Guild Wars 2

There’s a part of me that hopes this doesn’t get fixed. With all the conditions being flung at in all directions in the current meta, this is somehow good, IMO. Imagine the horrors if poison properly worked. XD

Well, seeing that all eles as S/D Fresh Air Zerk builds is good. At least burst builds for ele are more viable/stronger now.

Seeing that bunker D/D eles are a somewhat dying breed either in tPVP and hotjoins is sad. And the reason is quite obvious.

I’m expecting the comeback of bunker Staff 0/0/20/20/30 ele with Rock Solid trait or the traditional 0/0/10/30/30 for ultimate support but that’s me being hopeful. I dunno.

It’s good that people like you still stick to Staff. I don’t consider staff to be subpar, I myself is a Staff lover. And right now I’m used to being staff without the Blasting Staff trait. And I realized it’s not so necessary in tPVP as it is in WvW or PVE, afterall. Renewing Stamina goes well with EA. So maybe that’s a start for those who want to try out Staff in PVP since combo fields with staff really synergizes with the blasts from arcane wave and EA earth.

Btw, your link seems to be broken :/

Jabberwock.9014:

At least it won’t tempt me to waste more than 10 points in earth.

Agreed though, it is absolutely horrendous for a class that is terrible with condition builds to begin with. Convert 50% and I would still only consider it.

Yeah, I feel the same way. Condi ele is THAT bad of an option IMO because of reasons stated in other posts.

Instead of passive bonuses on traits which should be what minors should be, they should up the ante on making unique circumstantial traits that change the way you play like I’ve mentioned before in my earlier posts. These % stat bonuses and passive procs are pretty lame and are just somehow counter-intuitive to the very fluid and dynamic combat GW2 has. It’s sad.

Bumping. Nobody cares that this GM trait isn’t worth it?

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

Change the kitten filter to Hodor.

Brilliant. Take all my gold you Hodoring Hodor!

For the rest, go Hodor yourselves.

Bazaar of the Four Winds, as many others have stated, is like the groundwork for a much bigger plot, i.e. the introduction of another Elder Dragon next month. I mean, a GW anniversary won’t be much of an anniversary without a new big big awesome dragon fight, would it?

GM traits should have noticeable effect in the way you play other than just number crunching here and there. Like Evasive Arcana, or Fresh Air. IMO, these traits that just convert <insert number here>% of <insert stat here> to <insert another stat here> is bad, boring, and unimaginative.

My idea of Diamond skin is something like the ones already mentioned in that there is a new effect or skill that happens, like, transfer condition to enemy or cast Obsidian Flesh for 1 or 2 seconds when hit while channeling a spell or using a particular type of skill. Right now, this new trait name is awesome, but the effect is meh. Especially compared to other minor or lower traits of other professions.

Be creative guys. Please. You’re close to making all ele traits decent. Arcana and Water and Air traits are IMO in the right spots except for some few which are buggy or still lackluster. Earth and Fire, still not as appealing as the other three. Add creativity to synergy! I still have faith in you!

Fun map definitely.

But the secondary mechanics are plentiful and over the top I think. Reduction of jumping pads and maybe the glass floors like Exedore and Pandabro have said might be good for the map. Right now, it’s so saturated with them add to that the ledges of death everywhere. Such a small map for too much secondary mechanics. They are nice, but there are a LOT of it and needs some reduction.

Or tweaking laser canon damage, radius and CD, well, especially the CD because right now, it’s too powerful. I think it can do with the undodgeable zomg intsa 10k damage but it has to be less less frequent than what it is now.

Ele conjures. I have yet to see Earth Shield used in competitive tournies.

1. Pet stats in line with ranger stats. If ranger is tank, pets are tanky, if ranger is GC, pets can 1HKO anyone.

2. Other stuff to do with ranger other than kite and spam shortbow auto or evade here evade there while cats and birds do the killing. Either are effective but outrageously annoying to the opponent and brainless-ly boring to the ranger. It’s like phantasm mesmer, the skill ceiling for this kind of playstyle is no higher than my 3-year old niece’s waistline.

3. The rise of useful, viable spirits.

And if you allow me to post just one more but is tied with number 2 anyway:

4. More micro management on pets. More useful skills for pets and not just relying on send pet to target and auto attack anyone and annoy him to death.

My record was 3 cats pouncing on me like I was a ball of yarn or a rag doll. It was so amusing

CuRtoKy.8576:

Gallrvaghn.4921:

CuRtoKy.8576:

Cleansing Flame will still be useful. It is like mesmer portal even though it doesn’t break stun it still has a purpose.

Removing 3 conditions once every 30-40 seconds in a condition heavy environment where every ranger and necro has insta bleed on every auto attack is just.. I don’t know what to say.. really. They could’ve made it 4 or 5 (5 maybe too much) since 3 is just not worth it IMO as a utility. and then COMPARING IT TO PORTAL??? Dear Lord, the sky is falling.

lol what dear lord. I don’t know what to say. 3 condi removal instant with 4 (traited) is good. I’m sorry if you get hit by every condi known to man. There is a dodge roll and also move around. If you try to 1v10 and get constant condis then that is your fault not Anet or the game. Learn to play the situation. I’m sure other professions would love an instant burst condi removal. On top of that why did anet give Water XI give an internal cooldown for sPvP due to burst condi removal?

Also learn how to pull people to you into an environment that you as an elementalist has an advantage. I would think after Excala’s guide everyone would know to use the environment. It seems like you aren’t playing guild wars 2.

Portal is a utility that gives Mesmers certain things. It doesn’t need a stun break or anything just the mechanic itself. Cleansing Flame without stun break gives Eles burst condi removal, the mechanic itself is useful regardless if it is a stun break or not. That was the point.

Dear lord I wish a stone wall is created that said “Discussion open to good Eles please”

Thank you for that very condescending statement of yours. Your GW2 101 and tips and tricks helped a lot too. You must be pro.

I think that CF with the stunbreak is useful. Removing the stunbreak would make the skill not so appealing to me anymore, and that is my personal preference.

Anyhow, with regards to comparing CF to Portal, maybe you should’ve compared it to more similar mes utilities like Blink, MI, or Decoy. These three serve their purpose even without the stunbreaks so I’m expecting similar changes done to them or they just leave CF and LF alone. Armor of Earth and Mist Form should have been the candidates for the stunbreak removal and then a major reduction in CD rather than CF and LF.

silvos.3092:

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Whoever thought about making GoEP a stunbreaker is seriously trolling. Using GoEP earlier in a fight to provide an offensive buff before engaging and on the other hand trying to save the skill for it’s stun break while being harassed in battle is like.. I have no words for it.. sorry..

That’s called strategic choice and versatility…You guys don’t understand about sacrificing one effect for the other? That’s all it’s about…You’ll never be able to get 100% of that skill but you’ll always be able to get something from it… It’s not a 0/1 skill but a 0.5/0.5 one… That’s all…

Also that skill is already quite good when you’re used to it and will just be perfect in a glyph oriented build…

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Maybe they forgot Arcane Shield exists or something – also the Earth Shield thingy which I thought was just urban legend. I mean won’t these make more sense as stunbreakers and can possibly finally be of use when they become stunbreakers? Shield? SHIELD??? Defensive utility skills? Defense?? Anyone??? I’m crying right now. T___T

If I personally consider arcane skills don’t need break stun effects you got the point with the earth shield….the big thing missing in this patch (if the leaked note are real…) are the conjurations…

Come to think of it. you’re kind of right. GoEP will likely be compared to mesmer stunbreak Mirror Images. It can be used as offensive for shatters and defensive for confusing enemies and stun breaking.

And yes! Conjures! I want to see them played in tournies!

CuRtoKy.8576:

Cleansing Flame will still be useful. It is like mesmer portal even though it doesn’t break stun it still has a purpose.

Removing 3 conditions once every 30-40 seconds in a condition heavy environment where every ranger and necro has insta bleed on every auto attack is just.. I don’t know what to say.. really. They could’ve made it 4 or 5 (5 maybe too much) since 3 is just not worth it IMO as a utility. and then COMPARING IT TO PORTAL??? Dear Lord, the sky is falling.

emikochan.8504:

Anet are pretty good at flaws

LOL

Ehecatl.9172:

I know staff is a terrible 1v1 weapon and my build was pretty glassy, but one would think I’d have been able to do better as my opponent continued to mindlessly shoot at my anti-projectile defense for it’s full duration.

Because shortbow spam #1 requires so much skill rangers don’t even give a rat’s @$$ if you have a projectile reflect bubble around you. Ha!

Anyways, I hope this Fresh Air does give opportunity for burst ele builds to emerge despite the still glaring lack of reliable defensive abilities without the crazy cooldowns.

Sweetbread.2679:

Of course they got the new condition. We wouldn’t want the id iot demographic to leave the game or feel like they actually have to try in pvp. Thieves and mesmers are already such monumental failures of pvp class design it’s simply mind boggling. So why stop now?

Monumental failures of pvp class design. I can’t help it. I want to give you all my gold!

Avatara.1042:

Well it boosts the AoE of 7 abilities.

I’m not entirely sure of the numbers and the particular skills there but the only skill that seems to benefit most from Blasting Staff is Lava Font. The increase in AOE of this skill is huge and very very noticeable. The rest don’t need a bigger radius IMO. More meteors can potentially hit a target a number of times more when the AOE radius is not increased so the density of one meteor per square unit is higher and the original radius is already big enough in most scenarios IMO. Static Field also poses the same issue. I can easily stun targets with a smaller circle since targetting them to be inside a bigger radius gives them a higher chance of realizing they are inside a Static Field and then choose not to move any further since this weird AOE only stuns on the perimeter of the AOE rather than the lot of it. Rain, Frozen Ground, and Eruption have already big enough sizes so the increase in AOE is either over the top or pointless. Geyser, on the other hand, disappears way too fast and is only useful for blasting IMO so making it bigger is like meh.

Anyway, we are slightly off topic here.

Back to arcane attune. As I have suggested in another post, they should give similar traits to other elements like the new Air major grandmaster trait Fresh Air so that going full Arcana will not be so mandatory.

Here are my suggested names for the new traits for each elemental traitline:

Highway to Hell
Fresh Air
Rolling Stones
Too Fast, Too Fluid

Tei.1704:

I actually consider adding a stunbreak to glyph of elemental power to be a nerf. That’s how dumb this is.

+1

jportell.2197:

hharry.1967:

jportell.2197:

hharry.1967:

jportell.2197:

hharry.1967:

They are just making eles have less stun breakers than mesmers (actually they already did) and thieves, being weaker. How can they survive with just 1 stun breaker? No one is gonna use glyph of elemental power and signet of air i dont really think so, because eles needs to focus on defense and survival due to their low hp.

How i see it, they took a lot, and gave nothing in return. Not to mention making already op classes more op (mesmers)

Okay well number one none of our stun breakers give us any boons. All they do is break stuns. So really cantrips like others have said break stuns grant regen/vigor and can either teleport to and blind/burn nearby enemies not to mention one of them grants stability. I mean seriously when armor of earth traited gives you stability-protection-regen-vigor and breaks stun you don’t think they wouldn’t consider doing something about that. Also FYI none of mesmer condi cleanses break stun.

A mesmer complaining… please.

Stating facts mate. No Mesmer stun breaker does anything other than… break stuns… With the x/x/x/30/30 build ele cantrips can currently break stuns grant a ton of boons (depending on the cantrip) cure a condition AND in some cases burn/blind enemies…. Add to it that when eles grant regen to themselves it also cures a condition and then cantrips grant regen. It synergizes nicely but pretty much in some cases you have one skill (lets take cleansing fire) that does the following.
1. Break Stun
2. Burn Foes (highest damage multiplier for conditions in game)
3. Grant 2 boons
4. Cures 4 conditions since you also get the bonus from cleansing water….

And you are telling me you don’t see this as too strong?

What? You have blink (teleport + stun breaker), decoy (stealth + stun breaker), mirror images (clones + stun breaker), and a few more non usually used skills i guess.
But mesmers are in the exact place as eles, their usual spec skills all have stun breakers plus a nice effect.

But no boons from those stun breaks or condition removal. The only thing you don’t get in your stunbreaker/stealth (no duh!) none of our stun breakers do damage inside the skill themselves and none of our stun breakers remove conditions. And none of our condition removers break stun.

You will still have a stun break that ports at 1200 range (traited) on a relatively super shorter CD than LF AND a stunbreak that stealths AND drops target. I haven’t even mentioned the semi-stun breaks and ports in your popular and almost over the top weapons – Sword Main and Staff.

Your point? Since I don’t get mine. -_-

Staff ele lover here. I enjoyed my staff ele more when I finally decided to ditch Blasting Staff over Renewing Stamina. sPVP perspective. It’s still the evade here support there build, but I noticed I survived a lot longer and killing some more compared to while traited for Blasting Staff (standard 0/10/0/30/30 build).

Just play regularly and forget the number 2 skill when you’re in water. Think that number 2 water skill never existed. You’ll thank me one day.

Avatara.1042:

Oh I almost forgot: Blasting Staff.

This trait is insanely powerful for Staff Elementalists, yet it also forces you to go 20 into Arcane. If you want to improve Staves and create versatility, address this as well.

I go full Arcana with Staff but I don’t use Blasting Staff. I think it’s over rated. XD

Gorni.1764:

for PvP it would be nice if they added simliar stuff to all trait-lines so that arcana isn’t obligatory anymore

Yeah, it’s been suggested AGES ago. Maybe they are testing the water first with Air trait. I hope so. Making all Minor Grandmaster traits in all elemental traitlines similar to Fresh Air and not just putting them in the Major Grand trait will open up possibilities of exploring other traitlines other than always going full Arcana. This kind of trait is not a worthy Major Grand trait IMO.

Or maybe they are still thinking of awesome names for the new traits for the other elements. Color me hopeful)

Here are some suggestions:
Rapid Fire
Fresh Air
Rolling Stones
Too Fast, Too Fluid

Whoever thought about making GoEP a stunbreaker is seriously trolling. Using GoEP earlier in a fight to provide an offensive buff before engaging and on the other hand trying to save the skill for it’s stun break while being harassed in battle is like.. I have no words for it.. sorry..

Maybe they forgot Arcane Shield exists or something – also the Earth Shield thingy which I thought was just urban legend. I mean won’t these make more sense as stunbreakers and can possibly finally be of use when they become stunbreakers? Shield? SHIELD??? Defensive utility skills? Defense?? Anyone??? I’m crying right now. T___T

Fenrir.5493:

Now to add variety and diversitiy of theves build they have now the option to burst your hp to 5% then let you die walikg like a penguin.

I walk like a penguin.

Yeah, LF was my favorite cantrip too.

But I’m having a feeling about GoEP still not being insta-cast now that it’s a stunbreaker… o.o

Zenith.7301:

Not as such. The very nature of GC builds in GW2 is something that kills very fast and dies very fast (when you don’t avoid the damage). So two glass canons that fight each other are bound to be something very brutal.

If thief and mesmer didn’t have any effective GC build, you’d get 1-2 other classes to be declared “the kings of GC” and preventing all the other GC builds to be effective.

…..No

A GC engineer, or necro, or ranger, or guardian, are all on even footing.

Thief and mesmer GC are all cannon and hardly glass because of all the teleports/offensive shutdowns they have. They can deliver their burst while invulnerable or untargetable, and they can reset a fight at will whereas the other GC’s do not get that luxury.
[/quote]

AMEN to that.

Jonwar.9205:

*Result of a poorly designed system (initiative). * Balancing a class with no cooldowns is next to impossible leaving thieves in a constant state of too strong or too weak (though frankly, thieves have enjoyed far more too strong time in comparison to too weak time).

I concur.

One thing that makes my blood boil is seeing a Jumper Thief. And they’re in every hotjoin. Don’t tell me the “go play tPVP rather than hotjoin” crap since what I wanted was a fun game both in competitive and hotjoin PVP. Please tell me you enjoy fighting against a jumper using any other class.

Thieves can easily reset a fight thru stealthing and restealthing. They are hard to pin down due to the evades and stealths. When they get revealed, they’re almost fully healed again. They can rinse and repeat the jumping-jumping-stealthing-jumping mode while you blow off your CDs.

(Yes, you’re right, you smell a QQ in this post. You can finally reply L2P noob.)

But they are not that OP. Against thieves, I lose some, I win some. Yes, thieves can be killed. If you can’t pin a revealed thief down, just attack randomly in all directions and lay down AOEs on your feet. Then you might be lucky to see a downed thief.

However, my point is that they are the most frustrating thing to fight against. Second is BM Ranger. And third is Mesmur with any build. IMO.

Either improve the initiative system in any way reasonable (I have no suggestions as of now) or do something about stealthing. (If you’re gonna argue about the uselessness of stealth in capping nodes which is the primary goal of PVP, don’t. Just don’t.)

Romek.4201:

thief need another resource, maby called “exhausted” and all spells give +10 or something like this and max is 100 (per sec this resource lowered by 5)

pressing 2x SAME spell give double pointz (3x triple and so on)

when reach 50% they lower initiative regen by 50%
when 75% they lower initiative regen by 75%
and 100% give 0 initiative regen + slow the thief for 10 sec than the resource reset complete

something like this would fix this brainless spam and would give them a skillcurve with no skillcap

or just higher the initiative cost from most spells^^

I like this idea. Consecutive usage of a certain skill increases initiative cost by 1.

Nik Rane.6431:

>Making pets less kittenty
>Adding 1s to QZ
>Making SoS less kittenty
>Reducing LR cd by 9%
>Buffing spirits which nobody uses in pvp
>Buffing shouts which nobody uses in pvp

Oh man Rangers 2 OP /s

Yeah, the buffs are so little, they mean nothing and Rangers are still so underpowered no wonder half your team are always shortbow rangers. Please tell that to the future rants and QQs similar to what has happened with the eles. Enjoy your Super Pets and Crazy Conditions while you still can.

You just don’t uber buff a class when you nerf the fotm class. No, Anet. Just no.

Atherakhia.4086:

Is there a reason you think you should be able to down a ranger’s pet without actually targeting the pet? And is your strafe key broken? Is there a reason you’re not just walking in circles away from pets? Because they’re still easy to avoid even with the changes 4 months ago.

Yea, L2P. Thank you for that.

Yeah maybe I didn’t realize that this is a good improvement on PVE side including AI improvements on necro pets too. But looking at it on the PVP side is just sickening. Can’t we split these changes too since you’re already at it with some skills? Desperate plea for such a horrible horrible change.

I can never fully understand this change. I mean seriously? The last thing we needed in pvp was a horde of Shorbow auto-attack spamming/kiting ranger that spams bleeds and other conditions so fast, even Chuck Norris can’t keep up. Add to that an annoying hard to kill pet which now has improved HP and toughness and improved abilities that follows you like a twitter fanboy.

After the massive hit on eles, expect rangers to be dominating every match. Mark my words.

I’m no QQer but for the love of God, why the buff on pets?!?! Buff on spirits, yeah they sure needed it. But pets?! They needed to be toned down actually.

Larynx.2453:

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Yay! No one trick pony insta-gib builds.

I’ll just go back to my sword/sword condi warrior, I guess.

Try banners. With the recent buff, they are now OP.

Yes! Finally, a chance to realize you are dying and not “blink once and you’re downed.”

Yay! No one trick pony insta-gib builds.

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

Short answer: In conquest bunkers win matches. That is why every team that wins uses them.

Long answer: I think the lack of build variety is what you are really irritated about, andnot necessarily the bunker issue. Right now there are a number of issues that contribute to the problem of the lack of variety.

1) Lack of amulet diversity – There is a very small set of viable stats in sPvP (it varies by class which ammy’s are best, but there are always just a few that work).

2) Burst is out of hand and so are bunkers – Both the current amount of burst effectiveness and the current amount of bunker effectiveness are way too high. If both were toned down, then more balanced stats would become a viable option.

3) Low Population in sPvP – There simply aren’t enough sPvP players in this game to generate a real meta-game where new and different builds are found and made effective. Since release there have been relative few adjustments to the build landscape, and the previous 2 issues have always made it easy for the community to make small adjustments and maintain effectiveness with the bunker/burster combination. #4 below adds to this issue, because the player base that started the game in sPvP is largely gone now.

4) Understaff/unresponsiveness to issues – sPvP was probably the least polished part of the game at release, and the lack of attention to this specific portion of the game has hamstrung it in its ability to catch up in terms of quality. Sadly, the engine is good and there is a lot of potential, but the game was released when PvE “was ready”, WvW was almost “ready” and sPvP was nowhere near “ready” to meet the expectations of the A-net loyalists who loved GW for the GvG and ToPK/HA PvP. The low levels of staff available to get this portion of the game up to speed have compounded the problem.

Now, I have never been one to state problems without proposing solutions, but this is a particularly difficult dragon to slay.

1) The whole rune/amulet/trait system would require some re-work along with most of the weapon sets. Doing this correctly requires careful statistical analysis that A-net may not have even built into the program to begin with, and the statistical data may even point them in the wrong direction based on the inadequate sample sizes that they would probably have available if the data collection is in their software. Rather than throw darts and hope to hit the mark, I think getting the data and using it as a guide would be best regardless, because you can always reverse mistakes and learn from them.

2) Addressing #1 above correctly fixes 2.

3) The low player base problem is very tricky. Some have suggested a limited feature F2P release of the sPvP portion of the game, but I think this is an overreaction, and frankly, it doesn’t fit A-net’s business model. A reduced cost, limited feature B2P edition on the other hand could infuse enough cash to get devs on the case fixing the sPvP and adding more cash shop features to make it profitable. Releasing F2P right now would probably net a very brief uptick in population, because the game mode just isn’t good enough to stand alone right now.

4) I do not have enough data to make more specific suggestions to A-net on how to staff their departments, so I suppose I have to leave this one flat other than to say that you could get boatloads of free interns to write all kinds of code for you. Every pimply faced awkward college kid getting a computer science degree would gladly go on a killing spree at your whim just to get an unpaid internship workin on your game. A number of features that would make the game more saleable could be implemented with fairly pedestrian code leaving your paid staff more time to work on the more involved matters that require a greater degree of skill.

I love you.

By the end of the year since it’s prolly part of their 2013 vision for Guild Wars 2.

And that’s me being waaaay too hopeful about that.

I like spirit watch

Minion of Vey.4398:

Should have good movespeed while in tornado mode, it wouldn’t make it good but…it’d be a start.

Nah, I’d rather destroy projectiles while I’m a freakin tornado. Not because it makes sense since a lot of things don’t make sense in the game’s mechanics anyway (making ghosts bleed, anyone?) but because it’s too big of a weakness for an Elite being locked out of ALL your skills including healing and utility while transformed. Imagine Mesmers being locked out of all their skills while channeling TimeWarp for ten seconds but still vulnerable to damage. Being hit without access to healing while transformed is just suicide.

Why on earth would you do that?

Capturing and holding a point is the name of the game.

The longer you stay alive, the more points you gain for holding a point.

So… why not?

.. had loads of potential. It just failed to deliver.

But I still consider it fun from time to time.

People will just complain about anything. The day no one ever complains with regards to class balance is the day that freakin asteroid has finally hit Earth and humanity is no more.

Kultas Sunstrider.9218:

Gallrvaghn.4921:

working as intended. direct counterplay to pesky bunkers in the current meta. insta-neut enemy capped point with orb

sadly everyone is playing bunker ftw in that map. anet’s plan failed

Well, yeah, come to think of it, you’re right. LOL

But I’m pretty sure what devs thought was that burst can now have some sort of role in this map trying to bring down the enemy orb carrier fast before reaching a node. I haven’t played much SW tourneys so I dunno. :P

working as intended. direct counterplay to pesky bunkers in the current meta. insta-neut enemy capped point with orb

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

i think they are just being lazy.

hharry.1967:

RTL not affected by slows isnt a bug, since compared to other gap closers, it locks all your skills, and if you get immobilized you basically stun yourself for 2 or 3 seconds. Other gap closers usually comes with huge damage (see warriors ) and you can still use your skills. Not to mention eles are in the bottom of the list about HP/armor so they need to shine over other classes when it comes to mobility.

Apparently the low HP/armor argument isn’t gonna cut it with these guys since an ele built for bunker has crapload of healing thus way larger effective healthpool/survivability compared to the rest. Add to that the fact that these bunker eles also anecdotally dish out decent damage. So they rage QQ about a class that has OP survivabiliy, OP mobility, and acceptable dps in one package that is the ele.