Guild Wars 2

Beerdog.8742:

When I first discovered people were selling this path I always assumed that people just did it several times in a guild group.

Something like this: They do the dungeon once for the dailies, then again in less than ten minutes. Then the owner of the dungeon stays and tries to sell his 4 spots, while the other 4 complete the dungeon once again and completes the path yet again. Now the owner of this dungeon sells his 4 spots and the previous seller joins up with the group again. So 1 sells, 4 speed-clear it and then they just rotate the instance owner and splits the proceeds.

Then when I bought a path to level up one of my alts, I realized that this is by no means how it’s done. Instead everyone exploits the dungeon, and no legitimate seller has a fighting chance.

But is there really no way to report someone doing this. They aren’t botting, they aren’t scamming (they do uphold their end of the bargain), they don’t really abuse the LFG-system either.
So what should one do to help diminish the numbers of all these exploiters? Should one resort to spamming Anet’s mailbox?
Or is it nothing that can be done, other than to be sure to not buy any paths, that is sold on the AC-subsection of the LFG-system?

This is what my guild does for Arah P4

Whats the BLTC News Blog?

Does anyone know when metallurgic dye come out of the gem store?

“When attuning into an element, you gain an aura based on the attunement for 2s”

I mentioned this in another thread, but I don’t think this is the trait it should be in… It should be in it’s own thread.

It’s a transformation skill… not a cantrip.

MiLkZz.4789:

1 Thing I would like to add is that if you reduce the healing signets heal, the warrior will have no means of getting his health bar back up. No means at all. All the other classes have healing from multiple sources while the warrior only has 1 (2 with adrenal health). You can spec into shout heal, but this is such a significant damage cut that it ain’t worth it for roaming.

Healing signet takes 20s…yes 20s! to heal 8k dmg back up. That is a pretty long time. Considering the warrior is in the open 100% of the time. He soaks up all the damage thrown at him. Only thing he can do is make him invulnerable for a short duration but those skills are on long CD.

Throw in the highly telegraphed skills that are so easy to dodge that you could finish your tea before having to press dodge. Then you come to the conclusion warriors are fine as they are.

Don’t reduce our ONLY source of healing and give us a periodic block that blocks 1 attack. 1 attack…. not even close to worth it. Definitely not in group fights were the block will most likely be used on a fast hitting low damage channeled ability.

Warriors had to give up a lot of damage to get this healing buff. Our condi cleaning got nerfed and buffed again so that stayed pretty much the same.

There are so many biased opinions about the warrior right now, thrown in the world by people who don’t know how the class works. Or simply don’t know how their own class works. For everything people complain about the warrior, the warrior has to give up a lot to achieve those things. His mobility for example.

If you know how a warriors skills work, you wont get hit by them.

“There are so many biased opinions about the warrior right now, thrown in the world by people who don’t know how the class works. Or simply don’t know how their own class works. For everything people complain about the warrior, the warrior has to give up a lot to achieve those things. His mobility for example. "

Let me tell you a story. Four of my guildies and myself (3 of whom have never played Warrior before) decided to make 5 Warriors and to take it into Team Queue. Now we were all pretty high on the leader boards so our MMR matched us against challenging opponents and experienced teams. We played 10 games and won 8 of them; 2 of the wins being 500 to something less than 100. On all of the teams, the other teams were mostly above rank 30 averaging above rank 45. That’s how facerolly warriors are right now.

You know other classes can burst heal up to 20-25k right? Engis healing is by far superior to warriors healing.

MiLkZz.4789:

And by the way, a block has a duration. If not it is called aegis. And that is the guardians mechanic. So you could give the warrior a 1s block (meaning all attacks blocked for 1s) for each adrenal bar. And I could agree to that. You could even swap out adrenal health for this.

Burst healing 20-25k? Really now?
Thats the equivalent to using SIXTEEN blast finishers in a water field. I would like to see anyone heal that much. The only class able to burst heal 20-25k would be the warrior using that new stance which turns damage into healing.
Just because engineer’s healing is better then a warrior’s healing, Warrior healing is in a fine place?

Taldren.7523:

DragonTooth just needs to be ground targeted … end of story. :p

No, the fact that DT auto-targets is amazing.
End of story.

Rayti.6531:

dukevonart.2691:

Here’s a list of elementalist skills that reduce or negate damage dealt in some way. This might be a useful reference that is a bit faster than looking through the wiki.

…

I would like to add, that dagger 2 in earth attunement (Ring of Earth) also blocks projectiles, even though it is not mentioned in the tooltip. You can also find this information as a note in the wiki. The skill absorbs projectiles for about 2 seconds.

WOW DOES IT?
I never knew that!

4,272 Hours played.
15,348 Deaths!

Lots of good points here.
I’m going to start adding more to the main thread.

Lets talk specifically about our Attunement Mechanic and how that hurts us instead of helps us.

I have all of you losers beat. :P

I have 4.5k hours logged on my Elementalist with 15k+ deaths.
Screenshots incoming!

#ELEtism

No further changes!
Sorry!

This is important.

I should hope not.
I’ve been working these past 2 weeks on developing a full Elementalist post.

Name should be “Hold My Gun”

You’re welcome.

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

Mash Hog.5672:

vanensang.1389:

Inconsequent classdesign is the biggest weakness of the elementalist.

There is absolutely nothing which balances the lack of survivability, low health pool, low damage, too situational weaponskills and the weakness of several weapons (focus having too big cooldowns, is not direct enough; staff – WAY too slow or too little damage).

There must be something which balances weakness in general. I just see one thing which “kinda” tries to balance the whole situation as far as I understood ArenaNet by reading patch after patch: 4 elements instead of 2 weaponsets.

Sadly all of those elements are just weaker than usual weaponskills of other professions.

Those are all covered in the main post.
Which mechanic do you think Elementalists should capitalize on as their main “source” of survivability?

IMHO auras should be rebalanced to function as true active defenses for elementalists. Shocking Aura already does that for melee attackers, the problem is conditions and ranged attackers coupled with the fact that the only anti-range aura is staff exclusive.

I don’t understand why we have no glyph that simply gives us an aura depending on attunement, opening up all auras for all weapon choices.

I agree, Auras should be Elementalist’s active defense.
Auras punish the opponent for attacking us; what are a few drawbacks to using Auras as an active defense?

What would be the best way to implement these Auras so that they’re more effective as our active defense?

Trait:
Get “X” Aura on Attunement Swap.
Get “X” Aura on Blast Finishing a certain Field.
Get “X” Aura on applying a certain condition.

Take x% less damage against a burning/chilled enemy.
Take x% less damage while having an aura around you.

I think that all of the Glyphs need to be redesigned.
They also need more traits.

Traits:
When under effects of a Glyph, activate “x” aura based on your attunement when hit.

vanensang.1389:

Inconsequent classdesign is the biggest weakness of the elementalist.

There is absolutely nothing which balances the lack of survivability, low health pool, low damage, too situational weaponskills and the weakness of several weapons (focus having too big cooldowns, is not direct enough; staff – WAY too slow or too little damage).

There must be something which balances weakness in general. I just see one thing which “kinda” tries to balance the whole situation as far as I understood ArenaNet by reading patch after patch: 4 elements instead of 2 weaponsets.

Sadly all of those elements are just weaker than usual weaponskills of other professions.

Those are all covered in the main post.
Which mechanic do you think Elementalists should capitalize on as their main “source” of survivability?

I was thinking of turning Glyphs into more of an AoE Support kind of playstyle. It would still fit in with the “Jack of All Trades” type of playstyle which they are pushing but it needs to be a lot more defined.
Furthermore Glyphs definitely need a LOT more traits which effect it.

Should have sent you all invites!

I feel like the main offender is Debilitating Dissipation.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Debilitating_Dissipation.

If this skill gets an internal cooldown… the condi-spam mechanic aspect of this build will be toned down.

Bump because I added new stuff.

Reserved.

LelouchViBritannia.3607:

Mash Hog.5672:

How I avoid getting CC’d/chunked? I usually end up burning one of my Cantrips to survive it… but the damage he takes is well worth it.

Which will be healed back up by healing signet in 6 seconds.

Well thats a problem with a warrior and NOT with the Dragon’s Tooth isn’t it

Regardless, I do more than 2.4k damage with my Dragon’s Tooth + Ring of Fire + Phoenix combination.

Could try to throw a Fire Grab in there if we’re getting a little frisky.

This thread’s purpose is to examine the multiple utilities of the Elementalist and find ones with problems. Once the problems are clearly laid out, we can begin to propose suggestions which would tackle these problems.

This thread will be referenced on ELEtism Balance discussion thread. The conclusions derived from the following posts will be added to this post and will be summarized in the main main Elementalist thread in the class balance page.

Elementalists have 5 different kinds of Utilities:
1. Cantrips
2. Arcane
3. Glyphs
4. Signet
5. Conjure

Out of those 5 utilities, Cantrips and Arcane are the only ones that see use in PvP.
Conjures are slowly starting to see use, namely Frost Bow.

1. Cantrips
Cantrips are effective in keeping the Elementalist alive. They are almost necessary because they cover the Elementalist’s vulnerabilities. Even though Cantrips are helpful, they are on a HUGE cooldown; other classes have skills which do all of what Cantrips do but better on a SHORTER cooldown.
Glyphs and Signets don’t have very much utility at all. These two need major revamping,;
none of these are worth giving up a Cantrip for because for every Cantrip that an Elementalist does not take, they make themselves a LOT squishier.

The lack of effective utilities force Elementalists to fall back on the Cantrips which are a sure thing and are effective. The Cantrips also synergize well with all builds.
In order to push us out of these traits/utilities, they have been nerfed terribly but since Elementalists have no other useful traits/utilities to fall back on so they need to stick to playing with the nerfed stuff.

2. Arcane
Arcane is great, not much to say here. They are made for bonus damage meant for critical hits. I like how they are instant-cast and not incredibly effective.

3. Glyph
Glyphs seem like a random set of skills thrown together at the last minute. They have no defined purpose and are incredibly ineffective. Since they have no defined purpose, they also lack traits which effectively improve them.

4. Signet
Signets are incredibly underwhelming. The actives for all of the signets are quite uneffective, they provide single target conditions and the cast times feel long in comparison to the result. They have some nice traits, but even fully traited they are not very effective in a fight. It feels like the traits don’t have much of a point.

More on this later

5. Conjure

Conjures are incredibly situational; the only one that I’ve seen been used effectively is Frost Bow. I feel like the other conjures will begin to see themselves fall into play eventually once players understand which conjure fits which situation. They will also probably see more play once other issues with the Elementalist are resolved.
————————

reikken.4961:

honovi.7893:

Warrior chasing you?

Step 1. Cast dragon tooth.
Step 2. Keep running for 1s.
Step 3. 180 into AOE ring.
Step 4. Numbers.

I would be very sad if they nerfed the damage on dragons tooth. There are many very easy skills to land as an ele. We already have a wide array of instant damage skills… (air attune, scepter 2, scepter 3, arcane skills, lighting flash, magnetic wave, etc…)

how are you pulling off this 180 to run back past this warrior without getting CC’d/chunked? did you conjure a flame axe after casting dragon’s tooth and then use burning retreat to get past him?
or maybe if you double dodge, but that’s all of your endurance

You slow down, then dodge backwards.

I usually time that Dragon’s Tooth with a ring of fire underneath it (for the blast finisher).
I also time it with Phoenix so that they both hit at the same time; it’s quite devastating for those kill hungry warriors.

How I avoid getting CC’d/chunked? I usually end up burning one of my Cantrips to survive it… but the damage he takes is well worth it.

Dragon’s Tooth is PERFECT as it.

It fits a niche among all of my skills which cannot be fit by any other skill.
I want to see other skills which are a LOT more useless (fire autoattack) changed instead of seeing DT changed into some stupid version of Ice Spike (which is something I NEVER use).

Oslaf Beinir.5842:

if you want to use it to stop bursts then avoid the trait it is not worth it especially with the low HP in your build.
most thieves run bas venom with lyssa which grants stability and even if they dont you will receive the backstab regardless since the aura will activate after you get stunned and wont stop the incoming burst. warriors can have stability auto proc on incoming cc and 2 utilities which grant stability.
you can go for elemental shielding to make it actually guard better against burst.

I used this trait in a aura-share team fighter D/D Elementalist and it didn’t turn out too well.

0/30/10/30/0

The Shocking Aura is quite nice and it does provide a good amount of boons to the team, but the lack of vigor is very noticeable.

Randulf.7614:

A true Living World needs a living environment.

A true Living World needs a living environment.

Gamble.4580:

For tourney a good premade will have you play staff nuke, why because its amazing dps for points, the healing and cc and amazing and with a comes groups u can play within the ranks.. but its realy hard and thfs yes can be annoying!! but there are 4 eles i have seen that play glass staff in com group and make the group op to a point its just /quit when you see their names…… or if you got 3x thfs in your group to just set on them the seconds you see their red name!
Google Snowwhitte or morderger in you tube.. they seem to be doing something right.

I love playing that build in solo queues and it’s incredibly fun to play!
But in any organized team queue those elementalists will be instakilled on sight (sometimes they will be picked off before they can even get to the fight).

dukevonart.2691:

Here’s a list of elementalist skills that reduce or negate damage dealt in some way. This might be a useful reference that is a bit faster than looking through the wiki.

(As a side note I was kind of surprised how much stuff can be used defensively. If there’s anything I’ve missed or should clarify, just mention it.)

Elementalist Defensive Skills

snip

This list is great, but I was more interested in approaching the mechanics which play a part which contribute to Elementalist survivability. (ie Thief Stealth)

Now that we have narrowed down the mechanics which are used by the Elementalist to survive, let’s find the problems within them.

This thread is getting off topic.
In order to properly balance the Elementalist we need to first need to understand all of the issues it is experiencing.

Once we fully understand all of the issues, then we will be able to suggest changes which would effectively put us in a better position.

Phantom Master.9582:

I would be interested if the elementalist’s D/D build would become useful as a fighter/roamer player, similar to warrior but not as braindead.

For that to work we need Auras to be more effective at mitigating/avoiding damage.

Updated Main Thread.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Mash Hog.5672:

The issue with that is that there are many people who really do enjoy PvP and GW2 came out as a Action/PvP game with the promise of #E-Sports.

On top of that, PvP does require more balance than PvE.

Only problem is that sPvP counts for less than 10% of the playerbase of the game. More people play WvW than sPvP, and more people PvE than both.

And the reason for that is that the classes are unbalanced. If the classes were balanced and the games were less faceroll, there would be more people enjoying the PvP aspect of the game.

The issue with that is that there are many people who really do enjoy PvP and GW2 came out as a Action/PvP game with the promise of #E-Sports.

On top of that, PvP does require more balance than PvE.

oZii.2864:

Mash Hog.5672:

The reason I didn’t post this was because I felt that we had enough condi clears and good enough access to it. The issue lies more on the fact that condispam is incredibly prevalent and THAT needs to be toned down instead of our defense against conditions moved up.

I agree Ele has good condition management options. It is just that conditions need to be toned down. In dueling/roaming in WvW it is different then sPvP balance.

I bring up my time playing guardians alot but I feel that people compare ele’s defensive abilities to guards and our offensive abilities to warriors.

Sure a ele has to go 30 water and 20 arcana for 50 point investment but a guard has to go 30 honor, 10 valor, and 20 virtues for a 60 point investment and to really click you need some extra runes on top of it with soldier. Ether renewal tips it totally into eles favor since guards just have signet for 1 condi every 10 secs.

If anything I would say using this perspective is that guards have some pretty good group utilites to deal with conditions. Ele could maybe use some help on the utility front to deal with conditions and maybe that would allow some people to feel comfortable moving out of water though many don’t go 30 in water and that is really D/D and Staff bunkers.

I would like mainhand dagger given something like rock barrier.

Thats where Glyphs and Sigils can come in:
Once Glyphs and Sigils get turned into more effective utilities, we would be able to build around those utilities and explore new builds.

ThiBash.5634:

Mash Hog.5672:

What are some bad skills skills? (Useless/Buggy)

All Sigils are completely ineffective.
All Glyphs are completely ineffective.

This bit is purely subjective and far from the truth. To me personally, glyphs are very useful. They’re very versatile, the elementals give good utility and added damage and the glyph of elemental power allows for snares on all other skills.

If anything, add some arguments to your statements.

I’m working on it!
If only I had all the time in the world!

Mbelch.9028:

Glad to see this thread.

Conditions. They are the bane of elementalists. I can’t tell you the last time I lost a direct damage duel. But the time I lost a condition damage duel was recent. We have enough clears, but we virtually have to devote ourselves to clearing conditions.

I literally have 30 points invested just so I don’t have to worry as much about hybrid condi builds. And against bomb engineers, why even try as a d/d ele?

The reason I didn’t post this was because I felt that we had enough condi clears and good enough access to it. The issue lies more on the fact that condispam is incredibly prevalent and THAT needs to be toned down instead of our defense against conditions moved up.

Gokil.2543:

Auras! Invaluable tools for defense, and often the reason why you’re still alive when you’re thinking how the hell am I surviving this. Just the effect of people running at 33 percent movement speed behind you when using frost aura, effectively nullifying their damage when they are melee classes.

Mid-range is also quite an important one. Many of our D/D skills exceed melee range by a good bit, which is essential to stand a chance against melee monsters like warriors, guardians and thieves.

One more, not so obvious but mildly important: PBAoEs that allow us to run in every direction we want while doing all our damage. Meaning fire 4, earth 2/4, water 3.
So what this means is while fighting classes, we are not restricted to circle-strafing while attacking, like all other classes are, but can run through or away from our opponent while using any of the aforementioned skills, while our opponent suffers from having to 180 his camera, or try to CC/gap close us to be able to trade. I hope this makes sense. Not gonna lie it’s not THAT big of a deal but it certainly helps. Not having to keep your camera locked on your target at all times certainly helps optimize your ability to trade damage in short bursts.

Obviously this is talking from a D/D point of view.

It’s actually 66% reduced movement speed and I can’t believe I forgot about Auras! Yes those are great but our access to those auras outside of D/D is very limited! If there was a way that we could get easier access to auras (on OUR OWN demand) it would be incredibly useful towards improving our survivability.

The issue is that Auras depend on the enemy hitting us. That is an issue when our survivability is based around mobility and when our Health and Armor is incredibly low. Auras are great… but when it only takes 1 Evicerate, 1 Backstab, or 1 Mesmer Shatter to kill you… that makes Auras lose some value.

silvershadez.8421:

Mash Hog.5672:

The lack of survivability pidgeon-holes Elementalist into points in Water and Arcana which make it very difficult for Elementalists to expand their traitlines.
The lack of survivability also pidgeon-holes Elementalists to run cantrips which makes it difficult for them to use other utilities.

The fun part is in my current tPvP build I have 0 points in water and 10 in arcane. I kinda agree that alot of our traits don’t make any sense at all and a rework is not debatable. But I don’t share the oppinion that we have to rely on arcane and water traits. The current change with reduced attunements helped me alot btw.

I also don’t use /rarely use any cantrip at all. Most of them are no stun breakers anymore, which reduced their use for me ALOT.

My current build runs 10 in water and 30 in Arcana.
This build requires triple cantrips.

In order to make an effective, well balanced, build which doesn’t fall over and die, thus being liability to your team, survivability is a requirement.

My WvW build has nothing in Water and 10 in Arcana… but this build is very gimmicky and is very situational.

It seems like there are currently three issues with the Ele.

Lack of survivability, lack of effective trait-lines, and lack of effective skills.

The lack of survivability pidgeon-holes Elementalist into points in Water and Arcana which make it very difficult for Elementalists to expand their traitlines.
The lack of survivability also pidgeon-holes Elementalists to run cantrips which makes it difficult for them to use other utilities.

That, coupled with the less than stellar trait-lines and terrible utility skills that the Elementalist have been given make it so that the most efficient use of the Elementalist requires points in water and cantrips.

In order to push us out of these traits/utilities, they have been nerfed terribly but since Elementalists have no other useful traits/utilities to fall back on so they need to stick to playing with the nerfed stuff.

This is not the rule 100% of the time but this is the underlying issue.

This thread’s purpose is to determine the mechanics Elementalists use to survive, to address the problems within these mechanics, and then approach suggested changes to tackle these problems

This thread will be referenced on ELEtism Balance discussion thread. The conclusions derived from the following posts will be added to this post and will be summarized in the main main Elementalist thread in the class balance page.

Elementalists, by class definition lack “tankiness”. They have the lowest health pool and the lowest armor in the game which effectively make us squishier than all other classes.
How do other “squishy” classes mitigate damage?

Mesmer: Stealth, Clone Confusion, Clone Body Blocking, Invulnerability
Necromancer: VERY High Health Pool, 2nd Health Bar (Death Shroud), Life Siphon, Minion Body Blocking
Thief: Stealth, VERY High Mobility, Medium Armor, Lots of Evades

Now lets go over what Elementalists use for their survivability.

1. Healing
2. Mobility
3. Cantrips
4. Auras
5. Defensive Boons (Protection/Stability)
6. Crowd Control

Now these are decent ways of surviving, but many of them are flawed.

-Healing
Healing is great really. Not much to say against it; most Elementalist weapons have heals built in with the skills which is quite effective. The only thing I can say is to make these skills REALLY effective we do need to spec into healing power, otherwise they are only a little effective.

-Mobility
Elementalist mobility is also quite nice, though it has been nerfed quite a bit. We are usually able to maintain a good amount of swiftness, but it requires taking 20 in Arcana or 10 in Air. Our other skill which provide mobility is Ride The Lightning, Burning Speed, and Lightning Flash. We have access to large amounts of vigor and are also able to dodge a lot which is good.
Currently our mobility is exceeded by Warriors, Thieves, and Rangers.

-Cantrips
Cantrips are absolutely vital for an Elementalist to take in order for them to be more survivable. Without Cantrips, the Elementalist can be locked down and killed within seconds. Even with Cantrips this happens very often. The little survivability provided by Cantrips is so essential to us that we are “forced” to fill our utility slots with them. Out of the 4000 hours that I have played Elementalist, there has rarely been a time when my bar does not have Mist Form or Lightning Flash.
Cantrips provide little survivability on a very LONG timer. Other classes (Warriors) have more effective utilities on SHORTER cooldowns.

-Auras
Auras are great but our access to those auras outside of D/D is very limited! If there was a way that we could get easier access to auras (on OUR OWN demand) it would be incredibly useful towards improving our survivability.
Another issue is that Auras depend on the enemy hitting us. That is an issue when our survivability is based around mobility and when our Health and Armor is incredibly low. Auras are great… but when it only takes 1 Evicerate, 1 Backstab, or 1 Mesmer Shatter to kill you… that makes Auras lose some value.

Defensive Boons
Stability is great; Rock Solid is great for clutch plays and Armor of Earth (Cantrip) is great to pump out the last few seconds from your Elementalist.
Protection is also quite effective for us, being able to negate 1/3rd of our damage goes a long way towards keeping us alive.
To ensure protection, Elementalists need to take 20 into Arcana or 10 into Earth.

-Crowd Control
Last second Crowd Control is great to get away from an oncoming enemy or to stop an incoming attack, but it is not reliable.

Now that we have narrowed down the mechanics which are used by the Elementalist to survive, let’s find the problems within them.

This thread’s purpose is to determine all of the current issues with the Elementalist class. Once all of the issues are clearly laid out, we will begin to approach possible changes to our class which directly counter these problems.

This thread will reference many “ELEtism” posts which are located in the Elementalist forums. Conclusions derived from those posts will be summarized in this main thread to help maintain a fluid experience.

I will keep this thread updated with a collaborated response area which will summarize all of points we discuss in this thread and multiple other ELEtism posts.

Collaborated Response: Current Problems with the Elementalist

There are multiple problems with Elementalist.

1. Survivability
Since Elementalist lack basic survivability mechanics (like stealth, mobility, clones, or damage mitigation (armor), we are forced to shape our builds around surviving so that we can actually contribute to a team. If Elementalists do not trait themselves for support and survivability they can be locked down, focused and killed within a matter of seconds before they are even able to make a difference to the team.

Elementalist are pigeon-holed into points in Water and Arcana which make it very difficult for Elementalists to extend to other trait lines. They are also “forced” into running Cantrips which locks out the use of other utilities.

Discuss Lack of Survivability in more specifics here: ELEtism Discussion #2: Ele Survivability

2. Unusable Trait-Lines

There are so many traits which are just plain bad. There are very few traits which I would take into a tournament. Picking traits should be a challenge for the user; it should be a very difficult decision and should make users value each trait that they choose. This is not currently the case, most of the traits I have gone over have not seen any use since launch.

The lack of useful traits is another reason why Elementalists stick to the defensive trait-lines; they synergize well to create the best possible build and that there is nothing else to take which will be as effective as the defensive trait-lines.

The Fire Magic tree does not synergize with anything; it probably has the worst traits out of all of the other trait lines. This tree needs the most work.

3. Unusable Utilities
The only incredibly useful utilities are Cantrips. They are effective in keeping the Elementalist alive. They are almost necessary because they cover the Elementalist’s vulnerabilities. Even though Cantrips are helpful, they are on a HUGE cooldown; other classes have skills which do all of what Cantrips do but better on a SHORTER cooldown.

Glyphs and Signets don’t have very much utility at all. These two need major revamping,;
none of these are worth giving up a Cantrip for because for every Cantrip that an Elementalist does not take, they make themselves a LOT squishier.
(I’m gonna come back and add more information about Glyphs and Signets later)

The lack of effective utilities make Elementalists fall back on the Cantrips which are a sure thing and are effective. The Cantrips also synergize well with all builds.

Discuss all of the utilities in more specifics here: ELEtism Discussion #2: Elementalist Utilities

In order to push us out of these traits/utilities, they have been nerfed terribly but since Elementalists have no other useful traits/utilities to fall back on so they need to stick to playing with the nerfed stuff.

4. Elementalist Class Mechanic – Attunement Swapping
Does this act more obstructive than beneficial?
(More on this later)

To help think keep the conversation going, try answering these questions:

What are some weaknesses that Elementalist have internally?

What are some bad traits? (Useless/Buggy)

What are some bad skills skills? (Useless/Buggy)

Join the ELEtism Community

Updated Roster 1/4/13:

Gasmic: S/D Burst
Nex: D/D DPS
Sinndicate: Staff DPS or Bunker
Diotima: Staff or D/D Bunker

Jae.5138:

Mash Hog.5672:

Jae.5138:

not s ure if gasmic even looked at your build.

condition builds WILL give you hell with that build. I’d suggest either putting in at least 20 into water or drop the fresh air altogether if you want a good fight against condition heavy builds.

Not sure if Jae knows Elementalist at all:

Ether Renewal = -8 Conditions on 12 second timer
Cleansing Fire = – 3 Conditions on a 40 second timer < Waste
Cleansing Wave = -1 Condition on a 40 second timer
Water Attunement Evasive Arcana = – 1 Condition on a 10 second timer
Phoenix = – 1 Condition on a 20 second timer

You DO NOT need to spec into water for Condition Removal; there are MUCH better ways to access it than to waste points into the Water tree.

There is lots of Condition removal in this build especially in Ether Renewal. I use Ether Renewal even when I’m close to full health to keep myself free of conditions because I know it’ll be up again next time I need it. It also keeps me at full health which keeps my Scholar runes proccing.

i like how you list some skills out as if you can’t get them without going your build (i.e. phoenix and ether renewal)

but nice try.

btw cleansing wave trait has 0 sec cd so it actually procs every time u go into water, without the 40sec cd

it’s just sad that you even have to pick up ether renewal just for the sake of surviving against condition builds lol.

NinjaBreadMan.8926:

These classes give me trouble in 1v1 as s/d ele

I run 0/30/0/10/30 and ether renewal/cleansing fire/mist form/lf/fgs

Not sure if you know how to read…
But all of the skills/utilities that I mentioned are already included within his build.

Cleansing Water has a 5 second internal cooldown in PvP and is not worth going 30 into water for condi removal when such strong condition removal is already present.

Cleansing WAVE is the #5 Water Skill for Dagger which removes a condition.

As he stated earlier Ether Renewal is a skill he’s already taken.
Phoenix is the #3 Fire skill for Scepter.

You should play Elementalist some more before you start giving out some bad advice.

It takes time to get through the rotations but take a good long look at all of your skills and look at how they can work with each other.

Eventually you’ll get used to your rotation and attunement dancing comes second nature to you!

Was looking for this.

Thrashbarg.9820:

Mash Hog.5672:

I’m thinking of a Tempest Defense/Aurashare Build:

0/30/0/30/10

Or 0/30/10/30/0

I can’t decide whether I want to take the perma-vigor or the AoE Protection.

Both work, but I prefer the protection with the aurashare build. I’m not a huge fan of aurashare, however. I feel to be really viable it would need to be a master trait rather than grandmaster, OR have a larger effective radius.

I don’t play tPvP though, just WvW, the size of the cap points might make aurashare range more bearable in there. I’ve even had some success with a 4-signet fire-aura build in WvW, so take my opinions with a massive dose of “silly Thrashbarg, WvW is for ______ (insert favorite insults here)”.

This is considering that I play it in a tPvP environment with 5 other people on Teamspeak.