This was a thought I had earlier about the Arcane traitline. Being forced to invest 30 points into it due to the Mechanic of our class has caused extreme stagnation within our class causing most builds to only rotate around 0/10/10/20/30 or 0/10/0/30/30. This is due to having such a high base cooldown on our attunements, so I propose a new solution. I’ll model it somewhat after GW1 spirit WITHOUT forcing the 30 points again or forcing anyone into a particular playstyle.
Before we go further I would like to remind everyone this is only a very ROUGH draft idea meant to actually give a discussion point. Rather than whining, I feel this actually has a strong effect on how elementalist COULD be played according to ANETS own rules. I would also like to apologize for the flippant style of writing I have as I’m easily distracted/amused.
Elementalist:
Elementalists are multi-faceted spellcasters that channel elemental forces, making fire, air, earth, and water do their bidding. What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.
Overcast:
My version of the overcast mechanic would require a few mechanical changes but it’s meant to replace the Attunement Swap in our Arcana line. While this seems like blasphemy I would like to point out with this I’d like to see our attunements normalized at 9 seconds. With our attunements normalized at 9 seconds we would need a new “bar” or some similar mechanical notification with only 1 “charge”. This would be our overcast bar, perhaps even just supersaturating our “attunement icons” in accordance to the charge. The overcast bar would be charged via spellcasting and/or attunement swapping.
Now, once filled, the overcharge effect would be something of a vanilla “crit” which is 150% of the attack’s damage. This won’t apply to just damaging attacking either, instead, we’ll have a 50% increase on spell effects triggered by pressing the WEAPON SWAP key since we don’t use it anyway. I will note this applies to the entire skill and not just the first “hit”.
A basic offensive example would be:
If Lightning Whip hits 736/736, it’ll hit 1054/1054.
If Meteor Storm hits 2400, it hits 3600 per meteor.
However for non-offensive:
If you use Shocking Aura and overcast it, the aura will last 6 seconds instead instead of 4.
Obsidian Flesh would be extended to 7s instead of the basic 5s.
If Geyser would heal 600 a tick, it now does 900.
Also for skills with duel effects:
If Cone of Cold would hit for 500 and heal 200 a tick, it’ll hit 750 and heal 300 a tick.
I’m sure I’ll get a ton of OMG BROKEN complaints for this but I would like to point out this could be easily broken down for balance in 3 ways.
1) The amount of Attunements and/or spells casted before it’s avaliable
2) Keeping with the Arcana line, instead of Attunement Swap, we’ll now have Overcast Recharge “%”.
3) Designated BASE recharge.
I’m more than willing to discuss pros/cons for this idea but I honestly think it could do nothing but bring variety and reinvigorate the class as a whole. This would give players a great reason the continue investing in Arcana if they adore the Evasive Arcana/Buff stacking playstyle. Those who are looking for something else wouldn’t be forced into the 30 point sinkhole that arcana currently feels like. It’ll also add a little more APM to our class and most importantly, increase the “tactical” playstyle elementalists want….for the most part. Choosing which spell to overcast in certain situations which most certainly lead to a life or death situation and give us that feeling of tactical awareness again.
Again, sorry for the flippant, spastic writing style. I had to get this all down on “paper” before it disappeared from my head. I honestly hope this sparks some sort of a discussion as I do feel this could be a proper solution/addition for our class if we temper it out and refine it.
