Guild Wars 2

I would have enjoyed seeing D/D be what S/D is now (a very mobile melee harass/dps set), leaving the sword a whole new set of options.

Mirsa.1628:

You shouldn’t put other fields on top of your water field…

I don’t think that’s the OP’s problem. Healing Rain creates a cloud animation that can obstruct your view of objects behind it from your screen’s PoV.

I want to know their balancing priorities based on what they “know” about the current meta, how they feel about the effects of adding another condition to the game, and why they somehow think that buffing a damage source that requires only one attribute to be effective was somehow a good idea.

Nikaido.3457:

The fire attunement is a bit problematic, in a thematic way, for a mainly control and defense weapon. “Earth Shield” “Swirling Winds” and so on make sense, but what kind of control and defense can we give to Fire? “Crippling burn”?

Flame wall doing heavy damage for crossing it along with the 1 second of burn, and Fire Shield doing damage to attacking foes based on your power level, akin to retaliation but not an actual boon. This new Fire Shield needs to be unique to the ele’s focus weapon, and the regular one can stay with the leap finisher. This discourages foes from running to certain areas and also gives them a reason to avoid wailing on you mindlessly.

Sancz.9345:

what do you mean it needs to have a different name? It is the exact same thing as a regular fire shield. also allies can get flame shield by leaping in fire fields.

I’m saying it needs to have a different name to reflect its status as a unique skill/effect. This is all theoretical; I know it functions exactly like the leap finisher right now. We’re looking for ways to improve the focus, not state what it already does.

Sword mainhand has the strongest potential single target dps a ranger has access to and GS barely outdoes it in the aoe department. The fact that you won’t have a useless skill against bosses when using S/x (GS 4 attempts to knock back when countering and 5 is a daze/stun) makes it even more appealing. Its auto attack also grants your pet might on the 3rd chain and you can time the evades with big damage.

I guess in the end it’s all up to your taste. I like to have access to all potential weapons depending on my needs.

Blaine Tog.8304:

Leuca.5732:

Focus had a lot of potential, but Anet was terrified of giving us a KD with a decent CD and water/fire are just awful.

Indeed. If Fire had some actual damage and Water had a heal instead of a crappy single-target Chill or a finicky Daze, then it might be a more respectable weapon. As it stands, Air and Earth are good (but not necessarily better than Air and Earth on the Dagger), but Fire and Water suck (whereas they are both excellent on the Dagger).

There are easy improvements you could make. I don’t like Flame wall because it’s a line, but if it must remain that way, it needs to do significant damage when crossed to further accentuate focus’ role as a defensive weapon. (This is a line, and you shouldn’t cross it.) Fire shield needs to have a different name from regular flame auras, needs a shorter cd, and needs to punish people for hitting us by additionally doing damage. The only way an ally can gain this unique aura is by the Powerful Auras trait.

For water, simply increase the base damage on Freezing Gust and make Comet stun chilled foes instead of dazing them, to promote synergy with properly timed chills.

Air and earth are fine except for Gale needing a shorter CD.

Add ability to change attunements while in Tornado form, reflect projectiles, and add secondary effect (burning, chilled, extra damage, bleed/weakness) based on your attunement.

Senjun.8149:

As an underpowered scepter/focus ele i have to use lightning flash offensively in order to put more then a scratch on my opponent. 40 sec cd for a teleport that is insanely hard to land a hit with, that puts me in harms way only to hit 400-900 on well geared and smart players.

It should at least stun them for 2-3 seconds.

It needs to serve its purpose, which is mobility/utility. When people justify it by comparing it to the mesmer’s Blink, which is known for having less overall utility pre-LF nerf, they never take into account that the mesmer can not only trait Blink to have greater range and reduced cooldown, but that their mechanics inherently make teleports more effective by messing with the targeting system in skirmish combat.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Leuca.5732:

Its original CD was excessively low and could be traited to be a 12 second recharge, but 40 seconds (that doesn’t always properly hit and thus reduce recharge) is absurd. And no, fixing the hitbox bugs that trigger recharge reduction will not solve this problem. It needs to be a static 24 seconds, give or take before traits.

why is 12 seconds to excessive?
Ranger Greatsword is 12 seconds (without trait) goes 1100range, is a combo finisher
Warrior Greatsword is 20 seconds (without trait) goes 1200range

The ONE class that has NO option of going between range and melee with D/D and make the skill that is pretty much the SAME as the ones above and give it a cool down that is at least twice as long as just the 2 above is a joke

if it must have the “on hit” thing then it needs to be UNBLOCKABLE or remove it and reduce the overall cool down. 20 seconds before trait seems fair.

The reason it was excessive is that it ignored movement impairing effects like cripple/chill, did decent damage with might stacks with almost no aftercast delay and back then was quite possibly the best mobility skill in the game. If you cripple/chill a ranger or war before they use their respective dashing skills, they go almost nowhere and the skills have very clear animations for the exact moment the attack will strike if they are charging you. An ele could reset combat better than any profession sans thieves. I don’t think the ability to reset combat is necessarily bad, but I don’t think 12 seconds is healthy for the game, even with this ridiculous meta. We should be trying to bring other stuff in line, not overbuff things and make the powercreep worse. Please know that I do want RtL to have the CD reduced, but not quite that much; there are other factors with comparable skills that must be taken into account, and I don’t think it’s as black-and-white as comparing:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_of_Earth

and

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22Stand_Your_Ground!%22

In this case we have a horrible disparity because both the Ele and Guardian are relatively good at self-sustain, and each of these utilities can be traited for relatively similar effects e.g. condition removal etc. However, no ele has problems with attuning to Earth before taking spike damage if they are paying attention, making the protection from Armor of Earth negligible, leaving us with a self-targeted stability at 90s recharge vs an aoe stability on 30s recharge.

Focus had a lot of potential, but Anet was terrified of giving us a KD with a decent CD and water/fire are just awful.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

boroguy.5690:

I’m still waiting for the CD increase on heartseeker spamming runaway thieves, whirlwind/rush warriors, and others. Rush even has range equivalent to the nerfed RTL, on a 20s CD, with no hit/miss penalty.
Why is the ele singled out for “too much” mobility, even when it has the lowest hp and armor? Shouldn’t the ele be at a mobility advantage? What is the tradeoff?

keep waiting, it wont happen.
THIS is why Anet should NEVER be allowed to do “Balancing” because they are simply PATHETIC at it. They have no clue what they are doing, bowing down to the casuals crying all the time and look what it has done to the Ele, destroyed it. They have targeted Mesmer now that very soon will be a worthless class as well.

The ONLY class that when they go Melee (Dagger/Dagger) are FORCED to ONLY stay melee thanks to no weapon swap and they nerf the ONE skill that was helpful and very useful both in defense and offense.

Its original CD was excessively low and could be traited to be a 12 second recharge, but 40 seconds (that doesn’t always properly hit and thus reduce recharge) is absurd. And no, fixing the hitbox bugs that trigger recharge reduction will not solve this problem. It needs to be a static 24 seconds, give or take before traits.

My problem with some of your suggestions is that some are for skills that are plenty strong, and some don’t solve the problems the skills have in the first place.

Burning Speed and Magnetic Aura are both pretty strong; adding a leap finisher to a combo field is pointless when you have ample access to blast finishers and a leap finisher on a different element anyway. Magnetic Aura is fine the way it is; the rest of the Earth staff skills are what need improvement.

RtL needs its mobility back, not a leap finisher. Again, we already have a leap finisher in D/ and it won’t provide much.

Dragon’s tooth I’m iffy about, because its current targeting system streamlines combat quite a bit, and its damage/point control is still quite formidable. I can see how making it player controlled would be beneficial, so either or I guess would be fine.

Shatterstone doesn’t need a blast finisher; there’s too many blast finishers on s/x to begin with and it doesn’t solve the lack of damage/terrible delay for no output problem.

Eles have more than enough condition removal for Water Trident to need that change; what it needs is damage and/or some crowd control effect. In GW1 it would knock down moving targets and actually had some viable gameplay competitively at one point.

Giving Shatterstone a blast finisher doesn’t solve its damage delay/terrible dps problems.

Rock Hurl just needs a higher base damage along with an attack speed buff to Stone Shards, to provide viability for both power/condition specs while retaining the utility Rock Shield has by keeping it on if you so choose.

Fire Shield needs a much stronger effect than removing bleeds. It’s sitting on our damage element, yet provides no reliable source of damage increase. Taking a lot of direct hits to fuel its might stacking is not feasible on a low armor/low health class. It also needs an effect that is exclusive to the ele, as it’s sitting on a weapon set and be acquired more rapidly simply by chaining Magnetic Grasp through any fire field. I would advocate for it actually doing damage to foes that hit you (similar to retaliation, but irremovable like Shock Aura) on top of its current effect, and to have the recharge reduced.

Freezing Gust needs more than an extra second of chill. It does no notable damage and the chill doesn’t do anything but.. chill. It has nothing that combos off of it within the set when it could have lots of theoretical applications, such as the chill being a catalyst for Comet to stun instead of daze. This would allow for the focus to still be a defensive weapon while retaining a good amount of all-around utility for the elementalist.

I do rather like your change to Signet of Water, but skills need to be telegraphed and a 1/4 second cast time is moving away from that idea. Look at staff condi necros as an example of bad telegraphing. I would reduce its recharge however and look into changing the passive to an increase in healing power, since a condition removal every 10 seconds by itself is not providing that much when the ele has access to much more on-demand removal.

Addressing your quibbles, I’d advocate giving scepter autos a chain attack with the 3rd inflicting 1 second of chill.

Fire grab should just have a shorter CD. There’s really not sufficient reason to keep it at 50s, since it has no secondary utility and has conditional max damage to begin with. It is relatively well-telegraphed and has a clunky hitbox; I would honestly shave at least 10 seconds off, though maybe 15.

CuRtoKy.8576:

Celestial is good regardless of MF. Depends on what you need to build. Celestial Armor has more critical damage so the price per 1% critical damage is less if you don’t use condition damage and healing power.

So you’re paying for unnecessary stats and justifying it by saying that the stats you want are numerically costing less per point? I don’t quite get it.

Aridia.3042:

Leuca.5732:

Depends on where you are. (WvW/SPvP) I’d argue that because you get so much crit damage from investing 30 Air, you can afford to get a little survivability from your equipment via a small amount of soldier and/or cleric stats in PvE/WvW (probably just runes in SPvP)

I was thinking WvW only. So something like half knight, half valk?

Knight’s gives substantial precision and decent toughness. With a burst build however your first line of defense is higher max health, so I wouldn’t split it half and half. A mix of soldier, valk and knight stats sounds like it might be good. In this scenario you have two sources of power, toughness, vitality and precision (second sources is trait) with a nice boost of crit damage.

As somebody who used to BM stunlock burst for fun, I hate seeing the spirit build even exist; it’s so mindless.

Aridia.3042:

Leuca.5732:

No, numerically it was that eles (when theorycrafting doesn’t include other professions/the meta) gained so much from celestial stats that everything else seemed silly. However, in a competitive PvP/WvW context, they start to fall off because eles don’t take advantage of the condition damage well due to an inability to cover damaging conditions.

What’s a good min/max set for fresh air then that has good crit dmg?

Depends on where you are. (WvW/SPvP) I’d argue that because you get so much crit damage from investing 30 Air, you can afford to get a little survivability from your equipment via a small amount of soldier and/or cleric stats in PvE/WvW (probably just runes in SPvP)

Believe me, I understand that Celestial equipment costs a lot and is a time investment in PvE, but it’s going to keep falling off in WvW as eles continue to dwindle in a condi meta.

Avatara.1042:

silvermember.8941:

What made celestial gear special wasn’t MF.

Past tense? And for eles, it was the MF.

No, numerically it was that eles (when theorycrafting doesn’t include other professions/the meta) gained so much from celestial stats that everything else seemed silly. However, in a competitive PvP/WvW context, they start to fall off because eles don’t take advantage of the condition damage well due to an inability to cover damaging conditions.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

1) Why not post this in the SPvP forums, since it’s related to that, and not an Account problem

2) Since you didn’t explain what this “exploit” is, it’s hard to say if it’s even an exploit, or someone smartly using the map.

1) Because I’m pointing out the inadequacy of the report system.

2) They already know it exists; I’m using it as an example. This kind of topic belongs in support but doesn’t fit into any of the other subforums. If they deem it appropriate to move this thread, I couldn’t care less.

As those of us who Duel/SPvP on occasion know, the current exploitation of the Legacy of the Foefire map is getting out of hand. Unfortunately, the in-game report system lacks an option to deal with this on-going problem. Although it seems unlikely to be able to track such behavior, given that it’s not really messing with the game so much as exploiting for personal gain and doesn’t use any sort of botting software, is there some way we can get more thorough intervention on Anet’s part? Not just for this map, but anywhere we see something being exploited. From what I understand it is not appropriate or within ToS to publicly report people on the forums.

I believe they are working hard but that they aren’t on the forums enough to reflect on all the feedback/ideas the players put out. The devs messed up really hard with the last balance patch and there was no good reason for it.

Going to duel servers will help you a lot. You’ll learn how the professions work in a more controlled setting and will get used to predicting skills based on weapon sets/damage output.

It’s the main reason I never use(d) it. You don’t want to use it just for stability because then you lose the stunbreak, but it’s such a long CD for a stunbreaker that I just don’t see much point in it. I don’t need the protection, I need the stability/stunbreak.

Treborlavok.3504:

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you jumping to conclusions on who im facing is ignorant on your part. yes good competition can be far and few between. But being on a t1 wvwvw server ive come up against multiple top notch players. Ive also seen some complete garbage players, in both spvp and wvwvw.

It’s not really ignorant; if you are playing hotjoin then the likelihood if you 2v1ing inexperienced players is high if you have some degree of experience yourself. I can pretty much assume however that you are not 2v1ing in TPvP with a Fresh Air build if you are facing people who know how it works.

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You just need to face the facts that in this current meta you cant just sustain anymore and be successful. You need a well balanced high dmg burst build to be viable atm. With that being said, 30 in air is a must for fresh air now and 30 in arcana is over kill.

Like i said earlier, like the guardian class screaming about AH, people are saying arcana or bust!

Nobody is arguing against the fact that eles have had their damage and survivability nerfed quite a bit. Unfortunately, Fresh Air is not enough compensation, because it doesn’t really accomplish something another profession cannot do better, which is a main reason that despite that large change to the ele, they are largely obsolete in this meta.

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I actually think my description of the MAJORITY of D/D eles out there is pretty accurate. Seeing as, like you stated, not many ppl can play the class successfully and thus think being able to smash through your attunements and skills is the way to do it. People jump on the bandwagon of the best builds all the time. Another fps ref, just like in bf3 when ppl jumped onto the usas/frags, famas/supp/fg, aek/hb/fg, etc. Keeping on that ref, theres very few ppl who can run around and be successful as a recon sniper. That slower paced burst gameplay, ppl seem to shy away from here.

I’m not speaking about the majority of ele players, because they can be lumped in the majority of players in general. Medium tier eles don’t take much skill to use just like any other class, and if Fresh Air was really that much more efficient it would have become the bandwagon, as you say. The problem is that it’s too slow-paced, and the ele needs to have as many reactive tools as possible to survive in the current tate of the game.

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Curing/maintaining condi is easy with a FA build using ER and the proper gear. And if a condi heavy build is giving you problems just throw CF on your bar for the sake of being able to clear 3 extra condis. Relying on rolling in water with EA isnt reliable enough to cure heavy condi builds.

No, it’s not; any experienced condition applier knows to stop applying when you are casting ER unless you are being targeted by multiple people. If that person gets used to your signet build quickly enough, you are going down without having done anything meaningful, because with that build you lack innate power and your condition damage cannot match theirs.

The point of rolling into water attunement is not to clear all of your conditions; it’s meant to maintain some level of stability after clearing the bulk.

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Plus any smart player will keep you locked down and away from them and burn you down if youre running DD. The fact that our stun breaks are on such a large CD puts you at a huge disadvantage playing DD. S/d s/f gives you to ability to keep dmg on them while staying at any range(within 900 for most attacks).

And any smart D/D player will know what their opponent is capable of and either avoid key CC or call allies over to assist. D/D is still the most mobile set eles have, with 3 possible gap closers, multiple hard aoe CCs and fairly reliable condition removal. I’m just curious as to how you can keep that “locked down.” If your problem is sticking to your opponent, they have either completely specced you or you’re doing it wrong.

ThiBash.5634:

True, but damage can also be reduced through weakness and/or protection, which are usually left out of the calculations as well.

Eles have moderate ability to stack vulnerability and very high ability to stack might; they have innate ways to deal with these forms of damage reduction.

Quick Mouse.7635:

LordByron.8369:

-raged every “balancing” patch since release

yep…except some of the staff QoL improvements that did basically nothing

We can finally cast Healing Rain while moving you ungrateful wretch. Be thankful you even get a staff.

Treborlavok.3504:

But, I agree to a degree. Having attunement cd is ease and comfort for us but a lot of ppls argument is that EA is a must. When it really isn’t. I agree that we need some points in arcana. But definitely not 30 and I think 20 is pushing it. At 20 your mainly doing it for the cd. That’s why I feel those extra 10 points are better allocated in another trait line. A few seconds longer in said attunement means nothing in a good match up.

In a good matchup, having access to more of your skills is so incredibly crucial when you lack the advantage of being able to switch weapons and change your basic range. Adding survivability, damage and boon duration on top of that is just a win/win situation.

Some where along the way I feel like ppl got stuck mindlessly smashing buttons and ripping through attunements. Now thakittens not as effective and they don’t have to smash through everything they’re out of their comfort zone and have to basically learn a new play style.

You severely underestimate much of the ele community if you think we are mindlessly mashing our attunements on recharge. Our other builds are just numerically inferior when you take into account potential damage vs survivability vs team utility.

1. Bunker down, bust out that tripod and lay down that ammo kit and support your team!

2. D/d 30 arcana run and gun with your full auto spray and pray aaggggghhhhhh!

3. Move around and evaluate the situation, take your time, keep your distance, line up your headshot, take the shot.

Ppl are used to #2…. #1 is pretty boring but I think any bunker class is boring… #3 is what I love to do. I’ve never gone and never will go full zerk glass cannon. I’m currently sitting on a build I absolutely love to “snipe” with. It’s also extremely survivable and I can go 2v1 and sometimes more depending on the classes I’m facing. That’s where I feel the finesse comes in. Knowing when/how/who to attack instead of running in guns a blazing.

Your analysis of people who use 30 arcana is shallow and a pretty inaccurate description of what goes on with high level elementalist play, and if you can consistently 2v1 people with a build that “snipes” as you say then you are playing against inexperienced players with little knowledge of how your damage is applied.

Treborlavok.3504:

I respectfully disagree.

Training in earth and going with a signet build is extremely versatile and useful when traited to also share auras.

Fire can work well also but I think it’s a waste to go more than 10 into fire for any build.

Fresh air Is also a build that works well with multiple trait setups. Including a big boost in toughness while having at least 10 into earth.

You can might stack with any class with ease and you can do it easily with ele with a variety of trait builds.

I still haven’t heard or seen a good reason to continue to run 30 into arcana. I have a few builds I like to run that require either 5-10 into arcana and that’s it. Then you have your classic 30 arcana builds that still do OK but I feel like they can and are being replaced slowly. The sooner ppl realize they don’t need 30 on arcana the better.

:)

Signet builds have no advantage, especially in a stun/fear heavy meta for various reasons, with the only real gain you have being from potential aoe stability, which cannot break stuns and must be used preemptively against such stuns. It also necessitates close-range combat if you wish for your allies to benefit from the trait. You lack any significant condition removal if you bring Signet, and waste potential healing if you don’t. The only aura you will be sharing with that kind of build is Fire Shield, which is minimally useful as the might stacking/burning are unreliable and in order to trait it to share boons as well you must further spread your traits, decreasing your inherent boon duration and overall damage output. On top of this, eles do not capitalize on the condi damage gained from Earth investment, nor on the passive from Signet of Fire, as condi eles (assuming they were viable to begin with) lack any real precision-based traits/abilities to complement such a build.

Fire accomplishes nothing a blast finisher in a fire field won’t do.

Fresh Air is good at pushing dps, but it again lacks survivability (especially in this meta) because traiting that high into air removes your options for condition removal except for ether renewal, because the utilities for ideal damage when using Fresh Air are not conducive to survival. In the end it doesn’t put out enough to justify sacrificing the survivability, and it won’t until the Arcana line is reworked along with Evasive Arcana.

The reason you should be running at least 20 Arcana is numbers. Numbers don’t care about breaking the mold; they are about efficiency, and eles lack efficiency due to inherent design flaws.

Elidath.5679:

Yes there is. Not necessarily for you, but enough nerf have been asked “because skill XX does the same but better for another class” for it to be dangerous.
Lightning Flash (pre-nerf, when it did stunbreak) was on a longer CD than Blink for the same apparent utility, but mesmer has no swiftness, and Flash (traited) can get vigor, regeneration and remove a condition.

That’s exactly my point: one has to compare professions, not individual skills.

I guess I should have clarified. I’m definitely not in favor of quick fixing via large nerfs/buffs. However, there is something to be gained by comparing individual skills as well as professions when you can look at the skill’s more global effect on play, as you demonstrated yourself with Lightning Flash and Blink.

stale.9785:

This is actually a very interesting suggestion.

Interesting, but extremely impractical due to it multiplying the number of balancing factors eles will possess by a large amount.

BlackBeard.2873:

Of course your best bet is still a mix of gear.

A mix of gear, yes. However, an ele’s inability to reliably stack conditions on targets with even modest removal ability should pretty much remove condition damage from your factoring unless you do nothing but regular PvE.

Treborlavok.3504:

The only thing worth going into arcana is for attunement boons.

EA is overrated and your losing out on other traits going 30 into arcana. THe only time I would go 30 In to arcana is with a bunker, no dps full on team buff ele running staff or d/f.

Break free of the mold!

But in the end ele is sub par vs the rest of the meta. Mes/thief/war/necro are the top classes atm. Even guards/ring/eng have been out doing ele on every aspect. As its been stated numerous times all over this forum… Ele has to do 20x the work to achieve something any other class can do In 1 button press.

Things will change but until then, know that playing an ele takes more finesse and more work. But in the end it’s more satisfying when you pull out ahead of everyone else.

Some ppl want it easy and want to smash buttons… Go play a thief or war. Ill keep my ele and keep burning you down

Fire and Earth are next to useless traitlines; a sigil of battle on a 0/20/0/20/30 or 0/25/0/15/30 trait setup gives you durability and loads of might stacks; it easily compares to Fresh Air in terms of damage output if you gear properly and doesn’t sacrifice all the survivability. Your team play is also enhanced with aoe healing and boons.

Breaking free of the mold would involve having at least some variety when it comes to other options; the only other real option is Fresh Air, which pales in overall usefulness. As it is, playing an ele doesn’t really require that much finesse, but then again nothing in this game really does.

I’ve been using Sword on my ranger since Beta. It has moderate bursting ability (you’re never gonna get really raw burst on ranger weapons with the state of things) and does require a bit more timing, because your defense is evades instead of toughness/blocking and you can tend to be squishy. It’s a pretty mobile melee weapon; your #2 skill can be used to exit combat quite efficiently if you remove target and turn around before using the second part of the chain.

It has potential with pretty much all of the offhands a ranger has access to; the one you pick depends on your needs/personal taste.

I like running bursty pets like cats/birds with it; the combination of the cripple and pet might you get from your #1 chain has some nice synergy, but again, it’s up to your personal taste.

For gear I recommend at least some durability with a modest investment in power/precision/crit damage. In PvE I guess that would translate to some combination of Bsererker, Soldier, Knight, and Cleric stats (not necessarily all of them). Use a build creator to mess around and find some numbers you find ideal before investing in your stuff.

For traits, I would recommend at least getting 15 Beast Mastery, to help your pet not only do more damage but last longer in a fight. Wilderness Survival is also your friend. Your last trait choices will involve either Marksmanship or Skirmishing investment (I recommend picking one or the other); Nature Magic shouldn’t really concern you.

For healing grab Healing Spring (your #2’s chain gets a leap finisher, and you get get two of them in on one Spring) or Troll Unguent if you prefer to have some super strong regen during your attack instead of healing when you’ve taken a certain amount of damage.

Utilities are somewhat optional, but I consider Lightning Reflexes a must, since you need to have an emergency way to get out of melee if things get ugly. Signets of Renewal/Hunt are nice if you want extra passive condition removal or some extra speed to stick to your targets, the actives serve as a stunbreak/pet damage boost respectively. A trap couldn’t hurt to give you an extra combo finisher or some point blank damage if you know your target is going to be standing still for a second or two. Try some things out and see what you like.

My favorite sword skins..

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrupted_Blade

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyphic_Edge

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lord_Taeres%27s_Shadow

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pact_Gladius

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sword_of_the_Dragon%27s_Deep

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inquest_Sword

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Sword

Your dungeon team thinks the lone guardian in your group is stacking 25 aoe might.

Treborlavok.3504:

The only time 30 arcana was mathematically superior was the pre nerf dd build. Since dd is pretty useless ATM, 30 arcana is a waste.

Especially if your running scepter or staff.

Like you said and what I was also referring to, the fresh air build(s) give us the ability to break free from the stigma of needing 30 in arcana to survive and be superior. Even running dd with FA you only want a max of 10 in arcana.

Now it should be said that it your not running 30 in air then your not doing it right. Bth, zephyrs boon and a multitude of other air traits are too good to pass up.

The sad part about all of this is the inability to constantly and efficiently clear the kittened meta of condi builds without having to trait too far into water.

Eles don’t even have a place in this meta; their pre-nerf status wouldn’t have changed that, and neither does Fresh Air. An ele’s usefulness to itself and its team is maximized by high investment in Arcana and to some degree Water.

On another note, the Fresh Air update did very little to encourage trait allocations that don’t include high Arcana investment, because that trait is designed for only one thing, and not everybody wants to do that. It also doesn’t solve the problem of our other attunements having abysmal base recharges, meaning if you are not running Fresh Air, at least 20 in Arcana, or both, you are essentially doing it wrong.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Unfortunately, this is one of the so many inconsistencies in skill balance that is rampant in game. Weapon to weapon comparison, and profession to profession comparison, there is just so much that does not make sense when it comes to how and why they came up with such numbers for cooldowns, and multiple effects/uses in a particular skill.

I mean, look at the Auras itself. Clearly Frost and Shocking are far more useful than Flame Aura even with the latter being buffed a few patches ago however Shocking Aura has 25 seconds CD while the other 2 have 40sec CD. Why?? Even if Flame Aura CD was changed to 15 seconds, I still doubt Focus would ever be used outside of goofing around in PVE or in dungeons where projectiles are abundant.

The weapon slotted Fire Shield (meaning excluding combo finishers) could additionally do damage when struck (or apply retaliation for its duration). I would advocate for the former, because there’s too much boon stealing going around these days and Auras have a distinct advantage in that regard.

Azunai.5974:

Leuca.5732:

Azunai.5974:

All offhands, yeah. Skills like uodraft have slightly reasonable cd’s for the utilities it provides. Skills like firegrab and churning earth should, in my opinion, have lower cd’s.

I think there are some exceptions to that, but I see what you’re saying. As for Churning Earth, I’d rather it get the cast time reduced; it’s already really obviously telegraphed, so keeping the cast time and reducing recharge will not really increase its efficacy while in combat.

I agree! Also, churning earth should have its cast time reduced to two seconds or less, so it combos well with CC’s. Otherwise people will just grow accostumed to the new cast time and dodge it. At least with cc, it’d be a lot better with reliably hitting with it.

Firegrab, gahh, should be lowered for sure.

And then anet adds more weapons and buffs our traits to make alacrity traits more accessible and worth taking but sigh, one can dream.

I could see them adding Sword (possibly duel wield?) and torch, but not too much else. Thinking about the torch is an interesting prospect; I can already imagine what some of the skills would be called. (Incinerating/Frozen/Windborne/Earthen Flame)

Getting a little off-topic there, but it’s hard not to imagine having other weapons when your favorite offhand has two elements that make you cry at night.

Azunai.5974:

All offhands, yeah. Skills like uodraft have slightly reasonable cd’s for the utilities it provides. Skills like firegrab and churning earth should, in my opinion, have lower cd’s.

I think there are some exceptions to that, but I see what you’re saying. As for Churning Earth, I’d rather it get the cast time reduced; it’s already really obviously telegraphed, so keeping the cast time and reducing recharge will not really increase its efficacy while in combat.

Elidath.5679:

I would be warry of such comparison. It can give some strange results.
Professions are a context, and comparing outside of it is risky.
The pistol is an offensive OH for the mesmer, with a stun to keep the ennemy in the fight (something it really lacks). Focus is a defensive OH for the ele, and ele doesn’t lack defensive tool. Plus, when gale is on CD, you can use other defensive move provided by the focus (obsidian flesh, magnetic pulse, freezing wind, whirling wind…).
Not saying gale is good, mind you, but there is often more than raw stats when comparing skills.

There’s nothing to be wary about; I’m not saying they need to have equal recharges, but the less a skill does, the more skills you need to use before/after it to get the same results as using another skill that does more. Gale’s synergy with damaging abilities is pretty good, but the synergy goes out of wack when you can’t use it a tad more freely. Its effect is a bit too useful (considering it is a form of hard cc, and not just a pure defensive ability) to waste it on defense when the recharge is so high; a mesmer has so many options when considering how to use Magic Bullet.

You eventually have to compare professions to even get close to managing balance.

Azunai.5974:

Leuca.5732:

Azunai.5974:

I still don’t understand why cd’s and power have to be so much more worse. Despite having more 20 skills, other classes can still spam a hell lot more. Maybe a slightly higher cd, but literally more than twice of any skill on another profession? Godkitten . And we can’t make use of our CDR traits.

Gale could be on a 30 second base cooldown and still not be overpowered. It does no damage or secondary utility effect. Updraft is aoe, acts as an evade that provides swiftness (meaning you gain something even if you hit nobody with the skill) and puts the ele at a perfect distance to combo into other skills.

I’d feel a lot better about it being 30 and not 20 or 25 if all other skills (or at least offhands) were similarly reduced. /:

I’m not sure what you’re referring to here, do you mean offhand skills across the board for all professions? You definitely hit the nail on head with the 20 skills in a weapon set issue; it kind of necessitates a slightly higher base recharge, but the amount so is excessive right now.

Azunai.5974:

I still don’t understand why cd’s and power have to be so much more worse. Despite having more 20 skills, other classes can still spam a hell lot more. Maybe a slightly higher cd, but literally more than twice of any skill on another profession? Godkitten . And we can’t make use of our CDR traits.

Gale could be on a 30 second base cooldown and still not be overpowered. It does no damage or secondary utility effect. Updraft is aoe, acts as an evade that provides swiftness (meaning you gain something even if you hit nobody with the skill) and puts the ele at a perfect distance to combo into other skills.

Treborlavok.3504:

You guys are acting like some of the Gaurds screaming “AH or nothing!!”.
Seriously experiment a little. 30 in arcana is definitely not a must. You can even get by with just 5 on arcana and do just as well if not better. It’s all about synergy between your traits and gear choices.

My current build I’m only running 10 on arcana and I love it and have no problems surviving and dealing out dmg. In spvp and wvw. I think everyone is too stuck on their ways of the pre nerf feast ele cookie cutter build.

When you take 20 points from arcana it allows you to dabble in the other trait lines and pick up some nice perks that were and are often over looked. It just takes a little more finesse to play with only 5-10 on arcana. Rather than just mashing through your attunements and skills like a mad man/woman.

On the topic of pvp, I hate how limited ele feels though with not being able to get to say, a good wvw stat set without going basically full glass.

Unfortunately, Arcana is basically a mathematical must-have for the ele; people are less likely to care about your “finesse” in the long run when it’s numerically inferior to other builds. You kitten almost every stat the ele has by having less Arcana, since almost all of our important stat boosts/effects are in some way linked to attunement switching, e.g. healing, protection/might/fury uptime, sigil effects (we have no weapon swap), and the necessary self/aoe buffing from the Elemental Attunement trait.

The one (highly debatable) exception to this is Fresh Air builds, but even those often have at least a modest investment into Arcana. Burst builds are one-trick-ponies for eles more than any other profession, because so much of our survivability is tied to our trait allocation.

BlackBeard.2873:

Ele can wield focus? ;-)

In all seriousness, we just need some damage in fire and some buffs in water. The anti-range is pretty nice, and using the reflect against karkas is hilarious as they just take themselves out!

Gale has a higher base recharge than Updraft for considerably less effect, and double the base recharge of Magic Bullet, a mesmer skill that stuns one person, dazes another, and is a projectile combo finisher. Air is a good element for the focus, but it still needs a little help.

To put it bluntly, it’s not ideal. Air/Earth focus skills sync well with the dagger, but Air’s one good CC (gale) is on a horrid recharge, and Water/Fire are just things that mildly tickle your opponent.

It kind of pains me to look at all the help /focus needs, because d/f is my favorite set to use.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

The issue isn’t that they can’t do it the issue is that it would make pets (rangers) Op.
Pets would hit with every attack you couldn’t use positioning avoid hits. Without a block or use of evade they would hit you every time. You wouldn’t be able to out run or juke them.

Think back to before the lowered pet leashing to all the times the a player out ran or lose you but you pet was on their butt. The difference would be they would continue to take damage every set of the way.

There’s a difference between the pet attacking while moving and homing in ala ride the lightning when it attacks. As it is now, ranger pets have awful pathing and are awkward at best in general.

Various pet attacks also need activation time reductions on some skills to better augment their positioning.

BlackBeard.2873:

If you do the calculations on power damage for an all-celestials build and all-soldiers build, you will find that celestials deal way more power-damage (b/c of all that crit and precision).

The figure of merit is: (weapon damage + power) * crit% * (1.5+critDmg) where crit% is that expected with fury. If you plug in the numbers (assuming 80% fury uptime, or + 16% crit chance) on a 0/0/20/20/30 build. Also it is 1.5+critDmg because a critical chance is normally 150% of a regular hit:

Celestials w/ 0 might: 2775
Celestials w/ 10 might: 3168
Soldiers w/ 0 might: 1563
Soldiers w/ 10 might: 1741

To put it in a ratio, the power damage with celestials is: 1.775 that of soldiers. Now, soldier’s will have more toughness, and w/ celestials you might want to take a couple toughness trinkets, but you will still far-outpace a soldiers build, with added healing and condi-damage to boot.

Pure soldier stats have long been outdated; plenty of people are running a combination of knight, berserker, soldier, valkyrie, etc. stats and getting respectable crit chance/damage without burning points on condition damage that has nothing to cover it.

We don’t need to add more boons/conditions to make balance any worse. It’s bad enough they added Torment.

Senjun.8149:

Rskin.4901:

What annoys me the most though is the cooldown of churning earth and fire grab. It’s ridiculous.

Focus has a 2 second knockdown on a 50 second cooldown.

Let’s compare two similar utility-type skills from offhands available to light-armor professions.

From the Elementalist: Gale – Knock down your foe with a charged wind blast. Knockdown 2 seconds, Recharge 50 seconds.

From the Mesmer: Magic Bullet – Hit up to three foes with a single shot. The first target is stunned, the second is dazed, and the third is blinded. Stun/Daze 2 seconds, recharge 25 seconds. Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile

I’ll leave thread viewers to make a judgment based on that.

I’ve always wondered what was so hard about putting in code that enables pets to attack while moving, allowing them to stick to their targets better.

ThiBash.5634:

After a lot of calculating and reasoning, I found that celestial and pvt would deal roughly equal damage (which makes sense, given that they fulfill the same role). However, on D/D celestial will be slightly better because it has more conditions. On staff, pvt wins because of the unpredictable nature of eruption, and not enough condition damage skills otherwise.

But they’re pretty close really…maybe when magic find gets removed, and celestial gets a compensation buff, it could come out on top.

Celestial stats assume that your condition damage will be left to tick off, but eles have very little to cover burning.