Guild Wars 2

TimIsOnTheInternet.5946:

It did say “with a focus on support builds,” not exclusively. I remain cautiously optimistic.

I hope they’ll support focus builds as well.

Arena Net is now in the bargaining phase with Elementalists.

1. First they Denied there was a problem at all with Elementalists and it was normal for everyone to play the same spec. They said D/D was balanced and they were just waiting to see if the meta would adjust. For a long time they never nerfed anything even as people raged loudly about the Elementalist class being too strong.

2. Then they got Angry with the Elementalists always playing the same spec and decided to nerf everything. They nerfed the healing efficiency in SPVP as well as gutted our mobility with Ride the Lightning and took out all the stun removers out of Cantrips. Damage got lowered, boon generation got nerfed and on a whole we ended up in the sad state we are in now.

3. Now they are Bargaining with Elementalists to try to get them to play less used specs. They buffed the Earth line hoping it’d inspire some kind of condition/signet play. They now buffing Conjures hoping it’ll get people to spec out of Cantrips/Arcane abilities. They’re trying to nudge staff to get people to use it instead of S/D or D/D.

4. Next we will see a long bout of Depression in regards to the Elementalists and we’ll largely be ignored. We’ll still be nerfed and inferior to other classes in every role because jack of all trades and master of none is easily replaced by rolling 3 alts and being the master of all (or just make a warrior). Their changes won’t inspire anyone to change out of the existing x/x/x/20/20 cantrip meta and they won’t know what to do.

5. Finally years down the line there will be Acceptance that the Elementalist class design is bad at it’s core because it’s the very core of the Elementalist that encourages the very problem they were trying to fix of getting people to play different builds/strategies. They will overhaul the class and people will dust off their Elementalists that they long gave up on.

Yep the class in need of some serious love. Personally the first change should be giving each attunement a 25%-50% increase in certain stats while you are in that Attunement:

Fire: Power + (need option)
Air: Crit Damage + Precision
Water: Healing Power + Boon Duration
Earth: Toughness + Condition Damage

This would then combine with Lingering Elements and actually make it USEFUL, currently its pathetic. So when swapping attunemements you would the 5point trait bonus for 5 seconds (including Earth and Air) as well as keeping the stat increase for 5 seconds.

This alone in my opinion would go ALONG way to helping Ele, currently the attunement swapping is FORCED on us as you cant do much just staying in one attunement.

With the added stats it would improve ALL the attunements as well. Then of course you would have to fix the other traits. I would turn all the Aura’s Give X boon into one trait in Arcane that makes it so that Auras give Protection, Fury and Swiftness this would free up 2 Traits in Earth and Air for something better as well.