Ele theorycrafts for PVP/WVW (July 10, 2018)

Invulnerability now affects conditions.

• Magnetic Shield 5 + Obsidian Flesh + Mist Form = ftw?• Sword Weaver?• Barbarian amulet + Elements of Rage?

@Abelisk.4527 said:Invulnerability now affects conditions.

• Magnetic Shield 5 + Obsidian Flesh + Mist Form = ftw?• Sword Weaver?• Barbarian amulet + Elements of Rage?

No my dear, the only good thing to do now is to delete your elementalist and reroll SB or FB.

I've heard that before. I remember when Evasive Arcana was nerfed. It really needed to be; a blast finisher on every dodge roll is just way too much. It was so fun while it lasted though. Anyway, so many times people say Elementalist is done for, may as well delete them, but there always seem to be viable builds even after we get nerfed. I hate getting nerfed as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to stop playing Ele because of it. I play it because I love the profession (both thematically and its play style), not because it's OP.

Most of the ele nerfs don't really hit pvp that much... Those skills and traits were much more present on pve builds.The buffs to sword skills is very minor in pvp, maybe the firegrab buff will make it more reliable.

the real buff for ele in pvp was the nerf for others.the nerf to condi mirage, condi thief and healbot fb will make the Sw/d ele more viable for point contesting.

Sw/f build got a slight boost with the invuls (focus earth 5) stopping condi dmg.

hello elemental attunement nerf (once again) and sword water dual skill nerfs.

gl WvWing with -40% dmg on lava font and Elements of Rage nerf. All 3 of weaver's grandmaster trait are also now medicore to bad traits.

but dont worry, we got some gud buffs to sword skills that don't affect pvp!

Nah, actually just reroll holo or spellbreaker, cuz those classes actually got buffed.

@Amaethon.8710 said:I've heard that before. I remember when Evasive Arcana was nerfed. It really needed to be; a blast finisher on every dodge roll is just way too much. It was so fun while it lasted though. Anyway, so many times people say Elementalist is done for, may as well delete them, but there always seem to be viable builds even after we get nerfed. I hate getting nerfed as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to stop playing Ele because of it. I play it because I love the profession (both thematically and its play style), not because it's OP.

I'm laughing so hard. How can it be OP when you're simply oneshot by everyone :wondering:

@lLobo.7960 said:Most of the ele nerfs don't really hit pvp that much... Those skills and traits were much more present on pve builds.The buffs to sword skills is very minor in pvp, maybe the firegrab buff will make it more reliable.

the real buff for ele in pvp was the nerf for others.the nerf to condi mirage, condi thief and healbot fb will make the Sw/d ele more viable for point contesting.

Sw/f build got a slight boost with the invuls (focus earth 5) stopping condi dmg.

the real buff for ele in pvp was the nerf for others - when I think I read enough for today someone comes with this. I presume we both play the same game, just case you might've not noticed that we're still oneshot and other professions can do much more than we can in terms of damage and healing.

@Amaethon.8710 said:I've heard that before. I remember when Evasive Arcana was nerfed. It really needed to be; a blast finisher on every dodge roll is just way too much. It was so fun while it lasted though. Anyway, so many times people say Elementalist is done for, may as well delete them, but there always seem to be viable builds even after we get nerfed. I hate getting nerfed as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to stop playing Ele because of it. I play it because I love the profession (both thematically and its play style), not because it's OP.

Evasive arcana wasn't even used for that purpose, it was used to get a burst of healing by dodging then water attuning mid dodge.

February 26, 2013

The spell cast while in water attunement has been split between PvE and PvP. This spell's effectiveness with the healing attribute has been reduced by 50% while in PvP.

That was the last nail on the coffin for that trait. The vast majority of the community thinks ele is getting excessively nerfed. Even non-ele players are starting to get confused.

@Guizao.4167 said:

@lLobo.7960 said:Most of the ele nerfs don't really hit pvp that much... Those skills and traits were much more present on pve builds.The buffs to sword skills is very minor in pvp, maybe the firegrab buff will make it more reliable.

the real buff for ele in pvp was the nerf for others.the nerf to condi mirage, condi thief and healbot fb will make the Sw/d ele more viable for point contesting.

Sw/f build got a slight boost with the invuls (focus earth 5) stopping condi dmg.

That statement gets thrown around every single patch and it never becomes true. The other classes would have to get completely gutted for ele to become good in PvP. In fact, I believe that with this patch we just became rather useless in WvW too. Looks like it is a PvE only class now with high risk and mediocre reward. We only need one more patch with nerfs for the entire class to become worthless in every single game mode.

as a s/f fresh air elem player, i hated that anet keeps pushing to sell their expansion by making the expansion specializations much stronger. i'd say this latest patch was just the same nudge in the same direction.

I mean, seriously, they didn't change too much for ele PVPwise. Was not needed anyway. Unravel is a great skill, water traitline never needed, damage was great and the build diversity... FA, Tempest, zerker staff... we were so lucky, we just didn't see it.

For WvW though, I don't get the lava font nerf.It was always such a small circle, did anyone ask for nerfs? Now we have to spend time in fire only casting that all the time...

I will try some meme builds or if I don't find anything funny just move to holo, who actually got buffed.

@lLobo.7960 said:Most of the ele nerfs don't really hit pvp that much... Those skills and traits were much more present on pve builds.The buffs to sword skills is very minor in pvp, maybe the firegrab buff will make it more reliable.

I don't even think that Sword got buffed, for me it straight up got nerfed with the changes, aka nerfs, to Water/Earth and Water/Air Dual Skills. And imho those hit really hard in PvP. Those skills were almost exclusivly used when facing away from a target while kiting a war ,holo or whatever. Not beeing able to use it that way anymore and the fact that u dont get the barriere if you accidentally use it when you target an enemy not in front of you gutted kiting, dmg and survivability all in one. It's also a change on a functional level which they where saying they won't do, so i'am quite dissapointed by this patch tbh.

So far I observed two things:

1. The (slight) nerf of mirage and the (questinable) nerf to scourge did have an impact. I did not encounter as many of them so far. Also condi thief has vanished completely.
2. There might be an upcoming of Sb with LB, also more rifle thieves.

So actually water is not 100% needed anymore. And focus might become great. So it's an indirect buff to the lightning rod build and maybe to condition builds.

Weaver got nerfed a little bit in latest patch.Traits,projectiles that can't be thrown back anymore (yes,33% buff,it works vs scourges for example,but rest will just simply teleport behind you or run oor,yay).I don't care about Invulnerability adjust,it's simply "clean condis first,then use mist form",now it just saves some time and cooldowns.

After 5 years I know how ANet "balances" ele,and tbh,leave this class alone and just work on nerfing the others if needed,for a higher good.

@Megametzler.5729 said:So far I observed two things:

1. The (slight) nerf of mirage and the (questinable) nerf to scourge did have an impact. I did not encounter as many of them so far. Also condi thief has vanished completely.
2. There might be an upcoming of Sb with LB, also more rifle thieves.

So actually water is not 100% needed anymore. And focus might become great. So it's an indirect buff to the lightning rod build and maybe to condition builds.

Elements of Rage and sword's dual water skill nerf hits the lightning rod build quite a bit and there are certainly still condi mirages around. There're also a lot more spellbreakers, which the lighting rod build is weak against, along with rise in holos, and conversion holos is also good against the lightning rod build. There's really no indirect buff.

@LazySummer.2568 said:

@"Megametzler.5729" said:So far I observed two things:

1. The (slight) nerf of mirage and the (questinable) nerf to scourge did have an impact. I did not encounter as many of them so far. Also condi thief has vanished completely.
2. There might be an upcoming of Sb with LB, also more rifle thieves.

So actually water is not 100% needed anymore. And focus might become great. So it's an indirect buff to the lightning rod build and maybe to condition builds.

Relax, mate. ;)

It definitely was an indirect buff to that build. Before the patch it did not work at all in higher tiers (at least in EU lol), now it is kind of playable. The big weakness to it were not Holos or SBs - it was condi mirage, thief and scourge.

I am definitely not saying it's close to being meta, oh no! The damage is ridiculous compared to any other bruiser and the sustain is worse than the mender's build. But you can do some damage and CC. And - as I mentioned - equipping focus might be helpful for teams in the future.

I am not trying to defend Anets "balancing". Gosh, no, it's terrible! I am just giving suggestions on what's still playable without being killed instantly or laughed at in higher tiers. In total and with the upcoming of revenant and others, this was still a nerf of course. But we all have to find a way to deal with it and that's what I am trying to contribute here.