Guild Wars 2

I agree with the idea of an elite spec that take lich as a base. I also agree to the whole lich form disappearing from this game. It’s a badly designed skill that’s only usefull for gimmick.

First thing first, they should rethink their concept of the “lich”. Lich form is… well… an ugly giant mess. A lich is a ruler amongst undead! A lich fight through it’s minions and darl spells. A lich is the ultimate support for minions!

In a lich E-Spec, we should see the rise of a character that gain strenght the more minions he control. So as a special mechanism (additionnal to a slightly weak base shroud) I think we the lich should generate a minion (jagged horror without the bleed) every time it gain 25% (20% traited) Life force. With a minion cap, for this ability, at 5 (possibly increased while traited).

The shroud should focus on weakness because mortal shrink in front of the aura of a lich.
Shrd#1 : a range attack that splash!
Shrd#2 : The lich summon a worm on it’s target stunning the target. Then the lich can chose to explode the minion into a poisonous shroud.
Shrd#3 : The lich gaze at it’s foe inflicting fear and paralysis for 3 seconds.
Shrd#4 : The lich drain LF around it inflicting weakness with each tic.
Shrd#5 : The lich summon a coccon that slowly grow until it explode, knockbacking all foes and leaving a poison field that weakened and poison foes. Blast finisher.

Utilities should be Order (of course!). These utilities work like upkeep skills except that they are mutually exclusive (work like attunment on elementalist) and mainly support minions. The necromancer can gain LF while under the effect of an order. Initial cost only affect initial effect.

Heal : Order of blood : Consume 20% LF then 1% every seconds. You and your minions gain (roughly) 300 health/% of life force consumed.

Utility :
Order of wrath : Consume 10% LF then 3% every seconds. Your minions gain up to 10 might stack and benefit from your critical strick chance.
Order of the corruptor : Consume 10% LF then 3% every seconds. Your minions drain up to 2 condition each and inflict poison upon hitting a foe.
Order of the dam*ed : Consume 10% LF then 3% every seconds. Your minions gain protection for up to 5 seconds and retaliation for 1 second every second.

Elite : Order of the vampire : Consume 10% LF then 3% every seconds. You siphon life around you upon activating this skill. Your minion siphon life.

Weapon? A lich need no weapon! (Which mean that I’m to lazy to think about one that would fit)

Traits should take advantage of the minions, strenghtening the lich the more minion it control. It should be pretty easy to come up with a lines that focus on survivability (weakness/minion number), damage (Poison/shroud) and support (Order)

juno.1840:

So rumor has it that our next Elite spec allows a 1H sword.

Wouldn’t it be sweet if it was a melee based elite spec which also granted heavy armor usage!

Game play feel would be like E/As from GW1, but with front line survivability (from traits and heavy armor).

I’m sorry but the heavy armor won’t give the elementalist any more survivability. Armor are mainly skins in this game nothing more nothing less. But maybe you wanna play optimus prim as an elementalist with the legendary heavy armor.

Traits that take advantage of all the safe harm we do to ourself.

The shroud and the torch have little to no chance to grant us something original so I’m betting everything on the traits and on an hypothetical additionnal mechanism.

Oh come! You said it’s not lord fifth?

But, a parrot that verbally harass player and scr** pets with feather and fur… Is there really another one of this kind?

I find it amazing that Anet still keep skill/traits that have both ICD and chance to trigger. Should we expect that something that have 75% chance to trigger on a 10 second ICD have the value of something that have 100% to trigger on a 12.5 second CD?

Can’t help but laugh at these kind of things… Logically they should put one of the restriction, both is ridiculous.

I bet next patch take root will be bestowed a 180 second cool down now…

what does anet wanna necor stand for?

answer : meatshield

We are “fairing quite well”

Obviously! As a meatshield we can distract the opponents for a short moment which is supposed to give our team the time to do their work. Necro being focus as soon as he join the fight is in fact the apotheosis of it’s niche as a tank.

and what tweak u guys thinking anet maby has chance do it?

Change Signet of undeath passive into “Gain life force when struck by a foe. ICD 1 second LF gain 2%”
Should be a pretty balanced change with a not so overwhelming buff on a signet that almost nobody use. And Yeah I know that it look like spectral walk.

Change Plague into : “Poison and weaken foes that struck you (no ICD and no transformation. Not disabled while entering in shroud). Take 50% less damage from poisoned foes. Stun break and keep stability pulse as it is.”
A kind of Retaliation that use conditions to hurt the ennemy! How something like that could not fit the necromancer?

After many years, ranger pets have learned how to remember their own names, and you’ll no longer be required to rename a pet when you switch them out! In addition to some baseline improvements, our goal has been to improve base pet abilities during this update. With that said, there are definitely more pet changes that we’re looking forward to implementing in the future.

Quote from previous balance patch 26 july 2016.

Yeah at this pace, maybe in 20 years…

Well, I didn’t go throught everything.

The idea itself is pretty good, I like it, however, I’d say one thing : melee pet is a bad idea. Our wide experience with ranger allows us to say that your pets won’t properly hit their target 90% of the time.

Also, traits have a greater impact on any elite spec than the weapon, You did a great job imagining all those skills but in the end either the weapon is something that specifically support the mechanism (staff on druid and it seem that it’s also the case for your conjurer) or it’s a filler weapon that’s here to support the idea of the spec without any impact on the spec itself (all other E-spec). In the end the weapon are not really important or a least they are a lot less important than the traits.

Mine after reading the patch not :

“Wut! They already gave up on the pets change?!”

Core pets still need tons of change to be usefull and the impact of the real needed change (looking at the god d*mn utilities skill of the pet) should hardly have a real impact on balance while giving tremendous QoL to the ranger. The changes on this patch note were obviously directed at the PvP complain, I hope that next patch they will be directed at the general profession issue.

Lich form was/is a horrible skill… What they changed is just a bad patch to an issue that they had overlooked, however it seem they intend to keep the issues that they intend (like horrible skin/ bad design of transform skills… etc.)

The one to Rule.2593:

I’ll get the shovels…

No need, we’ve got GS and the ability to dig grave…

A warrior with lord fifth?

You absolutely need to change the new utilities to lord Third!

I agree that it have to go but I don’t agree to the fact that it become baseline. In fact they just need to change the degeneration decrease by something else. For exemple (and in order to stay in the very limited necromancer design) they could make this trait grant 10% damage reduction to you and surrounding allies.

Amazons have a deeper connection with the wild than rangers. Using special concoctions, they can expand their minds and bodies to become one with their pets, shapeshifting into different primal animal forms at will, enhancing their senses and unlocking new abilities.

Another shroud on ranger… Druid was a very bad idea, Amazon is the same. Fighting in a transform state is horrendous, please no more of that on the ranger, there is little to no interrest in having another transformation on the ranger. (That is not even talking about the fact that there is a lot of pets which basically mean tons of transforms. The fact that they seem to intends to release more new pets with new content block this idea even more.)

BUT while i like your general idea, i didn’t like paragons back in GW1

Really? The profession was OP, I loved it. It’s just sad that it was mostly a filler profession that couldn’t replace the tank, had average dps and couldn’t replace the monk. But as a support character it eased a lot the fights. I think that more than GW1 it’s design fit a lot more in GW2.

Why do we need to get some GW1 nobody as the legend? No GW1 ritualist was important enough anyway.

I agree with you that no ritualist in GW1 was important enough to leave a mark in the mist. However, Razah is defined as someone/something born from the mist which make it the most fitting candidate for an E-Spec of a profession like the revenant that is related to the use of the powers that dwell in the mist.

I’d say that at the moment the elementalist is struggling.

I understand your choice of GW1 spell but the reality is that GW2 is done in such a way that most of them are replaced by the condition : confusion.

What I’d want to see (on the necromancer) would be mostly “orders” and for fun the ranger’s spell frost soil (which could be a killer move in pvp environment)

Honestly, I like your Idea xXLuggXx, however, I’m not sure Ritualist or Razah fit it. Also, I fear that your E-spec is a bit to tied to the legend making it the must use 2nd choice and leaving as only choice Razah/X.

A tiny bit above in the thread, I was playing with the idea of the paragon through an E-Spec named Cantor. At the begining when thinking about this spec I wanted to make use of the second legend like you do since there is a kind of duality in the mursaat.

Paragon-like E-Spec :

Name : Cantor

Archetype : Revenant/warrior

Mechanism : A burst skill per legend and an adrenaline bar that fill from spending energy but doesn’t fill from upkeep. (this is mainly to promote other skills than upkeep skills). Each burst skill should feel like a shout and doesn’t necessarily need to be a damaging skill.

Legend : Legendary cantor <add a mursaat name>
heal : leader comfort : Heal you for X, you gain Y additionnal per ally around you
Utility :
- “They are on fire!” : Party members in earshot take 33% less damage from Burning foes. stun break.
- Burning refrain : The next attack of allies within earshot will inflict 1 burn. (short CD)
- Blazing spear : Inflict damage and x burning stack to the targeted foe.
Elite : Anthem of flame : upkeep skill (7). Inflict burn (2s) to enemies around you every 3 seconds.

Weapon : whatever

Explanation : The mursaats have a natural affinity with fire but above everything they are master at leading peoples in their scheme. With their godly lip service they ended tricking the forgotten, leading the white mantle and being revered as gods by the charrs.

As you can see I’m inspiring myself from the warrior for the mechanism like you do for yours. As it is, there is no duality in the spec but I wanted to express it through the traits, giving different effect that depend of your secondary legend while using an utility skill.

Yeah I find Mursaat fascinating… They are villain (even if Anet try to make them amend themself) and yet they act in such a way that people follow them like god’s paragon. I think they would be a great choice in an E-spec in which the secondary legend permeat/corrupt the primary’s.

Guardian has enough luck to get rid of the clunckyness of the tome while other professions are still plagued by transformation elite skill and yet there are people who complain… Sad… truly sad.

The change to tome were a gain for the guardians not a loss. “feel my wrath!” who succeed to tome of wrath is one of the best shout in the game and is always usefull. Signet of courage is a bit of a let down due to it’s awfully long cool down but, it does exactly the same job as the tome before.

@XxluggxX : Thank you for the compliment
To be honest, I’d like to see your own take at the revenant legend with Razah, your mechanism felt pretty interresting and i’d be curious to see how it would work as a whole. Just one thing, one of the characteristic of the legend’s skill is that they are not “categorized”, which is why I do not call them glyph.

For me the revenant (core) is like an water poured on coffee without filter while the medium E-Spec is supposed to use Razah as the filter. It end up with razah being the only legend that you can use but since you filter each core legend with it’s skills you gain diversity. The cons will be the cool down management while the pro should be more instantaneous diversity.

Ultimately, my idea is more a way to make the core legend more enjoyable to use (for me) than anything. (Yes this is really selfish, but I really want to be able to use the potential of each legend in a different way than the actual one. For exemple, I allow me to get rid of the clunckyness of ventarii’s stone.)

anduriell.6280:

Who in their sane mind would go to HoT with a carrion devourer as pets.. WHO!!!!

I’d do it… to be honest I have done it… the carrion devourer is one of my favourit pet… Sorry…

Phyrak.7260:

My hopes are for that of a shape shifter style elite spec

Using scepter as weapon

F5 to shift – F1 to switch between 2 forms
1-5 change to suit beast and gain traits from normal traits

Boons and such are now just doubled up onto the player character

Anyhow, they’re my hopes

No more “shroud” like skill on ranger please. We’ve got Druid, it’s beyond clunky and let’s just say that i’m already fed up of this transformation thingy. So no! no shapeshifter ever again on ranger!

Ayrilana.1396:

Xillllix.3485:

If it makes you feel any better, the gameplay was much more balanced and fun 2 years ago. When they changed the trait system and released HoT they destroyed build variety.

You just came a little late to the party.

The number of potential builds were reduced with the new trait system (simply because of a lack of potential combinations) but there have always been meta builds that players shifted to.

Exactly Ayrilana, Meta build really start to appear 3 month after the release of the game. It took a bit more time for players to rely heavily on them but the issue didn’t came from the specialization system.

Well after reading your post I can say that your title is wrong. It’s not the game that’s disgusting, it’s the player mentality when it come to group content. What disgust you is the fact that players desperatly seek efficiency through known build. The game itself does not force you to follow this trend.

Players are at the center of most of the great issues of the game. Things like meta build hurt group content, thing like “want to win no matter what” kill WvW because player stacks on winning server and leave losing server… etc. It’s always the competitive mentality of the player that hurt your experience, not the game itself.

I’m not saying that the community is bad but the community is responsible for a lot of issue that hurt the gameplay experience of most of the player. There are even player that complain about issue that they seek for (WvW queue).

Go for the easiest legendary that fit your build and add a skin that fit your taste. Most legendary effect are not worth the pain of having a weapon that look like a giant candy or a disco ball.

While I like the idea, There is a few trait that are against your mechanism. A short while ago, I had post :

Shroud : You use your life force to create a shroud beast that you controle through a specific set of shroud skills. Trade off, the necromancer being out of the shroud it’s life is not protected by the life force. Strenght, no LF degeneration while using the shroud.

Shrd #1 : a weak AA
Shrd #2 : command the shroud beast to leap/port to the ennemy/targeted area
Shrd #3 : command the shroud beast to perform a terrifying howl
Shrd #4 : command the shroud beast to draw the condition of surrounding allies in a channeled manner
Shrd #5 : transfer damage dealt to the necromancer to the shroud beast.

Utilities : Glyph.
Out of shroud attunment : affect selfishly the necromancer.
In shroud attunment : lesser effect that affect allies and use the shroud beast as it’s center.

Glyph of the undying :
Out of shroud : Reduce damage taken by 100% for x seconds
In shroud : Your shroud beast enter into the earth, creating an area in which allies gain a buff that have a chance to reduce the next damage taken by 33%-50%. ICD 3- 4 seconds. (Something like the passive effect of ranger’s spirits)

Glyph of the corrupted :
Out of shroud : For x seconds your attacks have a chance to transfer one of your condition onto your foe. ICD 3 seconds.
In shroud : Your shroud beast enter into the earth, creating an area in which allies gain a buff that have a chance to allow them to corrupt a boon on their foe. ICD 10 seconds.

Healing skill :
Glyph of the vampire :
Out of shroud : Heal yourself for X. Your next 5 successfull attack grant you X% life force.
In shroud : Your shroud beast enter into the earth, creating an area in which allies gain a buff that have a chance to allow them to siphon life. (Same value and ICD than sigil of blood)

Peculiarity : While in shroud form the necromancer can’t swith weapon but have access to all utility skills (Transformation elite skills kick you out of shroud)

Which is somewhat similar to your idea while still keeping the shroud mechanism along with the “summon”.

For an E-Spec with dagger main hand, I’d expect an E-spec that focus on mobility/stealth. This is just a personnal taste but it would end up with something like that :

Name : stalker

Archetype : Ranger/Thief

Mechanism : Ranger and pet enter stealth when the ranger use a movment skill.

Weapon : Dagger MH with 1 movement skill (#2] and 1 stealth skill (#3)

Skill : Probably tricks because it’s easy to add skills that look like trap/shout/survival skills in tricks.

How it would work : Almost all ranger weapon have a movment skill or a stealth skill, making something like this valuable. First minor trait would add stealth on use of a movment skill. Second minor trait would grant blur to pet when they gain stealth and 3rd minor trait would give stat increase when under the reveal buff. One line could be used to add various buff while stealthed, one could focus on the reveal state and the last could be reserved for pets.

draxynnic.3719:

Don’t forget how Episode 2 ended. Anything related to Glint is still very much related to the current story, even if not necessarily front and center at right this moment.

There’s also more to each speculation than just potential story/location connections:

1) The leaks, if they are to be trusted, suggest sword or greatsword. That suggests melee-oriented in at least one attunement (may not be, but it suggests that). Both a zephyrite-like or a dervish-like elite specialisation would have that feature.

2) For a Zephyrite-like elite specialisation, some of the work has already been done with the Aspect Arena skills. Some are probably too similar to existing skills to be recycled, but there are others where the art assets just aren’t being used.

3) For a dervish-like elite specialisation, as mentioned above, we’ve already seen much of the Grenth-themed dervish come back in the Reaper. It would be natural to expect something to come back at some point that calls back to the more elementally focused dervish.

4) Any elementalist elite specialisation is likely to need to be something that is reasonably compatible with the four attunements. A zephyrite-style requires some shifting around as discussed above, but it’s there. For dervish, they could pull fire-oriented skills out of Mysticism, earth-oriented skills out of Earth Prayers, and water and air out of Wind Prayers.

Connecting to the story and/or location as well is icing on the cake.

Well, I think it will be very difficult to understand each other, in the way that we look at things that are very different.

I’m starting from the point that an E-spec have to have some compatibility with the core elementalist. Which mean that all the existing stuff linked to the core traitline will remain.

At the same time I don’t expect an e-spec to remove ton of weapon skill or whatever.

So I expect that the elementalist will keep it’s numerous weapon skills and it’s attunment switch. Now, (and I’m putting myself in your shoes here) how do I introduce zephyrite things into the elementalist toolset without harming it? You basically can’t change the attunment for zephyrite attunment or prayer thingy. Do you really want skills that copy an In game minigame? Do you want no orginality at all?

Do you think that Anet will just copypast the Tempest mechanism? If they were to do that, It would be disappointing and yes player that have a bad feeling about next elite spec would have a reason to have this feeling.

Zephyrit’s magic is mainly used for practical use. They are well versed in mobility but lack attacking power. I just can’t imagine the zephyrite as fighter, they are more like passive merchant that will flee without shedding blood.

Now, sure you can Imagine an E-spec based on mobility. The core elementalist have already some of these tools and an E-spec that specialized in it would certainly be tremendously fun to play. It would probably end up being something like this :

Name : Wizard

Niche : Movement/evade

Archetype : Elementalist/thief

Mechanism : Endurance management mechanism. Whenever you switch attunment you gain a definite amount of endurance.

Weapon : Main hand sword (weapon with various movement skill?)

Utility : Trick

General idea : The general idea is to create a spec that focus around the ability to dodge and being mobile. It’s an avoidance spec.

Beside, ain’t the tempest already the Dervich thingy? Each of the prayer being the overload?

@Dadnir: Sure, but from the little lore we’ve got, some of the other elites are related to the story. (Dragonhunters? Partially a response to sylvari turning. Scrappers? Salvaging operations after the fleet’s destruction. Heralds? Half of the story of S2 and HoT is focused around Glint’s legacy. Reapers? Marjory gets a greatsword… okay, that’s tenuous, but it’s there. You could argue that berserkers came into the fore in order to slash-and-burn the jungle as well…)

Well… if that’s the case Instead of E-spec related to the cristal desert, we should prepare for E-spec related to LS3. Which is, at the moment :
- Bloodstone
- Mursaat
- Maybe dwarve technology/magic

The zephyrite are, somehow, already a thing of the past.

Now from the look of it :

Bloodstones are pretty related to any magic, it wouldn’t be really difficult to imagine an elementalist spec that use them. From the E-spec I had thought of, it would end into the “burst” type E-spec. Charging bloodstone with magic like a warrior charge adrenaline, to release a powerful effect afterward.

When we look at Lazarus (our Mursaat), it feel like we can have a pretty powerful fire magic coming, maybe we could have a kind of Mursaat shroud? ala necromancer.

Dwarve are stone… Well… I mean litterally… It could lead for advanced earth magic.

Well, if they continue to try to improve the pets it will already be a great deal. There is so much work for them in this area…

I love necro because it’s perfect for casual solo play in PvE open world.
I hate necro because a lot of it’s features feel unpolished and useless in group content.

(The alternative could be a Zephyrite-themed elite specialisation, which would also fit in with going to the Crystal Desert)

It may be harsh but honestly, except for Druid, none of the E-Spec that came with HoT fit in going in the heart of maguma. It’s best to not expect from Anet any E-Spec that fit a geographical area.

Well, I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. Actually the issues of the ranger’s mechanism (the pet) open a lot of possibilities for futur elite spec. Each elite spec can try to correct these issues in their own way.

For example, Druid tryed to correct the issue by making the ranger usefull for a party while still ignoring the pet. Isn’t it awesome?

Paragon-like E-Spec :

Name : Cantor

Archetype : Revenant/warrior

Mechanism : A burst skill per legend and an adrenaline bar that fill from spending energy but doesn’t fill from upkeep. (this is mainly to promote other skills than upkeep skills). Each burst skill should feel like a shout and doesn’t necessarily need to be a damaging skill.

Legend : Legendary cantor <add a mursaat name>
heal : leader comfort : Heal you for X, you gain Y additionnal per ally around you
Utility :
- “They are on fire!” : Party members in earshot take 33% less damage from Burning foes. stun break.
- Burning refrain : The next attack of allies within earshot will inflict 1 burn. (short CD)
- Blazing spear : Inflict damage and x burning stack to the targeted foe.
Elite : Anthem of flame : upkeep skill (7). Inflict burn (2s) to enemies around you every 3 seconds.

Weapon : whatever

Explanation : The mursaats have a natural affinity with fire but above everything they are master at leading peoples in their scheme. With their godly lip service they ended tricking the forgotten, leading the white mantle and being revered as gods by the charrs.

Honestly, the issue of Well of darkness is just the cool down of the skill. I’d rather see Anet decrease the cool down to 25-30 second instead of wrecking their head to add some unneeded effect that could lead to imbalance. There is absolutely nothing that justify the actual prohibiting cool down.

macon.4065:

I can’t see placing a melee combat oriented weapon like a sword in the hands of a class that is typically a caster class and especially one that would be in a battle up front with weak armor.

That’s a mindset that come from other game. In gw2 the armor is merely a matter of skin, the difference in protection from a heavy and a light armor is thin, almost inexistant. Your mindset is okay if you are looking at it from a RP viewpoint but the reality of gw2 is far from the RP.

We could argue about the value of vitality or toughness but what really matter in GW2 is active defense (dodge/block/invuln/mouvement skill/reflect… etc.). And melee range weapon are especially suited for active defense skills.

At the moment the elementalist have issue resisting the pressure of in game fight. Playing dumb and giving him an heavy armor and a larger health pool wouldn’t solve the issue at all. Although, to be performant in the competitive content of gw2, one need to be able to deal damage at melee range and to be able to bear the pressure of other melee range user. We just have to look at the necromancer to understand. The only thing that necromancer have is health point and even with three time the heath of the elementalist, they barely survive longer.

What the elementalist need are means that allow him to create windows of opportunity in order for him to unleash it’s potential.
- staling for time in melee range with active defensive skills is a way to do it.
- having high mobility may also work
- being able to build some momentum to unleash a powerful burst of damage is another option
- entering in a state similar to the shroud could also be a solution

However, having more health point or armor won’t help at all or else everybody would use soldier gear.

While I agree with the fact that the revenant and the ritualist are pretty close, there is a few thing about what you speculate that bother me :

- The legend choice : Master togo while having an impact as a mentor on the player in GW1 is in reality just a nobody in face of History. This is merely a human ritualist as well as the other ritualist with no real world changing drive or origin.

- Profession mechanism :
→ Elite spec are mutually exclusive, do not expect to see the facet of nature along with any other elite spec.
→ Spirit that hit from range… Well… what a poor view of the ritualist, it pain me. Spirit that hit from range we already got that in game and it’s called clone or fantasm… having a special skill just for that, I’d feel cheated with an E-spec like that.
→ The whole mechanism feel like a copy paste of the herald with just the addition of a skill as F2.

For me right now, if I had to give a take at speculating on an E-spec with the flavor of the good old ritualist, I’d go with something like that :

E-Spec name : Medium

Archetype : Revenant/Elementalist

Legendary medium : Razah
Why do I chose Razah? Razah is a being born from the mist, he is connected to the mist and It then feel logic that the revenant can somehow connect himself/ reach him to him.

Mechanism : The system of legend of the Medium change drastically. When someone equip this E-spec, the legend that the player channel will automaticly be Razah, however you can attune the utility skill of razah with the essence of the core legend which can be switched like elementalist attunment. So we got now F1 F2 F3 and F4. Trait specific to legend’s skill work on the attuned skill of razah.

Skill :
→ heal : Soul mending :
+ Dwarf attunment : heal and grant protection
+ Demon attunment : heal and consume condition
+ Centaur attunment : aoe heal
+ Assassin attunment : heal and drain life from nearby foes

→ Utility :
Spirit rift : targeted aoe which effect trigger after a few second
+ Dwarf attunment : Direct damage and weakness
+ Demon attunment : Condi bomb (inflict high number of torment)
+ Centaur attunment : Big heal
+ Assassin attunment : Teleport you to the area

Wielder boon : Break stun
+ Dwarf attunment : gain protection
+ Demon attunment : inflict confusion to nearby foes
+ Centaur attunment : remove up to 2 condition from nearby allies
+ Assassin attunment : gain blur

spirit gift : leave a field
+ Dwarf attunment : electric field
+ Demon attunment : dark field
+ Centaur attunment : water field
+ Assassin attunment : Ice field

→ Elite skill : Clamor of soul : Summon an effigy of your current legend. Upkeep skill -7. effigy can’t be damage (it’s the same as ventarii’s stone except you can’t move it)
+ Dwarf attunment : reduce damage taken by surrounding allies by 50%.
+ Demon attunment : periodically inflict condition to surrounding ennemy.
+ Centaur attunment : periodically heal allies.
+ Assassin attunment : deal damage to the targeted foe.

If I could change necro weapon skill…

Well let’s assume I can do whatever I want without restraint

1- I would rework mark so that they end up working the same way that they work in GW1 (For those who don’t have any idea, they would work like our signet of vampirism)

2- I would put some combo finisher here and there. Like swaping the retaliation on unholy feast with a blast finisher for example. Maybe add a whirl finisher on dagger #2.

3- I would slightly change grasping dead into a pulsing AoE.

4- I’d seriously take a look into GS. Tuning up the AA, totally reworking gravedigger, shaving the cast time of death spiral… etc.

Well… that would already be a good start.

Well, it’s pretty simple, the goal of these build is to maximize healing so you gear for maximum Healing power :
- Magi
- Apothecary
- Cleric

In order to limit any issue with tanking, you aim for 0 toughness which remove Cleric and apothecary from the list of your choices. Precision have nothing to do in the choice, it’s simply that there is no other choice that maximize healing power and avoid aggro conflict.

NB.: Metabattle builds always look for efficiency not for pleasing gameplay. With it you’are supposed to heal efficiently with no possibility to kitten up the tank aggro. (For efficiency as well, the tank is supposed to have the least possible amount of non dps stat. You’ll often see tank that only maintain their aggro thanks to toughness gained through trait alone, everything else being dps stats)

Dadnir.5038:

Name : Archon

Niche : DPS

Archetype : Elementalist/necromancer

Mechanism : Archon : a transformation skill which is like a shroud and filled with arcane skills that replace weapon skills. Ideally arcane’s traits work with each skill. Lock you out of utility skills but shroud you in magic to keep you alive.

Weapon : Torch

Utility skill : Mantra.

General idea : The idea is to give to the elementalist a bit of survivability in a dps oriented niche by shrouding it in magic.

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Name : Warden

Niche : Support/tank

Archetype : Elementalist/warrior

Mechanism : More or less a burst skill on F5. The warden have 1-3 blood shard that fill themselve when he is using magic and you can discharge this magic based on the element your using at the moment.

Weapon : Shield

Utility : Consecration. Fill the earth with elemental magic creating area consecrated by this/theses elements. (Yes it would be “wards” Zicarous)

General idea : The idea is to not stray far from the elementalist but gve it tools that will help in it’s support and add an extra “burst” skill that could allow a burst of dps or a burst in defense depending on which attunment you are.

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Name : Wizard

Niche : Movement/evade

Archetype : Elementalist/thief

Mechanism : Endurance management mechanism. Whenever you switch attunment you gain a definite amount of endurance.

Weapon : Main hand sword

Utility : Trick (people that use magic all have their own trick )

General idea : The general idea is to create a spec that focus around the ability to dodge. It’s an avoidance spec.

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Name : Source master
The major critic about this spec is the weapon choice. I chose the pistol because it felt like using a “mechanic” weapon was a good way to showcase a spec that channel magic through external object/source. But well that may be a bad idea (or not)

Niche : Wide, backline support and dps (low mobility)

Archetype : Elementalist/ranger

Mechanism :
Source : Magic spot that follow the Sourcemaster and automatically copy it’s attunment and core profession traits effect related to attunment. By default the source can’t be damage and follow you. F5 allow you to fix the source at a spot until you want it to follow you again.

weapon : pistol

Utility skill : Those could be called manipulation and the main effect would be to shape your source into spells. ending with area of effect support or damage.

General idea : This a spec that use a tool like the revenant’s stone of ventarii to enhance the effect of attunment swaping by allowing these effects to also trigger at the location of the “source”. The point is to improve dps and widden support abilities.
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Note : I feel like it’s important to vary the mechanisms of the differents spec. Each one of them have to rely on a different aspect of the game : being pet, dodge, burst or transformation. This allow builds and gameplay to focus on different things.

There is plenty way for anet to correct the flaw of the elementalist through E-spec without staying in this state that so much people seem to hate to the core and without steping again in the overly tanky support pvp niche or the op dps pve niche.

Out of these 4 spec for example, only the source master would feel lacking in regard of defensive ability, still it’s support abilities lies in being able to widen the base support of the elementalist to 10 player instead of 5.

As for the 3 other, if these mechanisms are supposed to work for other profession there is no reason that it would not work for elementalist.

*Ride the Lightning : The cooldown has been reduced from 40 to 20 seconds. If a foe is hit by the burst, the skill’s recharge is halved.

and

*Signet of Restoration : Increased the healing per cast healing power contribution by 100%

Just this bring the elementalist back to the op state it was 3 years ago… No, In fact it make it even more op than it was 3 years ago. 10 second RTL… lol

Or they could just change lich form and plague form into :

lich form : instant. no more transformation. Lich form grant you a 10% direct damage and condi damage buff for x seconds. While under lich form, gain stability for 3 second every 3 second.

Plague form : instant. no more transformation. Plague form grant you a buff that reduce incoming damage by 50% and poison attackers for 3-4 second each time you’re struck. While under plague form, gain stability for 3 second every 3 second.

Obviously the 2 new form also work while you are in shroud. In my opinion, just these tiny change should help a lot the necromancer. It feel like nothing but it give reliable stability, allow a choice between defense and offense, remove the horrendous lich skin… etc.

Why put the most retaliation in the game on a class that IS NEGATING THE DAMAGe COMPLETELY!?

Ah! to be honest, I think I can answer to this question of yours. Actually, the reason why they put the most retaliation in the game on the class that is negating damage completly is because they over rate retaliation. Anet see retaliation as a huge damage dealing boon and fear that a profession may permanently deal these “damage” while protecting itself. This way, one can easily understand why guardian who prevent damage to be done have the most access to retaliation. Preventing incoming damage reduce the dps of the boon, negating both your’s and your foe damage. This is a way for them to balance. (do I agree with this? no but I aknowledge this mindset)

I’d say that the only issue of your suggestions is that players hate to have to fight against bunker. Each time a bunker spec rose to prominence cry flow on the PvP forum and the bunker spec take the hard nerf bat. A good example of that is how Anet reduce the mitigation and survivability of rise!. (they also did it for skills that do the same effect on other professions)

Well PvP will be the bane of your suggestions.

Sword and torch would be the easiest to come by with (in my opinion).
Pistol would add an interesting link between magic and technology (It would be cool).
Mace have a lot of potential for combo and it’s the one I’d like to see the most.

spectral grasp speed up projectile

The only thing I agree with.

Fire traitline :
empowering flame, sunspot, Pyromancer’s training, Pyromancer’s puissance

Air traitline :
Zephyr speed, one with air, electric discharge, aeromancer’s training, fresh air

Earth traitline :
stone flesh, earthen blast, rock solid, stone heart

Water traitline :
soothing mist, piercing shard, healing ripple, cleansing wave, soothing power

All these traits destroy any build diversity with your idea, mostly locking oneself in traitlines that suit the 2 attunments you take. To be efficient with this idea, one must take the tratlines that suit the attunment they uses, any other traitline (out of arcane) will waste a few traits.

Well, it feel like ton of work for the devs.

The only thing that I fear with your spec is that there is basically no survivability at all, only damage, damage and more damage. I think you’re mistaken about something, the elementalist doesn’t lack damage at all, the elementalist lack the ability to safely land it’s damages. That’s why most PvPer complain about the fact that they do no damage in PvP, they feel forced to play defensive traitlines and defensive gear. And your E-spec/idea keep the elementalist in this kind of gameplay… Well actually, from the look of it, it would be even worse since I’m not sure that the spec is viable in PvP even with 2 purely defensive traitline and tanky amulet.

So, In short, The idea feel good (even if it the workload on the dev is huge) but the global viability of the spec in PvP is lacking (0 survivability).

Fashion Mage.3712:

Something which makes you pick two attunements ala revenant, and then greatly enhances those attunements in some form (weapon swapping?). Could even grant an F3 skill based on the two attunements chosen.

While I agree that the idea could be interesting, sadly it would conflict with some core elementalist traits. The 4 primary attunments just can’t be reduced at all due to these traits.