easy to dodge. Reducing the blast to 2 seconds after casting with a cast time of 1/2 second is more than enough time for somebody to avoid it and also increases your choices of element swap rotations for combo finishers.

I’m pretty against Torment even existing because it was an unnecessary condition to add to the game, so I’m just going to say that I think Unsteady Ground should do more damage and apply a longer cripple per hit. As for Shockwave, I wouldn’t change it to a single target skill. The fact that it can hit multiple people is what makes it so good. I would increase base damage/bleed slightly and increase the immobilize to 2.5/3 seconds from 2. I think its strength lies in the immobilize, so that should be the priority to keep it from becoming a damage/control powerhouse skill. It should also home in better on targets.

How about to reduce dependency on Arcana, reduce the recharge of each attunement based on the trait lines you invested in? I.e. investing in Air makes only your Air attunement recharge faster.
The Arcana CD reduction might be either added on top, or the trait line effect might be changed wholly.

Knote.2904:

I also disagree that Geyser doesn’t need a radius boost, I feel it definately does, for the same reason Necro Marks got a boost, you shouldn’t have to have that trait to make it decent. This would be more of a quality of life change than anything, being so small makes it a PITA to use. Same goes for #2 in Fire, even though I didn’t change it. Blasting Staff should just be a small bonus to these.

I don’t think having 10 sec cd base Attunements would be overpowered at all though, in fact Engineers don’t have ANY cooldowns swapping between kits/weapons, it doesn’t make ability cooldowns faster, it just gives you flexbility. Engy doesn’t get stuck in Toolkit for 5-10 seconds forced to use a melee auto.

Although having shorter cooldowns can affect the skills that proc effects when swapping, if necessary those effects could be nerfed slightly to balance them, like the Lightning Blast when swapping to Air, there shouldn’t even be such untelegraphed burst like that and Fresh Air anyway. =p

I did think of suggesting what you said though, making the cd 11-12 seconds then making Lingering Elements (15 point minor trait) reduce it by 2 seconds.

Also I really don’t think this would “kill” Arcana, the major traits are still extremely desirable, and attunement bonuses in my suggestion would be potent enough that the duration bonus and even bonus dmg for keeping them would be strong.

But yeah, as you said attunement cooldowns are too mandatory, being locked out of elements for 16 SECONDS, is unacceptable, and basically forces you to just blow all your long cooldowns as soon as your in an attunement because you won’t have it when you need it, and all this does is reinforce the spammy nature of this game which isn’t a good thing.

Again going back to Engineers, they can pop toolkit to use a pull or pry bar, pop back into weapon, then immediately go back to toolkit if they need their shield block, Elementalists don’t have that luxury, if you pop into Air to use your attacks/knockback then to Fire and need to go back because you need Lightning Field, you can’t, so you’re usually better off just “spamming” instead of intelligently saving cooldowns.

Yeah the more I think of it, the more I realise that we essentially use up all of that attunement’s spell cooldowns before switching to the next, because the cooldown is so long most of them will be back up anyway. And I know you didn’t suggest it, but I definitely do not think they should be as fast a recharge as kits, because the idea of attunements is still cooldown management and situational play. This would not be the case if there was no cooldown, and is too much of a problem with such a long 16s cd.
Yeah blasting staff needs to be less mandatory for staff users I guess, maybe increase the default size by 25% and make blasting staff give only 25% more like someone else suggested, or rework it altogether. For example it could give some sort of shorter activation time to spells like ice spike and eruption. When compared to necromancer marks, even without the increased radius trait, their AoE radius are much bigger than most of ours, and on top of that are instant (even though I realise they are much less powerful).

Jamais vu.5284:

How about to reduce dependency on Arcana, reduce the recharge of each attunement based on the trait lines you invested in? I.e. investing in Air makes only your Air attunement recharge faster.
The Arcana CD reduction might be either added on top, or the trait line effect might be changed wholly.

That is a good idea, unfortunately, each trait line already has two stats (like crit chance + crit damage) attributed to it, but they could make it a minor trait or something, but I still feel that would mean some attunements having 16s cooldown and others having 10s, and that would make attunement swapping very confusing, since you won’t be able to remember which one you left first to figure out the next attunement cooldown. And it would leave 16s attunement swaps, which is much too long.

Leuca.5732:

I think a problem with your change to Eruption is similar to that of Ice Spike; it’s so telegraphed that it will still be way too easy to dodge. Reducing the blast to 2 seconds after casting with a cast time of 1/2 second is more than enough time for somebody to avoid it and also increases your choices of element swap rotations for combo finishers.

I’m actually a huge fan of the high risk/high reward on Eruption always have been, if they reduced the delay they would be forced to nerf the dmg output and I wouldn’t like that personally.

Ice Spike needs something though, it’s basically Eruption’s loser little brother, personally I would just like having to do a lot more dmg so it’s actually threatening, it’s telegraphed well enough and is the ONLY dmg in water attunement, so yeah.

Jamais vu.5284:

How about to reduce dependency on Arcana, reduce the recharge of each attunement based on the trait lines you invested in? I.e. investing in Air makes only your Air attunement recharge faster.
The Arcana CD reduction might be either added on top, or the trait line effect might be changed wholly.

As said above, that wouldn’t work too well since trait trees already have 2 stats to boost, although they could make the minor traits affect it, but that would be sloppy, not to mention how clunky it would be to have 1-2 attunements at decent cooldowns are the other at terrible cooldowns, would completely ruin any “flow” you had.

Knote.2904:

I’m actually a huge fan of the high risk/high reward on Eruption always have been, if they reduced the delay they would be forced to nerf the dmg output and I wouldn’t like that personally.

Ice Spike needs something though, it’s basically Eruption’s loser little brother, personally I would just like having to do a lot more dmg so it’s actually threatening, it’s telegraphed well enough and is the ONLY dmg in water attunement, so yeah.

They wouldn’t really have to lower the damage if they reduced the delay by a bit, because it’s still a really obvious telegraph even if you take it from 3 to 2 seconds. That’s ample time to decide if you want to dodge it or not.

If Ice Spike also got a delay reduction, you’d be hitting it much more often, removing the necessity to really add anything else. Staff’s main issue is skills actually landing, regardless of how skilled you are with the weapon. When they land, people feel their effects to some degree regardless of their stats. By reducing some of the delays on skill effects, you keep the counterplay of being able to dodge them by paying attention but remove the counterplay of just wailing away at you while the skill ticks away. There’s not much risk for your foe if you cast Eruption in an attempt to discourage an attack, especially if they’re already in your face; that’s a huge chunk of time for them to be damaging you and Shockwave’s immobilize doesn’t last long enough unless you wait a full second to use it or have a huge amount of condition duration increase.

Leuca.5732:

Knote.2904:

I’m actually a huge fan of the high risk/high reward on Eruption always have been, if they reduced the delay they would be forced to nerf the dmg output and I wouldn’t like that personally.

Ice Spike needs something though, it’s basically Eruption’s loser little brother, personally I would just like having to do a lot more dmg so it’s actually threatening, it’s telegraphed well enough and is the ONLY dmg in water attunement, so yeah.

They wouldn’t really have to lower the damage if they reduced the delay by a bit, because it’s still a really obvious telegraph even if you take it from 3 to 2 seconds. That’s ample time to decide if you want to dodge it or not.

If Ice Spike also got a delay reduction, you’d be hitting it much more often, removing the necessity to really add anything else. Staff’s main issue is skills actually landing, regardless of how skilled you are with the weapon. When they land, people feel their effects to some degree regardless of their stats. By reducing some of the delays on skill effects, you keep the counterplay of being able to dodge them by paying attention but remove the counterplay of just wailing away at you while the skill ticks away. There’s not much risk for your foe if you cast Eruption in an attempt to discourage an attack, especially if they’re already in your face; that’s a huge chunk of time for them to be damaging you and Shockwave’s immobilize doesn’t last long enough unless you wait a full second to use it or have a huge amount of condition duration increase.

I suppose a slight reduction in the delay would be fine, but I’m telling you if they reduced Eruption Anet would most definately slap it with a dmg nerf, which would make me sad. It would be fine if Unsteady Ground got some access to dmg conditions maybe.

Also the Vortex change to Gust would be good for getting off an almost guaranteed Eruption, but that’s also unlikely to happen, just imagine it for a second though, queue Ice Spike/Eruption then just suck everyone into it…. boom.

Knote.2904:

I suppose a slight reduction in the delay would be fine, but I’m telling you if they reduced Eruption Anet would most definately slap it with a dmg nerf, which would make me sad. It would be fine if Unsteady Ground got some access to dmg conditions maybe.

Also the Vortex change to Gust would be good for getting off an almost guaranteed Eruption, but that’s also unlikely to happen, just imagine it for a second though, queue Ice Spike/Eruption then just suck everyone into it…. boom.

I agree with you that they probably would lower the damage but I’m not getting the reasoning, kind of like how they added torment to the game.

I like most of these changes, specifically the changes to Air, and Ice Spike.

What about adding a knockdown to Unsteady Ground, as well as applying cripple, though? Thematically it fits (if the ground is unsteady, wouldn’t it be likely to make one fall over if they run over it), it would add offensive and defensive capabilities, but the cripple would stop it being completed negated by Stability.

Gust definitely needs some love. I’m most in favour of changing it to a cone attack. As mentioned previoulys, having it work like Temporal Curtain would cause way too much trouble with people being able to stack Eruption and Ice Spike that basically becomes unavoidable.

Doomsayer.8250:

I like most of these changes, specifically the changes to Air, and Ice Spike.

What about adding a knockdown to Unsteady Ground, as well as applying cripple, though? Thematically it fits (if the ground is unsteady, wouldn’t it be likely to make one fall over if they run over it), it would add offensive and defensive capabilities, but the cripple would stop it being completed negated by Stability.

Gust definitely needs some love. I’m most in favour of changing it to a cone attack. As mentioned previoulys, having it work like Temporal Curtain would cause way too much trouble with people being able to stack Eruption and Ice Spike that basically becomes unavoidable.

I thought about knockdown for Unsteady Ground, but then it becomes redundant when you already have Static Field that essentially does the same CC aoe denial, and Air is supposed to be about control and Earth about defense/conditions.

I also thought about making Unsteady Ground act like Staff Guardians #5 skill, the wall. What’s funny is waaay back in early early beta, when I first saw the skill, I actually thought that’s what it did, maybe I watched a video that had it, and it seemed like that’s how it functioned.

And I don’t think Vortex would be overpowered combo’d with our aoe’s, not if it’s well telegraphed, say a 1 – 1.5 second cast time, and during it there was an obvious swirling animation, just like Curtain is now telegraphed 1 second in advance. People would also have to be NEAR the aoe before it detonates and could easily avoid the combo altogether, just like people can avoid Churning Earth/Lightning Flash combo.

Knote.2904:

Doomsayer.8250:

I like most of these changes, specifically the changes to Air, and Ice Spike.

What about adding a knockdown to Unsteady Ground, as well as applying cripple, though? Thematically it fits (if the ground is unsteady, wouldn’t it be likely to make one fall over if they run over it), it would add offensive and defensive capabilities, but the cripple would stop it being completed negated by Stability.

Gust definitely needs some love. I’m most in favour of changing it to a cone attack. As mentioned previoulys, having it work like Temporal Curtain would cause way too much trouble with people being able to stack Eruption and Ice Spike that basically becomes unavoidable.

I thought about knockdown for Unsteady Ground, but then it becomes redundant when you already have Static Field that essentially does the same CC aoe denial, and Air is supposed to be about control and Earth about defense/conditions.

I also thought about making Unsteady Ground act like Staff Guardians #5 skill, the wall. What’s funny is waaay back in early early beta, when I first saw the skill, I actually thought that’s what it did, maybe I watched a video that had it, and it seemed like that’s how it functioned.

And I don’t think Vortex would be overpowered combo’d with our aoe’s, not if it’s well telegraphed, say a 1 – 1.5 second cast time, and during it there was an obvious swirling animation, just like Curtain is now telegraphed 1 second in advance. People would also have to be NEAR the aoe before it detonates and could easily avoid the combo altogether, just like people can avoid Churning Earth/Lightning Flash combo.

Unsteady Ground in GW1 had a conditional KD effect. :P

Actually, it’d be a huge improvement if Unsteady Ground was a circular aoe cripple instead of a line.

Think your cast time is too high in general 3/4 sec is still too high, should be closer to 1/2 or even 1/3 depending on the skill.

Like the increase of the aoe range but really dislike the dmg reduction. Fireballs dmg is already not great and reducing it even more would hurt it majorly.
The second versions seems good although too high cast time as mentioned.

Heal blast should be targetable on friendlies. No need to boost it to 600 and that wont solve the major issue that you cant reliably hit the friendly you want to hit with it.

Ice spike: the delay on dmg is the major issue, I do agree that cast time should be reduced to 1/2 as well, but the delay need major reduction as well. Blast finisher would be good.

Greyser, same issue as water blast, make it targetable on friendlies and make it stick to a friendly target.

Lightning bolt is a very cool idea I will snatch that for my suggestions I would make it a blast finisher though.

Lightning surge is supposed to be single target with an aoe blind. I think it does its purpose the cast time is just way too long and need reduction. Around 0,5sec would be fine
Could ofc make it some kinda cool channel that blinds as well.

Gust I agree on, I don’t think the range should be decrease to 600 though. 900 or 1200 it should be. But no cripple.
The vortex idea is freaking Awesome though, I would love to have that doubt they would ever allow something that cool though

Static field I fully agree with.

Eruption: dmg delay need to be a lot lower.

I like the unsteady ground change, but I am afraid it would get incredibly strong if it applied that many stacks of torment each second. Think changing it to a root is much better and god knows we need the roots.

Shockwave I agree on. Although I think the increase should be a lot higher speed wise. Like *1,7

that was the skills looking at your changes to the traits now.

I dont like the linger idea at all since it promote the extreme ”spamming between attunements” instead of focusing on changing attunements only when you got a need to becouse of the skill use.
I think the current attunement system need to be revamped, and we need an actual ability besides the ability to “change weapons” with less effective skills but “4” weapon sets. Which is nothing else then every other class got for free.

So here is my suggestion to change the current system and give us an actually F1-F4 ability.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Attunement-and-Traits-Revamp-idea/first#post2825766

this is how i would change the skills BTW :

staff changes: (these are changes to the current effect of the skills)
Aall aoe’s including auto attacks should be effected by blasting staff trait.
All #1(first skills, auto attacks) have their cast time reduced to 1/3-1/2 sec and the projectile speed *2.
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Fire #1 (fireball) radius should be 150.
Fire #2 (larva front) instant dmg on apply(same as necro’s marks), doing 25% more for each consecutive tick (meaning second tick would do 25% more, third hit 50% more, 4 hit 75% more dmg).
Fire #3 (flame burst) do dmg equel to 1 auto attack in the aoe range and apply burn. Radius should be 220.
Fire #4 (burning retreat) should created a burning aoe of radius 50 for 5sec around the end point (the point you land)
Fire #5 (meteor storm) got two suggestions on this one either: both should have blast finisher
Version 1:meteors starts coming down instantly when channel starts(in the same manner as now when maximum meteors per second is falling), meteors hits in an aoe around the mouse (meaning you can consistently move the targeting area while the channel is ongoing) channel is canceled if moving and last for up to 6 seconds.
Version 2: can be casted while moving, cast time 1 second, full meteors fall at area after the cast is done and last for approximately same time as now. (a lot more boring then version 1 which would be awesomely cool but a lot easier to do)
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Water #1 (water blast) be able to target friendly targets for 50% higher single target heal and small 25% lower aoe dmg.
Water #2 (ice spike) cast time 0,5 sec, delay on hit 1 sec. Blast finisher
Water #3 (geyser) targetable on friendly, will lash onto the target and have the target as its centrum for the duration. First healing tick is instant when it lands
Water #4 (frozen ground) 3 seconds chill. No other change
Water #5 (healing rain) when cast heals for 1 tick of geyser, cast time reduced to 1/2.
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Lightning #1 (chain lightning) Now only hits 1 target, down from 3. does 60% more dmg. Blast finisher
Lightning #2 (lightning surge) cast time 0,5 sec. OR make it a 2 second channel that does high dmg and aoe blind each second, with first blind being instant, so 3 blind ticks and 6 dmg ticks (each 0,5sec dmg tick).
Lightning #3 (gust) aoe pushback changed to 90¤ instant of single target: OR make it a ground target spell which created a vortex that draws enemies too it within a 600 aoe radius of placement.
Lightning #4 (windborne speed) no change
Lightning #5 (static field) does the effect per time you touch the line not just on first touch.
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Earth# (stoning) dmg *2 removed the blast finisher
Earth# (eruption) cast time 1/2 sec, delay on hit 1 sec. move the majority of the dmg to damage instead of bleed. So 25% of the dmg is from bleed 75% is from the dmg. stil a blast finisher
Earth# (magnetic aura) add stability to it for the duration.
Earth# (unsteady ground) Root instead of cripple
Earth# (shockwave) cast time instant. projectile speed *1,7, wide *1,2. removed the blast finisher