Guild Wars 2

Nesetalis.5293:

Loic, the mesmer doesn’t actually wield it, it floats. It is used as something akin to a lightning rod for their magic. Now this might be aplicable for elementalist too, but i’ve not seen much floating in their stuff.

Also, wanted to add to staff weapons for warriors… Totally wanna fight with a staff >:3 like a monk or such.

Mesmers do plenty of swinging. Mirror Blade is an overhead throw, they need to heft up and thrust it into the ground for Mind Stab, and Illusionary Wave is nothing but a swing of the sword.

Talyjta.9081:

Loic.4367:

But if you do that, then you’ve screwed yourself for future content. You’d no longer have the option of opening up weapon selections to create more profession variety and depth.

I don’t understand that argument, I’m sorry… but isn’t it always the case that existing content can’t be at the same time future content?

Loic.4367:

And yes, as Nesetalis pointed out, certain things simply don’t make sense, most especially magic weapons (staves, scepters, and foci) to professions with no magical abilities.

But does it make sense that a warrior is able to handle a rifle and a greatsword but not a pistol and a staff (not for magic, just for being used like a club or something)? Not to mention a dagger or a torch?
Okay, I agree for scepters and foci, it sounds reasonable to limit them to the magical professions. But I don’t understand why a warrior can’t handle any other weapon in his way. And why I can’t take a dagger in the one hand or the other hand as a ranger…

If it comes to “making sense”, I would prefer a system where you start with few options. Maybe only sword and either shield or warhorn for the soldiers, dagger for adventurers plus pistol for engineers and bow for rangers, and one of the magical weapons for scholars. Or more options and you have to choose you preferred weapon(s) during character creation? And then you have trainers from whom you can learn other weapon skills. You don’t need to if you don’t like to, but except trainers for magical weapons who refuse non-magical professions every trainer can teach his weapon to everyone, even greatswords to mesmers if they insist to learn it.

To the first point, what I meant is that they should hold off on opening up weapon selections until later. Pace themselves with content release so that they don’t close their options too quickly.

I’ve actually advocated pistols and torches for warriors in a recent thread. I’m not saying weapon selections shouldn’t be expanded, but that ArenaNet should take it’s time in doing so.

And to both Nesetalis and Talyjta, the staff as it exists currently is purely a magical weapon. They could use it for other professions in a martial sense, but it’d be a smarter option to just create a new weapon type to accommodate that niche, like “quarterstaff” or something, similar to how we have maces and scepters (short sticks, usually with an object in the end).

I want to back things up a bit. Way back. Back before launch, before the betas, back to when the Guild Wars 2 elementalist was nothing but a concept to us. You there? Okay. So here’s my question.

What did you want it to be?

We see plenty of talking back and forth regarding what the elementalist is and what people expect of it. Usually I hear things like “it’s the mage archetype” and a response to the effect of “then this isn’t the class for you.” Constant accusations of L2P issues, despite equally frequent acknowledgement of simple concepts (dodging, attunement swapping/etc.) as necessities. These are all questions that address the reality of the elmentalist. But ultimately, is this what people wanted?

I like lightning, I think it’s cool. The idea of an element-specific spellcaster is appealing to me. The use of daggers as a magical instrument also sounded extremely cool. Considering Guild Wars, it made sense that what we could expect was a caster that could specialize in elements, and each element offered something different, or make use of all of them at once.

What we have now is a profession which requires the use of all four elements to be effective. All elementalist players probably learned this lesson around level 40 if not earlier. This is mostly a product of weak individual skills and longer-than-average cooldowns. I accept this. Everyone who plays an elementalist consistently has to accept this. However, is this what everyone wanted? Ignoring whether or not the elementalist is underpowered or not, how effective it can be, or anything else, are people happy with what it is?

I bring this up because I want to understand what players wanted from the elementalist. For the sake of this discussion, please forget for a moment the reality of the elementalist, and share what you wanted from the profession.

The best answer, frankly, is to A) make each profession have a more distinct feel and B) to give room for added content in the future.

It wouldn’t be too hard (well maybe it would be, but it’s possible) to come up with weapons kills for all weapons and all professions. But if you do that, then you’ve screwed yourself for future content. You’d no longer have the option of opening up weapon selections to create more profession variety and depth. All you could do is create entirely new weapons (which I’m sure is also planned), or add different swappable skill sets for existing weapons.

EDIT: And yes, as Nesetalis pointed out, certain things simply don’t make sense, most especially magic weapons (staves, scepters, and foci) to professions with no magical abilities. Although to you, Nesetalis, I ask this: why is it more believable for a mesmer to wield a greatsword than an elementalist?

Bag of coins, howsabout?

Also, why can I only get six copper for a solid bar of gold?

Okay, I’ll keep this brief, because we all know this is a subject that has been done to death and beyond.

We need different hairstyles. And by that, I don’t just mean more. ArenaNet artists, lets get real here. We all know symmetry is boring. This is, like, lesson one in art school besides “variety is important” and “make patterns,” also “blue and red make purple.”

So why are almost all the hairstyles in the game symmetrical or approximately symmetrical? Shoot, for human males we’ve got at least five variations on “short brushed up hair.” It’s mind-numbingly boring and homogenizing.

Please, we all know you’re going to release new character appearance options (and frankly if you’re not planning on this then shame on you). When you decide to give us more ‘dos and such, have at least a few of them be flipped to one side or whatever. And please, not in a stupid my-barber’s-hand-slipped-and-now-I’ve-got-a-weird-bald-spot kind of way.

Also, personal gripe: can human males please get a normal mohawk? You know, without the lightning bolt? I love the lightning bolt, works great on an elementalist, but why exactly can’t we be without it?

/rant

arrownin.3128:

Class imbalances always exist, even WoW can’t seem to get it right, and btw; that old fable about only two people working on balance in GW2 is false, there are quite a few teams doing this.

I don’t mean to challenge this statement, since I don’t actually know any more about it than any other player, but speaking just for myself, I believe in this “fable” because I actually saw a red post where a developer straight up said that there were two people working on class balancing.

Again, I’m just raising an eyebrow in doubt. What proof do you have against this? I’m pretty sure people believe the whole “two developers” thing because there’s one huge, solid piece of evidence supporting it.

Warriors: Tough one, they already have a huge selection. Possibly offhand torch, or pistols?

Guardian: Always wanted offhand mace, but warhorn or longbow would work too.

Ranger: Mainhand dagger or offhand sword, I’d think.

Thief: Rifles would be cool, but offhand sword would also be a good option.

Engineer: Been saying from the start that they could use hammers.

Elementalist: Would offhand scepter be too weird? If so, possibly also hammers?

Necromancer: Offhand axe would be welcomed.

Mesmer: Mainhand pistol. Everyone knows it. Everyone wants it.

I’m pretty confident that this isn’t available in-game.
The an extremely similar armor set is worn by Countess Anise, which I’ve yet to see in any armor database. Like how most town clothes are unavailable to players, I don’t think this one is obtainable currently.
It’s weird, though, that such a seemingly minor character gets a distinct armor set. I mean, Anise is involved in, like, two or three missions and not in a big way. Odd choice.

NinjaEd.3946:

2h legendaries should require more materials to make, or make 1h legendaries require less. Doesn’t make much sense that a small dagger needs as much materials to make as a 2h, when you most likely will want 2 of those daggers.

You could easily take the word legendary out of this post and it would still be a valid point regarding weapons. I’d also be comfortable with replacing “materials to make” with “cost.”

Noooope. Not while moving, anyway.

I’ll give them one thing, though. I no longer run into the issue where I can’t hit something unless I’m moving.

Anyone else still having problems?

On the topic of skimpiness, I’d actually like it if men would wear a little less. I’ve stuck my elementalist in Vigil garb and human cultural t3 chest armor basically just because there are no sleeves. Why can’t men show just a little skin?

The differences between male and female armor is annoying, and I would rather them change this. Obviously we want both options available, but it’s always upsetting when you see an armor set you really like on one character, and find that it looks nothing like what you think on a character of a different gender. Unfortunately, the chances of existing armor sets being edited to implement more gender neutral styles are small. The best we can do is hope that future armor sets get the treatment we want.

The oddly backwards example of men=buttoned-up and women=skimpy is the Norn cultural t1, which is both baffling and annoying. I really like that armor set on the men, but on women it just looks like armored fur pajamas to me.

Oh, and on the subject of skirts, male and female characters seem to wear skirts with similar frequency. ArenaNet concept artists are apparently having a love affair with skirts. Granted, male character skirts aren’t nearly as short, infuriating especially for me on the Kodan light armor, but still. Worth mentioning.

A bit of a problem here, lorewise, is that a single skritt all alone is, and lets be serious here, a drooling moron.

The Necromancer slot-1 skill with daggers needs the Lightning Whip treatment and be able to hit multiple opponents, even as few as three. It is an incredible detriment to be largely limited to a single target with a melee weapon.

There’s little else I think I can say about that. Please change this?

I’m not going to type out some huge response to this and just say I disagree with you. Obviously, you’re entitled to your opinion and my disagreement won’t affect that at all, but this really is just your opinion. I very much enjoy how combat works in Guild Wars 2, I really enjoyed the Jade Sea boss except when the tentacles started stunlocking people, and I sincerely doubt that the game will undergo a revamp on the level you’re suggesting (although I’m not quite sure what you want from it).

Simple tools with complex interactions is a smart direction for MMOs to take, and it’s satisfying to see a pioneer in this direction. Frankly, I want to see more aspects of other genres, like action/adventure and platformers (hi, jumping puzzles). MMOs have a bad habit of needing to catch up with the rest of the industry in regards to gameplay, and I think the elements in Guild Wars 2 are a good step.

Zerging and redundancies are common in all MMOs. Even in the Secret World, zerging was the only way to get anything done in the open PvP. Personally, I would never ever say that GW1 combat was even remotely as fun as GW2, but that’s my opinion. I still don’t quite understand what you want from the combat, and moreover, why if you hate it so much that you’re still playing.

The bad aspects of the November update were the regressions. RNG elements and vertical gear progression are relics of the MMO. The good parts were the interesting mechanics introduced in FotM, challenges designed to rely on situational awareness, reflexes, and active problem solving, and expansion of content and aesthetic options, and this is what ArenaNet needs to pursue. I’ll agree that professions could do with much more broadening (so soon after release, there isn’t much variety within a single profession), and there is an enormous balancing challenge still at hand, but things such as these can and will come with time.

teg.1340:

Loic.4367:

regarding Fast Hands, very recently I saw a red post stating that Fast Hands is only bugged directly after equipping it, and otherwise functions normally after rezoning, after which the poster stressed that fixing this error in the brief window Fast Hands doesn’t function is exceedingly difficult. The trait will still work, just with an extremely small inconvenience.

that’s exactly the point: your opinions come from what you’ve read not from what you’ve know. The red post is wrong (before patch, didnt test after patch).

Well, I just did a quick check and fortunately now I do know. It seems as though I misread the post by a bit, however, so here we have the genuine article: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Warrior-changes-in-15th-Nov-patch/first#post745583

It is behaving as was described in the red, having the first weapon swap be normal and having the reduction applied to all weapon swaps following.

teg.1340:

Loic.4367:

Looking at the bug list on the Warrior board, most issues are either not profession specific, tooltip errors, or just complaints and not actual bugs.

your arguments dont get any better if you lie! a few major warrior traits are indeed BUGGED for ages, see fast hands or crackshot.

I wanted to mostly avoid entering whatever discussion developed out of this thread, but I feel I should point out two things. Firstly, regarding Fast Hands, very recently I saw a red post stating that Fast Hands is only bugged directly after equipping it, and otherwise functions normally after rezoning, after which the poster stressed that fixing this error in the brief window Fast Hands doesn’t function is exceedingly difficult. The trait will still work, just with an extremely small inconvenience. Second, that in my original post I was saying that the most (not all) of items on the Warrior bug compilation were the things I listed. I concede that many are legitimate issues, but the vast majority are tooltip errors, certain issues are shared with other profession’s skills (such as Rush and Ride the Lighting), and others are merely complaints, such as thinking the projectile for Bolas is too small or Rifle Butt range feeling too short.

I’m going to say right now this isn’t a QQ thread. I don’t play PvP of any kind, I have a warrior alt, and I hold no grudge against the profession itself.

But seriously, ArenaNet. Please stop buffing the Warrior. Warriors are not at all in the worst state. Looking at the bug list on the Warrior board, most issues are either not profession specific, tooltip errors, or just complaints and not actual bugs. Looking at patch notes, Warriors have no received a single nerf since launch and received several buffs. Every other profession has been nerfed to some degree at least (sometimes much more significantly than others), and many of them still have serious issues or obvious shortcomings.

I’m not complaining that Warriors are too strong, and I’m not demanding that they be nerfed. But please, at the very least stop buffing them.

Can I please attack the roots with a ranged weapon? Maybe I’m the only one who has had this problem, but it seems as though if I get rooted while wielding pistols with my thief, I can’t attack them to free myself. Daggers seem to get the job done, but this is a silly problem to have.

Darknass.1903:

I believe I read somewhere that the gear will only be better within the dungeon itself and function as a normal piece of gear outside of the dungeon. (if I can find the post I will edit this)

Man, I hope so.

Anyway, the only item we’ve been treated to has been what seems to be a back item. What this might be is not so much a new class of armor for all types, but specific items that by themselves are a significant contributor to your stats (much like how amulets work now). Maybe it’ll only be back items? I’d actually be down with that.

Sorry to say, dude, but they sort of already beat you to the punch here. Sylvari cultural armor has elements that glow at night, like the sylvari themselves, so this is already in the game. It’d be super cool if it could be expanded upon, though.

Is that an actual glow, Schroedinger? Like, the same kind that sylvari have during the night? If so, I’m super jelly that it works on one armor set and not the others.

Here’s my guardian at night, in T2 cultural armor. The white light is the armor, which I don’t seem to have any control of. With slyvari I tend to favor dark or muted colors for armor because I like how it contrasts when their bioluminescence starts up at night, but since I can’t control the glow of the armor, I end up looking like a wooden zebra.

So my fairly recent Sylvari guardian has been a whole lot of fun, and I think a lot of the cultural armor is just gorgeous. He’s currently wearing the T2 chest and leggings. I think it looks great, but I noticed that at night, the armor has luminescent parts much like the Sylvari themselves. Unfortunately, the light seems to only ever be white.

Do any of the other cultural armor sets glow? And if so, is it just always white? If that’s the case, I’m surprised the color of the glow doesn’t just default to the same color as your sylvari’s own bioluminescence.

I’ve only had a week with this guy and I already love him to pieces. My only desire is that I could control the glow color of the sylvari cultural armor. The warm white clashes with his own blue luminescence.

I’ve brought this up a few times.

Mystic Spike is red. All other Mystic weapons are blue versions of the Inquest weapons. I really don’t see a point to an inconsistency like this, and I sincerely hope it’s just an oversight that will be resolved soon.

While we’re at it, can we also change “Save Yourselves!”? The name can stay the same, but if you ever use it while no one else is around, I’d prefer if your character instead said “MUAHAHAHAHA!”

I don’t think I’ve ever actually cast a Ring of Warding because I’d always end up needing to move and interrupting it.

If you’re just bugged by hair accessories, they could just implement a barber function and you’d have that resolved as well as a bunch of other gripes appeased.

It definitely needs a change. Retreating just isn’t the intention when I activate it.

Looking at Guild Wars shouts, I found a few good candidates.

“Form up and Advance!” – I believe “Form Up!” could work, too.

“Fall Back!” – Extremely similar to Retreat, but without the whole “we can’t win so let’s leave” vibe.

“Incoming!” – Popular here, definitely a good choice.

I think the problem with this idea is that it’s not nearly broad enough as a weapon type. I could imagine fan-style skins on foci, but it’s just too specific. Even katana is too specific when we’ve already got “sword” and “big sword.”

Can we please get an option to control the glow color?

I’m running around in T2 cultural, and the white glow is really clashing with my color scheme. As far as I know, none of the sylvari cultural armor uses all four dyes slots, wouldn’t it be easy to just add the forth one to control the glow?

I’ve posted on this before, but I have the same problem as Lokheit, having a vertical red line appearing in the center of the Vigil Garb. The line is more visible when the camera is zoomed out, but completely invisible once it’s close enough.

Examples attached, yo.

You haven’t been to Orr yet, have you? If you think it’s bad when you’re new to the game, it gets so much worse in Straits of Devastation, Malchor’s Leap, and Cursed Shore. Tightly clustered mobs and absurd respawn rates. You can’t walk into a room without having things respawn behind you as you walk.

@Lorana Frankly, I wish that was how most skill sets worked. The most effective weapon kits seem to be ones with a strong autoattack, a single powerful damage skill, and then the rest being situation or utility skills. That said, I’d like it if Blunderbuss either had better range or damage, but I’m rather pleased with engineer rifles in general, it being a versatile ranged weapon with a powerful close-range focus.

Oh, and I wish that Jump Shot didn’t root you at the end. That blows.

I really don’t think that having higher damage or health or lower cooldowns would diminish the elementalist playstyle; it would just make it more effective.

And frankly, it’d be easier to buff one profession rather than nerf everyone else.

@Efaicia Well, if what you’re suggesting is that elementalist players benefit from capitalizing on game mechanics, not specifically profession mechanics, wouldn’t the same skills one develops while playing an elementalist be equally beneficial when playing another profession? You even suggest in your last sentence that another profession using the same concepts would be even more potent than they are now, and frankly, this is something they are entirely capable of doing. So what is the advantage of being an elementalist and using these mechanics if everyone can do it, and do so more effectively?

@TheGuy What do you believe makes something “the strongest class in PvE”? What’s the criteria? What exactly is it that an elementalist can do that no one else can? And frankly, I find it to be extremely arrogant when I hear people on the elementalist forums suggest that any elementalist player, or any player for that matter, who gets to level 30 even hasn’t yet grasped necessary game and profession mechanics. Are you suggesting that people with max level characters still don’t understand combo fields, finishers, dodging, interrupts, and weapon swapping? Because I really hope not.

And while I’ll agree that knockdowns are better CC than blinds, I’d take four blinds over one knockdown any day.

@Creslin I don’t mean to harp on the warrior so much. I understand that they’re not incredibly beyond other professions, I’ve merely been using it as an example because, well, it’s a good example.

As for soloing the Mad King, I actually almost did that when I met him face-to-face on the bottom level and no one knew where we had gone. I might have actually done it if he hadn’t feared me off the level. But I’m not as sure as you are about that. And if not the warrior, I’m certain that if the elementalist is capable of soloing him, other professions are as well.

Frankly, some times I feel like a lot of this great healing and mobility stuff comes mostly from Elemental Attunement, which feels nothing short of necessary for any elementalist. Without it and Zephyr’s Boon, which again almost feels like a necessity for a D/D elementalist, I doubt I could do half the things I do. A lot of elements in the elementalist’s kit simply don’t feel especially useful on their own. Granted, most fights don’t take me much more than one cycle through my attunements, including utilities, but then I’ve got upwards of 40 seconds downtime.

Also, and I realize this’ll sound a bit jerky, but that last statement is a bit contradictory, since right before it you claim that elementalists don’t have the same burst capabilities as other professions.

Please remove the brief root at the end of Jump Shot. Most skills that move your character around but don’t cause a similar immobilization effect, and it feels very clunky.

The only other skill I know has this problem is the elementalist’s Tidal Wave, and it’d be nice if that root and all others like it were removed as well.

Malcastus, just wanted to throw this your way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_

And while it’s a bit irrelevant to the discussion, I just wanted to clear up what my point was in the OP. I was expressing the feeling that, compared to other professions, the elementalist seems to have a distinct numerical disadvantage. I’m not sure if the others need toning down, or if the elementalist needs tuning up, but something is wonky.

And again for clarification, I enjoy my elementalist. I like the playstyle, demanding as it may be. However, it just feels like I do less over a longer period than other professions, and I’m constantly seeing evidence confirming that suspicion.

One thing I keep hearing is, “Other professions are boring! I don’t want to faceroll content.” Fair enough, I don’t believe anyone is suggesting that elementalist be given a skill like Hundred Blades or Rapid Shot. But what seems to be at work here is, again, a distinct numerical disadvantage. If numbers were tweaked, it wouldn’t affect the way elementalists are played, it’d simply mean that that effort would yield greater results.

If what you want is a character who simply does less than others at the same level, fine. Go play a warrior, unequip some armor pieces, and don’t spend all your trait points. Tada! Challenge!

Yes, it’s another one of these threads. They’d probably stop if the feeling wasn’t so heartbreaking.

So I was running around Frostgorge Sound with my elementalist, like you do when you decide to ditch Orr altogether, fighting Dredge. Dredge often have ranged attacks and CC of all sorts, plus are immune to blind, so while I wasn’t dying I was ending each fight maybe around half health, even against a single mob.

As I’m about to take a break and log for a bit, I see a warrior walking down a tunnel towards me, and decide to just take a quick look at him to see how he was doing.

Dude walked up to a Dredge, Hundred Blades, one or two autoattacks, and the Dredge was dead. The warrior probably didn’t lose even an eighth of his health.

No risk. No worry. No slowing down. He just kept going, doing the same thing to every Dredge. I have to bust at least 7 cooldowns just to kill them, and if I stood still I’d be dead.

I don’t know what it is. When I’m playing my elementalist, I don’t feel weak. I handle most situations fairly well, I can do some pretty impressive stuff when I’m on top of things, and I’m usually confident enough to take on anything that isn’t a champion. It doesn’t feel like it’s a weak profession. But then, I see a warrior or a guardian or even a ranger walking around investing almost no effort whatsoever and finishing fights faster and with less risk than I ever could.

Every so often I have a spirit dampening moment like this while playing. I don’t know what’s wrong, but whatever it is, it sucks.

I have to assume this is a bug, because as far as I can tell, all Mystic weapons are blue with blue lightning except for the dagger. It’s red with red lightning, making it visually identical to the Inquest Dagger.

Since BLTP is account wide, can we please have the option to take a single item or cash value instead of getting the whole kit and caboodle when picking up?

Okay, I realize that what I’m asking for basically benefits the Elementalist and that’s basically it, but lets face it, they could use the buff.

Can we please have more skills that produce ice and lightning fields? As it stands, we have three ice field skills and two lightning field skills, or more accurately, one skill twice. If they’re to be included in the game as part of one of the more prominent unique mechanics, why limit it so severely?

I’d plead for more water fields too, but apparently there’s some crippling fear of having potent healing skills going around.

This is definitely something that could use a fix. It’s not a bug, exactly, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be corrected. I don’t like going to salvage something only to hover over the icon and realize it’s actually a rare.

On a related not, sometimes items that have been transmuted have the wrong icon in windows that aren’t the inventory, like in sell menus.

To those of you saying that class nerfing will always happen, please tell that to the warrior, who except for a few fixes and actual buffs has been completely untouched since launch.

I’m not here to complain about weapon costs. Some seem rather high to me, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it could be. What I want discussed here is the difference in cost between one-handed and two-handed weapons.

For cultural weapons, everything is the same price. For dungeon exotics, it’s 300 tokens for a one-handed weapon, 390 for a two-handed weapon, and 210 for an offhand weapon. The Pact weapons, as well as all weapon rewards from storyline quests, offer a similar problem where you can only ever get one item, and so if you use more than one you’ll never get a matching set (especially frustrating if you dual wield). Yes, Pact weapons are on the trading post, but they’re still one item per player.

I remember really, really soon after launch I bought a pair of Krytan daggers from the tier 1 cultural weapon vendor. I think together they cost me under 2k karma, and I distinctly remember seeing prices be different based on if they were one-handed, two-handed, or offhand exclusive. Made sense to me, and it was very affordable at the level I bought them. Very soon after, I saw the prices had jumped up immensely to the flat rate of 9.8k that tier 1 is today. I was baffled and I’m still baffled.

What I want to hear is what some players might think justifies this difference, and if no one thinks it is justified, I’d like it if people could be more vocal about it and try to get it changed. Seriously, why the dramatic favoring of two-handed weapons?

I hate to dredge up a post this old, but I’ve been having the same problem for a long long time, and it’s still incredibly irritating. Like a good forum goer, I didn’t want to make a new thread if I could find one relevant to what I wanted to bring up.

For me, the red line appears when the camera is far away from the character, and is always a vertical line going through the center of the character model. It only appears on the armor, and usually on armor that’s more snug than bulky.

I’ve included an image of my character from behind close up with no line, and from far away with a line.

When a game has no subscription fee, having a good variety of available microtransactions is a smart idea, and in general, most things you can buy in the BLTC are pretty nice. Boosts are always useful, as are Black Lion salvage kits, tonics are occasionally fun although ultimately pointless, and a lot of the town clothes are nice.

However, when it comes to style options that aren’t town clothing, things are extremely limited. Three options, and a single character can only ever access one of them. They’re all classic Guild Wars armor sets, which is a nice idea, but while the Primeval armor generally considered attractive, the Krytan armor is fairly generic and I’ve never met a single person who liked the Profane armor.

Guild Wars was full of very attractive armor sets, but these are the only ones we can use the appearance of? While we’re on the subject, what about costumes? I’d buy a Shining Blade Uniform in a second if they’d just sell it to me. Is there a reason you don’t want my money, ArenaNet?

It’d be nice if we had more variety for armor skins in the cash shop, and I think a smart move would be to recycle more armor sets from the original game, especially the old costumes. I know I’d buy them.

And, as a side note, I know the idea is that, when you buy these Black Lion armor sets, you’re supposed to use transmutation stones to keep the armor appearance. But could we please, please, PLEASE get a costume vendor who can supply us with the item again? You know, like we’ve got for Heritage items? Please?

Granted, this skill can be incredibly strong. If you happen to find an opponent with their back against a wall or are on the seafloor, casting it and dealing all the damage by being stationary is absolutely brutal. Can take out the majority of a veteran mob’s health if not outright killing them.

But like Aretas said, it’s a tricky skill to use. Very hard to aim, and typically casting it will end up with you seeing maybe two hits and, like, a bazillion misses. Good skill, but rarely worth the cast.

I’ve posted so much on the exact, minute issues I think would improve the elementalist if they were changed, and I’ve realized that the most concise way I can put it is this: there needs to be a significant buff or complete overhaul to a number of skill sets.

Primarily, this means mainhand daggers for air and earth and scepter for water, but I think mainhand dagger in water and the majority of staff skills for air could be part of that.

Having access to so many skills at once is a great advantage, theoretically. Right now I think it falls flat because not all the sets are equal. A lot of skill sets (as in skills assigned to a specific weapon in a specific attunement) obviously outperform others, and many, while effective, only incentivize swapping into an attunement, blowing cooldowns, and then leaving. For offhand daggers, this is exactly the case for air and earth and, frankly, water as well. Fire, for basically all weapons, seems to be the only attunement that can stand on it’s own. If all skills were more meaningful and comparable, we’d likely see significantly more effective elementalists as well as greater variety in playstyles.

And while that was my one thing, it’s obvious that traits need a look at. Just wanted to, like, keep that on the table.

CKMo.4097:

You are actually proving my point, my friend, about the fact that there is little to no incentive for switching elemental attunement.

I would amend this statement to be “there is little to no incentive for staying in an elemental attunement.”

Now before anyone starts calling me a horrible elementalist player because obviously by what I just said I still don’t know how to press f1-f4 of haven’t figured out how to dodge yet, what I mean is that, besides fire attunement, there’s no benefit from remaining in a attunement, even after specialization.

I agree with the OP, trait investments do fairly little when they focus on an element (alacrity traits, mastery traits, etc). If in a magically perfect world, every attunement would be equally useful and used an equal amount of time by every player as a base, traits could slowly shift that, making it advantageous to spend more time in air and water by specing into those trait lines. But this simply isn’t the case, and the only attunement that’s good for anything besides cherrypicking cooldowns is fire.

Please, to people arguing against the OP, keep in mind that he’s not saying elementalists don’t switch attunements. He’s merely saying that the amount of time spent in them is disproportionate. I’m not saying don’t disagree with him, but keep in mind what the point is.

And to anyone mentioning air being meant for single target damage, speaking as a dagger player, it simply doesn’t exist. 2 skills that deal no damage, 1 that does less than the autoattack, another that deals roughly half that. What good is air daggers for anything but RtL and Updraft? Unless you’ve got Zephyr’s boon, basically nothing, and even then you’re not using Shocking Aura for the skill’s actual effect.

I think you’re absolutely right, it’s super weird. And it’s not as though it’s especially powerful. The only thing it offers that most other combo fields don’t is CC with it’s daze application. Frankly, that might actually be why Lightning fields are so rare, because apparently ArenaNet still seems to think this is a MOBA and that a 1-second daze is a super huge deal.

I’ve been saying for a while that putting another skill that produces a Lightning field into the dagger mainhand somewhere would be a smart move. It doesn’t need to stun, ArenaNet! It’s okay for there to be a Lightning field with a reasonable cooldown!