You see, this is why I think you want a passive trait. Stone Heart is an Active Defense which you need to use at the right place and at the right time. What you want is something that cannot be countered that doesn’t let the thief to get a time window when he can burst you.
Do you think it’s fair that a thief gets no window at all to do what he’s best at which is bursting?
And if a thief baits you out of Earth Attunement and successfully bursts you then he deserves to be called skilled. It’s the same as waiting for your enemy to dodge twice before dropping all your bursts.
Let me give you one build as an example which will be possible because of Stone Heart.
S/x Fresh Air Stone Heart Build (x/30/30/x/x)
We all know that Fresh Air builds will always be prone to crit bursts (usually killed in seconds by thieves in PvP). Earth Attunement in Scepter and Focus are Defensive (AoE Blind, Additional Toughness, Condi Cleanse with Projectile Reflect, and Invulnerability). Stone Heart would fit this weapon set perfectly because it will allow you to survive an incoming burst and counter your enemy with your own burst.
Same thing goes with Scepter/Dagger but this is less defensive. Going into Earth just for Defensive purposes won’t be a waste at all.
This lets the naturally squishy Fresh Air build a lot more survivability if used properly.
Where in the world did I say I didn’t want active defense? The entire profession is based around active defense. Everyone knows that. Look at the example I provided. Removal of conditions on active application of regen by the elementalist. That is active defense.
No where did I say “lets make this trait apply to every attunement.” I said “this trait is situational and lacks synergy with existing traits and skills”. Those are two completely different things.
I repeat. No where did I say “I want an I Win button against a thief.” You have provided no evidence of me ever saying that.
So looking at your example. You talked a lot about the air traits. The air traits have a good bit of synergy and seem to have some identity. Yeah. What about the earth traits? The only one you talked about was the gm trait. My point is, that the trait line should be more relevant than a gm trait that will help you in a situation. Again, look at the water gm I keep using as an example. There are traits that help you apply regen in that trait line which helps make that trait of condition removal viable.
Lets drill down on this earth gm trait in more detail. It has two components. One is immunity to criticals (do we have confirmation that it prevents on crit procs or does it just negate crit damage). The other part is you having to be in earth attunement. There isn’t really much synergy you can have from not being crit (unless they put in some weird traits that require not being crit for a period of time to work). This leaves the second part for the synergy, sitting in earth attunement. Okay so what earth traits do we have that provide an advantage for the elementalist to sit in earth for a period of time.
There is the minor trait that increases toughness. By extension there is a trait to increase condition damage based on your toughness. And there is the alacrity trait that reduces cool downs for earth (while not encouraging you to sit in earth it at least helps you do it if you want).
Now lets look at the earth traits that encourage you to swap out quickly.
There is a minor trait that damages and cripples on attunement. There is also stability on attunement.
So we have more toughness if you sit in earth but you have more damage and stability if you swap in and out of earth as fast as possible. And thats it.
The rest of earth applies to a random assortment of other skills and traits (e.g., auras, signets, and weapon skills overall).
Does what I’m arguing make sense now? Earth has a split personality. They seem to simultaneously want you to stay in earth and leave earth.
