Guild Wars 2

I assume you are speaking of the build for next patch?

I should point out that I mostly solo or duo roam … so I normally don’t take on whole groups

I found the changes to MoR from last patch have helped with the immobilize a lot. Between all the stealth to refresh MoR and the fact that Torch removes conditions I really don’t have an issue with it. With my current build I only go with AT because I can use it in stealth without breaking stealth … which can be hilarious.

As for the changes next patch … I will wait and see what they do with scepter 1. I was stuck between that and Sword. I like sword because it forces your clones to close on the enemy to spread the wealth of conditions when they die, but the Torment on scepter is also pretty sexy.

With Illusionists Celerity moving to 15 in Illusion I figured I could generate enough clones to be able to shatter and still have enough to make the clone death blossom work.

I was hoping to get some feedback on [this hybrid] (condi/direct damage) build idea based on what I am seeing for the December patch.

On paper it looks like a good mix of shatter/blackwater. I am hoping that faster Decoy will make up for the loss of the 1 second stealth duration increase, but I will miss the boons and the constant protection/aegis I got out of them.

I normally do solo/duo roaming WvW and have been using [this build] the last couple of months.

Carighan.6758:

Honestly, I really don’t want more conditions to “just be another DoT”.

We got DoTs. Burning, Bleeding, Torment, Poison. Plenty dots!

50 DKP MINUS !!

MORE DOTS !!!

What we have now doesn’t work anymore. Getting 14 stacks on someone is somewhat of a chore now and does less damage then I see people do with auto attacks. Same for Retaliation.

Confusion should work just like Torment, except that you take more damage if you use an ability during the second before it tics. This will allow them to up the duration of confusion to Torment levels making confusion actually decent in PvE.

Retaliation should be charges that do a fixed amount of damage (modified by power). Fixed duration, stacks in charges. Charge with the least amount of time is used first. This way they can up the damage on it to be useful again.

Ele for sure.

I don’t have any issues with Necros either since I am a Blackwater/Interruption hybrid. Necros are probably the easiest class to interrupt in the game.

Hardest would be Guardians with all that condition removal and such.

Caro.2730:

With “Illusionary Persona” trait, you can do 8 stacks of confusion with it, but it’s only good in pvp though.

Hardly, since the 50% damage nerf.

Cry of Frustration is only bad because Confusion is now bad. You have to fix the core problems, not the symptoms of them. Confusion needs a rework … and so does retaliation for that matter.

Swagg.9236:

Mash Hog.5672:

What is the point to all these changes?
All the changes need to be done to change the elementalist a certain way, what is that?

Elementalist actually doesn’t really need to be changed all that much. It’s arguably the best-made profession in GW2 by a large margin. These changes come part from wanting to correct some unfortunate design and part from adding some quality of life bonuses to some skills to allow them to better flow and contribute to their respective combat styles.

I’ll release a little podcast-esque vocal thing about my thoughts on each specific suggestion in a bit.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
<breaths>
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Omg, you had me till I realized you were joking. nice one

Just to recap …

Drawbacks:
1. Lowest Health Pool
2. Lowest Armor
3. No Weapon Swap

Benefits:
1. Great healing ability - War on soft trinity healing since beta (funny that healing was the only part of the trinity they attacked)
2. Great Mobility - RTL nerfed into a distant shadow of its former self. (While Rangers, Warriors, and Thieves continue) + LF nerfed
3. Lots of powerful AoE - Limited to 5 players in beta and blocks/evade now eat the few hits we may randomly get.
4. Largest access to abilities.

So the joke was that leaving every drawback while nerfing every benefit that was given to counterbalance the drawback makes the elementalist the best-made profession in GW2 by a large margin.

kitten , that’s good.

Rofl, like being able to do the same damage as everyone if we work twice as hard without any sort of defense or gimmick like Stealth/Clones/Death Shroud could be taken any other way then being the worst design in GW2.

Geeze man, you need to take that show on the road.

My Phantasmal Mage was most useful when it accidentally got Moa ’d. That bird was tearing stuff up!

Both Confusion and Retaliation have been nerfed into the ground, so Phantasmal Mage is currently extremely weak.

The trait only makes it so when you cast Phantasmal Mage that it removes a single condition. That is not even close to what the Phantasmal Disenchanter does.

My suggestion would be to either:
1. Change Confusion so that it acts like Torment in that it deals damage every second, but does far more damage if you use an ability.

2. Swap Torment for Confusion for Confusing Images (rename to Tormenting Images) and have the Phantasmal Mage cast that instead of its current attack.

Example:
You slot FrostBow as a Scepter/Focus elementalist.

When you attune to water you will have Frost Bow skills.

If you activate the Conjure Frost Bow ability it will drop your Frost Bow (with 25 charges) at the target location and you will have full access to your normal Scepter/Dagger water abilities until the duration is up (60 seconds on a 60 second cooldown).

So if you used your frost bow you could activate and get 5 new water abilities ready to be used (Every 60 seconds) if that is what you are looking for.

Xillllix.3485:

RTL didn’t go from 20 sec to 40 sec but from 16 sec to 40 sec.

First nerf was 20% increase, second was 100% increase.

1200 / 16 = 75 u/s … which is the same increase as Warrior’s Savage Leap.

1. RTL was nerfed so that it couldn’t cross gaps. Warrior’s Savage Leap remained the same.
2. RTL was nerfed to 20s cooldown. 1200/20 = 60 u/s (Less than Warriors Savage Leap, but equal to Warrior’s Rush)
3. RTL was nerfed to a 40s cooldown if for any reason you didn’t hit a target. Is now worse than all warrior movement abilities.

To give ranged options to melee weapons, to make water a damage line rather than a healing/utility, ect, ect.

It gives you options of eliminating attunements that don’t fit your build / playstyle. I have played so many different types of ele and there is always an attunement/group of abilities that is pointless to the build, but its all you got left to work with so you end up using them anyway.

For my playstyles … I would suggest:
S/F – Frost Bow to pick up some more CC/Damage for the burst rotation.
D/D – Fire Axe or Fiery Greatsword for some range/mobility.
Staff – Earth Shield or Lightning Hammer for non-zerg sitations.

Plus you can always activate the conjure and get your normal abilities back for 60 seconds.

Ok, this is like beating a dead horse … but here is another idea I came up with.

Make conjured weapons act sort of like signets.

((Fiery Greatsword overwrites Flame Axe))

Passive: When you slot a conjured weapon your attunement for that weapon element type is replaced with the conjured weapon abilities rather than your equipped weapons. ((Note: Only the abilities, not the stat bonuses))

Active: You drop your conjured weapon at your ground target that may be picked up by other players. (25 charges, 60 sec duration, 60 sec cooldown).

Conjurer : Gain the following for 20 seconds when you Activate a Conjured Weapon:
Flame Axe: +180 Power/Condition Damage
Lightning Hammer: 5% Critical Damage / +180 Precision
Earth Shield: +180 Vitality/Toughness
Frost Bow: +20% Condition Duration / +180 Healing Power
Fiery Greatsword: +260 Power / +180 Condition Damage

Sigh, this again. Anyone that believes that RTL needed a nerf is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

The Nerf:
Ride The Lightning = 1200 / 40 = 30 u/s increase
Ride The Lightning = 1200 / 20 = 60 u/s increase

Lightning Flash = 900 / 40 = 22.5 u/s increase
Burning Speed = 600 / 15 = 40 u/s increase

The Hypocrisy:
Warrior’s Rush = 1200 / 20 = 60 u/s increase
Warrior’s Whirlwind Attack = 450 / 10 = 45 u/s increase
Warrior’s Savage Leap = 600 / 8 = 75 u/s increase

Norn elite racial abilities give you escape. This looks over function argument does not compute.

Take a norn female … go with the Phoenix Light armor and Kasmeer’s Staff. You won’t regret it.

Rabid is for Condition focused builds.

Upham.6137:

Only skills that stack swiftness are those that don’t use ground targeting. Why? For the extremely simple reason that you could use your own TC running back and forth and stack 1 min of swift or more.
No idea what it has to do with lightning combo. But if you are running with a zerg you don’t even need a focus for switfness.

Sigh, that isn’t what he asked for. He said he wants it to stack with OTHER swiftness buffs. Not itself.

Upham.6137:

Thanks for bringing common sense into this thread.

Also people complaining about mobility, you might want to trait blink to be a 1200 range teleport every 24 seconds.

Yes, because people that don’t agree with you obviously do not have common sense.
So … its common sense to equate a flat 25% speed signet to burning blink all the time with a 20 point investment (10 in two lines) in order to have something that is inferior? 1200 / 24 = 50 units per second increase if you max out the range each time.

Movement speed is 300 units per second. 25% would be a 75 unit per second increase ( 1,800 unit average over 24s ). 33% would be a 100 unit per second increase ( 2,400 unit average over 24s ).

Side note:
Warrior’s Rush = 1200 / 20 = 60 u/s increase ( 1,440 unit average over 24s )
Warrior’s Whirlwind Attack = 450 / 10 = 45 u/s increase ( 1,080 unit average over 24s )
Warrior’s Savage Leap = 600 / 8 = 75 u/s increase ( 1,800 unit average over 24s )

Every 20s a Warrior could move an additional 3,600 units in addition to anything gained by swiftness. ( 4,320 unit average over 24s )

Really puts that whole blink thing into perspective. That is all base too without considering traits.

Lets compare that to Mesmer focus (base):
+100 u/s for 12 seconds every 25 seconds. 1200 / 25 = 48 u/s increase
and now traited (-20% cooldown, +30% duration = 50 point investment):
+100 u/s for 15 seconds every 20 seconds. 1500 / 20 = 75 u/s increase (yay we matched untraited warrior sword!!)

Zevlik.8109:

A couple things here I wanted to mention…

A couple is 2 … you listed 3 things! :p

Zevlik.8109:

I would have to agree though changing this signet entirely would hurt builds that are using it already in the current form, but separating out the speed buff and adding it as an addition wouldn’t but might be OP (why I suggested a trait instead).

I am in favor of it acting as a 25% full time speed or Swiftness every 10 seconds out of combat. In combat it would work just like it does now. That would give everyone want they want, I think.

Pawnchee.3059:

Alissah.9281:

condition I recommend 20/20/30. You have alot of defense, it will be hard to die even if you try. Your damage relies on combos (you have to know all skills quite well).

Do you have a build link for this? I have never tried a condition mesmer and am rather curious. Thx in advance.

Everyone has their own take on it, but this is what I do …

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR7flwzqpXUTsGb9IipHEXwBckUUavWJF22FC-jUyA4sgg0kmpFwUlholDLiGbxsIasaGMVKRUtHpIa1SBAx0I-w
Replace Superior Sigil of Earth with Superior Sigil of Torment (Not in the builder yet) … combined with the Greatsword it really helps vs runners. Especially if you use Arcane Thievery to take their swiftness buff away from them.
Options I normally use with that build is to swap Adept Dueling between 1, 3, and 5 for the situation I find myself in. In general I running Dueling 3 … but 1 and 5 have their uses.

Use Torch 4 ? Arcane Thievery ? Torch 5 to clear conditions (up to 5) from yourself. Heal yourself in stealth only and always dodge into using a stealth ability to get the evades as you go invisible.

Mochann.5298:

Yeah, that’s what Ele needs for sure!

But you know what other buff I’d like to see? Give us godkitten Weapon Swap. That would help improve build variety, I’m sure!

I would rather see Conjured weapons function as Weapon kits and the Conjurer trait changed so that when you swap to a Conjured Weapon you drop at your location a duplicate weapon that can be picked up by other players. Duplicate would function just like it does now, but with 25 charges. ICD on Conjurer would be the current cooldown on conjured weapons.

No idea, but that was the plan.

Still my guess:
Warrior: Staff (Think friar from DaoC)
Guardian: Longbow
Mesmer: Pistol and/or Warhorn
Necromancer: Greatsword
Elementalist: Sword and/or Torch
Ranger: Rifle
Thief: Mace (On and/or Off Hand)
Engineer: Hammer

Jackums.3496:

Specifically in terms of this meta, Mesmer would be right near the top due to susceptibility to conditions in conjunction with being a light (squishy) profession, as well as most top builds running berserker stats.

I agree, though, that Engi and Ele are right at the top. I wouldn’t put Thief where it is, though. As far as my own experience goes, it’s been hands-down the easiest class to learn and play well, right down there with Warrior. Managing them is inherently easier than other classes as they rely on a self-replenishing source (ini) for their skills.

But to each their own. The rest of the list I mostly agree on.

EDIT: Also, yeah, I was talking tPvP. WvW is a different situation, of course.

I never have an issue with conditions. I can clear 5 pretty easily with Torch 4 -> Arcane Thievery -> Torch 5

Then there is always Null Field, but I don’t like how exposed that makes me. I can do the torch/AT combo from stealth where its safe.

Jackums.3496:

Mesmers aren’t difficult to learn, but they’re certainly one of the more difficult to master. Thief, Warrior, and Necro are all relatively simple and easy.

Engi, Ele, and Mesmer all have very active play-styles in that they’re highly reliant on constant action to survive (this is ignoring the few passive builds, like phantasm). They’re certainly at the top of the list in terms of difficulty. Though that is relative, and this is GW2. Nothing is particularly difficult with a little time investment.

Guardian and Ranger fall somewhere in the middle, depending on their build.

I play most of those classes at 80 in WvW (which is mostly what I do in GW2) … and in the current game the Elementalist is the hardest class to play due to a combination of their class mechanic and the fact that they have the lowest hitpoints, lowest armor, lack of gimicks (stealth/clones/deathshroud), and damage output that is only on par with what other classes can dish out. As stated … one mess up and your toast … which seems to being made easier with each patch.

Order of hardest to play to easiest (IMO):

1. Elementalist – Most abilities, least forgiveness.
2. Engineer – Weapon Kit mechanic

This one is pretty much a tie:
3. Ranger – Pet management.
3. Thief – Stealth/Teleport management.

5. Mesmer – Clone management.

This was close:
6. Guardian
7. Necromancer

8. Warrior

Don’t normally share this stuff, but here is a good starter build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR7flwzqpXUTsGb9IipHEXwBckUUavWJF22FC-jUyA4sgg0kmpFwUlholDLiGbxsIasaGMVKRUtHpIa1SBAx0I-w

Replace Superior Sigil of Earth with Superior Sigil of Torment (Not in the builder yet) … combined with the Greatsword it really helps vs runners. Especially if you use Arcane Thievery to take their swiftness buff away from them.

Options I normally use with that build is to swap Adept Dueling between 1, 3, and 5 for the situation I find myself in. In general I running Dueling 3 … but 1 and 5 have their uses.

Use Torch 4 → Arcane Thievery → Torch 5 to clear conditions (up to 5) from yourself. Heal yourself in stealth only and always dodge into using a stealth ability to get the evades as you go invisible.

Jester.1236:

We’ve all tried to be decent and have a conversation since you asked for one. But every person who has disagreed with you, you have spoken down to. Your basic point is, you want what you want. If anyone disagrees with you, they haven’t played enough to reach your area of expertise.

There are plenty of mesmers on this board that use boon sharing builds. You do not. That doesn’t make you better or them worse then you. So saying SoI’s active is worthless for you really doesn’t mean anything.

No, Jester … they have been condescending, like you have been. Remember the whole ‘only people that make these threads don’t know what they are talking about and make ridiculous claims’ theme of your original thread?

It was the one where you were going on and on about the passive effect of SoI was so much better than 25% speed blah blah blah until I countered the argument. Then it wasn’t passive , but the active ability … until I countered that argument.

The others havn’t been any better … like the person I can’t even verify actually has a necro, let alone played one … claiming that an ability they don’t ever use is somehow weaker than a completely random boon every 10s. Then when I argued how good I found the signet it was all about how people that don’t do things his/her way just make bad decisions. /rollseyes.

Then you have the guy that just likes to spout off about unmentioned hard realities that everyone is supposed to know and be ruled over and if you don’t know what these unmentioned realities are then all points you can make are void or something.

If this is the ‘We’ you are speaking of then I really not worried about not getting your approval. However, if by ‘we’ you mean the Mesmer community … then I just have to laugh. The mesmer community deserves better then to be represented by what I have seen here.

Rigel.3092:

No, actually what he/she said is not “blatantly pointless,” he/she simply stated the truth – your wish list “ignores hard realities” – which you then ignored and instead resorted to talking about things that were “blatantly pointless”….go figure.

/yawn.

Another one.

Fine, I’ll play … what hard realities? Not everyone is a ANet developer that gets to set what these realities are or anything, so if you are a developer … please … inform me. Else, your opinion on these non-listed realities is as empty as the reply that I originally replied too.

alanis.6094:

Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that nobody in the entire game makes bad decisions and therefore uses Signet of Locust in combat.

Pretty sure that if the decision lead me to survive and win the fight that it qualifies as a good one.

Perhaps if you practiced more and kept an open mind you could improve your gameplay experience.

alanis.6094:

Taldren.7523:

That is it an active ability, for one … not its passive. And necros AE lifetap is very powerful on its 25% movement speed trinket. In PvP I find that more useful than sharing some boons to other people that may or may not be in range at the time that I achieve some boons that I may want to share. Very powerful … hardly. Situationally decent at best. SoI is most of the time not useful to anyone unlike say the Necro’s movement trinket which is always useful.

Please stop. The Necro ‘on use’ for its movement speed trinket is absolutely horrible. Nobody, at all, uses this trinket for its ‘on use’, and even less actually bother to throw it on for fear that they get caught in combat before actually putting something else in that slot. SOI is already vastly superior to the necro signet, without any buffs to SOI at all.

Um, I use it. So you are already incorrect. I use it as a stop gap heal between shrouds when my real heal is already down. It has actually saved me often in WvW.

SoI has never saved me … or actually helped me in any measurable way in sPvP, tPvP, or WvW.

Most of those Boons are worthless in the random situations I find myself, especially once you consider their durations and its only a single stack per apply.

Shadowfall.6543:

I would argue that the conjurer change has a positive impact on any conjurered weapon build.

I will agree with you on flame barrier though. It would be different if flame barrier punished attackers sufficiently to deter them from wanting to hit us (which takes like 3 to kill us).

Instead it sets them on fire, well guess what, if someone hit me in melee and I am attuned to fire, I have probably already set them on fire. Also keep in mind it is right next to lava tomb which punishes people for wanting to finish us off. Maybe they can combine the two into one also skill that has a 20% chance to create a lava font when we are struck in melee.

<Begin Rant>
Conjured Weapon should be just like Weapon Kits for engineers.

The Conjurer trait should be moved back into Arcane Adept where it started and summon a duration charged version of the conjured weapon that can be picked up by other players.

Set the ICD on Conjurer to the current cooldown of conjured weapons.
<End Rant>

Whew … that said …

I like your idea of Lava Font on hit and combining it with our “We Lose” ability.

However, it doesn’t address my question. If you are going to go PvE Conjurer you need only put 10 points into Fire … that doesn’t define the line or make it something anyone would seek to base a build around.

Can someone name a decent build that really uses anything in fire? Because even with these changes I don’t see one that relies on any point investment for fire.

You can make an entire build around Fresh Air and Electric Disharge in Air for example … but Fire has nothing that I can see on the surface that is worth anything other than the new cleanse. However, that is more of an addon for other builds … not something to make a build around.

I still feel that Flame Barrier is a horrible joke. Lowest health/armor in the game and in the power line we get an ability that only functions when we get hit? A really , really bad joke.

I wanted it for my guardian … but I can’t find a heavy armor that would make it work. :p

Erifin.8423:

Think the correct answer to this is we’d be far to op. Imagine passive speedbost with optimal condirunes and near perma in combat stealth. Fun to play until everyone else plays the same.
It’s called balance.

You mean like thieves have now?

Jester.1236:

Engineers Do not get swiftness by simply toggling on a weapon kit, they need speedy kits. They cannot simply rely on medkit 5 for swiftness. They can also use Elixir B since we are listing them all. To get 100% reliable Swiftness an engineer needs speedy kits, which is something that they have to sacrifice for which i stated above.

Ok, so name an elementalist without 10 points in Arcana and tell me how that is a sacrifice. Or a mesmer without at least 5 points in Dueling. It isn’t a sacrifice when you get something so awesome for so little point investment.

Jester.1236:

SoI’s main ability is not the one buff every few seconds, but the ability to give all your buffs to your party.

That is it an active ability, for one … not its passive. And necros AE lifetap is very powerful on its 25% movement speed trinket. In PvP I find that more useful than sharing some boons to other people that may or may not be in range at the time that I achieve some boons that I may want to share. Very powerful … hardly. Situationally decent at best. SoI is most of the time not useful to anyone unlike say the Necro’s movement trinket which is always useful.

Jester.1236:

On my Guardian, and maybe your doing it better then myself. I have to trait staff and use shouts, or traits staff and use + boon duration for 100% swiftness up time. On the Guardian it seems like i’m pigeon holed into unto staff. But if there is another way i would love to know it. I really dislike having to have retreat on my bar just to maintain swiftness.

As you said … Staff (Support), Shouts (General), or Traveler Runes (DPS). Looks like all play types have access to some form of speed, which is more than I can say for Mesmer. Focus doesn’t fit into a condition build … its a support weapon.

Jester.1236:

For a necro to get swiftness don’t they have to use the warhorn, and spectral walk for 100% up time? pigeon holing them into a weapon. Or they can use there signet for 25%. Which again would be fine on a mesmer, if it were just a signet like everyone else.

Again, multiple options for multiple play styles.

Jester.1236:

The problem with all of these posts, is people ask for to much, and then make ridiculous claims. For one Necro’s and Engineers get there speed from two completely different sources. Necro’s, Theives, Rangers, and Elementalist use signets. The passive affect from these signets is nowhere near as powerful as signet of inspiration. It seems very unlikely there going to just tag on even more to that signet. They would have to rework it, which would be fine with some people. But i do not think they are just going to add it on.

Elementalists get swiftness from Combos (Staff), Auras (Dagger), or Glyphs (Scepter). Engineers get swiftness just by toggleing weapon kits or medkit 5. Necros get swiftness from warhorn and SA, but mostly rely on signet or traveler.

LoL @ signets being less powerful passively than SoI. You honestly believe that a random boon (read: Most likely to not be the one you actually need) is more powerful than 25% movement speed?

Jester.1236:

Many thieves and rangers and ele’s are now using traveler’s runes like mesmers, because they are learning what good mesmers have known all along. A utility spot is far greater then speed.

Many Thieves and Rangers use crit damage too. Something condi classes/specs do not get a meaningful benefit out of.

Jester.1236:

People always post things like this. Like every class has unlimited access to swiftness (they don’t) and they have to sacrifice nothing (they do). We have access to swiftness, we have access to centaur runes, and we have access to travelers runes.

And people always reply like you do when they have a narrow view of what the class should be doing. If we arn’t doing it your way it is impossible. i would gladly give up a utility spot for what some runes would do for my build. I have a lot of 80s (Necro, Ele, Mesmer, Guardian, Warrior, and Engineer) and from personal experience they all have reliable access from multiple sources to speed of some sort. Mesmer has the least access and gets pigeon holed in order to make up for it.

Jester.1236:

It would be nice if they fixed the focus so it wasn’t so buggy with the swiftness.

Great, so pigeon holed into either a weapon choice or a armor rune choice. How considerate.

Jester.1236:

But getting a signet of inspiration that constantly applies swiftness for nothing (which no sigil can do) and a random buff, and the ability to give everyone buffs is a bit much.

Maybe you should of kept reading.

Electro.4173:

Scepter auto-clone generation is certainly a situational thing.

I play a clone-death-status build and for that reason I love Scepter clone generation. The clones appear exactly where I want them (on top of the enemy, regardless of my own position), and at a very sustainable rate. Sure, something like a couple of dodge-rolls with Deceptive Evasion or Mirror Images gets clones faster, but they pop at my position instead of the enemies’ and its more a “burst” generation, get a few clones fast but then you gotta wait for those sources to get active again (skill cooldown or stamina). And as someone said above, if you have 2 phantasms active and use Scepter then every shot causes the old clone to explode when its replaced by the new clone, so it basically just ends up adding status effects to every auto attack.

That said, the fact that the Scepter clone generation is only really useful for that type of build (or perhaps some shatter builds) is something that could be improved. Namely, the clones themselves could be improved to serve a better functionality other than JUST shatter / death fodder.

The problem there seems to be that clones use the auto-attack of the source weapon, which means Scepter clones obviously get the Scepter auto-attack. The main gimmick of the Scepter auto is clone generation, but clearly clones aren’t going to generate clones, so the gimmick is lost and they’re left with a lackluster attack with no special function at all.

It should be possible to give the clone a different auto-attack (the Trident clone’s auto-attack had different properties for a long time), so giving the clones a useful auto chain without making Scepter’s auto “too good” which apparently is something Anet is worried about, should be possible. Perhaps the Scepter clones should inflict a stack of Torment at the end of their auto-chain or something, in place of the clone generation. Or they could eliminate the chain, and make the clone simply attack somewhat fast with a single attack (maybe similar to that one Risen enemy that shoots the purple bolts somewhat fast). I’d prefer the former though, since the latter would just be making it similar to Greatsword clones.

I really hate the fact that our clone generating weapon makes ranged clones … I need my fodder to run into the enemy for the traits to be useful.

Ross Biddle.2367:

And much like a children’s christmas list, it ignores hard realities.

… he said in a very childish way.

Welcome to the naughty list.

If you are going to disagree, how about going into some detail that can be debated or rebuked? Else, the fact that you may disagree is blatantly pointless which makes your reply a complete a waste of bandwidth.

Either:

1. Improve Signet of Inspiration by one of the following ways:
   a. Add 25% movement speed to Signet of Inspiration’s passive effect.
   b. Make Signet of Inspiration always apply Swiftness in addition to one Random Boon every 10 seconds.
   c. Make Signet of Inspiration always apply Swiftness out of combat and act as-is in combat.
2. Add a new armor rune condition damage set with 25% movement speed.

Both of the current 25% movement speed armor rune sets put a real dent in the condition mesmer output capability. Without a signet, like other classes, we are pigeon holed into investing into a armor set that is far from ideal.

For example: Engineer and Necromancer have reliable movement speed sources which allows them to focus their runes on build synergies (Perplexity, Torment, ect) rather than using them to make up for a class deficiency.

Torment is such a perfect soft-control ability for mesmer, but we have no means to apply it outside of a single block on scepter.

I’d like to see the following changes:
Dominaiton:
Illusions of Vulnerability – Change to Torment.
Dazzling – Change to Torment.
Rending Shatter – Change to Torment.
Wastrel’s Punishment – Your illusions cause Torment to foes around them when they are killed.

Swap Confusing Combatants with Shattered Strength and you will have a dedicated Torment line (Domination) and a dedicated Confusion line ( Illusions ).

/Shrug Makes sense to me.

Personally I would like to see a mirror of the necro Scepter (non-projectile direct attacks) but change the conditions to match the theme of the mesmer:

1/2 Ether Bolt: Torment (4 s)
1/2 Ether Blast: Confusion (4 s)
1/2 Ether Clone: Clone

So sad … no queue for Eternal Battlegrounds. Not a good sign.

Shockwave.1230:

Is diamond skin going to cleanse conditions, while having active conditions, and breaking the condition immunity threshold?

From the wording , no. It makes you immune to having conditions applied, but those already applied would still function.

Clockwork Bard.3105:

Torment and confusion are both soft control. I suppose that’s what they’re leaning towards by stating that it defends allies from attack. In PvE, where Inspiration’s phantasm luv is king, that’s definitely not the case. The AI does not respond to these conditions in the slightest. There’s no reason they should. They’re already optimized to slog through it with their bloated health bars and slow avoidance-or-death attacks. If you want to control the AI, you have to do it with hard effects and make that decision for them. Or, as the current meta stands, just use the CC called DPS.

In PvP, you might get the desired effect, but there’s almost nothing else in Inspiration to support that kind of support/control. It’s healing, condition removal, and phantasm buffs. The focus reflects fit the theme, but both share the Master slot. Glamours can fit the bill, but not directly due to any of the Inspiration traits. We go into Dom and Illusions for those traits.

Or maybe they just needed a build that could sell their backlog of Apothecary gear.

It’s pure Academia … No one going for healing is going to take scepter as the line has nothing to do with condition or shatter meta. The only people that go deep Illusion are those that want the +15% damage on Phantasm builds.

In fact, the scepter is probably the only weapon Mesmer’s have that allow its condition meta to work. Staff is just blah.

During some duels we noticed that while dazes locked out every ability on my Mesmer for the duration of the daze (even the stun breakers) … it only locked out the weapon skills of the thief.

Dazes tested were Technobabble, Magic Bullet, and Mantra of Distraction.

The thing I hate the most about Scepter 1 is that it is tied to a very slow moving projectile that gets none of the benefits for actually being a projectile.

I would rather it was direct hit like necro’s Scepter 1 or channeled like ele’s Scepter Air 1.

The second thing I hate the most is that Malicious Sorcery is in Inspiration instead of in Illusion where it belongs.

Personally, I think this would be a better change than those they proposed.

Fire: Condition Duration and Condition Damage (Burning might actually be decent)
Air: Critical Damage and Precision
Earth: Boon Duration and Toughness (Longer defense buffs without the need of Arcana)
Water: Healing Power and Vitality
Arcana: Attunement Cooldown and Power (Gives more spec choices access to power without gimping themselves)

xiv.7136:

lowest health + lowest armor = needs something else

- highest condition removal/immunity
or
- highest mobility
or
- highest damage
or
- highest evade
or
- you get the idea

There has to be a reward for the risk, that’s the key issue with ele

Been saying that since forever. Most of the risk was already applied to the elementalist to pay for rewards that didn’t even make it out of closed beta. The war on soft healers, AE, and then our mobility left us with no ‘reward’ … and no gimmicks like Stealth/Clones/Death Shroud.

Tyler Chapman.1832:

To address the other player regarding his comments stressing the importance of making unappealing trait lines better; Burning fire and Diamond Skin are steps in the right direction. It’s a big patch and we are doing a lot of things for each class. We only have a certain amount of time to make changes and it shouldn’t give you the impression that these are the only things we want to do.

Burning fire will allow you to invest offensively in fire and get some defense capability that you lose if you opt points out of water/arcane. This will likely be more useful to PvPer’s rather than PvE’rs, however, PvErs already find it innately easier to take points in fire since kiting mobs is more easily done as compared to kiting players in PvP.

Fire and Earth have been avoided mostly because they focus on conditions and due to the mechanics of the class … elementalist is a horrible condition class.

You can’t be “offensively” investing in “fire”, especially if you are taking defensive traits. Nothing in fire is going to make Scpeter1 any better, Scepter 2 actually hit anything, Focus 4 be remotely useful, or address the survivability issues of putting your lowest hitpoint/armor class with low mobility and no gimicks (stealth/clones) in melee range. I like to know who seriously believed that having procs such as fire aura and flame barrior in regards to needing to be hit as an elementalist was a good idea.

Our offensive line is Air as it is all about damage. The air attacks are far more reliable too.

Tyler Chapman.1832:

Saying it would destroy Ele is strictly theory crafted hyperbole but I can respect your emotional reaction to that change. A lot of things are changing and from the internal testing I’ve personally done with ele (2000+ tournament games played on live on top teams) ele is looking really strong. I’m beating most everything 1v1 right now with the spec I’ve been running.

Not to sound rude, god knows others seem to think I am always being rude ….

Internal test servers are not a good place to test the performance of classes. I am not saying this is unique to this game … It never has been.
I have been a lead and internal tester on many games and internal test servers always seem to create a sort of club atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and internal politics often dictate results rather than facts.

Players/Developers often become very rigid in their thoughts/thinking which results in tunnel vision that can create outcomes that can do the very opposite of what they believed it was going to. (Take Dark Age of Camelots: ToA expansion as an example )

There is an overwhelming desire to form consensus and to not rock the boat, which greatly limits valuable feedback that can highlight critical flaws in the overall logic of a change.

As for the subject matter of your quote …
It wouldn’t ‘kill’ the class from a mechanical point of view, but it would certainly would have ‘killed’ the class on an emotional level for many players. After what many consider a hypocritical change to RTL (in regards to Warriors/Rangers/Thieves movement with weapons) and the broken promises in the last patch in regards to Conjured weapon viability … moving an ability that is a 5 point minor on other classes to a 20 point major would be the straw that broke the camels back.

From my perspective it seems like ANet has a vision of the staff ele utility healer stuck in their heads and the tunnel vision is blinding them to all the issues outside of it.

Dingle.2743:

Taldren.7523:

Life blast hits for 1000+ even in full Rabid gear … Death Shroud -> (x2) Life Blast -> Tainted Shackles -> Doom

Ether Renewal is the easiest heal in the game to counter … and the most obvious being cast.

Lie Blast hits less than once per second, for 1000 damage per hit… against a healing skill that heals for 1250 per second. So for the first 4 seconds the ele could simply outheal it. The next hit they can reverse the damage by simply attuning to water or dodging while in water, depending on whether they’re running Diamond Skin with 15 water or 30 arcana. And they can avoid 2 more hits by dodging. If they’re running staff or focus, they can even projectile reflect the shots.

Life Blast, one of the most telegraphed and easily avoided skills on the Necromancer, in a build that won’t be getting a second chance at using it for another minute or so. And if it does somehow work, if the ele manages to get above 90% health again, you’ve lost your chance.

I just logged in my full rabid gear necro (because I rarely use my ele in wvw anymore as it is the worst class currently) and found that I can breach 1500 in a single attack with a single lifeblast (still takes 2 nomally), with 2 staff hits, and 2 scepter chains.

You keep bring up a channeled head that we can’t do anything else while channeling. Yeah, it heals for 1250 without being interrupted by anything … but what does that gain the elementalist? As soon as they are done they would have done 0 damage to you and you will still breach their threshold in another 2 hits.