Guild Wars 2

Yeah i am finding Water auto attack just fine for getting a few stacks of Vul on them. Lasts like 8+ seconds per a hit anyway so that is plenty of time.

Tim.6450:

So wait you would make the return of conditions,which is mostly unique to the necro, a boon???? What kind of ridiculous request is that!?!?!?!? It’s like making retaliation reflect all damage back to the use while taking none your self. Think of the OPness of that kind of skill.

Also as long auto attacks exist so will spamming, this applies for power as well condition damage.

It would be a boon with a reasonable say 5 second duration that couldn’t be spammed or anything. It would mean that these Condition users most of whom are clueless button bashers that have no idea how to actually play but are just living off the power of conditions would be punished for what they do – spam, spam, spam.

It takes next to NO skill to press a few buttons and get 5-8+ conditions on a target and then proceed to auto attack that person while they are trying to remove said conditions which then gives them new conditions.

Conditions SHOULD be about using them at the RIGHT time to great effect, not spamming them until the person you are fighting dies because they can’t out cleanse all the conditions that you spam them with.

Flumek.9043:

Anything with perplexity runes.
Even without the brokenly OP runes, many condi builds are too strong 1v1 with their condition spam, while being tanky. They dont have escapes for 1v3+ like above builds, but they have such condiburst, that in 1v2 , they kill 1 person before they even got to 50% , heal, and its 1v1 with 70% hp. easy to win as a conditank.

I actually disagree with this. It isn’t the Rune set that is the problem, it is the insaly easy low cool down access some classes have to CC – Thief, Warrior and Engineer are top of that insanely broken access to CC that makes the rune set seem MUCH stronger than it is.

2 of these classes have great access to Confusion already, Warrior needs trait but its big stacks and without an ICD that procs a 4stack 8 second duration Confusion and Engineer with several ways to get easy application of Confusion on low cool downs.

If these were fixed, then the rune set would seem a lot more balanced. It is only really broken to certain classes – those that have WAY to much access to Confusion and/or spammable CC even with the 7second ICD all the above can easily trigger it every 7 seconds…

Aerathnor.8305:

Sylvari immob utility skill isn’t terrible. Not an elite skill but I still like having it on classes that could really do with a decent duration immob (s/d ele comes to mind)

I’m not saying ALL of them are terrible. Some are pretty decent but then you have others that are simply brokenly underpowered to the point they are wasted in the game because no one uses them.

Kravick.4906:

Spite only applies two bleeds and a poison for damage. People calling out Signet of Spite as OP don’t realize just how little damage it actually does. The biggest advantage Spite has is its one of the longest applications of cripple in the game. Other than that, Spite is only good for covering bleed stacks. This game already has enough condition removal. Heaven forbid necromancers actually have a way of being allowed to keep their damage conditions on a target for a change.

It is not the damaging ones that are the issue though, the damage can be insane with the right build. It is having SO many conditions on you that can easily cover the threatening ones (them being Bleeding, Poison and Cripple)

With the right build and plenty of condition damage you are looking at nearly 5k damage from Bleeding, 4.3k damage from Poison, Cripple, Vul(5) and Weakness for 17 seconds…

It can EASILY be an “i win” button.
Please They have Scepter which has Bleeding, Poison, Cripple and a skill that deals MORE damage per a condition. They have Vul and Chill on Focus that removes boons and deals more damage

One thing Necro doesn’t need top fear – condition removal. Because they simply out condition ALL condition removal in the game. It would take a build being SPECIFICALLY created to counter conditions to stand a chance and with that they would be pretty much no threat at all.

Brando.1374:

I agree with finding a way to get rid of the “free kill” SoS that many complain about. Only bad thing about that is if all those conditions are sent back to us(necro’s), we can use them to heal us lol.

as for the condi spam, Yes. many condi players are just so used to spam spam spam dumbfire iwin situation we are in. I actually like to prey on those players in duels because of what you mentioned…they just spam and dont use their conditions at the right time.

You can use them to heal but seeing as most will use that skill form the start of a fight, i think it would actually benefit the enemy having you be forced to use your heal from the start.

You could delay it and try fighting the person a bit but you would be experiencing what it is like to get that hit on you from the start of a fight, the big difference being you can clear all the conditions where as other classes would stand no chance as the necro would be pumping them with more conditions as well.

Brando.1374:

a Necro wont have to hard of a time since we have several ways to remove/xfer conditions.
Other condi classes will die off.

Used to stop the “free kill” button that is Signet of Spite would go a long way to making the class a lot more balanced to fight against. I have seen Necro melt people using that skill and then die to the same class the moment they don’t use it.

So if that sort of condition burst had a counter, as with most condition builds of the likes of Thief, Engineer, Warrior and Mesmer then maybe, just maybe it would go a way to ridding us of this condition spam, spam, spam and people might just start using these conditions at the right time to get better effect.

So i was thinking, retaliation is kind of used to counter direct long chain attacks but what if we had a new Boon that while active would send the conditions BACK to the person that sent them to you?

Some classes would need better access to it due to being much weaker against it but if they added a Boon that did this sort of thing, do you think it would go a way to countering the Condition spam that some condition classes use to kill people? Because it would be harder to spam someone to death with conditions if they are being sent back at you…

bobomb.5209:

You say that as if it is suggested that just because one race has them over another, the other race is at a disadvantage and the racial elites are ridiculously OP.

This would be true if done very poorly but what I, and others, were suggesting is for the racials to be made viable for everyday use. No one would be disadvantaged because these elites already have counters, and would simply be an actual contender with the elites of actual professions.

This. Just because asking for Racial skills to be a little better is NOT asking them to be insanely overpowered or anything. They should be solid choices outside of using class Elites, currently that is not the case because most of them are rather lacking – either in duration, power, defense or having an insanely unjustified cool down – HoB screams out – rather poor damage, pathetic burning and dies within 5-10seconds and if not doing anything lasts 30 seconds….On a 4minute cool down!? That is awful.

cheese.4739:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

cheese.4739:

Guys, Ash just wants D/D to get everything every other Ele weaponset has, rather than to learn its strengths and play by those. Don’t waste your breath explaining why the suggestions are silly and/or OP, because that part of your post will get ignored.

No, i would just like us top have something other than Fire field might stacking. Its easy enough to stack might. AT least give us different options

Okay, one more time:

1) You have other options: play with a team. This is always the case in PvP, and very regularly necessary in PvE and WvW. Get organised, learn each others’ fields, shout at Guardians when you end up with 5 stacks of retaliation instead of anything useful.

2) You have other options: take a utility. Lightning Hammer gives you a lightning field, the summoned Ice Elementals give you ice fields (though they’re admittedly kinda terrible).

3) You have other options: use a different weaponset. Staff has lots of fields for AoE support, but lacks the targeted damage that D/D gets – and has to either:
- invest in utilities or traits to get most of the finishers /for/ its fields
- rely on a team to finish in them (see point 1)
Different weapons are good at different things – if you don’t like how D/D plays, stop playing D/D? You really don’t seem to understand this bit.

4) You have other options: roll a different class. Try going Necro, with several combo fields but few finishers. Boom! You have the same problem as Staff Ele does – and Necromancers can’t even pump their traits and utilities into further blasts. Or roll Engi, with lots of short-duration fields and requiring utility investment to get at these fields or most finishers.

You have other options. Try them.

1) Being forced to play in a team isnt an OPTION, thats a requirement. As i said you shouldn’t be forced into a group setting just to make it so your class weapon type benefits from all your blasts outside of the easily obtained Might stacking. You can’t get 5 stacks of retaliation…its a duration increase not intensity.

2) Great, so waste a utility slot for a skill type (conjure) that is pretty much terrible outside of Fiery Greatsword. Yeah thats a great alternative. Oh wait, you lose 2 blast fields picking up a bundle. It would be better if we had CONTROL over the elemental best skills. That would make using Elementals ALOT more viable.

3) So its either forced into a group setting or switch to a weapon set that is TERRIBLE in small groups (2-3) or even solo. That isn’t that great a choice now is it. I love D/D, you are missing my point. for a Class that is meant to be in control of elements why is it that ONLY one weapon set actually has access to ANYTHING other than Fire Fields. ONLY staff has access to fields that really should be spread out over the weapons. It makes no sense.

4) I have 80 Mesmer, 80Necro and 80 Engineer. My ele even with all its issues is the most fun to play – does that mean we should ignore all the issues that it has because its fun? Of course not.

These other options either force you into either:

1) Group setting
2) Different weapon set
3) Different class

Yeah great choices for those of us that like to play D/D Ele and would just like more options to use with our many Blasts other than just Might stacking…

Its a shame that The trait doesnt proc for each hit of Arcane Power, seems bugged or something it stacks 5. Changed my build a bit gone back to 0/0/20/20/30 swapped the Vul trait out for Soothing Wave and then grabbedAquamancer’s Alacrity for bit of added survival with cool down reductions on Cone of Cold (8seconds), Frost Aura (32seconds) and Cleansing Wave (32seconds) and got the 5point trait for heal when entering Water. This has increased my Healing Power and Vitality a bit as well which is always nice.

In WvW when i have Corruption stats i am sitting at 1,665 Condition Damage (without Food or oil) and have 22,287 Health (Guard Buff) 1,673 Toughness as well. I should hit about 1,800-1900Condition damage when i finish upgrading my accessories to ascended. My toughness will also be increased to around 1850ish and i could hit about 22,500 health as well

cheese.4739:

Guys, Ash just wants D/D to get everything every other Ele weaponset has, rather than to learn its strengths and play by those. Don’t waste your breath explaining why the suggestions are silly and/or OP, because that part of your post will get ignored.

No, i would just like us top have something other than Fire field might stacking. Its easy enough to stack might. AT least give us different options

Look at all the fields the classes can make, i saw Rangers getting Fire Auras, Self healing through Water Fields and everything. Yet if a Ele wants ANY sort of that they are FORCED to go Staff.

It makes no sense that D/D gets only one field and yet has access to so many blasts. You would thinking a few more and changing a few skills to be finishers would bring MUCH more synergy between the attunements

Yeah but they can also use those finishers in more than one way, unlike D/D you have ONE thing you can do and that is Might stacking.

For me the trait works well but i use it in conjunction with Arcane skills. Arcane Brilliance, Arcane Shield and Arcane Power so in that sort of situation i think it works well, in a pure Signet build, i just dont think it is worth while.

Elemental Power is great and it can be used to gain condition outside of the attunement as well. Using it in Air will still proc the same condition in Fire and so on which is VERY helpful for adding more conditions

ens.9854:

Sorry meant in spvp*

Any class can run condi with perplexity -_-

Not every condition class does run with Perplexity though…

Necromancers and Mesmers won’t for example because the 6/6 is going to be wasted. Warrior could due to the trait that grants like 5 stacks on interrupt as it is. Engineers can as well due to the insane number of knockbacks they have access to plus the great access to confusion they have through Pistol and Tool Kit.

ens.9854:

Nobody even ATTEMPTS to run condi ele because any amount of cleansing renders them totally impotent.

Erm, i run a Condition D/D build thanks, don’t assume that no one runs it. I know others that run condition builds on Ele as well. We have the BEST access to the BEST damaging condition in the game – Burning. We just need a few tweaks here and there

I run with Torment sigil and Perplexity so that i have more damaging conditions that need to be removed. Burning ticks for 850+ and if i land Churning Earth that does over 1k per a tick on everyone that gets hit, plsu the 3-4k damage that it does up front.

All they really need to do is add Confusion to air and Torment to Water. D/D wise, Confusion could be attached to Ride The Lightening making it even deadlier if it lands and who ever is damaged by it gets say 5 stacks for 5-10 seconds.

Torment they could either add to the rather weak Auto attack or they could attach it to Cone of Cold and make it better seeing that it does decent damage and poor healing as it is.

ThiBash.5634:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Right, so D/D ele is ONLY allowed to be effective when its around others?

No, it means it’ll be even more effective when you’re playing in a group. Which is the focal point of this game, no matter how much you prefer playing solo. If you’re really that starved for combo fields though, there’s always the 2 elementals (and a handful of racial skills) that can make up for the loss.

And again, the skills aren’t amazing if you only look at the heals, but they’re quite ok when you add their other effects. Which was my original point.

So, all other classes can play solo as much as they want but ONE class has to play with others to make the most of the class….

Dahkeus.8243:

I’m actually pretty happy with where race elites are now.

If you make race elites worth using over normal elites in anything other than a handful of niche encounters, then you run into a total balance nightmare where players are subject to being at an unfair disadvantage because of a race choice they made before they were able to understand the full range of implications.

Again, i am not saying about making them insanely powerful. What i am saying is that they need to be buffed from the current state they are in. This alone would open up options for different builds and such.

It is not as if people pick a race for no reason at all as it it, some go for looks, others ALREADY go for the skills that the race has. It would just be nice if the racial skills were a little bit more powerful but rather than be balanced against Class elites – they are balanced against other racial skills and elites.

Otherwise – what is the point in having them if they are barely used?

Nyel.1843:

So if you’re Ele has got every damaging condition except poison, what “uptime” can you generate with your build / Sigil setup?

Maybe you can make an overview of your character using this and explain it a bit more detailed?

For me.

Burning is pretty much either Perma or until they cleanse in which case it can be back on them in seconds. Bleeding, 8 stacks (Churning Earth) can last for like 13 seconds of course it has to be timed right to get the best of it, using Earth #2 and then swapping Attunement gives another 4stacks of bleeding for like 10-13seconds

Confusion and Torment are harder to control due to them being from runes and Sigil but they both proc a very nice amount of times and have had Confusion stack to like 12 or something before which is great and deals like 1.6k – 2k damage per an action which is pretty solid

Kyon.9735:

Yamsandjams.3267:

11 confusion stacks for over 10 seconds… from an ele? Well, if they weren’t gonna nerf perplexity in the upcoming balance patch, they sure are now. XD

It’s 1 condition and eles don’t have lots of conditions to dish out so it should be pretty easy to cleanse. Not a lot of hard CC skills to interrupt the enemy either.

But yes, I agree. I think it needs a nerf OR buff mesmer confusion. I’ve always thought Confusion is one of the trademark conditions of a mesmer but seeing how a rune is better than the class itself is weird.

My Ele has access to: Burning, bleeding, Torment, Confusion, Cripple, Chill
Not a huge amount of access but decent and the damaging ones are Burning (about 850 per a tick) Bleeding (can hit over 1k ticks) and Confusion (can hit up to 2k ticks)

However that requires a specific Rune set and a Sigil to get access to them, without them my build would be no where near as strong.

Erm, Mesmer has insane access to Confusion. My old build was a Confusion build Sahhters = Confusion, Clone death = confusion, weapon = confusion

when built right Mesmer is GREAT at confusion. It is really only out done by Engineer and Warrior when it comes to confusion.

It will NOT be nerfed as they recently nerfed it, to the point a lot of people don’t use it any more. They have reasonable cool downs on the 4/6 and 6/6 that makes it MUCH more balanced – unless used on either Warrior, Mesmer or Engineer seeing as they already have insane access to confusion.

Well, that would be okay if Ele had an Elite for my kind of build – they don’t the closest would be FGS but even that is lacking in what i need. I run a condition build and as such i am pretty much forced into using Reaper of Grenth, it is pretty decent and works okay in group fights but it is rather lacking in smaller scale.

HoB could have been a good alternative but they simply die WAY to fast and have an INSANE cool down, seriously 4minutes!? They die within 5-10seconds it saying they stay up for 30seconds is silly because that only happens if you are fighting NOTHING.

I am not asking they be over powered and i am not asking that they make them so they are mandatory, all i am saying is they need a slight buff.a FOUR minute elite should not die within seconds to ONE mob, it makes having the thing in the game useless.

“From a balance standpoint every racial is fine " – Yeah because a 4minute Elite when the summoned creatures die within 10seconds to a single mob is perfectly “fine” lets not forget that it can’t be cast on the move either (no idea why)

Yamsandjams.3267:

11 confusion stacks for over 10 seconds… from an ele? Well, if they weren’t gonna nerf perplexity in the upcoming balance patch, they sure are now. XD

They won’t Perplexity has already been nerfed with its ICD on both 4/6 and 6/6. Despite doing that they didnt bother actually FIXING the bugged confusion duration that the rune is meant to give but doesnt.

Plus, i have seen MUCH higher stacking. I have seen Warrior and Engineer hitting the stack limit with them…

LightningBlaze.4913:

Hammer warriors are the easiest to beat if you are using a range weapon. An ele player that dies by a thief that spams heartseeker on 1v1 will pretty much get defeated by anything. Based on his negative gameplay and experience, he will consider the profession as trash and try to influence others. I’m tired of these type of amateur players.

Now, if only we could change weapon in combat…
As for Thief, that HS spam will likely come after doing insane damage from Backstab. Even with 1,700 Toughness i have still taken more than 12,000 damage in one hit. that being more than 70% of my health….

ThiBash.5634:

Yet you’re getting at least part of what you’re asking for, so don’t be ungrateful. Also, they have yet to share the final details. We do at least know the recharge will go down.

Minor changes that will have pretty much NO effect on combat…yeah we should be grateful, oh wait. The “Leaked” and “Fake” patch notes had some interesting changes. Sure everything still very minor the Projectile reflection on Tornado would have been nice, seeing as it doesnt buff out Toughness (which it should)

ThiBash.5634:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Except for D/D which has ONE type of field.

And many finishers, thus allowing them to gain a lot of benefits from other people’s fields. The game isn’t just 1v1 you know.

Water in D/D is rather poor you have to build and trait for Healing Power for the healing to be any good…

True, though the condition cleanse is decent at any level. And you can heal/damage with the breath attack. Oh, and there’s of course frost aura. And the auto attack has a logner range which can be useful at times.

Guess it’s only poor if you’re looking at the healing aspect of it.

Right, so D/D ele is ONLY allowed to be effective when its around others? Sorry but that is a terrible excuse. We should have access to more fields when outside of Staff. Is is that simple. No point in having so many Blast finishers if you are roaming or on your own because they can be used for nothing more than Might stacking, which is easily down anyway.

Wow, 1 condition removed on a 40second cool down. That is amazing. Cone of Cold is the same, without healing Power which means you have to make sacrifices unlike most other classes the healing is rather pointless. The damage it deals is okay, nothing amazing but decent but the heal is simply not strong enough without the access to Healing Power. Frost Aura (just like all Auras) are nothing great, they are all rather average as skills, thanks to ICD that make them rather weak and most have insane cool downs as well…

Auto Attack – Low damage, minor condition
Cone of Cold – decent damage, low healing
Frozen Burst – Decent
Frost Aura – Average aura, insane cool down
Cleansing Wave – Average Heal, 1 condition removed, Insane cool down

FrownyClown.8402:

Another thing about balancing the ele is it needs to stay in the "good at it all and master of none " category.

Currently it is “average at all, master of none”
Everything we can do – can be done quicker, easier and more effectively on other classes. Part of this problem is our defensive skills are nothing more than a joke. Insane cool downs, lower durations than other classes and in one we get locked out of EVERYTHING.

ThiBash.5634:

Lawful.5314:

Only problem is that all those stone skins, mist forms, ect have very lonw cooldown for something crucial, and with such low duration.

They’re adressing that in the upcoming balance patch. Just 2 more weeks of waiting.

Won’t be enough, like 15second reduction on a few very average defensive skills (compared to other classes) suddenly won’t make us more viable.

Mbelch.9028:

Ele is definitely far from “good” it’s great in WvW.

We have the ability to beat almost any other build out there. We struggle with P/D thieves and Terrormancer/Chillmancer necros. Two builds that counter us out of every build in the game isn’t bad in the scheme of things.

Right. We “struggle” with most classes and most builds. I have taken 12-16,000 damage from ONE attack while having more than 1,700Toughness. This being from ONE hit that if you dont see them before they stealth you simply will not be able to prevent it in 99% situations.

Just curious, as to what you do in WvW, i mean sure we are great at Staff Zerging – well until the Meteor and Tornado tactic is removed, Then what? At most i have been hit for like 3-4k when they are not in Tornado, add to that the red ring that is getting added means its going to be even less of a threat.

I would Put Warriors, Engineers and Mesmers up there as well as they have builds that can simply wreck ele. You have Warrior that has insane regen, insane mobility and CC heaven that can just Chain stun you to do, or until you use AoE then they have to wait a few seconds before they CC you to death. You have Engineers which 99.9% of them run conditions. Good luck beating them. Mesmers have insane damage, stealth, knockbacks and great conditions as well.

Are you assuming that everyone else is an uplevel in your idea that we are “great” in WvW? As much as we can beat others, we have a greater chance that we will be beaten. We have to play extremely well to beat even the worst players on some classes (Hammer Warrior, BS Thief, Condi Engi)

Nyel.1843:

Is the Asura skill necessary? As I wrote I thought about the Reaper as a Human. And it fits very well with the D/D playstyle as both are short range skills.

Personally, i would go with Reaper of Grenth. The Chill is VERY useful and the Poison is another condition that without Sigil of Doom we would have no access to. You can get Perplexity Runes for Confusion and both the 4/6 and the 6/6 proc plenty.

When you have 40%+ food it means that they will get like 4 and 1/2 seconds for each proc which happens every 3 seconds. So if you can stay melee on them they will have constant chill and Poison for 15seconds.

I use this in group fights, very effective when you are in big fights. Using it and then going right into the heart of there group, get some AoE burning going, and it can be deadly.

While Pain inverter is decent, i don’t think it offers enough to make it more useful than an Elite seeing as the class elite are all rather meh – Tornado has its uses from time to time but FGS is used more for mobility and that should really say it all.

Hounds of Balthazar is an interesting one, been giving it a try but yet to try it 1 Vs 1, against Veterans it dies FAST in like 5-10seconds which is just pathetic really. Though never going to happen, if it was given a buff (most racial elites need them!) then it could be a great option for 1 Vs 1 fights

Chris.4670:

-adding damage conditions like torment to water(ice-skills like frozen ground, frozen burst) and confusion to air for better damage output.

That would be a pretty cool idea. I think adding Torment to Water Auto attack, 1 stack, 5 second duration that gets inflicted on everyone it hits would be a decent non-overpowered change as it wouldnt even be that huge a a damage, Could then start having Water as the “kiting” sort of Attunement with Frozen Burst as well, 3 seconds of Chill, Glyph of Elemental Power for more chill and such it could really work. You would have to stay in Water for a while for the Torment to get to a point where its a huge threat. Or they could add it to Cone of Cold. 1 stack of Torment, 5 seconds on each tick

I really think Shocking Aura should proc some stacks of Confusion as well. Currently our Auras are rather lacking and with the ICD it makes them even worse. Say 5 stacks of Confusion for 5 seconds or something on hitting someone with Shocking Aura up. they could even add it to Ride The Lightening that all targets hit by it are inflicted with 5 stacks of Confusion for 5seconds make it even more damaging when you hit someone.

@Vodcom.

I actually really like Fire 4 in Dagger. It deals great damage and is great to placement in a position you know the enemy are going to be going. I think it would be better (if it doesnt already) to inflict the burning on those already in the AoE of it when it is used though.

I much prefer Dagger/Dagger as condition weapon. It has SO much access to the most damaging of conditions – Burning and Bleeding. It just needs a few tweaks here and there to the weapon to make it a truly viable option.

In my opinion this is what should happen to Dagger/Dagger:

1) Add Torment to Water – Either Auto attack and/or Cone of Cold
2) Add Confusion to Air – Ride the Lightening
3) Reduce the insane cast time of Churning Earth
4) Make Fire Grab 100% critical hit on targets With Burning
5) Improve Auras so they are a more viable form of defence

6) Improve Auto attacks
6.1) Fire – Deals More damage to burning targets
6.2) Water – Inflicts 1 stack of Torment, 5seconds
6.3) Air – Fine, maybe up the damage a tad
6.4) Earth – Redesign, so that it hits Multiple targets

7) Magnetic Grasp – It should pull your target to you.
8) Earthquake – Reduce the cool down
9) Fire Grab – Reduce the Cool down
10) Fire Grab – Reduce the cool down
11) Frost Aura – Reduce the cool down
12) Cleansing Wave – Reduce the cool down
13) Updraft – Reduce the cool down

As i stated, i think Dagger/Dagger is the better option for Conditions. Removing the Bleeding from Earth Auto attack would be a bad move, it needs the skill to be changed so that it hits multiple targets, the duration of the bleed would have to be reduced to compensate though.

@Yamsandjams – I agree, some of them the Norn racials pretty much just need tweaks to animations. Others HoB, RoG and such i just think needs a little tweak and buff just to make it so they are a viable option. When you have an Elite that just dies to Level mobs in mere seconds, it shows that it is simply to weak.

style.6173:

It is not really a problem with the ele class. I’ve seen eles that are as good as any class. The problem is that the skill cap is so high. An average player using xxx class can beat an average ele.

No. Its the fact most of the skills are nothing more than average with insane cool downs. Just look at Utilities. Mist Form and Armor of Earth for example. Insane cool downs, lower duration than other skills and one even locks us out of EVERYTHING while we still die thanks to all the conditions we have been given and can’t get rid of as our condition removal unless specifically built for it is terrible and when like that we will die to direct damage builds and wont have the damage to be a threat to anyone, bar maybe uplevel people.

style.6173:

@OP: Ele is already good in WvW and PvE. In WvW it is one of the three most important classes actually.

It is in PvP where the class is weak.

…If Staff support is your cup of tea maybe.
Other weapons? Nah. They are all low damage, low support.
What if you get focused? Well you are going to die.

Ele is FAR from “Good” in WvW. PvE, does it really matter? unless doing high level fractuals then the class and the build mean nothing because its so easy.

If they are running Hammer…and trust me most of them do You will just be stunned every 10 seconds at the very least until you are dead. Armor of Earth is pretty much all we have to counter that and even that doesnt last very long

Then in that case, Ele needs HUGE buff on Elites. It says a lot that more people use FGS not for how powerful it is but for the mobility it offers. My build has NO class elite that is useful on Ele either.

The racial Elites are fine (design wise) they are a tad underpowered for what they offer

Take Hounds of Balthazar for example.

At Level 80: 10,000Health and 2,000Armor i think
That alone is rather poor meaning they can be 1 shot. I tested it against a Veteran and they died in about 5-10seconds.

The Basic attack deals less than my Ele auto attack does which is bad, the Burning is a mere 1 second as well, really think it could be buffed a little. Fiery Leap isnt to bad, unknown the cool down on it though.

For a 240 second. That is FOUR minute cool down. It is simply very poor. It simply is NOT worth a 4minute cool down. Think they should get buffed by say 25% of the players stats when it comes to Health, Armor, Power and such.

Of course all races would have Elites as strong as each other, Unless you know EXACTLY what build you would be playing and knowing EXACTLY which elite you would want. I mean i know Ele that use Norn elites, i know Ele that use Human elites. It all depends on the build and the way you like to play.

It wouldnt be: “Oh, you’re X class you should have gone with Y race”
It would be: “Oh you’re X class. Y race have solid race Elites but so does Z race”

It would be about just having that different option when it comes to the Elites

They could be really solid and open up new options for builds but currently they are a bit TOO weak, sure i don’t expect or demand they be better than class elites but they could be improved a bit.

Now i understand that they don’t want Race Elites to be as strong as Class elites but i think they could do with being buffed a bit. This alone could open up options for different Builds and such with some of them just being increased a bit and/or having cool downs slightly toned down.

Sure this wouldn’t affect S/TPvP but ti think it would give us more options when it comes to WvW and PvE. I barely use my class elites because for my build – they are rather weak. So it would be nice if Race Elites were improved a bit.

What do you guys think?
What Race Elites would you like buffed and how?

Cantrips:

Amor of Earth: Decrease cool down to 75 Seconds. Make it it increase Toughness by 50% For the 6 second duration

Mist form: Duration increased to 4 seconds. Immunity to conditions for duration. No longer locked out of weapon, heal, utility and Elite skills.

Cleansing Fire: Cool down decreased to 20 seconds, Cure 3 conditions, Cure 2 conditions per every target that gets inflicted with Burning.

Lightening Flash: Decrease cool down to 35seconds, Increase range to 1,200

Conjures: Remove the Usage Limit. Pretty much that.

Signets:

Signet of Fire: Passive: Grant yourself Fury(3seconds) every time you Burn a target(1second ICD) Active Burn(9 seconds) your Target and grant yourself 6 stacks of Might

Signet of Water: Passive: Convert a condition into a Boon every 10seconds, Active: Turn all conditions into Boons for the duration of the condition (increased by Boon duration) – 90second cool down.

Signet of Air: Passive: Grant your self Quickness(1second) on a Critical hit, 5second ICD. Active: Grant yourself 5seconds of Quickness, -25% Movement speed

Signet of Earth: Passive Increase Toughness and Gain Protection(4) when you get hit with a critical strike, 10 second ICD. Active: Become immune to damage for 3 seconds.

Arcane:

Arcane Wave – Fine the way it is.
Arcane Power Fine The Way it is.
Arcane Blast – Decrease to 15second Cool down
Arcane Shield – Decrease to 60second cool down. Immune to direct damage for 4 seconds.

Something else that needs to be fixed for Dagger/Dagger, Auto attacks. They are all rather weak damage wise.

Fire – Needs each Flame spike or what ever it is to do at least 50% more damage. Nearly 1,500 Power i know not amazing but still doing 603 damage IF ALL 3 projectiles hit the target is simply pathetic.

Water – Not meant to be a huge hitter, could at least add healing to it or something and increase the Vul stacks to say 3 stacks, 3 seconds or something

Air – Pretty solid, could be a tad bit more powerful though normally getting about the same sort of damage as Fire auto (assuming all 3 hit) which isnt amazing but not the worst

Earth – The Damage isn’t the point to this skill My suggestion, Decrease the duration and increase the Bleeding stacks, 3 stacks for 4 seconds would be a great change. Though i would also like to see the animation and the skill itself changed. To something like the others that can hit multiple targets and increase the range as well to at least 400-500

ATMAvatar.5749:

You may want to take a look at the combo fields wiki page. Combos are extremely important for elementalists.

Except for D/D which has ONE type of field.
Water in D/D is rather poor you have to build and trait for Healing Power for the healing to be any good…

Then you take healing Power and you lose out on other key stats….

LightningBlaze.4913:

kite and burst is all you need.

Kite? what if they are running Greatsword? or Longbow?
Burst? what if they are using HS and/or Damage immunity?

Good luck kitting a class that has better mobility than us.
Good luck kitting a class that has better defence than us

they shouldn’t just be Gemstore items, that would be the wrong (but mostly likely route they would go) they should add them as craftable skins.

I think it would be cool if we got class specific Armour and weapon skins as well as Legendaries. This would then make it so everyone is more unique and have skins that actually GOOD for classes.

For example, Legendary weapons that actually change ALL appearances of skills. The effects would be the same and such but they would be differing colours and everything. Like a Ele dagger that changes the colour of Air skills and such and has Attunement aura around the player and such.

Being an Ele pretty much none of the skins in the game really suit us, the Legendary dagger would be cool if its effect changed with the attunement so in Fire it would be its normal colour and effect but go to Air and it changes, go to Water and it changes again and go to Earth and it changes to something else, all unique and cool.

RedSpectrum.1975:

To compensate, a thief’s skills are not as powerful(by themselves)as other class skills.

12-16k Damage in one hit begs to differ.
Initiative was a failed experiment. However – this is Anet and we all know that they REFUSE to accept taking blame when they have done something SO stupid or SO broken and would rather just force EVERYONE to live with it.

Dhuumfire is an example before its release Necromancers were ALL saying that they didnt need or want it and what do you know…It was too powerful so rather than say “kitten we made a mistake, sorry” they just went ahead and kept nerfing it and everything else they could get there hands on….

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEEQJAoYnMISPDWzAGOA/aIAIFaZoQkPEFso8gmZqB-zEDBIOg4OA0CAkHgZSFRjtsuIasKZoKIYKTRW7CRFDwdQamUARMNC-w

This is my build. I made tweaks to it to increase Critical Damage and Power to try and counter the classes that have great condition removal or immunity.

I swap out Corruption for Sigil of Torment as well, even with Geomancy it procs quite alot which is nice, another condition that hides my damaging ones – Burning, Bleeding, Confusion

Over the OPs build it has:

+ 298 Power, + 249 Attack Power
- 282 Precision, – 13% Critical Chance
- 419 Toughness, 426 Armor
+ 245 Vitality, + 2,450Health
- 202Condition Damage, -40% Condition Duration
- 119 Healing Power
+ 23% Critical Damage

stats wise, Precision loss isnt that big a deal, i have ONE trait and even that is a minor trait that has anything to do with on crit hits so its no that big a a deal. Plus you get 2+ seconds of Fury when attunement switching which bring it up quite a bit as well.

The Toughness loss isnt that big either, even when i had 1700+ i was still getting hit for like 12-16k Backstabs so it doesnt bother me, plus the health increase is a nice little bit of help as well.

I think the condition damage and duration loss (not using condi food) is dented by the fact i have quite high (for a condi build) Crit damage and the power i have helps to counter the minor loss in condition damage.

Traits wise:

+ Bolt to The Heart
- Written In stone
+ Windborne Dagger
+ Elemental Surge
- Evasive Arcana

Written in stone is a decent trait, but other than the Signet heal, it is wasted as most of them have rather weak actives and the Passives are rather meh anyway. I do some times miss Evasive Arcana but Elemental Surge works really well seeing as the skills i take.

I swap Armor of Earth out some times for something else. I mostly rely on Arcane Shield which when in Air procs a nice Blind on the target as well.

Condition Ele, I run it myself. It is a lot of fun but does have some serious weaknesses that require certain traits, sigils and gear to counter – such as our lack of conditions requires certain runes and sigils to be able to effectively cover the damaging conditions we have which other condition based classes have no fear about. Gear as well as we are forced into Toughness/Vitality to again counter the issues the class as a whole as this, this limits what gear stats we can go for as well. It could do with some tweaks and buffs to certain condition based traits as well.