Guild Wars 2

Karl McLain.5604:

Profession Changes

Elementalist:
Our changes for the elementalist focus on increasing sustain while maintaining the delicate balance between damage and durability. We achieved this by adding more defensive effects to a few main-hand weapon sets.

• Signet of Restoration: Removed the split on this skill so that the signet passive heal amount will be increased in PvP to match the current PvE amount.
• Armor of Earth: Reduced recharge from 90 seconds to 75 seconds.
• Water Trident: Added 3 seconds of regeneration to up to 5 allies in the radius.
• Burning Speed: This ability now evades attacks.
• Frozen Burst: This ability is now a blast finisher.

I’m glad that they’re finally just buffing us, instead of fancifully reordering things to ‘improve’ us.

But these changes look like they’re only making the already-strong builds, even stronger.

Armor Of Earth: Cantrips are currently the best utilities for elementalist. I would go so far as to say they may be the only viable utilities available. Why are we making them better, and ignoring all the rest? Every elementalist is running Armor of Earth anyways under its current cooldown.

Trident Regen: Almost every standard elementalist build has 30 pts in water to get Cleansing Water… why give them more reason to do it? Cantrips also give regen (Synergy!)

The other announced changes are good (great, even) given context.

I realize this isn’t a complete list of changes. I sincerely hope they don’t stop here… If they do…

Cantrips. Huzzah.

tl;dr – These changes make the good builds better and does little for everything else wrong with our class.

I dont run either Armor of Earth o 30 in Water.
Its either Armor of Earth or Mist Form for the defensive slot. Both are rather lacking, both have silly long cool downs so a buff to either of them is good. Though i think it could be been improved

These would be my changes:
Armor of Earth:
Reduced recharge from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
Decrease direct/physical damage taken by 25% (stacks with Protection)

Mist Form:
Reduced recharge from 75 seconds to 60 seconds
Reduced the movement speed decrease to 33%
removes all conditions on player
removes all CC on the player

Burning Speed:
This ability now evades attacks.
This skill is now a Leap Finisher

That seems decent enough to start, the Stability and Protection can be easily removed anyway. The leap finisher on Burning Speed would be very helpful, would be nice if other skills could be given fields.

Cleansing Wave:
Water 5 and Evasive Arcana dodge in water Both Water Fields. Last 3-4seconds. Grant regen every second for 1 second

Ring of Earth:
Now also applies Poison, 5 seconds
Now is a Poison field that lasts 3 seconds

Who really cares about water combat? so the trident change doesnt bother me, i stay out of water as much as i can anyway.

A lot of your changes would make our class game-breakingly OP.

But again… why buff cantrips? I would argue almost 80% of elementalists currently run 3x cantrip utilities in sPvP/WvW. Mist form not the least of all.

Burning speed + ring of fire = another aura for a 2-aura ele already.
Cleansing Wave Water field = why play staff at all?

game breakingly OP?
How so? Still they are our only defense, still rather long cool downs and wouldn’t be taking both anyway.

I run ONE cantrip. and that is for defense and even most of the time it is useless and wont stop you dying.

This is coming from a D/D point of view – melee range 100% of the time, very little defense currently. D/D needs more options to combo from one attunement to the other it just lacks synergy altogether.

we have access to how many Auras? 2. BOTH rather lacking and could be improved. Auras could even become our best form of defense given the right treatment.

Why should the RANGE weapon get a water field and not the MELEE only weapon. Staff has the option to be close and deal damage or away and deal damage, the same cant be said for D/D now can it.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Armor of Earth:
Reduced recharge from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
Decrease direct/physical damage taken by 25% (stacks with Protection)

This turns it into a /must/ have for every elementalist, not just the very common skill that it is now. Traited 48s recharge, for almost 60% direct damage reduction and stability that lasts 8s? Endure Pain is a terrible skill, we don’t want to be the next warrior.

Mist Form:
Reduced recharge from 75 seconds to 60 seconds
Reduced the movement speed decrease to 33%
removes all conditions on player
removes all CC on the player

We need some cleanse that’s not on cantrips, not to make people rely on them even more. It’s already a stunbreak anyway.

Burning Speed:
This ability now evades attacks.
This skill is now a Leap Finisher

This is possibly okay, though we do already have leap finisher sources (conjured axe/hammer).

Cleansing Wave:
Water 5 and Evasive Arcana dodge in water Both Water Fields. Last 3-4seconds. Grant regen every second for 1 second

This would... be broken. Staff is a /support/ weapon, this is why it has water fields - adding those to the more combat-focused weapons would be broken. Hello, D/D bunker funtimes that got us nerfed to hell!

Ring of Earth:
Now also applies Poison, 5 seconds
Now is a Poison field that lasts 3 seconds

No, no, no! We’re balanced around /not/ having poison. I’d like to see us get better access to some of our control conditions, but we certainly don’t need a bunch of new ones (further entrenching us in the horrible condi meta).

Who really cares about water combat? so the trident change doesnt bother me, i stay out of water as much as i can anyway.

This is um. Yeah. You really don’t understand what you’re talking about here. Water Trident is a scepter skill. Please stop suggesting balance changes when you don’t even know your skills - and if you did actually mean the scepter skill by this... why stay out of water? You’re an ele, that’s where your sustain is, you kinda need your sustain.

I agree,D/D builds are getting a good boost..yay for me as it is my favorite weapon set!
On the topic,i think many of the elementalist skills are fine when it comes to the effect they provide(such as glyphs,i like glyphs!)..their cooldown can be lowered and maybe their dmg potential can take a small boost.
All in all in order for the rest of our skills to work as good as the cantrips they have to change traits,not skill effects.Arcane skills although very strong have big cds and the traits that can make them have a synergy with your build and armor are mostly useless or pale in comparisson to other traits in the same line.

Staff can run cantrips, D/D, S/D, S/F, D/F.

People run cantrips because for the most part ele utilities aren’t good. If there was other options people would run them as it is now people mostly run cantrips.

Signets are bad, glyphs are bad. , arcana skills have a few uses.

They are just reducing the cooldown on armor of earth which was long overdue. You think armor of earth is strong then you meet a 30 in trickery thief and you might aswell not hve it on at all.

cheese.4739:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Armor of Earth:
Reduced recharge from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
Decrease direct/physical damage taken by 25% (stacks with Protection)

This turns it into a /must/ have for every elementalist, not just the very common skill that it is now. Traited 48s recharge, for almost 60% direct damage reduction and stability that lasts 8s? Endure Pain is a terrible skill, we don’t want to be the next warrior.

Mist Form:
Reduced recharge from 75 seconds to 60 seconds
Reduced the movement speed decrease to 33%
removes all conditions on player
removes all CC on the player

We need some cleanse that’s not on cantrips, not to make people rely on them even more. It’s already a stunbreak anyway.

Burning Speed:
This ability now evades attacks.
This skill is now a Leap Finisher

This is possibly okay, though we do already have leap finisher sources (conjured axe/hammer).

Cleansing Wave:
Water 5 and Evasive Arcana dodge in water Both Water Fields. Last 3-4seconds. Grant regen every second for 1 second

This would… be broken. Staff is a /support/ weapon, this is why it has water fields – adding those to the more combat-focused weapons would be broken. Hello, D/D bunker funtimes that got us nerfed to hell!

Ring of Earth:
Now also applies Poison, 5 seconds
Now is a Poison field that lasts 3 seconds

No, no, no! We’re balanced around /not/ having poison. I’d like to see us get better access to some of our control conditions, but we certainly don’t need a bunch of new ones (further entrenching us in the horrible condi meta).

Who really cares about water combat? so the trident change doesnt bother me, i stay out of water as much as i can anyway.

This is um. Yeah. You really don’t understand what you’re talking about here. Water Trident is a scepter skill. Please stop suggesting balance changes when you don’t even know your skills – and if you did actually mean the scepter skill by this… why stay out of water? You’re an ele, that’s where your sustain is, you kinda need your sustain.

I meant Water 5 in D/D, this would have NO affect on staff usage what so ever. Water 5 in D/D having a Water Field would certainly not be broken, consider the cool down the skill itself already has. The skill is rather weak for the cool down it has been given. Give it a Water Field that lasts a few seconds and then it would be more reasonable that its got a high cool down. I do see your point about Armor of Earth and Mist Form, butt hey do need buffs because for defensive utilities they have rather long cool downs and are rather poor compared to others.

I was thinking more about different types of fields we could have that could make playing in different attunements and making them have a bit more synergy we have ONE type of Field in D/D…Fire we could do with a couple more to help make the attunements have a little bit more synergy, so that you can combo through various attunements with various affects. Not just Fire and might.

While we have them on Conjured weapons, the conjured weapons themselves are lacking and they remove all weapon skills so you cant combo various (potential) fields we have

Now if only classes didnt have plenty of ways to remove boons, oh wait they do. That is part of the problem for Armor of Earth, the 2 boons it gives can easily and quickly be removed. Then what does it offer? Nothing. I see your point about the cool down, but not everyone can afford to take it. Maybe 75second cool down pre-trait would be more balanced.

I don’t run armor of earth or 30 points in water yet I can defeat many that do with ease. My only complain is buffing a dagger skill (burning speed) that is already very strong when there are other weapon skills that do need attention and are ignored.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I meant Water 5 in D/D, this would have NO affect on staff usage what so ever.

It won’t affect how Staff is played, but it takes away one thing that Staff Ele has that no other profession/weaponset has: water fields that aren’t tied to a personal heal. You massively devalue this backline-support ability if you shove water fields on a close-combat weaponset.

I do see your point about Armor of Earth and Mist Form, butt hey do need buffs because for defensive utilities they have rather long cool downs and are rather poor compared to others.

We really don’t need to encourage people to use cantrips, though - reverting the mistform nerf might be nice, but mostly we need our other utilities brought up to scratch.

I was thinking more about different types of fields we could have that could make playing in different attunements and making them have a bit more synergy we have ONE type of Field in D/D...Fire we could do with a couple more to help make the attunements have a little bit more synergy, so that you can combo through various attunements with various affects. Not just Fire and might.

Again: this is Staff’s thing. It gets fields and AoE damage, but loses out on a lot of single-target offense or might stacking without utilities.
Scepter has two blasts, offhand Dagger has two blasts, main hand Dagger has a leap - Staff gets one single blast on the weapon and needs utilities to make good use of its fields. Giving more fields to the other Ele weapons, with their many finishers, would devalue staff greatly.

While we have them on Conjured weapons, the conjured weapons themselves are lacking and they remove all weapon skills so you cant combo various (potential) fields we have

Yes you can? A well-timed lava axe conjure can allow a blast finisher in a Geyser’s 2-second water field - all the conjures’ fields and finishers can be used well in combos, if done correctly.

Elementalist forums the only profession forums where its always 1 Ele Weapon user vs Another Ele weapon user. Cantrips = D/D always smh. Anything that will ever give a Elementalist Regen makes 30 water better therefore = Bad. New meta is 30 water S/D Eles?

Balance patch will read

Burning speed evade & Armor of Earth cd reduced

The end……

OMG they buffed D/D Eles because they are the only eles that use Armor of Earth.

I don’t want balance where they say all the ele’s are using cantrips so they are balanced and therefore we should never touch them again. Armor of Earth needed this buff.

Signets are just weak and need to all be changed even Fire.