Guild Wars 2

Sigmoid.7082:

i never though of dhuumfire instead. you should be able to keep like 4 stacks for extra dps. Still 100% crit due to decimate defenses. Also could take kitten rs might instead because unyielding blast+deathly shiver would stack max vuln as it is. 750 condi damage from max might, 4 stacks of burn will do huge amounts of extra dps.

Awesome.

i calculated that with 25 might stacks, 25 vulnerability stacks, around 80% crit chance, burning and poison you will deal around 3k+ dps. at least 1,5k from auto and that’s 0,5s casting, up to 1k from burning, 300+ from poison

i thought about unyielding blast but the +25% movement speed is pretty good against gap closing, if death shroud2 acts as a leap this will increase the leaping range.

with gs + frailty you should be able to keep at least 15 vul stacks even out of reaper shroud.

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQBqAb0Bew~

this is the build i came up with so far

celestial + gs/staff, hoelbrak runes, not sure about sigils yet, maybe blood/frailty on gs and energy/hydromancy on staff.

there are also some traits about which im still a bit torn between, like
chilling force (life, might vs chilled enemies) vs decimate defenses (crit chance per vulnerability). basically in shroud that’s 250hp/s vs 40% crit chance.

celestial has around 30% crit chance so the +40% crit chance from decimate defenses is crazy, but then again the 250hp/s against chilled enemies from the might you get + the other 250hp/s which you get from reaper’s might is also kitten good (for clarification, shroud auto cast time is 0,5s resulting in 2 hits per second) and adds up to over 600/s with celestial’s healing stats.

celestial
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQBqAb0Bew~

keep chill burn and poison on the mesmer and he will just die. if you can get to them you’ll win.

yeah i think it would really help if the utility shouts were instant and the heal 3/4 and the elite 1s. would be fair if you ask me.

what you mean is a shared global cooldown on shouts. i think that would be quite a bit of coding. tbh even if you just instacasted all 3 of them it wouldn’t be that fatal. i would be more scared of a medi guard using his meditations.

i think the reason why they’re not instant is kinda their offensive purpose and the (low) damage…

imo there’s actually no reason not to have them instacast. would be best to happen to have the utility shouts instant.

heal and elite with casting time.

i will list the concerns i have with the shouts from a pvp perspective:

your soul is mine
250 damage
4k heal
4% life force
20s cd 0,75s casting time

the problem with this heal skill is, it’s not powerful enough if it’s not against 5 targets. you will get a 4k heal which is very low, not removing any conditions compared to consume conditions, low damage and some life force. even against 5 targets i would never take this over consume conditions because it is one of the best condi cleanses in the game and very useful with all the conditions that are currently flying around in pvp.

you are all weaklings
250 damage
6s weakness
4 might (4s)
stunbreak
25s cd 0,75s casting time

this shout is by far the best shout in the game solely because it breaks stun on such a low cooldown. the additional 4 might combined with the grandmaster trait give a nice small amount of healing on top of it. the weakness is also very nice.

rise
250 damage
1 jagged horror per enemy hit
40s cd 1.5s casting time

sorry rober but this shout is the worst shout. jagged horrors are bad, very bad, to use this shout you would have to trait for death nova and even then it’s not that great. i can understand that 5 dying horrors can give you a bit of life force but even then it doesn’t justify the long cooldown and the long casting time. 20s cd with 0,75s casting time at the very least and even then this shout will most likely not see a lot of use.

suffer
250 damage
condi transfer per enemy hit
3s chill
40s cd 1.25s casting time

this shout is very problematic, what if you don’t hit a single enemy? you won’t get anything from it. reaper shouts going in a different direction than warrior and guard shouts is “okayish” but the difference between all the shouts is, on warrior or guard you don’t care of there’s nobody around, if you use them you will benefit from it. as a reaper the shouts are completely useless.

make this skill remove 2 conditions regardless if you hit an enemy or not and +1 for each enemy hit up to a total of 5 (2 base + 3 from enemies).

lower the cooldown to 25s and the casting time to 0.75s

nothing can save you
250 damage
convert 2 boons to vul (5 per boon)
unblockable attacks
35s cooldown 1s casting time

the problem with this skill is the following: with unblockable attacks you want to interrupt/kill an enemy that is currently blocking (obviously) to do so you would have to 1. use this skill (1s cooldown) and then fear them or pull them. your pull on the gs has a 0,75s casting time and your staff fear has also a 0,75s casting time. if we add this together it’s a 2s+ (reaction + use shout + use interrupt + human delay) action.

let’s take a look at frequently used block skills: shelter (1.25s, 2s total of block) and gear shield (instacast and 3s block duration).

this shout has to be instacast to make it work ortherwise just remove the unblockable on it because it’s useless. IF it will be instacast the cooldown would be okay.

chilled to the bone (elite)
1k damage
12s chill
2s resistance per target hit
2s stun
120s cd 2s casting time

this skill is in what it does very strong but also really weak in its execution. what i personally would do with this skill is reduce the chill to 6s, give 2s of resistance regardless if you hit an enemy with it and most important: reduce the casting time to 1s and the cooldown to 100s.
it’s an elite skill, make it strong enough. we saw the revenant’s jade winds elite datamined and (idk if you changed it) but this one here is a joke compared to the datamined jade winds.

augury of death (trait)
i respect you for trying a different approach here but please just make this trait a normal 20% reduction. you could even do a 15% reduction + further -3% for every enemy hit to get a 30% but if you want to see this trait and the shouts being used in pvp the base reduction has to be higher. remember: pvp is 5v5 and no good players will ever fight a 5v5 on a point. (foefire lord and stronghold not counting because it would be 5+ anyway with the npcs)

best would be, but i don’t think you’re gonna do that, is to just drop the casting times on shouts except for the heal and the elite (heal 0.75s elite 1s).

alright, so that’s it for my feedback

he still hit 720 (4 stacks) with burning against the orr mobs so don’t be too concerned about it.

as dhuumfire has no icd anymore i guess it’s aoe now.

isn’t it instacast but the duration is 1s? didnt seem like it had a 1s casting time.

StickerHappy.8052:

Cogbyrn.7283:

Jekkt.6045:

the only problem that remains is the mobility.

Personally, I think every class should have a problem. Or as I call them, “weaknesses”. If a class doesn’t have a weakness, that’s the problem.

Exactly. +1

i don’t disagree, was just pointing out facts^^

it does look good for pvp, look at the sustain that the reaper line can bring, might on auto attack + might on chill, auto attack has a 0,5s casting time, 123 (or so) health per boon resulting in 240 health per second, thats about what eles get.

furthermore he said that they are buffing vampiric traits and they will introduce a new vampiric aura.

play this with -% damage from chilled/poisoned foes, celestial and dhuumfire and you will be tanky af. the only problem that remains is the mobility.

totally agree, could even be an evade, they even talked about burning speed which is also an evade.

a projectile destroy would certainly be neat aswell.

Warcry.8914:

Gyler.8150:

Rym.1469:

-No blast finisher
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-Heal that still will be outclassed by Consume Conditions. Hard.
-No stun breaker on shouts
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-No projectile defense, focus defense
-Still soaks the damage, now reduced by 15% if you manage to keep Chill on all attackers
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-No really interesting traits
-No direct boon support to allies, not even with might.
-Long cast times.
-No new Conditions on the Condition-based profession. No slow, no taunt

I think this about sums it up, still lot of useless utilities and skills and traits. And those shouts, my god…

The shouts as a whole felt incredibly underwhelming. Don’t think my Power Necro is changing utilities at all and is still going to run wells, lich and consume conditions.

no blasts but leaks with auras, this is big if you ask me, especially when they mentioned the new vampiric aura which will most likely be dark + leap.

there is 1 shout with a stun break it even has a low cd

an evade on the nr2 skill would help getting to a ranged target.

the traits were very interesting imo, and very powerful with a lot of synergy

casting times were pretty okay, 1/2s casting on shroud auto with might and dhuumfire will be very strong.

chill as a damaging condition, very nice if you ask me.

Zefrost.3425:

I’ll try to be direct:

• Death’s Charge (death shroud #2) s should not inflict poison, it should inflict AOE blind. The poison doesn’t make any sense. If you are charging into a group of enemies, you want to AOE blind them.

• Spin2win death shroud skill #4.
This skill is the only death shroud skill that is useless for condition builds. This should, at the very least , evade for the duration.

• Greatsword skill #4 should pulse AOE blind for the duration of the skill.

Some of the traits are bad too but I forget what they are until the stream is over…

if anything the charge should have an evade (like burning speed)
number 4 is fine
greatsword 4 pulses blind aoe
didn’t see a bad trait at all, all of them looked useful for certain things.

the only thing i really disliked were the shouts

while it looks strong on paper don’t forget the healing that other classes bring, healing signet, signet of renewal, healing turret and so on. the necro heal is on a long cooldown so you kinda have to sustain somehow until it’s up again. then there is the movement problem, you can’t really run away from damage so you have to be naturally tanky.

will have to test it but as a gw1 dervish i’m definitely looking forward to playing it

but… shouts look very bad imo… sadly..

i haven’t said that you are bad, just that i think that you don’t know how to properly fulfill your role as d/d ele in PvP.

engi for example is a way better roamer, on ele you should not do this because usually fights take long and you will get people on you because of rotations.

your support may activate passively but you should still use it actively.

i always wanted frostfang, it’s my fav legendary with incinerator, sadly axes suck so i never got to craft/buy it^^

speaking for incinerator, when i crafted it i still mained my thief and am maining now an ele playing d/d most of the time so i’m totally satisfied with the skin. lately i’ve been using other skins though because using it for 2 years is a bit boring^^

FrownyClown.8402:

Given everything we have learned about the elementalist and the future of other classes in general this is what I feel will become of the ele after the trait changes.

PvP

The typical d/d build won’t work as well anymore. The benefit of cele was being able to tank on point and win most 1v1s and some 2v1. Removing those evasive arcana and elemental attunment will cripple the build.

no offense but it seems you have no idea how to play a celestial d/d ele then…

the purpose of taking a d/d ele in your team is to have him cleanse and support teammates in a teamfight and not to tank on a point, there are better builds for that.

with the trait changes you will be able to tank better on a point… sadly. nobody needs a point tank so it’s goodbye for d/d ele in pvp.

sword skills have never been datamined. if you watch closely, the skills that have been datamined all say “chain” meaning the 2nd and 3rd hit of an auto attack chain and in the same list we can find the dagger auto attacks with similar effects and similar names.

check it for yourself, best examples are the earth skills, they all deal bleed for the same amount of time.

what was datamined imo are auto attack chains for the dagger skills. i still hope that ele gets a sword though.

yes if you want to support you need evasive arcana + elemental attunement. one allone isn’t enough to compete with shoutbow. ele doesn’t necessarily need the boons of elemental attunement for itself but for the allies, especially the regen cleanse and protection for squishy teammates.

with the changes to the earth and water line a non-self elemental attunement version as master trait would be enough. if i talk about stuff i always talk about it regarding high pvp level and not yolo-solo play.

of course people would consider tempest if it is good enough, i will also drop arcana on any non d/d celestial build because the earth line is way better for a berserk if you want def.

what you’re wrong about is if d/d is brought down from 9 to 7 the other builds won’t go up from 5 to 7, maybe by the standarts we have now, but other builds are going from 10 up to 12 now. d/d ele is max a 9, the build has been nerfed a lot and is the weakest celestial build currently.

you’re asking for the impossible, look how long it took anet to make ele viable after the exodus, 1 year. it’s better to keep what we have than to hope for something that might not come in the near future. nobody cares about elem attune self sustain, i have already said this multiple times, it’s way more important for d/d to keep the boons for allies and not necessarily for yourself.

and the build hasn’t been deemed too powerful but the traits have been deemed “too core”.

as i said a master trait version of elemental attunement that gives buffs only to allies would be nerf enough. that way ele selfsustain is lowered but support is still given.

because this is where your support comes from, ele has enough access to these boons, especially protection with the change to soothing mist.

so what, this is what makes the support on ele viable, d/d is a support build wether you like it or not.

stop suggesting useless stuff when you have no idea how to play d/d ele in the current meta on the highest level because this is not getting us anywhere. d/d ele was totally fine compared to other meta specs so there is no kitten reason to nerf it, and if it really has to be then nerf it for the ele and not for his allies.

you’re mistaken if you think d/d ele deals more damage than a shoutbow and shoutbow has also more support.

leave elemental attunement as master trait, make it give boons only to allies and not yourself but increase the radius.

there are a couple of good guides on the internet that you should definitely check out.

the website that i use to check items / create lists of interesting items is www.goldwars2.com (no this is not a goldseller website even though the name sounds fishy xD).

i usually work with exotics, skins and normal crafting materials. depending on the day not everything is viable so you have to keep checking everytime when you want to flip something.

how about we make it easy…

elemental attunement – master trait – grant boons to allies around you in a 480radius when you attune to an element.

a way better nerf than what mr carl did.

you dont need rock solid or cleanses when you have a dps guard, f2 cleanses and f3 is 3 stacks of stab while rock solid is one lousy stack.

give arcane wave reveal on hit and all thieves will cry^^^^^^

gw2 pvp is not for casuals and will hopefully never be.

freezing weaponskills is nonsense, why would you swap at all then, and what about classes that have no weaponswap..

they already toned down vigour and endurance traits, some classes rely heavily on dodges while others dont.

insta skills are used for bursts/countering stuns, not all of them are healthy. point blank shot is not such an unbalanced skill as you make it look like, you can predict and dodge it at the same time, if you count the cooldown you can even anticipate it, it’s the same with overcharged shot. skill doesn’t only mean that you can dodge animations but also predict them.

if it will be viable will be up to the meta and how it can compete with other beserk builds. there are many strong builds in the game that are not viable for pvp.

dont forget that fresh air has no boon removal, aoe stealth, ring of warding, strong elite or portal so it is overshadowed by other builds.

it’s all up to tempest now and how/if they rework some of the current skills and how the ele builds will compete against the others.

had a silly thought yestersay, what about an f5 no-attunement with physical utility skills. don’t think it will happen but it would definitely be a revolutionary concept for ele^^

remove the cooldown on them and make them like kits, fine tune some cooldowns on the weapons.

conjurer trait moved to master (one with fire moved to adept) and changed to:

- reduce cooldowns on conjure weaponskills by 20%

- *optional (if you switch to a conjure weapon you will summon a time/charges limited version of it next to you. allies can pick it up) ICD for the current cooldown of the weapon.

- gain an aura based on the conjure weapon you switch to. 40s ICD
hammer – shocking aura
axe – fire aura
bow – frost aura
shield – magnetic aura
fgs – light aura (double fire aura would be lame)

as for one with fire:

change it to: fire auras longer, might when applied, using signets grants fire aura.

1. yes you can put incinerator on ascended daggers. you can even put any skin on the legendary dagger (i have the fractal skin on mine atm).

2. we don’t know what legendaries get released with hearth of thorns, they said “only a handful” at the start. we also don’t know how they will look like, only that we can’t buy them anymore.

as for incinerator vs bifrost, i have incinerator since early 2013 and i never regretted getting it. it’s one of the best legendaries in the game and fits the ele to 100%.

bifrost is a shiny looking staff but personally i just dont like the model and rainbows so it was never really an option for me, i also dislike staff on ele

i recently crafted the legendary scepter and it’s an awesome looking weapon with a day/night cycle so i would reccomend checking this one out too.

another option is, use your money to flip items on the trading post until you have enough to craft 2

i said this multiple times already, i don’t mind if they make a spec unviable as long as they give us a new viable spec that can compete on the highest level. i like my class so i don’t want to reroll obviously.

if they can make a new spec viable then i have no concerns, if they can’t then anet shouldn’t even dare touching d/d ele.

as i mentioned above, it would be so much better to just remove the transform and make it an actual cantrip so that you wont become a “please focus me because im a joke compared to rampage and lich” target.

aoe smoke field that knocks and blinds people and deals a small amount of damage to people who stand in it for a duration of 6-8 seconds on a 120cd, this is actually worth an elite slot.

would also accept a 20s cd rtl as compensation.

remove transformation, make it an aoe smoke field that blinds and kicks people around on a 120s cd

nobody considering venoms?

Cynz.9437:

4.3k burn 2.5k bleed ticks from hybrid on stream… GG

a carrion guardian is not a hybrid.

i believe i posted this the same day as they showed the new traits, sadly not many people care because most of them have the impression that the ele is the “nobrain too much op pls” class, and so my thread died.

Jekkt.6045:

Talking Role
the current role of the elementalist is to support teammembers in skirmishes or teamfights by giving them boons, cleansing conditions, healing them and ccing enemies.

yesterday was shown that the trait elemental attunement will be moved to the grandmaster tier, resulting in the forced choice between it and evasive arcana.

what does this mean for the elementalist’s role and its place in the current meta?

first of all this change will result in 1 less cleanse for the team because you either lose the regeneration on water attunement or the water dodge roll, both reomivng one condition.

furthermore you will either lose your aoe boons or your water heal, both very important in a team fight and will thus cripple the ele’s role.

Concurrence
there are several classes that take on the role of a team supporter, the two strongest (not including ele) beeing shoutbow and altruistic healing shout guard.
both of these specs (correct me if i’m wrong) have been buffed yesterday.

guardian is currently less viable because of the fact that this build can’t accomplish much on its own compared to ele or warrior.

warrior on the other hand is highly demanded and almost every team is running at least one.

Conseuquences
what will this mean for the elementalist?

the elementalist is now able to pick the full earth line, giving it access to rock solid and stone heart, very strong traits; at least in 1v1 situations.

the changes to elementalist take away his effectiveness in teamfights but increase his strength in a 1v1 fight.
the damage output of an elementalist, compared to an engineer for example, is not that high and fights will generally take too long to bring them to an end before reinforcement arrives due to rotations.

what does the elementalist have over, for example, a shoutbow?

assuming we take evasive arcana over elemental attunement, the elementalist will not be able to give his team protection anymore. with rock solid on the other hand we will be able to give our team 1 stack of stability (2s) every 10s which is quite strong.
stability is generally used to stomp downed enemies. with meditation guards in the meta there is already access to stability and makes this less important even if it’s on a shorter cooldown than the virtue.

the elementalist offers great mobility and a fiery greatsword, let’s not forget this. the question is, is it necessary? is it better than a banner? (again, not attacking warriors, but warriors are in the same role and the ele’s concurrence).
there are also ele’s good soft and hard ccs that we shouldn’t overlook.

Conclusion
Overall the elementalist gets pushed out more and more of the meta, not because the build will be weak but because there is no place for the tanky 1v1 build that celestial d/d is going towards to.

other elementalist builds have not really been buffed either, as the other semi viable build, s/f fresh air, has lost a portion of its damage while gaining more active defense in return. this is nice in a way but then again other berserk predators like the thief have also been buffed in a, in my opinion, disturbing way.

so if the devs read this:
please take another look at the ele changes, i don’t mind if you change d/d to the point where it’s not viable as a support role anymore but if you do that then buff other builds so that they will become viable on a high level. if you can’t to that then keep elemental attunement as a master trait, and not a grandmaster.

has been suggested since game launch. no progress so far.

@MonMalthias.4763

make it a set amount then, 5k condi damage soaked up.

it’s still a similar mechanic to banners spirits and turrets (with boons) just that they dont attack back.

diamond skin: soaks up condition damage equal to 20-30% (number depending on balance) of your maximum health everytime you attune to earth, conditions start damaging again afterwards.

as for wards, eles dont need turrets.

shapeshifting sounds more like stances and i think we’ll be getting something else with tempest.

BakiSaN.9281:

Let’s bring back the decap engi, the spiritrangers (in their full past strength), stunlock, and the (since-release nerfed) heartseeker OP nuke damage. That will make the game more fun! 15k heartseekers, immortal engies, AI zoofest and forever stunned impressions! Yaaay!

decap engi still exists and is still very strong and can tank up to 3 players if you know how to play, people just go braindead turrets though.

i agree with bringing back spirit ranger, wouldn’t be that op anymore.

if you min s/d thieves with “stunlock” then np, bring them back too, would take more skill than the current thieves builds anyway.
as for heartseeker.. no

you could basically say that d/d ele will be insanely op in terms of 1v1 but not viable anymore in high end pvp due to the nerf to support.

to wrap it up:

nerf to support, evasive arcana vs elemental attunement

buff because of the earth line traits + elemental contingency retaliation.

if you’re a wvw roamer you will be fine, if you play sPvP, switch to warrior or if you really like ele, pray that there will be a viable build even if it won’t be the same role anymore.