Guild Wars 2

Caveat: I haven’t prepurchased HoT yet. That said, I’m not exaggerating when I say that Tempest is 90% of the reason I’m even considering getting HoT, and if I don’t like Tempest, I’m not going to bother with the expansion.

I’d like to provide some feedback on Overloads, based on my observations of streams and other peoples’ thoughts:

The charge-up time on Overloads needs to go.

The whole point of the Ele is to seamlessly chain combos together, with Attunement cooldowns serving as one drawback. Having them charge up ruins their combo potential, and reduces the Ele’s ability to react immediately. In particular, you have to pretty much be psychic in order to benefit from the Water overload heal, since you have to switch to Water and wait for 5 seconds, predicting a hit.

Kidel.2057:

Seriously people are still QQing when ele is currently the best class in the game and they even buffed Tempest that was basically already fine. Oh come on, Dragonhunter can’t even aim (yes, longbow AA is so slow it can be dodged just walking).

They should nerf Ele before doing tweaks on Tempest, seriously. Ele and Mesmer.

Ele does indeed have a role to play in every game mode, and plays those roles extremely well. I also agree with you that Ele could use a few small nerfs to bring it in line, at least in SPvP. I say small because it’s very possible that with knee-jerk nerfs, Eles will fall back into joke-tier in PvP. Or are you forgetting that Eles were at the bottom of the ladder for a year+?

The reason people are complaining is because Tempest does not, in their minds, provide a NEW and/or distinct enough role for Ele to play. Whether or not Ele is “the best class in the game” has NOTHING to do with the fact that Tempest isn’t living up the proposed goal (opening up new playstyles.) Not to mention, there are basic issues like there not being a trait that reduces shout CD times. So people definitely have the right to complain. You might think Tempest “was basically already fine”; plenty of other people disagree with you. THAT is why they are complaining.

You’ve completely missed the point about WHY people are “QQing.”

Added to the bugs list on this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Updated-Ele-Bugs-as-of-8-13-2015-patch/

Out of curiosity, does this bug affect both Glyph of Lesser Elementals as well as the elite Glyph?

The 7/26/2015 patch fixed the following bugs:

-Fresh Air: This trait still has a cooldown sometimes.
-Ferocious Winds: This trait grants Ferocity based on Toughness, not Precision.

I’ve updated the OP with more bugs; it is up-to-date as of the 8/13/2015 patch.

rotten.9753:

Scepter is a mid/long range weapon, warhorn will be likely a close range weapon. Do the math.

Well, there could be the possibility that WH skills will be mid-long range, and the datamined singularity skills will be close range. We’ll have to wait and see.

I’m hoping /W revitalizes Scepter use (maybe even opening up additional builds in addition to FA?) However, I still hope that we’ll get some much-needed tweaks to make Scepter a less clunky weapon to use:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Scepter-rework-is-even-more-imperative-now

rotten.9753:

Inb4 8 skills that have the same animation.

Really hoping this won’t be the case.

That would…blow….

IMO, reworking Conjures is the answer. My ideas:

1) Conjures all have a cast time of 1/2 second, with the exception of Conjure Earth Shield.
2) Conjure Earth Shield has an instant cast time, and breaks stun when cast.
3) Conjures all have a recharge of 60 seconds, including Conjure Fiery Greatsword, and no longer have charges (they have 100% uptime.)
4) Conjures no longer disappear when dropped, and can be picked up and dropped repeatedly until the Conjure summon skill itself recharges, at which point the weapon will disappear.
5) Conjurer trait reworked: Conjure weapon summon skills’ recharge reduced to 45 seconds. Conjured weapons grant Fire Aura when summoned or picked up (45 second cooldown.) Conjured weapons create an effect around them when summoned:
——Conjure Flame Axe: creates a Flame Burst where summoned (same as Staff Fire 3, but with a radius of 180) [Synergy with Blinding Ashes and other burning-related traits.]
——Conjure Frost Bow: creates a Cleansing Wave where summoned (same as Evasive Arcana in Water)
——Conjure Lightning Hammer: dazes foes where summoned (1 second, 180 radius, 5 target maximum) [Synergy with Lightning Rod.]
——Conjure Earth Shield: grants Magnetic Aura where summoned (same as Staff Earth 3, but with a radius of 180, and a 5 target maximum) [Synergy with Elemental Shielding and other aura-related traits.]
——Conjure Fiery Greatsword: current effect, with an increased radius of 180, increased target limit of 5, and a Blast finisher
—-(Possible: Conjurer trait switches places with One with Fire trait.)

Having 100% uptime on Conjures with these changes might seem OP, but remember that holding onto a Conjured weapon locks you out of your Attunement weapon skills, dropping/picking up the weapons isn’t instant, and you have to be aware of positioning when deciding where/when to drop/pick up the weapons, so there are trade-offs. Also, these changes encourage taking one or two Conjures to round out a build while still making a triple-Conjure build an iffy proposition.

I also just realized that, if the datamined singularity skills end up being powerful enough to warrant camping an attunement, Conjure builds might actually be viable in Air or Water.

Would love your thoughts.

drkn.3429:

1) In PvE, if warhorn is to be viable, D/W or S/W needs to offer more than Staff.

Not more, just be on par, with alternative playstyle even. Currently scepter is just tiers below staff in terms of usage in PvE.

Agreed! Power creep isn’t what we need, diversity is.

Also, if the datamines are to be believed, the new “singularity” feature will involve camping attunements…which will exacerbate the problem of us having craptastic auto-attacks on our weapons, with the sole exceptions being Fireball and Lightning Whip. If the Tempest trait line focuses on singularity/warhorn usage, I don’t see how it won’t be hampered by our limited choice in main hands.

OneKlicKill.4285:

Arobain.8274:

soulstitch, these guys are elitist, theres nothing we can do for em

I mean I can call you a fanboy, obvious by your post history, but me being an elitist(by the way you should look up that word since you use it so much, it doesn’t mean what you think it means) doesn’t have anything to do with this.

The vast majority of the class and nearly ALL of the competitive players who know the ins and outs of this class and what it actually needs, agree that we need a melee weapon with true melee range and auto attack range. They agree that scepter is situational at best and needs some serious rework. They agree that OH dagger and focus are two extremely good offhands covering the majority of our OH needs, they agree we have a lot of team support and need a weapon that can bring self defense and utility in offense such as blinds, blocks, evades, teleports, disables; so we have ways to get away from cele amulet, sustain arc/water, and cantrips.

Warhorn can not bring us this, it will bring us either more AOE support or condi, none of which we need. And the only way tempest will work now is if it modifies all of our current weapons similar to reaper and shroud. Especially if it promotes attun camping, we have all of 2 auto attacks in this game that are actually decent out of 12, fire staff and air dagger. Sword was our chance to leave the cele/soldier history of our class behind and become a true damage dealer not having to use boons and tough/vit amulets as a crutch.

This is so true it hurts.

We needed a decent main hand weapon, not another off hand.

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

Glenstorm.4059:

Although, there is always the (very, very slim) chance that warhorn skills will be so OMGWTF OP that they will overcome those deficiencies.

Well, that’s the problem isn’kitten Warhorn skills actually have to be OMGWTF OP simply so that anywould would even think about using it over the extremely good and well-rounded offhand dagger or the supremely defensive focus.

I’d be okay with WH being OP, IF it offers a different type of functionality than /D (which is, like you said, well-rounded) or /F (which offers amazing defensive.) Something like CC immunity maybe, or condi pressure? Idk..

Lyger.5429:

Glenstorm.4059:

“Elemental singularity” skills have been datamined, which give you a skill after you’ve been in an attunement for a few seconds. I’m speculating that these skills will replace your F-skill for an attunement when you’ve been in that attunement for a while.

I doubt we’re going to get another attunement.

This sounds interesting but if main-hand weapons don’t get tweaked a bit I feel like they will drag down the warhorn. Only time will tell though

Agreed, although more when it comes to Scepter than with MH dagger. Although, there is always the (very, very slim) chance that warhorn skills will be so OMGWTF OP that they will overcome those deficiencies.

“Elemental singularity” skills have been datamined, which give you a skill after you’ve been in an attunement for a few seconds. I’m speculating that these skills will replace your F-skill for an attunement when you’ve been in that attunement for a while.

I doubt we’re going to get another attunement.

So with warhorn being confirmed, it’s more important than ever that the issue of Scepter’s clunkiness be fixed.

I’m not going to waste time speculating on whether or not warhorn will have amazing skills. What I will say:

1) In PvE, if warhorn is to be viable, D/W or S/W needs to offer more than be on par with Staff.
2) In PvP, this combination needs to offer more than be on par with D/x

Mainhand dagger is in a very good spot.

Scepter, however, is NOT.

-Autoattacks are beyond clunky. They all need reductions in cast time and/or aftercast delay. Ice Shards and Arc Lightning‘s damage is pathetic, especially considering those skills don’t apply any additional effects. Stone Shards seriously needs to have its flight arc reduced, and/or needs a projectile speed increase, as it’s very easy to dodge it with just Swiftness.
-Shatterstone needs to either have its cast time dramatically reduced, or do something while charging up, like pulse an AoE Chill. It’s way too easy to walk out of this skill.
-The weapon in general is trying to do too much. Is it a burst weapon? Is it a condi weapon? Personally, I feel that it can, and should, fill EITHER of these roles, but not both. As in, we should be able to use the Scepter as a burst weapon with Fresh Air/Marauder/Zerker amulet, or a condi weapon with Rabid amulet. D/x already provides us with a very good hybrid/Celestial spec.

Of course, there is the possibility that the warhorn skills, in addition to the datamined Singularities, will singlehandedly overcome Scepter’s weaknesses, but I doubt this will happen.

TL;DR: Make Scepter less clunky pls.

I just find it ironic that it was Rurik, a freaking warrior, who uses Stormcaller in GW1. Lol.

Kodiak.3281:

Drayos.8759:

well staying in longer… as far as i could see… we got pulse damage and things if we delayed how quickly we run through each specc, im assuming this is to try push this whole Jack of trades Hit everything playstyle we currently have and to be more capable of excelling in one area… i mean afterall i’d like to see more Damaging builds go up, D/D is great for sustain and things but we have nothing inthe Meta for just Pure explosive damage, so hopefully this will draw away from Support and bring more Power/AoE and Powerhouse Nuking.

The general problem with this line of thinking is that, ultimately, it’s the class design that doesn’t allow us to camp a single attunement. If I need a CC/Protection/Condi Cleanse/etc I have to swap out of Fire. Just how it is. I don’t swap because I want to, but simply because that’s what the class demands and how it works. So the idea of a mechanic, “Singularity”, rewards camping an attunement is novel but fundamentally impractical to the base design of the Elementalist class as a whole. Sure it’ll pulse Might or pulse Burn or whatever, but in the end in order to counter game mechanics as a class I’m still forced to swap because weapon skills are balanced around swapping attunements rather than each attunement being self sufficient enough to sit and camp it.

This. With the caveat that we don’t know all that much about what Singularities actually do beyond what was datamined (and that may have changed too), I simply don’t see how they can make camping an attunement worth your while. The class was fundamentally designed around swapping; Singularities need to provide some serious (defensive?) buffs to be viable.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Me likey the art. I do I do.

Absolutely cannot wait until Thursday and Friday now, as ele is my main.

I’m not going to get my panties in a bunch about getting warhorn over sword. Neither really got me overly excited, but we’ll see what they have for us.

As a side thought…I wonder if any class is getting a main hand weapon.

Mes – offhand
Necro – two hand
Ele – offhand

Ranger – confirmed two hand
Engineer – confirmed two hand

Guardian – two hand

Leaves us with: warrior, thief, and revenant.

Thief we’ve had hints at rifle or staff – two hand
Revenant we have datamining for shield – offhand
Not a clue on warrior. Some speculate dagger, but again I think that would end up an offhand, not a main hand.

I bet not even warrior will get a mainhand. The datamined name for the warrior elite spec is “Berserker,” which makes me think it’ll get a new off-hand.

Regarding the warhorn for us, I really hope they give us reworks to Scepter. If /W is to become a viable alternative to Staff or D/D, especially if warhorn is ranged, Scepter absolutely needs to become less clunky to use. Not to mention that warhorn is already competing with /F and /D, which are very strong weapons.

lulu bell.1730:

I fail to see how they can do anything creative with a warhorn that isn’t just ‘create various elemental storms’ and ‘buff nearby allies’ we have plenty of skills like that already.

Yep, this is my main concern too, that warhorn will try to step on the toes of our other weapon sets.

Hope I’m wrong.

Normally I’d be happy that I was right, but at the moment, I’m just very apprehensive.

Hold onto your butts, folks!

Also, the “circle of fire” you mentioned is probably because you have the Persisting Flames trait equipped, which creates a Lava Font at your location when you are downed. Fun fact, if you can stall in downed state long enough, you can active Vapor Form, and when you return to downed state, you can summon another Lava Font. Useless most of the time, but could be useful in PvE :p

In order to justify camping an attunement, the singularity skill or whatever needs to be pretty powerful…and hopefully ground-targeted so it isn’t useless at mid/long range.

I believe Tempest will focus on remaining in a single element for longer rather than swapping, fitting with the idea that elite specs are supposed to radically alter the class’s core mechanics.

Kidel.2057:

Glenstorm.4059:

True, Ele weapon swap would be pretty OP. I guess I’m just a bit miffed at the range argument.

What about using Staff + conjured hammer, or D/D + conjured bow (I believe it’s also a popular build)?
You even have a midrange weapon with the greatsword.

Seriously, weaponswap gives access to 2 WS sets, Elementalist can access 3 with conjured weapon, plus 4 more with attunements.

Never happy.

I have already admitted that weapon swap would be OP for Ele.

I should clarify that I’m looking at things from a PvP PoV, because PvE in this game is largely a joke.

Taking conjures to fill in the range gap seems like a great idea in theory, but in practice, it’s just not viable in PvP. Sure, FB has a great CC and nuke, but you need to be babysat by your team in order to cast it and its skills safely…not to mention losing out on all the survivability and synergy Cantrips provide. Same issue with the other conjures.

I guess I should just go ahead and rename this thread to a generic “Rework Conjures plz” thread…

(I am looking forward to playing a Rev tho)

oZii.2864:

Stepping into the OP’s hyperbolic vacuum of class comparisons.

If they give Ele’s weapon swap then should we also have a energy cost tied to all off our weapon skills, utilities, and elite’s?

You know because they slapped us in the face, because they simply gave Revenant’s weapon swaps without consideration of it’s other defining mechanics.

So if you RTL, Updraft, drakes breath, then fire grab someone you might not be able to activate Armor of Earth because you used all your energy. Balance Achieved!

/sarcasm

Ha, guess I deserved that, didn’t I?

Point taken; this was a knee-jerk reaction on my part, and I should’ve thought before posting.

I would though like to second another poster’s suggestion on here to rework conjures. I’d love a reason to slap FB onto my utility bar in PvP as a D/D ele responding to ranged pressure with my gap closers on CD.

True, Ele weapon swap would be pretty OP. I guess I’m just a bit miffed at the range argument.

So one of the reasons Roy gave for giving the Revenant weapon swap is that they want Revenants to be able to switch between melee and ranged in combat.

This feels like a slap in the face to Eles, since we have no way of changing between melee and ranged. A D/D ele is expected to man up and close the gap against a ranged opponent. A Staff ele’s combat potential decreases the second your opponent gets close to you.

I’d much rather they have reworked the Revenant’s weapon skills to provide better synergy, but instead they went and just gave the class weapon swap. Doesn’t seem fair to me. :/

Lolwut. I mained a derv in GW1, and they were overshadowed by Warriors in almost all modes (outside of niche uses running, where D/A has always been amazing.) In fact, Assassins, Warriors and Rangers could all use the scythe (Dervish primary weapon) better than the Dervish could! Assassins got Critical Strikes to gain ridiculous damage from the scythe, Warriors got Strength for +armor penetration, and Rangers got Expertise to spam scythe skills faster.

Here are the update notes for the big Dervish overhaul from way back when:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feedback:Developer_updates/20110217

“We noticed, however, that this weapon enjoys much more popularity in classes other than Dervish, due to its high critical damage and the high bonus damage from skills. When professions like Assassin or Warrior use the scythe, they can use their primary attributes to get much more damage out of it than a primary Dervish. Similarly, Rangers wielding scythes can use attack skills more frequently due to Expertise. "

….Lol

Even after the initial big nerf to the Dervish, it took Anet years to rework the profession with Flash Enchantments and adrenaline skills, and even after those changes Warriors were still kings of PvE.

Warrior has always been and will always be Anet’s golden child, because it is such an easy class to pick up and win with.

Karalaza.6021:

Seeing as how the revenant got some sweet looking staff moves, I’m hoping they implement some diversity for other staff users as well

Yeah, I’m quite jealous of the Revenant staff animations. I want some for my Ele

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Arcane Brilliance still centers the BLAST finisher on the opponent rather than the Ele. In order to get it to function correctly you have to have no target.

Can’t believe I’ve never noticed that…added, thank you!

DirtyDan.4759:

Glenstorm.4059:

15) Lightning Flash no longer works in some places where it previously used to work; for example, some stairs in WvW.

Noticed this one doing chest farm in the silverwastes. Doesnt work some stairs at the forts

I’d really appreciate confirmation from someone on here that Soothing Ice does indeed proc Cleansing Water when it grants regeneration.

Tested it with the thief npc at the pvp lobby.
I can confirm the condition remove when frost aura is applied by Soothing Ice.
I would like to add a screenshot but it is pretty difficult to show a removed crippling or immobilzie.

Thanks for confirming! I’ve updated my posts.

IMO, with a just a few small tweaks, Scepter could become a really great weapon that could work EITHER as a primary condition weapon OR as a burst weapon.

-I would like to see Flamestrike and Stone Shards become less clunky. You can literally outrun Stone Shards (and Ice Shards) with just Swiftness. Cast time/aftercast reductions would be great, and flight arc reduced for Stone Shards. Ice Shards could use 1 short-lasting stack of Vulnerability on hit.
-Shatterstone needs either a cast time reduction (faster explosion) OR should pulse Chill while charging up OR should be a Blast finisher.
-These changes would help our condi builds, especially if they’re nerfing Burning (as I’m suspecting they will.)
-Arc Lightning is just sad. Air Attunement is supposed to be the single-target damage Attunement, and scepter is supposed to be the burst weapon. Its cast time should be dramatically reduced, and the damage should be front-loaded and slightly increased.
-Water Trident is great, but it’d be awesome if it also did a small AoE knockback, like it used to before launch (maybe only knockback moving foes, similar to GW1?)

Yeah, this has bugged me since day 1. Same thing with the off-hand being used to cast skills like Phoenix. Makes it seem like the weapon is just there to be held.

I would love for them to re-work animations to actually make use of the weapon, but there’s like a 100% of that not happening

The 7/7/2015 patch fixed the following bug:

Empowering Flame adds 150 power even when not in Fire Attunement. In Fire Attunement, you gain another 150 power, for a total of 300 bonus power.

Hoping for more fixes soon

Also, I’d really appreciate confirmation from someone on here that Soothing Ice does indeed proc Cleansing Water when it grants regeneration. Confirmed to be working correctly by DirtyDan.

I’d still like someone to confirm for me that Soothing Ice does indeed proc Cleansing Water when it procs. Confirmed to be working correctly.

Khalic.3561:

Well that’s empowering flame. How about the rest?

Hoping for more fixes soon

Camping Earth will also make you deal next to no damage.

This trait is meant to be used strategically—swap to Earth when you expect an incoming burst, swap back out to reataliate.

Added a few more bugs.

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

Taobella.6597:

i am not sure these 2 have been added: Leaping threw static field does not aura share.
also leaping threw chao field : does not aura share.

Leaping through a static field dazes your enemy it doesn’t give an aura.

Chaos Aura should probably be shared, probably isn’t currently because we can’t make it ourselves.

Chaos armor is weird, because it isn’t affected by any aura traits, yet per Wiki it is affected by Rune of Radiance (which affects auras.) I added this on the bug list regardless.

Gorani.7205:

Boil (Trident; Fire #2) can not be used against structures, like Inquest turrets etc. or event items than need to be destroyed (e.g. reactors in those Bloodtide Coast NW). The skill just does not execute.

Added, thank you.

Colt.9051:

Found another bug related to Lightning Rod!

If 2 eles that are fighting each other both have Lightning Rod traits, and one gets disabled and uses their Shocking Aura, and the other ele also has their Shocking Aura up, when the other ele attacks the still disabled ele, Lightning Rod will proc 10+ times (Counted 13 by the screenshots) on both eles, being able to do MASSIVE damage to each other. It was quite funny seeing that happen but let’s prevent us from nuking the ever living crap out of each other! xD (Skip to about 3:58 if you want to get past the jargon of reproducing the bug) Also Glen, if you get to adding this to the bug forum topic can the video link also be added to that description bug for clarification? Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBhcgnCEH3Y

Done, thanks!

Bumping with yet another bug.

Alekt.5803:

Are the Devs even reading that kind of thread?

I certainly hope so :/

Jski.6180:

Glenstorm.4059:

I too don’t see why Necros and Mesmers need access to burning, seeing as how they get access to almost every other damaging condition each, and Ele only gets bleeds (and poison via Doom.)

Ele bleeds are bad they simply do not stack fast enofe the bleeds them self become more cover condition for eles real condition dmg effect burning.

Yep, which is why I hope they don’t nerf our burning to the ground.

I’d also be happy with QoL adjustments to Scepter and Dagger Earth auto-attacks to help us maintain bleeds a little better.

I just want Stone Shards’ cast time to be reduced, or at the very least the projectile arc to be lowered. It is just sad how often that attack misses even when the target is well within range. A little Swiftness is all it takes to dodge it.

Ice Shards is also a bad joke.

Burning needs a tweak, yes, but NOT a gutting! Ele full-condi builds are a little bit more viable now thanks to the burning change; I would hate for them to go back to being largely a joke/novelty.

Please do NOT over-nerf burning.

I too don’t see why Necros and Mesmers need access to burning, seeing as how they get access to almost every other damaging condition each, and Ele only gets bleeds (and poison via Doom.)

I agree

I just wish the icons for Soothing Disruption and Cleaning Water weren’t the same.

Mini Crinny.6190:

Just putting this out there as i havent seen this put before. A two-handed warhorn.. Yeah who’d of thought of that one

Lol. Imagine lugging that around on your back.

I’d probably uninstall. :p

blitzkrieg.2451:

Why would you want to play condi ele anyways? How boring must that be? Rely on perplexity and burning damage to win battles? Boring as kitten really.

Either way, burning will most likely be nerfed because it’s utterly ridiculous right now lolol

I was referring to SPvP. I personally find a S/F signet condi spec to be more engaging than a relatively brainless D/D cele build. And, since Perplexity runes are unavailable in SPvP (for a good reason) it does take some effort to build up and maintain burns and bleeds.

Of course, with burning how powerful it is right now, it could use some tweaking. But on the flip side, everything else hits hard, so it still takes effort to survive. Regardless, it’s anything but boring IMO.

Build diversity is a good thing.

Agreed. I do believe that burning could use some tweaking, but ever since this patch was released condi ele is actually viable (although it remains to be seen if it will be meta, I doubt it.) It would be a shame if burning was over-nerfed and condi ele went back to being a joke/novelty.

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

While probably a bit too good, the burning changes are the single thing that made condi eles playable now. I really hope that when they nerf it (which they will/must) that they think of us (and Guardians) too: we only really can stack burning, no other damaging condition so we SHOULD comparable damage with burning alone when specced for condis compared to classes like engi and necro that can bomb you with 4 different damage condis.

Also all those ~10k burning ticks you see in videos are only available in pve with food and sinister gear… both not available in pvp which has lower stats anyway overall.

Agreed. Before this patch, condi eles were a joke/novelty. Now they’re actually viable, and it’s only because of how good burning is. A knee-jerk over-nerf would kill this newly viable play style. Not good for diversity.