Guild Wars 2

mjharrison.3209:

i’d like to like focus but the lack of mobility, heals and crappy fire skills kill it.

True..

1. Loss of mobility in favor of defensive traits. A fair tradeoff normally I believe.

2. The lack of healing is really painful, but I like the CC water has. Not that it makes up for it, though.

3. Fire skills on focus are terrible, yes. Wall of Fire does not warrant using and Fire Shield is only there to trigger Zephyr’s, as the shield itself is beyond crummy and can be triggered in fire attunement, and with signets anyway. Seems like they ran out of ideas. It should be made into a better defensive aura, imo.

However, I am currently playing a D/F build as well, as I am growing tired of my D/D 0/30/0/30/10 build (glyphs/cantrips/with the same runes and necklace/gem as the below build). Good fun as it might be, overuse leads to boredom in my case.

My D/F build is this. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJAodhMmIblx5gjDAEFpYi4xDW0QRRMzA;ToAA0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1MwYSA (copy link and paste in browser for it to work).

Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave is a must with focus in my oppinion, as you BARELY have any damage skills at your disposal, beyond the auto attacks. And you know how frustrating they can be, especially Lightning Whip with its constant misses. You can use cantrips with this build of course, but hey, damage needs to come from somewhere.

Kudos to OP for putting focus on the focus.

Zephyr’s Boon to Master trait indeed sounds like a great idea. I would go as far as making it a Grandmaster trait.

Also, change Evasive Arcana (water) to do damage + vulnerability, and make it a Master trait * hides *.

Infectious.4836:

Sorry but anyone arguing that the current meta D/D ele is anything short of over powered (to say the least) is dreaming.

No class should have the damage, survivablitiy, the healing, the mobility, the boon stacking and condition removal they have.

Period

No class has the crummy damage we have. That is the problem. Hence the survival/attrition builds you hate so much.

I am pretty sure that guardians have better/or on par healing, and better boon stacking. Because of the low base health, duh. You want them removed too? It is like removing invisibility from thieves and clones/phantasms from the mesmer.

In the end you hate the most defensive builds we can access. Ever played against an ele WITHOUT cantrips and 30 water? You would think that it was fair then, because it takes us back to square one. Barely no means of survivability (and losing three stunbreakers is not in the cards) and meh damage, in combination with the lowest health and armor. We can’t put out enough damage fast enough, so healing for a prolonged battle is necessary.

Anet needs to buff the damage, perhaps add a few more single target skills and change Evasive Arcana to do damage + vulnerability, instead of healing + condition removal. Redoing traits and traitlines will be needed, I wager.

KieronWolf.5108:

I still find it funny that this was considered the worst class in the game a few months ago when nothing has really changed for it up until now.

Exactly. People started learning to play them, and got the hang of making better builds, which focus on survival.

Personally, I find engineers to be one of the worst opponents I can have, haha. Their ability to constantly pull and push you back, leaving you on the ground for an absurdly long time is wild. I haven’t complained in their forum, however. Not all engineers are a pain in the butt, so it is the build I suppose. Just like the annoying D/D 0/10/0/30/30 build, which often leads to 10+ minutes duels.

People want everything nerfed on the ele, or have other classes brought up to par with them in everything they do, even though they are supposed to be masters of diversity.

If others are given the exact same means of movement, healing, condition removal and whatever you might cry all night about, YOU WILL ALSO gain our low base health, low base armor and low base damage, with loooong drawn out animations etc.. (and classes with invisibility should have it removed).

Currenly I find that you can’t make a really solid build without 30 water and cantrips. You simply can’t. Otherwise you die way too fast and then you see how the ele suddenly is. Puny, frail, easy to shove around. Just like 3 or so months back, and noone complained when they were the easiest targets around.

What is wrong with having good mobility, when eles have low base health and armor? Not like eles can turn invisble and strike at you. You always see it coming.

Bunker (insert any class) do pitiful damage. Eles are no different. If you die, you are making loads of mistakes.

Good players are always hard to beat, no matter the profession. Currently eles are damage lackluster (ever since the huge damage nerf in late beta), so one needs to specialize defensive/survival (which lowers the already doubtful damage output even more), in order to not be facerolled by two button spamming people that wants everything, but gives nothing.

Live with it, or get better!?

By legendary, you mean a fancy skin, right? S/TPvP = Everyone is equal. Fancy legendary skin? HelI yeah, go for it.

Why does the staff often fall flat in PvP?

First off, we need to seperate the staff into S/TPvP and WvW sections in order to compare the two and find weaknesses and strengths in its current form, and potential balancing ideas there might be from the playerbase.

Lets keep the tone civil, and be constructive.

The skills
While a staff elementalist may be fine in certain aspects of WvW due to having the opportunity to hide in greater numbers, thereby avoiding being targeted, it is a different story in S/TPvP, where opponents can close the gap between you and them quickly.

1. What do you think is lacking in WvW?
2. What do you think is lacking in S/TPvP?
3. Keep in mind that options need to work for both scenarios, including PvE.

To me, the problem with staff in S/TPvP is a mixture of things, which you all have to consider.

Low base health and armor. This in combination with lack of defensive skills (except Magnetic Aura, which CD is a tad excessive for the only personal defense you have) forces you into using cantrips for surival, thereby leaving out gravely needed instant damage potential that arcane utility skills could bestow upon you, along with important finishers.

All the above, combined with rather slow animation and cast time makes landing skills harder which also doesn’t occur as often due to the pressure of avoiding damage. 3/4 of a second for an auto attack is quite a lot (Fire: 1 sec, the others: 3/4 sec cast time).

The real problem of the offensive skill set as I see it, is that there are too many single hit damage skills that have an excessive cast time. Most people would likely consider Lava Font and Meteor Shower to be the best of the bunch. Why? Because you cast it once, and it triggers several hits over time, albeit in one place. There is a severe lack of single/AoE target/s damage skills like Grasping Earth and Cone of Cold.

When you inevitably take damage, you will be forced to use ground healing skills. You can manage to dance about in Healing Rain, but you are limiting your movement, which is ESSENTIAL for someone that relies on keeping distance. Rather odd staff lacks mobility this much. In TPvP (protecting a small area) and WvW (behind allies) group fights it might not be as big a problem, admittedly.

My ideas:
Add one more defensive skill. For instance, swap Unsteady Ground out with a skill that allows you to delve underground (range 900 or 1200) and appear at another place, similar to Lightning Flash. If earth attunement is a bad choice, you could replace Burning Retreat with a skill that covers an area in an ash cloud, which would work similarly to Murky Water for instance, but with a ticking damage inside of it.

Or, lower the CD of Magnetic Aura a bit. Perhaps 20 secs instead of 30.

Change a few spells to have progressive damage like Grasping Earth/Cone of Cold. Make one or two single target skills in that fashion (not necessarily the same).

Lower cast time of certain skills and animations, or increase the damage of skills that could benefit from a boost, making the slow cast time worth it.

What bothers you with playing staff in PvP? Any solutions to it? I know balancing isn’t easy, but we can try to pinpoint the underlying problems that takes away from the fun of being a staff elementalist, and add ideas to the already great pool that exists… somewhere.

Cool. I also love spellswords

DJRiful.3749:

They already mention the nerf down to 5 targets maximum.
————————-
Upcoming AoE skill balancing (nerf)
One of the issues brought up a lot in WvW./sPvP is AoE (Area of Effect). We feel like they are too strong at the moment and a lot of people in WvW are gaming the system using AoEs.
For people that don’t know – max targets for siege weapons is 50 while max targets for AoE is 5.
Reducing AoE effectiveness to bring them in line with the single target damage skills.
Major update coming to all the AoE skills – make classes that are good at single target damage stand out a bit more.
Same thing with dungeons – right now if you have a lot of AoE you can past encounters by just spamming AoE which is not what we want.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/16rsh9/jan_17_dev_livestream_summary/

AoE nerf, and single target damage boost? Is that correctly interpreted? If so, they will be pushing the remaining eles into a corner (even more), making the bunker build a mandatory choice. And they even said they wanted to make more builds viable in the past..

I think we shouldn’t think too much about it, until it hits. If those words are indeed from Anet, eles will not be rewarding to play in any way anymore.

Personally I always play caster classes (wizards/sorcerers/mages etc.), and their early description of the profession was alluring. Many ways to build your character with lots of freedom. And I do prefer the PvP aspect (SPvP mainly, as TPvP almost always requires you to play a bunker to be successful (and bunker builds are dull), and WvWvW can be too laggy, which is sad because that is the part I want to play the most (and TPvP, to a certain degree)).

Now, as nearly every other game that has mages and such, it is about dishing out good damage, while being fragile.
I was surprised how little damage the ele did from the day I started playing, and thought it might be my build. Then I tried making a bazillion different builds with focus on damage, but the frail form that is the elementalist was not capable of producing enough damage to make it viable as a glass cannon, and would die at most encounters, due to being brittle and having few means of escape (see below).

Yes, we have escape methods, but it only works if you are alive. Simply being targeted meant that you had to plan your escape already, and there is seldom means to start your attack without being noticed. We don’t have clones to confuse enemies or invisibility to make the damage route usable.

In the end, I had to admit defeat and build for survival (without making it a bunker, as the pitiful damage doesn’t enable you to compete properly in fights and is dreadfully dull). The idea that they placed in my mind with their description of the profession faded.

Now, expecting some love in the damage department (and doing so in ways that won’t break balance and upsetting others, and enable more viable builds for the enjoyment of the players, which in the end should be top priority), it appears that the class will be a much lesser version of the original idea.

-Sigh- We (the elementalists) need options and freedom, not limitations. The game gives you freedom in many ways, and I LOVEEEEEE to have many options. But barely any freedom when it comes to elementalists. Anet, you should focus on making the options a viable reality, instead of hampering your own vision.

P.S. I find that Anet made a brilliantly fun game, and not having to pay monthly fees for this amount of quality is truly respectable. However, I don’t see myself playing other classes than the ele, so I need to stick up for the endangered profession with already doubtful damage output.

/rant

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

This is what I use for PvP (not WvW) and have been using for quite some time now. I keep trying other builds, but fall back on this when others don’t work out as well. The most satisfying build I have yet played. Good damage and survivability. Give it a try.

… yeah, must be.

Thanks, I must have missed that. The procedure fixed it for two minutes only. Mysterious.

I usually do fine for a few minutes when logging on, before the problem starts. Hopefully a solution comes up in the near future.

I can see myself using it with a focus or staff build (if they were more useful). The instant cast ability is nice, compared to its slower brethren.

Adastra.9821:

Nerfed healing: check
Nerfed condition removal: check
Lowest base hp: check
Lowest base armor: check
melee range: check
Long CD on stun breakers: check
No class specific damage mitigation mechanics: check (except auras maybe)
Obvious burst sequence that doesn’t hit as hard as other burst: check

Ok I get it now. Eles should be free food like they were a few months ago. Oh wait a second, they can still run away. Silly me.

QFE (quoted for emphasis)!

If eles run away, it means they need breathing room (aka about to die). Should say something about their current state. Pay attention to how often it happens.

Did you send in a ticket?

I uploaded some vids of how it looks on my end. The odd part is that when I start the PC and game, GW2 works fine for a minute or two with 60 FPS, then it flips wildly between 38-52 constantly, causing delay in gameplay. It used to work fine. Not anymore sadly. While recording, my FPS was a tad more stable.

Heart of the Mist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm2n7jw6-kk

At Jormag (with few people present – after midnight)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS0cNJR3Kp0

This is how it is all the time. FPS in LA is around 12-20.

Do you think this could solve the problem? Perhaps Anet did something that altered things by accident? (see link). I am no PC expert, mind you.
http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-vista/how-to-disable-nagle-algorithm-in-windows-vista/

Hey folks,

I keep wondering why people can avoid jumping down buildings, or vantage points to stomp. Stomping should require you to be within actual range of your foe, otherwise you can’t stomp, right?

Currently I do not know the range, but it seems unrealistic and goofy to be stomped from fifteen feet away, for example on the ground beneath the clocktower of Battle of Kyhlo (definitely not the only map where this “bug” occurs), from someone far above, not even in sight.

You have probably noticed that stomping someone who is beneath you works, no matter the distance. Often I see people stomping others from quite far away horizontically as well (around 8 feet).

I keep wondering if this is intentional or not. For me it breaks immersion, seems silly and can be upsetting, as tactically luring people away from a spot, or simply trying to hide, is rendered meaningless, because of an exploit/flaw.

Adding a radius from where stomping works would be sweet.

What do you think about this? Discuss.

Yeah, it is rather squishy. I prefer 0/20/0/20/30 over this however. A tad more crit chance and crit damage (which is helpful for a burst build), shorter CD on air skills (for retreat, blind, damage etc.), using Ether Renewal and Arcane Shield instead of Signet of Resto and Mistform. Ether because of the lack of condition removal. You just have to use it wisely. Arcane Shield because the CD is lower and you can use it with Churning Earth and stomps, if need be (and does damage, which is good for a burst you down build).

But I tried the original build, and the damage was ok. 30 into water seems a tad over the top, although the extra health and healing is nice, but without plenty of boons, the 25 point trait isn’t important. Besides, you have enough might as it is to make it viable as a burst build.

If they added a 2nd or 3rd tier trait to fire that works like Soothing Winds, which then grants 10% of power to vitality, it would rock and make offensive builds less squishy. While at it, Soothing Winds should be made a 2nd or 3rd tier trait and have 10% of precision be healing.

Stacking that much might in PvP? I doubt it :P

For dungeon and PvE, you should consider a condition removing build at least, with bite. 30 water is good (condition removal or aura sharing), 10 arcane for attunement swap boons. The rest is up to you, really. Well, all is up to you :P

Go for the one that looks the best. You might regret chosing a race, only for its mechanics.

Hey folks,

I keep wondering why people can avoid jumping down buildings, or vantage points to stomp. Stomping should require you to be within actual range of your foe, otherwise you can’t stomp, right?

Currently I do not know the range, but it seems unrealistic and goofy to be stomped from fifteen feet away, for example on the ground beneath the clocktower of Battle of Kyhlo (definitely not the only map where this “bug” occurs), from someone far above, not even in sight.

You have probably noticed that stomping someone who is beneath you works, no matter the distance. Often I see people stomping others from quite far away horizontically as well (around 8 feet).

I keep wondering if this is intentional or not. For me it breaks immersion, seems silly and can be upsetting, as tactically luring people away from a spot, or simply trying to hide, is rendered meaningless, because of an exploit/flaw.

Could you tell me whether this was intended or not, or if you would want to make it realistic in the future? Adding a radius from where stomping works would be sweet.

Thanks

Just a thought on your words on Churning Earth, Rev.

While using Churning Earth has its drawbacks without stability and/or Lightning Flash, I do believe you can find use for it in that build of yours, by using Elemental Surge in earth attunement. Most people would try and dodge away. You can use Earthquake, Churning Earth quickly thereafter, then immobilize one person 2 secs and a group of people 1 sec, which likely will prove very valuable, although you need a bit of timing on your side (but that is the least of your troubles). Combo with a fire field (or other combo field) and things will be more interesting.

If successful, you are looking at some fine damage and don’t have to avoid Churning Earth that often. I haven’t tested it personally yet, but it appears to be a valid strategy (or at least my brain tells me it is). :P

D/D is melee. Without mobility, people would be able to kite us easily and suddenly Anet would need to bestow eles mobility again, as it would ruin the D/D weapon set.

We can’t switch to scepter or staff in order to hit opponents at long range (Mesmers, Rangers etc. etc.) as other professions can, remember? Something for something. Way too much whining for no good reason, folks.

Smitten.3076:

Or…

Some of us know how to counter them, have played the build and still agree it’s going to get nerfed. Claiming the standard D/D Ele has no damage output is a lie, simply because a build doesn’t spam large numbers doesn’t mean it doesn’t have damage output.

Little to no output/little offensive capability.. No profession has zero damage output. You misunderstood the message.

D/D bunker/tanky builds (or ele bunker builds in general) have pitiful damage output, because they focus mainly on defensive capabilities with mobility, and already have to cope with low base damage. The bunker/tanky builds are not made with damage output in mind, and it clearly shows.

Less healing, more power. Definitely. The lack of damage is sort of annoying, admittedly.

When people say god mode, I think it means “yay, I hardly die anymore”. 0/10/0/30/30 has lousy damage, mind you. Surviving is not god mode, but surviving and killing people quickly would be. Elementalists can’t kill anyone semi-skilled quickly, from what I have seen/experienced (unless you go for pure damage and use Arcane Blast and Wave and catch someone unaware, with little toughness, or/and no condition removal handy. You only have one utility skill left, no real healing or toughness, and will die in blink of an eye if countered or CC’ed).

Personally I can’t live with playing a build that has low damage output. Who cares about surviving, if you can’t dish out damage. That is why I use http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJAoYhImmbwR5gjDAkHn4CLiHPUhFlCzA;ToAA0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1M+YSA

For SPvP, but also tried something similar in TPvP as well, unless the team needs a bunker build (yawn).

I think you (OP) are right about the trait line boons. If they switched and altered a few things there, things might look a lot differently. That and increasing damage would be interesting.

Tanky eles with little to no damage output, yes. How can you be intimidated by builds with little offensive capability?

This thread is redundant.

Check out the “TIPS FOR DEFEATING D/D ELE” thread. You will find your answers there, instead of bickering and whining here. Learning and trying to counter other professions is harder and requires more time than whining on forums, demanding nerfs (because you are lazy).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Tips-for-defeating-DD-Ele/first#post1183357

I hope they will make other options viable and interesting instead. :P

Btw, whenever you see an elementalist going into water attunement, you can except him/her to attempt healing, avoiding you, or chill you. There is no real damage potential in water, so that is a good time to focus damage and interrupts. Be mindful that next stop likely is going to be air, which might be used to escape. Have some CC ready when it happens. Nothing worse to be immobilized in RTL.

The elementalist has low damage, but fine healing skills (except focus). If you nerf our mobility or healing, you have to increase the overall damage of skills quite a bit to make up for it. I would rather be able to dish out good damage, instead of running away from fights.

RTL is fine. Ele is the squishiest class out there. By limiting movement you are pushing people into a corner, making lasting/bunkerish builds the way to go for those that do not want to die immediately. That is extremely bad, as Anet is (very slowly) trying to make more builds viable.

Bunker = Low damage output, which isn’t fun to play and pose no real threat to competent players.

Necros can easily kill an ele if they play well. Toughness won’t help against condition damage, and there are limits to condition removal, even as an ele, mind you.

We still need more viable builds, and a damage boost that somehow doesn’t affect bunker builds. :P

Spike like a thief.. really? Has the thief been nerfed that much? Only two spells on the elementalist D/D menu does high spike damage (if lucky). Fire Grab and Churning Earth. Both not simple to use, as in “pressing x button and voila”. One requires your opponent to be burning (for optimal damage) and the other takes forever to cast, and is very easy to dodge.

I would call that statement a bit exaggerated to be honest.

A universal elementalist will not have much toughness, vitality or healing power, so they are quite vulnerable, if spec’ing for decent damage (around 50-60% crit damage). A fight between two skilled players could go either way.

A bunkerish elementalist is tough to kill, as goes for every bunker build out there. Nigh impossible perhaps. On the bright side (for you non-eles), the elementalist has very low damage skills to begin with (as Anet nerfed them into the ground before launch), compared to other classes. There are only two good damage skills when using D/D, and they are easily dodged.

Going for a bunker build, means that the elementalist has basically non-existing crits, thereby posing no immediate threat. Perhaps they have fine condition damage, but if you know what you are doing, you will have condition removal utilities/skills and be in no real danger. The damage of elementalists is rather poor, even if you aim for max crit damage in S/TPvP (62%). That is just a sad fact.

Btw., if you see an elementalist casting Churning Earth, you can use the time to do plenty of damage to him/her, until the skill goes off. Good for putting pressure on someone. Another tip is to use a ranged weapon that allows you to be outside the damage radius. D/D is used for close combat, but can be used just outside melee range. Either put pressure on the elementalist from very close quarters (thereby making it hard for him/her to target you), or go outside the damage radius (medium to long range).

I don’t understand why people lately are finding D/D to be OP in terms of survivability. S/D is better at that, given there are more means of healing and toughness. People just pick D/D because it is “cleaner” most likely. The fast paced style.

S/D is an odd mix of very slow (fire/earth), to very fast (air), which in the end will make your brain unhappy and likely bleed.

D/D is the smooth choice, which feels natural and rewarding to play.

If a good D/D will whoop your but(t), a good S/D will just as easily. There are just far less of them around lately, and therefore D/D is being singled out as the villain.

These posts appear to be trollish in nature. Or shortsighted. Not meaning to offend anyone, but spec’ing for damage will change everything. You will encounter more people with lack of PvP experience in WvW than you would in SPvP and certainly in TPvP.

As Arheundel says, play a real offensive build, and you will see a change.

This extra post is redundant, isn’t it?

So, this revolves about combat in WvW only I take it?

OP: You should try an offensive build, and not going bunkerish dullness. Mind posting your build? The claims seem exaggerated. A video would help, aka proof.

P.S. I could have missed it in the thread.

Btw, have you tried catching a warrior in WvW? They can escape you. Perhaps the thief as well.. ? Not sure.

Energy
Zephyr’s Focus (and Obsidian Focus) works very well with channeling spells. So Ether Renewal and scepter air and earth auto attacks will charge your energy bar quickly. If using cantrips with vigor, and other means of energy replenishment (Sigil of Superior Energy, Renewing Stamina, Vigorous Scepter etc.), you will rarely need to worry about having a dodge handy.

Arcane Overload

Arcane: Blast nearby foes with energy for critical damage, applying stun to all foes affected for 4 seconds.

• Damage: 742
• Self Vulnerability (6 seconds): 5% incoming damage
• Radius: 360
• Cast time: 1.25 seconds
• Cooldown: 120 seconds

Amins.3710:

Love the explination of Ele’s…

but they forgot: Highest Survivability, Best Escapes, Completely cannot be CC’d, Best Healing, Best Boons, best Mobility in game with strong damage.

What? Strong damage? If you have highest survivability, can escape CC, have good healing and boons for a long duration, you CAN’T have strong damage. That is soooooooooo wrong. That is a fallacy, sorry to say.

Focus builds are very funny, but you will find it difficult to down opponents without the aid of arcane blast/wave. There simply aren’t many offensive skills to utilize. D/F, or S/F is fun. 30 air/30 earth/10 arcana, with valkyrie’s amulet and berserker’s jewel for that extra toughness. Stability at 30 earth is awesome for letting Ether Renewal work without interruptions, or allowing for a safer stomp.

Flamewall is lousy imo (and I haven’t seen people use it). Only redeeming effect of it is the combo field, but you get that from Burning Speed as well so it could easily be skipped, or better yet, be remade into a more offensive skill, making the focus less attached to arcane spells.

Btw, they should also change certain values of sigils, so they become twice as strong, when wielding a two-handed weapon (like 5% crit, being 10% with two-hander. It makes the two-handers slightly less appealing that they lack in that category). That goes for all professions :P. Doesn’t belong in this thread, sorry.

The worst part about Anets change in viewing the elementalist, is that they might have given up on boosting us to become what they advertised. You can’t just put a new label on us now. You are now kings and queens of diversity, and best at aiding your team, while doing neat AoE damage.

Yes, we are diverse, have fine CC and great AoE (if traiting for high damage, thereby becoming extremely squishy). I won’t deny it. I love my elementalist, and picked a diverse build to utilize every aspect it has to offer. Mainly because I dislike making certain skills useless by going too defensive, or becoming someone that dies way too fast, in the neverending search for good damage output. You limit yourself greatly (I speak of PvP mainly, but use almost the same build in PvE).

Sure, you can’t have it all, and I understand that you need to sacrifice something to get that. But the payoff is just not there yet. I use D/D (and occasionally D/F), mainly because I fell in love with the fast paced playstyle a long time ago, and dislike the clunky and slow ways of the scepter (except the air line) and staff. I love certain aspects of the other weapons, but they have issues that needs fixed.

I get the feeling that they are now thinking that people who play bunkerish builds, have paved the road to what the elementalist is. And that is so wrong, for there should be better alternatives to that painfully boring playstyle. People found their way into the defensive builds (thereby almost saying goodbye to any offensive potential they could have had by doing so), because it was the best way to not get stomped into the ground, while getting to know the profession.

Now it is used by many, because the alternative can be frustrating, as we don’t have enough viable options, even if we have the most diverse profession.

I just hope they won’t give up on the class as it was initially advertised, because there is a lot of potential.

My wishes: Making staff more PvP viable, by giving it some needed mobilization and faster casting times. Rehaul the scepter and staff to remove the clunkiness, or just add a new weapon to our repetoire of weapons, thereby leaving the staff for the PvE role, which is appears to have been made for. Also, add a focus trait in the arcane bar that boosts your overall damage by X %, because you are severely limited by the lack of offensive spells.

The lag I am experiencing occurs after a few minutes, after entering the game. At first it works fine, then it starts. Small intervals of slowmotion, about three times in a second. SPvP always has this, and before I could be sure that it was the place I could go, if I wanted to play lag free. Now it is basically unplayable.

No clue what happened. It started approximate 1½-2 weeks ago.

I wish they would have a look at the focus as well. (With the Focus only in mind) Earth and air are fine. Water could use a good damage boost, and fire does need an overhaul. Flamewall poses no threat, whatsoever. A flame trail would be more useful. Have the ground burn behind you, wherever you go, for 8 seconds. The burning time increased to 3 or so secs base. Fire Shield should have a duration as Frost Aura, or they could have another type fire aura, or offensive spell to make Focus a tad more interesting.

Still, it doesn’t belong in water :P Slow fall, appears more to be an air, or arcana trait. Although I wish they could make fire and air more appealing. They might later though.

Well, the damage hasn’t been beefed up, so you will have trouble as a glass cannon in PvP, mate. They have only made minor changes to the profession overall. Nothing that would affect a damage dealer, really. Nothing significant anyhow. But in time, hopefully they will.

So, underwater was mainly touched upon.. dang. Neither fire or air traits have been made any more appealing (miniscule changes), and no really exciting changes, except the falling thing, which belongs in air really.

I thought they said that the traits would be meddled with, allowing a wider variety of viable builds? Apparently not this update. I better end talking here, otherwise I would seem depressed by the lack of interesting changes. Got my hopes too high for this one..

Anyhow, still nice with new things, even though they’re lackluster. Thanks Anet.

It should be an air trait , actually…