Guild Wars 2

I wish that they would grant fire a hard hitting damage spell instead of Flamewall, and add some protective measure to Fire Shield (currently it doesn’t shield from anything and is there to trigger traits only).

Comet in water could use a damage buff, and freezing gust made into a more damage oriented spell.

The reason the focus needs some offensive abilities is that there are almost none. Most are utility and defensive, which is fine, but without a few more damage spells, you simply won’t have enough diversity to down an opponent. I feel it is mandatory to grab arcane blast + wave to be somewhat capable of doing that. The focus is otherwise rather appealing.

A few offensive skills to focus please, Anet.

In S/TPvP (also works in WvW) I find 0/30/0/30/10 to be viable, going for 62% critical damage.

While I have coped to not being able to attunement switch as often as a 30 arcane build would (it limits builds too much that you “need” 30 arcane), you get more damage out of it to compensate. It is much more fun to play as you don’t have to nibble on opponents. Fighting other eles is quite fun and will often end in a draw, although I have killed several of the bunker variations given time.

If you are used to the D/D – 0/10/0/30/30 bunker, you should be fine using the build linked below. It demands more of you to stay alive, but it’s a fun build that lets you dish out more damage and bursting enemies down faster, while retaining good healing, mobility, and condition removal that 30 water and cantrips has to offer.

Sadly 30 water and cantrips is a must for survival, and other damage builds I tried didn’t work nearly as well. Until Anet does something that saves us from going 20 (more like 30 if you want to be effective in PvP) into water and 10 into arcane (at least), there is only a tiny handful of viable builds, the cantrip ones being far superior to the alternative in terms of survival, which eles so desperately need.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJAoYhImmbwR5gjDAkHn4CLiHPUhFlCzA;ToAA0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1M+YSA
(Copy and paste link in browser for it to work)

Eles aren’t overpowered. One particular build with a particular weapon set is what is a tad too strong defensively.

Personally I never like to play bunker builds and therefore ignore the most popular build around currently (also for the challenge). The eles need more viable builds and buffs in certain areas, rather than an overall nerfing. I don’t mind a nerf to the bunker build, but you can’t say that eles in general need a nerf, as that is completely untrue and will ruin other less viable, but still playable options there is.

Only problem is that most eles use a bunker build, as it is the best option for survival. Those of us not using bunker builds aren’t being complained about, I have to remind you.

I hope Anet knows to filter whining (85-95% of this threads posters) from the actual problem. Only one build is causing all this fuzz. Shouldn’t be hard to fix that without ruining everything else about the class (which is rather weak currently imo).

Offers the usual wheel of cheese with the whine

Chaosky.5276:

Anything that works as a more single-target oriented long-range option for eles; maybe a greatsword, like mesmers.

Hear hear. Long range single target weapon would be amazing.

It is popular to hate eles currently. It’s a fad.

Heinel.6548:

plasmacutter.2709:

If the devs have three brain cells, they will swap the regen on soothing disruption to something else.

it nerfs 30 water cantrip builds of the following:

- no more access to regen outside of water attunement
- 3 fewer condition removals.

it’s a small tweak that will make a world of difference where it matters without gutting elementalist group utility.

I’d say also make dagger water #2 only heal others, not self. This will keep group support builds while nerfing solo builds.

Well, eles are squishy. What would you give them instead of the ability to heal and cleanse conditions?

Red Falcon.8257:

I hope Anet understands that D/D Ele is overpowered not due to damage/control/mobility, but due to the OP healing (can get from 20% to full in seconds) and ability to self-rally through downed mist form.

I don’t want to see you guys overnerfed, just removed the fact I need to plow throw 2 healthbars to get a kill on you.
It’s kind of frustrating when I down a D/D Ele, he rezzes up, heals to full and then he kills me as I’m out of cooldowns.
If I got you down, I should win, just like against any other class.

No, you shouldn’t always be secure that you won when downing an opponent. Given enough time, a warrior can get back up and has the option to vaporize you, stomp and then avoid death. Mesmer backstab trick when downed is nasty as well. With around 2500 armor I have been downed quickly by an around 6000 crit on me. From there it is who has most tricks up their sleeve, shortest cast time on 1st attack + damage and whatnot on CD.

Ok, when you have the lowest healthpool in the game, healing with GoEH, plus you have 600+ healing, would seem like absurdbly much. I sometimes look at guardians healing from 20% to 100%. Then it sinks in again… oh yeah, they have a naturally low health pool. A 6000hp heal will look less impressive on a necro than an ele, for example. Bear that in mind. Don’t go for what “looks insane”, but facts. If you have less to heal, you can do it more easily. The healthpool can be lowered much more easily as well.

An no, people can’t self-rally. If one is downed, and you see another player downed that is about to be stomped, you will naturally target and damage the poor sod to get your rally. Or target and damage a monster/animal/dwarf/Tom Cruise for that matter.

fishergrip.4082:

Good. D/D eles are very overpowered right now. They are practically invincible. They have the best bunker and mobility in the game, makes no sense.

Well, someone will always be conceived as better than the other, no doubt. I agree that they are pretty wild though. Whenever one has a favorite class and has trouble with something in particular, it often ends with an extreme subjective view.

Junkpile.7439:

“Bunker Elementalists sacrifice almost no damage”
Haha ok.

QFE.

They do sacrifice quite a lot of damage to be such survivaholics.

I tend to use GoEH, as my healing never exceeds 700, going for the bursty route. 644 currently in S/TPvP, and I love the GoEH for its extra boons it can provide. If using S/D, I would likely be picking the Inscription trait (instead of Aeromancer’s Alacrity), just to double (which it seems to do) the duration of the boons given by it, which is quite a help. Around 10 secs of protection when using it after swapping into earth with 10 arcane points and Elemental Attunement. Very helpful.

So, it has been karma before? I looked at the three tiers of weapon karma vendors, and wondered why cultural armor had a gold price.

If it was there for pretige only, it would be skin instead of armor with stats attached. If it was of exotic nature, the price would make sense.

Unfair or not, it should not put a stop to change. I only used my option to voice my thoughts on the matter, which is everyones right.

Being condescending doesn’t help (Jrunyon and runeblade), but I suppose that is how you like to appear. It will get you far in life, surely.

Lets see if we can’t keep it civil.

Greetings!

My suggestion is to lower the costs of cultural armor on all three tiers, mostly on tier 3 as it has the steepest price increase. Or, have the option to make it available for karma points.

Why?

• Tier 1 (level 35): Price range: 34 silver – 80 silver

The chestpiece has the same price as level 76-78 exotics on TP. Dare I say an outrageous price for a level 35 item of rare quality?

• Tier 2 (level 60): Price range: 80 silver – 2 gold

A more or less even rise in price compared to tier 1 and its level, yet the value is still that of a rare item that many would not even consider buying.

• Tier 3 (level 80): Price range: 12 gold – 30 gold

Now it becomes unrealistically expensive. You can easily purchase an entire exotic set for 30 gold pieces alone. I must remind you that two items are 12 gold, two are 20 gold, one is 25 gold, and the last 30 gold. The increase from tier 2 to tier 3 is especially steep.

I can understand that their only real value is a one time skin change if I am not mistaken, but people do change garbs, if not having several sets, which in the end makes it incredibly expensive. The price is just insane in comparison to other aestheticical options, and you need to purchase transmutation stones on top of that.

Would it not be a fair suggestion to lower the prices on cultural armor in general? That, or making it available through karma?

P.S. When choosing a male character wearing light armor, there are very few good looking sets. Female variants are much more appealing for some reason, as well as medium and heavy armor, which in general look amazing. Just a personal dream that male, light armor would be looked with a cricial eye. Even the gem bought set is silly for male light armor. I hope you will think about the suggestions, Anet. Thank you.

I would welcome more input on the matter!

Diminishing returns on the arcane traitline would be welcome. A value of +10% boon duration at adept, +15% at master and +20% at grandmaster. Or +5% at adept, +10% at master and +15% at grandmaster.

Then alter the WvW/PvE monk/water runes to bestow +10% boon duration, instead of +15%. I don’t think you can make them change value from PvE to WvW without having seperate runes, hence the suggestion for it to be +10%.

I take it that the everlasting boons are mostly present/problematic in WvW, but also to some degree in S/TPvP. All these proposed changes could shave off 20-25% boon duration for WvW eles who enjoy their everlasting life, and 10-15% for those in S/TPvP.

@Caffynated: Two auras for all weapon sets would be interesting. However if you remove shocking aura from dagger, you end up with frost only. Fire is on the focus (and a terrible aura to begin with. Hope they change it along with Flamewall to something with more bite and use).

Yup, relocating a few traits would do wonders. I hope they switch things around (and alter some traits), opening up new options for more diverse builds.

MH sword, greatsword or torch would be fun. They should probably make focus more interesting first. But yeah, more options isn’t a bad thing.

But holy hell, no guns. Guns are so.. anti-medieval/fantasy. That would be very un-elementalist like. Spellsword = cool. Spellgun = Wha.. ?!

edit: Bow would indeed be fun as well.

Well, they DID say that they will try to make weapons and traits (or was it skills?) better, and instead of whack-a-nerf, bring other things up.

Try not to be too pessimistic, even though it can be hard as an ele, haha. A shame that one build, with a specific fun to play and evenly paced style can bring so much trouble to the eles in general.

To EvilSardine: If you are tired of winning over many enemies in WvW, then try another build that ISN’T D/D 0/10/0/30/30, or similar build you might be using. You could try out D/D 0/20/30/10/10 with signets instead of cantrips (for example) and see if you manage just as well.

How about that for a nerf, and the devs wouldn’t even have to raise a finger to help you out, poor fella. Have a nice day, sir.

Don’t think it would be OP, but open up possibilities. Anet is intending to fiddle with ele healing anyway. The signets would still retain their achilles heel, as they do not have stun break, you defintely need that in PvP as an ele (water signet does remove one condition every ten secs though, but nothing you can rely on kicking in when needed). People would be more inclined to use a mix of utility skills, as I see it. And why not let all professions enjoy the benefits of the passive side.. ? (hides)

The passive or active abilities could be toned down a notch, although they wouldn’t be worth losing stun break + regen/condition removal + vigor for. They could become more appealing. That is just my oppinion, seen from a PvP perspective.

When using them, I find myself slow and vulnerable. Even with a cantrip as a backup, you can only evade a certain number of snares and without mobility, you squishiness becomes more apparent.

I wish they would take a look at the signets again, and ponder the active sides of them. Perhaps making them a tad more interesting. The fire one has a nice passive, but the active.. well. Every weapon set can set things ablaze easily, although not always from that distance and so easily.

By the way, it was just wishful thinking on my behalf as I stated earlier. Don’t kill me!

It is sad that you need so many points in earth to get it to work. Written in Stone is mandatory, imho.

An improvement would be to remove the Written in Stone trait, making the passive effects work all the time, that way more diverse builds would be possible, and you only have to invest 10 points in earth for lower CD. If they also moved it to the fire tree, it would be interesting.

But hey, just wishful thinking on my side.

I never really use signets, because I lose a LOT of mobility by using signets, and not stun breaking/condition removing cantrips. You simply die way too fast by using signets, which require 30 earth (you definitely want the passive effects on heal, condition removal etc.), making you WANT to have at least 20 water for the healing, thereby forcing you into a very weak offensive build, which in my oppinion isn’t any fun. Currently I feel that you need at least 10 points in arcane, and then you already spent most points on primarily defensive trees. Must be tough to be a dev, opening up for new builds without making certain combinations too strong..

Good luck, Jon & Jon.

Hmm, I wonder if the D/D builds that AREN’T the cookie cutter spec will be faring. I fear for my beloved 0/30/0/30/10.

I hope they can tone the D/D 0/10/0/30/30 build down, without affecting other builds too much. If they nerf healing as they said, builds with less heal (no EA) will suffer quite a bit. And imagine staff builds with less healing. Ow.

But hey, we can adapt, eh? They should give us some better damage traits (much better), and some sort of way to make burst (and other) specs viable. Now, the burst itself as a glass “cannon” isn’t viable, if the opponent is semi-aware. And we can’t hide/sneak in for an attack. Squishy, mediocre damage and very visible. Bad combo, I daresay.

More whining (sigh). RTL isn’t the problem. People are just annoyed when their prey decides to run, and they can’t catch up. Yes, not a pleasant feeling, but the same does happen with thieves and mesmers, turning invisible and vanishing. At least you can see which direction an ele flees.

Some cheese with all that whine?

Yeah, it would give PvE people more incentive to play to strive for something in the PvP part, and give PvP people a chance to look foxy in WvW or PvE for that matter.

As they say, eles have many small things that overall, used well, makes it rather strong.

Concerning builds, I am interested in seeing focus, scepter and staff being more versatile. As they also mentioned, they don’t like to play whack-a-mole. If other options were more viable/effective, it would reduce a onesided play strategy.

I still do believe that there is a problem with the ele, meaning that you can’t take the pure offensive route and be somewhat successful. Having little opportunity to play a pure offensive role, with squishiness that outshines all professions, you get little from it. There is no invisibility or some similar sort of option to fall back on if things fail for you, having the least amount of HP and armor in the game. That is what concerns me. RTL is only for dagger off-hand, and even with that, you won’t do much good for your team playing the pure offensive role.

They talk about traits, makes things better, and hopefully they will adjust matters and make traits more appealing for burst specializations, without giving bunker variations too much power.

I do think that if people care much about their looks in the game that PvP might be an option to gain just that. Once tasting the sweet fruit of PvP, may hook even the most picky PvE player.

In the end, I think it gives more incentive to play PvP, especially concerning PvE players.

Perma swiftness means that you can achieve it outside combat, the threat of entering combat, or have to think tactically about fighting enemies, right? I mean, using auras, GoEH etc. just before entering combat for the sake of swiftness sounds pretty foolish, and hampers you more than you would gain.

I think it is a bad idea, making everyone equal in certain aspects, ruining diversity and making it a lot easier to destroy those that rely on boons to make it in the first place. It changes too much and will unhinge balance, I suspect. Hard to predict, but it would make it hard on the “weaker” classes, for whom the boons are the way out of being mere pushovers.

Balance needs to come from other places, not giving everyone boon removal.

With an elementalist in mind.

Attunement swap: 1, 2, 3, 4
Attacks: Q, E, R, C, Mouse button X
Healing: Shift+D
Utilities: Shift+E, Shift+R, Mouse button X
Elite: Scroll mouse button

Alquinon.2957:

With perma fury will come perma vigor, and that is a big bonus.

Well, that doesn’t really make sense. You should be a bit more specific, dude. 25% crit chance doesn’t trigger vigor that often, for example. Now and then, but not enough to make it permanent.

Speaking of which. When people say “perma stuff”, I assume they keep it up all the time, neglecting gameplay and strategy. Not necessarily a good thing, unless you are running only with noone to fight.

Rangers CAN be a pretty big pain in the bum.

Yeah, ground targeting and faster drop would be nice.

Alternatively, you can copy the link text and paste it in the browser for it to work.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Tips-for-defeating-DD-Ele/first#post1203638

Funny that this thread still is going on. Sarcasm is a popular weapon amongst mesmers when they fear getting into the spotlight.

Doesn’t appear that anyone knows what the issue is. But the tendency of people suffering from low FPS is increasing.

Foss.4830:

Portal really doesnt count as mobility. Escape skill maybe?

Instant travel doesn’t count as mobility? Sure, it doesn’t get you from A to B faster than anyone else, but it gets you from B to A in the blink of an eye, which is an incredible option to have in many ways.

Knox.3748:

firebreathz.7692:

skinnyb.5920:

WIGZ.8245:

Because right now, DD literally has
everything: damage, mobility, healing, survivability. At least from a PvP standpoint.

What’s wrong with that? Almost every warrior, guardian, and thief have those attributes. Are they they only ones allowed to have any fun?

And why are they trying to buff single target damage by nerfing AoEs? People who spec for single target damage should be kitten well prepared to only damage a single target. (A shocker, I know.)
Every class can spec for AoE damage except for ranger but them needing buffs is a different story entirely.

Whats wrong with it is warrior, guardian, and thief cant do them all at the same time..

warrior-damage, survivability, MOBILITY, HEALING
guardian-healing, survivability, DAMAGE
thief-damage, mobility, SURVIVABILITY, HEALING
elementalist-damage, mobility, healing, survivability

if you cant see that then you are just being bias

i see. so you cant beat a dd elem and u think they should be nerfed?

I just fixed it, so the list is more correct. Why exclude healing from a class that CAN heal, and quite neatly as well (the thief better than the warrior)? Warriors are very mobile, don’t forget that.

If you would say that the additions I made to the list is false, I would make you remove “DAMAGE” from the ele list, as that is the tradeoff for survivability, mobility and healing and is such a grand problem that most ele in PvP focuses on defensive skills only, winning by attrition.

Eles have always done mediocre damage, and the build you all hate so much is a result of the lack thereof. Other lightweight and middleweight classes have some sort of get out of jail card. The damage is crummy in those D/D survival builds, be mindful of that.

Another reason this build popped up, is that the ele has the lowest base health and armor in the game, FORCING you into using defensive gear/traits, as Anet gave us no alternative (again, because the damage isn’t there and the defenses are naturally lacking to make other viable builds).

Why do people always neglect to see or mention our naturally low health pool and armor, and mediocre damage for that matter. Personally I would gladly sacrifice healing and mobility for damage and invisbility.

Strong offensive, with good survival (Usable anywhere, primarily S/TPvP)

The build is the only D/D build I have really enjoyed so far. Good burst (for an ele) with the defensive utilities of cantrips, etc. Works like a charm for me, and been playing for quite a few months now. Give it a try!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJAoYhImmbwR5gjDAkHn4CLiHPUhFlCzA;ToAA0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1M+YSA

Toothy.8640:

Malcastus.6240:

I am more upset about the “craft 10 items” part. That is the only one making you use the materials at your disposal against your will, so to speak.

What if people wish to sell the materials, or MF them into higher tiered things? Not everyone has the need to craft and you are FORCING them to do so. That really annoys me. 280-310 items I need crafting in a month, without me needing or wanting to. There are also players out there that sell most of the materials they find.

It has become much more of a nuisance, but of course there are prices at the end to be had. Still, it bugs me they would do such.

Bring back the diverse kills instead of the crafting part.

This includes refining logs into planks or ore into bars, which does nothing to reduce the value of the item if you wish to sell it on the trading post.

My bad. I thouht dailies were the same over and over. Apologies! >_>

I am more upset about the “craft 10 items” part. That is the only one making you use the materials at your disposal against your will, so to speak.

What if people wish to sell the materials, or MF them into higher tiered things? Not everyone has the need to craft and you are FORCING them to do so. That really annoys me. 280-310 items I need crafting in a month, without me needing or wanting to. There are also players out there that sell most of the materials they find.

It has become much more of a nuisance, but of course there are prices at the end to be had. Still, it bugs me they would do such.

Bring back the diverse kills instead of the crafting part.

I am more annoyed that you have to craft things now, instead of kill different things. Sure, it is easy, but what if you don’t have anything you want to craft?

What was wrong with the former?

Yes, PvE to SPvP is a fine change, but not what I was suggesting.

There are some outfits from SPvP I haven’t seen in PvE at all, and if you use light armor as a male, you are pretty much screwed, as the appearance isn’t something to write home about, where as the female outfits look much more appealing.

In any case, not every PvP’er wants to focus on the PvE aspect that much, and is therefore limited greatly. TP has no preview option, and farming Arah gear only for the looks alone is a waste (and terribly time consuming). I think it is fair that the armor/weapons that drop in chests etc. from SPvP should be usable with the transmutation stones, in order look decent in WvW or similar.

Nothing wrong with making SPvP more appealing.

Greetings!

As the title hints, It would be very neat to have the option to use transmutation stones, for combining SPvP gear/weapon skins with PvE gear/weapons. Gives more diversity when it comes to looks. I have been longing for such an option for quite a while.

Hopefully you will consider this idea.

Have a nice day!

That is one large archilles heel.

Focus: Swirling Winds has its uses when stomping. Use the skill on top of a downed enemy using projectile weapons, and they will not be able to hit you while it is up, securing your stomp.

The trait “Stone Splinters” says within the range of 50. Not sure if the trait works, but the description seems off, as 50 is standing inside someone almost.

Why do everyone always assume that you spec for 100% boon uptime duration and Evasive Arcana? I always avoid those two, heh.

MarzAttakz.9608:

You know to be honest having played our class as a main since beta weekend one I’m beginning to wish they’d just nerf every good thing about us. I’ve grown so tired of all the complaining.

Many people complained about certain facets of the class during beta, only the QQ was listened to and we got nerfed to shreds, in fact I’d say we were the only class that never received the benefit of their “no knee jerk balances” approach in the history of the game.

Fast forward to release and the level 1-20 areas were full of everything, including elementalists, go past level 30 zones and I used to actually stop and say “hi” to other ele’s because it was that rare to find one. The vast majority complained about how under-powered we were and how little reward we received for the effort it took to play.

Then along came the Allstars, people like Excala, who had spent the time to master the class and understand how things fitted together. As grateful as I am to him I’m also a little disappointed that the bunker build reached such mainstream exposure resulting in what we have today. All of a sudden now we’re over-powered when nothing was buffed whatsoever.

As much as I love the class the history and future of it have become so tiresome.

QFE.

I am still waiting for a damage buff and actual changes they make that has a real impact (for the better).

makku.2508:

Red Falcon.8257:

Currently the D/D build has the same burst power of a Thief,

That’s where I stopped reading.

Me too, haha.

The healing of an ele seems bigger, because we have low base health to begin with, and most know to get + healing on gear, because the alternative is too often fatal. With a 20k health pool, it would look quite different.

If you reduce healing and nerf defensive boons, you will make going 30 water/30 arcane for Evasive Arcana mandatory in order to survive. At least 30 water and that solves nothing, except make players frustrated over the lack of viable builds altogether. I must remind you that it would have devastating effects on the focus.

Solving the problem lies in the traits, their positions and the traitline attributes.

Random but interesting example of traitline attribute switch..

Fire: Power – Condition Duration
Air: Precision – Critical Damage
Earth: Toughness – Boon Duration
Water: Vitality – Healing Power
Arcana: Attunement Recharge Rate – Condition Damage