Guild Wars 2

The focus could use it. Not so much the other weapons. Eles already have a smoke field. Not like it would make the class OP by making one lousy skill usefull in focus. I am sure Anet finds a way to make things work without stealth, eventually.

I had hoped they might at least fix Signet of Restoration working with Signet Mastery.

DiogoSilva: I don’t see why there should be a trait for making ONE horrible skill worthwhile. The skill should be worth casting without sacrificing a trait. It could be a smoke field, so that you can reap the benefits with a blast finisher or leap only, making it possible to stack invisibility as focus has poor movement.

I recall suggesting changing Persisting Flames into a trait that makes fire fields into smoke fields in the past.

Making Flamewall a smoke field instead of fire field would work and make up for the low damage it applies. Focus is defensive in nature anyhow. No regen though.

And if people say eles shouldn’t have smoke fields – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Murky_Water (underwater skill, but still..).

Flamewall is still (insert negative word).

Stone Shards doesn’t work with auto attacking in PvE.

Yeah, RTL should be reverted, although with a 900 or 1200 range.

So a ele bunker can not be allowed to zip around, but a bunker engi can? Well, well, well..

Regarding the ele:

While the S/D burst ele is strong now, I don’t think it is over the top. The difference being that you can see an ele coming towards you very clearly, and you can’t when it comes to thieves. The difference between the two approaches is immense, imho.

I don’t think we can currently say that things are out of order, because the meta hasn’t settled yet. I mean, to be a pure GC ele you are using all your utility skills to achieve it. If a combo is coming up and you dodge/avoid it, there isn’t much more air in the balloon that is the GC ele, and he/she would easily be destroyed. The odds of getting off a second try aren’t good and will take a while if you manage to escape.
Something that makes the risk/reward of the build a balanced deal.

I prefer this build for bursting. Using it in SPvP primarily, although it has its uses in WvW and PvE as well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhEmmbwR3gjDIEFmgLIeYBOAHWUMD5AA-ToAg0CvIQShkDJDSSksIN+YWA

Yeah, I suggested something similar in the past. Defensive glyph and it would be used.

Celestial gear + might stacking = good stuff.

Bob the Might Builder - PvX (Warning: Not entirely risk free)

After reading about elementalist failing at condition builds, I thought I would present my strange alternative I have tried before, but dug out again with better results.

The point with this, is to stack might while fighting. Pretty simple. As much and as often as you can to keep it over 20 stacks. You can achieve the maximum rather quickly and there the fun and risks begin.

The build isn’t supposed to rely on one type of damage output, such as conditions, because the elementalist hasn’t grand access to many such skills. It builds up 875 power and condition damage rather quickly, securing a strong mix of the two for a genuinely funny experience.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhEmmbwx4gjDAEFn4SQhCMUeMjO2A-ToAA1CmICSpjTHTQycs5MEZWA

Alternatively you can play with jewels and amulets, or change Soothing Disruption into Cleansing Wave, but I prefer better survivability and means of keeping your precious might hidden behind other boons in PvP. You will have a fair amount of condition removal with Ether Renewal and Cleansing Fire anyways.

• Pros: Almost 4000 power with 25 might stacks (higher in PvE of course). High non-crit damage. Solid health pool and toughness with soldier’s gear. Good damage output, whether it’s raw damage or condition damage.

• Cons: Reliant on might stacking. Risk of having your might removed, or much worse, stolen by a thief or mesmer (primarily a concern in PvP). Low healing.

The Signet of Water is probably the least useful, not because it only removes one condition each ten seconds, but because the active skill is almost pointless. People will not pick it for the passive as it is too weak, and not the active for the same reason.

It would be a nice addition to control one of their abilities, I agree. Elementalists control the elements, so why not be able to control one skill of the summoned elemental, be it the lesser or the elite version, rightfully calling yourself elementalist. If you can summon and force it to fight for you, you might as well be a pokémon trainer and shout an ability command.

Zephyr’s Focus has the same problem as Obsidian Focus, which doesn’t proc with many channeling skills.

Because they had less than a one hour learning curve and grew boring at the same time, due to being way to simple? They are fine, but only for a brief time. There is no meat to it.

Have one to five skills and just run around spamming buttons isn’t any fun, at least not for me. It was fun for an hour or two, though.

I think they went over the top doubling the CD on it. While I do like that you get a lower CD if used for combat, I think that it could easily be lowered.

Didn’t they just give engineers something similar to former RTL?

It wouldn’t hurt to have more options and combinations in terms of amulets, as it currently limits you to more or less extreme variants.

If it worked like the old Mist Form, it wouldn’t interrupt your cast. This would probably be at the bottom of their to-do list.

Still, worth mentioning until they get around to fix other runes, like the Superior Rune of Strength 6th ability.

The ability you gain to turn into a mist when falling below 10% health isn’t working very well in SPvP, as it has trouble triggering because it kicks in so late.

Different from the Superior Rune of Infiltration which also triggers at 10%, but will leave you invisible in a downed state.

I think it wouldn’t hurt anyone to raise the trigger percentage to 20 or 30%, so it might see more use. Someone with 15k health would trigger it at below 1500, but more often than not will you receive burst damage exceeding that number, making the 6th rune of vampirism redundant.

Am I the only one who believes it should be changed to 20 or 30%, instead of 10%?

P.S. Yes, toughness would help, but the idea is to make it more attractive to people no matter the build, whether bunker or GC.

Shatterstone has a delay when it appears. Takes close to a second before it starts doing its thing.

I prefer Aeromancer’s Alacrity, because I want my Lightning Strikes ready when I swap. Rather important if you are close to downing someone that you can get that extra damage quickly. Lowering the CD of 3, 4 and 5 also makes it worthwhile.

Cool, thanks for the explanation. Problem solved.

Benjamin.7893:

Be careful what you wish for getting an ele in sotg as most would tell you the class is more then fine.

But an ele would be able to comment on matters that are lacking, troublesome etc. and bring questions to the table from the ele community.

A high ranking player could likely say it is fine, yes. Which would be selfish, because there are matters that concern people, such as conjures, signets, elites, traits and etc.. If the ele in question doesn’t have their finger on the pulse, they aren’t contributing with anything special.

Aether McLoud.1975:

Malcastus.6240:

It would be nice to see an elementalist in the next discussion as well.

THIS. AFAIK There never was a single elementalist player in the SOTGs. We really need a representive to talk there.

I think Zoose was present once, but I would like to see someone else, for instance the guy from supcutie’s team or any other high ranking team for that matter. Nothing against Zoose, but I think views from different people is favorable and contributes with different perspectives.

It would be nice to see an elementalist in the next discussion as well.

Yeah, I was mainly thinking of the word one-shot which invokes the wrong thoughts. That is a looong and tricky combo to complete.

Sooo, you can one-shot a necro with a burst ele?

I can’t say it didn’t happen, but no single damage skill does enough damage to take down a necro.

The Phoenix movemenet speed change was needed, though. It should be easier to dodge, if you notice the change to fire attunement and knowing that an ele will be waiting for a time to launch it. It is faster now, but not fast enough to not avoid it, if it is cast from a distance. If cast from melee range it will be tough to dodge, but if you keep running unpredictably, it might not hit you properly for full damage.

Interesting talk though.

P.S. I need to stick up for the ele, haha.

Sweet, thank you for the heads up.

Has it been uploaded somewhere? Missed the stream (as always)..

I didn’t say it was a scepter only trait, but works best with scepter as you can have Lightning Strike ready everytime you get back, which does much for dps. That your auto attacks in earth and water launch several projectiles, which have a higher chance to crit than one attack, just makes scepter the weapon that gains most of it.

Of course arcane utilities instantly triggers Fresh Air, so you can go back immediately if you land a hit.

I tried it out with staff, using Aeromancer’s Alacrity and it worked out ok, but was too slow generating damage. Starting in another attunement, switching to air for the Electric Discharge, then channeling Lightning Surge while swapping to a different attunement allows you to instantly refresh air again for another discharge if you crit, which is neat.

I wonder, if Lightning Surge was improved in terms of cast time and/or CD, the staff could have a chance at becoming viable for 1vs1 fights with Fresh Air..

If it becomes 5 second CD, I am rather sure that elementalist won’t have a viable GC. It is mainly a scepter beneficial weapon, so it would mainly benefit that weapon. It is a step forward, but only a small one for build diversity.

Nevermind………………………………………………

ARM.3912:

Malcastus.6240:

If I recall correctly, Anet tends to nerf things a bit, before buffing again.

You made that up. Anet doesn’t think. The video proves they just do things and say “hey let’s see what happens”. What happens is they killed our class and don’t care.

Well, eles did get quite a few positive changes this patch around, and admittedly they didn’t always nerf the right things the other times to bring down the popular bunker, but they did improve things, to allow offensive builds to come to light.

And no, they wouldn’t kill off a class. No sane game developer would kill off a profession. That is going against everything you work to strive for. Game balancing is just hard, when you have to listen to a million voices.

While I have been whining like a legless dog in the back of a black car in the summer, about them changing the elementalist role, I do not dislike the idea of a jack of all trades, as long as it works. The positive side of it is that you can do what others can do, but with one profession, although not as impressively but with tools others might not have in order to make it viable.

If I recall correctly, Anet tends to nerf things a bit, before buffing again.

I don’t think that the damage should be changed to make it more viable in PvP. Lightning Surge cast time and Unsteady Ground effects could be tampered with a bit, without creating chaos, but otherwise the rest appears to be good enough.

The real problem is the lack of mobility, as I see it. Surely there can be added a skill to staff that wouldn’t make it too strong in WvW. Swapping Unsteady Ground with an underground movement skill would be nice to see. Tunneling trough the ground, giving you the means of keeping distance to your opponent, sort of like Devourer Retreat, although the distance should be longer than 200. Perhaps 900 or 1200?

That would take care of Unsteady Ground, which many seem to dislike for obvious reasons, and the devs don’t need to create something entirely new, as the skill exists in the game already. It would also fit earth attunement greatly. Just my 29½ cents..

TL;DR: Swap Unsteady Ground for a skill similar to Devourer Retreat (tunneling underground), perhaps lower the cast time of Lightning Surge (to 3/4 or 1 sec), and the staff should have the right tools for solo-queue and other formats, without breaking balance.

STL;DR: Stuff..

P.S. STL;DR = Still too long, didn’t read.

Flamewall is the main reason that tends to keep me from using the focus. As a fire field, it’s not big. Damagewise it is very underpowered, and even if you use a condition build, people can run through it without dodging, and not get the burning condition.

You can put it down hoping to fight on top of it, but even then it does little.

Just adding more burn duration to it wouldn’t do much, as people can still easily run through it.

If the damage was similar to the line of fire with Fiery Rush (FGS), it would be different. Otherwise it would be nice to see it changed into a ground target comet-type skill, or a channeled fire shackles skill, crippling the opponent while doing 3 or 4x burst damage while channeling. That would be neat. Just something useful, really.

It’s most often pointless using this skill, taking the fun out of fire attunement knowing that there is one skill that hinders the flow of your gameplay. And since it is fire attunement, I believe that a damage skill would be fitting, as focus has little to no real damage output (yes, I know that it is a defensive off-hand).

+10% would be neat though, and not overly insane compared to the new Serrated Stones, which adds +5% damage to bleeding opponents, and 20% bleed time increase, which is quite an adept trait. Besides, Stone Splinters has a range of 600, which limits its use to close quarter combat and primarily D/D.

Glyphs needed a stun breaker, but there weren’t any good candidates for it to begin with, so they picked one with a short CD. Imagine if it was the res glyph.

I am still certain that the utility skill could use a redo, making it defensive in nature (a la GoeH), for it to be used. The RNG factor isn’t helping much and glyphs doesn’t have any defensive utility skills, except the healing one.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeew

• Tier A:
  + Necro
  + Mesmer
  + Engineer
  = Thief
  - Guardian
  - Elementalist

• Tier B:
  + Ranger
  = Warrior

*changes made

If it gave you defensive boons, depending on your attunement, I bet quite a few people would use it (I know I would). Currently it is counter intuitive using it. An utility you would want to have active before battle as it is now.

It would also encourage people to use Glyphs more, perhaps even use the skill Inscription.

There are several skills that doesn’t trigger Zephyr’s and Obsidian Focus, which you might think they should.

Like..

• Stone Shards
• Flamestrike
• Lightning Surge
• Conjured Weapons channels

Rather sure they aren’t channeled skills, but only has an very long casting time. I know it works with Meteor Shower, Arc Lightning, Dragon’s Breath and Cone of Cold, which do damage while channeling. So perhaps that is the problem.

In the end, the traits aren’t really useful, except giving you a minor boost if using Ether Renewal.

[Two bugs]

• Yes, Shatterstone doesn’t appear most of the time. Hard to say what the reason is, but it isn’t showing, hence no effect using it.

• Another bug I noticed is Armor of Earth, which will pop without warning, when using other skills. I noticed it in PvE, when using Rock Barrier for instance.

Yes, the changes are great, and did add build diversity, which is awesome.

If you have questions about certain things, don’t hesitate to ask about details.

I always preferred pure melee. Goody!

0/30/0/30/10 cantrip build w/ cleanses on use and fresh air. It gives you good damage, neat condition removal by using cantrips, glyph of elemental harmony (in water) and elemental attunement.

0/30/10/20/10 with Signet Mastery (air signet stun break), Earth’s Embrace or Elemental Shielding, for a wee bit of extra defense, than the above build.

0/30/0/20/20 for an arcane utility oriented build.

0/30/0/10/30 for an Evasive Arcana build.

Those are all mainly offensive in nature, and using valkyrie w/ berserker jewel and divinity runes will bring you fine damage, otherwise you can settle for Cleric’s Amulet, if you prefer more survivability. They all utilize “fresh air”, as you will want to blast opponents on air attunement swap, giving other attunements time to “reset”.

Otherwise you can use the pseudo-bunker 10/10/0/20/30, with cantrips, sigil of restoration, and switch back and forth between valkyrie w/ berserker and clerics w/ berserker, depending on your needs.

I am looking at making a hybrid of burst and condition, with means of survival, but waiting for skill sheets to be updated. So far it doesn’t bode too well..

Signet of Restoration was never bugged in PvP. It still is bugged.. 25 secs CD with no change. Can we get it fixed please?

And it is still bugged sadly..