Guild Wars 2

Chuck Nizzle.6283:

Celestial gear getting nerfed seems fine to me…and berserker gear? Everyone’s got that stuff. I’m kinda glad that it’s getting changed to ferocity, because it’ll make people change up their builds and stats.

It isn’t for me. I spent 30 days making Charged Crystals just to make the account bound armor and now armor that was only good for 1 or 2 classes is not the best for any class. That is bad development work on ANets part.

Tenshy.5983:

Still nothing on RTL +1

Please, make some sort of change to this skill —maybe not to the degree of its old 15s CD + bugged 1500+ range, but something better than this stupid-long 45-second CD. I miss traversing the PvE landscape with lightning; it’s just not as fun and/or cool now.

I am just tired of being out maneuvered by warriors, thieves, and rangers when we have far worse defense.

Still nothing on RTL … the hypocrisy continues.

Well … seeing as they are going to nerf Vigor somehow … Renewing Stamina may not be worth it anymore.

Also, they are nerfing Boon duration on 2 Water / 2 Noble / 2 Monk to +10%/10%/10% … so you will lose 15% duration on your swiftness. Nerfing to make subpar traits look worth it.

Wait, so after 30 days of crafting for my Celestial armor they are going to nerf it? How is it considered OP exactly? Most classes lose a lot of beneficial stats … the only class that I found that even benefits fully from using Celestial armor was the Elementalist and perhaps the Guardian.

Leamas.5803:

Taldren.7523:

Leamas.5803:

The only issue with this is that empty zones will become even more empty since everyone will just WP from point to point to complete tasks, much like the champ trains. While I would love to have all the WPs for my alt right now, overall, I see it as a bad thing for the game.

That’s being addressed in the Horizontal Progression thread and shouldn’t be a reason to just make things harder on people. I mean, if people already have all the waypoints then they likely have enough money to craft out of the zone levels in question anyway. (or even sPvP past them)

Yes, it helps me, or you, as experienced players with one or more characters at 80, probably the financial means to keep new characters decked out in level appropriate gear and map completion on at least one, but what it doesn’t do is help those who are going through a zone for the first time and may actually need some help. Most mid-level zones only have a handful of people on them at the best of times and half of those are only farming mats for ascended and not interested in helping with events. Giving alts all the WPs gives people even less of a reason to go in to many of these zones, other than to farm mats.

It’s not about leveling or convenience, it’s about keeping some of these zones and the events within, viable.

right, but that is being addressed in the CDI – Horizontal Progression thread.

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

Our elites don’t need that much, really.

Tornado: Have it destroy projectiles like Swirling Winds and it will be much better. I mean … aren’t tornados swirling winds after all?

Glyph of Elementals: The elementals should provide pulsing boons in an AE around them based on attunement. The boons would be 6s duration and pulse every 6s (10 pulses over its duration) in a 360 radius around the Elemental.

• Fire: Might
• Water: Regeneration
• Air: Swiftness
• Earth: Protection

What we really need is an Elite Signet on a power scale equal to warriors:
Cast Time: 1 second, Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Passive: Range of all attacks increased by 300 units.
Active: 90% reduction to attunement recharge rate for 30 seconds.

Leamas.5803:

The only issue with this is that empty zones will become even more empty since everyone will just WP from point to point to complete tasks, much like the champ trains. While I would love to have all the WPs for my alt right now, overall, I see it as a bad thing for the game.

That’s being addressed in the Horizontal Progression thread and shouldn’t be a reason to just make things harder on people. I mean, if people already have all the waypoints then they likely have enough money to craft out of the zone levels in question anyway. (or even sPvP past them)

Old Weapons:

• Guardian: LongBow
• Warrior: Staff
• Thief: Mace/Mace
• Engineer: Hammer
• Ranger: Rifle
• Necromancer: Greatsword
• Mesmer: Pistol MH + Dagger OH
• Elementalist: Sword MH + Torch OH

New Class Specific Weapons:

• Guardian: Halberd
• Warrior: Flail
• Thief: Chain Dagger
• Engineer: RPG/Rocket Launcher
• Ranger: Spear
• Necromancer: Scythe
• Mesmer: Whip
• Elementalist: Chakram

Gorni.1764:

reikken.4961:

I don’t feel that dagger off hand supports glassy builds in their efforts to stay alive

RTL, Updraft, Earthquake, Cleansing Wave, Frost Aura?

Frost Aura > Freezing Gust
Earthquake > Comet
Updraft > Gale

Obsidian Flesh and Magnetic Wave are nice though. Swirling Winds only usefull against projectiles.
I’d say against melee dagger offhand is better, against ranged fokus is ahead.

Updraft is far inferior to Gale if using a scepter mainhand. The ability to lock someone down at range is the only way I can assure that the DragonTooth/Phoenix combo lands without getting my face melted first by trying to be in melee with my target.

With as many 80s I have , it is nothing but a grind to get the waypoints I had already discovered numerous times on my other characters.

Personally I am disappointed thus far …

ANet has painted themselves into a corner with their coding/server tech and have denied WvW from its full potential.

My top 5 issues:

• The zones are too small for the numbers they already have.
• They can’t grow the zones or add more players
• Their wvw reward system promotes blobbing (100v1 same as 1v1 reward)
• Blobbing counters AoE’s rather than the other way around (like it should be)
• The current wvw rewards are just more stack abilities which mean you need to spend even more time in preparation to have a fair shot in WvW.

What if non-quest linked waypoints were account discoverable rather than character discoverable? Yes, you would lose out on the XP for each character … but I believe the benefits would so greatly outweigh the drawbacks.

Opinions?

Noxrawr.6125:

I play mesmer and i once again got instantly killed by an ele. He zapped at me and killed me with 2 sequential hits. I am not exaggerating here, 2 hits is all it took and they both occurred within a 0.5 sec time span. So what part of instagibbing, or in other words, a damage output that equals 23 k in 0.5 sec => 46 k/sec is not viable in pvp?

Stop running around naked and go get those other 79 levels before going into WvW?

I play a mesmer and absolutely destroy elementalists.

Leuca.5732:

This would encounter a huge problem in builds where the player swaps attunements mid-cast to gain buffs.

I would still make the trade to gain the ability to use my other 15 abilities in addition to having my conjured weapon ability.

Although this would be solvable if ANet would pull its collective head out of … well you know … over Lingering Elements and damage stacking traits.

All they need to do is have conjured weapons replace the weapon abilities of the attunement they are tied too.

Example(s):
Frost Bow would replace Water Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
Flame Axe would replace Fire Attunement until dropped, or the duration runs out.
ect, ect.

That way we don’t lose access to all 20 of our abilities and instead just swap out 5 for each attunement type.

Elementalist vs Engineer … FIGHT!

Engineer wins … Flawless Victory!

I’d be happy with:
1. Conjured Weapons mechanic redo. I would much rather have my conjured weapon replace the element attunement that it is tied too rather than replace all my weapon abilites. (IE: Frost Bow replaces my 5 Water Attunement weapon abilities for the duration rather than replacing all 20 of my weapon abilities.) The current version is too intrusive to the elementalist gameplay.
2. Improvements to our active defenses (Lighting Flash, Arcane Shield, Armor of Earth)
3. Improvements to some of our horrible weapon abilities (Shatterstone, Flamewall, ect)
4. Lingering Elements works with +% damage traits such as Piercing Shards.
5. Signet of Restoration needs to scale way better with healing power.
6. Elemental Attunement should become a baseline ability of all elementalists.

Josh Davis.6015:

Friendly neighborhood Grouch here (oxymoron?). Starting in early January I’ll be working more closely with the Skills and Balance team and with you all as well. While our Skills/Balance designers do read the forums quite often, they don’t have as much time to post and drive discussion – and that’s what I’ll be stepping in to help with.

There are a lot of valid concerns with the elementalist right now and we’re going to be working on addressing those points. Once everyone gets back from holiday vacation we’ll be posting up our proposed balance changes and we’ll go from there.

(Please don’t hurt me.)

No one is going to hurt you, but we are a bit gun shy of ANet in regards to Elementalist balance. Every single time ANet has tried to ‘help’ the class it seems they have either done a net nothing, or made it worse. That is unless you are actually actively trying to make it worse like what has been done to the healing, rtl, and bunker specs. Then they are really good at it.

oZii.2864:

So these warrior comparisons should be more about their defensive abilities being better than a ele not about damage.

No, it should be about Risk vs Reward. Given the risk inherent to the class and the hoops that we jump through the Reward should be far greater than those classes that only have to press 2 buttons to be just as effective.

ThiBash.5634:

What he wants is a warrior that looks like an elementalist. The ele has active defenses rather than higher stats. If he likes that playstyle then he must accept the lower base stats that come with them. You can shake as much as you like, but the comparison made in the post is just one of those ‘look how awesome the warrior is and you are not’ posts that I’m done shaking my head at. You want warrior effectiveness? Then go play a warrior and stop trying to tell us we’re doing everything wrong here.

No, that is completely dishonest. That is what you want me to be saying so that you can look like some kind of hero to a story of your own making.

And I play far more than a warrior, but you can’t accept a non-biased view from someone that plays all but one of the classes in the game and likes them all. You need this to be a us vs them arguement and it isn’t.

I am not even going to explain it again to you as it has been said many times now in many of my posts in this thread.

^
Every aspect of that is under your control. You just have to worry about the enemy status (stunned or not). With the elementalist you have to worry about the enemy status and many different aspects of your own status. Again, the complexity has never been an issue. I point you back to the original post … its the fact that there is no true reward for all the complexity. We shouldn’t have to checklist 7 different things to do the damage that a warrior can do in two button presses. We should far exceed them.

Nor is this all about warriors … every class (don’t know about ranger) has a far better Risk-Reward system than the elementalist.

Kyskythyn.6471:

Taldren.7523:

4. With that build, 2600 Power, and using quake->Phoenix … it hits for 6k … not 12k. Then again you are just plain dead as you have what … 14k hitpoints and no toughness?

1060 * (2420 + (35*6)+200+30) * 1.7 / 1980 * (1+.1+.2+.2+.1+.1) * (1.5+1.2+.1)

1060 high end ascended scepter atk * (2420 base power+ 35*6 stacks of might+200 dragon breath buns+30 minor borderlands bloodlust) * 1.7 phoenix coefficient / 1980 zerk ranger base armor * (1+ .1 internal fire + .2 tempest defense + .2 bolt to the heart + .1 stone splinters+ .1 sigil of impact) * (1.5 base crit damage+1.2 zerker crit damage +.1 arcane lightning) = 12390 dmg

I have 10.8k base health, 1960 armor and am proud of it.

Do all the math you like, I just performed it in the real world (as real as a virtual MMO world can be) and under ideal conditions it hit a real target it hit for 6k.

I did enjoy all the extra hoops to jump through you threw in there.

So nows its:
1. Target is below 33% health.
2. You are within 600 units.
3. The target is knocked down … so they didn’t have stability or a stun break.
4. You don’t have weakness on you.
5. You have full stacks of bloodlust.
6. You have full borderland bloodlust.
7. The target is full zerker with zero points in any toughness line.

Why not add that they have 25 stacks of vulnerability and you have full guard killer bonus too?

Kyskythyn.6471:

Ah, so it does. It would be 10+20+20+10 for 60% more. So 448% instead of 484%.

What’s wrong with no arcana and tempest defense? This is an offensive build.

13 second attunement cooldowns + attunement swap cooldown + no fresh air … you must auto attack a whole lot.

Kyskythyn.6471:

Taldren.7523:

So now we have the ever so popular 20/30/10/0/10 build?

So, if the target is burning, below 33% health, I am in Air, and am practically in melee range … I get to do better than average damage with the least amount of survivability in the game. But if none of those are valid I still get to keep the lowest amount of survivability in the game for just average damage.

I don’t see how that risk/reward works out compared to how its applied to other classes is all.

Hi, I run 20/30/10/0/10.
Between Internal Fire, Bolt to the Heart, Tempest Defense, and Stone Splinters I get +73% damage just from traits on my phoenix in an earthquake-phoenix combo. Damage is in the second post which you laughed off as a downed uplevel.

Also, 600 range is not “practically in melee range,” at least for S/D. It’s +10% to nearly all my skills.

1. That doesn’t add up to 73%.
2. So now its everything i said before -and- they need to be knocked down/stunned. Another hoop to jump through that is negatable by stability/stun breaks. Nice.
3. S/D build with no Arcana and using Tempest Defense … huh?!?
4. With that build, 2600 Power, and using quake→Phoenix … it hits for 6k … not 12k. Then again you are just plain dead as you have what … 14k hitpoints and no toughness?

The Mantra condi removal is where its at … its 2 per cast from you and your group and then a 3k AE heal when you recharge it. Your heal mantra will also remove 2 per cast with the changes, but only from you.

oZii.2864:

I don’t play my mesmer much anymore because like a elementalist a mesmer is also similar to has a bit of everything. It is geared more towards offense but when you try to make a support build with mesmer it isn’t even close to what a ele can do especially for the group.

Um, have you tried Mantra mesmer? Throwing out 3k AE heals every 3 seconds is sort of nice … on top of the AE Condition removal and AE Stability. With runes that apply group boons on heal it even gets better as you can activate MoRecovery every 10s and recharge it before the next 10s ICD comes up. I usually recharge them in stealth to the frustration of my enemies.

ThiBash.5634:

Taldren, I think I have found the point at which our communication fails.

Your point of view is that, if a profession has more complex gameplay and lower defense, and they are more effective, that should be noticable in the damage. Whereas I’m stemming from the assumption that I don’t mind the extra work for the same damage if we also get good healing, support and cc options.

Basically, I think it comes down to you preferring extra damage instead, while I value the extra support/healing/combo fields more. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Basically, what I’m saying is: you get something, it’s just not damage.

Listen, I get what you are saying … but your argument completely fails if you choose any other weapon than staff and/or leave the zerg and try to go roaming in WvW. Sure, D/D with Rank100+ is fun against noob players … but in high end small group fights our meger damage output just doesn’t cut it. Scepter isn’t much better with all the setup required to land the decent hits. There is just too much opportunity to fail with only on-par rewards for doing it all right. There needs to be an advantage … not only for the lower survivability, nerfed mobility, but for the absolute complexity and randomness … and it just isn’t there.

In sPvP they took away healing and bunker before that … all that is left is damage.

reikken.4961:

Taldren.7523:

Too bad most of them are limited to specific attunements that are mutually exclusive to one another. The only ones that aren’t are further limited by other factors. As I keep pointing out … all the hoops that need to be jumped through to get to any sort of reward for the base line risk is insane.

10% damage while in air – fresh air trait lets this be on almost all the time
10% damage within 600 range – obv on all the time when using a short range weapon
10% damage to burning targets – can have pretty good uptime, especially if you combine with the burn on crit trait
20% damage to targets below 33% health – this one is pretty obv

none of these are mutually exclusive in any way, nor do you have to do anything special to get them. and I run all of them on my glass D/x builds

plus precision and crit damage are in the same trait line, and contain two of these damage traits (along with fresh air), as well as the minor trait that does ranged instant damage every time you swap to air (which is very frequently with fresh air). and this same trait line also inflicts vulnerability on crit, which is basically another %damage increase, except it has to ramp up

seriously. see my first post in this topic. I wasn’t kidding

So now we have the ever so popular 20/30/10/0/10 build?

So, if the target is burning, below 33% health, I am in Air, and am practically in melee range … I get to do better than average damage with the least amount of survivability in the game. But if none of those are valid I still get to keep the lowest amount of survivability in the game for just average damage.

I don’t see how that risk/reward works out compared to how its applied to other classes is all.

FrownyClown.8402:

Hi I didn’t read anything. Ele has the most damage modifier traits in the game. That is where the damage is

Too bad most of them are limited to specific attunements that are mutually exclusive to one another. The only ones that aren’t are further limited by other factors. As I keep pointing out … all the hoops that need to be jumped through to get to any sort of reward for the base line risk is insane.

oZii.2864:

Well you kind of prove his point because you bring up a 1 skill and how awesome it is doing alot of damage. Now you switched to Necromancer so the conversation can now go around in circles because you brought another class in the ring. You didn’t bring up warrior damage you jumped all the way to a power necro in deathshroud!! You are just stating your opinion about ele damage vs whichever of the other 7 professions best suits your argument at the time.

That is pretty much what ThiBash was saying.

So might aswell get it out of the way.

Ele can’t condi like a necro
Ele can’t condi like a engi
Ele can’t bunker like a guardian
Ele can’t bunker like a ranger
Ele can’t out dps a warrior
Ele can’t run around in circles letting elementals kill people like a mesmer with phantasms can

No where I have compared or even brought up anything you listed there outside of the dps vs warriors. Can you not be honest in your accusations? Here, let me bring you back into context …

Taldren.7523:

It seems warriors, thieves, ect can face roll on the keyboard and find a way to deal more than 3k damage in an attack, but my elementalist has to align the stars and planets to come close to that amount of damage.

You notice that I never made this specific to warrior vs ele , but that is all you have focused on.

I have been on point with the original post the entire time. That is … in equal level gear other classes have far more reward for any risk while doing similar, if not better damage, than the elementalist in WvW/PvP. To support this arguement I have listed my personal experiences with each of the classes I have played seriously.

Everything has been apples to apples power builds vs power builds. I have never played a condi elementalist to even make a valid comparison and I can’t bring myself to speak of what they did to my D/D bunker ele I so loved playing. Not that I think anything could oust bunker guardian from the top of that heap (well … maybe bunker engineer if you have enough space to run around).

It actually proves my point that an elementalist needs to do so many different things very quickly under ever changing conditions to do the damage that someone else can do in a single button press.

Given the hardship/risk, I expect better reward than what others can achieve in a single button press. That seems rather common sense to me, but if you disagree than we will never come to terms on this issue.

oZii.2864:

Its all basically whining about ele because you have to press more buttons to get the same result. Elementalist press more buttons for everything that is kind of the point. Does that require more effort to try to achieve the same? Sure technically if you have to press 5 buttons to kill someone instead of just pressing 2 that is technically more effort. That is also obvious when you pick up the class.

Nice ninja edit after the fact. You admit that you have to apply more effort to get the same … and accept the least amount of survivability in the game as a given for it.

I’m sorry, but that isn’t acceptable by any rational person.

ThiBash.5634:

Taldren.7523:

My necro hits mutliple targets for 8k (in a line) with every lifeblast …

An 8k auto attack? I’m assuming that’s all targets combined?

No, its per target. I usually hit guardians/warriors for 4k and have seen 10k on lighter classes. I would say the average is around ~7k per target per lifeblast below 600 range and ~5k above 600 range. Since it pierces it usually hits more than 5 people too … its sort of sick.

The build wasn’t viable before because LifeForce dropped so quickly that you couldn’t really utilize it, but after the patch you will likely see way more Deathshroud Power Necros. Especially if they continue to nerf the condition meta.

Thor Rising.7850:

[…]PvE[…]Fractals[…]

All classes are viable in PvE. Being able to do the most damage is PvE is like have the most amount of monopoly money.

Thor Rising.7850:

In pvp there are 3 main factors that determine the outcome of a fight. 1) who gets the first hit 2)build type (tanky condition dealer is hard to beat on a burst) 3) skill difference. Note that class isn’t even relevant in that, and that the person to land the first hit will generally have a massive advantage. Ive killed warriors before my first attunement came off cooldown because i surprised them, the very element that makes thieves so strong. You also have to know the limits of your build, s/d burst isnt going to beat a bunker unless they are really bad.

Elementalists have a lot of damage, just require a fast and very active playstyle, please dont try to take that away because you enjoy slapping 1.

Your wrong, Elementalist has the same damage output as other classes with the highest amount of risk. So in essence the class is all risk with no reward other than the high you get after going balls out against another player to beat them. Then again, you could have done the same thing with any other class with half the required energy.

I don’t mind the Ele being fragile, but where the hell is the reward for the risk inherent to the class? And no, I don’t count being mediocre at everything as a reward.

My necro hits mutliple targets for 8k (in a line) with every lifeblast … my ele I can be above the 90% health cap and still not break 6k with a dragon tooth if the target would bother to stand still long enough for it to hit.

CDUB.1645

Roaming build – I would swap Air IX with X, air skills will recharge on crit so taking that additional reduction is not very helpful, as you have 50 CC and 80CD. For Water I would swap out VI with III….get more use out of your cantrips.

The attunement will recharge on crit, not the abilities. My reasoning for Air IX is for the faster knockdown to land dragon tooth and faster blinds so I can try and save my dodges. As for Water III … I normally don’t see a fight where I would be able to use Armor of Earth more than once a fight with or without it, so it would all come down to Lightning Flash. Before the stun break nerf to Lighting Flash, it would have been a no brainer … now … I am not so sure.

CDUB.1645

Group/Staff Build – Look at swapping Air IX with XI. I would look at swapping FGS with Tornado, because MS + Tornado is awesome. Also, try swapping out Frost Bow with maybe Arcane Shield or Mistform. Arcane shield is very useful to get some of you long casting skills (MS) off and gives you a couple secs when you are waiting for that heal to come off cooldown. If you run this in WvW I would suggest changing food for staff and/or looking at secondary trinkets,rings, etc etc……I would increase vitality,toughness, and healing.

In most of the fights I see in Tier1, I don’t see many opportunities to use Tornado and survive.
What food would you suggest?
I am working on a secondary Celestial trinket set for when I go staff, but its going to take a while as I have so many other characters to gear up. Just finished my Mesmer and working on my necro trinkets now. Playing my Mesmer feels like cheating compared to Ele at equal gear levels.

reikken.4961:

Taldren.7523:

Builds created so I can swap back and forth without needing to go to the bank or trainer.

WAIT WHAT
What is this? Someone please explain

They two builds use the same template of 0/30/0/20/20 … only need to carry a staff and swap traits. No need to go reset your traits or carry multiple sets of armor.

My Roaming Build and my Group Build

Builds created so I can swap back and forth without needing to go to the bank or trainer.

Anierna.6918:

The damage is in my sig, over in PvE land

Well, yeah, I’ll give you that. In PvE ele is a powerhouse … esp with LH.

Kharr.5746:

Staff (fire) auto attack does more damage than warrior hammer. Also, dagger (lightning) auto attack does more damage than warrior hammer.

You don’t even need to press a button! But, if you feel like it, you can toss in some lava fonts/fire grabs/dragon’s tooth/phoenix depending on your weapon of choice.

Fire Grab: horrible unless they are burning and the facing mechanic goes off in the direction your character was facing when you pressed the button. Really bad if you are strafing and/or mouselooking. Requires setup.

Lava Font: Good only vs a group of people, else it is a dps loser over autoattack unless you immobilize them for at least 2 ticks. Requires setup.

Dragon’s Tooth: Worse than lava font … unless you immobilize them it does no damage. Requires setup.

Phoenix is good, but its a single attack and then what? Autoattack again?

You know how easy it is with other classes? Target -> press button. Hardly any need for setup which may not be possible due to the fact that the ability you need for the setup may be on cooldown or locked out due to attunement.

Worst of all is the fact that even after all the setup you are doing the same damage other classes are doing without the need.

It seems warriors, thieves, ect can face roll on the keyboard and find a way to deal more than 3k damage in an attack, but my elementalist has to align the stars and planets to come close to that amount of damage.

Seriously … its like a check list … am I above 90% health, am I within 600 units, am I in the correct attunement, does that attunement even have a damage ability off cooldown, ect, ect.

Even after the hammer nerf my warrior has 500 more armor, nearly double the hitpoint, and can press just about any attack and deal more damage than my elementalist whenever he wants.

It isn’t build diversity to take away specs and force people into the same number of limited specs they had before. No longer is 10 Water an option, you now have to go 20 for anything decent.

Almost every ele will want/need 20 Arcana which baffles the mind as the whole point was to reduce the need of Arcana.

This patch has been a dismal failure outside of FGS being castable on the move. It didn’t reduce the reliance on Arcana or Water.

They just need to redo the whole conjure mechanic. It needs to be much closer to engineer kits to be useful outside PvE.

1. FIRE

• One with Fire / Flame Barrier – A horrible concept on a class that certainly can’t take many hits to utilize.
• Persisting Flames / Pyromancers Puissance – If these two were combined into a single trait it may make a decent Master level trait. Individually they don’t even come close to grandmaster.

2. AIR

• Zephyr’s Speed – Only 15% away from being useful. Or at least stack with other movement speed abilities up to the 25/33 cap.
• One With Air – 1.5 seconds of running just as fast as you normally do.

3. Earth

• Diamond Skin – Between this and One With Air I am actually afraid to ask ANet to ‘help’ elementalists any further.

4. Water

• Bountiful Power – I once thought this was good, then I noticed then I saw warriors ‘Destruction of the Empowered’.
• Piercing Shards – This being limited to water is a cruel and sick joke.

5. Arcana

• Arcane Precision – A % chance of a % chance for a very short duration condition.
• Elemental Surge – The durations are far too short to be useful.
• Arcane Energy – Only half of what is actually considered useful.
• Arcane resurrection – Really?!?

pierwola.9602:

there should be at least a Diamond Skin icon on Elementalist when he is about 90%

Yeah, put that in the queue right behind that marked targets becoming remarked when they come out of stealth.

Phaeton.9582:

My offer stands

If ANYONE can make up a tpvp viable diamond skin build and send it to me, they will receive 25 gold!

This is about as close as I could get. Could I get 10 gold?

Shockwave.1230:

Diamond skin is a hard counter to pure condition builds. All you need to do is inflict 1,500-2,000 damage then you can continue melting Elementalists as normal.

Funny … many thief builds can melt an elementalist in a few seconds regardless of build , but elementalist becomes powerful vs a subset of a couple of classes and all of a sudden its a big thing. No one seemed to care when it was just Elementalists dieing without being able to be a noticeable benefit in a group situation. :p

Diamond Skin is not powerful at all vs the vast majority of the game … while the ele remains the lowest hitpoints, lowest armor class with no survival gimmicks like stealth, clones, or deathshroud … and all the while basically having the same damage output as every other class.

In short … cry me a river.

Ok, this was the best I could come up with for a Diamond Skin build.

I tried a fresh air build at first with S/D and S/F, but you lose way to much with both 30 Earth and 30 Air.

The build linked is D/D, but it can work with S/D as well (just don’t get as much out of Aura). I found myself swapping between Frost Bow and Earth Shield depending on if I was in a defense or open field roaming. Same in regards to Ether Renewal and Signet of Restoration.

My now experienced personal opinion is that this is too binary … you are either very powerful vs a full condi class who never considered the need for some direct damage (this will likely change if the build becomes popular) or is basically a watered down version of our old D/D build vs everyone else.

I tried a range of gear (Solider + Zerker , Magi + Cavalier, and full Celestial) and found that full Celestial seemed to work the best for ability to keep above the 90% mark. Once you fall below 90% you best chance is to run away … else you melt pretty fast.

EDIT: I should point out that this builder hasn’t been updated yet. The arcane skill I selected was Windborne Dagger for full time 25% speed. Also, Soothing Wave provides regen on a crit now which I grabbed just to help try and keep above the 90% mark.

Now that I got to see the video … why didn’t you do D/F + S/D? Yeah, you lose marks, but you gain AE immobilize when combined with epidemic. Life Siphon and Reapers Touch eat Eles.

Also, why no Life Transfer or Life Blast? 2-3 LBs would have dropped him below the threshold too.

Your mistake is you turned your back on him and stopped attacking. Your passive play was to blame mostly.

Ancient Ranger.3276:

If they made Arcane Brilliance at range they would have to alter the skill mechanics. ATM with the base heal+ 20% per target up to 5 targets only makes sense as a pbAoE. At range the + 20% per target actually become a little OP because the risk is not there anymore. If they made the skill at range, they would have to bump up the base heal and take away the +20% per target.
I do agree that Arcane Wave should have probably stayed a pbAoE. But Anet does not.

A little OP? The ele is the weakest of all the classes right now. What they need is a straight buff … so yeah, anything that they do to achieve that would seem OP compared to the crap we have now.

Xernth.8561:

I completely disagree and hope they keep the Arcane Wave changes; having a ranged, instant blast finisher is amazlingly useful and I hope we can keep it.

I completely disagree with you and hope no one listens to your babble. Arcane Wave was changed from being useful because they added a new ability that they wanted to be different from the existing one. Common sense would have been to make the new ability different.