Guild Wars 2

I love that there’s no subscription fee, and that at no point do I have to shell out money to be able to access all parts of the game and to play all the content.

I have always loved the art direction of this game. Even so many months after release, the game continues to take my breath away with its vistas and environments.

I love the lore; my caveat is that I’ve only loved the lore that the game inherits from GW1 and up to the defeat of Zhaitan.

Yeah, I’m currently running a 20/10/30/10/0 build (trying out Written In Stone) with quadruple signets, Carrion amulet, and Geomancy/Agony sigils. It’s a very meh build, especially with the limited condi removal, but the condi damage is decent for an Ele IMO. Protection on demand is cool too. Haven’t tried combining it with Rock Solid yet though.

I wish Fire’s Embrace were Adept too. I could really use the extra 10 in Water or Arcana.

Quizotic.2815:

it’s kinda sad that people can come to the forums and whine and get something people liked taken away.

Lol, if this were true in every case, Anet would have gotten rid of Stealth a long time ago :p

Putting only human T3 cultural armor on the gem store was a mistake, and I’m very glad Anet agrees and is fixing it.

Cultural armor is meant to be race-exclusive by Anet’s own design. Want human T3 light? Roll a human scholar.

I do sympathize with humans who bought the skin, but to be fair how did you not see the brewing blowback?

If you think that cultural armor shouldn’t be race-exclusive, fine, open debate and make sure other players are on the same page. But releasing just one race/profession combo’s cultural armor available to anyone is definitely the wrong way to go about it.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Hey, everyone. We’ve been reading all your feedback about the Flamekissed Armor Skin that was released into the Gem Store yesterday.

Although the Flamekissed Armor uses the same mesh as the Tier 3 Human Cultural Armor, it was not our intention to create an armor skin that so closely matched the existing Tier 3 Human Cultural armor set. The intention was to use the mesh as a basis for creating an armor set that stands apart and is distinct in appearance. However, after reading your feedback, we agree that the Flamekissed armor is not visually distinct enough from Human Cultural Tier 3 armor.

We will do a few things to address this issue.

• We will temporarily remove Flamekissed Armor Skin from the Gem Store.
• Players who have purchased Flamekissed Armor Skin will keep the skin.
• We will make new art for the Flamekissed Armor Skin that achieves our goal of making a visually distinct and attractive armor set and does not closely resemble the Human Tier 3 Cultural armor.
• Once this new artwork is completed, we will then update the Flamekissed Armor Skin so that all existing sets that players have purchased get the new art. We will also offer the Flamekissed Armor Skin for sale again at that time.
• When we update the Flamekissed Armor Skins with the new artwork, any player that has already purchased the set and who does not like the new, updated look, can get a full refund by contacting Customer Support.

Note that there is no ETA on when this change will happen. We need to work with the Character Art Team to determine when we can have a new armor skin ready, and this could take some time.

Thank you everyone for providing your feedback. We appreciate that you took the time to let us know how you feel about the new armor set.

Thank you very much! Happy Thanksgiving (in advance)!

For an equitable solution, Anet needs to either:

1) Roll back the Flamekissed skin completely, and refund gems/cash to everyone who bought it+any related dyes etc., OR

2) Introduce minimally modified re-skins of every other race’s T3 light cultural armor skins, available for 800 gems to any character.

Redesigning either the existing human T3 light skin or the Flamekissed skin is going to cause more blowback, because that’s replacing the object that you paid for (either with time, gold, cash or gems) with another object which you might not have wanted.

If they do option 2), or if they do nothing, they basically admit that they are abandoning the whole point behind cultural armor, i.e. race-exclusivity. IMO this is just a bad precedent to set.

yav.4952:

Tman.6349 brought this up on a thread on the Black Lion Trading Co Forums and I’d completely forgotten about it but once upon a time people were able to transmute Cultural gear onto whites and wear them on other races. Anet threw a hissy fit and rolled things back.

Boy things have changed.

A rollback may not be completely out of the picture here. Maybe…. hopefully.. But then again gems are involved this time….

I don’t actually mind them recycling (lesser) skins this way, by adding particle effects and so on, but for one of the sets to be a Cultural armor, and T3 at that, is ludicrous. From the looks of things someone over there has royally screwed up with their armor selections.

Ps. if this isn’t fixed, STAY AWAY from my Norn Medium T3. Human scum. Go roll a short norn and pretend to be human if you really want it that badly /flips table

Wow, I never knew this happened. So there is precedent for Anet wanting cultural armor to remain race-exclusive.

Makes this change seem doubly scummy.

PS: you’ve got a deal, as long as you hulking brutes stop trying to cram yourselves into our intricate armor :p

Draknar.5748:

Glenstorm.4059:

The primary goal wasn’t to have a unique look, it was to have a uniquely human look. I bought human T3 light because only humans had access to the armor. I couldn’t care less how many other humans had it too, as long as only humans had it. This humans-only exclusivity is what made this armor valuable to me. That was the point of cultural armor; it was made special not just by its looks but also because only fellow members of your race could have it, and I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

If Anet suddenly now believes that everyone should have access to cultural armor regardless of race, why weren’t other races’ T3 armors re-skinned? That human tier 3 light armor is “the best look” is entirely subjective; that it was hitherto human-exclusive is entirely objective.

Again, my primary goal and your primary goal were not the same. I purchased T3 cultural for two reasons. One was because only Sylvari could have it, two was because it is so expensive the majority of Sylvari players don’t even bother, which makes my character look more unique.

Everyone has different motivations. It really is a case of agreeing to disagree. I would still be upset if they made it available on the gemstore but exclusive to Sylvari. Well less upset and more annoyed, but I would still feel it was a poor business practice.

I think we both agree that racial exclusivity was very important in us pursuing our respective races’ cultural armors, right? You just place more importance on other sylvari not being able to afford it, while I don’t care about other humans wearing T3 as long as it’s only humans wearing it.

And I also think we both agree that singling out human light T3 armor to have its racial exclusivity removed was a bad move, right?

Sooo I’m not sure why we’re arguing

Scoobaniec.9561:

Glenstorm.4059:

Magus (T3 charr light)

U can take it anytime anyday. Its looks like a piece of kitten on charr that doesnt even have a hole for tail and removes hairs..In “cultural armor”. I always been saying that this armor was designed for humans and stretched to charr, now im sure it is and that other races will be looking much better in it than charr does. Theres a reason why no charr that has light class runs in t3.

I do sympathize with Charr when it comes with armor quality, you guys really got the short end of the stick when it came to most non-heavy armor skins. But this is all subjective I suppose.

Deth.4109:

Glenstorm.4059:

Deth.4109:

if you ever bought Cultural armor to be “exclusive” ive got a news flash for you, EVERY member of your race has it. There is not a moment when i am in lions arch and im not staring down one charr or norn heavy armor guy wearing the same armor as every other one with in a few meters of the others, human cultural T3 became so generic when i saw it i was way past not impressed any more.

Again, I bought human light T3 cultural armor precisely because it was exclusive to humans. Seeing hundreds of other humans wearing the same armor didn’t bother me in the slightest, but now seeing scores of non-humans parading around in it is infuriating, because humans don’t get to wear their T3 light armor sets.

yeah you do, i dont recall the patch removing your armor from you and leaving you naked, Besides its obvious this armor was popular enough that people would pay for a re skinned version and if this means the end of such a stupid concept as raced locked armors im all for it.

? No, the only T3 cultural armor skin that’s no longer race-locked (i.e. exclusive) is the human light skin. Humans can’t wear re-skinned versions of Dryad (T3 sylvari light), Magus (T3 charr light), Lupine (T3 norn light) or Savant (T3 asura light), but each of these races gets a shinier re-skin of Sorcerer’s (T3 human light).

And by re-skinning a cultural armor skin and making it available to all races set just because it’s popular (which is subjective by the way), Anet is saying they’re okay with throwing systems that they themselves designed (race-locked armors) under the bus to make quick money. It’s just a bad precedent they’re setting.

Regardless, if they are going to release re-skins of other races’ Tier 3 light skins, I’m okay with this. But as it stands, human scholars are the only ones losing exclusivity, and this is something I’m NOT okay with.

Deth.4109:

if you ever bought Cultural armor to be “exclusive” ive got a news flash for you, EVERY member of your race has it. There is not a moment when i am in lions arch and im not staring down one charr or norn heavy armor guy wearing the same armor as every other one with in a few meters of the others, human cultural T3 became so generic when i saw it i was way past not impressed any more.

Again, I bought human light T3 cultural armor precisely because it was exclusive to humans. Seeing hundreds of other humans wearing the same armor didn’t bother me in the slightest, but now seeing scores of non-humans parading around in it is infuriating, because humans don’t get to wear their T3 light armor sets.

Facepunch.5710:

Draknar.5748:

The whole reason people even bother buying the T3 cultural sets is because of exclusivity. At the very least you know (knew) that no other race can have it, so that reduces the number of possible characters with your set by a huge %.

This is where I stop following the argument. Is this true for many people? Your primary goal is to have a unique look? I don’t think so. If that was the case you’d see more people running around in godawful generic armor sets that no one uses. The goal is to have the best look. For many people, the best look for clothies is human T3. Stand in LA for 15 minutes and watch people run by, it’s clear that people care more about having this look than they do about how many people have this look.

The primary goal wasn’t to have a unique look, it was to have a uniquely human look. I bought human T3 light because only humans had access to the armor. I couldn’t care less how many other humans had it too, as long as only humans had it. This humans-only exclusivity is what made this armor valuable to me. That was the point of cultural armor; it was made special not just by its looks but also because only fellow members of your race could have it, and I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

If Anet suddenly now believes that everyone should have access to cultural armor regardless of race, why weren’t other races’ T3 armors re-skinned? That human tier 3 light armor is “the best look” is entirely subjective; that it was hitherto human-exclusive is entirely objective.

haviz.1340:

Glenstorm.4059:

Human scholars, and only human scholars, have lost their T3 cultural armor exclusivity. This is unfair. Exclusivity is the whole point of cultural armor.

I have light t3 armour for over a year and I believe I have not lost anything. In fact, I eagerly await for norn and sylvari reskins.

You being okay with it doesn’t mean it’s equitable. Human clothies have still lost exclusivity for one of their cultural skins.

If they’re planning on releasing reskins of other racial cultural armors, I’d be okay with it. I’d still think it cheap and lazy of them, but it’d be equitable.

haviz.1340:

Glenstorm.4059:

This unfairness is why people are angry.

What unfairness? You have not lost anything.

Human scholars, and only human scholars, have lost their T3 cultural armor exclusivity. This is unfair. Exclusivity is the whole point of cultural armor.

Ashabhi.1365:

Of course they have…

but the implementation deliberately harms a subset of the playerbase.

IF they offered all T3 skins, it still would have been upsetting, but it would have been more equitable for everyone. As it is, they didn’t do that. They simple sold out one type (clothies) of one race (Humans.)

Yes, it will be an immensely popular item for people to get on their non-humans…still doesn’t make it right.

This is what some people are failing to grasp.

Cultural armor by its very definition is exclusive to a race.

The Flamekissed armor IS human scholar Tier 3 cultural armor, with a few flames tacked on, but is made available to all races.

Therefore, human scholars have lost their exclusivity in terms of having their own cultural armor skin; no other race/class combination gets the same treatment. This is unfair.

I don’t think that’s too illogical.

I understand that Anet might have changed their position about cultural armor being exclusive. It’s baffling why they’d do that now, but I understand. What I don’t understand is, again, why only human scholars were targeted like this.

isendel.5049:

While i totally agree with this, i think you guys are missing the point here.

For every one of us here on the forum, there are 10s in game. The people reading (and complaining) on the forum are a minority. And the people complaining, even if it seems the majority, is the minority due to the fact that usually if someone is happy with the game you know, he plays it instead of spending time out of it.

This said, I played a couple of hours today and i’ve seen a lot of the new armor skins around, especially in tpvp. Why? ‘cause lots of people like it. We really like the idea to play this great mmorpg for free, so we should stop complaining about other people financing our playtime.
My thief has human t3, but what’s the point of it? I like it. I couldn’t care less if other people, maybe not even humans, had something similar. I like it, and i go with it. That’s the whole point of the game guys..

Again, they will be making money out of it, a lot. All the complainings on the forum won’t make them change their mind and why? Because it’s going to take a couple of clicks for them to notice that for each people compalining, 10 are buying the new armor. So, the majority of their playerbase is probably enjoing the add..

And FYI, i haven’t bought the new armors (yet, probably gonna go for the flamekissed with my asura ele though..looks decent and i already have light asura t3 on 2 characters..)

I’m sorry, I disagree. Some things have to be sacred, especially when it comes to cultural armor, which by definition is supposed to be exclusive to a single race. If Anet is at the point where they have to a) re-skin old armors and b) destroy the whole point of cultural armor and c) do so at the expense of one particular race/class combination (human scholars) just to make a quick buck, then it bodes very ill for future releases. At best, it’s lazy and indifferent. At worst, it’s desperate.

I’m astounded that so much (justified) outrage has not warranted a single response from ANet.

And to those who think this isn’t a big deal, remember: today, it’s human scholars losing their T3 cultural skin exclusivity; tomorrow it could be your favored race/profession combo following suit. A terrible precedent has been set today.

haviz.1340:

Yes, I am still wondering why you all are angry. I don’t see any reason.

The fact that you’re okay with human scholars being the only race/profession combination losing its cultural T3 exclusivity doesn’t make it fair.

This unfairness is why people are angry.

haviz.1340:

Why is everyone so angry? I’m perfectly happy and okay with this change. Now I can buy T3 armour for pvp without grinding to rank 80! No one loses anything with this change, there are only good sides.

Amazing job anet.

Flamekissed armor IS human T3 light armor; a name change and some pretty fire doesn’t fool anyone. So now human T3 light armor is no longer cultural i.e. exclusive to human scholars. AND it’s available for FAR cheaper (gold→gem) than vendor-bought T3 armor. AND it’s a skin therefore does not require one to purchase transmutation crystals as the vendor-bought cultural armor does.

It’s also a lazy way to create new skins and (IMO) completely unoriginal, what with all the flame-type armor skins already available.

Are you still wondering why people are angry?

ittoujuu.3076:

snip

I could not have said it better myself.

I’m not on a computer that can run GW2, so could someone please tell me if the other minor traits (Flame Barrier, Zephyr’s Speed, Soothing Mist) all work with Lingering Elements now?

Jabberwock.9014:

Hopefully they are disabling it so they can recall the flame kissed armor before too much damage is done.

We would be so lucky.

Alex Kelley.2748:

Glenstorm.4059:

On the contrary, if they decide to keep the re-skin in the Store, I seriously hope that they offer the other races’ T3 (Light) skins on there too. Throwing humans only under the bus is NOT okay.

If that were to happen, I’d imagine that nearly all prestige for completing a cultural set would be lost, and that’s not something I’d want. It just gives players one less thing to work towards.

I also have T3 sets on my Sylvari mesmer, Human warrior and Human thief, and I honestly think I’d stop playing if the same were done to them. It’s pretty unsettling to have something you’ve spent a fair amount of time working and saving for given out for half the price.

That’s exactly how many players who already have, or are currently working towards, human T3 light armor feel now.

Personally, I don’t really care about the prestige; I care about the principle. Isn’t cultural armor meant to be exclusive to each race? Why was this done then? And if it was a conscious, planned-out decision by ANet and not a goof, why were ONLY human light armor players singled out?

Alex Kelley.2748:

As much as I want this to be fixed, judging by how ANet has handled things in the past, it won’t be. Can only hope they don’t do this with all of the other cultural sets. Quite bummed that I’ll have 120g worth of junk taking up six of my bank slots.

On the contrary, if they decide to keep the re-skin in the Store, I seriously hope that they offer the other races’ T3 (Light) skins on there too. Throwing humans only under the bus is NOT okay.

Totbot.4583:

Glenstorm.4059:

Totbot.4583:

This seems like such a non issue.

People will still see your super special T3 armor and know you paid 119g for it. Nothing changed there. Hell, the gem store version even gives you less flexibility in looks since you have to go with the flame motif with it. The t3 doesn’t.

Maybe get gear you think looks good and stop worrying about other people?

If it was any other type of armor or weapon (heck, even Legendaries), it wouldn’t bother me.

But the whole point, the WHOLE blessed point of Cultural armor was that is was exclusive to each race.

Making it (T3, no less!) available to every other race is just wrong, and unfair.

It still looks different. Your T3 doesn’t have stupid fire particle effects.

Use what YOU think looks good. If you’re worried that other people won’t be drooling over your T3 anymore then don’t worry. T3 has been pretty common for a long time.

Believe me, I didn’t get my T3 light armor because I want people to drool over it…in fact, it was already pretty commonplace when I bought my set. I bought it simply because it was the highest tier exclusively human armor set available. I’m not begrudging other people having the same T3 looks, I’m begrudging non-humans wearing human-exclusive armor sets. Doubly so because no other race’s cultural sets got the same treatment.

Totbot.4583:

This seems like such a non issue.

People will still see your super special T3 armor and know you paid 119g for it. Nothing changed there. Hell, the gem store version even gives you less flexibility in looks since you have to go with the flame motif with it. The t3 doesn’t.

Maybe get gear you think looks good and stop worrying about other people?

If it was any other type of armor or weapon (heck, even Legendaries), it wouldn’t bother me.

But the whole point, the WHOLE blessed point of Cultural armor was that is was exclusive to each race.

Making it (T3, no less!) available to every other race is just wrong, and unfair.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Since they started giving human exclusive armor to other races they might as well go all the way.

I would love to see what asura cultural armor looks like on humans!
Savant armor on humans, make it happen!

Yep, it’s only fair. I want my human ele to be able to wear Sylvari T3 for the druid look.

Singling out humans like this is adding insult to injury (doing away with cultural armor’s exclusivity.)

OMNIBUS.2913:

Now that they have done this the only logical thing left to do is get rid of “cultural” and make all the t3 armors wearable by all races. And put them in the gemstore too with other effects. Its only fair. I’ll take norn t3 on my human, would like to see how the charr armors looks on human as well.

Seconded. What’s the point of half-measures if you’re going to do away with the racial exclusivity of cultural armors? Put them all up on the Gem Store. Personally, I’d like my human Ele to be able to wear Sylvari or Asura T3.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

not everyone has as much gold as you… It IS a prestige object for a lot of players and if you saved your gold until you finally hit the 120g mark and now you get it for half the price with an extra effect, you’ll feel screwed over.

+1

The whole shtick behind Cultural armor was that it was exclusive to one race and one race only. The fact that a lot of people by now have it doesn’t mean it’s okay to suddenly make it available to non-humans.

It would have been more fair if they had also re-skinned the other races’ T3 light sets
and put them up on the Store.

You know what’s sad? People are going to buy the re-skin anyway. Which is just going to encourage whoever it was who came up with this bright idea.

The idea behind Cultural armor—that it’s exclusive to one race—has been done away with today. It’s frankly insulting in a game that values cosmetics and exclusivity as much as this one.

This is just wrong. Cultural armor is supposed to be exclusive to one race and one race only! Calling this “new” skin “Flamekissed” and adding a few flames doesn’t change the fact that this is human T3 armor, and it is now available to every other race.

Baffling decision on their part.

I couldn’t care less about the price to be honest, it’s the principle. Cultural armor was/is meant to be exclusive to one race and one race only! Naming the “new” set “Flamekissed” doesn’t fool anyone; it’s still the same human T3 set, but it’s now available to all races.

That’s why I’m miffed.

It would have been fair had they released re-skins of all the other races’ T3 light armors. Heck, I’d love the idea of making my human male Ele wear the T3 sylvari armor for a more druid-like look. Or have him wear the asura T3 for a more modern look.

Yep, I’d like it for my human Ele now please The precedent has been set, after all.

So when does my male human Ele get to wear Snapdragon (tier 3 sylvari light armor) or Savant (tier 3 Asura light armor) at a discount with some tacked-on effects?

oZii.2864:

S/D burst ele MIGHT make it’s way back in the meta with a different type of build.

Wait, could you please elaborate? I thought S/D burst is somewhat viable in the current meta? Or are you saying that the patch will render the build unviable? I don’t play S/x so I’m not familiar with the build, but Fresh Air isn’t being touched right?

I wish I could spectate this

Hi all. Despite Ele being the main class I’ve played since launch, I’m not the best Ele player when it comes to PvP. So I’d like some opinions from more experienced PvP Eles regarding the Dec. 10 patch. How effective do you think it will be in making us viable in high-end SPvP?

From what the devs and some PvPers are saying, Ele is held back currently due to the condi spam/CC heavy meta, along with builds like S/D Thief completely countering us. The Dec. 10 patch goes some way towards addressing these concerns; S/D Thieves are being (rightfully) nerfed, and the Hammer nerfs for Warriors means that they will be doing less damage if they choose to go CC-heavy. Necromancers get 1 less stack of bleed from Mark of Blood in PvP, but Dhuumfire remains untouched and they are receiving a bunch of buffs to traits related to minion and Power builds, so I don’t think they’ll be any less of a threat. Engineers are losing perma-vigor, and Incendiary Ammo is moving up a tier, but they are getting a bunch of buffs to survivability, so I don’t see us being able to push them off points any easier than now. Meanwhile, Mesmers are getting buffed, and they were always pretty good; I’m scared to think of how powerful they’ll become now that S/D thief will be mostly out of the picture.

Diamond Skin sticks out to me as the devs’ response to our disadvantaged state in this meta, as it’s a condition immunity that is in a trait line that also provides us with Stability (Earth’s Embrace/Rock Solid.) But I’m so torn on this change. On the one hand, I despise it since it’s a passive immunity (dumbs the game down). On the other hand, I don’t think it’s especially difficult to get an Ele below 90% health, despite our plethora of healing options. Plus, from a purely vindictive standpoint, it’s nice to have a possibly OP (I’m not convinced of this) anti-condi trait after so many months of being at the bottom of the meta.

To me, the Ele’s issue is and has always been survivability. Cantrips, despite being nerfed to near-uselessness, still ironically remain our most useful utilities purely due to the survivability they offer. To get any further utility from them, we have to spec into Water (especially now since Soothing Disruption is moving to Master), which kills damage output. Similarly, speccing into Water for condition removal neuters damage output.

Condi classes can spec into Toughness/Vitality while still doing great damage through condis. We can’t do this because we have no way to reliably re-apply a good variety of conditions.

Warriors can spec for great damage or great CC while shrugging off damage and condis through their base HP/toughness, Healing Signet and stances.

As far as we go, the devs are adamant that our current HP and armor baselines remain as they are. The problem is I don’t see us getting any decent compensation.

So what are your thoughts? Will things change for the better for us in PvP come Dec. 10? Or is the outlook still bleak?

As someone who’s still relatively new to SPvP (Rank 20 “hotjoin hero” here :p) I do want to suggest implementing stuff to help newbies learn attack cues and tells better. Particle effects need to be toned down across the board. And PLEASE do something about Asuras! I realize that many people love their animations (I’m one of them), but you have to admit it’s next to impossible to read them for attack tells, especially when they’re the smallest size, darkest color and dyed all black to blend into the effect spam all over the screen.

Fix all the broken and useless traits we have right now first. Please.

So Jon Peters, when discussing the 5 point Minor traits we get, admitted that Fire (Flame Barrier) and Air (Zephyr’s Speed) needed work.

Here’s an idea I have for Flame Barrier; I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Flame Barrier: You have a chance to block attacks used against you by burning foes. Only triggers while attuned to Fire.

I know this sounds too powerful for a 5-point trait, but careful balancing of the chance to trigger (or adding an internal cooldown), combined with the fact that it only works while attuned to fire, would ensure that it isn’t too powerful. To have access to it outside of Fire, you’d have to spec into Lingering Elements, so it would have some utility for high Arcana builds as well. It would also have synergy with the new Burning Fire and especially Ember’s Might. Plus, it matches the theme of all our 5-point non-Arcana minor traits being defensive in nature.

This would give us a low-cost defensive option to spec into Fire and away from Water/Arcana. And maybe One With Fire could also be reworked to improve Flame Barrier’s chance to proc the block, because at the moment these two traits are garbage.

Thoughts?

DiogoSilva.7089:

Haha, zerker staff ele with lava tomb and persisting flames ia a pretty funny troll build. You’ll be mostly useless whenever you get caught in a duel (and even then, it’s surprising how many fall to your 8 second lava tomb), but you can always position yourself safely and spam meteors, lava fonts and fireballs into a capture point and watch everyone die. Or just put yourself in the middle of the point and watch everyone get lava tomb’d. I’ve won several battles by geting downed over and over again. :P Someone called me useless (a warrior that was spending his entire time rezzing me), while everyone around was having a hard time surviving two lava fonts without forcing themselves to leave the capture points.

My apologies to whoever was in my team at that time! But if I have to die so fast, let me die with style.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry

Inb4 Lava Font nerf.

I agree, there’s a lot to be said for simplicity. Especially when particle effects are very subtle.

1. Krytan Staff Simple, elegant, with a lovely, soft, welcoming glow that dims in and out when the staff is wielded/stowed.
2. Gnarled Walking Stick Love the magic words scrolling around the otherwise unimpressive wood; really brings out the “ancient artifact” feel.
3. Sovereign Pillar Very Art Deco, though perhaps the glow is a bit too subtle.

Honestly, RtL’s problem was that it used to travel 1500 units rather than 1200. It was fine after the range was brought down. To outrun a Warrior now, I have to RtL, Lightning Flash and possibly FGS (blow 3 skills, including 1 elite). And yet the devs saw fit to attach a CD penalty to RtL.

As a D/D main, I’m still holding out and hoping for a dev response regarding the RtL nerf. They want it to be used as a gap-closer first and a disengage second; fine, but why do we still get hammered with the 40s CD if it’s blocked, evaded or the target stealths? I don’t see Rush (same range, more damage, 20s CD) or Swoop (less damage, 100 less range but 150 more range with Swiftness or other movement speed boost, 15s CD) getting the same treatment.

Wraistlin.6072:

reikken.4961:

instant and stun breaker is too much
making it instant would be perfect. making it also a stun break means it would need nerfs

I don’t understand how that makes any sense considering all the other stun breakers are instant cast.

Arcane Shield
Mist Form
Glyph of Elemental Power
Earth Armor
Signet of Air

I don’t think he meant that a stun breaker isn’t instant-cast, only that Earth Shield should be instant-cast but not a stun breaker.

@reikken: I do see your point. If it were to become a stun breaker, it gives us a variety of CC options and an Invulnerability to counter with immediately after breaking stun, not to mention immediate (minor?) buffs to Vitality and Toughness, which I admit could be a bit too powerful.

EDIT: Although it does lock us out of our Attunements. But I’m not sure if that’s a strong enough trade-off.

But yes, it should at least be instant-cast!

Conjure Earth Shield has a lot of potential; it is our only Pull (now with Protection!), our only Daze and our only other Block besides Arcane Shield with its ridiculous cooldown, is relatively decent at stacking bleeds outside of Earth Attunement, and is the only skill in the game that can provide allies with Invulnerability.

However, hardly anyone runs it because casting it takes too much time, and because it is not a stun breaker. These are problems with all Conjures, but it’s especially a shame that a Conjure that’s so obviously defensively oriented as Earth Shield doesn’t break stuns, and has a cast time that can spell doom when you’re focused.

Besides, Conjures are our only Utility class that lacks a stun breaker.

Please devs, consider this!

I’d also love to hear other players’ opinions.

Thank you!

Thank you all for your input! FrownyClown and Malacastus, I’ll be sure to check those builds out!

Welp, that’s disappointing

Any thoughts on if the Dec 10 patch (especially changes to Earth) will improve our condi outlook?

Hey guys,

Are there any viable condi builds out there for Eles? The context here is SPvP, specifically hotjoin, because I’m too inexperienced to play soloqueue or TPvP.

My only experience has been playing:
-bunker/support with staff
-“just for fun” staff build with +damage traits/Scholar runes
-“bunker” D/D (0/10/0/30/30)
- S/D FA burst
-riskier D/D burst build with less Water investment

…but I’ve mostly focused on either support or Power.

From what I can tell, condi builds are limited to us due to only being able to inflict Burning and Bleeding, and due to losing out on reliable application of these conditions by switching out of Fire or Earth. I’d personally love to see us getting Torment or, even better, Poison, outside of sigils/runes, but for the moment we have to work with what we have.

Has anyone found a reliable and viable condition build? Lemme know

Yep, it’s really annoying to have RtL go on a 40-second cooldown when it’s blocked (especially by a Guardian’s Aegis), or if the Thief/Mesmer/Ranger/Engie you used it on goes into stealth. I used it as an initiator; why should I incur the penalty?

IMO RtL should at least be unblockable. Or it should not have its CD increased if it’s used on a target within its range, whether or not it hits or is blocked/evaded.

JonPeters.5630:

I do agree that the 5 point minors need looking at. I think the Earth and Water ones are in an ok place right now but Fire and Air need work.

Jon

Can I just say, thank you so much for the consistent communication! It’s a huge relief to see frequent red posts in the Ele forum.

Thank you!