Guild Wars 2

Yeah, seeing it happen too – now on my 9th loss. Happy times in PvP….

Eles have a lot of survivability in PvE, but has was mentioned above, you need to figure out how much damage you are willing to give up for it.

I ran the good old D/D cele ele build and have no trouble surviving eighths basic might stacking rotation of the build (I.e., Fire - Earth - Water - Air - repeat), running Water 1-1-1, Arcane 2-3-1 and Tempest I think is 1-2-3.

Swapping out tempest for fire can be done for added damage (and not screwing your rotation with overloads, but sometimes I just don’t want to work and do an air overload for AoE against raptors.

The problem is that I take longer to kill things and am less tanks than say an Engi, DH, etc.

Hoping that Weaver will help with this

AshinDreidon.3861:

I don’t understand how there is dishonor for accidentally missing a q-pop. I’ve now been in 2 games in a row with someone who starts flaming and goes afk 30 seconds into the match and verbally abuses the team throughout the entire match. If he’s not dishonored and continues to be able to throw matches but someone who accidentally misses a pop gets hit with it is dishonored really working as intended?

I sometimes miss my queue as I got distracted for some reason – but I think the dishonor is fair with me then – I just screwed 9 people that were in queue of a match and now they need to go back to queue to find that last person.

Also, I doubt the system has a way to check reliably if it was an accident or intentional, so the “forgiveness” is that the penalty isn’t that much – only 3 minutes.

Also, on the disconnect issue – yeah I get that sometimes – but what I usually do is stop queueing if I am having a non-reliable internet, because I know that at the end of the day I will likely not be able to play properly (drop, lag, etc.) and will end up being a -1 to my team, which is absolutely unfair with the others. So yes, the dishonor should apply then.

Now the afking / manipulation is a whole different problem that does need some attention from ANET because it ruins a lot of the games (luckily my matches thus far have been good so can’t complain much, but last season that was very rampant).

The verbal abuse? Just block and ignore – don’t worry about it – words from some salty player won’t harm you.

- Overall very positively impressed with the quality of the elite specs compared to HoT, much better work indeed.

- Now to comment on the main one I am looking for: The Weaver.

Like many said before:

- The sword needs a buff to its power damage, right now Air is almost a waste of attunement for the sword, (while water also has no condi application, it at least has some heals).

- A good solution to this – and also helping to fix some of the clunkiness the spec has, would be to improve the speed of the AA chains, and only slightly up the power damage through power scaling. Dual skills also need a buff;

- Global Attunement CD: Really feels like under constant stun effect as someone pointed out. Needs to be shorter (with 4s and chill on you, it becomes even more absolutely brutal leaving you completely exposed by the application of a single condition on you – which some classes have plenty of means to).

- Elite Skill: I really think this one could be more “Avatar State” like, by removing the CD on attunement swap for a period of time (possibly shorter than what it is today to compensate for the power of having this ability).

- Unravel: I think Unravel today is pure training wheels on ele – which is a horrible utility. If the Global CD is 4s or no go, then at least make this an F5 skill. But I would actually really love if Weavers did not have the ability to attune to a single element without Unravel (giving more purpose to the skill) and then Unravel also has some additional effect (e.g., integrate Elements of Rage in it) – this would be my dream, but possibly a far shot.

- Twist of Fate: Think the super speed should be a bit longer, and it should remove movement inhibiting conditions from you.

- Barrier application: Liked the idea of this as a means of survival, but right now the amount you get is so little and combined with the long global CD – it is ineffective. Number needs to be higher or the application possibly faster (I would actually prefer if the application was tied not to dual skills, but rather to attunement swap – then the number could be relatively small to promote the swaping fiesta).

- As for the traits, I must say – they are a bit underwhelming and not very creative:
All are quite clear:

- First line: Pick this for PvE raid damage (all are just straight up damage % buffs easily attainable and just meant to up the DPS of the spec – which I think is a mistake because people will just use these to pump higher numbers on the raids and again, we will hear people complain that ele is too strong in the DPS department – the damage should be more controlled in the weapon, while these traits could help to land a burst better – so only a momentary spike, but not a constant upgrade);
- Second line: Is the “ignore line” as Adept and GM effects are so irrelevant compared to the other choices, whilst the Master is again just a straight up damage buff that is meant as a bone to power (7 is meaningless with the current power damage of the spec) – I really like the idea of a super speed build – would be immense fun, but these traits just don’t work for it – it needs to promote sticking with air more – I honestly would like if this trait line was attached to superspeed and means of stuns / interrupts – promoting more synergy with lightning rod from Air, rather than FA (fresh air should be the base ele special thing)
- Third line: Pick this to survive – all are straight HP or Barrier buffs. (Would be more interesting if these worked more with the class mechanic – buffing stances and attune swaping playstyle – avoiding single attunement play)

Overall, as they are today, they are simply passive buffs whose purpose is only meant to complement the numbers of a build – not surviving, swap a 1 to a 3. Not doing enough damage – swap a 3 to a 1. Using a 2? Why kitten yourself?

Would be interesting if they were a tad bit more creative promoting different playstyles with synergies with the other element traitlines / attune swaping effects.

Many ideas have been posted in the ele forums, I would really urge the team responsible for the Weaver to drop by there for a chat (promise we will be more behaved then when we were talking about the Tempest).

Last note: Loved the holosmith – certainly will make me want to play an engi for the firsst time.

Like the idea of Unravel as an F5 ability, but – crazy thought – what if:

- Weaver loses the baseline ability to single attune to an element (you always must jump from one and the other keeping your weapon skill bar a constant mix);
- Global CD is reduced to 2s-2,5s;
- Unravel somewhat incorporates the elements of rage trait (which would be scrapped) by causing you to single attune (but temporarily locking you out of attune swap);
- When using Unravel the cooldown on all your weapon skills is refreshed and you gain a boon based on the attune you are single attuning to.

Think that would be a fun idea.

Nice builds – took me a long while to see that the only damage potential for the Weaver right now is through condi – sadly.

Power builds need desperate help on the Weaver – it simply lacks the output. On the survivability side, I think we need better barrier build up.

Just a crazy thought, but wouldn’t it be interesting if the trait gave barrier on attunening to a different element rather then on using Dual Skills?

Two particularly important points that you raised MrAidenVoid.7416 that can’t be stressed enough:

- Sword attacks are weak (power wise) and slow, it needs a power damage buff and to have a shorter cast time (down to 1/2s), this would greatly improve the weapon (balance condi application with this in mind);

- Sword leaps need to have a slight longer reach and I would say that Earth #2 should be a leap forward as well – would make the attack much more reliable and useful.

After playing more with Weaver I have been having some results with damage on the class – but it is 100% condi damage and feels like a core burn guardian. (with all of its weaknesses)

Using the combo of Earth / Air 3 – Switch to Fire – Fire / Earth 3 – Fire 2 with Primordial Stance anywhere in the middle (and if you want more damage at the cost of losing survivability switch to Fire/Fire) does insane amount of condi damage, but you only do Burning and Bleeding, with Bleeding being almost a cover condi.

The class also has a balance problem on this – Primordial Stance + Lava skin do a lot of damage without needing any button press by the player, so with Fire / Earth with Focus off Hand, you are pulsing almost 3 stacks of burning per second for the entire duration of Obsidian Flesh and 2s more (a total of 15+ burning stacks in 5 seconds on an AoE – which you can also do an immediate second burst of ~12 burning stacks with a second use of primordial stance, so more easily catching people off guard).

When obsidian flesh also goes down, all you have to do is do the same combo, but now with Twist of Fate (you still pulse with it).

I am running Fire 1-3-2 / Earth 2-3-1 / Weaver 3-1-3.

I find myself mostly just camping Fire / Earth and doing insane condi damage whilst having access to Earth 4 for condi cleanse and projectile denial, Ether Renewal and Cleansing Fire for dealing with condi and Twist of Fate and Earth 5 for dealing with bursts.

Think the weaver could probably do a little less condi damage (or at least not so frequent bursts, but with more cover condi), do better power damage and incentivize eles do jump around attunments more – as is, camping feels like a better option.

Grimreaper.5370:

I really think anet should take a shot at lowering weaver’s global attunement cd to ~2 seconds.

And then allowing unravel to instead remove the cd of attunement swapping for a short period of time.

If anything, with all of the potential combos, weaver would be a MUCH more interesting and enjoyable class if it was balanced around a high APM playstyle.

Yup, that would make the spec much better – plus the elite would truly make the statement “your enemies will never know what you will pull” true.

Talindra.4958:

(just copied and paste the comment I put on another but basically what I mean down there)
—————————————
I wish Anet remove the CD in order to switch the main attunement. For example, IF we are on Air switching to Earth, the CD for Earth should be zero (only for Earth) so we can immediately access the main offhand instead of being disabled and have to wait for 5 second CD to switch again. Say for example in the middle of fight I am on Fire… I need dagger offhand 4 to CC, I have to switch to Earth 5 second before that in order to properly switch to the offhands that I need for CC and that’s 5 second later? I die already probably. :p
this is a bit silly. a bit disabled in this sense.

E.g. equipping D/F pew pew pew in fire attunment… then some thief with riffle.. pew pew me from far.. I need focus air 4… switch to air for swirling wind.. but no…. only can use it 5 second later?

That is good, but I still would prefer a reduction of the global cooldown to motivate you do be jumping through attunments faster – just being able to more easily go to your current main hand attunment doesn’t make the elite spec feel much unique – almost makes it an extra work (which is basically what the Unravel utility skill is).

Stand The Wall.6987:

I think after the 4 sec attune recharge is up it should automatically swap back to uh air/air for example with no recharge. as it is now its kind of a hindrance to not be able to access all of your skills or more importantly the skill you need at any given time.

Reducing the global cooldown would be better – the elite spec is being sold as a “Your enemies will never expect what you can do” so it makes sense to make weaving through the elements easier.

Elite skill should also completely remove cooldown on attunenment swap to make it even more unpredictable (“Avatar State Like”).

That and sword needs a good damage buff… thing is worst than a wet noodle right now.

Hahaha just noticed that Photon Charge underwater skills are exactly the same as when out of water – the leap gets quite crazy to use

#RIPUnderwaterCombat

Another idea that could help with the attunment cooldowns is to have “affinity attunments”, for example – attuning to Fire makes the cooldowns you have be “Fire – 1s, Water 4s, Air 2s, Earth 3s”, representing the ease or difficulty to swap to another attunment given the affinity of the attunment you are with the next one.

Think this would also help for balance purposes to allow more control on the use of “on swap” skills, by making it not so easy to maximize it without having a longer CD on a defensive attunment (e.g., Air could have a 3s on Water and a 4s on Earth).

Now for the utilities.

- Aquatic Stance: This one feels weird – it is a straight compete with signet of restoration in signet of restoration’s own domain (heal on attack). Maybe with a buff to stance skills with the new grandmaster I mentioned above it could see more light, but right now I don’t see why I would change to this.

- Stone Resonance: It needs is a stun break property and better barrier generation.

- Primordial Stance: Don’t quite get the damage part – it is far too low to be worth it, haven’t tried with a condi spec, so I don’t know.

- Unravel: I don’t get this stance. You changed mesmer’s mantra traits because they were conflicting, but now we have an utility skill that completely eliminates the class mechanic, whilst leaving us with the bad univesal cooldown – why would I take this?

With a cooldown reduction of the attunment swap (much needed), I really don’t see why this utility should still exist and would suggest to replace it with something else.

- Twist of Fate: The superspeed should be a bit longer on this. With current duration it just lasts for the spin and nothing more. Seems weird. Another thing that would be interesting to this is a projectile hate (reflect missiles) – think it fits thematically and would make this one more interesting.

- Weave Self: Really think this should completely eliminate attunment swap recharge. Either Woven Fire or Woven Air should add to power damage playstyle.

Initial impressions:
Overall sentiment is that I liked the looks, I really liked the thought poured into this – and acknowledge that this one has the potential to be quite fun, but mechanically the spec has some significant problems.

Good stuff:

Skills look visually nice.
Liked the class concept.
Liked the possibility to play with the sword.

Negative:

- Just an intro, but I found it very curious that for a “DPS Spec” we start with Water and Earth trait lines and the Weaver traits that are all geared towards being tanky – instead of something like Fire and Air for damage.

- Damage is too low. We start with a viper amulet in PvP and we do so little damage with the sword it is absurd. Going full zerker and taking all +% damage traits in Air, Water and Weaver and we still do poor damage even with the “stronger dual attack skills”.

- Attunement cooldown is weird and makes things clunky. With Arcane traitline + the elite skill it feels somewhat passable (honestly the elite seems more like a crutch to try and make the class work a bit better).

- The extra vitality trait is negligible at best (it provides just a 1k health which is practically just an extra AA that you can withstand).

- The amount of barrier we can get from our skills is also far too low to make any difference. Elemental Refreshment is a terrible trait and I wish it was buffed.

Compare it with water second minor – for just attuning to water, you can get 1,3k heal without any healing power that affects you and allies near you. Elemental Refreshment gives you 378 barrier for using a dual attack ability… plain terrible and even goes against the skill “Unravel”. Terrible.

- Utility Skills are once again mediocre at best. I acknowledge the nice work done on the weapon skills (and it sure was a lot), but the utilities need some work.

Suggestions:

1. Buff Sword Damage – It is currently plain terrible you will do better by using dagger (more reach and better damage – sadly)

2. Elemental Attunment Recharge: Desperately needs change 4 seconds global is just too much to work. I would suggest to reduce it all to two seconds global attunement recharge – maybe even a bit less (1,5s). In addition, I would change that the elite skill ability to be that it removes the cooldown from attunement swapping (This would create seconds of complete madness for the ele for a cool burst / surprise)

3. Traits: Traits are weak in general, frankly. I liked the idea of some, but others feel a bit weird.

- Superior Elements: I don’t get the cooldown on this trait – really why? Remove it and buff the critical chance increase to 10%.

- Elemental Pursuit: I get the idea of helping to chase the enemy, but I think this would work best as a reactive trait (Gain superspeed if afflicted by movement impairing condis and remove the movement impairing condi – 10s cooldown seems fair for that). Naturally, with this Unravel hexes would be changed.

- Master’s Fortitute: Let’s be honest here – this trait exists because the base health of the ele is far too low for the sword to work properly. This ends up being a makeshift fix for an inherent class problem that could be solved by just raising the HP of the class (what many have requested for ages) and then giving a real trait.

That being said, if raising the base health is not feasible – make this trait the second tier minor and maybe keep it as it is or slightly buff the 5% to a 7%-10%.

- Elemental Refreshment: Would suggest this to swap places with Master’s Fortitude. In addition, raise the Barrier generated by this by a good amount – without any healing power it should be ~1k-1,5k to start to make a difference.

- Weaver’s Prowess: Think this is a good trait.

- Swift Revenge: Suggest to up the swiftness duration to a 8s base. Suggest to remove the +7% damage for a “Gain Retaliation when gaining superspeed. Retaliation you apply deals more damage”. (keeping it in theme – the damage buff goes to Unravel Hexes)

- Bolstered Elements: Cooldown of 70s is too high – think a 35s would be acceptable, the health trigger should also go a bit higher (maybe 60%-70%?). Rest I think is good.

- Elemental Polyphony: This is a nice one.

Grandmaster Traits: Grandmaster traits are a bit weird and I would suggest big changes.

- Elements of Rage: This I would suggest to be changed to a stance buffing trait. Something like “Stances gain 1 more ammo” (yes, including the elite). Stances now have a longer duration + something else.

- Unravel Hexes: I would suggest to keep this associated with super speed, but remove the condi removal portion.

First, I think this would be a good one for the +% when under the effects of swiftness or superspeed. Now as a Grandmaster it could go upwards to a solid 15%. (It should still have the superspeed, but now when you use a dual attack).

The condi removal portion should go due to the universal attunment cooldown reduction – which results in the possibility of the player to keep perma superspeed, which means condis would be worthless against an ele.

- Invigorating Stirkes: This could be the condi removal trait. It could be that “Dual Attacks healing you (small amount), remove condi (2) and grant vigor (5s). Dodge rolling grants barrier (base value higher to about 1k-1,5k without healing power).”

Refia Montes.3205:

To be honest the new system is fine. I’ve been thinking if what if the ammo system kept going even when the Mantra charge is on cooldown.

For example we take Mantra of Recovery, CD 10, Recharge 20s. Mantra Charges get filled up 20 seconds over time but when you spend all of the charges the skill goes on cooldown just like usual. What I propose is that when it goes on cooldown, the recharge still happens in the background. When you can cast Mantra of Recovery after the 10 second CD, you either have a choice of charging it up for 2 charges, or wait for a bit and not deal with the pain of charging the mantra again for 10 more seconds for 1 charge. This allows Mantra users to have more flexibility with their 2 charges.

Then another example would be Mantra of Pain. 1s CD, 10s recharge. So after spending all your charges you can either wait a bit and not deal with casting the Mantra in battle to get one charge or charge the Mantra so that you get 8 might gain and 2 charges ready for use.

This would be a step in the right direction, but I think at least a few mantras should have an extra charge with them for that to work – I would suggest pain, recovery and power cleanse.

With this – if you take mantra of pain as an example – you could either wait a bit for that extra charge to help you finish a fight or recharge in full with 8 stacks of might for another powerful burst.

Would provide a nice change / alternative to the skill.

Mounts – Raptor was very well implemented and fun. Getting stuck on some stairs, however was weird and a bit annoying. Wondering if we could get a Mario esquee dismount and glide combo – that would be sweet.

Mastery Points – much better than in HoT, but I wonder if things such as chef task and the memory task will work when we have many players at the same time.

Bounties – Liked the D3 style combos, but I think a good mix is for the bounty to show in the mini map for all players. Having to go to town, check the post and then run somewhere felt weird and sometimes you run to find the bounty almost dead with no clue. Maybe this should be kept as a map event / living open world.

Mini-games in town: Fun addition – loved the Witcher 3 style race – but maybe they could be a bit more rewarding?

Map was beautiful, loved the lack of verticality (hated it in HoT – because it made a lot of the map feel “inaccessible”).

Can’t say much for the story as I don’t engage it in much, but I felt a bit more interested now than the – go kill this dragon we were stuck before. Maybe I will give it a shot.

The elite specs and overall balance are still the do or die for my pre-purchase though.

It was a good addition.

Sure it needs tweaks – gliding and bypassing walls being the most crucial one, but it is fun, offers new ways to explore the map and the success of it from the perspective of the player base (most people I see in WvW like it) means that mounts may also be a good thing.

It should get some fixes, but overall a nice move by ANET.

Yes, please. Mantras need a change.

I really like the idea of mantras – to have it set up and used at the right time feels really fun, however:

1. The recharge time makes the ammunition mechanic almost non-existent for the mantras.

2. The nerfs to the the heal mantra (when above 50%) and Mender’s Purity, make me feel that the patch was actually a nerf to mantras than a buff to make it more used.

Changes:

The number of charges should go up (3) for the mantras, with a reduction to the ammunition recovery cooldown so that you can actually get some milage out of it instead of just getting the milage when you fully disengage.

As ANET wants to make it different from Firebrand’s scaling mantras (where the last one is a more powerful version) by having it be a “in-combat casting” type of mantra, a reduction to the cast time is very important.

With mantras still having a 2s1/4 cast time per mantra it is almost impossible to prepare more than one during combat (running 2 mantras means you would be a full 4s1/2 literally doing nothing in a fight other than preparing your mantras for a very negligible benefit in most cases).

So change charges, ammunition recovery time and set up cast time would really help to make the skill be fun / useful.

zealex.9410:

I really hope they dont it would remove so much flavour from them. And in other cases it would straight up be immersion breaking.

“why does my flying stingray leaves this footfalls on the ground while it clearly visible that it doesnt touch the ground?”

It could leave a trail of light instead of footprints – it would be nice to see.

The immersion can be there with a few changes to it. I don’t know, I like the idea.

It is doable, but I felt it was somewhat buggy.

Sometimes he would ask for an ingredient that was well away from others and when I threw it to him he would say “this is not what I wanted” and my timer would continue to go down.

So very annoying mastery point, but doable.

That being said, still think the expansion is looking very solid – for sure making me consider buying it (but I am still holding to the elite spec tests and hoping that the balance team does a better job with what is currently on the table as last patch had a lot of iffy things).

Panda.1967:

Mesmer

• The removal of Harmonious Mantras did nothing but hurt Mantra usage. Despite the perception of Harmonious Mantras and Restorative Mantras having conflicting purposes, they actually functioned cohesively to make Mantras a more functional skill type. Please consider adding Harmonious Mantras functionality to Restorative Mantras or make it baseline
• bug? Full charge effects from mantras are not triggering from recharged mantras.
• Mantra recharge times are far too long to be functional. These excessive recharge times serve only to remove the need to burn your last mantra charge after combat ends. _Please consider reducing these recharge times to be closer to the skills actual cooldowns as opposed to 2x their cooldown.

Fully agree, the recharge time makes the ammunition mechanic almost non-existent for the skill.

Plus, with the patch also accompanying some nerfs to the the heal mantra (when above 50%) and Mender’s Purity, the patch feels like a nerf to mantras.

I would say that the number of charges should go up (3) for the mantras, with a reduction to the ammunition recovery cooldown so that you can actually get some milage out of it instead of just getting the milage when you fully disengage.

As ANET wants to make it different from Firebrand’s scaling mantras (with the last one a powerful version) by having it be a “in-combat casting” type of mantra, a reduction to the cast time is very important.

With mantras still having a 2s1/4 cast time per mantra it is almost impossible to prepare more than one during combat (running 2 mantras means you would be a full 4s1/2 literally doing nothing in a fight other than preparing your mantras for a very negligible benefit).

These two changes would really help to bring mantras to a nice spot.

Electro.4173:

“Conjured weapons are garbage, they need to be buffed!”

“You buffed Conjured weapons? They’re useless, why would you waste time buffing useless things?”

The circle of life I guess.

Except people are complaining that the changes were not significant to warrant conjurers being anything more than a wasted skill category for us.

But interpreted that as you will.

Edit: BTW, the absolute lack of discussion on the changes / analysis of effects sure shows the level of interest in the class and relevancy of the patch…

Yes, this was a very much needed change and I am glad they did it.

+1 to ANET for this and the legendary armor for WvW (though not quite sure on the costs of getting it, but meh – eventually I will get it playing the game mode I like).

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

Mantras are either bugged or still completely useless, as they don’t grant their “when fully charged” effect when they recharge…ONLY when you recast the skill from scratch – and the count recharges are also far too long anyway, usually significantly longer than actually just recasting the skill. So nothing about them has changed except they grant a paltry benefit on cast and are otherwise essentialy unchanged. After five years, they still can’t or won’t make this skill type worth a kitten .

But honestly, nothing in these changes will change how I trait or play Mesmer at all. Damage builds will never be viable as long as Phantasms can’t change targets; hilarious that they gave them a GM ramp-up trait when they will never exist long enough to ramp up, and don’t even maintain the bonus through Chronophantasma recycling.

Chronomancer alacrity-bot is and always will be our only use, even after Mirage comes out I suspect. Better luck in another two years.

Actually I feel that we had only a nerf to Mantras…. mantra of recovery now is significantly weaker with its threshold debuff (lower heal if above 50%)… so yeah, my preferred healing skill just got nerfed and nothing better for mantras.

Sigh…. guess it is wait for the power creep on PoF

Edit: Wow, just now I noticed the “Our decision was to focus mesmer mantras on combat casting”… how can they say this with the absurd cast times and pathetic buffs the skills give once “fully cast”…. ugh….

Except for the nerfs that seem to be geared towards making PvE ele more in line with the other classes (honestly don’t know how it compares as I don’t do raids), none of the changes impact the class at all.

So pretty much nothing – guess the person in charge is full focused only on the Weaver, because the rest is pretty much ignored.

McKenna Berdrow.2759:

As several people mentioned, and Mo mentioned in the AMA, we release on our own cadence and will continue to release updates for WvW outside of the expansion release.

I also wanted to let everyone know that today is all about announcing the expansion, but later this week we will be talking about some of the upcoming updates for WvW.

Extremely skeptical about this…

The “competive month” that was supposed to be all about patches and changes to competitive game modes brought barely nothing to WvW with all the supposed “hype”.

Now don’t get me wrong, the ascended items for WvW and the legendary backpiece are certainly a plus, but the pip acquisition is mediocre and the skirmish chests rewards are laughable.

Now add that to the fact that this was the highlight update of the “Competitive Month Feature Pack”, the absolute lack of WvW stuff in the expansion release draws a very despairing picture to the future of WvW.

We will see if this is a wrong impression, but I seriously don’t believe that there will be any worthwhile news this week.

My money stays safe in my wallet and if all I have to look forward with the expansion is “Condi Powercreep to the Max!”, my time will also go to another game.

Okay, but if it can’t be possibly fixed by coding it to stop collision, then an alternative solution should be offered (e.g., suicide button, change map design to not have many collision spots or offer “way out” etc).

These can be realistically implemented and would help to fix the issue

Can you please also work in fixing the kitten stuck in wall bug? Tourneys will be terrible if this continues to be a thing…..

It seems so much more rampant now…. just had it happen in 3 matches and most of the time the other team just doesn’t give a flying kitten about it and doesn’t kill you so your choice is to relog and leave your team hanging for so long – in tight matches this just screws you completely.

Incredibly annoying and ANET simply doesnt give a kitten it seems…..

Has ANET said anything about fixing that or it is just “soon” if ever?

Serious request though, if you are not going to take any action against people that idle or to match manipulation, just add a surrender button so that we don’t have to fight a 4v5 (or worse) for the full 500 points.

Would be a great change…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Is-this-class-worth-playing

This should answer all your questions.

The only difference is that condi is now apparently much easier to play and stronger than power in PvE content (still not useful in PvP content).

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

It was a nice change of pace in WvW seeing someone else run something non meta, even if it confused the heck out of me

Yeah, I wish we had more of that…. Nowadays the “meta” build is supported so much that it far outshines the others to the point of being non-competitive (or, at best, a significant handicap).

The thing I wish ANET would get is that you don’t need to strive for perfect balance on all builds – it will never exist – but if it is at least somewhat viable, it will offer a change of pace when the “meta” becomes boring or for people who like to get creative.

fishball.7204:

At this point it should be obvious they just throw darts or w/e and see what sticks. There is no testing or anything.

I just wish we could at least see the dart throwing event, would probably be more exciting then watching a PvP match.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Vs a newbie teef (at the time) it was a pain in the butt,lol. Never seen it before (actually had to look it up after the fight to see what the shield thing was) so I didnt know what to expect. It was pretty effective but he was also set up a bit tanky.

Yeah, I think it was a bit before or after HoT that shield had its time in the sun for the extra tanky / unkillable build.

Those were horrible days, but I think now ANET probably doesn’t even know there is an Axe or a Shield conjure, they might just remember there is a Hammer.

FrownyClown.8402:

I understand why anet got rid of them. They were so much better that other choices weren’t really an option. I’d say its better for the health of the game though it pretty much confirms that sc/f ele was never one of their focuses. They probably want to make the new specialization the selling point for dps ele.

Although I disagree with removing an option “just cause we don’t care” as it was a kitten move on their part, I fully agree with your second point – this is a pre-expansion nerf so that the new elite specs are all easier to make “shiny” and workable (or perhaps even OP) so people buy the expansion.

steve.2945:

I can clarify that the leak is not fake. Some people reveres searched the image on google and it came back negative, meaning there are none like it. I’m hyped just like everyone is, so ill try to contain my self alittle until a gameplay reveal.

I would suggest to also hold your money in your wallet until every close to release / after release so you are sure you want to buy it.

I regret a lot having bought HoT when we had little to no information to just be disappointed by a bunch of features and the elite spec.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Frost bow and FGS are still somewhat viable fighting wise. As mentioned, range plays a part in the reason. Saw someone running the shield one. Totally too kme by surprise as I wasn’t aware how it worked,lol (I ended having to leave the fight as he was spam blocking/healing everything,lol)

Oh yeah there is the earth shield too…. completely forgot about that one

Frost bow was meta before in a lot of large hitboxes (it used to hit a lot more frequently and harder), now it has become a condi tool for added damage in PvE.

It is not useful for much else.

FGS became useful for some DPS increase in PvE and has always been the “meta” elite skill for PvP and WvW for its mobility (in those game modes it should come with a “do not use in fights” warning). (Except in a long forgotten time it actually did reasonable damage)

Hammer used to have a Lightning Rod build (not meta but fun) in PvP, but then it got squashed into oblivion just because it was good in PvE for its increased damage (it was better than Air 1 on Dagger).

I don’t think Axe was ever useful.

Feanor.2358:

No need, unlike you I like Tempest. Though I’m fairly sure I could run core ele in a raid. It’s not optimal, but then, as it is Tempest isn’t either. I have zero interest in PvP, so can’t help you there.

Then why complain that someone wants changes to core ele for the game mode of their preference?

Core ele is subpar in PvP and WvW (I imagine it is also in PvE but I don’t raid to know) that is a fact and people have the right to dislike tempest and the healbot role. ANET is offering no support for core ele and non-tempest, but rather tackling over performance of healbot Tempest (which I don’t have a problem with) in PvP and nerfing core on the side (which is a big problem because it only brings an already subpar role further down).

This is what drives the complaint of people and if you don’t care about PvP and WvW why do you bother to dispute these items and just say “get good”?

What you are doing is the definition of trolling.

Ok, I’ll bite, I will talk only about the elementalist that I am more familiar it.

In my opinion, the balance patch is a terrible mixture of a nerf and an empty patch (like the last one was) to a class that only purpose has been “be a healbot or work 10x harder to be worse than other classes in a dps role”.

The changes, once again, do nothing to add build diversity to the class. Literally zero – or rather, negative. It nerfs base ele abilities due to problems caused by the Tempest and, thus, instead of fixing the elite spec, the devs opt to kick the already down other builds to try and fix the excess of Tempest durability (Elemental Shielding and Obsidian Flesh nerfs).

Do these changes make a whole world of difference? I don’t think they do because frankly other elementalists builds such as S/F FA builds is a theoretical build that works in low levels of play where the player significantly outclasses the other.

The changes to the sigils are also a kick in the nuts as well, they result in an overall nerf to might stacking (old D/D ele style), in addition to the already nerfed loss of evasion from sigil of energy.

At the end of the day, what to elementalist have? Nothing to change the class.

Some fair nerfs to Tempest durability (Wash the Pain Away, Gale Song);
A strange buff to a class that already has the worst elites in the game (Rebound);
Low blows to core ele due to brokeness of Tempest Obsidian Flesh and Elemental Shielding);
A nerfed skill that was seeing some use (glyph of elemental power); and
Minor changes that really don’t make that much difference at all (and seriously, One with Fire change should have been since HoT came out – and the community said it hundreds of time at that time).

The only thing that I have doubts at the effectiveness of the change is Arcane Power and if the “effects apply to allies” means that allies can have the added effect of Elemental Surge for added condi application in addition to added ferocity, but frankly I don’t care that much for that particular combo to test it.

This patch screams “If you want to play ele as anything besides a healbot you will need to buy the expansion so gimme me money!” and just turns me off of the game….

I imagine the answer is simple: to sell the expansion when it comes out.

I cannot imagine another answer other than the above that would not be a question of the competence of the team involved.

Agreed, ANET just doesn’t care about elementalist at all or completely lack understanding of what they built with the class and again the balance patches proves it.

I don’t necessarily disagree with the nerf to Tempest healing – i think it over performed on the heal side and frankly I also don’t give a kitten about the elite spec as I hate it.

But to consistently leave the base elementalist or any build that is not a heal or in PvP and WvW the broken mess they are today (and nerf it to add salt to injury) is just a kick in the nuts and a mic drop to the face.

GG Anet, well played.

Meh, I expected nothing for the base ele and less than nothing came – actually just a nerf to our poor survivability.

I don’t care about changes to Tempest – I don’t like the spec and don’t like to play it so I couldn’t care less if it gets nerfed or whatever.

After reading the new leaks I am very worried…. I agree it will bring about a big change, but:

- it will be a trade of 12 skills (5 × 2 attunements) for 2 (fusion skills). This puts a lot of pressure on the 2 hybrid skills to compensate taking out the weapon 3 skills (which are often good) and 10 other skills that compensate our long cooldowns.

- I seriously doubt they will allow 2x trigger of on attune traits, it will probably be whatever is your first attunement – it would just be too powerful (imagine fresh air plus having 2 fusions with air, you would be swapping non stop and triggering lightning procs).

This has all the warnings of a bad idea… I will be seriously impressed if they pull this off as a good spec – but past history tells me it will finish burying the class.

From what the leaks showed, to have mounts on WvW either we are going to need PvE masteries (which means WvWers need to PvE a lot to get it all – thus not what WvW players want) or a specific WvW ability for it (something that would make new players on a disadvantage and ANET has already been very specific they don’t like this when they removed the guard stacks). So this is already a point against it.

Next you would implement it only on DBL? Why? I don’t event think they are able to make this distinction for just the DBL and to top it off, you would basically lose stuff when going to ABL or EBG.

Third, mounts will need to be something more than just “skins” so either it gives more speed, movement options or abilities, so now you may have shortened distances and made the DBL smaller and the ABL diminute or create a whole new balance mess.

Fourth, ANET would need to make a support for a whole mechanic of fighting on gliders and mounts – with all the difficult balance that would entail, otherwise gliding / mounts = free bags to the other team.

With all they are probably working on to make huge maps, stories, specs, mechanics, etc you really think they will have the time to do this extremely complex set of stuff when WvW has a lot of bigger problems and if done improperly this would only add to the list of problems?

RodOfDeath.5247:

LetoII.3782:

Still waiting on HoT fulfillment.
Think I’ll pass on the $50 trait line.

Agreed, unfinished product. Can’t trust these guys.

Don’t worry, I am sure that when ANET said that WvW would be a priority after the expansion they were saying after the SECOND expansion.

You guys just assumed it was the first expansion, but nowhere did ANET say that.

Feanor.2358:

That’s true for most of the elite specs. And honestly, I find zero reason thematically for Tempest to be tanky/supporty spec. Everything in the name screams “maximum damage”. Same for the chosen name of the mechanic, by the way. Overload? Dangerous and destructive. Definitely not supportive or protective.

The support potential exists, of course. But it has always felt to me like something artificially strapped onto the specialization rather than a natural part of it. Maybe somewhere along the way of creating it the devs realized they want the class to have some application in PvP and the mode simply doesn’t work with full glass builds.

Yes nothing in the spec fits the theme of a “Tempest” (which is defined as a “violent windstorm”). Just check WoodenPotatoes video on it.

What is “tempesty” about “I shout rebound and recover health of my allies if they take a killing blow or give them a little aura effect” or the “Tempest that washes the pain away with a slowly rolling waves from a center”

ANET doesn’t want to admit it, but most likely Tempest was going to be a damage dealer spec that would focus on DPS, but somewhere along the lines people thought that making a healbot/support class would be better.

But then they realized that a pure support class would be awful for the new content as it would not be able to explore the new content without clinging on another ally – so they haphazardly gave it DPS and from then it just became a mess and without time or ideas to fix it they shipped it off hoping it would be passable.

Nikkinella.8254:

EriskRedLemur.7153:

I find it fun that people are whining about a leak, that’s not finished, maybe not even accurate/real, or based off parts of data and filled in, or whatever – a lot will happen between now and when released…

Its fun to speculate and guess yeah, or go off data now but to get all worked up “this will ruin ele” etc. NOW is stupid. Just relax lol.

The same was said of tempest and look how well that turned out for us. Sorry but i have zero faith in anet’s balance, or rather imbalance team at all at this point. Expect to be disappointed then still be surprised when they manage to go even lower than your already low expectations.

Yup, it is good that there are still people who remember.

Tempest elite spec was exactly the same film. First the leaks and people were worried while there were some saying “relax trust ANET they will make it awesome”.

Then the reveal comes, no teaser, a boring and mechanically and thematically terrible elite spec with people showing the many mistakes and some continue the illusion that everything was going to be fine.

Look at Tempest today and it is mandatory for a single reason – blatant and intentional powercreep – but largely considered as a rushed and failed elite spec.

So yeah, we don’t have a “past history” to put faith in ANET that they will do a good job with this new one – and ANET definitely needs to keep in mind that the second expansion is “do or die” as the game will likely not survive another HoT failure.