Guild Wars 2

Lettuce.2945:

The amount of QQ’ing is just simply hilarious. Here’s an idea. Maybe don’t take my word for it. But let’s ACTUALLY WAIT until the patch hits before crying about “nerfs”. You realize every profession’s reveal so far has gotten one extra F skill like mesmer f5, warrior f2…etc. Maybe we’ll actually get a weapon swap option or another attunement type. Just stop crying about stupid kitten. As I’ve said many times in other threads, I’ve been messing around with not using elemental attunement trait to stimulate what it would be like (even though we’re getting another full trait line….) and I have to say…I do just fine. I actually win 90-95% of my duels still as ZERKER ele. Sounds like a l2p issue to me if you can’t even simply wait for the patch to hit and adapt.

That’s the worst logic ever. There are problems one can easily see with the trait choices they devs have made right now. There are significant nerfs to the current playstyles, current damage and survivability. Why “wait” for the patch when we can avert having to wait a few months for them to “fix” the stuff they broke by bringing it to their attention NOW. And your L2P argument is just stupid and doesn’t add anything to the discussion. Either put forward your build, your opponents, your information or don’t include that argument. Also, just because you win NOW means nothing due to the massive trait overhauals the lines will see that will make most current builds less powerful and less useful all the while increasing the power and utility of other classes builds. The trait powercreep is real in other classes, while we are regressing. And unless Tempest includes some massive mobility (it probably won’t due to not wanting to compete with thieves), massive damage (most likely won’t because it’s melee so will have to include blocks or damage reductions so we can just live) then yes. We will complain, we will put forth information on how the Karl McClain (spelling, sorry) is gimping the class with making certain things choices all the while ripping from the class necessary defenses and power boosts in the name of “build diversity” but just makes Arcana or Water more mandatory. This isn’t the first time this has happened, every time they try to make Arcana or Water less mandatory, it just ends up becoming more mandatory.

Xillllix.3485:

Give me one example where they listened to elementalist-players feedback about the elementalist.

All they listen to is other classes complaining about the ele and then nerf us down.

You could buff the staff auto-attack projectile speed by 200% and it still wouldn’t be OP. What about water 1 auto-attack on staff, they sure made certain nobody would ever use that.

But but but… it heals! /sarcasm

I would love other reasons to go into anything but Arcana, however with the proposed changes to traits, there IS no compelling reason to go anywhere else. The answer to removing the dependence of elementalists on Arcana and Water is not to make these terrible, but to make the other lines better.

I stand by making Elemental Attunement baseline as a solo trait with the GM being AoE and reworking traits that are easily overwritten like One with Air and Zephyrs Speed. If Air had a trait that did something like on crit gain a shield equal to a % of the damage done I would definitely think of speccing into Air. As it is now, with all the damage being ripped from Air, with Fresh Air becoming much weaker and really disliking the idea of getting hit as a burst ele to proc shocking aura… I think I’ll pass.

Also, since the instant damage is an issue, why not add a slight cast time to the lightning strike from Air Scepter 2 and making it cast from the player? Style Sorcerer Lightning Bolt from SW:TOR? Gives it a casting animation so that it can be dodged.

I’m not holding my breath. At all. I’m prepared for disappointment, Star Wars 1/2/3 style considering the trait changes like Elemental Attunement and Ride the Lightning in its day. ’m EXPECTING to be let down. I;d like to say differently, but the devs in charge of elementalist never understand what makes the class fun (for me) and continually show this with the trait “buffs” they think they give out.

This way, if it’s somewhat decent, I’ll be decently surprised. In the meantime, leveling a Ranger as it’s the only class I don’t have at 80.

Chris.5720:

Sizer.5632:

Here are my thoughts, from a mostly casual staff ele:

First EA should definitely be a GM trait, its just too powerful. A compromise id do would be to make lingering elements give the ele the boons, and have the gm trait make them shared and + 25% longer duration. Then thered at least be a choice involved, and you wouldnt get the unshared boons for free without any spec (which would be unfair imo, even with our low hp/armor)

Not really simply because

meanwhile, mesmers get their 2 strongest GM traits (PU, IP), plus a GM minor trait, 1 master and 3 adept traits as baseline. it’s all a bit WTF.

EA as a self-only version as baseline would be fair considering all the buffs to the other classes.

I’d leave alone the buffs to other classes. It’s as simple as that the class as a whole is balanced around the assumption that it HAS those boons at all times. Low health and armor class due to high protection uptime, low damage due to high might access, low (relatively) scaling on heals due to high uptime and access to regeneration.

A baseline version that grants the boons only to the elementalist on shorter timers (protection from 6s to 4s for example) and having a GM make them AoE but higher uptime (6s to 7s) would make a great compromise. As is now, people will still spec into arcane for access to the boons.

Edit – Also, is there some update for this thread? Would like to see what the report has in it so far, even though I know as far as size it doesn’t near the necro one.

Hmm I may be able to talk to some people about using in game image recognition and using it to create an Overwolf app for a dungeon tracker if it’s something that’s not in the API itself. I’ll have to check though due to some of the window being transparent, as well as if character recognition is possible.

I’ll update if I have something =)

FrownyClown.8402:

Jski.6180:

Ele getting the biggest buff in the game out of all of the classes from the new trait system the 10 sec swap being a base line effect. It opens up every build that you could images for and ele and the quality of life alone is out right a dream come true. If you can only see one trait at a time yes it will seem like a nerf but your not playing ele as a one trait class after the update (though ele IS a one trait class now before the update 5/3/15). Stop getting lost on the lose of one leaf when you have a full tree to work with.

this.

No.

I can do one word answers as well.

As BlackBeard mentioned, either you faced 3 Phantaram’s (highly doubtful) or you were outplayed by experience and were not working together as a team.

Fresh Air elementalists are notoriously squishy. Any form of coordinated effort of your 7 group members to lock down the enemy elementalist would have been devastating to them. A simple hammer warrior can keep one locked down long enough for your to go through 10K health and if not, then you need to look at what was wrong. There is no class that can be made into a berserker able to go 3 v 7 and win unless you were just completely outplayed.

Rudy.6184:

Meh I wouldn’t rage so much about it, still you have the elemental contingency and shorter cd of attunement swap (base 10 sec, 8,5 sec with arcana).
Main thing that worries me is (in wvw perspective) lack of swiftness without elemental atunement and zephyr boon (if you dont go into this traitline).
Also I would consider looking at fire traitline, cause burn will stack (also might on cantrips). They also should give something interesting in adept arcane line besides renewing stamina (too much vigor with those changes).

Elemental Contingency is worthless to any elementalist save a tank elementalist. A burst elementalist doesn’t want to get hit at all.

I’ll be adding WAY more to this later when I get home.

• Ride the Lightning needs to be reverted to the standard 20 second ability with no hit/miss mechanic. Even brought to a 25 second cooldown so that the Air skill recharge trait wont bring it lower would give the fun back into the elementalist.

• Proposed changes to Elemental Attunement will pigeon hole builds more. The proposed change to making the trait GM is based upon the fact that the trait is powerful, which it indeed is. However, it is only powerful because the class requires the boons that the trait generates for basic survival, damage and healing. This change will not bring the build diversity we seek, but will make players choose traits they will not necessarily want (staff elementalist for instance does not need Renewing Stamina) just to get the boons the class so desperately needs. The boon generation from Elemental Attunement defines how the class plays and feels. There is no elementalist without Elemental Attunement. The trait should be made baseline and ONLY affect the elementalist with the GM trait buffing the duration and power of the boon and making it AoE.

• Weapon skills require passing over. Things have ridiculously long cooldowns (such as Fire Grab) that are also still having wonky effects on the z axis. Also, with proposed changes to Fresh Air/Bolt to the Heart/Air Training things like Scepter will have their power gutted from them.

• Aura Share and Elemental Attunement range are a joke. Bump this up to 480.

• Burst builds were already a joke in WvW. The change to RTL made it so that elementalist could no longer roam properly. These new changes make it so the burt builds will be gutted with the lack of modifiers and actually useful traits.

• Condition builds still suffer. Condition traits should be all about adding other conditions, currently an elementalist can only give out burning and bleeding.

• Glyphs are terrible. They always have been terrible. Long cooldowns, terrible effects.

• If you want to add in defensive traits in the Air or Fire line to promote build diversity, the answer is to add interesting mechancis to them such as on crit gain an absorption shield based on the damage done. This makes a DPS elementalist want to do what it’s supposed to do, do damage and go after its next fight to stay in the fray. Not back off and run away while whimpering in water for regen.

• Remove all the on hit mechanics and put them into the earth trait line. No other spec save a tank elementalist will want to be constantly hit to generate boons.

• A chance on a chance to gain stuff, fire aura that is terrible to begin with and adds nothing, a cleanse that is 1 time every 40 seconds that can be triggered off of vulnerability. This line needs help and cleaning up. This is the line that needs damage modifiers such as under might deal more damage, burning foes take more damage. Crits now make your opponent explode in a cleansing fire which grants you regen/cleanses/does damage.

• Air line needs damage modifiers as well and the useless skills cleaned up. Traits like Zephyrs Speed needs to be removed and reworked completely, it’s a joke. Don’t get me started on Ferocious Winds I can’t believe it was ever a thought to make this scale off of healing power. Introduce talents such as after every 5th air skill cast your next non-air skill (to prevent using it on the air lightning strike) is an automatic critical hit.

• Glyph of Elemental power is a stun break – change this it was not necessary. I understand you wanted to give glyph builds a stunbreak without going into a cantrip but its counter intuitive to the usage of the glyph. There is no “hmm do I choose this for damage or do I save it for a stun break”. People just won’t run it. It’s not dependable, it’s not fun. The glyph gives nothing that you as an elementalist can’t already generate, but since it only adds a little more extra it will just sit there waiting for use. Lower the cooldown and buff the effect it does and MAYBE it could be that item you want. As is, it’s useless.

BlackBeard gets all my cookies. he covered everything I think about these changes.

Timelord.8190:

20 is not good enough. Almost every other class got better mobility than ele.

20 seconds is great considering you also have the possible combos for Lightning Flash, Burning Speed, Burning Retreat, and very large amounts of swiftness.

I’d give much to have RTL at 20 seconds again.

Kaos.9162:

I imagine people would demand mini southsun Kasmeer’s bikini if they added Faren’s speedo, and that’s just taking the game to a place I don’t think we want it to go to.

I’m all for that bikini in the Gem store. I even asked for it the second that Southsun went like.

BlackBeard.2873:

The only problem with being so angular in your definition of traitlines is that it makes certain ones necessary. For a good example, look at warrior’s new traitlines. There are a mix of great defense (damage reduction/cleanse), offense (damage modifiers, skill enhancement), and utility (new capabilities) spread among all the traitlines. Even though most warriors will take the defense traitline for cleansing Ire, you can still make builds without b/c there are good cleanse options in other lines. That leads to a lot of diversity.

For eles, its more like: you need cleanse, so everybody takes water. You need tankiness, so you take earth or arcana. That leaves you 1 traitline to play with. Pigeon-holing at its worst.

I was trying to get at that, but I wrote that at 3AM so it wasn’t as coherent as I liked XD

Yes that was my point, since ALL the utility or survivability is baked ino Arcana/Water people will go into those lines. My point was that moving EAttunement higher doessn’t promote build diversity, just makes sure that people will stay there for one of those traits and end up with traits they don’t really want just because they have to.

EAttunement solo baseline and adding interesting things like… a stacking DR for channeling the scepter air auto based on the power you havegiving a max of like… 15% DR or in fire critting with a fire spell grants a shield that absorbs damage based upon your power +a % of how much you crit would be great. They’re interesting options for defenses for power/burst builds that don’t depend on boons.

Right now the vigor option for dodging around is in Arcana, the boons for generating protection is in Arcana, the Evasive Arcana is in Arcana… The other lines don’t have any good defensive stuff that are worth it nor anything that would be good utilitywise. The water line is grea, it has a good mix of both, but the rest are sorely lacking.

spoj.9672:

Yeah well moving those traits was one step towards that. I agree having other good boon traits in the other lines is important aswell.

No, it wasn’t. It was a move against that as now people will STILL stay in Arcana, they just will have 2 useless traits along with a good trait.

Other lines do not need to be about boons. They can be about covering the gaps the class has if there are no boons like the new earth talent. Don’t need protection if you get -20% DR for enemies near you (only good for a tank melee ele). The lines are defined already (sort of):
Air – Burst
Fire – Sustained damage
Earth – Damage Reduction
Water – Healing & Cleansing (and for some reason, damage modifiers)
Arcana – Utility

The problem with this line is that those other lines don’t do their job well, and when a class that has no inherent (read: stealth, aegis, high health, high armor) defenses it will always need to go into that utility line or healing/damage reduction line if the class is balanced around boons. There is no need for defensiveness in a dungeon or PvE true, but in PvP a burst elementalist if you go straigh Fire/Air/Water all damage will die when sneezed at. Hence the prevalence of the utility line.

Just make EAttunement baseline for the elementalist only and you’ll see that people will stop investing so heavily in Arcana. For example, I solely go into Arcana for that one trait. I don’t care about the others (though the perma vigor is nice) I cannot deal without that self generation of boons because the classes damage, healing cooldowns and defenses are all about those boons and are balanced with the impression that elementalists have easy access to these boons.

spoj.9672:

I didnt actually say it was OP. I just said everyone picks arcane. It hurts diversity when one traitline is so good that you always take it. The devs actually explained this on the stream and i think most people who look at it objectively can agree.

I dont agree they are necessary. But if they were then surely the better solution would be to fix that issue without forcing people to use the same traits in the same line for every PvP build. :P

Then the solution isn’t nerf the good skills to create build diversity as that would create tons of bad traits all around. Objectively, I agree with you, there is little build diversity if there is one traitline is dominant. However due to elementalist being low health, low damage and low survivability without boons and the traits that exist in the Arcana line that line IS necessary.

The solution (better one) would be to create good traits that compete with those traits in other lines. Not traits like Ferocious Winds or Zephyr’s Speed.

Edit – Also, show me a build that is competitive that doesn’t have traits in Arcana for PvP or WvW.

spoj.9672:

Chris.5720:

spoj.9672:

The ele nerfs are justified. The only fault in them is they hurt less potent builds more and do not effect over the top builds like PvE staff ele.

From a PvE perspective D/F and LH need buffs to compete with staff yet they are being nerfed. And staff needs a nerf because its too strong and too easy. But the opposite is happening.

Overall the class could recieve way more nerfs and still be ahead of the other classes.

That may be the case from the PvE side but on the WvW/PvP side of things nerfing staff which is happening by both EA/EA and the air line is not justified at all. I do understand that they want to nerf D/D in PvP but this is defo not the right way as it literally affects all the builds, even those that require some skill and were fun to play..

Those nerfs are justified aswell. Everyone going arcane in PvP for those traits was stupid. It was too much. The lines need to be brought inline with each other.

Everyone is taking those traits because they are necessary for survival… not because they’re OP.

fadeaway.2807:

Artemis Thuras.8795:

They are also one of the squishiest classes and require a fair investment of time to learn to play properly.

This misconception has always bothered me. Elementalist has never been hard to play.

For you. Also, the term “properly” means something different for people. Some people think staying in Fire and doing 1&2 and switching to Water for a heal /slow every so often or Earth for a random blast finisher is proper. Others think that stance dancing and combo-ing and all that jazz is proper.

There are different levels of play involved along with differing levels of player skill.

Can we stop with all these “On hit” mechanics for elementalists? Why a light armor 10K base health class has all these “hit me so i can get boons/procs” makes no sense for any type of elementalist save a tank one. And that one wouldn’t spec into fire.

How well would that boon removal work for you when you’re a zerker ele specced into fire when some ranger or warrior is smacking you with autos that take nearly half of your life?

Warriors or Guardians should have these on hit mechanics as they can actually take the hit. Elementalist should have less of these and more on crit mechanics except in the tankier lines such as Earth or Water.

The second part is way too much might generation for a might generating powerhouse.

Just my personal opinion.

PistolWhip.2697:

On the subject of the thread you posted, I hope you know I got shouted down by the Elementalist forums in a flurry of QQ after advocating a heavy nerf when D/D Ele was really ridiculous. The period they stacked boon duration, monk and water runes and could solo groups of players with relative ease after learning to rotate. I am not just some biased Ele player, I am someone who thought a while back that they needed a nerf, and now because I am objective enough to say, I also advocate that Fresh Air is not OP, and that you’re overreacting.

@Raif

Hear, hear.

Eh.. I wouldnt say they could solo large groups back then in the days of 0/10/0/30/30 with boon duration and RTL@1550 w/15sec cooldown. They could definitely troll a group, but they weren’t killing anyone unless they were very very bad or had no idea what they were up against. Even Dapheonix in his videos barely killed people unless it was like a 1v2. It was a tanky build with great damage and good recovery which was a hard counter to many glass cannons as it could survive the burst and dish out retaliatory damage while being very mobile. At the time, it was a build outside of the meta since there wasn’t anything else like it at that time. If it was here in this meta would fit right in.

And I was using that build before he made it that famous and was the one to tell him to go knights over clerics. Though it did need toning down, even then. Just not in the way they did it.

But we’re in agreement mainly XD

I’d also like these animations restored. I never felt they were sensuous or gamebreaking. I never understood why they were removed in the first place and would love to have them back.

I find it jarring that my toons have nothing but a brush hair animation and miss all the other ones.

MaXi.3642:

and that’s the point, two very strong core traits are always picked and almost forcing everyone to go arcane… that’s the reason why they moved it to GM, they want you to choose or pick another line if you think it’s not worth it anymore…

crying that it’s so important and strong just proves they did it right and the trait belongs to the GM tier…

That’s not how it works. If Elemental Attunement is too core to the playstyle or idea of how an elementalist should function, the answer isn’t making it a GM trait in a line you might not be able to take due to builds not working. It does what has been happening since release, pigeonholing builds and elementalists in general to stay in Arcane, even if it means now taking 1 of those traits and having to put up with 2 crappy talents.

Elementalist as a class functions off boons that you generate, EAttunement generates said boons. Without them, you’re working at a lower efficiency compared to other classes who are not as boon reliant. Without EAttunement, the class feels as if it’s lacking something.

When a trait becomes too core to the philosophy and playstyle of a class the answer is not to lock it in the highest tier. It’s like Illusionary Persona, it makes sense that something like that is baseline, just like how a personal version of EAttunement should be baseline.

The real answer would be to make it baseline where it functions only for you and create other GM’s that are worthy of being GM’s that compliment the playstyle and are playstyle changing. Fresh Air changes how the elementalist feels, more bursty, more air line oriented. Diamond Skin makes you like a tank as you just ignore condis and can just go for that frontline. EAttunement isn’t game changing, it’s a trait that makes an elementalist FEEL like an elementalist, there’s a difference.

MaXi.3642:

you know what is funny? the irony that everyone uses elemental attunement because it’s such an important, awesome and strong trait, but everyone is so surprised when it gets moved to grandmaster… isn’t it where core strong traits belong? I remember it started as an adept trait and everyone was freaking out when they moved it up… it’s really kind of funny

The problem is it’s so core, that it feels mandatory which is why many people are freaking out. I remember too when it was moved to master and the freak out, but doesn’t mean anything.

I myself haven’t used Evasive Arcana since… err… I think that Fresh Air was introduced. I’ve been running 06044 since fresh air was brought in with Scepter & Dagger. I get the freak out, hence I really think that Elemental Attunement should be made baseline with it only affecting yourself with a new GM making it AoE and increased effectiveness. It’s just TOO core.

the krytan assassin.9235:

Phoenix is OP can’t argue with that. but apart from phoenix, fresh air ele is nowhere near OP, thief can do exactly the same xcept for the fact that thief DOES have surviveability with stealths etc where fresh air ele doesn’t. Making video’s about popping all your cooldowns and ambushing people doesn’t show any sign of skill. Look for 1v1 fresh air ele’s and you’ll notice that the build definitely isn’t OP.

Youtube vids offer an unrealistic view of the class, alot of vids only show fights against weak opponents/full zerk who simply get 1 shotted by any full zerk proffession

Phoenix is NOT OP, it’s a strong ability. To even do the great damage it can do you require it to hit all 3 times and crit all 3 times.

People do not understand what OP means anymore. A strong spec that can do what it does well but is counterable is NOT OP. It’s only OP if it is uncounterable, unkillable or unavoidable which all the burst of a Fresh Air elementalist is. The only thing that cna be said that is extremely difficult to avoid is the lightning strike from on attune swap and the lightning strike from air 2 on scepter as it’s instant damage, hence it was lowered over time and nerfed.

And the argument that showing the best highlights means that the class is OP is stupid. That argument can be made for EVERY single class as all of them have videos highlighting good payers offloading all cooldowns and destroying upleveled/unsuspecting/new people.

1 shot compilations:
Thief (2 hits) – https://youtu.be/aX1O1V-M-hw?t=19s
Mesmer (takes setup) – https://youtu.be/nL9mN67DwmU?t=2m31s
Guardian – https://youtu.be/AKMRPKIzsUY?t=1m16s
Guardian from a Thief PoV – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfwB3Q0CUwY
Ranger – https://youtu.be/CD2lWJpsgUo?t=1m45s
Engineer (whole kitten video) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gXAliTpRwk
Warrior – https://youtu.be/gfkgpUXVtWY?t=57s

Only one I couldn’t find quickly was Necromancer. You cannot use an outdated video to “prove” anything because if that’s the case, they’re ALL overpowered.

Nerfs received to damage over time:

• Arcane skill damage was lowered
• Lightning Strike from swap damage reduced
• Lightning Strike on Speter Air 2 damage reduced
• Cannot swap weapons with bloodlust sigils on them and keep the stacks
• Might stacking effectiveness lowered
• Phoenix Travel time decreased (after a significant increase)
• Arcane Wave becomes a ground targeted ability
• Lightning Flash damage reduced
• Fire Grab damage reduced (not 100% sure about that one)

All these old videos are showing abilities pre-nerf and therefore cannot be used in a balancing discussion.

DarkSyze.8627:

All i will say is Fresh Air

Enjoy your “Not Broken” profession

PVP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRuuRc7AFXQ
WVW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZauXcGdhpg

(For a 3 years game: this is a insult to Guild Wars 2 Alpha Testing and Guild Wars 2 Beta Testing)

I have a question: will Arena net take action against this profession or will continue ignore this broken profession for more years in the next profession/trait balance update?

Pride: there are no Elementalists seem pretty broken, Elementalists Are Broken.

“Speak the truth by all means; be bold and fearless in your rebuke of error, and in your keener rebuke of wrongdoing”

Fresh Air wasn’t in the original release and was added in the first iteration of the Sky Pirates.

Before you QQ about a class being OP, learn what the class can and cannot do. Most other classes can match the damage of what is in these videos with less skill usage and not requiring timing on attunement swapping nor leaving itself vulnerable because it used ALL of it’s cards on initial burst. Also good on you for putting videos that are old, predating the nerfs that Fresh Air itself received in damage reduction and internal cooldown. It’s like the old “thief is OP” arguments there were before culling was removed. They weren’t OP if you learned to dodge and didn’t have a bug giving them extra time in stealth.

Elementalist burst is relatively the same. Learn to react in time, dodge the air burst bait the RTL/Lightning flash and then proceed to kill said very squishy elementalist who cannot go anywhere.

Poorly thought argument is poor with poor evidence.

PistolWhip.2697:

Nutshel.7264:

runeblade.7514:

snyler.7259:

It can’t be back a rush with 1200 range is too much (oh wait, warrior gs?)

Would be nice if Warriors had 10 more weapon skills.

Would be nice if all extra skills ele have were useful.
Would be nice if all extra skills ele have were had cooldowns low enough to be even comparable with other classes skills.
Would be nice if all extra skills that actually can do damage didn’t require other long cd skill setup to hit.

They are useful. They have longer cool downs because there is so many. Have you played Fresh Air? It has one of the fastest cool down bursts in the game.

As a supporter of the RTL Installment to 1200 Range, stop comparing classes. Apples and oranges.

This right here is just as irritating as when warriors complain they don’t have as many boons or combo fields on demand. Or some other non descript class wants what some other class has.

Ele’s can’t have what warriors have or it would be overpowered. (and VICE VERSA might I add.)

So stop using this terrible argument.

It is a terrible argument as looking in a vacuum or comparing other classes together people forget that there are other talents or abiltiies to weigh in on.

Still, RTL should now be 1200 range on 20 second cooldown without that hit/miss junk.

I haven’t posted in this subforum in… almost a year and a half since I completely lost faith in Anets ability (actually, it’s Karl Mclain’s ability) to create a fun, balanced elementalist that is rewarding to play since it has a very high mechanical requirement to play and get results with.

That said, these upcoming trait changes make me want to say the same thing I said when they did a livestream by Isaiah Cartwright… this team/person who is in charge of the elementalist has no vision for this class, no passion, no understanding of how this class plays in the current metas in the multitude of playstyle types case in point getting on hit boons/buffs for a class with little to no inherent defense mechanisms. How this makes any sense for any version of an elementalist save a tank one, I do not know. This Lightning Rod + Tempest Defense as a burst elementalist makes no sense, why as a 10K health light armor would I WANT to get hit to to cause lightning strikes….

My points from then stand now (over a year ago):

• Arcana line was not too powerful, other lines were too weak. This has not changed.
• Elemental Attunement is too central to the class as it’s the elementalists crutch, defense mechanism and self buff to reach the damage/heal/survival potential other classes have inherently. This needs to be made baseline where it ONLY affects the player with another GM trait giving it to others and increasing it’s effectiveness (1 might stack to 3, regen from 3 seconds to 6 and so on).
• Other classes do what elementalists do better. This will not change in the upcoming class changes.

I foresee pretty much the same going forward. Tank/bruiser D/D elementalists in PvP/WvW roaming and staff gimmicky press 1/2 in fire for PvE and WvW zerg fests. Fun fun fun. Yes, the tanky/bruiser elementalist did indeed get some very nice buffs, I can see some new synergies between the changes for a good new tank, but that is really it. Being pigeonholed further into a line is just…. dissapointing.

Tempest better save this class. Otherwise, Hidden Killer + Executioner Thief + Greatsword + Sword+Torch Ranger or any meditation guardian here I come.

It’s been 3+ years Anet. I’m waiting for the change where I can have multiple lines on an Elementalist that actually are worth something.

Hey,

Are you sure you’re using an up to date version of Overwolf? What kind of settings are you using? If you’re not using the newest version of the video recorder, there’s nothing to talk about as we’ve vastly improved it over previous versions. Make sure you’re on version 0.84.92 and you should see 4 different encoders (Nvidia NVENC, AMD VCE, Intel Quick Sync and X.264) along with a multitude of preset choices and quality options.

I can’t even describe how much better our new recorder is than our previous recorder, and I’m not trying to be sale-y or anything its a seriously large step in improvement.

We do indeed have compression on our files, MP4 to be exact. It all depends on the quality you choose to record with as our file sizes will be the same as OBS (for example) if you choose the same recording settings.

For example, a 15 minute video of me jumping around Divinity’s Reach around Minister’s Waypoint is around 450MB at High Quality, 1080P using the Nvidia NVENC encoder.

Out of curiosity is this a workaround for the flashing black screen? Or just a black screen (no flashing back to desktop)?

Hiding shoulder slot on costumes.

I’d love a toggle. The Rainement of the Lich is awesome, but I’d love to get rid of the shoulder things.

Elrey.5472:

Let me see if I understood this correctly. Someone could submit an APP now even if it’s nowhere near finished, get the RIG headset and then keep working on the APP for 59 more days to make it awesome and update it before the contest ends?

And in that case, the previously submitted APP version wouldn’t matter at all to make the final decission since it would be only taken as valid the last update? Or would it change anything and would be an stupid idea to submit a half-developed APP before the contest ends?

On top of that questions, there’s the fear that others could steal other programmer’s ideas and develop a better version of your APP in less time due to programming skills (As example, i’m learning javascript and CSS coding while programming. For me to create an APP it’s more time consuming and someone with the same idea could do it faster/better).

We need some clarification, Stephane

I can answer that =)

Elrey.5472:

Let me see if I understood this correctly. Someone could submit an APP now even if it’s nowhere near finished, get the RIG headset and then keep working on the APP for 59 more days to make it awesome and update it before the contest ends?

Yes, you can do exactly that. You aren’t guaranteed to win that headset because it has to be of a certain level of quality, but yes you can create a basic app now, send it in to win the headset and then update it as the contest goes on.

Elrey.5472:

And in that case, the previously submitted APP version wouldn’t matter at all to make the final decission since it would be only taken as valid the last update? Or would it change anything and would be an stupid idea to submit a half-developed APP before the contest ends?

The final judgement of your app will be on your final app only. Whatever you submit now for the headset will not count towards your final submissions judgement.

Elrey.5472:

On top of that questions, there’s the fear that others could steal other programmer’s ideas and develop a better version of your APP in less time due to programming skills (As example, i’m learning javascript and CSS coding while programming. For me to create an APP it’s more time consuming and someone with the same idea could do it faster/better).

There should be no fear of someone stealing your idea as no one but Overwolf and AreneNet will see your app unless you share it.

Hope that clarifies things for you =)

kokiman.2364:

Subutex.2416:

And here we are… buying the game and playing for free. Dreamjob :’(

Not really, you have nothing to put on your resumee once you are done with twitch.

Considering the amount of money some of these streamers make… I’m not 100% sure they need an “after Twitch” plan.

Some of them don’t even know how much money they have in the bank, just that it’s so much money that they don’t need they’ve stopped keeping track.

He isn’t “taking money” from companies to advertise stuff – he’s being paid to give them a service, namely play their game. It’s the same thing that clothing companies do in paying a movie/pop celebrity to endorse their stuff and do a commercial. In this case a Twitch “celebrity” is getting paid to advertise and show off a game. It’s a contract where both sides get something, he isn’t just saying “pay me or I won’t play it”.

Company wants a service -> go to advertising company or famous person to endorse/market/publicize their commodity -> pay said person for the service.

As for the donations… people do what they want with the money. I doubt he asks for the money as he gets paid well enough by Twitch and other sources to stream and endorse their items.

lordkrall.7241:

Who?

Sounds like he might be one of those that simply jumps from game to game, which is usually not all that good publicity to the game developers, since that would more or less look like the streamer (which have quite a bit of influence) thinks the game sucks, which might deter people from buying it.

Sodapoppin gets paid by game studios to stream their games which is why he hops around a lot. He has an audience that enjoys his gameplay + commentary and presentation who watch him not for the game, but for his personality and entertainment. Hence, game studios pay him to stream their games. There are quite a few very large streamers who get paid to stream games that are about to launch or are at launch to get publicity on Twitch due to this.

Note – I’m not saying that Anet is paying him in this case (it’s possible) but that’s what Sodapoppin does.

Thanks for the new update! This should open up some awesome new avenues for apps. I’ll make sure that all the participants in the Overwolf app challenge are aware of this.

~ Raif the Overwolf Community Manager

Hey,

If you need some finer points on how to use this within an Overwolf app, head on over to the Overwolf developer forums and we can help you out. There’s a bunch of people over there who’ve used it before for our previous GW2 contest.

AndRec.3496:

Im happy to see you start such an awesome initiative, but could we, for the mac client, have something for us too? at least push over wolf team to build a compatible app? Or more important , some of the featured apps for over wolf should and can be implemented directly on the gw2 client , i fear that the second of nice feature like boss timer are available from over wolf , we poor users of the mac (beta) client will never see it implemented in to the game for us too.
in the end , I’m positive on this kind of initiative , but really hope that some of the basic feature could be implemented for all the player base and not just half of it, I’m i wrong?
sorry if bothered someone , not in my intention :P

Hey there!

Name’s Raif, I’m the Overwolf Community Manager. Overwolf already has world boss timers and WvW camp timers and such created by developers from past contests which you can see on the Appstore.

As much as we’d love to have a Mac client it’s not something we have planned for the near future. A lot of the tech needed to do what Overwolf does would have to be re-written and it would take a very very long time to do that even if we were to start today. Having a Mac client is something we want to do eventually, but it’s not in the cards at this time.

Hey there!

You should definitely send us your logs as it sounds like you’re having injection issues. Here’s a set of instructions on how to do that.

And yes, you can use Overwolf in either fullscreen or windowed fullscreen.

Filovirus.6258:

There is quite some other overlays/apps that allows tracking of position (from the Mumble API) that doesn’t require to install the useless bloatware (close to malware) that Overwolf is…

Still don’t get how Anet could promote that monstruosity in any way.

All those other overlays do not allow you to play in fullscreen mode like we do though, you need to be in windowed fullscreen. They also don’t offer all the other apps we have too =)

And what makes you say that it’s malware/bloatware? We have nothing in there at all that is harmful in any way and have many partnerships with many companies (Anet, Twitch, Wargaming, TeamSpeak and many others) to make a quality overlay.

I’m asking for real as any feedback you have to make Overwolf better is considered very seriously and we use all of it to better the program for our users.

CornFlakes.8241:

it’s difficult to use the daily dolly. when you click, sometimes your toon gets stuck. it won’t move. and when you alt tab you have to do it twice to change tabs. and when you get back in. my mouse shortcut buttons wont work, so i have to alt tab again, then get back in the game.

currently i’m using this, find it more comfortable and easy

http://gw2dt.yolasite.com/

That’s Overwolf and not Daily Dolly. When you click on any Overwolf window you bring focus to it instead of the game so you would have to click on the game to “release” control of Overwolf .

Daily Dolly isn’t like the other overlays out there that require use of windowed fullscreen as it’s an Overwolf app. Since the app is inside the game (literally injected inside it), when you use one of the apps it shifts the focus from the game to the app and need to click on the game again to be able to control the game.

Only the Overwolf dock itself has the capability to be used while controlling your character. It’s exactly like when you are on your dektop. When you have a Chrome window open and it’s your focus, you can’t control a Firefox window at the same time, you have to click on that window to control it. Same thing applies to Overwolf apps. When you use it and you are done, just click on the game (anywhere in the game that isn’t the app) and you will be able to control everything again.

Zygomaticus.7469:

yeah, but everytime i click it, it goes to the “daily dolly” it sort of alt tabs right away. ( i’m in window mode, does this matter? )

It shouldn’t, can you try in fullscreen mode? Also, when you’re in game, do you have a yellow FPS number in your top left hand corner?

Zygomaticus.7469:

so it’s installed… do i have to alt tab to see the app?

No it should be in game along with Overwolf once you run it.

Zygomaticus.7469:

an app, daily dolly… it’s 1 hr and 30 mins now. still “installing”

That should not happen, should be a very short install. Can you restart Overwolf and try re-doing it?

bri.2359:

Until there is an overlay developed that plays nice with SweetFX in full-screen mode, I will always use SweetFX.

We’re actively working on getting Overwolf to work with SweetFX. I know the difference between GW2 with and without SweetFX and I completely understand where you are coming from.

notebene.3190:

Stratak.8517:

Overwolf is a separate Windows program that provides you with a in-game overlay. In order to use Overwolf apps, you have to first download and install Overwolf itself. Afterwards, you access its appstore from within Overwolf, find the app you are interested in and you should see an “Install” button.

All those apps are Overwolf apps, thus you have to install and use them from within Overwolf, no others browser in the world will be able to run them

Finally figured that out, thank you.

Now I have a new problem. I play windows full screen. When overwolf is running, the game starts and my character gets into the world, I hear the world sounds, but the area loading screen is still there, and the progress ‘circle’ in the lower right is frozen. I hear the equipment I’m standing near, hear the NPCs.

This happened to me once before after installing Skype for Desktop. Uninstalling didn’t fix that, had to restore from a Symantec back up. Very nasty. This I can at least close.

Also happen to be running Archeage as well as 4 instances Chrome each with 8-20 tabs each. Yeah, I know.

I’ll keep futzing with it. Thank you again.

It could be that ArcheAge is messing things up, can you try closing that and just running Guild Wars 2?

Zygomaticus.7469:

hey! i’m downloading from overwolf it’s been “installing” for some time now… there is no progress bar ><

What are you downloading? An app? Or Overwolf itself?

Xillllix.3485:

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

Overwolf runs separately from Guild Wars 2 and allows you to display overlays in-game. Apps created for Overwolf use the Guild Wars 2 official APIs, similar to other apps created by community members outside of Overwolf. And as Raif explained, there are further functionalities created by the app developers themselves that also do not impact the game client itself.

We are partnering with Overwolf on a few contests that they are hosting. You may have seen this information posted on our official channels:

• https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/take-the-overwolf-guild-wars-2-wvw-app-challenge/
• https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/511228096734035969
• https://www.facebook.com/GuildWars2/photos/a.135044094208.103264.114036714208/10152472027889209/?type=1

We’ll also have another blog post on the official website going live this week that outlines the Streaming Contest and the WvW “War Reporter” contest with Overwolf.

Hope this clarifies things.

Thanks!

EDIT: blog post is now live: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-overwolf-world-vs-world-fall-tournament-contests/

Yeah that’s all nice and everything, but Overwolf is for windows only, while GW2 is for windows AND mac. It would be better if those features were included in GW2 in the first place so that mac users weren’t left out.

I’m sorry, I wish we could port Overwolf over to Mac. While it’s something we want to accomplish in the future so no platform feels left out, but that is a ways out in the future (still on “what if” table of twinkle in the eye thoughts).

Porting to Mac will be very difficult as we use DirectX and many Windows oriented functions/files and things like that to make Overwolf.

pdavis.8031:

Stratak.8517:

Hey, thanks a lot, I hope you find it useful!

The contest winners will get announced at September 20th, until then we don’t know

My predicition is Dulfy

Unfortunately, Dulfy didn’t submit an app (though I did reach out to her), so she can’t win. Though I’d love to see one from her.

Barinthus.8347:

I must be stupid or something, I can’t figure out how to download those stuff. For instance http://www.overwolf.com/apps/ts_gw2_contest/eleipbaclaggfgaebdmdieecjmjpphmnocjndibp

How do I use that?

:-p Thanks in advance

Seems like this bad link has been floating around a lot, is this the link that you get while in the Appstore?

Xiem.4719:

Is it possible to get daily dolly now?

Yep! It’s in the appstore so go get it! It’s under the TS|GW2 Contest category.

Hey again!

Ari here, Overwolf CM.

I just wanted to add here that Overwolf is working with ArenaNet in a collaborative effort on a few contests that require use of Overwolf in game. Not only that, they are also sponsoring and hosting an Overwolf app developers challenge for GW2 as you can see in this official ArenaNet blog post .

This is a joint competition that that is sponsored by ArenaNet and they mean for you to use these apps (if you want to) in game. That’s why they also announced it on their official Twitter channel, and will promote it further (such as announcing the winners) in the future.

See you in the Mists,
Ari