Guild Wars 2

If mesmers want to give up a utility slot for 25% speed they should be allowed to, you could strip the 25% signets from other classes and tell them to suck it up and rune for Swiftness to… lol.

Kal Spiro.9745:

This is not a design that ANet supports for a reason. Just because it’s out of combat doesn’t mean it doesn’t have balancing effects. The idea is supposed to be that you use one set and stick to it. It’s the same reason you can’t completely change your trait lines on the fly.

That you choose to play differently is on you. But you’re not going to get support for that style.

Except you can open your bags/char screen and double click a weapon the first SECOND you get out of combat and change anyway…. that completely defies the “idea” that you’re supposed to stick to one weapon, which is flawed in the first place because it means pigeonholing yourself into one “range” of weapon.

All this would do is use the EXISTING weapon swap mechanics already in the game to allow you to just hotkey the ability to swap weapons out of combat, that’s it really.

Wryog.5073:

ATM I’m just wondering why I can’t +1 a post more than once…
Maybe if anet get more people to work on classes we could see these changes but right now all of those suggested changes look like they’d be too much for them.

I think it’s a combination of them being careful (since they’re not splitting balance) and w/e coding troubles there are when it comes to implementing certain changes.

But honestly, the only changes I really want are the QoL fixes to Staff (like radius increases/cast time reductions) and the change to the Air attacks. The Arcana changes I would love so much, mainly just not having to go 30 Arcana to have decent cooldowns.

Extra change ideas for traits.

My goal here is to eliminate the significance of the Arcana trait line bonus : Attunement Cooldown Reduction, which restricts Ele builds too much.

Attunement Bonus Rework

Fire Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Raging Fire”
Water Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Soothing Mist”
Air Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Zephyr’s Fury”
Earth Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Stone Flesh”

Raging Fire : Gain 1 might (6 seconds) every 2 seconds. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Soothing Mist : Heal x amount every second. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Zephyr’s Fury : Gain 15% movespeed and 1 precision per level. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Stone Flesh : Gain 2 toughness per level. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.

5 Point Minor Trait Reworks (The current Attunement Bonuses)

Flame Barrier : Tooltip renamed to Improved Raging Fire.
Flame Barrier : Now applies Fire Attunement bonus “Raging Fire” to nearby allies.

Zephyr’s Speed : Tooltip renamed to Improved Zephyr’s Fury.
Zephyr’s Speed : Now applies Air Attunement bonus “Zephyr’s Fury” to nearby allies.

Stone Flesh : Tooltip renamed to Improved Stone Flesh.
Stone Flesh : Now applies Earth Attunement Bonus “Stone Flesh” to nearby allies.

Soothing Mist : Tooltip renamed to Improved Soothing Mist.
Soothing Mist : Now applies Water Attunement Bonus “Soothing Mist” to nearby allies.

Arcana 15 Point Minor Trait Rework (Currently Lingering Elements)

Lingering Elements : Tooltip Renamed to “Prismatic Elements”.
Lingering Elements : Now gives you 3% extra dmg for each Attunement Bonus affecting you.

Final Changes

Attunements : Base cooldowns reduced to 10 seconds, down from 16.

Arcana Trait Bonus : Now increases Attunement Bonus duration by 5% per point.

With these changes, Attunements now have a 10 second cooldown baseline, and each Attunement has their bonuses built into the Attunement itself w/o traits. The 5 point traits in each tree allow you to share those bonuses with allies.

And finally, you can get up to 150% duration increase on attunement bonuses with 30 in Arcana making 4 second bonuses last 10 seconds. With enough swapping, the 15 point minor trait “Prismatic Elements” can give you up to 12% bonus dmg when you maintain all 4 lingering bonuses.

This makes it so you no longer HAVE to go 20-30 into Arcana to have manageable attunement cooldowns which can otherwise be crippling to be without, but going deep Arcana is still a very attractive option.

Earth

Eruption : Cast time reduced to 1/2 seconds, down from 1 – 1/4 seconds.

Reason : The cast time is absurdly long, and it already takes a good 3 seconds to detonate so it’s not necessary, reducing it makes it far less clunky to use especially with such a short cooldown.

Magnetic Aura : Reduced duration to 3 seconds, down from 5.
Magnetic Aura : Reduced cooldown to 15 seconds, down from 30 seconds.

Reason : Allows for more skillful reflect opportunities, as well as makes it more useful for Aura related traits with the lower cooldown.

Unsteady Ground : Now applies 3 stacks of Torment (6 seconds).
Unsteady Ground : Now applies 4 seconds of Cripple.
Unsteady Ground : Now refreshes its conditions on pulse instead of apply.

Reason : Other posters have suggested adding Torment to UG and I think it’s a great idea. The refreshing conditions means it will only ever apply 3 stacks of Torment or 4 seconds of cripple and staying in the aoe only refreshes them to that point. This makes it better for when enemies only walk through briefly, and gives extra dmg on enemies that continue standing on it by keeping Torment on longer. Of all the abilities that would be changed, this needs a change the most it’s the weakest staff skill.

Shockwave Change 1 : Tooltip renamed to “Grasping Earth”
Shockwave Change 1 : Is now a targeted ability.
Shockwave Change 1 : Now applies 3 bleeds (10 seconds), up from 1 bleed (20 seconds).
Shockwave Change 1 : Now uses the animation from downed skill “Grasping Earth”.

Reason : Makes this a solid and reliable single target immobilize, and also is vastly cooler than the original.

Shockwave Change 2 : Increased projectile speed by 30%.
Shockwave Change 2 : Increased projectile aoe width by 30%.
Shockwave Change 2 : Now applies 2 bleeds (10 seconds), up from 1 bleed (20 seconds).

Reason : Same treatment as Gust change, just makes it more reliable and a slightly better aoe ability, not to mention the extra impact.

Air

Chain Lightning : Tooltip renamed to “Lightning Bolt”.
Chain Lightning : Now only hits 1 target, down from 3.
Chain Lightning : Increased base dmg by 60%.

Reason : Reinforces the idea of Air = single target dmg, and the 60% dmg boost puts it just slightly above where the current Fireball dmg is.

Lightning Surge Change 1 : Tooltip renamed to “Chain Lightning”.
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Now chains to up to 5 targets (can bounce between 2 targets)
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Reduced cooldown to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Reduced base dmg by 30%.

Reason : Between the animation and having an instant chain lightning effect makes this incredibly satisfying. The reduced dmg makes up for it being able to hit the primary targets 3 times (bouncing off 1 other target), as well as the reduced cooldown. Letting it bounce between 2 targets allows single target “spike dmg” and is fitting thematically.

Lightning Surge Change 2 : Tooltip renamed to “Chain Lightning”.
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Now chains up to 5 targets (1 hit per unique target)
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Reduced cooldown to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Reduced base dmg by 10%.

Reason : Turns this into a solid aoe attack with blind utility, the reduced cooldown brings in line with the other #2 attunement abilities, plus this and the auto are the only attacks in Air Attunement.

Gust Change 1 : Is now a frontal cone aoe instead of a projectile.
Gust Change 1 : Range reduced to 600.
Gust Change 1 : Now cripples for 2 seconds.

Reason : This was always a very awkward ability to use defensively on targets up close, and the knockback isn’t as useful on targets far away. The cripple just makes the short knockback more useful by itself. Overall makes this more of a defensive skill

Gust Change 2 : Increased projectile speed by 30%.
Gust Change 2 : Increased projectile aoe width by 50%.
Gust Change 2 : Cooldown reduced to 25 seconds, down from 30 seconds.
Gust Change 2 : No longer triggers Air auto attack.

Reason : Alternative change that’s easier to implement and is in line with the current version, the projectile speed and width increase helps make it more reliable to hit and a slightly better aoe knockback. It also is a bit clunky to use when you have #1 on auto.

Gust Change 3 : Tooltip renamed to “Vortex”.
Gust Change 3 : Is now a ground targeted ability that pulls enemies toward the point.
Gust Change 3 : AoE radius set to 600.
Gust Change 3 : Now has a 3/4 second cast time, up from 1/4 second.

Reason : A more extreme change, not only makes it more fun, but very useful for comboing with staff aoe’s and especially Static Field. Would be just like Temporal Curtain for Mesmers, and would have a growing vortex animation on the ground while being cast as a telegraph.

Windbourne Speed : Increased radius to 600, up from 240.

Reason : The aoe is way too small as is making it a chore to buff allies with it, especially when you try to use it as a clutch “cripple/immob/chill” cleanser. Alternatively could be 450 radius.

Static Field : Adjusted animation border to match the effect border.
Static Field : Now does dmg each time an enemy passes through the border.

Reason : The border doesn’t seem very accurate in a lot of situations, the extra damage helps to punish people for running through it constantly and gives it some extra offensive capability.

Going to try to make these ideas as simple and “realistic” as possible. By realistic, I mean they could actually be implemented w/o too much trouble. But, these are just my ideas. I’ll also give alternative change ideas for some skills.

Fire (Almost perfect as is IMO)

Fireball Change 1 : Splash Radius increased to 300 from 90.
Fireball Change 1 : Reduced base dmg by 10%.
Fireball Change 1 : Reduced cast time to 3/4 second, from 1 second.

Fireball Change 2 : Splash Radius increased to 180 from 90.
Fireball Change 2 : Reduced cast time to 3/4 second, from 1 second.

Reason : Basing my change on the idea that Fire = AoE dmg while Air = Single Target dmg.

Lava Font : Radius increased to 180, up from 120. (Blasting Staff boosts by 60)

Reason : The radius is incredibly small w/o blasting staff is can be hard to aim accurately as a ground targeted skill that ALSO takes 4-5 seconds to do full dmg. Same reason Necro Marks base radius were increased.

Water

Water Blast : Increased Heal Radius to 600 from 120.

Reason : This should be obvious, the current heal splash radius is worthless

Ice Spike Change 1 : Reduced cast time to 1/2 seconds from 1 second.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Increased cooldown to 5 seconds from 4 seconds.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Increased vulnerability stacks applied to 8 from 5.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Is now a blast finisher.

Reason : Cast time reduction is necessary to make it less clunky. The cooldown increase is to balance it for being a blast finisher, with the slight vuln increase to make up for the new cooldown. Blast finisher adds utility and synergy with your own water fields.

Ice Spike Change 2 : Reduced cast time to 1/2 seconds from 1 second.
Ice Spike Change 2 : Increased base dmg by 10%.

Reason : Gives it a boost in offensive power so it become a solid primary attack for the water tree since it is it’s only offensive option when you’re ever stuck in this attunement.

Geyser : Increased radius to 180 from 120.
Geyser : Duration increased to 3 seconds from 2 seconds, overall healing is the same.

Reason : Radius increase is desperately needed, same reason as Lava Font. Duration nerfs the upfront healing a bit but buffs it’s water field utility.

Frozen Ground : Reduced cooldown to 35 seconds from 40 seconds.

Reason : The spell doesn’t deserve a full 40 seconds IMO, I’d reduce it to 30 seconds but went with 35 seconds just to be safe.

Legendshunter.6590:

Air attunement is definitely the single target attunement, dagger and scepter implemented it just fine, but ArenaNet mixed things up when making staff spells, making our single target capibility very low.

For this reason, the 1 and 2 spells should be swapped, and the 2 spell should have higher damage on the primary target, with 30% less damage on each successive bounce, meaning it doesn’t get too powerful when vsing Rangers.

Windbourne speed needs a bigger radius, and Static Field needs to be fixed to actually fit its animation.

Sorry I’ve mainly repeated what you said, but that’s because I agree with most of the changes.

The changes in attunements and traits is definitely a step in the right direction, but I fear it would be too strong this way, as having fast attunements without traiting can be quite overpowered when adding in bonuses for each attunement and making the bonuses last, and it would make the arcane tree almost useless. Another option would be to have default attunement recharge be 12seconds and the second arcane minor trait could reduce it by 2 seconds. Or the arcane tree reduces it by 1% per point (going down to 9second recharge) and the second minor trait affects the boon like you said.

I think it’s difficult for them to entirely change attunements and their traits without having lots of elementalists complain about it on top of all the players complaining about an overpowered buff.

However I do think attunements are too essential to the profession for them to NEED to be traited in cooldown, unlike virtues, burst skills, steal and shatter skills, where it isn’t necessary to reduce their cooldowns for them to be viable.

Thanks for your feedback, I agree with basically 90% of your first post, and I’d be ok with Unsteady Ground just applying a flat set of bleeding instead of Torment, it was just for flavor. However I don’t think you should deny a small thing like that just because of theme alone, the gameplay elements of Torment would fit the ability very well IMO.

I also disagree that Geyser doesn’t need a radius boost, I feel it definately does, for the same reason Necro Marks got a boost, you shouldn’t have to have that trait to make it decent. This would be more of a quality of life change than anything, being so small makes it a PITA to use. Same goes for #2 in Fire, even though I didn’t change it. Blasting Staff should just be a small bonus to these.

I don’t think having 10 sec cd base Attunements would be overpowered at all though, in fact Engineers don’t have ANY cooldowns swapping between kits/weapons, it doesn’t make ability cooldowns faster, it just gives you flexbility. Engy doesn’t get stuck in Toolkit for 5-10 seconds forced to use a melee auto.

Although having shorter cooldowns can affect the skills that proc effects when swapping, if necessary those effects could be nerfed slightly to balance them, like the Lightning Blast when swapping to Air, there shouldn’t even be such untelegraphed burst like that and Fresh Air anyway. =p

I did think of suggesting what you said though, making the cd 11-12 seconds then making Lingering Elements (15 point minor trait) reduce it by 2 seconds.

Also I really don’t think this would “kill” Arcana, the major traits are still extremely desirable, and attunement bonuses in my suggestion would be potent enough that the duration bonus and even bonus dmg for keeping them would be strong.

But yeah, as you said attunement cooldowns are too mandatory, being locked out of elements for 16 SECONDS, is unacceptable, and basically forces you to just blow all your long cooldowns as soon as your in an attunement because you won’t have it when you need it, and all this does is reinforce the spammy nature of this game which isn’t a good thing.

Again going back to Engineers, they can pop toolkit to use a pull or pry bar, pop back into weapon, then immediately go back to toolkit if they need their shield block, Elementalists don’t have that luxury, if you pop into Air to use your attacks/knockback then to Fire and need to go back because you need Lightning Field, you can’t, so you’re usually better off just “spamming” instead of intelligently saving cooldowns.

Extra change ideas for traits.

My goal here is to eliminate the significance of the Arcana trait line bonus : Attunement Cooldown Reduction, which restricts Ele builds too much.

Attunement Bonus Rework

Fire Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Raging Fire”
Water Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Soothing Mist”
Air Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Zephyr’s Fury”
Earth Attunement : Tooltip now includes information about it’s attunement bonus “Stone Flesh”

Raging Fire : Gain 1 might (4 – 6 second dur.) every 2 seconds. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Soothing Mist : Heal x amount every second. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Zephyr’s Fury : Gain 15% movespeed and 1 precision per level. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.
Stone Flesh : Gain 2 toughness per level. Lingers for 4 seconds after leaving attunement.

5 Point Minor Trait Reworks (The current Attunement Bonuses)

Flame Barrier : Tooltip renamed to Improved Raging Fire.
Flame Barrier : Now applies Fire Attunement bonus “Raging Fire” to nearby allies.

Zephyr’s Speed : Tooltip renamed to Improved Zephyr’s Fury.
Zephyr’s Speed : Now applies Air Attunement bonus “Zephyr’s Fury” to nearby allies.

Stone Flesh : Tooltip renamed to Improved Stone Flesh.
Stone Flesh : Now applies Earth Attunement Bonus “Stone Flesh” to nearby allies.

Soothing Mist : Tooltip renamed to Improved Soothing Mist.
Soothing Mist : Now applies Water Attunement Bonus “Soothing Mist” to nearby allies.

Arcana 15 Point Minor Trait Rework (Currently Lingering Elements)

Lingering Elements : Tooltip Renamed to “Prismatic Elements”.
Lingering Elements : Now gives you 3% extra dmg for each Attunement Bonus affecting you.

Final Changes

Attunements : Base cooldowns reduced to 10 seconds, down from 16.

Arcana Trait Bonus : Now increases Attunement Bonus duration by 5% per point.

With these changes, Attunements now have a 10 second cooldown baseline, and each Attunement has their bonuses built into the Attunement itself w/o traits. The 5 point traits in each tree allow you to share those bonuses with allies.

And finally, you can get up to 150% duration increase on attunement bonuses with 30 in Arcana making 4 second bonuses last 10 seconds. With enough swapping, the 15 point minor trait “Prismatic Elements” can give you up to 12% bonus dmg when you maintain all 4 lingering bonuses.

This makes it so you no longer HAVE to go 20-30 into Arcana to have manageable attunement cooldowns which can otherwise be crippling to be without, but going deep Arcana is still a very attractive option.

Earth

Eruption : Cast time reduced to 1/2 seconds, down from 1 – 1/4 seconds.

Reason : The cast time is absurdly long, and it already takes a good 3 seconds to detonate so it’s not necessary, reducing it makes it far less clunky to use especially with such a short cooldown.

Magnetic Aura : Reduced duration to 3 seconds, down from 5.
Magnetic Aura : Reduced cooldown to 15 seconds, down from 30 seconds.

Reason : Allows for more skillful reflect opportunities, as well as makes it more useful for Aura related traits with the lower cooldown.

Unsteady Ground : Now applies 3 stacks of Torment (6 seconds).
Unsteady Ground : Now applies 4 seconds of Cripple.
Unsteady Ground : Now refreshes its conditions on pulse instead of apply.

Reason : Other posters have suggested adding Torment to UG and I think it’s a great idea. The refreshing conditions means it will only ever apply 3 stacks of Torment or 4 seconds of cripple and staying in the aoe only refreshes them to that point. This makes it better for when enemies only walk through briefly, and gives extra dmg on enemies that continue standing on it by keeping Torment on longer. Of all the abilities that would be changed, this needs a change the most it’s the weakest staff skill.

Shockwave Change 1 : Tooltip renamed to “Grasping Earth”
Shockwave Change 1 : Is now a targeted ability.
Shockwave Change 1 : Now applies 3 bleeds (10 seconds), up from 1 bleed (20 seconds).
Shockwave Change 1 : Now uses the animation from downed skill “Grasping Earth”.

Reason : Makes this a solid and reliable single target immobilize, and also is vastly cooler than the original.

Shockwave Change 2 : Increased projectile speed by 30%.
Shockwave Change 2 : Increased projectile aoe width by 30%.
Shockwave Change 2 : Now applies 2 bleeds (10 seconds), up from 1 bleed (20 seconds).

Reason : Same treatment as Gust change, just makes it more reliable and a slightly better aoe ability, not to mention the extra impact.

Air

Chain Lightning : Tooltip renamed to “Lightning Bolt”.
Chain Lightning : Now only hits 1 target, down from 3.
Chain Lightning : Increased base dmg by 60%.

Reason : Reinforces the idea of Air = single target dmg, and the 60% dmg boost puts it just slightly above where the current Fireball dmg is.

Lightning Surge Change 1 : Tooltip renamed to “Chain Lightning”.
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Now chains to up to 5 targets (can bounce between 2 targets)
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Reduced cooldown to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Lightning Surge Change 1 : Reduced base dmg by 30%.

Reason : Between the animation and having an instant chain lightning effect makes this incredibly satisfying. The reduced dmg makes up for it being able to hit the primary targets 3 times (bouncing off 1 other target), as well as the reduced cooldown. Letting it bounce between 2 targets allows single target “spike dmg” and is fitting thematically.

Lightning Surge Change 2 : Tooltip renamed to “Chain Lightning”.
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Now chains up to 5 targets (1 hit per unique target)
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Reduced cooldown to 8 seconds, down from 10 seconds.
Lightning Surge Change 2 : Reduced base dmg by 10%.

Reason : Turns this into a solid aoe attack with blind utility, the reduced cooldown brings in line with the other #2 attunement abilities, plus this and the auto are the only attacks in Air Attunement.

Gust Change 1 : Is now a frontal cone aoe instead of a projectile.
Gust Change 1 : Range reduced to 600.
Gust Change 1 : Now cripples for 2 seconds.

Reason : This was always a very awkward ability to use defensively on targets up close, and the knockback isn’t as useful on targets far away. The cripple just makes the short knockback more useful by itself. Overall makes this more of a defensive skill

Gust Change 2 : Increased projectile speed by 30%.
Gust Change 2 : Increased projectile aoe width by 50%.
Gust Change 2 : Cooldown reduced to 25 seconds, down from 30 seconds.
Gust Change 2 : No longer triggers Air auto attack.

Reason : Alternative change that’s easier to implement and is in line with the current version, the projectile speed and width increase helps make it more reliable to hit and a slightly better aoe knockback. It also is a bit clunky to use when you have #1 on auto.

Gust Change 3 : Tooltip renamed to “Vortex”.
Gust Change 3 : Is now a ground targeted ability that pulls enemies toward the point.
Gust Change 3 : AoE radius set to 600.
Gust Change 3 : Now has a 3/4 second cast time, up from 1/4 second.

Reason : A more extreme change, not only makes it more fun, but very useful for comboing with staff aoe’s and especially Static Field. Would be just like Temporal Curtain for Mesmers, and would have a growing vortex animation on the ground while being cast as a telegraph.

Windbourne Speed : Increased radius to 600, up from 240.

Reason : The aoe is way too small as is making it a chore to buff allies with it, especially when you try to use it as a clutch “cripple/immob/chill” cleanser. Alternatively could be 450 radius.

Static Field : Adjusted animation border to match the effect border.
Static Field : Now does dmg each time an enemy passes through the border.

Reason : The border doesn’t seem very accurate in a lot of situations, the extra damage helps to punish people for running through it constantly and gives it some extra offensive capability.

Going to try to make these ideas as simple and “realistic” as possible. By realistic, I mean they could actually be implemented w/o too much trouble. But, these are just my ideas. I’ll also give alternative change ideas for some skills.

Fire (Almost perfect as is IMO)

Fireball Change 1 : Splash Radius increased to 300 from 90.
Fireball Change 1 : Reduced base dmg by 10%.
Fireball Change 1 : Reduced cast time to 3/4 second, from 1 second.

Fireball Change 2 : Splash Radius increased to 180 from 90.
Fireball Change 2 : Reduced cast time to 3/4 second, from 1 second.

Reason : Basing my change on the idea that Fire = AoE dmg while Air = Single Target dmg.

Lava Font : Radius increased to 180, up from 120. (Blasting Staff boosts by 60)

Reason : The radius is incredibly small w/o blasting staff is can be hard to aim accurately as a ground targeted skill that ALSO takes 4-5 seconds to do full dmg. Same reason Necro Marks base radius were increased.

Water

Water Blast : Increased Heal Radius to 600 from 120.

Reason : This should be obvious, the current heal splash radius is worthless

Ice Spike Change 1 : Reduced cast time to 1/2 seconds from 1 second.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Increased cooldown to 5 seconds from 4 seconds.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Increased vulnerability stacks applied to 8 from 5.
Ice Spike Change 1 : Is now a blast finisher.

Reason : Cast time reduction is necessary to make it less clunky. The cooldown increase is to balance it for being a blast finisher, with the slight vuln increase to make up for the new cooldown. Blast finisher adds utility and synergy with your own water fields.

Ice Spike Change 2 : Reduced cast time to 1/2 seconds from 1 second.
Ice Spike Change 2 : Increased base dmg by 10%.

Reason : Gives it a boost in offensive power so it become a solid primary attack for the water tree since it is it’s only offensive option when you’re ever stuck in this attunement.

Geyser : Increased radius to 180 from 120. (Blasting Staff increases by 60)
Geyser : Duration increased to 3 seconds from 2 seconds, overall healing is the same.

Reason : Radius increase is desperately needed, same reason as Lava Font. Duration nerfs the upfront healing a bit but buffs it’s water field utility.

Frozen Ground : Reduced cooldown to 35 seconds from 40 seconds.

Reason : The spell doesn’t deserve a full 40 seconds IMO, I’d reduce it to 30 seconds but went with 35 seconds just to be safe.

Kolly.9872:

They are broken, plain and simple!! and from a thief POV those runes sound great but still they are broken.
We should push the game towards a more active skill based action, not the contrary.
Leave those runes to pve scrubs

You can make this argument for any popular rune people use in Spvp………..

If a company admitted to fault and was like "Yeah, we made a bad call, we plan on fixing it ASAP, x, y, and z, are coming soon, and another company dodges a question and instead goes “Man you should be grateful for all the awesome stuff we’ve done, we’re amazing and and have done x, y, and z!”, I’ll always stick by the former.

Gust : I’d like to see become a 600 cone knockback.

Water Blast : Making this ground target would be awful unless they make this (and grenades) auto cast at ground target or something. They could always just buff the aoe on it so it’s 600 range, and make it always heal yourself when you cast it.

Whirlwind : Would be awesome if this thing pulled mobs toward it in a 450 radius of it as it flew.

Eruption: Needs to have no cast time, it already takes a good 3 seconds to detonate, no need for that clunky cast animation.

Attunement Cooldown Reduction needs to be removed from the last trait tree, and replaced with a bonus to the lingering attunement bonuses, like stronger effect or longer durations or something. Then reduce the base cooldown of Attunements to 10 seconds.

Unsteady Ground : Adding torment is a great idea, I’d advocate to keep the cripple as well though, just a tiny bit. Would also be nice if it did more direct dmg per tic so a power build could get some decent dmg out of it on an immobile target.

Shockwave : It’d be awesome if this had more impact, like either make the Ele stomp their Staff/Foot on the ground and make it a bigger (instant) column AoE immobilize, or make it a targeted immobilize like the downed skill with Hands of Earth collapsing on the target.

Anet is doing things backwards IMO.

One : All rewards in general need to be applied to all parts of the game relatively equally, in terms of time vs reward skewed only by risk vs reward.

Two : If karma is “worthless” then give more valuable things that use karma so it’s NOT worthless, don’t just nerf karma….

Anet did the same stupid thing with farming activities, there’s only 1 efficient way to farm, Anet completely kills it and introduces a new one, that’s the wrong way to go and they did it with Karma.

If people aren’t playing your events because they’re not fun/rewarding, then make them not only fun of course, but REWARDING, don’t just nerf everything else so be as crappy.

Writetyper.1985:

Because it is beyond overpowered and would throw off the balance of the game immensely. Why would you actually run anything else? Necro: huge damage output, huge vit and toughness, Warrior: borderline unkillable with signet + dire stats while still putting out good damage, Ranger: sit there evading everything and never dying, single best backpoint defender in the game…

The game would become stale as kitten.

Kind of exaggerating, they would just have an extra chunk of hp, not become some invincible immune to damage machine. And they’re losing extra dmg from crits/procs.

It would probably be a bad idea just because it would reinforce the condi meta more, since tough AND vit together hurts power burst more than condi, and then the fact that Dire is for condi builds.

I heard a rumor that Anet planned on releasing an item that does this on the shop.

Since I plan on/want to make a new fresh character and would really want to transfer soulbound things over from an old character (that I might not want to play anymore) I would really look forward to an item like this.

Is the rumor true?

It’d be nice to combo with immobilize, but if don’t have much access to immobilize you won’t get much out of it…

Like you said, when are people ever standing still in this game?

I think punishing movement is ok, but I’d like to see Mesmer have more of it though, especially since mesmers aren’t really the masters of confusion anymore if ever lol.

Alissah.9281:

“Givig up precious utility slots” is the point of… Utility slots :P

Imagine a really tanky build with decoy/blink/veil…. Now add the defender aswell. Normally they would have to sacrifice decoy/blink/veil to get that extra defense from the defender, now they dont, and tey just lose a warlock thats worthless to them.

Normally im all up for customisation, but this feels kind of imbalanced to me :o.

Yes but they’re utilities that are killable and take up our illusion slots….

You don’t see other classes defensive utilities being killable or removed when trying to do dmg, or vice versa a guardian popping a shout and losing their #2 attack lol.

Besides you’re giving up phantasm dmg, which is where a large portion of your damage comes from, and still comes with the same penalties of being shattered/cooldowns/killable.

Xyonon.3987:

It was fun, made a few more:

Sword:
- ISwordsman: leaps (combo finisher) to the target, deals high damage, jumps back after it
- IImpaler: leaps to the target, deals medium damage and causes 1 stack of vurnability for each stack of bleeding for 4 seconds, jumps back too.

Torch:
- Ihoweveri’mcalledagain: Deals small damage. Causes confusion and retalation to enemies and allies, 3 (?) targets.
- ITimekeeper: Deals small damage. Causes to stop the timer of all conditions at the target for 3 seconds. Boons will pass with double speed for 3 seconds. Hits 2 targets (bounce).

Greatsword:
- IBerserker: spin to win with high damage, max 5 targets per hit, you know him
- IGladiator: uses your GS 5 skill (WITHOUT knockback, just animation) and deals medium damage to 5 targets, 5 allies gain 2 stacks of might for 10 seconds.

What do you think? ^..^ honestly :o

Those are nice ideas, and TBH I feel like every weapon ability for every class should be like this, where you can swap out “alternative” versions of weapon attacks just for more variety/customization.

Allow mesmers to swap a phantasm on our weapon set with either the Defender or Disenchanter, like you can swap utilities out for other utilities.

For example, you’re using a Staff and you don’t want iWarlock for w/e reason and want to replace it with some extra utility/defensive phantasm, so when out of combat you click the arrow above iWarlock and choose either Defender or Disenchanter and they replace iWarlock.

This would also prevent them from being used in any other utility/phantasm slot.

Would add some nice customization and a way to make use of these phantasms w/o giving up precious utility slots on stuff that will be shattered or hit illusion cap too often.

Thoughts?

I know I had way more fun playing hot join like a crappy death match arena than trying to play “try to kill the bunker” BS.

Yup Ele definately has the most clear well telegraphed abilities and most require CC to work.

Like the old Dragon/Phoenix/Grab + CC combo.

The new Air Attunement burst stuff is an example of how things should NOT be.

2 Rares and 4 champ bags aren’t worth 30 minutes lol.

If you pop in and get a tag in 5 minutes sure.

It’s a step in the right direction, but the reward still just matches it’s difficulty, she’s easy to put down super fast.

Both difficulty/rewards need more boosts.

Just like they allow Legendaries to swap stats on the fly for more customization considering it’s a friggin Legendary, they should allow more customization of the graphical parts of it.

The Bifrost

[X] Rainbow Bolt
[ ] Rainbow Trail
[ ] None
————————————-
[X] Footfall
[ ] Aura
————————————-
Particle Tint Slider (Just like Champions Online)

__Red__Orange__Yellow__Green__Blue__Purple__

__Black__Gray__White__

Done.

Articluna.4509:

Mathemagician.1836:

The first 100 ecto I salavaged gave 10,560 luck and 155 dust. The second 100 ecto I salvaged gave 10,340 luck and 145 dust. That first 10,560 luck got me to something like 54% magic find, the next 10,340 only got me to 65%, so it slows down quickly. Currently at 65%, every time you get 1% more magic find, the amount of luck required to increase by 1% goes up by 40 (if I recall properly, not at a computer where I can test it, it could be 50 though). E.g. If it cost me 1000 luck to go from 64 to 65, it will cost 1040 to go from 65 to 66.

Looks like someone used basic/crude salvage kit, or Salvage-o-Matic…

I didn’t find any difference between the two after using both.

You could just make it so there is no super high dmg auto attacks, they’re just “decent” dmg as filler or w/e other utility if they have some.

Then put more weight/dmg on short to long cooldown weapon abilities and make them well telegraphed based on how strong their effect is.

I think Ele is great in this regard.

Gandarel.5091:

MaesterTed.6571:

I don’t usually post a lot, but I have to get this off my chest:
I don’t mean to be rude, and I don’t mean to offend anyone either, but I’m getting kind of annoyed with the slowly increasing whining about the living story.

The majority of people here weren’t too happy with Scarlet, and were telling they needed a break from her. When we get exactly that, and nobody’s happy either.
The invasions won’t magically stop either, it’s been announced some time ago that they will remain permanent, albeit at a reduced frequency.
We’ll get back to Scarlet in time.

I fail to see how this update is destroying the game. GW1 had candy cane weapons and similar joke weapons.

(Just to be clear, I’m not saying the LS and this update are top notch, but does it really deserve all of the flack it’s given? You don’t even have to pay for it, for crying out loud!)

And it’s sad enough I’m crying Scarlet or even, even the dragons back. It’s that I see people with these awful 8bit weapons everywhere.

And GW1 candy weapons didn’t do max dmg, i think only a very limited (under 100), did.

This is what makes me laugh, because when people/Anet argued that town clothes during Halloween shouldn’t be able to be transmuted onto armor because “people running around like the Mad King would look silly!”

I’m fine with things taking a lot of farm to get…. but not when there’s only 1-2 efficient/good ways to farm and they get boring.

If they made everything a little more equally profitable then it wouldn’t be :

“Hmm I want to get this item asap because it’s great, guess I’ll be zerg farming Champs for the next 2 weeks…………. yawn”

It’d just be :

“Hmm what do I feel like doing today to make money for that “carrot”."

They should really just give us a revamped version of conditions on mobs or something, like how they made confusion stronger against mobs.

This is good to hear.

Was hearing how hard it was to get baubles so trying to “progress” in the hard stuff was a huge PITA grind.

Shar.3402:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Yes, everyone would be picking up the best traits but where is the problem in that? Right now you ‘may’ be forced to take stuff that isn’t very good or not needed because there’s nothing else you want in that tree. If we had free allocation of traits, we would be taking EXACTLY what you need/want and those traits no one uses could get an overhaul from devs because, well, they’re useless. I really don’t understand how could anyone deny this… its not like im asking this to be done for myself but everyone in the game. Build variety per class is below pathetic level when compared to gw1, just sayin.

Free trait allocation was possible in early beta, and it was unbalanced as kitten.

Imagine if you could take, on an elementalist, fresh air as a 10 point trait, or evasive arcana, or whatever.
Or dhuumfire for a necro
Or illusionary persona on mesmer
Or empathic bond on ranger
And the list could go on.

No is one asking to be able to slot t3 traits in t1 slots which is how it was in beta…..

We’re asking to be able to slot ANYt3 traits in ANY t3 slot and vice versa for everything else.

Then it just becomes the stats you want when picking a trait tree.

“Humanity is resilient! Humans are da bomb! Humans rules! Humans FTW!!!!” -Queen Jenna

Meanwhile Asura/Charr/Sylvari/Norn scowl.

If the dragon thing comes back ever, there should really be green/yellow versions to match with the SAB colored weapons, they’re just so perfect for each other.

I shall call it….. Mini.. Me.

Frankly all I could ask for is more dev posts like this, so I’m happy.

Just make them vendorable for a decent amount of copper, becomes a new “Grey” trakittenem then atleast, easiest solution for now,

I think I’m losing my mind, but today after downloading the patch and reading the patch notes I SWEAR I saw something about there being a SAB item that lets you play the 8 bit music from SAB where ever you are, like the flute basically.

But then looking through the store and through the patch notes again, I can’t find it ANYWHERE, I’m so convinced I read it somewhere… but I think I’m losing my mind, does this exist?? Lol..

Yeah it seemed buggy sometimes, but now I’ve gotten the hang of it, just forgot that old platformer mobs hit you by touching them lol.

I haven’t tried W2 yet but I have to say, if this was permanent content I could care less how hard it is.

But… seriously, this needs to just be made permanent content… WHY is it temporary? What’s the point? Especially if you’re selling an infinite coin that’s useless once the content goes “poof”.

Shouldn’t you be just as upset as us players that all the hard work you put into this content just disappears?

I really hope you advocate to keep it permanent, even if we have to buy the stupid box thing in the store to access it.

Josh Foreman.8250:

DarksunG.9537:

I think you have misinterpreted what made SAB fun. It’s not the hair ripping “OG hard-coreness” it was cute fun puzzles with occasional tough jumping at a pace you can enjoy.

Well I don’t expect anyone to read this whole thread at this point so I won’t fault you for not having read the 20 times I’ve said I didn’t intend Normal Mode to be as hard as it appears to be to average players.

As to the pacing issue. What made you feel rushed? Is it the length of the levels? Or do you just mean specific timed puzzles like the rolling gong?

Well since checkpoints don’t save your place, I’m guessing it’s because people just aren’t able to put down 5 hours to progress through a long level which won’t save their progress, thus feel rushed.

Allie Murdock.8152:

How can you even say that? If you honestly think you put more into this game than we do, you have absolutely no concept of what we do on a regular basis.

No, it was not dishonest. I had a great time with the players, and it was a sad occasion to have to watch half of them lose in the tournament. We spent a lot of time together this weekend, and had a lot of fun. There’s nothing forced about that.

Part of the problem, if players DID know there wouldn’t be nearly as much belly-aching.

When there’s little to no communication and barely any action being taken all players can really think is "Anet has given up, Anet doesn’t care, etc other ideas.)

I think the elbow noodle rainbows are a little weird looking TBH hehe.

If SAB is temporary what’s the point of the infinite lives?

Do monkeys have some kind of melee attack? I know they can throw point blank coconuts but that has a telegraph.

Literally 50% of the time whenever I get into melee range of a monkey after he just threw a coconut I just get hit INSTANTLY and go flying w/o any animation or anything. Kind of irritating.

edit : NM I think it’s just from “touching” them I guess.

coronaas.4362:

Golgathoth.3967:

coronaas.4362:

Uurik.2934:

Quote what I said earlier:

This makes it very easy for players to get angry at each other over playstyle, which sucks.

If youre worried about being made fun of for something that you recognize is terrible maybe you shouldn’t be doing it. I thought this was obvious enough that I wouldn’t have to quote it

The heart of the entire issue is that it shouldn’t be terrible. It’s a legit playstyle except for large groups, which makes no sense. This is an issue of the game being borked in this respect, not players refusing to “be better” or something.

It’s a legit PVP playstyle this is the part you don’t seem able to grasp. If I went into WvW in my pve spec I would get blown up in seconds. Should I start making threads whining that I should be able to play how I want to and to change the mechanics so a full dps a+m/gs warrior is viable in WvW? or should I adapt to the game and change my playstyle?

That has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with condition dmg versus power dmg…….. That’s not even on the same topic.

The only way your points would even make sense (and be correct) if there was “content” like a boss that had good condition cleansing or something which would purposefully make condition builds weaker versus it, but that’s not that case at all.

Condition builds just become weaker because of a VERY outdated and clunky mechanic of conditions not stacking and thus become completely useless just because there happens to be an extra handful of people that started attacking your target…

If “condition dmg” wasn’t a stat, and condition dmg was actually just small supplementary dmg it MIGHT make sense, but that’s not the case at all… full condition dmg builds are meant to exist because they have entire weapons based 100% around it.

coronaas.4362:

Knote.2904:

Lol and Anet isn’t even doing the “play how you want” thing at all, I don’t see how it ruined the game at all considering that, if that were the case you wouldn’t have to zerg to make money, and condition builds would be viable. It’s the lack of “play how you want” that’s “ruining” the game as you put it.

1. you dont have to zerg to make money. It just happens to be efficient. Its sad you cant see the difference.
2. all builds DO NOT and SHOULD not be viable for all content. condition sucks. stop complaining that it sucks and play something else. If you love conditions play spvp where they are the meta. complaining that there is only one viable build (zerk) for pve does nothing to change the fact that there is one viable build for pve.
3. and yet here we are where content is being balanced around all classes are able to complete all content. constant threads of “why is my wvw full pvt ele not able to kill liandri?” or previously “why cant 5 rangers kill simin?” Content is getting balanced so everyone on any spec in any build can complete all content and its bringing the game down to such a level that people expect to just be handed things for showing up. The question isn’t why can’t my pvt ele beat liandri its why the hell could your pvt ele even get to liandri? Can 80 necro’s beat teq? who cares go sit on a turret and let someone carry you through the fight like we end up carrying you through dungeons.

Yes it’s terrible and Anet should make it not terrible.

Why can power builds DO DMG but condition builds CANNOT do dmg?

It’s not about having SPECIFIC builds for specific content, it’s about a BUILD that uses CONDITION DMG versus a BUILD that uses POWER DMG. I could run a tanky/dmg hybrid Necro well build that uses CONDITION BASED DMG versus a tanky/dmg hybrid Necro well build that uses POWER BASED DMG, it’s the same except the way dmg is dealt, so it’s “ok” that one should just be useless in pve? No.

And I already “adapt” and play zerker/power builds because like I said condition builds are useless, and that should change, how are you even arguing this lmao.

Also yes, you have to zerg to make money, that’s the most efficient BY FAR compared to the rest of the game which is also a huge problem.

This is reminding me of release when people actually argued with me that champ loot SHOULD be bad lmao.

Well considering they conflict with each other I don’t really know now….

Why would I say… craft an ascended Staff if I also want to get the Bifrost?

Should let ascended weapons be used to craft precursors.

coronaas.4362:

Knote.2904:

coronaas.4362:

one of the biggest problems with this game is this thought process that every class under any circumstances should be able to clear all the content in the game and complain about actual specs.

Um…. what?

this has been complained about since the game launched I specifically remember threads about world bosses and condition damage since a week after release. If it hasn’t been changed in a year this thread wont be the tipping point.

now why even ask if it can be done with 80 necros? In what scenario would 80 necros even attempt something like this? Why the heck should they create content that any class/spec/gear combination you think up be clearable? shouldn’t you adapt to their game instead of adapting the game to your playstyle? “Play how you want” ruined this game

Yes and Arenanet has been slow for a lot of changes people have been asking for. Hell the LFG and the “New” Tequatl are things that should’ve been here on release, but took a year to finally fix.

The point of this thread is that if Anet is gonna keep pushing for zerg content then they should fix condition builds being useless, and it’s not about “adapting to the game” it’s about completely KILLING half of your already limited build variety in PvE.

Condition builds aren’t a niche gimmick build, it’s not about dmg builds versus support or tank or utility builds or w/e. It’s just dmg….

Power build vs Condition build is just about the way you’re doing dmg, that’s it. And in these scenario’s one is useless and the other is much stronger.

Lol and Anet isn’t even doing the “play how you want” thing at all, I don’t see how it ruined the game at all considering that, if that were the case you wouldn’t have to zerg to make money, and condition builds would be viable. It’s the lack of “play how you want” that’s “ruining” the game as you put it.

Django.5923:

I see your point. It would be better to be able to pick what you need without question. But it wouldn’t increase build variety in huge amounts.

Think about it. Now build X needs trait 1,2,3,4,5 (maybe 1-3 are useless.. but it needs 4 and 5 and thus the other also). Then after free allocation build X needs other traits a,b,c,d,e which are better for the build. But it’s still the same amount of traits and you are still somehow forced to pick them.

I can imagine that variety would increase alittle. But I already see people crying because you have to take always those 9 traits if you play on condition dmg.

Don’t get me wrong. I would like to pick the best traits and I don’t think it would be something bad for a change. But I don’t see it as the solution to increase build variety.

In my opinion variety comes from better balancing. If they would allow free allocation of traits then they would need to balance all the traits first. Like you said too many useless ones.

I could imagine it (increased build variety) working if:

- Skills which are useless get to be useful
- Traits which are useless get to be useful
- Trait trees wouldnt’ force you in them just because of the attributes (power, precision..) —> separate attribut and traittrees
- Somewhat free allocation of traits. But in my opinion it would still need a minor, major etc. system somehow. Because if you put all the current traits in the same pool you would have to tune down the strong ones, tune up the bad ones so that they are all mediocre (and I like better traits or traits which are just strong like “elite” traits).

In the end it would give more build variety, and would make the game WAY more fun and refreshing. Playing GW1 casually I had a ton of fun just constantly making builds, even if they weren’t the best.

But remember on release they rearranged some traits because they didn’t want people “cherry picking” the best traits? Well that wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t so many crappy traits for us to dig through to find the best traits. Make every trait desirable then all of a sudden it’s not “easy” to just fill up trait slots like it is now, there’s very few times where I have to struggle with “do I want this one or this one ugh this is tough” because it’s usually just “oh there’s 1 good trait here and 5 crappy ones”.

Yeah it depends on the build you’re going for but still, there’s a lot of trash traits to dig through still lol.

I personally think it’s more fun when everyone has a ton of variety even if there is some OP things, it’s sorta like DotA, everyone is OP in their own way so it becomes “balanced” in a way, and there’s way more variety so it’s fun. And in the end if something is way too broken they can swoop in and finely tune it so it’s put in it’s place.

I know it won’t happen, but I can dream.

coronaas.4362:

one of the biggest problems with this game is this thought process that every class under any circumstances should be able to clear all the content in the game and complain about actual specs.

Um…. what?