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Which GW1 Ele skills would you like to see make a comeback (with alterations or "as was"), and why?


delriaan.7854

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Having main'd the Ele since GW1, I can't help but feel kinda "meh" with the GW2 Ele after PoF. What made the class so much fun in GW1 was the element-mixing potential along with the skill effects, especially the numerous PBAoE skills.
Elites felt elite, and game play conceptually felt much like what I envision an Elementalist should be (influences from D&D and sword/magic anime ^_^).
So, if you've played enough of GW1 as an Ele to make the comparison, I'd like to get your take. Ciao!

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Honestly, the ele in GW2 is in line with the Ele in guild wars one, post-rework ele at least. Elementally-centered bursty playstyle with different utility skills and inflicted effects per element, very very little in the way of survival skills compared to the other professions, grows more powerful when you know how to use elements together properly, etc. The thing that strikes me most is the lack of a big, flashy finisher elite skill as was common for a pre-rework GW1 Ele. The signature feature of the Elementalist for most of GW1's active development period was that the enemy knew when you pressed 3 to cast your elite skill. Their health bar melted and, in pvp, often they were forced to stop casting and reposition due to a sustained area aoe that will kill them if they don't react. In PVE it wasn't uncommon to see eles hitting entire groups of enemies, sometimes 20+ foes, for 1/3rd of their health bar in a single cast. Then the GW1 team reworked the elementalist late into the game's life cycle, and the relative power level of the class dropped in line with the other professions. That, I suspect, is what you're seeing: speaking as an active current GW1 player, Eles in the modern game are not the portable nukes we all fondly remember, instead they're just one of multiple burst-dps casters, albeit with by far the most dps in the game if you're in a player group set up to keep enemies still in your aoe zones. In modern GW2, Eles are one of multiple burst-dps casters and do by far the most damage of anything if the target stays still so the ele's damage zones do full damage. I suspect the issue isn't that elementalists are substantially different in flavor from GW1... but that your memories of GW1 are of pre-rework elementalist, whereas the GW2 class matches with the post-rework elementalist.

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From all the skill in gw1 I would like to see Searing_Flames again. I don't think I used another elite skill more often. The aoe potential was incredible, whole groups melting in seconds. Could be an interesint interaction for Gw2, between burning and power damage.Mechanicaly intrersting would also be Double_Dragon. Could be a mobile fire field for you and one ally.

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@Girlyvader.9078 Hey, thanks for the feedback. I was more focused on the overall thematic game play of the class more than (but not excluding) the specifics of the DPS potential. The Tempest and Weaver have it _almost _right in many regards, but I suppose it's the mechanics variety that I'm really after. As much of a pain as it was in GW1, being able to manage energy left a degree of situational and personal creativity in game play that I really enjoyed (sort of like the ammo feature that's been introduced). That said, skill balance isn't always easy; I just think that the concept of a class that manipulates the fundamental forces of nature needs to be under continuous improvement beyond single-skill DPS. At any rate, thanks again for the feedback. Cheers!

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@"Mithos.9023" Thanks for the feedback. SF was a lot of fun. I think the high energy cost helped balance the skill usage, even with other energy-mitigation skills. Deceptively simplistic, it was a high-risk, high-reward skill that forced some seriously strategic builds. What SF reminds me of from the current game is skill chain. What would be neat is deliberate mechanic for intra- or inter-elemental chain sequences (though, I must admit to some degree of satisfaction at mastering elemental rotation).Invoke Lightning > Inferno was a combo I used from time to time, too.
I'm feelin' ya on the DD, btw ;)

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@"Mithos.9023" said:From all the skill in gw1 I would like to see Searing_Flames again. I don't think I used another elite skill more often. The aoe potential was incredible, whole groups melting in seconds. Could be an interesint interaction for Gw2, between burning and power damage.Mechanicaly intrersting would also be Double_Dragon. Could be a mobile fire field for you and one ally.

A "Tether" with a line of burning accross the ground between you both?

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For me, the key difference between the two is that GW1 ele builds typically focus on one or two elements, whereas GW2 ele always has access to all four, and will generally use all of them for something.

I don't think there are any spells I specifically want back. Maybe Searing Heat - but I don't think it would work as well in GW2.

There are a couple of more general things I miss though:

  • Being able to use water magic offensively, to deal damage and maintain chill on enemies. It would be nice to have a weapon with damage-focussed water spells - or a trait that converts healing done by water spells to damage (with some appropriate modifier).
  • Skills that interact with one another, e.g. many spells had bonuses if you were overcast, Icy Prism and Teinai's Crystals had bonuses against foes with a water magic hex, Stoning and Glowstone had bonuses against weakened foes, etc. I think Fire Grab is the only ele spell like that in GW2. Generally I'd like to see more of those kinds of interactions, for all professions.
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@Tommo Chocolate.5870 said:

  • Being able to use water magic offensively, to deal damage and maintain chill on enemies. It would be nice to have a weapon with damage-focussed water spells - or a trait that converts healing done by water spells to damage (with some appropriate modifier).

Now I am amazed, that is exactly the idea I had in mind for some time now. I thought of a grand master trait option that would change the healing of water spells into damage. Possibly to replace soothing power, as I always had the feeling that it is underwhelming.

For the hex like play stile the best option would be, as you mentioned, something like fire grab. Conditions could be the trigger here, some additional effects of water spells if the foe has vulnerability? On the other hand I hope hexes will come with an elite spezialisation.

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@Mithos.9023 said:

@"Tommo Chocolate.5870" said:
  • Being able to use water magic offensively, to deal damage and maintain chill on enemies. It would be nice to have a weapon with damage-focussed water spells - or a trait that converts healing done by water spells to damage (with some appropriate modifier).

Now I am amazed, that is exactly the idea I had in mind for some time now. I thought of a grand master trait option that would change the healing of water spells into damage. Possibly to replace soothing power, as I always had the feeling that it is underwhelming.

This kind of highlights a restriction of the current trait system: there's no way to add a new trait into an existing traitline without removing an existing one. (I realise it's deliberately designed that way.) I suppose as you suggest they could replace Soothing Power, and maybe increase the Healing Power contribution to Soothing Mist so that players who want it to heal for more could do so using Healing Power gear.

For the hex like play stile the best option would be, as you mentioned, something like fire grab. Conditions could be the trigger here, some additional effects of water spells if the foe has vulnerability? On the other hand I hope hexes will come with an elite spezialisation.

There are also a few traits that function in a similar way to Fire Grab: Burning Rage, Serrated Stones, and Piercing Shards. I'm not sure hexes could work in the same way they did in GW1, with a unique effect for each hex spell - that could get somewhat out of hand in the open world or WvW. I think that's why they were essentially streamlined in GW2 into just Confusion and Torment (with enchantments getting replaced with boons for the same reason).

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Wards! I'd like to see wards make a come back onto the elementalist skillset. However, I'd like if anet refrain from falling into the eternal spiral of more damage and focus on these wards as skills that are either for group support or control with a good uptime (which mean that they shouldn't be a carbon copy of some other professions "wells")

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