Guild Wars 2

I’d really like to see a use for:

-Dragon’s claw
-Impale
-Vapor blade

Currently these auto attacks are not worth using for the most part, Lightning whips auto attack damage is far superior to the other 3 auto attacks, lets look at a pros and cons list.

Vapor blade-

Pros: 600 range, thats +300 more range than lightning whip, applies 1 stack of vulnerability with a base duration of 6 seconds.

Cons: Hits like a small little kitten attacking a giant dragon (Its a very mean kitten). Slow projectile speed making it easy to step out of the way from a distance.

Conclusion: There is not much of a reason to stay in water attunement to auto attack, other than to get that slight range advantage on an enemy who has you immobilized, snared, chilled.

Impale-

Pros: Does not require LOS, 1 stack of bleed which may help vs an opponent which you may not always be able to apply pressure on in the form of direct damage.

Cons: short range making it hard to kite with, only hits one target, doesn’t work with signet of restoration. Additional 1/4s (3/4s cast time on impale) cast time compared to all other auto attacks.

Conclusion: Impale has some great uses in specific scenarios, but lightning whip will usually be a better choice for auto attacking.

Dragon’s claw-

Pros: 3 simultaneous projectiles, 400 range.

Cons: Lightning whip is far superior.

Conclusion: The only thing dragon’s claw has going for it is raw damage and perhaps a chance to remove blind while still doing some damage. Lightning whip is far superior to dragon’s claw when it comes to raw damage.

Lets look at the damage difference between dragon’s claw and lightning whip.

I have 2870 power
34% crit dmg
10% dmg modifier from earth 10 trait
my build = 0/15/10/15/30
I’m testing damage in spvp

I hit a thief with ~2000 armor with dragons claw, when one of the balls crits it hits for ~670. 3 balls critting from one auto attack would = 2010 dmg from one dragon’s claw auto attack. This wont usually happen.

Lightning whip can crit for 1250 from hitting once, it also hits twice per attack, it also hits more targets than dragon’s claw. If I crit with both attacks from the single time I use Lightning whip, it hits for 2500 on the thief I am attacking.

1x dragon’s claw (1/2s cast) with 3 crits = 2010 dmg to theif
1x lightning whip (1/2s cast) with 2 crits (also hits more targets than Dragon’s claw) = 2500 dmg to theif

Lightning whip wins by a landslide, there is very little reason to use dragons claw over lightning whip.

This is what I think needs to be done:

Dragon’s claw should either out dps lightning whip or provide some benefit which makes it really worth using, its hard to land all three of those claws from the single auto atk
unless you are very close up to your enemy.

Impale should get increased range and a1/2s (from 3/4s) cast timer.

Vapor blade’s range should be extended , giving d/d ele some fighting chance vs classes that are kiting. The damage is low, and thats fine. Increase the projectile speed so there is actually a chance of this landing this attack from a distance. Increase the duration of the vulnerability stacks so it serves an all around purpose, to stack vulnerability before bursting. There should be some sort of fair trade off for using the vapor blade auto attack opposed to the other three IMO, I’d say the range was it but due to the slow projectile speed its too easy to sidestep the traveling blade from a distance.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Perplexity is getting added to sPvP.

Thats terrible news. Pretty much all condition builds except Necro will run this. Condi warriors would be insane with that trait they have for Confusion on Interrupt (which has no ICD) as well as this…

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

D/D eles will get 3x methods of interrupt… with perplexity being applied on interrupt, as well as weakness, as well as damage…

It’s gonna be mean.

I don’t see it ever being “mean”. Earthquake is easy to dodge, Updraft is pretty much excepted after Ride The Lightening. Guessing the third one you mean is Shocking Aura, which doesn’t really work unless its against Chain skills.

its also easy to cancel your earthquake so you don’t waste it and make someone waste a dodge :p Can you see the potential now with the new earth GM trait? Just mess with people by canceling earthquake and not being crit while doing so until your opponent is fatigued and then switch to fire and unload your massive burst!.

Ray.2640:

Nobody would take that… I mean who goes 30 in fire? Also the traits in earth are too lackluster to warrant going all the way to grandmaster.
The water one is nice but it competes with aura share and cleansing water, who are both leagues better then what you suggest.

LOL

Everyone in the whole game dies when swapping to fire? Due to the amount of elementalists roaming around I envision a lot of people dying!

McFribble.2349:

Once necros get infinite Life Force at the start of every fight, Warriors always have max Adrenaline, Thieves can Mug whenever, and Mesmers have all three clones out at once is when Eles can have zero attunement cooldown.

But I can sort of understand reducing the base CD to 10 seconds, though.

You sir don’t take the time to read.

Sodeni.6041:

The Arcane attacks can also be a “one use attack”. That means you switch to the Arcana Attunement (f5) and you have 5 skills for choice. (Depending on situation)

And when you then use a skill the other 4 go on CD. And when you switch to Arcana all Attunements get no CD.

One skill could be a “burst” attack, another could be a charge attack, another can be a CC attack, another can be a AOE attack or another skill could be a Combinition skill of
all 4 Attunements (Fire, water, air, lightning).
I think that realy could give the Elementalist new ways of gameplay! (And that would NOT be too sophisticated, cause its just one skill at time!)

Interesting idea, heres a scenario that comes to mind after reading this.

I’m in water attunement, I swap to my arcana attunement which does not put water on cooldown. I now have 5 skills to choose from in my arcana attunment, after choosing a skill I’m then swapped back into the last attunement I was using and now have some sort of new synergy that can be applied to one of my water attunement skills.

CountzuCrytus.7256:

cheese.4739:

Hyena.2037:

I always thought if there was an arcane attunement it would function as an elite skill, shifting you out of the standard attunements for access to a single more powerful one, independent of equipped weaponry, to tap into the primal, an possible unstable, arcane energy for a short duration.

This actually sounds half reasonable – maybe a skill that replaces weapon skills with a different selection, but it has a cooldown (like our other attunements and I guess Death Shroud) that stops you from going into it too frequently (and long enough cooldowns on its own skills that you can’t just sit in it forever). I guess something like a 20-40s cooldown depending on the skills it offers?

+1 I like this idea
Name it something like “Master of Magic” (GW1 Skill Reference),
Give it 5 new skills (like Guardian Tomes). Allow to use 6-9 skills while active.

I like the idea of unstable/ high risk-high reward kind of skills so you could make the skills be powerful but have a drawback where you either sacrifice health or stamina to use them. Or make it so that you are exhausted and lose all stamina after you go into this mode, that way it’s somewhat balanced and you have to think about when you really want to go all out.

YES! High risk high reward is my kind of play style as well! I don’t want to be unkillable, but if one can play a complicated class darn well then by god you should be rewarded for doing so!

Hyena.2037:

I always thought if there was an arcane attunement it would function as an elite skill, shifting you out of the standard attunements for access to a single more powerful one, independent of equipped weaponry, to tap into the primal, an possible unstable, arcane energy for a short duration.

Now thats a cool idea, a 5th attunement for the elite slot, summoning skills that can be used only every so often perhaps. As for the don’t make eles any more complicated comments? Rubbish! Make Elementalists too hard for noobs to use, its already one of the more advanced class’ for people who like to use their brains, make them more complicated I wouldn’t mind

cheese.4739:

Grimreaper.5370:

But boy wouldn’t it be awesome to, for example, attune to earth, magnetic grasp, attune to fire, burning speed and then be able to go right back into earth?

With the way our traits are going right now, this would be even less of a good idea – the new Earth GM is “you can’t be critically hit while attuned to Earth”, so being able to switch back instantly would be completely overpowered.

lol… If you are going to go that route I’m surprised you didn’t mention fresh air. obviously traits would have to be changed.

Those are some interesting points cheese. I understand the elementalist would need on overhaul if this was to happen… It definitely doesn’t make sense to drop attunement cd with the current design of elementalist. But boy wouldn’t it be awesome to, for example, attune to earth, magnetic grasp, attune to fire, burning speed and then be able to go right back into earth? The tactics that would be available if there was no cooldowns or much shorter cooldowns would be awesome…

Remove attunement cooldown to open up more tactic options. Thoughts? Some traits would have to get revamped along with cds on some skills. I think overall it would make Elementalist a much more interesting class to play.

Great vid dude, I loved it. I wish d/d ele could pull this off in spvp! haha

I wouldn’t mind to see runes of perplexity get nerfed even harder. Who cares if it makes condimentalists a tad less powerful, it also means thieves with their never ending daze from pistol 4 won’t be so darn op too, along with engy and mesmer.

never seen eviscerate hit that much on my ele, but I have been one shot by warrior’s Killshot. Hit me for 18k dmg and that ability has good range too >.>

I have 1600 toughness

Nate Evans.4926:

Just started back into sPVP after a 3-4 month break from GW2. I used to use daphoenix’s D/D build for sPVP, but I’m not sure how much of his old guide is still viable.

I’m currently running 0/15/10/15/30. Valkyrie’s Amulet with Berzerker jewel, full Runes of the Ogre, with Sigils of Geomancy and Force on my daggers.

I know things will be changing up to some degree with the coming April patch, but how can I change this build to be more effective for now (especially as far as my stat distribution and runes/sigils go)?

Thanks!

For spvp I have been running:
20air 20 water 30 arcana.
Barbarian amulet /w Valk jewel.
Healing signet, Lightning Flash, Arcane shield, Mist Form, Fire Great Sword.
Divinity Runes OR Ogre runes.

Don’t be fooled by having ~2700 power, you can still do a fair amount of damage.
More importantly you will have a huge HP pool so you will be very good vs the condition meta and have a shot at getting away when you’re outnumbered.

I’d assume anyone whos burning… so it depends on how many people you can burn.

I makes sense to me that warrior would get a few gap closers and immobilize to catch their target, otherwise warrior would become kitten again.

What doesn’t make sense to me is the fact they get so much access mobility it can beyond rival thief and elementalist mobility. Flurry on the mobile sword weapon actually hurts pretty bad, especially when it can immobilize you and then allow the warrior to switch over to greatsword and hundred blades you. IMO warriors should have just enough mobility potential to close the gap and then gain more access to the cripple condi. They should be rewarded with cripple if they catch their target, they shouldn’t have the option to ditch out on any fight or infinitely close gaps.

Also thought I’d mention I got hit with killshot (rifle adrenaline skill) for 18k the other day. I have 2600 armor and 17k hp on my ele… 18k killshot? What is up with that? -.-

Lots of nonsense in this thread… Lets make a simple comparison to guardian and necro
just to give you guys an example of why there are such big differences in HP pools:

Necros have 1st tier hp pool. They have light armor, one teleport which requires a target other than that they have no mobility, little access to stability, even less skills to block dmg therefore they deserve all that extra hp.

Guardians have 3rd tier hp pool but access to aegis, skills that block dmg, teleports which require target and some mobility as well as heavy armor. They do not need higher BASE hp, they get their EHP from other sources like for example, aegis.

Lalangamena.3694:

in every other normal MMO or game in the genre,
the crit rating usually varies between 5% to ~30%, when it is very hard to reach 30% to crit.
usually most of the classes being somewhere between 15% to 25% to crit.
there are skills or effects that allow the crit to be higher 50% or even 100% but these are only for a short time/next attack etc.
this allows the game to be tactically deep, when you have to chose skills and face the consequences of being interrupted/blocked etc.

the ability to easily reach 100% crit in GW2 is broken beyond repair.

now about critical damage.
in every other normal MMO, critical damage is 150% in general, but some classes have skills or traits that increase the damage to 200% ( damage * 2)
GW2 is the only MMO that you could reach higher percentage unbuffed.
150% base +30% traits +62% from gear = 232% damage before food and banner. 257% after food and banner

the damage scaling is insane.
critical should be capped on 30% + 20% fury, no more than 50%.
critical damage should be ‘balanced’ even more, it shouldn’t be above 200% unbuffed under any circumstance.

I agree with this, except this standard practice will never be introduced into gw2. Why?
Its too late, it would require a compete overhaul of reworking class skills due to some classes requiring lots of crit dmg and crit % in order to do decent dmg, and I don’t see Anet doing all that work just to rescale crit/crit dmg. Its too bad this standard practice was not introduced into the beginning of the game, we’d have a lot more interesting armor/weapon stat combos out there then :p

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Have you guys seen Ele full Cele Ascended builds? They are rather broken as it is and you want them to have a BIGGER buff?

Cele was a terrible stat combo to introduce in the first place.

If you are running into Eles with full Celestial whos stomping you, remember they more than likely have been playing for a very long time on that class due to the absurd timegates for crafting crystals + Damask. The difference between a decent Ele and a very experienced one is astounding.

Just thought I’d throw this out there I’ve had multiple people I’ve 1v1ed thought I was a bunker build even though I was in reality using a zerker amulet in spvp and just dodging all the big hit combos. When I’d give the opponent the chance to hit me so they may test dmg, they’d see I actually take quite a blow from each hit. Moral of the story: It’s less about the gear and more about being outplayed.

D/D ele takes a lot more skill than most people think due to the absurd amount of combos, the right timing with your skills, and of course the perfect dodging, which you will want to learn all about. Celestial is getting ~6% stat boost according to devs, disregarding the crit dmg nerf. It will still be the best choice of armor and weapons IMO for ele. Learn to play ele and learn how to counter classes and you literally can beat anything.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Grimreaper.5370:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

that’s just pointless… the Staff aura already does that so what’s the point of turning all the aura’s into stuff like that? I’d rather have auras give aegis.

It is true that the staff aura does that, this would be an aura that caters to d/d, staff already has fresh air goin on for it.

you mean scepter? and why does fresh air not work for D/D?
The only special thing about the magnetic aura is that it reflects projectiles. all the other auras give something else. Why give all the other auras what magnetic aura does? That’d make that aura obsolete.

I don’t think spending 30 points into air to basically make all auras like magnetic aura would make magnetic aura obsolete, I also never implied that fresh air doesn’t work on d/d. Anet has stated they don’t want any current GM traits being “replaced” due to a new GM trait outperforming a current one. We have the offensive Fresh Air and Defensive shocking aura, so what options do we have in order to get something different…and useful? I could be wrong but the new Air trait along with the Arcana trait don’t sound very appealing to any type of Ele at all.

Darreola.4201:

Using flame axe or FGS while in earth attunement sounds like a good combo. Of course, the drawback there is that you can’t use the skills from other attunements while making use of this combo. It should be interesting, nonetheless.

Additionally, doesn’t Lightning Hammer add blinds? Imagine equipping LH, Signet of Restoration, and sitting in earth attunement with Stone Heart and that fire trait that applies burning on critical, which would then add blind as well (I could be wrong with this one). You’d be dishing out A LOT of blinds, taking regular damage, healing with every swing, and still have some ability to deal damage and CC.

Now THAT is something worth seeing.

Except fire sword doesn’t proc healing signet.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

that’s just pointless… the Staff aura already does that so what’s the point of turning all the aura’s into stuff like that? I’d rather have auras give aegis.

It is true that the staff aura does that, this would be an aura that caters to d/d, staff already has fresh air goin on for it.

reflected projectiles with auras, would you want it? What if it increased stun duration by 1 second?

@Malacastus- Thanks I did forget that one.

@Graendall- Not sure, that would be nice to know!

@Maskah- perhaps but the target also needs to be interrupted. Also “suggestion 2”
sounds like how it already is planning on working (5s ICD)

@ATMAvatar- I can agree with you to some extent but sometimes you can’t help but be hit, the Arcana GM trait doesn’t seem appealing enough to help out much in that aspect but the earth GM trait sounds wonderful for fighting glass cannons.

I propose that arenanet develop a living story based around the idea of players interacting with other players on a personal level(1v1). Developing a story that brings a connection between real people while participating in the living story could derive more passionate feelings towards Guild Wars 2, allow me to share a short story with you before I continue with my point.

If you venture far enough into the lands of Tyria, you’ll find a little place under the earth called Obsidian Sanctum, I had no idea this wonderful nirvana even existed in this realm we call Guild Wars 2 until recently. A jumping puzzle lies in its depths, those who have attempted it may warn you that you’re probably going to end up pulling your hair out of your head. An arena lies adjacent to the puzzle, and that province has slowly become my sanctuary. You will run into some of the most amazing fighters you have ever seen in your entire career down here (real players), changing your perspective of each class immensely as you watch them duel! Although this does not include some, do not fear the fighters that dwell among these depths, for they are kind hearted and only wish to have a good clean fight.

Now, what if Anet was to design a game mode that would entice players to fill Obsidian Sanctum’s arena with huge crowds of people, not NPCs but REAL people. Can you imagine the nerve wracking sensation people will be overcome with if 50+ other players watching them compete against another player?!

Don’t think it would work out? You want to bet? Not with me but with others at the arena of course! Allow players to place bets with each other! Not with gold though of course. No, no… gold is too precious and we don’t want our playerbase balling their eyes out when Jack throws a match to sally who should of obviously lost. Invent a new currency solely for this event. The rewards need to be appealing though, don’t toy with us by only offering lollipops and cotton candy, that is unless its cotton candy with a +2000 power buff attached to it.

How angry would you be if your duel was interrupted? Not by us players but by a absurdly powerful challenger who happened to waltz on in. This NPC could be one of the hardest fights you have ever dealt with in your life. Allow participants of the arena an option at fighting this wickedly cruel NPC in a 1v1 match for X amount of 1v1 duels or until someone beats the NPC (Putting him into a downed state).

At this point the evil doer is quite upset with losing, or laughing his kitten off at all the people he beat. The duel phase with this hulk is over and now comes the raid phase. It looks as though this fiend was just toying with us all, he ends up absorbing a powerful energy which then sets him into the raid phase.

Take the time to ponder with this one Anet, you’ll bring your community together by allowing them to interact with each other on a more personal level (dueling 1v1) and THEN throw a big kitten monster on steroids at them. The most epic raid would then take place, many of us would then actually care about the people around us. This would also give you the chance to shine some light on Obsidian Sanctum, which I feel not many people truly know about.

Ulion.5476:

One with air is a useful trait if you make a dagger fresh air build that lacks swiftness. One with air enables you to ignore slows. With fresh air you will be able to close the gap easily. It is useful with a 0-30-0-30-10 build.

I do feel like it is somewhat useful, I just wish it was a second longer and worked when strafing at least. I’ve tried that build

And buff the duration. I’d really like to see One with Air have a higher duration so that
it would have a real reason to be a chosen trait.

EDIT: Now that I really think about it, it would really help d/d out a lot if One with air also provided superspeed while strafing to the side and/or backpedaling.

Jabberwock.9014:

I’ll admit this is intriguing. But all those random blinds are gonna make it so you can no longer skillfully time blinds. You’ll always be on cooldown. Maybe if the cd was more reasonable we would have a real contender, but 5 seconds just seems too much. Thieves can blind a whole lot more often than that and they have problems staying alive too without stealth. Keep in mind going 30 fire means relatively poor healing.

I thought about this as well, I’d rather time my blinds skillfully than have them spammed as much as possible. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how well it works.

Lightning Rod: Interrupting your enemy causes them to be struck
by a damaging lightning bolt that leaves them weakened(5s)

How an Elementalist can interrupt:
-Shocking Aura (Dagger)
-Updraft(Dagger off hand)
-Earthquake(Dagger off hand)
-Gale(Focus)
-Comet(Focus)
-Gust(Staff)
-Static Field(Staff, lightning Hammer)
-Wind blast (Lightning Hammer)
-Tornado (Elite)

Thoughts:

I’d like to know how much damage each bolt will offer.When considering
how often an elementalist can knock down an enemy, will this trait be worth picking up? It wont rival with fresh air in terms of dps to my understanding so then will the weakness applied make it worth while?

Stone Heart: You can not be critically hit while in Earth attunment.

- After swapping out of Earth attunement, every 10-13 seconds (based upon points spent in Arcana line) you will have the chance to swap back into earth attunement and nullify critical hits.

Thoughts:

Will the down time on nullifying crit dmg roughly every 10-13 seconds be too long to make this trait worth it?
Will lingering elements work with this?

Aquatic Benevolence: Your healing to other allies (Not self) is increased by 25%.

Different ways an Ele can provide healing for its allies:
-Soothing mist(Trait)
-Regeneration(Boon)
-Healing ripple(Trait)
-Evasive arcana(Water attunment dodge)
-Cone of cold(Dagger)
-Clensing wave(Dagger, Evasive Arcana)
-Water trident(scepter)
-Geyser (Staff)
-Healing rain(Staff)
-Water blast(Staff)
-Water Arrow (Ice bow #1)

Thoughts:

Monk runes have been changed to increase healing by +15% (iirc), these runes
Combined with Aquatic benevolence will increase the Elementalists healing
potential for allies by 40%. Will this mean Elementalist is now the most effective
at playing the role of the healer?

Elemental Contingency: Gain a boon when you are struck (CD 10s)
Fire: Retaliation 3.5s
Water: Vigor 3s
Air: Fury 5s
Earth: Protection 2.5s

-Keep in mind you can switch to each attunment every 10 seconds with this trait in mind.

Thoughts:
From the Arcana line, the elementalist already has the option to keep up vigor
constantly (Adept trait: Renewing stamina). What good will giving water 3 seconds
of vigor do for the Elementalist then? It certainly wont leave room for replacing renewing stamina IMO. Fury is another boon the elementalist doesn’t have too hard of a time getting depending on weapon choice, so then will this trait mainly appeal to staff elementalists? Will the 2.5seconds of protection and 3.5 seconds of retaliation be appealing enough to take up this trait as a d/d, d/f, s/d or s/f Ele? My guess is no.

Anet, I’m concerned about the lack of use we may get out of Elemental Contingency, and Lightning rod(although maybe I’m wrong and it will be more useful than it does seem to be on paper). Don’t get me wrong the traits by them selves sound wonderful, but these traits don’t look like they will give something that’s lacking in the Elementalist department. Perhaps lightning rod could also stun? Perhaps Elemental Contingency’s vigor and fury boons could be replaced to boons the elementalist more-so lacks like aegis and stability?

Blinding Ashes: This skill will blind enemies when you burn them. (5 second ICD)

Ways to apply burning on an Elementalist:

D/D:
-Drakes breath.
-Burning speed. (Note: Will evading attacks mean a blind is removed while evading?)
-Ring of Fire.

Focus:
-Flame wall
-Fire Shield

Staff:
-Flame burst
-Burning retreat

Scepter:
-Flame Strike
-Dragon’s tooth

Abilities designed to apply burning:
-Cleansing fire
-Signet of fire
-Glyph of elemental power (Although lingering elements could make this less viable)
-Conjure flame axe

Traits that apply burning:
-Burning precision
-Flame barrier (although not reliable due to the lack of staying in fire attunement)
-Elemental Surge(While in fire attunement)
-Arcane Precision (While in fire attunement)
-Evasive Arcana (While in fire attunement)
-Arcane Abatement (While in fire attunement)
-Arcane resurrection (While in fire attunement)
-Fires embrace

Thoughts:
Elementalists have a good amount of options to apply burning, regardless if some of these traits/abilities are not used very often. I’d say its fair to assume a good player could apply Blinding Ashes to a single opponent almost every 5 seconds if the skills to apply burning always landed but since we also must factor in your opponent, the rate at which you could apply a blind will greatly vary.

30 fire is going to make my world, most of you don’t seem to have any clue of the potential. Hint: Think spvp (Small number fights) and pick up the trait to burn on CRIT!

Celestial gear being revamped for spvp? Hello high crit chance with good survivability.

Karl McLain.5604:

To attempt to clear up some confusion: all outgoing heals from the elementalist will be increased by 25% for all receiving allies. Your outgoing regeneration is increased, your healing skills, your evasive arcana, your water blast finishers, etc. The trait will be offering an option to directly support your allies in this fashion.
This is not a pulse or aura like Battle Presence that increases everyone’s healing power, this trait directly affects the elementalist’s healing effectiveness based on their current healing ability.
I hope this helps clarify a bit.

Ohhhhh, okay. That makes much more sense.

Chuck Zitto.2367:

Grimreaper.5370:

Netko.9271:

“The elementalist is getting a variety of traits, ranging from damage and utility to survivability and support. The one we’ll introduce today is Aquatic Benevolence. This trait contains a new mechanic that will increase all healing to allies by a percentage without affecting the character doing the healing. Aquatic Benevolence has the highest of all outgoing healing effects currently in the game, sitting at a solid 25% healing power bonus when supporting allies.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/traits-unleashed-forty-new-traits-and-more/

It sound, meh, 25% more healing power to other people and exclude you from get that healing. Traits for other classes seems much better, except warrior. Hope others traits will be better

It might sound meh to you but I actually find it being pretty kitten scary. Well organized groups already heal for a lot already, an elementalist boosting their parties heal by 25% and guardians boosting everyones vit by 300? Are havoc groups going to become the new meta? Will there be a new havoc group that kills more people than SPCA ever could? 5 vs 40? lol

Read the notes again bud. Ele trait will only boost ele healing to allies. Guardian trait will only increase guardian vit.

Ok I thought the guardian change was for the entire group but I suppose I was wrong, but I understand how that heal is supposed to function (At least I believe I do). Havoc groups man, HAVOC, GROUPS. You can not deny that healing power for a good group will be nuts with this Ele trait. I’m concerned about never being able to kill anyone in a well played group with this trait. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Hanako.1827:

I just feel like 5 new grandmaster traits (which we will only be able to use two) won’t fix us. unless they are really over tuned.

Most of us will still be going 30 into arcane and 15 in water because anet doesn’t feel like increasing anything in terms of our baseline scaling to damage, defense and healing. And im also really scared that this will be classed as the CDI for us.

If I can have the option of bursting an opponent down quite nicely with 30 in fire then I wont mind. I don’t need to be tanky and dish out enough dps to 1 shot everyone, that would get lame.

Netko.9271:

“The elementalist is getting a variety of traits, ranging from damage and utility to survivability and support. The one we’ll introduce today is Aquatic Benevolence. This trait contains a new mechanic that will increase all healing to allies by a percentage without affecting the character doing the healing. Aquatic Benevolence has the highest of all outgoing healing effects currently in the game, sitting at a solid 25% healing power bonus when supporting allies.”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/traits-unleashed-forty-new-traits-and-more/

It sound, meh, 25% more healing power to other people and exclude you from get that healing. Traits for other classes seems much better, except warrior. Hope others traits will be better

It might sound meh to you but I actually find it being pretty kitten scary. Well organized groups already heal for a lot already, an elementalist boosting their parties heal by 25% and guardians boosting everyones vit by 300? Are havoc groups going to become the new meta? Will there be a new havoc group that kills more people than SPCA ever could? 5 vs 40? lol

Wait to cry after the patch… There are 40 new traits, meaning rangers might be able to pick up one trait which MAY synergize well with faster arrow projectile trait. We’ll be able to find out more tomorrow at noon on the guild wars 2 twitch channel. Also many of you don’t seem to keep in mind no one can go 30/30/30/30/30. That being said this new trait on mesmer doesn’t sound like it will make them more OP, just different.

First off these are not all the changes… Second off you have no idea how effective that might actually make rangers as of yet, on paper it might sound meh.. At least wait to QQ until you test it.

You don’t hit a target with it, so it could work sort of like RTL. I’m not sure if most of you understand how epic it would be to have it on say a 16sec reuse with cantrip mastery in mind… But let me tell you with the right combos in mind it would be epicly game changing.

I know, I’m dreaming.

Krisztian.8405:

How does this not make sense? The warrior pounds the ground so hard that it creates a tiny crater and shoots up dust/dirt. The dust/dirt is bound to get into someone’s eye.

The duration of the field would be dependent on the adrenaline level.

I can picture it now, a warrior pounds the ground and a little bit of dust catches some giant hulks eye which makes him scream in agony.

ActionCat.4162:

Grimreaper.5370:

Warriors are scary in 1v1… They stun quite often then swap to great sword and hundred blades, or play banner build and have amazing health regent when concidering healing signet and regen. I don’t think it makes sense that a warrior can hit harder than any class in the game with zerk build and hundred blades. Sure go ahead and say that skill is clunky but mind you can have a stun option quite frequently.

This… is what im talking about. If you are standing in 100b…. then you do not know how to fight a warrior. No amount of nerfing will save you from that. I never use a gs in wvw or 1v1, its only good for mobility.

Go reread what I said, the key word you’re looking for is stun. luckily you really only see mace/shield + GS in Spvp.

next patch for two hander = HADDOOOOKEN!!!

Stogzlol.4795:

Carighan.6758:

Frenk.5917:

Great post. This deserves more attention by the devs than the other rage/nerf/lulz topic in this forum section. And I’ll keep bumping it untill an official reply from devs.

It’s a shame that most of the forum is just “My class is too weak” / “That class which killed me is too strong” / “I was hit for X by Y” whining, yeah. I think the main reason this forum was created was to contain the rage, so to say. Keeps the rest a bit more sane.

Every game is like this. The dev’s have to balance based off their numbers and not our complaints. As far as I can tell, neither really seem to happen. Buffs seem extremely random when they do come and things that people cry to get nerfed just get ignored while they nerf around the issue is causing more issues.

+1 on thread, hope the dev’s read this.

Even though prioritizing class balance over game content would be less of a workload on Anet? … According to server infrastructure. Maybe I’m delusional but I feel like the amount of people wanting class balance outweighs the demand for new PvE content. I’m hoping that I’m wrong and Anet actually is following some statistic to cater to the masses. I’d hate to think they just do things their way or the highway, regardless of demand.

Buy runes of the traveler, problem solved.

I think it would make much more sense if the current OP condition spamming builds were nerfed and to compensate for the spamming capability nerf the dmg of conditions could do could be increased by longer duration. This could force less mindless condi spams and more tactic instead. Just a thought, real balancing obviously takes extensive testing.

Cogbyrn.7283:

I don’t think it would be impossible to find people who speak for an individual class during balance round-tables to provide insight on how someone else’s ideas could impact their situation. Not only would finding those people be difficult, but those people would be very far from fan favorites in the community, most likely. They are the ones challenging people’s ideas, naysaying, playing devil’s advocate. They are the ones saying “Well that sounds like it could be OP”, or “That’s a bad idea because of XYZ”, and not many people these days seem to be able to take someone else telling them their idea isn’t the best in the world.

That aside, Carighan makes a bunch of really good points. It actually reminds me of a PvP balance article I read from some Age of Conan developers a long while back, and how true balance puts you at a 50% win rate, no one who wins 50% of their games will feel like the game is balanced. People more often than not think they should win more often than not, meaning that to be happy, everyone needs a 66% win rate (or something like that, forget the fine details). So how do you balance a game?

It’s definitely all about perception. As much as I often sit back and think about whether something I’d like to see would be overpowered for my class of choice, I’m not sure I’d be a good candidate because I can’t make a valid argument for people who want to feel overpowered. If the stakeholders want the game to flourish financially, and part of that is making a class or build that is easy to play and very strong to attract a larger audience, I’m not the person for the job. I think those people are intensely unhealthy for a game, and I’d rather see them not play in a balanced world than accommodate them in an imbalanced world.

And even then, I often feel like my Power Necro is imbalanced in certain situations. I’ll sit back and think “Ok, so that person couldn’t really do anything. That’s a bit of a bummer”.

Anyway, I’m digressing. At the end of the day, the OP is very pie in the sky. All classes balanced for 1v1, 1vX, and XvX, and having all traits “vital”. Odds are, if you have traits that work for a particular build, other traits aren’t going to matter for it with different styles of play. And if they DO matter, then maybe you’ll have no traits that matter for another build, and someone will complain that you only made traits good for one build and not others.

It’s a razor’s edge, and I honestly think people should often spend less time worrying so much about it and more time focusing on enjoying the game. More often than not, people who complain about balance do so before they step back and analyze their own ability.

EDIT – And about the community watching Twitch streams of players, I watched a Longbow/Greatsword (I think) Warrior up against a M+Sh/GS Warrior in WvW on a stream. They both had Healing Signet, and the fight was basically never-ending. What did people in chat say? “Lol @ healing signet”, “hs is clearly imba”, etc. None of them actually realized that these two Warriors were designed to either burst down squishies or apply consistent pressure in a sustained fight with a sustain heal. They had ample disengage, so when one would get low, they’d just bust out of the fight and use their sustain to their advantage.

Community feedback often seems to just piggyback on complaints someone else has that enables a person to blame a game mechanic instead of themselves.

Good read. good stuff to think about, like I said beforehand if the Devs would take community suggestion into consideration we would most definitely have to sift through a huge void in order to find the good suggestions. That being said I suppose its true that having a community vote for putting people into power for class balance, isn’t the best idea.

I’ve said this already as well but I don’t feel like I can emphasize enough, so bare with me while I reiterate.. My idea of class balance is less about making one class more op and more about giving each class more options, options that rank from lower skill level difficulty to higher skill level, so that the game can meet a wide range of player expectations.

The low hp vs high toughness can also be sort of nice with diamond skin in mind. This build (as far as traits go) is actually known as eles current cheese build by some.

Here is my suggestion for the smooth and fast leveling experience, its all about damage:

Your weapon choice: Scepter/Dagger

Start by dropping a dragon tooth on all your enemies, this skill has a very low cooldown timer and hits very hard, you can follow up with Phoenix and/or Firegrab. This will pretty much kill any mobs you’re dealing with while leveling.

Your gear: (Power, precision, crit dmg stats)

Your Abilities (slots 7, 8 and 9) : Arcane blast, lightning flash, Arcane shield.

Your main traits:

Fire – Internal fire, Pyromancer’s Alacrity.

Air: Bolt to the heart.

Earth: Stone splinters.

Good luck!

I’d not go as far to say Ele dps is awful, unless we are referring to d/d Ele in Spvp and comparing their dps to the other classes. Then its awful, its most noticeable when you are trying to build your self for good dps and fight a great bunker build and can’t even lay a dent into them. This problem should be fixed when the next patch comes around and allows PvE gear to be used in spvp.