Guild Wars 2

Zanzu.7503:

Elementalist is an extremely in depth class that you’re going to have to get creative with

I totally agree with you there. I just think it would be a lot more interesting, if we had more good traits to get creative with, e.g. more viable choices.

Zanzu.7503:

I’m not saying balance changes aren’t needed, but we don’t need to buff every class to warrior status we simply need to even out the playing field a bit more, the classes which are vastly superior need to be a little toned down and the ones which are below the average playing field need to be bumped up.. i’d say right now Elementalists are sitting solidly somewhere in the middle and as such they need minor tweaks not blatant boosts.

I don’t think most of the ideas mentioned are “blatant boosts”. And it really isn’t my intention to boost all the Elementalist traits/skills, to make him stronger in general. I just think there is a bunch of weak or uncreative traits that need a change, for example by merging two weak traits and creating a new interesting one, which is actually the topic of this thread.
The Elementalist has some great traits (Evasive Arcana, Cleansing Water, Elemental Attunement, … ) and the other traits really shouldn’t be made stronger than those, but they should be about on the same level in my opinion. Therefore the Elementalist wouldn’t be stronger in general, but there would be more viable choices, that might significantly affect how you play your Elementalist, because at the moment most traits don’t feel like they really have any impact on the way your playing. (except very few combinations of traits)

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It really wasn’t my intention to start another discussion whether the elementalist is too strong or too weak though. I was just inspired by the merge of the mentioned Guardian traits and I still think it’s a great way to create some diversity in the trait system without removing the old traits completely.

DaedalusDragon.3754:

Plus, all we have right now are specific skills that only affect one element anyways.

Yeah, exactly. That’s why I came up with the idea that some Elementalist traits could easily be combined into one. And most of those Traits aren’t even good, even though they only affect one or a few skills!
For example: Soothing Wave grants you 6 seconds of regeneration when you use Mist Form, Frost Bow or Signet of Water.
Compared to Soothing Disruption, which grants you 9 seconds of regeneration and vigor when you use a Cantrip.
So if you chose Mist Form (a Cantrip), there is no reason to take Soothing Wave instead of Soothing Disruption.

Another of those Traits is Burning Fire which adds 3 seconds of Burning to some Skills. For example Signet of Fire already burns for 9 seconds. You could keep a target burning forever, when you use all of those skills, but then the target uses a condition removal and all your burning is gone. It would be better if Burning Fire improved the damage of your burning, instead of adding more seconds, because there are already soo many Fire Skills that add burning.

DaedalusDragon.3754:

I honestly think that if the conjure spell only conjured one weapon in your hand it would be better. I hate that I have to ground target my conjures and then wait for a cast time. Though the burn from greatsword and axe are neat.

Adding some effect to the other Conjured Weapons might be an idea too. Maybe Frost Bow heals when conjured, Earth Shield weakens enemies and Lightning Hammer stuns at summoned location. Could also be implemented as a trait. (maybe even combined with the ‘breaks stun’ idea, because I really like that one)

DiogoSilva.7089:

- The casting time of Conjure Weapons is instant and break stun.
Break stun, so the elementalists can have alternatives to their cantrips. Instant cast, for easier self-combos.

And then would add for each elemental traitline:
- When you swap to this attunement, X happens for Y seconds.
- When you swap to this attunement, create a combo field and/ or it counts as a combo finisher. (Improving tier 2’s minor traits, and an interesting way for self-made combos.)

I think there had been some Trait in one of the BWE that allowed Conjured Weapons to break Stun on activation. Combined with you idea of instant cast, it would be a really interesting way to use Conjured Weapons!

I’m not so sure about the second point I quoted. The first idea sounds just like the Arcana Trait “Elemental Attunement” and I think we don’t need another similiar trait.
But the second idea (Combo Field/Finisher) is really good and could also be added to the already existing Tier 2 Minor Traits. For example “Earthen Blast” (T2 Earth, Minor) already looks like it’s a Blast Finisher

And you’re right that some Minor Traits need some improvement. I do like the idea of the Tier 2 Traits, because they encourage swapping Elements, but on the contray the Tier 1 Traits are only useful if you’re attuned to that specific Element and most of them aren’t great, even if you stayed on one element. Other professions have some really good Tier 1 Minor Traits, for example the Ranger one Natural Vigor: Increases endurance regeneration by 50%. or Natural Vibor: Gain regeneration when your health reaches 75%.
And the Elementalist has Flame Barrier: You have a 20% chance to cause burning whenever a foe attacks you in melee. Only triggers when attuned to fire.
20% in melee when attuned to fire! That’s a lot of “if” for a small effect like burning, which can be applied in so many other ways.

I really like all of your other ideas! They are a lot more creative than most of the current Traits. And if some Traits were merged, for example the 20% recharge Traits that you mentioned, there would be enough space for some of your ideas.

OneBloke.7264:

Fire Shield: Perhaps the most useless skill in the entire game as I said on another thread. Puts up a shield which lasts for 3 seconds during this time if someone attacks you they will get burning for 1 second. Yes you read properly, as if burning from Flame Strike, Dragon’s Tooth and Flame Wall was not enough Fire Shield gives you the chance to burn your enemy for whole full second holy cow!

Yeah, you got a point there. Fire Shield is very weak, and you need to be hit (which you should really avoid as an Elementalist) to trigger it’s effect! I’m sure the Elementalist has some more skills that aren’t very good (like Glyph of Renewal which never triggers properly when I try to use it..), but my intention was to mainly focus on Traits with that topic.
Also, I’m sure there are some people that use Focus Offhand, but not many compared to Staff (Two hand) or Dagger users. For example I haven’t seen someone playing PvP with Focus as Offhand yet, they use always Daggers. Anyways, there is no Trait that affects Focus Skills, therefore my idea. Again, I wanted to focus on the Traits of the Elementalist, but you’re right when you’re saying that there are other problems with the Focus!

MajorMelchett.6042:

So at 20 points (or whatever) in fire you could select “improved flame axes” which would add an addition 25% damage and an addional 25% buring -Water “improved frost bow” this could add an addiotnal xyz heal per attack and a 33% chance to chill the target – Air “improved lightning hammer” (my fav i might add) could apply an addional 10% speed and a 5% increase in attack speed – and Earth “improved earth sheild” could add an extra 50% toughness.

I like your idea MajorMelchett, but I wouldn’t make a different trait for each Conjured Weapon. Otherwise we would end up with 5 different traits that are all only useful for one skill each. Maybe a weaker version of yours in the Arcane Tree that combines all or some of the effects in one? (I like more general traits more, rather than traits that are specific to one skill)

I just read the latest update notes and I noticed the following change to some Guardian Traits:
“•Defender’s Shield and Honorable Shield: Merged together into the same trait. •New trait Glacial Heart.”
That change gave the guardian two useful traits (the merged one and the new one), instead of two mediocre ones before the update.

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I think the Elementalist has a lot of traits that could be changed in a similiar way!
So my idea in short: Merging two weak Traits into an interesting + a new one.

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Some examples for traits that could be combined:
1) Icy Mist & Soothing Wave: Both are weak in the state that they are now, because they are limited to a few skills and there are better Water Traits. But they would work great combined and there would be also space for a new trait.

2) Vigorous Scepter & Windborne Dagger: Combining them wouldn’t make them overpowered, but makes the trait more interesting and frees up a slot for a new trait.

3) Salt Stone & Serrated Stones: They have some good synergy, but are really weak in my opinion, so they’re not worth taking alone, but one would consider using them, if they were just one trait.

4) Obsidian Focus & Zephy’s Focus: Both are triggered whil channeling a skill, but both are a little weak on their own. -> combining might make them more interesting.

5) Ember’s Might & Burning Precision: They would work good together in one trait. + possibility for a new trait.

6) Lingering Elements & Elemental Attunement: The first one is (nearly) useless, so it could either be removed completely, or merged with the second one.

7) All those “… spells recharge 20% faster” and “… deals 10% more damage” traits could each be combined with some other trait or added another effect. Other professions have better “20% recharge”-traits, for example the mesmer ones Warden’s Feedback: “Focus skills reflect projectiles. Reduces recharge of focus skills by 20%.” or Malicious Sorcery: " +50 malice when wielding a scepter. Reduces recharge of scepter skills by 20%."
I think those “20% recharge” and “10% damage” traits are the main reason why it looks like the elementalist didn’t get much love when the traits were chosen, because they are very uncreative, just numbers.

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A few ideas for new traits:
1) A trait that makes conjured weapons more interesting. Maybe “Deal 20% more damage while wielding a conjured weapon.”
or “Grants a boon associated with your Conjured Weapon when you cast a Conjured Weapon.”
or “Chance to cause a condition based on Conjured Weapon when you attack.” or something totally different.
There’s currently only one Trait that affects conjured Weapons and I think that’s not enough.

2) A trait that encourages using a Focus as an Offhand-Item. At the moment everyone uses Dagger on Offhand, but a good (creative) trait might change that. Maybe something like the mentioned Mesmer Trait equivalent, i.e. not just a trait that makes focus skills recharge faster, but with something else added.

3) Maybe a trait that makes summoned creatures (Elementals, Asuran Golems, …) stronger and/or last longer? (Or: “You get +90 power/precision/toughness/healing power while you have a summoned elemental, depends on elemental type”)

4) An arcane trait, that adds the Combo Field or Combo Finisher attribute to some Elementalist Skills, for example: Meteor Shower -> Blast Finisher, Unsteady Ground -> Combo Field, Shatterstone -> Blast, Updraft -> Blast, Swirling Winds -> Whirl, … But it needs to affect quite a lot skills, or it would be useless.

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Now I would like to hear your opinion on the topic. Do you think it is a good idea to merge weak traits in order to have a more interesting one and free space for a new one?
My suggestions for new traits aren’t the best. Do you have some more creative ideas? Or some more examples of traits that could be merged?