Guild Wars 2

I’d start with:
1) Increase Ele base health to 15k
2) Lower attunement cooldowns to 8 secs baseline, 6 secs with 30 Arcana. Currently the core mechanic feels more like a frustrating hindrance than something useful.
3) Lower Ride The Lightning cooldown to 20 seconds regardless of hit. The repeated nerfs to this ability were very poorly thought-out by ArenaNet.

Ele’s have plenty of condition removal with Ether Renewal + Water traits (or Evasive Arcana), the problem is that they don’t have enough health to even USE a lot of their tools. They just die in seconds lol.

ArenaNet made it clear they don’t want to create a functional readycheck button.

Dead horse is dead.

The other Skyhammer thread containing Allie’s posts was deleted lol. So might as well express ourselves in daily threads like these

Stacking is fine.

It’s the “run past everything without dying” that gets me, especially in Arah where elite mobs hit HARD (with immobilizes/cc/etc) and there are almost no resting/recovery spots. I was in one group where they literally spent 30 minutes trying to run an incredibly long distance through countless mobs and repeatedly wiping. Nobody came even close to making it all the way through. What an epic waste of time….we could’ve cleared the dungeon in that time.

Not to mention some classes are just vastly better equipped to run past everything than other classes ~cough Warriors cough~.

I’m just sick of Arah pugs at this point.

Condi Ele can be “done” in the sense that you will still be vastly inferior to a condition Necro, Engineer or Mesmer.
Ele is a direct damage class through-and-through.

Dalanor.5387:

Wintel.4873:

Ele’s? What about Ele’s???

Wait for your turn after they done with rangers.

Icarus.3689:

It is rangers’ turn . other class have to wait till they really fix the class (since ranger vote to 1st fix class

Why the hell can’t they do both classes at once?

Ele’s have been godawful in SPvP for almost 1 year now.

Ele’s? What about Ele’s???

It’s true, any other class running a glassy build will auto-lose to a glassy thief. It’s extremely hard to kill something that is stunning/blinding you and stealthing away the moment you have a chance to retaliate.

Thief is the only class that can get away using a glassy build in PvP and still have plenty of survivability.

People need to stop with the braindead reply of “stealth can’t capture points”, it’s not about capturing points, it’s about roaming and causing unbalanced fights. Also having a guaranteed stomp on 5 out of 8 classes with blind field adds further to their effectiveness.

Remember what happened in WoW with Shattrath and Dalaran? It caused all racial cities to become ghost towns.

I’m surprised GW2 didn’t learn from that mistake…a single quick-access neutral hub is never a good idea from a loading screen and lag standpoint. Nobody really enjoys it, they are mainly just there because it’s so convenient (Heart Of The Mists teleport) and central.

Scarlet gains her infinite resources from terrible story-writers

In WoW we saw the racial cities become deserted during TBC and WotLK due to neutral-hub cities like Shattrath and Dalaran. For that reason Blizzard didn’t have any neutral hubs in Cata or MoP, it automatically forced all the players to start using the racial capitals again.

GW2 faces a similar issue, Lions Arch has caused all all race cities to become deserted. It’s a shame really because cities like Divinity’s Reach and Rata Sum are absolutely mind-blowingly SPECTACULAR in terms of design, feel and visuals…but after personal story is over that’s the last time you visit your cities

Jayden Ennok.3687:

So this is essentially a rant that you got 1 shot by anything?

Fixed

Whole-heartedly agree with this.

I’m really not a fan of how stealth works in this game…it should work like how it does in WoW where it immediately cancels upon getting hit. You would think getting smashed in the face would be enough to reveal their location, unless they are wearing Crysis nanosuits?

ANet realized that Renewing Stamina is literally the ONLY thing keeping Ele’s alive in PvP (unless they get immob/stunned and die in 2 seconds).

100% uptime vigor traits are bad, and ANet did say they were getting rid of them…but vigor is all that Ele’s have to save them between their absurdly long defensive cooldowns.

Ele’s don’t need medium armor, they need a base health boost to 15K. Same tier as Mesmers, Rangers and Engineers.

Any reason why you haven’t tried using Staff? 1200 range is not the only benefit, it’s the 4k Lava Fonts + 4K Fireballs + 6K Meteors which amounts to extremely high sustained AoE damage without having to face-tank. That’s besides the permanent fire field that melee classes will love you for :P

The simplicity of using Staff allows you to concentrate more on the fight, especially in dungeons.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmYblRygjDAkCoEeQADFIUYBEA-jwxAYLAqAQyrIasF3ioxqWwUlER1ejioVDA-e

^ 10 loose points, can throw them into either Blasting Staff or 30 Air depending on what you prefer.

Nuke away!

Allie Murdock.8152:

Just FYI – We’ll be rolling out another round of Collaborative Development soon. I’ll be working with the balance designers to help get some well-rounded feedback from you all. Start thinking about what 3 things you would change, and keep an eye out for the CDI thread!

1) Increase Ele base health to 15K - currently Ele’s basically get insta-killed in both PvE and PvP if they aren’t wearing toughness gear + defensive traits. There is just not enough breathing room to pull off the intricate combos + spell telegraphs and cast times. The class feels extremely fragile with no defensive mechanics comparable to what Thieves, Guardians or Mesmers get.

2) Lower attunement cooldowns - 8 seconds baseline, 6 seconds with 30 Arcana. Currently our core mechanic feels more like a hindrance than an advantage, it’s extremely punishing to switch out of attunements. Also attunement cooldowns add further delay on weapon abilities that already have very long cooldowns.

3) Lower Ride The Lightning cooldown - 20 seconds flat, regardless of whether it hits anything or not. The nerfs to this ability were very poorly thought-out, that is all I have to say.

If I had to point out one technical fault with GW2, it’s the camera max distance…it really feels too close to the character to allow a proper view of the world and a pleasant gameplay experience. The early FoV issues were fixed for widescreen monitors, but camera max distance was left untouched. It’s nothing compared to the max zoom that some other MMO’s allow (e.g. WoW).

I cannot fathom why camera distance is locked in in PvE and WvW…increasing it can only improve gameplay and let people take in more of the spectacular visuals. I really want to be looking at something other than the ground most of the time, but it’s the only way I can tell how far enemies are from me (especially when playing a melee class).

The odd thing is, GW2 totally supports high camera zoom during events with ultra-huge bosses….that’s when the game REALLY opens up making me go “whoaaaa!” Suddenly I can see so much more! No more tunnel vision! But then for the rest of the game it locks me back down again.

Note: In SPvP I totally understand restricting zoom because the maps are small with walls/obstacles providing ambush potential. Keep things locked and standardized in SPvP. But for the rest of the game…it makes absolutely no sense.

I get the feeling that developers are being really stubborn about this for no reason.

It’s a 3-minute thing and that’s an awfully long cooldown for someting that enemies can simply walk away from.

The only time where meteor + tornado is truly worth it is in WvW if you’ve found the perfect cluster of enemies and just want to rain hell upon them.

Otherwise just regular meteor hits crazy enough with might + fury

Vick.6805:

Honestly, I think the reason most people perceive Ele damage as being terrible is because so many people refuse to break away from the typical x/x/x/30/30 builds. I even had someone try to claim that setup was the Ele’s zerker build recently, which is ridiculous.

I have to admit, I’ve complained about Ele damage in the past as well. But moving away from the x/x/x/30/30 build increases damage noticeably.

x/x/x/30/30 build only truly became mandatory when Ele healing + blast finishers were repeatedly nerfed.
Currently any Ele which is running a full-zerker build (e.g. 30/20/10/10/0) faces getting insta-killed from full health in both PvE and PvP.

As a Thief or Mesmer sometimes I can blow up an Ele before they can even react if one or two of their cantrips are on cooldown. They literally go 100% > 0% in 2 seconds flat.

I think this is mainly just an issue with Elementalists.

While I do agree that the variance between base hp is huge, classes have been balanced with defensive mechanics to make up for their low base health. Thieves have stealth + evasion + stuns and guardians have blocks + high armor + strong heals.

Meanwhile Elementalists seem to have nothing other than 1-2 extremely weak healing skills in the water tree, that’s it. I think it’s time that Ele’s were boosted up to 15k base health. It would be a HUGE help in PvE to stop getting insta-gibbed by elite mobs. The number of times I’ve been downed due to 1-shot unforseeable damage is ridiculous to the point of being unfair…flat PvE damage values means that I get repeatedly downed while another class gets to survive.

It’s not funny watching warriors laugh in the face of the kind of damage that would destroy an Ele, not when they can still do great damage and have the option to go ranged.

1) Guardians
2) Warriors
3) Engineers
4) Necros
5) Mesmers
6) Spirit Rangers

Obviously varies from build to build, but that’s the general gist of it assuming they are playing their “competitive” builds.

Staff is your friend. A full-damage build for doing events/etc would be along the lines of this with full zerker gear and Force sigil: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmYblRygjDAkCoEeQADFIUYBEA-jwxAYLAqAQyrIasF3ioxqWwUlER1ejioVDA-e

Note the 10 free points, you can throw them into Air (10% crit damage), Earth VI (10% flat damage in 600 range) or Arcana V (staff radius boost). Really up to you.
Fireball + Lava Font + Arcane skills will wreck pretty much any group of mobs long before they reach you. Remember to use Arcane Wave in Lava Font or Geyser/Healing Rain for blast finisher. Kiting also kinda works if you’re low on health, just strafe-run in a wide circle while spamming fireball :P

Scepter/Dagger can be a pain because often mobs will move out from under Dragon’s Tooth since it takes forever to land…and Phoenix doesn’t exactly have a short cooldown. Sustained reliable damage is not what S/D is about, it’s all about spike damage.

For some absurd reason Allie brought up that “roughly 50/50 want it to stay” from the people she had talked to (or something like that). Stay in Solo Queue or stay overall, who knows. I don’t even know why she brought it up, for all we know the people she had talked to were complete idiots or were being sarcastic/trolling.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/I-m-back/page/2#post3609028

Brew Pinch.5731:

Besides, they’re only going to improve from here.

One can only hope.

Take it from someone who also loves playing Mage/Sorcerer/etc in every MMO – Elementalist is NOT like the typical MMO mage class. That’s what I was thinking when I walked into GW2 and picked Ele…boy was I wrong.

I would say Engineer is actually more suited towards people who enjoy playing spellcasters. Sure you’re firing bullets instead of spells, but somehow it makes more sense.

Elementalist is…well, it’s not in a good state at the moment. Depending on your playstyle it can be extremely frustrating to play an Ele.

To sum it up quickly:

> Lowest base health and armor out of all classes
> No built-in survivability mechanics comparable to Thieves or Mesmers (the other squishy classes)
> Highly telegraphed (or slow-casting) abilities with very long cooldowns
> Mediocre mobility, far less than what Warriors / Thieves / Mesmers have.
> Very steep learning curve. Attunement mechanic = tracking double-layered cooldowns, juggling 15+ abilities, etc.
> There is no reward for playing well, you will only “keep up” with average players of other classes/builds.
> No role in PvP that can’t be performed better by another class/build
> Locked into Water + Arcana + Cantrips to have any kind of survivaiblity, but then damage absolutely sucks. Build versatility is lacking.

That is a brief list of the issues Ele’s are facing in PvP right now.

Ele is the king of PvE damage, especially when mobs/bosses are backed into corners or walls.
Scepter+Focus LH build and Staff + Frostbow can hit numbers like no other, that’s not even mentioning Fiery Greatsword.

But you need to know what you’re doing…..otherwise you will keep getting 2-shotted (or 1 shotted) due to having the lowest health/armor out of any other class.

If you’re just starting off in GW2, I would go with Engineer first. It truly is an amazing all-round class…great support, decent damage, great survivability. Engineer = very well-designed class.

I started playing GW2 as Ele and got accustomed to needing to have good timing on dodges, ability usage, awareness, etc and getting brutally punished for mistakes. I just thought the game was really a huge step up in difficulty compared to other MMO’s since I hadn’t tried any other class than Ele.

Then I tried a class that’s actually viable in PvP (e.g. Engineer) and my performance is that much better.

Ele, as it stands, is a good “tool” to improve yourself at the game.

Oh and of course PvE. Nothing beats wall-zerging PvE bosses with FGS, or Meteor AoE. Mmmm those numbers!

It’s not the player’s fault, it’s just that Ele is both subpar/weak AND a really difficult class to play.
It’s a combination of multiple factors which has given the Ele class a bad name…because occasionally some Ele’s DO cause losses by being free kills and dead weight.

Being “average” is not good enough to play Ele effectively. The player needs to constantly out-skill his opponents to win. Such players are not common.

The average player trying an Ele is going to do really bad compared to playing any other class. There is a steep learning curve, mistakes = death, etc. Also Ele has no real role in SPvP that isn’t done better by another class/build.
I can kill a zerker Ele in ~2 seconds flat if he messes up a dodge or his cantrips are on cooldown…doesn’t matter how good he is. And I don’t even do as much burst as Thieves or Mesmers.

Survivability is the lowest out of all classes, you have to sacrifice some damage slot skills (or traits) in order to avoid getting 2-shotted.
Unless of course you are very good, know exactly when to dodge, know fight mechanics, etc.

It should be abundantly clear to Allie (and other devs) that on these forums they are going to see the same overwhelmingly negative response to Skyhammer staying in Solo Queue as ever before.

So I guess it’s pointless for them to trying to discuss with us about keeping that godawful map in rated PvP, they already know the response from the majority of forum-goers.

I’m deeply saddened that they are still “bouncing thoughts” regarding keeping Skyhammer in Solo Queue….all these months of endless noise and complaints about the map weren’t enough for them.
I’ll bet several of the responses from the “hidden metric” of players who want to KEEP skyhammer in Solo Queue are low-rank PvP’ers who don’t know what they’re talking about or don’t care. They just enjoy the fact their class/build can knock people into glass and off ledges, that’s all that matters to them.

All is truly vain. I wish I was saying that line in a happy/jolly manner but I’m not.

Are people stupid? You’re not supposed to stomp an Ele, ever. Just burst them down during downed state and/or leave a whole bunch of conditions on them. They will die.

Allie Murdock.8152:

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

I hope that was some kind of bad joke. I really do.

Otherwise I’m just speechless at this point.

No it can’t be for real…Allie, please tell me that was a joke right?

At this point that’s like saying “we’re not quite convinced yet that terrorists are bad”.

ATMAvatar.5749:

0/10/0/30/30 with full zerker gear works just fine in upper 40s fractals with my staff.

That build works with any weapon though, it’s basically the most “safe” Ele build :p

Ferocity changes are having NO effect on SPvP. None whatsoever. Zip. Your crit damage will stay exactly the same.

It is largely a PvE and WvW change. It’s especially needed in WvW where some people are pushing 100%+ crit damage and nearly-guaranteed crit chance.

There is no “best” weapon set…Staff, S/D and D/D all work given the right build and skill.
Personally I would recommend sticking with staff, it has incredible sustained from Lava Font + Fireball and nothing can really touch Meteor damage on big targets. Healing is also solid.
But full zerker for fractals can be extremely punishing. I equip some cavalier’s pieces and change slot skills for when times get tough.

The majority of your survivability is going to come from your build and slot skills….if you decide to go with a full-DPS staff build (30/20/10/10/0) then it’s pretty much up to your slot skills and dodging, the rest of your survivability will come from your group setup.

You’re not going to get kicked from any team for not using X weapon or blasting fields, not unless the group is full of idiots. Or we’re are talking very high level fractals, by which point you should know your role in the group. For 95% of dungeons as long as you stay alive, help revive/support and kill stuff, that’s all that matters.

For my full-damage setup I run 30/20/10/10/0 with full zerker, Signet Of Fire + Frost Bow + Arcane Wave + Fiery Greatsword.
For a more defensive setup I run the same traits but with cavaliers armor, zerker trinkets, Signet Of Air + Arcane Shield + Arcane Wave.

Damage is what Ele’s excel at so I’m a bit fan of staying true to a damage-oriented setup as much as possible.

No, Dragon’s Tooth needs to be ground-targetable. That’s the only change I can agree with.

Besides that, the whole Ele class needs to be seriously looked at.

D/D is getting multiple buffs here but sadly I seriously hate D/D, especially in SPvP. Any ranged build can basically troll you by sitting out of reach and taking pot-shots and there is nothing you can do about it.
You’re not a thief so you can’t just stealth/leap to them, you’re not a mesmer so you can’t send waves of clones + stealth or range them back…you’re just an Ele with 40sec Lightning Flash (yay for cantrips) and 40 sec RTL.

I feel after the Ele changes we’re going to see people bottlenecked into Water+Arcana + Cantrip builds even more, but I guess as far as ANet is concerned it’s progress.

If you take Resto Signet you sacrifice condi cleanse, so any Resto Signet build that DOESN’T dip at least 20-30 points into Water is going to get eaten alive by condis. Ether Renewal is just far too necessary given how fast Ele health goes up and down, constantly teetering on the edge of death.

It’s a burst-deterrent and an opportunity for allies to at least start the reviving animation. Anyone in downed state = a sitting duck for massive burst, especially if they are on point and there is is ungodly amounts of AoE/cleave happening.

If there was no invuln delay then you would see a squishy class (e.g. Ele or Thief) basically go from 0 hp > downed > dead in the span of 2 seconds.

It’s intentional and balanced IMO.

The way condition stacks in PvE has been broken since the game’s release.

I think it’s been designed entirely around 5man content…with any more than 5 people attacking 1 thing the conditions stop making sense.

Justin ODell.9517:

Brutal Arts.6307:

Now make another diagram, but this time explain how it will increase Gem Sales.

<snip>

No!
BAD Justin.

Engi has nothing that even remotely resembles the core D/D playstyle, like lightning whip or evasive arcana.
Just about the only things the classes have in common is multiple ability bars via attunements/kits and a bit of thinking required to play well.

Just play Engi properly and enjoy being vastly more effective than Ele :P

Grevender.9235:

our most iconic mechanic as d/d roamers is pressing 2 just a second before being stomped by a random enemy and think “ahah I trolled him”. Then respawn.

^^ Thissssss

lorndarken.3702:

elementalist = lion , they can go fast than most and leap on targets and pounce

wat

Thieves, followed by Ele’s.

I can’t fathom why they can’t just buff Ele base health to ~15k and slash attunement cooldowns to ~6-8 seconds. Then maybe the core class mechanic will feel useful instead of keyboard-breakingly frustrating to work with.

Just give Ele’s some freaking BREATHING ROOM to pull off their ridiculously complicated + telegraphed setups and maybe we will see their non-existent representation in tournaments go up some day.

Currently I can destroy 50% of an Ele’s health off before they’ve even finished casting their first abilities. Then they spend the next few seconds frantically dodging and blowing cantrips…after which I proceed to auto-attack them to death and type “sorry dude, ele is a free kill” as I stomp them.
It’s downright pathetic.

Should re-name thread to “how do I beat healing signet”.
You’re not actually fighting against a warrior, you’re fighting against healing signet while the warrior happens to be doing stuff in the background.

Prepare for the thread-merge.

Oh jeez, did ANet delete their own post? This thread apparently had an ANet post.

haviz.1340:

Works on paper but any decent warrior will grab a greatsword for the evade, just like focus is preferred over off-hand dagger, because it brings utility. You may not like but it’s a fact.

I hear warriors can switch between weapons in combat. Is this true?!

I wish Ele’s could do that. Over half the attunement abilities are useless.

What exactly was GW1 Ele design?