Guild Wars 2

Evasive Arcana no longer has any blast finishers at all. Not even the Churning Earth version, and that at least should be a blast finisher.

Evasive Arcana ‘fix’ isn’t bad, it’s HORRIBLE! A whole build type has been removed. And one that actually required skill to be used effectively…great…

I’ve tested it against the PvP engineering mob and combat or no combat, it doesn’t work.

Kodiak.3281:

" Evasive Arcana: This trait no longer creates unintended blast finishers."

Even so, it should at the VERY LEAST create a blast finisher on Churning Earth. Since, you know, the dagger version also has a blast finisher.

Seems like Anet was a bit too thorough with the blast removing. This cannot have been intentional.

Evasive Arcana now has no blast finishers at all. Not even the Churning Earth dodge, which according to the game description, should be having a blast finisher.

It seems when the blast finishers were removed, the cleanup was a bit too thorough.

Ok, two things that need clearing up:

1: There will ascended versions of ALL armor as stated by ArenaNet.

2: The level 80 transmutation stones are bought with actual money. Just because you get lucky a lot doesn’t mean all of us do.

No, don’t dislike him. I dislike the fact that the Sylvari get to play the leading role, making my character and her race look like a bunch of imbiciles. We also have magical guides, powerful weapons and wise people. Why does everything have to be about the new race?

And for another matter, I miss Faren. I really liked him and it would have been great if he’d shown up at the final fight. Even if it’d just been to wish me luck at Fort Trinity.

The money I’ve paid for this game has been MORE than well spent. However, I want to continue to enjoy it for many years to come. I want to drool all over cool new costumes and then buy them with real money. I’m really looking forward to all kinds of new cool store items. New looks, weapons, races, etc!

But I do want to be able to enjoy it casually. And I can’t feel that way if I’m constantly forced to play specific content for minute but still very real ‘stat boosts’.

Play what you want, where and when you want it was the selling point for me. Now though, it seems I’ll only be able to get max gear in 1 dungeon as opposed to several dungeons as it was just a few hours ago.

It was more of moral question than an actual one to be honest. It’s one of the reasons I’m against a new tier of gear, and something that others can’t really call ‘whiny’ I’d imagine.

It’ll force me to play more but enjoy less. Simply because I’ll have to do stuff AGAIN to get max gear.

Computer says no…

…but seriously, no idea. I’d like to see it, but somehow I doubt it. For that matter, all dungeon rewards from the current dungeons are now useless too. Guess insteado f several dungeons, you can now only do 1 dungeon for max gear.

If there’s anything that I’d have changed in the game, then it’d be that. The invulnerability mechanic. Mobs resetting for no apperant reason.

You have NO idea how frustrating it is when you’re being punished from playing smart. Or for just playing normally for that matter.

I’d even openly state my support for the new patch if it also included removing this monster-reset mechanic.

What will happen to the people who just bought a bunch of transmutation stones right before they learned new armor was coming out? Will they get a refund? Or some free stones maybe? Because if this had come out a little earlier, they would have been able to save their stones until they actually got max armor…

The reason I don’t want power creep is because I like that the game is based on player skill, not stats. Grinding for max gear is the one thing I truly dislike in MMO’s and one I was happy to be done with…until the announcement came I just have to start all over again.

I like my looks…will I be getting free transmutation stones?

Thorquist.8126:

Healix.5819:

This isn’t GW1 where the level cap will be the same forever.

And why do you think so? I actually hope, there won’t be any changes in level cap.

The fun thing about that was, that even though you could be level 20 in a day, the game only started with that. Here, it seems becoming max is the end of things.

The issue that the original poster has is that you have to play 2 hours a day just to get the tools to be able to play.

What chess player has to play 2 hours a day to unlock all his chess pieces?
It doesn’t cost you 2 hours of playing per day to get a new football for your team right?

It’s very simple.

DON’T MAKE BETTER GEAR!

Even after the ‘explanation’ we got, we still think it shouldn’t happen. So please, DON’T DO IT ANET!

Using skills like Lightning Flash (=teleport) are a lot cooler as an Asura.

Tyr

All they’re trying to do is fix their initial mistake and make the last tier of gear before Legendary take a bit more time to obtain.

That’s open to debate. To me, getting an easy set of maxed equipment was what appealed to me in GW 1. I really like the concept of working on your skill instead of on getting better gear. On no occasion should it really be hard or time consuming to get a set of maximum equipment. The fact that it will give certain people an advantage in WvW makes it even worse.

So in a nutshell, I’m still against it.

No. It sets a bad precedent.

The core principle is what made Guild Wars great. Abandoning it means removing everything that makes GW 2 different from the other MMOs.

There’s hundreds of MMOs out there for hardcore players. Is it really that bad to have just 1 for casuals?

Gear progression is an absolute necessity to MMO

That’s entirely untrue. Guild Wars didn’t have gear progression and did fine.

The real issue here is that 99 out of 100 MMO’s use gear progression. People who chose Guild Wars 2 because of the lack of gear progression are rightfully upset about the fact that Guild Wars 2 plans on making that a perfect 100.

We don’t need it. We don’t want it. It shouldn’t be implemented.

Garenthal.1480:

Didn’t Arena Net claim they wanted to distance themselves from allowing lore to be driven by references to popular culture?

The problem is that the Dredge were invented long before they made such claims. And then you gotta work with what you have.

To be honest, I think they did a good job with phasing out the Dwarves to make room for non-standard fantasy races.

suroktheslayer.9346:

The good elementalists have been telling the baddies it’s a L2P/skill issue but we get accused of being elitist trolls.

I used to be one of the biggest anti-elitist shouters until I indeed…learned how to play. What I still like to point out though, is that the way you phrase things may actually help your point.

But to sum it up: if you can dodge, attunement swap and combo well, then you’ll be good at the elementalist.

And to learn it, it really helps to get defensive (vitality/toughness) gear.

To be fair, I can get permanent swiftness through Glyph of Restoration and Windborne Speed…of course, I do have 30 points in Arcana…but really, the number of ways to get permanent swiftness on a elementalist are so numerous that it’ll happen almost automatically in some way. No need to trait or gear for it, imho.

Speeding up our auto attack projectiles would probably help a lot.

As for Stoning, I disagree with the claim that it’s not useful. Sure, it’s not great at dealing damage, but the weakness it gives, plus the fact that it’s a finisher, makes it pretty useful in my book. I’d much rather see water 1 being changed. As of now, it will only heal you when you’re in melee and that’s a bit too niche for my taste.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

my comment was in regard to your specific statement too that other classes suffer from this same issue, when i clearly said that build issues and pet mechanics have nothing to do with this thread title or topic

Well the thing is, it has everything to do with this topic. Like you said, the skill is fine everywhere else. The fact that elementals die in one or two hits to dungeon bosses is the only thing that makes them worthless in the dungeons. So rather than changing Glyph of Elementals, it’d be a better fix to just make sure the summoned elementals are of use in the dungeon. And seeing as how other npcs have the same problem, the same fix could be applied to them.

One of the other benefits is that you won’t introduce potential imbalances in other areas of the game.

Agreed. I don’t have to be the hero. In fact, I like being part of a group…kinda like how Destiny’s Edge doesn’t have a single hero, but a group that only together is strong enough.

But I still think the Sylvari take the spotlight too much. And I don’t like Treebeard all that much. I miss my old companions.

And to add to that, both are pretty fun to play.

Try them both…best advice that’s been given in this thread. Wish I’d come up with that.

Maybe Kuunavang didn’t have an Elder Dragon. A quote from Warden Illyra in the Arah Forgotten path:

Glint remained in crystalline form, but she regained her free will and identity.

Regained being the operative word. That means that at some point before being made a champion, Glint wasn’t a dragon champion. So that means that there may have been numerous dragons and drakes as a race, instead of all of them being tied to the big nasty ones.

Well, as far as I can tell so far, the main difference between the engineer and the elementalist (other than the fluff and stats) is that the engineer can be tailored to perfrom various roles, whereas the elementalist performs them all at once. I could be mistaken about the engineer though.

Simplicity.7208:

If you’re a non-bunker staff ele and a warrior gets up in your face and uses 100B, you’re not going to try to put some distance between you? Yeah. Tell me how that works out. Tell me how a close range staff ele fairs against 100B. Meanwhile, I’ll be the ele lmao @ the noob who just got pounded into dust by a burst warrior.

An evasive arcana elementalist doesn’t fight at maximum range though, and anyone with half a brain, melee build or no, would do well to avoid 100 blades. So that’s a non-argument.

I agree with the person you’re replying to: the range is not what sets the elementalist’s weapons apart. Or at least, compared to the other differences, it’s pretty irrelevant.

Nilgoow.1037:

I agree, nerf ele or I will go back to WoW.

Have fun hugging pandas.

Calle.8746:

Never used or seen anyone use (atleast not anyone who know how to play) any conjured weapons in sPvP.

There’s probably some niche use for them that only a brilliant player can come up with, but I’ll agree to your main point. They’re too weak. One of the issues with them is that you lose your weapon’s bonusses when you use the conjured weapon. That puts them at an immediate disadvantage compared to your normal skills.

The second issue is that you suddenly lock yourself into a single skill bar, which is really hindering the elementalist themselves given their playstyle. And then the issue comes up that there’s too little they can do that you cannot also accomplish by swapping attunements.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

45-60 elemental vs alpha by luck, i prefer worse stats because i like golem just for fun, ive done 21 runs in CoE, that pretty sums it up, you obviously like the game for fun without caring about efficiency or the usefullness

and

Ah ok sorry for the confusion, i do more dps with my staff in pve and dungeons than you will do with this skill though

Seriously? Is that the only argument you can make? People who disagree with you must be inferior players?

Well, then, riddle me this, oh great marvel of the gaming world…if ALL npcs, both summons and escortees, suffer from the same issues, why is changing the glyph better than changing the mechanics of npcs overall?

That’s like using a hairdryer to bake a cake instead of fixing the oven. Sure it can work. But the second option will fix your problem for ALL cakes.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

@ThiBash
Alright im tired of this, lets deconstruct each of your claims 1 by 1

Rangers have several ways of keeping their pets alive vs bosses like alpha, thye can command them to move around if they are melee and easelly avoid dragon tooth spam, they can also command them to stay in the same place ignoring everything and avoiding circular spike damage if the ice shard is not building up in its area, as soon as pet reaches low hp u can easelly swap pets before it dies reducing your recharge time quite considerably, look it up. So your argument about ranger pets beying similar to glyph of elementals and having the same issue goes down the toilet.

Yes, I know ranger pets can be controlled a little better than elementals. That wasn’t my point. My point was that npcs in general have issues avoiding damage spikes and I was using the complaints on the ranger forums as an example. The npc you’re escorting has the same issues. That’s the design flaw in npc mechanics I was referring to, and my point is that just because our elementals suffer from the same flaws that all npcs do, doesn’t make the elite a bad skill. It’s the npc mechanics that are the problem there, and that’s what should be fixed. Not the skill.

Full golemancer rune set says what?

That I’ve done 7*3=21 Crucible of Eternity runs. You claimed I’ve never entered the dungeon. I’ve given you proof that I have. And even though it may not be so in your eyes, the fact that I’ve chosen a golem summon over stats is because I like golems. Liking golems has little to do with how good or bad someone is at the game.

The fact of the matter you use them “so extensively” and yet you did not realise that dragon tooth takes between 90-95% hp of earth elemental in 1 hit and all the rest die instead is more of a fact than what youve just said.

Just did the dungeon. My earth elemental survived for about 45 of the 60 seconds against said boss. That’s also a fact. Ir could be luck, I’ll grant you that. Regardless, that’s just 1 (or, 3 if you prefer) boss. There’s still the rest of the dungeon where the elementals work pretty well.

taking them as if youre some sort of MacGyver by exploring them that really shows how your claims are to be taken.

You again misunderstand my intentions. Of course everybody knows that the elemental that’s actually summoned differs. That’s not news. I’m highlighting that particulat aspect of the skill in order to provide an argument for my point of view. I’m claiming the glyph is great because the outcome of the skill can not be 1 thing, but 4 things. That’s a standard discussion technique. Another technique is the one you’re using: discrediting an opponent. It’s quite effective too I’ll admit, but it’s flawed in the fact that you’ve never met me, nor have you seen how well I play. So wheter I suck or not, is not really your call to make.

if you come here talking about mediocre things like press the [jump] button to jump, then this thread topic clearly isnt for you.

To make it very clear, I’ll rephrase my reason why I like the glyph in as simple terms as possible:

Most skills -> do one thing regardless of how or when you use them.
Glyphs -> do different things based on which attunement you use.
I like Glyph of Elementals -> because instead of 1 fixed summon, you get to choose between 4 slightly different versions. It almost feels like having 4 different skills /8to me*!

Do you read me claiming you’re a wise guy because you prefer ruby gems for the increased stats they give? Nope. Then don’t call me a noob for my pointing out the reason I like the glyph. I didn’t invent it. I’m not the only one who sees it. Don’t claim I said that.

Good point. Also keep in mind that you can transfer the looks of armor pieces by using transmutation stones. So for now, the best thing to do is go for the cheap ones. When you got a bit more gold, you can start hunting for the things you like the looks of, and then simply swap skins.

gkrit.9416:

I guess my suggestion is reasonable seeing as full blown discussions only really occur where there are disagreements.

I think there should be another trial period where traits are accessed in all 3 trait slots of a line.

You didn’t really read the arguments as to why they don’t allow for that, did you? Just because some traits may not appeal to you personally, there’s no denying that some trait combinations would cause imbalances. There are problem traits, sure, but allowing players to just pick anything won’t fix those traits. And more options means more problems, something ArenaNet clearly wants to avoid seeing as how they’re handling GW2 compared to GW1.

SecondtoNone.7549:

I play staff Ele and imo, the Earth attunement doesn’t provide much defense. The only real defense skill is Earth 3, which repels ranged attacks for 5 seconds but has a 30s CD. Earth 2 is a bleed (not a defense move). Earth 1 stacks weakness which is good and counts as a defense based skill I suppose, more like a debuff. Earth 4 and 5 are also debuffs but they miss a lot imo.

Water attunement is much better for defense. Use water 4 and water 2 to keep people away from you and heal with water 3 and 5 in conjunction with arcane wave and evasive arcana (and eruption) for massive AOE heals.

It’s also based on traits. There’s an arcana trait that gives you protection each time you switch to earth, and earth trait that boosts your toughness while in earth and that trick you mentioned with water about keeping people at bay, well, earth has 2 snares as well.

The difference is the way it looks, and the rarity of the item. But any level 80 exotic set will give you maximum stats. A cheap level 80 exotic with power, toughness and vitality is just as good as an expensive level 80 exotic with power, toughness and vitality.

Also, as for the ‘sets’, you make them yourself in this game. You can get set bonusses by adding runes to the armor. But again, you can add any rune to any piece of armor.

frostflare.6390:

Well, I have a level 80 guardian. Do note that I leveled the guardian, and then started on the ele.

I love the ele. It is exciting…You have to constantly move, you need to be on your toes no matter what distrabution of traits. The guardian is a turtle with a razor sharp mouth. He’s very easy to play. His only downfall is his lack of ranged weaponry…(the scepter is a failure -.- )

The ele on the other hand, Whilst outragously fun has plenty of downright awfull problems that I wish anet would take the time to look at and fix. She has a butt-ton of bugs that really need to be fixed. I think after they are all fixed properly then we can attune to weather other parts of the ele needs real fixing.

The only other thing I don’t like is our traits. Some are undeniably important and usefull, and others are just god-awfull and your punished if you use them. Traits should define you, and trait lines should empower you.

If you spec into fire, you should be epic with fire. You should naturally be able to burst-burn down anything that moves. Its fire. If you put 30 points in it, you should have traits that reflect your ability to truly hurt. One grandmaster trait is actually useless…(Looking at the extended fire field…Unless it drastically increases how long it lasts, there is no point to it). But fire should make you much more dangerous.

Air should do more then make you fast. Air is our Single-target, Crit, and Control attunment. And yet all of its traits are very useless. Air does not truly make you control any better…Which is bad because as a caster control is essential to survival, just as movement. Moving faster is not the biggest boon in the world, it is not. There should be more to being an air ele then “I move faster then you!”. That is sad.

Water ele’s who focus on the line should be master healers. Not dedicated healers, but if your in danger and they throw down a healing rain IT SHOULD MATTER. It should keep you alive for a brief moment. Traits in water either have tons of condition removal, or stack durations of Regen. Which…Does not even properly tie in well with the trait that increases our damage based on boon…Since it stacks in duration and thus it still counts as only 1 boon.

Earth should be our survival and condition damage. yet it has more control skills in its arsenal then Air! WHY IS THAT!? Earth should turn is to rock, make our allies moving walls. It should make us like fortresses with arrows through the slits. But it fails at that!

And It is sad that Arcana is an absolute necessity of at least 20. All our weapons have tie in traits with it, and since we have to switch so much it’s suicide to go any less. That is flawed.

But alas, the class is fantastic if you overlook that. I just want the bugs handled first…And finally. Since we have yet to have a majority of the really important ones fixed. This class would be so much better if the bugs were but to an end. First and foremost. Then we can start talking about its “real problems”. The ele has more bugs then any other profession…And sadly it was the first profession released! Something is wrong here…

Agree with you in part, but as for the trait lines…maybe it was unwise of Anet to name themafter the elements. Because save for some very specific builds, elementalists were designed with attunement swapping in mind. And the names of the trait lines makes people think they should improve a single traitline. And that’s just not the way they work. A warrior with 30 points in his damage stat line isn’t 500% more effective than one without. It’s more like, maybe 20-30% or so. And that’s the same with the elementalist. Sure you’re a bit more offensively minded…but not to the point that you cannot do damage without fire, or that you can only use fire magic when picking that trait line. At times it seems like people expect too much from the trait lines with the elementalist, where they don’t do so in other professions. At least, not in such extremes.

Hmm…my best advice would be to pick defensive gear to give you some room for error while you learn to kite. Besides that, get the glyphs that summon elementals as soon as possible. They’re great for levelling and (especially the earth elemental) make great tanks.

Also, what kind of weapon are you using?

bluewanders.5297:

I think part of the problem is there are only two classes who really “need” to learn anything about combo fields as they level… elementalist and engineer. …
… it is amazing how much more useful I become when they start paying attention to them and using them.

This is SO true. About 1/3 to 1/2 of your overall healing, sanring AND dps comes from using combo fields. If you use them properly, you can double your snare’s duration, have a permanent speed boost and at least 15 stacks of might on you at all times. And then you won’t feel as underpowered anymore.

But to come back to your original post, I feel that the staff elementalist is doing itself a disservice if they focus on just a single aspect of their build. They don’t do either damage, conditions, healing or support, they do all of it. And since they don’t specialize in anything, they need the other effects to back up the power they miss in a single role. Dunno if that makes sense, but that’s how I feel they work.

In order to keep things fun, I recommend going for a mix of toughness and vitality at first. That will help you stay alive so much more in dungeons it’s not even funny. then, when you get the hang of it, you can start picking some offensive gear to increase your damage.

At least, that worked well for me.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

You are right, the dungeons are wrong, they should all be nerfed according to ele useless elites… btw i was beying sarcastic

It’s the pet mechanic I was referring to. Rangers complain as well so it’s not just the elementals that suffer from that problem. World of Kittencraft uses a system where hunter pets are pretty much immune to boss attacks so they don’t die as often. That allows for instant kill attacks without removing the challenge for players.

As for the dungeon part im sorry but you clearly dont know much about CoE

Full Golemancer rune set says otherwise.

As for still sticking by the 4 elite talk

But that’s what glyphs are, per design. Of course they’re not 100% different. But their effects do differ between the various attunements, so instead of having only 1 pet type to choose from (like the Asura golem elite), you get to pick a pet based on the situation. Now, since you clearly think they’re all the same, let me help you: the burning one is the Fire Elemental, the floating ball is the Air Elemental, the frozen guy is the Water Elemental and finally, the rock dude is the Earth Elemental. Thought I’d mention that since you’ve clearly got no idea what’s what.

I expected this btw, only a player who rush tests a skill in explorable and judges it by those areas alone could make such bold claims.

The fact of the matter is that because I use them so extensively, and tested their actual damage and abilities, I know what the different elementals do and when to use them. It’s also the reason why I, unlike you, CAN use elementals in CoE effectively.

Poplik.8697:

at least you get to be master of earth when you splat down >.<

Lol.

Does anyone know wheter Protection helps you survive falling damage?

TheWarKeeper.5374:

its getting bashed because more and more eles are now playing dungeonsand are facing all the time 1hit kill mobs, also ill suggest you this: plz go fight alpha with any of your “4 skills” and let me know if it did any dmg ok? andbtw 4 skills mean u can activate 4 skills at once.

As to your first point, that’s more of a problem with the dungeon mechanics, not the glyph. I’ve seen several rangers complain about their pet dying too quickly too.

As for your second point, the Elementalist is the only one that can ‘switch’ their elite during combat. Wheter you need damage, a tank, snares, healing or a ranged attacker, you can pick what you want based on the attunement you’re in.

Finally, I’ve noticed that the Earth Elemental does in fact survive more than a few hits against Subject Alpha. But I’ll admit it helps if you time it right and maybe throw it a boon or two. But even if it doesn’t, it’s still very useful as a distraction. Protecting the party from instant kill attacks or crystal traps is just as important as dealing damage.

Or maybe an ‘elite glyph’ that would place a weapon based on your attunement, giving you more versatility.

I agree, given the way the weapons are now, having both charges AND a duration seems a bit too much.

Maybe it would help if they all had effects on placement, like the fire weapons do.

That’s all fine and dandy…but to be honest, the elementals are all fine and dandy. Unlike other professions, you get 4 elite skills to pick from every cooldown. Even rangers only get 2 pets…

Seriously, I have NO issues whatsoever with the skill and changing the mechanics is something that would take far more effort than simpler, more direct fixes like increasing damage. Given how much needs fixing on the elementalist, I’d prefer it if Anet’d not waste their time on implementing new things.

As Jamie would say, simpler is often better.