Guild Wars 2

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.

I would make some differences on the guard NPCs:

>> Camp NPCs are still in a decent spot. For experienced camp flippers a regular camp is no problem to take alone. A camp with guards waiting on stationary dolyaks – you can have some problems. A fully upgraded camp still is challenging.
Two people on the other hand can take pretty much every stage of camp. If you do not want to take away solo roaming and camp flipping, it should stay that way.

>> Sentinels are weak. No use asking for a buff now, but they are addressing this in HoT when Sentinels will severely cripple dollies and not just reduce their health by 50% as long as they walk by.

>> Tower/Keep NPCs are the worst. The only person that finds them annoying is the solo player trying to build a ram on his own by a gate, because he will have to run to a close by camp to resupply and respawning NPCs or the lone archer on the wall might damage the blueprint before the siege is completely built. Archers ignore pretty much everything that is built at walls, like kitteno once a sneaky cata is up, you can take down the wall effortlessly. If NPC archers would patrol on the walls, they would at least force a small attack force to deal with them. Right now we know very little about the HoT updates to the NPCs in the towers and keeps and if they get a bit smarter. We will have to see.

The “overpopulated” de-buff concerning supply has been around for ages and IIRC was never even addressed by Devs once.
I don’t agree that it should also apply to NPC etc., that is bloating the exceptions too much for my taste.
My choice would be to work on points awarded, e.g. that towers on home BLs award less points per tick than on enemy BLs. Although WvW was never designed to provide equal ground for all three servers, leading severs should get less points for steam rolling the 3rd place server (and 3rd placed should get more points when trying to stand up against the leader in the match).

I have no idea will ever change the scoring system they have now and looking back at the history of recognizing sever imbalance and match up problems, I would be surprised if they ever will look into that at all.

My POV:
If you decide to fight someone from my server anywhere else than behind the SC windmill, you are a potential target, because I will help my fellow soldier. If you are near a camp or one of my precious dollies, waiting for someone to duel, expect to be attacked by the small group moving in. We want you off our land.

Right now we have Obsidian Sanctum too for people wanting to duel and we will have the arena in the GH when HoT comes out.

More of an inconsistency than a bug perhaps, but shouldn’t the Diamond Skin (GM Earth) trait icon appear as long as you are above 90% health, since it is a situational trait and nothing that has permanent effect (which icon is not permanently shown) ?

I did Ascalon Catacombs yesterday and it actually was fun again, because you did not kill everything super fast and had to make effort to kill some bosses.
It is perfectly fine that you can’t proc every on crit sigil 100% of the time, in time.
Also, zerker gear people finally see that stack and might slashing does not work all the time and they have to evade or dodge once in a while.

Complaints about “having to constantly upgrade your gear” are irrelevant. If you can prevail with easily with low level gear (lets say 10 levels lower than the map requirements), than that is the problem.

I have the impression that maxed out lvl 80s in dungeons now are not too superior compared to masterwork or rare item wearing lower level characters that actually have the right level for the map.

Pretty much everything that makes a good commander is not connected to the profession he/she is playing. The only thing where professions come to play is how you deal with “on tag” actions (e.g. “stay, CC, AoE … on tag”).
Professions with a higher staying power (Guards, Warriors, Necros IMO) have some advantages, but a lot depends on builds and gear as well.

Good commanding is not dependant on “on tag” abilities most of the time, it is the ability to coordinate scouts and roamers elsewhere on the map, keeping an eye on supply in his group and supply lines on the map, predicting enemy targets and countering them, communicating his tactics on TS or /team chat …

We have heard from the last episode of POI and this blog post (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-halls-from-pen-to-production-to-placement/) that the Scribe can do various things, e.g.

1. "Scribes hold a uniquely selfless role within the guild community. Although there are items scribes can craft for themselves, they bend most of their talents to crafting items for their guilds. "
>> Does that mean that they “selflessly” have to use individual resources to craft things and not just the guild resources?
>> What are the items they can craft for themselves? (as it looks like guild weapons & armour are on a vendor basis)

2. “The main source of resonance is a new item called a resonating shard, which is discovered while grouping with other guild members.”
>> Is “grouping” just guild missions or other activities like partying for WvW or a dungeon (like the influence influx we have at the moment) – meaning will those resonance shards only drop from guild missions?

3. “catalyst materials found throughout the world can be used to transform one of the basic decorations into a special, finer version.”
>> Will those catalyst items be soulbound or can guildies hunt them down and give them to the scribe for upgrading decoration?

4. Will the Scribe be a regular crafting profession, like e.g. Artificer with tiers from 0-400 or more like a “rank” in the guild hierarchy?
>> If the first thing applies, will we have to replace/switch one of our two crafting profession slots for it, or will it be “an extra slot” so everyone can become a scribe?

5. Will the crafting of items for guilds involve regular crafting materials or items in addition to the guild resources or Favor, Aetherium and Resonance?
>> More precisely, will Guild Banquets require food crafted by Cooks, temporary fortified gates in WvW hard wood and steel etc. ?

I hope people behind development of the Scribe (perhaps ANet’s crafting guru Lindsey) can shed some light on those questions.

Thanks for reading. Answering some or all of those could help people prepare for scribing in the near future.

If I understand the info about HoT we got so far players not getting HoT will have access to these things in WvW:
>> new desert BL map comes for everyone
>> benefits of passive guild perks, like +5 supply (will remain)
>> everyone will have the new game mechanics like Condi updates, three line trait builds etc.

HoT will give you
>> ability to contribute to your guild’s tactical value by being a scribe profession and making passive & active guild perks via crafting (GH exclusive)
>> activating those active perks on the battlefield
>> possible ability to use masteries (like gliding) in GvG battles inside your new GH
>> taking part in guild fighting teams for some sort of GvG or ladder based system
>> choosing Revenant or a core profession elite specialization in WvW

paranoid mode on

You guys really fall for this smoke screen to cloud the whole controversy about the pre-purchase price policy?

This is a quality of life update to be able to change a current ascended armour into another stat via the MF. As it destroys all upgrades, a complete re-mod would cost e.g. ~120 gold (Zerker/Hoelbrak runes) + Laurels and soul shards.

I appreciate the update, but all the concerns and valid arguments about the HoT xpack have not been addressed.

paranoid mode off

OneKlicKill.4285:

Our current meta build got a little stronger(but everyone elses got even stronger than that due to the 3rd GM)
Every other build lost viability.
.
.
.

This is how I feel about the changes.
Our abilities to apply condi damage for nerfed because Celestial gear (which is my reference set here) will not have enough Condi damage to outweigh the base damage reduction, even after some duration buffs (which look nice on paper and are misleading)

The profession itself was nerfed, because the Devs were not willing to allow us to break out of the Cantrip meta with the trait changes. Cantrips have way too many possible synergies (e.g. with might stacking) that Glyphs e.g. have not. Signets and Arcane are slightly better, but still sub par in the meta-game with Cantrips.
The profession had a great chance to go out of the corner it is sitting in for over 2 years no, but can’t move due to Devs decisions to keep everything as it is.

Elemental Attunement coming back to a minor trait in Arcana is only a very minor buff to us, because – again – the DPS/dodge abilities of the current meta builds is strong and stacking boons (except might) and doing Condi damage is not encouraged.

I did not go in depth with other professions yet on the trait changes, but I don’t get the impression any profession (perhaps the Necro condi stepchild excluded) have complained a lot about the changes.

PS: Thinking of new condis and boons, the Ele seems to be the only profession that gets absolutely no access to them at all, unlike other classes that can pop e.g. Resistance.

Laraley.7695:

Yep, Zephyr’s speed definitely makes sense. When ele has Singet of Air and superspeed. Most of the time it will be overwritten again, come on.

In WvW roaming, you can just stay in air for running around the map and do not need to slot Signet of Air for that purpose if you already use the Air line (Zephyr’s speed is a minor trait you automatically get). Unless you want the Signet for the stun break & blind, this opens up a skill slot for something else.

Inner Ele-Profession Hopes (going from more likely to less likely):
>> Better balance between the way too strong Cantrips (both in functionality & synergy with traits/might) and other Utility lines like Arcana and Signets – especially Glyphs
>> A concept for Conjures that can find finally find a sweet spot between complete uselessness (Shield ?) and OP in certain game types (Icebow #4)
>> The reveal of what skill class will be Ether Renewal and Tornado
>> a speed up to some sup par weapon skills (Sc/Fire #1; St/Water #2 etc.)
>> The reveal of what baseline buffs Scepter & Dagger users get after Staff will get a free “Blasting Staff” (if ever?)
>> Chill not affecting Attunement swap any more (dreamy face)
>> Off-Combat-Weapon swap (more dreamy face)

If you have been away for a long time (longer than the ending of season 2 of Living Story), you might have missed the addition of a lot of collections you might want to work on for fun.
If you are really looking for a practical preparation, I would say prepare some materials for crafting exotic armour for your characters (you can go for dungeon tokens or PvP rewards boxes as well). This way you can equip a future Revenant quickly or adjust yourself to new builds (perhaps a shift away from Berserker stats, toward more Condi stats or balanced builds).

Should you have unlocked the Living Story chapters, do the achievements for those now, while you can still find PUGs or people interested in doing them.

As a WvW or PvP, you have missed nothing the past year and you do not have to worry about anything

Mattmatt.4962:

i really dont see why you’re all so salty.

Didn’t you get that this was not a jab at you, but the imbalance of the combination of low health + low armour?

Although I am pretty sure a lot of global balance issues could be solved that way, Devs have never said anything about closing the gap of health points by raising the bottom by 20% and lowering the top by 20%.

Another thing they never explored is the “versatility” component to adapt to specific tasks by changing attunement. That could be giving us one skill in our array of skills that can counter something like stealth because it applies a Reveal, the ability to do an extra damage pulse vs. minions/pets/summons, the ability to deny Warriors adrenalin … you get the picture.

I don’t see Eles as too weak compared to other professions, I am just tired of being stuck in the same meta (globally in GW2).

Laraley.7695:

Mattmatt.4962:

Am i the only one thinking that having ele’s trait “equal to other class trait” isnt fair ? I mean, ele’s trait should be stornger to make up for low hp/armor

Would 50% more damage above 80% health treshold be okay with you?

The more appropriate answer to Mattmatt would be:
“Stop poking your finger inside Anet’s wound of bad decisions when they decided to add three health classes to the three existing armour classes.”

On topic of changes (only discussing profession changes that will roll out with HoT or shortly before with a feature patch, not the current traits):

The new traits (three lines, all to GM level) still emphasize direct DPS over Condi too much (perhaps add a +20% to Blind to an Air Trait and a +20% to Vulnerability to a Water Trait somewhere) and do not break out of the Cantrip meta at all. Traits with Synergy to Arcane & Signets need a slight tweak, Glyphs a BIG one. Boons in general need a base line +20% duration tweak that is currently associated with having 4 in Arcane.

Before we get an ascended aqua breather, can be please get aqua breather crafting for tailor, leather worker and armour smith ?

The Dragonite Eater should have been handed out as a bonus for LS season 2.

Other stuff we should have:
>> WvW armour & weapons salvageble
>> Battle Historian turning Badges into Tournament Reward Tokens for Mistforged/Hero’s weapons (conversion rate perhaps 10:1)
>> Reduce the rewards in EotM for that plain k-training
>> Allowing siege blueprints to be upgraded in batches of 10 (same costs, just less hassle)
>> “Drink in Stacks” at bartenders to convert karma into “drunkard title points” without killing your mouse buttons when buying and drinking
>> WvW commander features that are more intuitive than “/supplyinfo”
>> A way to transmute all boosters into other types in the MF
>> A rework of the WvW achievements that does not involve spending 4 generations on finishing one line.
>> Making daily map events regional events again (perhaps even world boss events, just up the amount to two events) to distribute people more evenly across maps
>> Give us cosmetics for our home instance tied to achievement points
>> Give us the SAB back, event without a new level or world
>> Allow us to play activities outside the daily rotation
>> Give Gem Store items separate tabs in the Wardrobe

I am sure we can find many things more to add to the list

atheria.2837:

I’ve never seen so many who have absolutely no server pride.

Well PvE players, the main recruits for WvW seasonal tourneys, have no server pride any more (or never had, because the bonuses they get apparently come from the heavens…). The only way they know on which server they are is when they visit LA and see the home server’s attention kitten or resident troll in chat.

Anet has yet to find the sweet spot to lure more players into the game type (if they really want – which I have some doubts), when it comes to tourneys (IMO the length of season 3 with a slightly reduced achievement structure of season 2 would be great).

Perhaps we don’t need tourneys at all.
I know that a few more PvE players will try one or two matches of PvP when “Call of the Mists” for better points is active.
Why not apply that buff to WvW ability points in EB and BL only, too?

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

What becomes toxic thing is when you have PPT vs GvG; either way WvW lacks support for both sides.

This is so true…

I am very torn about another tournament season.

If they would return it, I would prefer a slightly watered down version of season 2, perhaps just tied to doing 3 WvW dailies (just standing on 5 ruins in season 3 was too easy and did not really involve “PvE friendlies” in to the game; real WvW stuff should be involved). Zerging the k-train in EotM should not be an option at all, as well as JP in OS.
Seasons took a big toll on WvW veterans (stewards to upgrades & dollies, night shift people etc.) and burned them out. That’s not good at all.

Veterans and players who really like WvW should be rewarded for playing in the tournament, not by super loot showers, but by something that appreciates their dedication to the game type:
>> Unlock a NPC in your home instance that lets you simply buy batches of superior siege without the hassle of the MF (same costs of course).
>> Unlock a collection for Mistforged/Hero’s weapons

I would love to see an NPC during the tournament that turns Badges into something valuable, too.
PS: it could also be the chance to severely reduce the rewards in EotM

I think ANet missed a chance to involve the players in the rebuilding of LA (no, naming a few sights does not count). I don’t think in terms of big cinematics or a new story chapter, but just with a few NPCs that trigger some sort of dialogue or action.
e.g.
>> donate some lumber to a worker on a bridge => “Thanks, I will finish covering those holes very soon!”
>> donate some dust to an Asura at the Fort Mariner WP > “Although you are unnecessarily interrupt my intricate work here, your contribution will aid in reconfiguring the alignment crystal more quickly.”
>> donate some leather to a “crafter” at a hub site > “Your donation will be used to make shoes for the poor and homeless. May Dwayna bless you!”

Nothing big, but better than the deus ex machina air drops of a new city.

We should make a difference between “casual”, “accessible”, “rewarding”, “team friendly” and “interesting” – because I am not sure what the OP really wants:

Casual:
Many WvW say that it is pretty casual already (and EotM is the casual k-train map for PvE players anyway). Casual in terms of “easy without danger to task” is not that changes should aim for.

Accessible:
That’s what we should aim for and Anet already addresses that with the removal of AF & AS from Guard stacks. The problem is, that right now WvW Veterans get nothing in return in terms of a use of their WvW ability rank points. No new abilities on the horizon.

Rewarding:
Badges are piling up and we can’t even salvage armour and weapons bought from them. Upgrading will be addressed, with HoT, but takes down tactical choices for the Veterans. Going for Achievements is a joke, unless the game will be played 24/7 until the next century (no joke, do the math) and there are no prestigious collections to work on too.

“team friendly”:
Commander is so clunky (/supplyinfo radius !!) and the reason why we don’t get the EotM Sentry Turrets to show enemies is a mystery.

“Interesting”:
We will have to see how interesting the new Borderland tasks will be. Interesting would be small scale tactical choices that really matter and not “PvE events”. I consider the old (and removed) Quaggan gate attacks to be one of those. Perhaps stuff that has to be fuelled by supply too.

Give “PvE friendlies” a good task and they might care about the map. Don’t make the k-training lemmings like EotM zerglings. It’s up to the Devs to make good changes with the new BL maps. The only thing we can do is hope.

Sidenote…

Azure The Heartless.3261:

3) Chill reduce Initiative regeneration

This one is not. Initiative is a shared cooldown for all thief weapon skills. Chill should not cripple them more than it already does.

Tell that to an Elementalist and his atunement recharge …

On original intent of this thread – counter play:

It would be beneficial for global balance to give all professions a way to reveal a stealthed Thief. The Ranger’s “Sic’Em” did not have the revealed ability initially (Sept. 2014), so why not add that to an existing (underused) skill for more professions?

The “reset problem” could be partly tackled by revealing a Thief after he has finished an opponent (he scored, so good for him anyway).

IMHO: The problem is around since launch and has been perceived by a majority of non-Thief-players as a problem (together with the clunky targeting system, but that’s another topic). Anet Dev’s have done practically nothing to address it (including other problems of balance).
We are stuck in a Meta game that the Devs probably consider “stable enough”, so they make no move to change that (core class changes e.g.). We have to play GW2 how it is now or leave it be.

I would love to have an OOC weapon swap for my Ele for WvW (without having to hassle with the inventory), especially for roaming and getting from point A to B faster.

For those opposed to the swap, don’t forget that the “out of combat” state is not that easy to get for the Ele as many of you think – when you are still in potential range of an enemy, as it most likely requires you to have full health. Unlike the Warrior (who has Healing Signet that auto heals you to max), an Ele has to either get a regeneration boon up or flail around with Signet Of Restoration being in constant danger of hitting something (like neutral wildlife) and be in combat again.

A Dragonite easting item like the Star or Mawdrey II would help, but it is not in game yet.

There is a difference between the three game types (PvE, PvP and WvW) when it comes to achievements and WvW has the short end of the stick in every possible way:

1) Casual friendly
PvE gives you points for mundane tasks, like killing a certain boss once (e.g. the legendary bosses in SW or the world bosses); PvP rewards you for at least trying basic level games (10 kills for one profession e.g.), while WvW teases you with Master of Disaster & Realm Defender and then gives you pretty much nothing again – ever.

2) Continuation of Rewards
PvE had new stuff with every new LS patch, with new collections coming in and a vast variety of activities you can do; PvP has the kill & rank points line (which resets to a new tier and titles after 10 tiers); WvW has a very limited amount of activities you can do that have not been expanded since EotM.

3) Usefulness of Rewards
PvE rewards are useful on a wide scale of things (loot boxes) and PvP rewards give you free items you don’t need for PvP (because of free unlocks and PvP amulets), but WvW showers us with Badges that have very limited use (due to the fact of non-salvageable items you can buy); While PvE XP will unlock mastery progression in the future and PvP track points can be used to re-do title tracks – even for Legendery crafting stuff like Clovers, WvW abilities (or translated into liquid WxP) is capped and with the pruning of the ability tree will get even less relevant once you reach Silver ranks)

4) Pure numbers
I’d say that Fractal Frequenter and Dungeoneer might involve the most time to max out of the PvE achievements, it is nothing compared to WvW stuff.
Just take Dolly escorts (time consuming, not rewarding) and assume you can buff a dolly every 5 min to reach a gate (includes re-spawning, you running around spreading speed and stuff etc.), the third tier (out of 5) will take you 70 days, playing 12h a day just for that task. That already is quite insane. For those wanting to max out that title, you have to multiply the time by 50, which leaves you around 10 years older when you are finally done.
You can get even more insane numbers when you take a look at other achievements.

Achievements should be a little treat that come with the task you are doing while playing with dedication. The next achievement should at least appear in grasping range.
Pretty much every achievement in WvW does not qualify for that once you have reached t2 (or sometimes t3).

IMHO: Anet will never dedicate the manpower to re-program the part of the game that would allow them to reduce the number of points needed for more reasonable achievements.
I also have my doubts we will ever see salvageable WvW weapons/armour from badges or exclusive collections (e.g. for the hero weapons).
You play WvW because you like it, if you want to have something in return (fame, fortune, respect, shiny etc) you are playing the wrong game type of GW2.

EU servers; People from AG (red) were locked out of their own SMC on EB after the patch. Not sure if AM (blue) or DL (green) could enter though the portals

The Tome rework for the Guardian (=> Signet, Shouts) is giving the core profession an Elite category it already has and that has synergies with existing traits. I assume Tornado will be treated the same.
What could that mean:
Tornado can either be remade as a Cantrip or a Signet (Summon Glyph will remain as will FGS as a Conjure).
As a Cantrip, it would benefit from the various Traits for Cantrips, including the reduced cool down to 120, as a Signet it will need a passive effect to be in line with other Signets.

There is another option too: We will get a new Signet or Cantrip Elite for the core professions, should the Tempest (and Tornado seems to fit here) be focused on transforms (and get utility skills and traits associated with transforms).

Imagine this:
>> Utility skill: “Firestorm” => You transform into a fiery twister. While transformed you leave fire fields as you move and can not be set on fire yourself
>> Trait: “Wind of Boons” => Apply a random boom while being in a transformed state

Vizardlorde.8243:

traiting air is 10%

Could not resist to quote that for comedic effect.

The basic problem with EA vs. EvA and all the boons the Elementalist has, not only speed buffs has not been addressed by Anet yet: The possible removal of secondary abilities we currently get from Trait lines, such as Boon duration which right now comes from the Arcana line.
Yes, we get a new baseline attunement recharge that is about as much as spec’ing into Arcana with 4 points now, there was no hint yet where the 20% boon duration will go that is associated with those four points. Without a compensation our boons and EA will be significantly weaker and EvA will be so much stronger.
At the moment the appeal of a dodgy Ele after the Trait change is much higher than to go Glyphs/Boons/EA (+the problem that Glyphs are still way inferior to Cantrips).

PS: If you do dolly escorts in WvW with a staff Ele, you will have a hard time keeping the beast running without the 20% to Boons you have now. Another role in the meta you might lose to other classes.

Zephyr’s Speed – 10% is rubbish. Just compare to Warrior’s Sprint or Power Shoes (I know, not minor traits), but we are supposed to be fast to avoid damage and not tank. Make it 20% for an effect we can actually notice.

Ferocious Winds – Scaling of Healing Power isn’t an idea that is too bad, TBH. It only makes sense if you get a really large boost to your condi damage (and not Ferocity). What about 20% or 25%? Suddenly a Condi Ele has got a very decent baseline for dealing damage and using e.g. Shaman’s, Magi’s or Apostate armour (which nobody really uses except snow flake builds).
Damage while moving also sounds like a good idea for Ferocious Winds, if that 7% conversion really is the final word (and wants to make us giggle).

I agree, Lingering Elements is just a placebo to make us believe we get a synergy from swapping attunements. The trait revamp should replace it with “Lingering Boons” to compensate us for losing boon duration when Arcana gets reworked (and loses the +% to Boons). With +20% to Boons, Elemental Attunement GM trait would at least have a fighting chance to compete with Evasive Arcana (and on a boon focused build).

I would place bets on Ether Renewal becoming a Cantrip.

My problem will the the synergies with Cantrip traits (+might, + regen, +vigor), including the reduced cool down to 12 seconds.
With ER getting better, the Dev’s logic will demand a compensation (longer base cool down, less heal, less condi removeal – chose one or a combination).
A cantrip meta Ele might get a better ER in the end, every other build will be left with a worse option when choosing ER for their heal slot.

PS: Anet’s inability or pure defiance to make us play anything else than Cantrips is what is bugging me.

NITEVIPER.9652:

News communicated so far is:
Armor stas increased to make up missing numbers
But…. Celestial Armor numbers will be slightly decreased to balance the fact that all base stats have already been increased.

Adjusting the Celestial stats for PvE & WvW too is just a rumour so far. They have only confirmed they will reduce the Celestial stats on the PvP amulet.

1. Step (in PvP): Increase stats to compensate the trait loss
2. Step: decrease the Celestial only by around 10% compared to the rest.

With PvE (and to a lesser extend WvW) is heavily focused on the Berserker meta, it makes no sense to reduce the appeal of Celestial armour (or other types) even further.
Celestial, on the contrary, would make excellent base line stats for those who lose points in defensive stats like Vitality, Toughness and Healing Power from the trait re-work. A nerf would be counter productive.

Palindrome.8904:

What info do you have? All we have officially is the name, and unofficially that it gets a sword (data miners).

I know it is not much, but as I said: There is not many new game mechanics out there (already teased) that are left for the flavour of the Ele or Tempest class that got people super excited.

Condi cap reworked => Ele still is bad at condis
Taunt => seems to fit other classes better, we know a few core classes get it (+ Revenant)
Alacrity / Haste / Quickness => whatever you want to call it in the end, this is the field of the Mesmer / Chronomancer

Resistance is missing from the trait revamp from the core Elementalist (other professions like the Thief or the Warrior get it in some form) and could be an option for the Tempest – but is that really exciting?
The current Cantrip meta (instant cast, might as the most important offensive boon coupled with the defensive orientation of most Cantrips etc.) already has a tendency to “bunker” without losing too much offensive abilities. Do we need another variant of that with Tempest?

Tempest sounds like high speed and/or transformations, perhaps summons of small storm fields. But if you look at how adamantly the Devs kept the double cool down on Ride the Lightning and the un-noticeable 10% speed increase in Air for the minor trait, it is fair to allow me some doubts for the “high speed” Ele variant.
The also took away mobile Ranger spirits. I don’t think they would put things they don’t like on the Tempest (mobile storm fields).

Perhaps I am awed by the reveal. I don’t know yet.
I would love to be, because the Tempest might be the only thing that gets the Ele out of the corner it currently is.

I am looking forward to the tempest for the “wrong reasons”

Why wrong?

Because I am disappointed with the current state of the trait rework for the core skills of the Elementalist. With the exception of stronger Aura share possibilities the “Ready Up” state of traits from last week has shown me nothing (and I assume the majority of Ele players agree here) that will get the profession out of the Cantrip-meta. Glyphs are still bad, Condi builds lack, Signets & Arcanas can’t compete in competitive situations.

The Tempest offers the hope to get something different after over two years going down the same road. I just hope the Devs will deliver something fresh.

PS: The problem I have with the Tempest (from the info I have now) is that I am not sure it will give me a game mechanic that will awe me. Slow & Quickness seems to be the thing for Chronomancers, Resistance has not yet surfaced anywhere on the Ele’s skills (other core professions gain it) and going into transforms (logical Tempest skills on F5) add more micro managing to the profession on top of existing stuff.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/A-plea-for-Glyphs

My post from ages ago…

Ideas about giving Glyphs a use or more active game play have been around for so long. Trait changes and HoT should give the Dev team a chance to break out of the Cantrip meta, but the last Ready Up really showed they are not even trying.

If I could change Glyphs right now I would go go further with buffing the glyphs than in my old post.

Here is my concept for Glyphs
>> Glyphs and their effects, by design, change depending on which attunement you are in. Therefore Glyphs should encourage swapping through attunements frequently and using them situational. Also, with the new Inscription being a boon focused trait and boon duration increase possibly being removed (Ready Up was very vague about both boon and condi durations), Glyphs should augment using boons (and Elemental Attunement over Evasive Arcana, too)

Glyph of Elemental Power needs its trigger chance increased to 50% and internal cool down reduced to 3 seconds, so you have a chance to apply condi pressure to a target with auto attacks (and therefore neglecting more potent skills from #2-#5). I still think that the duration and recharge should be reduced (kept at the same ratio) to encourage more active use of the stun break.

Glyph of Renewal: It currently takes way too much time to revive a downed foe before a stomp, so reducing the casting time to 1 second is the only option for me to make it more viable as a revival tool. The recharge should go down to 120 seconds and it should apply 5 seconds of Resistance to the caster.

Glyph of Storms:
>> Burning duration of Fire Storm needs to go up to 2 seconds, so foes are more vulnerable to synergies like Burning Ashes and Fire Grab e.g.
>> The duration of Ice Storm needs to go up to at least 8 seconds. it is the shortest right now. Being chilled should be a danger and not just a nuisance.

Elemental Glyphs are difficult, because the AI is so bad and we dong really want more AI driven stuff. Perhaps granting a boon on death would be an option, like either 3 sec of Fury or 3 sec of Resistance.

Too late for the AMA, but perhaps a good place to ask these questions anyway:

1. Will there be any balance to the WvW abilities with the change to the core trait system or with the arrival of HoT new borderlands maps?

2. Will there be any new WvW abilities added to the list when HoT and the new borderlands maps will be released?

Reasons why I ask this and I think an answer would be appreciated by the WvW community

a) Some WvW abilities, like Burning Oil Mastery could swap some tiers around to make the siege more worth manning in battles (e.g. getting the “take less damage” slot to tier 1. The “mercenary mastery” is quite useless and should either get expanded (do more damage to centaurs, skritt, Aetherblades etc) or removed at all.
b) A long time ago Hugh said in an episode of “Ready Up” (or its precursor show) that they wanted to expand the lines to tier 10 like the Guard tracks, which has never happened or was never heard of again.
b) More defensive masteries like being better protected when defending structures, escorting caravans etc. haven been part of the WvW CDI for years now and have never really being addressed. A clear statement would at least stop us theorycrafting about possibilities that will never happen
c) The WvW abilities can’t be tailored to your current game style, because the times Anet has reset them is rather random and should not me tied to tournament seasons, but perhaps to buying a reset with badges of honor.
d) And finally: With so many changes coming to the core game, can’t we expect at least a mention of the WvW ability system as it is the closest horizontal progression system similar to the “mastery tracks” of HoT we already have in the game?

Thanks for reading and considering.

I am getting conflicting rumours (here on the forums, in games & from social media ( YT sites) about the nerf to celestial gear (coming up, perhaps with the trait re-vamp) and perhaps this a spot to ask for clarification:

1. Are the devs talking about a PvP nerf only, or will it affect PvE/WvW gear too?
2. Is the nerf really the “10%” I hear lots of people talk about?
3. Where is the source (“dev quote”) that started all that rumbling about Celestial gear?

Thanks for on the spot answers, please do not reply with another rumour.

Hot swap one of you cantrips for Signet of Air for the 25% increased base movement when travelling over the map.
If you have D/D, why Blasting Staff ? Take Renewing Stamina instead.

The build with its cantrips is focused on catching enemy roamers and battle them. Very PvP, like others said. For flipping camps I would suggest another AoE skill, like Arcane Wave or Glyph of Storms. to kill NPCs faster at chokes and be able to cap before defenders get warned by white swords.

Dolly escorts should be done with staff & Arcane Wave for blasting your lightning field two times, IMHO.

There are normal scrolls of knowledge (white) and master work ones (green)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scroll_of_Knowledge_%28masterwork%29

Although they look the same, they don’t stack.

I had this problem several times now (boosters, pristine relics, scrolls of knowledge and the “box of fun” today). On one occasion I had to change maps twice to be able to merge them.
I hope they fix it soon

Writing this as a German, but most of all as a human being:

Anet has based the April’s fools joke on a bug in Beta events, tinted the screen in sepia and wrapped us in early pilot’s outfits from they early 20th century. The sound is highly annoying to me (but could be turned off), but I don’t see the 24h event as a mockery or the people that dies last week in the plane crash in the Alps. It is not insensitive of Anet to go through with the patch, because there is no direct connection to the real life incident.

Players using the “plane theme” to have “fun” by throwing themselves off cliffs in the Shiverpeaks, posting “Germanwings going down” in map chat and asking for a rezz are the real people that are insensitive and plain idiots mocking the dead and their relatives. Gladly I have seen the the majority of players telling those few to shut up and behave, proving that the community can be modest an decent dealing with today’s patch.

The reason why you got no replay might be, because this is pretty much a meta build with the current holy trinity (Water, Arcana, Cantrips) and tailored to Might stacking. It is solid. Having a bit more tanky-ness in WvW with Knights and Soldier stats is perfectly fine.
For solo roaming (which means you fight more NPCs in camps than player foes) you could consider replacing the Doom Sigil with something else (like Fire or Torment).
I run the Torment one, because dollies “always move” and therefore take the Torment damage.

If you add an additional feature to a trait, you have to add a drawback due to “balance philosophy”. Increasing CD for the signets would be the first thing to pick. This will hurt players who don’t play with 6 in Earth most.
The Ele has so few build variety (competitive play) at the moment and it would limit the use of signets outside of builds with Written in Stone even more.

All the changes the Ele had the past two years has not changed the Ele in any significant way. Water, Arcana, Cantrips is the “holy trinity” of the profession that is still untouched.
I agree that buffing signets could break that trinity, but if you look at Glyphs and Arcane skills, they might even need more help than Signets.

My questions:

1. Will HoT introduce new WvW abilities at all. If yes, will those augment the new “more defensive” vibe to keep / hold things (like Dolly escorts). If no, will there be any balance changes to old abilities?

2. Will there be an attempt made (e.g. with a new reward structure) to encourage defending and escorting supply lines or structures.

3. The immunity to burning from holding the Fire Shrines seems to be affecting some professions way more than others (e.g. Elementalists and Guardians). Will there be a counterbalance to that by de-buffing other “core conditions” of other professions too (e.g. Poison, Torment, Confusion).

4. Will there be more ways to invest Badges of Honor instead of gold for personal items, upgrades etc.

5. Since map completion in WvW has been removed from World Completion in PvE, will a fully explored WvW map now perhaps give you mastery points?

Give this idea a thought:

The specialization for the Ele will not give you a new weapon (e.g. you guys speculate that it is a sword), but will add a skill chain to each auto attack, making auto attacks more potent and eventually will allow you to stay in one attunement for a long time – a “feature” so many player want to have since GW2 started. The new profession mechanic will replace Arcana and will be named: “Arcane Focus” (or something like that). More points in that trait tree will make the chain trigger faster or with an increased radius for example. Because the auto attack will be way stronger, you can focus on one or two Elements now and stay in them until your longer cool down skills #3-#5 are recharged.

Why can I make that hypothesis ?
>> data mined skills that are new are chain skills are associated with main hand dagger and many of those skills are just dagger copies.
>> We might still not have found staff and scepter chains in the data file
>> The new weapon could very well be an off hand with some skills that give you new game mechanics as well (taunt, resistance etc.) and Anet would have only to invent 8 new skills instead of 20 for a two handed weapon or 12 for a main hand (balance issues)

To the OP:
Due to extensive “champion trains” in low level zones, ANet made a lot of champions veterans, elites or even normal mobs (e.g. the Wolfmaster).
This way they stopped those trains, farming champion loot bags. They also changed quite a few starter zone events to a more “easy mode”, e.g. herding cows by pushing “F” instead of picking up an item and using skill #1. This was part of the (IMO failed) New Player Experience.

I agree that some events are over far too fast, especially when it is a “map event daily”. Anet could address this by having people downscaled further than they are now (one or two levels closer to the level requirement might actually help), which they won’t do, because it requires development hours.
Players could change issue by not thinking too much about themselves, by finishing an event within seconds (e.g. once you tagged a boss with one or two damage skills, there is no need to kill him off, when you know people are coming to the event site).

One thing you will not change is the “loot efficiency” mentality we have right now, with no new content to explore. That’s why people run zerker meta in dungeons or kick people from explorable paths when they are too slow or died a few times. That’s why Anet tries to keep us happy with “way too good loot” in Silverwastes compared to other parts of the game.
Low level players with their needs don’t contribute to the greed driven part of the game, sad but true.

I would like to see a 3rd option, which is “neither the Celestial Amulet or the general Elementalist profession is the problem”.

Let me explain why I think so:
>> Nerfing the profession will make other builds that do not run Cantrips even more obsolete than they are now and running them even more “required” (other set-ups with Glyphs or Signets or even Arcane skills have not the trait synergies they need to be more popular)
>> Celestial benefits other more hybrid orientated classes like Engis as well. Having some hybrid option allows you to have more roles and tactics on the fly and you are not locked in the path of a one-trick-pony. Diversity should be encouraged to makes fights less predictable.
>> Might stacks are a huge part of the Ele’s strength because we have a good access to Fire Fields and Blast finishers. That contributes to a large amount of strong Ele game play. They have started to adjust might stacking and Sigil of Battle already. If we see some duration nerfs to rune sets like Strength or Hoelbrak, we might have a better option too keep “OP Eles” in line.

Just my 2cts.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

Staff is perfectly viable in PvP, so we have a total of three main builds.

But (I might have missed that?) they don’t feel staff Eles as a threat to Mesmers, because AoE damage does not pose a significant threat to their builds.

(Please correct me, when I am wrong, but the build variety outside Blasting Staff, Elemental Attunement and Evasive Arcana isn’t that big for staff builds these days, too. )

My personal preference on its use

Air / Lightning Storm
Drop on large PvE foes because you can easily get Vulnerability up to max or almost maxed stat cap. If you team up with classes that apply Vulnerability easily, you might waste some potential if you don’t coordinate. Use a big damage spike while the foe takes more damage.
In PvP you can soften up groups standing on capture points, in WvW if a commander orders you focus kill someone. Better for Eles with lower Condi damage stats

Fire / Firestorm
Should be more damaging in PvE mob balls if you run Celestial stats. In WvW or PvP you can force people to “waste” condi clean skills, as nobody likes the being set on fire. Combines very well with GoEP activated in Fire and Meteor Shower + Lava Font. The large danger area of being set on fire again and again can drive people away from capture points and break up zergs.

Water / Ice Storm
The necessity to CC PvE mobs is not that great and since only a few have active “skill use”, prolonging the skill cool down is not really an issue. in PvP, having slowed foes is often a tactical buff to your team. in WvW you can trap enemy groups at choke points, so a large group of foes slowed might be the key to crush them with AoE attacks.

Earth / Sandstorm
The limited Ai in PvE makes this an excellent choice (well, not with Dredge though), because after balling them up, you are relatively safe from interrupts to e.g. MS or Churning Earth. In PvP its great to capture or defend a capture point, especially against melee ranged enemies. I like Sandstorm to take supply camps in WvW, due to the AI letting NPCs run close to you.

PS: I use Quick Glyphs, so I get a shorter recharge time, which makes the Glyph better over time. Just compare 48 to 60 seconds.

Lawful.5314:

So basically most people say they win against elementalists in 80% of the cases, which goes to show that the class isn’t quite where it needs to be.

And some of them even want the Ele nerfed a bit more.

You also have to point out that the Mesmers posting in the OP’s thread say there are pretty much only two builds they fight (D/D with water/arcana/cantrips and S/F with Fresh Air), which also illustrates how limited the Ele is in terms of viable (for PvP) builds.
WvW sees more use of the staff for fighting in groups, dolly escorts or camp capping, but I have to agree that I am a tasty target in WvW, when I am caught off guard and have to 1vs1 without my D/D weapons.

Thanks to the “New Player Experience” that came in April you won’t get Traits fast (like before – but don’t think about that now), so specialization at your level is still limited.
At this point of character building you should focus on getting a feeling for skill synergy and combos as well as finding smooth rotations for you skills (e.g. blasting fire fields for might, by using Staff earth #2 and then put a Lava Fond on top). Pushing skills on recharge is not how you should play an Ele.

As soon as you get traits that enhance certain utilities, you should focus those on your utility bar (e.g. signets, cantrips, arcane or glyphs).
And since you are building up weapons and armour too, try to keep close to the character level, e.g. try not to have lvl 25 gear or lower now, when you are in a lvl 30 map.

I don’t think that the changes to the Might stacking are too bad for the Ele, but everything Anet does to balancing effects the Elementalist profession due to its versatility and to a high percentage in a way, it feels like so many nerfs. Its more psychological problem the profession (or its player) has.

e.g.
Might change
>> Anet added more might boons and possibilities with their last balance stuff (e.g. Rangers getting Might boons with Axes). Now they realised that the boon got too strong (in PvP) and they are turning it down a bit (~15%). The Ranger I mentioned before still gets the boon from last patch, the Ele “feels robbed” of his top damage potential.

Sigil of Battle & Strength Runes
>> Eles always swap (well D/D ones), so they trigger the stacks of Might pretty much on recharge of the Sigil. Thereby the Sigil is excellent for the profession. Other professions might “waste” a few seconds on the swapping (e.g. focusing more on other skill rotations). The Ele feels most punished by the adjustments to the Sigil.
>> Strength runes have driven the Might meta to a high degree, but those are not touched by (this) balance.

Drake’s Breath
>> From a PvP POV, the change might make perfects sense, but the hard core Elementalist takes a look at the profession changes and can spot pretty much the only big nerf (1/3 of the uptime of Burning gets stripped) with his class, while e.g. Mesmers frolic at Confusion changes.

My take on the Ele in a competitive environment is that the profession is stuck in the Water/Cantrip/Arcana niche for over two years now (with nothing to break them out of it), while suffering from the very basic decision of Anet devs to not only have different armour classes, but also different health classes for the professions. With the Ele being the low armour and low health class, the try to hold on to anything they can get and eye professions with “passive” benefits like the Warrior with jealousy.