The trait changes the Elementalist needs (more synergy!)

I've been thinking about writing this for a while. Got halfway through a lot of times and gave up thinking "what is the point? Dev's don't even look at this". And with the whole feedback of "don't try to tell me how to do my work" I have been wondering if any of this gets even a look at. But decided to have another go.

Air Traitline should be about cc and burst. Currently most weapons lack the the burst on air attune, making traits that improve dmg and critical in air sub-optimal.I think a few changes need to be made to improve the theme of air burst, and create a possibility for air to work as an offensive support option:

• swap Ferocious winds to minor adept trait and change it to +150 ferocity in air attunement.
• new major adept, moved from water: Piercing lightening - vulnerability last 33% longer, increased critical chance to vulnerable foes (2% per stack) while in air attunement;
• new major master, replacing inscriptions: Zephyr speed - static auras you apply give supperspeed (3s), apply quickness (3s) when you apply supperspeed;
• change lightening rod to include: electric discharge hits twice on disabled foes;

These changes create the opportunity for air to be the go-to element for a power dmg burst (sustained burst with FA, higher CC burst with lightening rod or finishing bursts with BttH), but also opens the possibility for a fresh-air tempest to constantly buff its group offensively with fury and quickness by sharing shock auras. It also opens up synergy with weavers elemental pursuit with adding quickness on superspeed (proposed zephyrs speed) at the cost of tempest defenseEles that focus on air burst, can also use piercing lightening to improve their crit chance, opening up viability for valkirie and cavaliers stats, making the burst air ele (that does not have stealth or lots of invuls) more survivable at the expense of having lower crit chance when not in air or against foes without vulnerability

Water Traitline is about cleanse and healing. Its the go-to sustain traitline for ele.A few changes to give similar options to aura buffs (as fire gives more might per aura and air gives fury) and options to sustain.

• aquatic benevolence moved to minor adept (swap with soothing mist) and changed to give 150 healing power (to be in line with other minor adepts)
• soothing mist moved to minor grandmaster (swap with aquatic benevolence) and changed to affect only the ele (or very small 150ish radius) and gives 10% healing effectivness
• latent stamina, from tempest line, replaces piercing shards (moved to air) as a major adept
• change soothing ice to grant frost aura when critically hit, frost auras that you apply grant regeneration (3s)
• soothing disruption moved to major adept and replaces stop drop and roll
• invigorating torrents moved from tempest line to major master (replacing cleansing wave )
• soothing recovery new major master (adapted from arcane resurrection) cast geyser when reviving an ally, geyser revive allies, improved revive speed, give frost aura to you when reviving an ally, and frost aura to allies you revive.
• aquatic benevolence changed to be 10% healing effectiveness (lower bonus but not just to allies)
• cleansing wave moved to major grandmaster (replacing powerful auras moving aura share to tempest line) and includes: recharges water attunment when you use a healing skill.
• soothing power add soothing mist now effects 5 people (or maybe 10 in pve)

This changes make 3 clear options on the water line: improving auras (auras can give regen and vigor, frost auras able to give regen twice - similar to fire auras giving 2 might in fire- , being a great combo for group cleanse combo with cleansing water), giving heals and cleanses when going into water, and refreshing water attunement faster at the expense of your heal skill, or to be a full healer staying longer in water attunement and improving your soothing mist and water cooldowns.The proposed change to soothing mist and soothing power, make it more efficient and the effect also helps the ele using his healing skills and combos, but only effect the ele. But if the ele takes soothing power this will make this trait not only improve the regen you apply, but also buff other players own healing, making a great choice for a healing ele that is not focused on auras. The soothing mist effect also lasts for a while, even when you leave water, threfore can be used by an ele that stays in water longer or one that jumps in water for burst heals...

Arcane Traitline Arcane is about fast swaping attunements, giving short buffs to each and all attunment on swap and about arcane skills. As Glyphs are a skill type that change based on attunement, I though they fit better in this line, as it grants different bonuses based on attunement.

• Arcane prowess reverted to grant fury on attunment swap
• Inscriptions glyph trait (boons per attunment and lower recharge) moved from air line as it gives different boons per attunment so it feels more in line with arcane, replaces arcane resurrection that was adpted to a water trait
• final shielding include: arcane shield is considered an aura for the purposes of traits and effects
• bountiful power change to "gain increased effects for each boon on you based on attunement: fire: 1% dmg, 1% condi dmg; aird: 1% dmg, 1% crit dmg; water: 1% healing, 1% outgoing healing; earth: 1% dmg reduction, 1% condi duration reduction". This trait is too focused on dmg to be on the arcana line. It needs to be more adaptable for this line. Just like the other Grandmasters have different effects per attunement, so do this. This reduces the direct power it gives to dps builds, gives more synergy to hybrid dps builds and a good use to full hybrid builds. It can be used by a full water healing build for groups and becomes a good contender to evasive arcana, where one is constant passive buffs, the other more powerfull active effects.

fire traitline is about ongoing dmg, both power and condition through burns.The issue with the fire traitline is that it offers little option for customization, with a few traits being the go-to and other being very lackluster for their spot.

• conjurer and conjure weapons need a rework. I'm not sure Fire is the right line for conjure weapons, but its hard to place it on anything else.
• move blinding ashes to major adept (in place of burning fire) and reduce the ICD to 6s. This trait is too weak to be a grandmaster, and by placing it in competition with burning precision in the minor adept you increase its accessibility while lowering its efficiency, as you remove the synergy with burning precision, making it required to be in fire (with some exceptions) to trigger it
• pyromancer training change it to fire skills have reduced recharge and grant might (so removing the dmg bonus and combining it with pyromancer puissance) making it a more interesting trait as it reduces cd and builds up might the more you use your (now reduced cd) fire skills
• pyromancer puissance change to 10% bonus dmg and condition dmg while in fire, making it a trully capstone of hybrid dmg line. This leaves persisting flames and one with fire as more support options.
• burning fire as a major grandmaster and including: cantrips give might (as it used to)

This changes try to increase the hybrid dmg of fire line. It gives you choices as in: If you change attunements often, than maybe the bonus dmg in fire is not as useful as lasting fire fields, while if you stay longer in fire you can build more might and have increased dmg and condi dmg. Or you can trait more defensively with blinds and condi cleanse to make sure you can stay in fire longer to deliver the dmg (instead of having to swap to a defensive attunement)

Earth traitline is about codition dmg (lower than fire, with bleeds) and defense through reducing dmg, condition dmg and applying weakness, cripple to opponents.

• swap rock solid with elemental shielding and make it gives stability only to the elementalist
• swap elemental shielding with rock solid and include: protection you apply have improved damage reduction (moved from tempest minor grandmaster)
• stone heart include: cause weakness (3s) to enemies that critically hit you;
• diamond skin reduce the health threshold (50%).

The changes try to give stone heart a bit of a use outside of earth to be a viable trait if you are not camping earth while also improving the aura trait on earth. By making rock solid a selfish trait, it can be moved down to adept and be a good option to earthen embrace (constant stability or a burst at 50%hp). The change to diamond skin aims to make synergies with traits like earthen embrace, _bolstered elements, and final shielding

Tempest Elite spec is about staying longer in attunements and overloading them for greater effects. It relies on caster centered AoEs and group support.

• New trait effective conduit replaces latent stamina: Using skills from an attunment reduces the recharge of its overload.
• tempestuous aria change buffs and conditions to be dependent on the shout (element) and include shout CD reduction.
• harmonious conduit change the buff according to the overload used (fire 5% dmg and condi dmg, air 10% crit dmg, earth -10% dmg and condi reduction, water 10% healing effectiveness)
• Elemental bastion moved to major master (replaces invigorating torrents) and remove frost aura on hit (becomes just auras apply heal)
• Hardy conduit move the improved protection to earth line, overloads provide protection and barrier
• powerful auras moved from water traitline and replaces major grandmaster elemental bastion

This gives the tempest the option to buff allies by sharing auras, improving shouts or being more selfish and focusing on its own overloads to complete them successfully and frequently. The reduced recharge on overloads could be a flat percentage but seems more interesting giving it a reduced recharge per skill use, making that weapons with faster casting times (scepter, dagger) can overload faster than slow ones (staff). The changes try to combine well with the options on each traitline and lets the tempest (by moving aura share from water) becomes a full offensive (fire/air/tempest) or defensive (water/earth/tempest) support or even a mix of those. Tempest can also focus on being more selfish and versatile by focusing on overloading more frequent and successfully at the cost of sharing auras and heals.

Weaver elite spec is about combining attunements and using dual skills. It gives the ele options for a bit of mobility, barrier and vitality to use its melee range (with sword) more reliable or provides bonus for swaping to diferent attunements and combinations.

• Dual attacks need to get CD reduction from the elemental trailines related to them, even if half the CD reduction from each line;
• Elements of rage remove the ferocity buff, change the 8s buff to provide 10% dmg and 10% crit dmg, equivalent to weaver prowess
• invigorating strikes include: vigor has improved effectiveness (33-50%)

With the changes to air (superspeed can give quickness) there are a lot of synergy with weaver traits. Removing the ferocity bonus from elements of rage, and making it a flat crit bonus when attuning to a single element, makes it more limited in use, but a great synergy with bonus on dps oriented attunments that also provide bonus while at the attunement.

general

• Slightly reduce the power dmg of some staff skills but include more condition dmg.If meteors are going to hit for less power dmg at the end of the skill, then make them apply burning. Move some dmg from dual attacks from power to condition.Staff is heavily power oriented, if the power dmg is above the desired maximum, transfer some power to condition, making it more viable as a hybrid or condition variation. This will open more synergy with earth traits, or create a more viable hybrid spec with air focusing on bursts in air and sustain in fire/earth...
• Make summoning conjures a ammunition based skill, if targeting yourself you get the conjure directly in your hand, if targeting the floor it summons in the floor

TL/DR:

• more synergy across traitlines
• Give aurashare to tempest so it can be a defensive or offensive aura share based on the other traitlines, instead of being stuck with water.
• Bring back fury to arcane, might to cantrips in fire, regen and vigor to auras in water
• Improve air traitline to give more burst
• Change fire to give more hybrid dmg
• Move some defensive stuff from tempest to water and earth
• Change elements of rage to be more in line with weaver prowess
• If staff is OP in power dmg, move some of it to condi, creating opportunities for other builds instead of just nerfing it.

I was gonna make a similar post about trait/skill reworks, but I was a bit busy with uni and irl stuff. I can say that I had same idea about specialization roles (like getting rid of vuln in water to make it focus fully on healing, merging some core traits with tempest etc). I had some different ideas on some traits, but I like most of yours better than mine.

The main difference that I had in mind was making soothing mist a selfish regen by default instead of group heal, as well as making powerful aura trait a tempest minor. The goal of mist was to make it a strong self sustain trait with strong base healing, but very weak healing power scaling, so selfish ele builds become less reliant on healing power. Current GM mist trait would be swapped with 5 (or even 10) man mist we currently have. I'm not a fan of being forced to have support traits by default when I just need self sustain, which is pretty bad currently without sacrificing a lot of stats into healing power, at which point you become more of a support than a bruiser (which I think should be optional, not a must). Powerful aura is also a bit wasted trait on core ele since it doesnt have that many important aura procs, while whole tempest is about auras.

I'd also love to see more/better superspeed interactions with weaver. For example: (damaging) condi cleanse on superspeed application, immunity to moving condies while having superspeed, additional damage on swift revenge, barrier/bigger regen/instant heal per second of superspeed/on superspeed application compared to swiftness etc.

Colour me impressed, I wasn't sure about it at first but the more I read it the more I liked the idea of it.

@steki.1478 said:The main difference that I had in mind was making soothing mist a selfish regen by default instead of group heal, as well as making powerful aura trait a tempest minor. The goal of mist was to make it a strong self sustain trait with strong base healing, but very weak healing power scaling, so selfish ele builds become less reliant on healing power. Current GM mist trait would be swapped with 5 (or even 10) man mist we currently have. I'm not a fan of being forced to have support traits by default when I just need self sustain, which is pretty bad currently without sacrificing a lot of stats into healing power, at which point you become more of a support than a bruiser (which I think should be optional, not a must). Powerful aura is also a bit wasted trait on core ele since it doesnt have that many important aura procs, while whole tempest is about auras.

I agree with soothing mist being selfish by default or at least a very small radius (5 people 130 ish AoE). But I really think the minor adept in water needs to give 150 healing power to keep it consistent with the rest of the minor adepts. Maybe move the soothing mist to minor grandmaster with the increased healing effectivness.That is actually a good idea!Make aquatic benevolence the minor adept, giving 150 healing power.Then make soothing mist the current regen it is, with a 10% healing effectiveness, but only effect the ele.Make soothing power improve the regen effect, and share to 5-10 people in a big radius. This will make this trait not only improve the regen you apply, but also buff other players own healing, making a great choice for a healing ele that is not focused on auras. The soothing mist effect also lasts for a while, even when you leave water, threfore can be used by an ele that stays in water longer or one that jumps in water for burst heals...I'll add that to the main post.

@steki.1478 said:I'd also love to see more/better superspeed interactions with weaver. For example: (damaging) condi cleanse on superspeed application, immunity to moving condies while having superspeed, additional damage on swift revenge, barrier/bigger regen/instant heal per second of superspeed/on superspeed application compared to swiftness etc.

I think the interaction of supperspeed giving regen to get synergy with water traitline is a good one to avoid conditions.The synergy that is lacking on the weaver is the hability to build up enough barrier to be a good combo with earth (diamond skin);If they change diamond skin to work down to 50% hp, then the condi weaver with earth/fire/weaver, focusing on barriers and condition could be a valid option, with enough defense and barrier to keep diamond skin, and when below 50% proc armor of earth and cast ether renewal to cleanse and get back up.

The main thing is to have different options to play with... lower mobility but more defense (earth/barriers) or more mobility and cleanses (superspeed/water/regens)Right now, diamond skin and barrier are just not enough to be competitive on any mode that it would matters.

@"lLobo.7960" said:I've been thinking about writing this for a while. Got halfway through a lot of times and gave up thinking "what is the point? Dev's don't even look at this". And with the whole feedback of "don't try to tell me how to do my work" I have been wondering if any of this gets even a look at. But decided to have another go.

Air Traitline should be about cc and burst. Currently most weapons lack the the burst on air attune, making traits that improve dmg and critical in air sub-optimal.I think a few changes need to be made to improve the theme of air burst, and create a possibility for air to work as an offensive support option:

• swap Ferocious winds to minor adept trait and change it to +150 ferocity in air attunement.
• new major adept, moved from water: Piercing lightening - vulnerability last 33% longer, deal increased dmg to vulnerable foes (1% per stack) while in air attunement;
• new major master, replacing inscriptions: Zephyr speed - static auras you apply give supperspeed (3s), apply quickness (3s) when you apply supperspeed;
• change lightening rod to include: electric discharge hits twice on disabled foes;

These changes create the opportunity for air to be the go-to element for a power dmg burst (sustained burst with FA, higher CC burst with lightening rod or finishing bursts with BttH), but also opens the possibility for a fresh-air tempest to constantly buff its group offensively with fury and quickness by sharing shock auras. It also opens up synergy with weavers elemental pursuit with adding quickness on superspeed (proposed zephyrs speed) at the cost of tempest defense

Water Traitline is about cleanse and healing. Its the go-to sustain traitline for ele.A few changes to give similar options to aura buffs (as fire gives more might per aura and air gives fury) and options to sustain.

• aquatic benevolence moved to minor adept (swap with soothing mist) and changed to give 150 healing power (to be in line with other minor adepts)
• soothing mist moved to minor grandmaster (swap with aquatic benevolence) and changed to affect only the ele (or very small 150ish radius) and gives 10% healing effectivness
• latent stamina, from tempest line, replaces piercing shards (moved to air) as a major adept
• change soothing ice to grant frost aura when critically hit, frost auras that you apply grant regeneration (3s)
• soothing disruption moved to major adept and replaces stop drop and roll
• invigorating torrents moved from tempest line to major master (replacing cleansing wave )
• soothing recovery new major master (adapted from arcane resurrection) cast geyser when reviving an ally, geyser revive allies, improved revive speed, give frost aura to you when reviving an ally, and frost aura to allies you revive.changed to be 10% healing effectiveness (lower bonus but not just to allies)
• cleansing wave moved to major grandmaster (replacing powerful auras moving aura share to tempest line) and includes: recharges water attunment when you use a healing skill.
• soothing power add soothing mist now effects 5 people (or maybe 10 in pve)

This changes make 3 clear options on the water line: improving auras (auras can give regen and vigor, frost auras able to give regen twice - similar to fire auras giving 2 might in fire- , being a great combo for group cleanse combo with cleansing water), giving heals and cleanses when going into water, and refreshing water attunement faster at the expense of your heal skill, or to be a full healer staying longer in water attunement and improving your soothing mist and water cooldowns.The proposed change to soothing mist and soothing power, make it more efficient and the effect also helps the ele using his healing skills and combos, but only effect the ele. But if the ele takes soothing power this will make this trait not only improve the regen you apply, but also buff other players own healing, making a great choice for a healing ele that is not focused on auras. The soothing mist effect also lasts for a while, even when you leave water, threfore can be used by an ele that stays in water longer or one that jumps in water for burst heals...

Arcane Traitline Arcane is about fast swaping attunements, giving short buffs to each and all attunment on swap and about arcane skills. As Glyphs are a skill type that change based on attunement, I though they fit better in this line, as it grants different bonuses based on attunement.

• Arcane prowess reverted to grant fury on attunment swap
• Inscriptions glyph trait (boons per attunment and lower recharge) moved from air line as it gives different boons per attunment so it feels more in line with arcane, replaces arcane resurrection that was adpted to a water trait
• final shielding include: arcane shield is considered an aura for the purposes of traits and effects

fire traitline is about ongoing dmg, both power and condition through burns.The issue with the fire traitline is that it offers little option for customization, with a few traits being the go-to and other being very lackluster for their spot.

• conjurer and conjure weapons need a rework. I'm not sure Fire is the right line for conjure weapons, but its hard to place it on anything else.
• move blinding ashes to major adept (in place of burning fire) and reduce the ICD to 6s. This trait is too weak to be a grandmaster, and by placing it in competition with burning precision in the minor adept you increase its accessibility while lowering its efficiency, as you remove the synergy with burning precision, making it required to be in fire (with some exceptions) to trigger it
• pyromancer training change it to fire skills have reduced recharge and grant might (so removing the dmg bonus and combining it with pyromancer puissance) making it a more interesting trait as it reduces cd and builds up might the more you use your (now reduced cd) fire skills
• pyromancer puissance change to 10% bonus dmg and condition dmg while in fire, making it a trully capstone of hybrid dmg line. This leaves persisting flames and one with fire as more support options.
• burning fire as a major grandmaster and including: cantrips give might (as it used to)

This changes try to increase the hybrid dmg of fire line. It gives you choices as in: If you change attunements often, than maybe the bonus dmg in fire is not as useful as lasting fire fields, while if you stay longer in fire you can build more might and have increased dmg and condi dmg. Or you can trait more defensively with blinds and condi cleanse to make sure you can stay in fire longer to deliver the dmg (instead of having to swap to a defensive attunement)

Earth traitline is about codition dmg (lower than fire, with bleeds) and defense through reducing dmg, condition dmg and applying weakness, cripple to opponents.

• swap rock solid with elemental shielding and make it gives stability only to the elementalist
• swap elemental shielding with rock solid and include: protection you apply have improved damage reduction (moved from tempest minor grandmaster)
• stone heart include: cause weakness (3s) to enemies that critically hit you;
• diamond skin reduce the health threshold (50%).

The changes try to give stone heart a bit of a use outside of earth to be a viable trait if you are not camping earth while also improving the aura trait on earth. By making rock solid a selfish trait, it can be moved down to adept and be a good option to earthen embrace (constant stability or a burst at 50%hp). The change to diamond skin aims to make synergies with traits like earthen embrace, _bolstered elements, and final shielding

Tempest Elite spec is about staying longer in attunements and overloading them for greater effects. It relies on caster centered AoEs and group support.

• New trait effective conduit replaces latent stamina: Using skills from an attunment reduces the recharge of its overload.
• tempestuous aria change buffs and conditions to be dependent on the shout (element) and include shout CD reduction.
• harmonious conduit change the buff according to the overload used (fire 5% dmg and condi dmg, air 10% crit dmg, earth -10% dmg and condi reduction, water 10% healing effectiveness)
• Elemental bastion moved to major master (replaces invigorating torrents) and remove frost aura on hit (becomes just auras apply heal)
• Hardy conduit move the improved protection to earth line, overloads provide protection and barrier
• powerful auras moved from water traitline and replaces major grandmaster elemental bastion

This gives the tempest the option to buff allies by sharing auras, improving shouts or being more selfish and focusing on its own overloads to complete them successfully and frequently. The reduced recharge on overloads could be a flat percentage but seems more interesting giving it a reduced recharge per skill use, making that weapons with faster casting times (scepter, dagger) can overload faster than slow ones (staff). The changes try to combine well with the options on each traitline and lets the tempest (by moving aura share from water) becomes a full offensive (fire/air/tempest) or defensive (water/earth/tempest) support or even a mix of those. Tempest can also focus on being more selfish and versatile by focusing on overloading more frequent and successfully at the cost of sharing auras and heals.

Weaver elite spec is about combining attunements and using dual skills. It gives the ele options for a bit of mobility, barrier and vitality to use its melee range (with sword) more reliable or provides bonus for swaping to diferent attunements and combinations.

• Dual attacks need to get CD reduction from the elemental trailines related to them, even if half the CD reduction from each line;
• Elements of rage remove the ferocity buff, change the 8s buff to provide 10% dmg and 10% crit dmg, equivalent to weaver prowess
• invigorating strikes include: vigor has improved effectiveness (33-50%)

With the changes to air (superspeed can give quickness) there are a lot of synergy with weaver traits. Removing the ferocity bonus from elements of rage, and making it a flat crit bonus when attuning to a single element, makes it more limited in use, but a great synergy with bonus on dps oriented attunments that also provide bonus while at the attunement.

general

• Slightly reduce the power dmg of some staff skills but include more condition dmg.If meteors are going to hit for less power dmg at the end of the skill, then make them apply burning. Move some dmg from dual attacks from power to condition.Staff is heavily power oriented, if the power dmg is above the desired maximum, transfer some power to condition, making it more viable as a hybrid or condition variation. This will open more synergy with earth traits, or create a more viable hybrid spec with air focusing on bursts in air and sustain in fire/earth...
• Make summoning conjures a ammunition based skill, if targeting yourself you get the conjure directly in your hand, if targeting the floor it summons in the floor

TL/DR:

• more synergy across traitlines
• Give aurashare to tempest so it can be a defensive or offensive aura share based on the other traitlines, instead of being stuck with water.
• Bring back fury to arcane, might to cantrips in fire, regen and vigor to auras in water
• Improve air traitline to give more burst
• Change fire to give more hybrid dmg
• Move some defensive stuff from tempest to water and earth
• Change elements of rage to be more in line with weaver prowess
• If staff is OP in power dmg, move some of it to condi, creating opportunities for other builds instead of just nerfing it.

Can you please apply as dev at anet?...please my man they really need somebody who actually play an ele in their department I'd pay to see your suggestions implemented in game

@lLobo.7960 said:

@steki.1478 said:The main difference that I had in mind was making soothing mist a selfish regen by default instead of group heal, as well as making powerful aura trait a tempest minor. The goal of mist was to make it a strong self sustain trait with strong base healing, but very weak healing power scaling, so selfish ele builds become less reliant on healing power. Current GM mist trait would be swapped with 5 (or even 10) man mist we currently have. I'm not a fan of being forced to have support traits by default when I just need self sustain, which is pretty bad currently without sacrificing a lot of stats into healing power, at which point you become more of a support than a bruiser (which I think should be optional, not a must). Powerful aura is also a bit wasted trait on core ele since it doesnt have that many important aura procs, while whole tempest is about auras.

@steki.1478 said:I'd also love to see more/better superspeed interactions with weaver. For example: (damaging) condi cleanse on superspeed application, immunity to moving condies while having superspeed, additional damage on swift revenge, barrier/bigger regen/instant heal per second of superspeed/on superspeed application compared to swiftness etc.

It doesn't need to be healing power. All 4 specs have some effect while staying in that element, which isnt necessarily a stat (precision in air is a major trait). Water also has minor trait for outgoing healing (which I also think should be a major, to promote more diversity; being forced into support traits is useless in solo play). I guess you could swap that trait for healing power in the end.

Problem of earth spec is also lack of independent traits. Prot on auras would require tempest to be useful, dmg on bleeding targets is useless for this kind of spec, stab on swap is way too short and only one stack. Diamond skin requires a lot of sustain to be worth, which you get mostly from water spec (which already has better cleanse potential when paired with arcane), stacking healing power and signet of restoration. Stone heart forces you to stay in earth attunement, but most of its skills are useless.

I would add more condi focused traits, especially bleeding, cripple and immob. Diamond skin should proc all the time, but with higher cd, additionally it could be more specified (example: cleanses 2 damaging condies when getting hit with 10 sec icd). Armor of earth should work like soothing mist, but with shorter duration (3-4 sec would be ideal). Barrier definitely needs to be implemented into earth, which could work like on weaver: small but somewhat often applications.

General boon generation could also need some changes. Besides might (fire) and fury (fire/air) ele has almost no boon application outside of arcane spec or builds exclusively focused on sharing boons - regen/vigor/prot (water, earth, tempest and weapons+utilities with auras).

I'd like to see more traits like pyromancer's puissance in other specs aka boon per skill cast in certain attunement. Some condi - boon conversions would also be nice (in element specs, not arcane). Examples: incoming burns convert into 2 stacks of might, 10 sec icd; similar with chill->regen, vuln->fury, immob->prot. Not all of them have to be conversions, some can be just procs, however immunity to burns kinda makes sense on a fire specialized ele etc.

The goal is to make core specs have good boon application, but low uptime without arcane and/or elite specs. Arcane shouldn't be the only source of every boon that ele has, but it should improve their duration and have some additional boon procs. Just like with every my suggestion, I'd like for minor traits to be selfish and aoe ones to be optional.

@steki.1478 said:It doesn't need to be healing power. All 4 specs have some effect while staying in that element, which isnt necessarily a stat (precision in air is a major trait). Water also has minor trait for outgoing healing (which I also think should be a major, to promote more diversity; being forced into support traits is useless in solo play). I guess you could swap that trait for healing power in the end.I fully agree with not being forced into support in the water line (by the minor traits) but having the option to do it (with major traits) this is why I proposed the changes, take a look:Minor adept: aquatic benevolence: 150 healing power while in water attunement. This makes you heal better while in water. Making swaping to water a way to improve your own healing skills (water weapon skills or the main healing skills). It goes more consistent with other minor adepts (current and proposed in the OP) that improve each attunment by providing attributes while at that attunement.

Minor master: healing ripple: AoE heal when attuning to water. swaping to water provides a heal burst to the ele and around him. Consistent with other minor master traits that give a burst effect, usually aoe, when attuning to an element (arcana gives aoe buffs). Makes attuning to water helpfull to heal yourself back up.

Minor grandmaster: soothing mist: Effect that last 10s, heals every 3s and provides improved healing efficiency (10%). Self only.

With this, the minor traits in water help you heal and sustain. You can trait the (proposed change) soothing power major grandmaster to improve soothing mist and make it AoE (and combine with lower water CD to become a water camping healing spec), or improve your auras for self sustain (or sustain aurashare tempest), or you can focus on burst healing with latent stamina and the proposed change to cleansing wave that includes recharging the water attunment when you use a healing skill (so if you use a skill out of water attune, it wont heal as much, as you wont have all the minor traits buffing your heals, but then you can swap back to water and top it up).This gives the ele options to use water as a self sustain, a sustain with auras and regen, burst heals, healing or cleansing support or a mix of some of those.

@steki.1478 said:Problem of earth spec is also lack of independent traits. Prot on auras would require tempest to be useful, dmg on bleeding targets is useless for this kind of spec, stab on swap is way too short and only one stack. Diamond skin requires a lot of sustain to be worth, which you get mostly from water spec (which already has better cleanse potential when paired with arcane), stacking healing power and signet of restoration. Stone heart forces you to stay in earth attunement, but most of its skills are useless.

I would add more condi focused traits, especially bleeding, cripple and immob. Diamond skin should proc all the time, but with higher cd, additionally it could be more specified (example: cleanses 2 damaging condies when getting hit with 10 sec icd). Armor of earth should work like soothing mist, but with shorter duration (3-4 sec would be ideal). Barrier definitely needs to be implemented into earth, which could work like on weaver: small but somewhat often applications.

Protection on auras can be great for auramancer (auramancer can be a selfish spec using auras for itself, not necessary to share), specially with the proposed change to move the improved protection from tempest to earth.

Diamond skin (if improved to 50%) can be great combo with other procs (armor of earth and arcane shield) as it gives you some defense against conditions while you are above, and then at 50% hp other traits trigger and you can heal back safely (and cleanse if you use ether renewal). There are issues with making it too powerful (ignore all conditions, as it was before, or last forever) making a single passive trait completely invalidate all conditions (water traits require more active play to keep regen procs), so there needs to be some counterplay to it.

Stone heart, as proposed, could apply weakness to enemies that critically hit you (so only applies when you are not in earth) making it more useful for when you are not in earth (you loose earth protection, but opponents can get weakness, making their dmg suffer unless they cleanse).

I think those give a good option with fire for a condi sustain spec, focusing on defense with protection and reducing conditions with diamond skin and cantrips (trait burning fire, cleansing flame utility and ether renewal to top up). The third traitline, going arcane you would improve your defense (more protection in earth and maybe final shielding to help you recover if going below 50% hp) or going weaver you could use barriers to keep up your hp and provides even more conditions with stances and dual attacks. Can also go tempest and focus on AoE conditions with fire and earth overloads, or sharing the improved auras (might and protection), or even using auras on overload and on fire swap to heal, keeping that diamond skin up. TONS OF POSSIBILITIES! =]

@steki.1478 said:General boon generation could also need some changes. Besides might (fire) and fury (fire/air) ele has almost no boon application outside of arcane spec or builds exclusively focused on sharing boons - regen/vigor/prot (water, earth, tempest and weapons+utilities with auras).

Agree in some ways.Each elemental traitline focus on improving that elemental attunment (with stats and direct bonuses) or what that attunment does (with bonuses that apply not only when on that attunement). Meanwhile, arcane focus on smaller improvements to all attunements and attunement swap, so instead of direct bonuses to stats it gives short boons, but to all attunments.I think there is room for Air to provide quickness (as the proposed quickness on superspeed and shock auras) and water giving more vigor (latent stamina). I also think that some attunements can give improved boons, as the proposed improved protection to earth. The proposed changes to water already improves regen by giving higher healing power and healing efficiency with minor traits. I think improved might and fury on fire and air would be a bit too much. Maybe the improved protection from earth could be extra 10% dmg reduction and 10% condi dmg reduction? Would synergise well with diamond skin and one with earth. Not sure if it would be too much

@steki.1478 said:The goal is to make core specs have good boon application, but low uptime without arcane and/or elite specs. Arcane shouldn't be the only source of every boon that ele has, but it should improve their duration and have some additional boon procs. Just like with every my suggestion, I'd like for minor traits to be selfish and aoe ones to be optional.

I think the boom application in core specs should be optional. Boons are something that pass from one attunment to another, while specific bonus while on that attunement (10% dmg while on fire, 10% healing efficiency while in water, 10% crit dmg while on air, etc) are specific to that attunment. Therefore, when going on an elemental traitline, you can choose to use that attunment to buff yourself, or buff the attunment itself. Examples:You could trait you fire attunment to provide might (with casts or auras) so you build up might stacks in fire and then swap to air (traited to give bonus crit on that attunment) for burst. Likewise, you could trait air to give quickness and fury (with superspeed or auras) and then use air just to buff and jump to fire (with improved dmg and condi dmg) to cast faster and deal more dmg. While the style of buffing in fire is more steady and slower build up with lasting effects (slow might buildup but long duration) the style of buffing in air is quick (small duration fury and quickness) but leading to shorter duration buffs (that can be reaplied quicker if you trait fresh air, but then your fire attune will be on CD)

Fully agree with the selfish minor traits. Specially the minor adept. And that can also lead to another style of support spec for the future, that shares the attunment bonuses with the group. The monk, maybe?

change lightening rod to include: electric discharge hits twice on disabled foes;

I don't think this would work, lightning rod triggers on interrupt, when someone is beeing interrupted that means he is using a skill at the point of time where the trigger occures which means he is not disabled at that point in time.

A slightly different option would be like this:

Lightning Rod triggers whenever you inflict a disable, if you interrupt someone with that disable THEN it hits twice.

Other than that this post seem very reasonable, I don't agree with all points you've made but I can follow your reasoning and I didn't see any proposed change that I would be mad about seeing ingame.

These changes would destroy any hope of support tempest ever existing while screwing over PvP weaver as well. It reads like someone throwing a powder keg onto Ele traits and hoping for the best. It also sounds like all you want to do is make DPS tempest viable again for which there's no reason to redo every single trait. The rest of it is just added and unnecessary chaos.

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:

change lightening rod to include: electric discharge hits twice on disabled foes;

Nope, it works whenever you disable a foe. Not connected to interrupting. :)

I'd like the rewarding system you're suggesting though.

I am of the mind that auras need to stop acting like armors and act like auras. The though is ele is a mages class it should not have when hit effects it should be when near the ele auras should apply there old on hit effects and when team mates are near the ele (the one with the aura) should get a supportive effect.

This means something like light aura becomes a light armor that acts like the caous armor when hit apply effect to the one being hit and the one doing the hit. I would not mind seeing a dark armor added in as well.

I think this would go a long way to pulling ele core and tempest out of there current state as well as give some boost to melee d/d weaver as a cc build with forst aura being an aoe pulsing chill as well as an aoe def -10% physical dmg taken.

I have thoughts on how the new aura would changes there effects as well. (Would not mind seeing a water aura added in there as well.)

@Megametzler.5729 said:

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:

change lightening rod to include: electric discharge hits twice on disabled foes;

I like the idea.Could also be that it hits twice if the target get's knocked down or knocked back.So it would be more powerful on successful CC with longer CD (updraft, earthquacke, gale) and less on more spammable CC (shock aura and polaric leap).Would also synergyse well with Lightening hammer, with possible double hit on hammer# but only on hit with the leap through the field.

@NaturallyNick.4058 said:These changes would destroy any hope of support tempest ever existing while screwing over PvP weaver as well.

Why?

@Jski.6180 said:I am of the mind that auras need to stop acting like armors and act like auras. The though is ele is a mages class it should not have when hit effects it should be when near the ele auras should apply there old on hit effects and when team mates are near the ele (the one with the aura) should get a supportive effect.

This means something like light aura becomes a light armor that acts like the caous armor when hit apply effect to the one being hit and the one doing the hit. I would not mind seeing a dark armor added in as well.

I think this would go a long way to pulling ele core and tempest out of there current state as well as give some boost to melee d/d weaver as a cc build with forst aura being an aoe pulsing chill as well as an aoe def -10% physical dmg taken.

I have thoughts on how the new aura would changes there effects as well. (Would not mind seeing a water aura added in there as well.)

Fire aura gives might every time you get hit, a bit like chaos.Magnetic is very nice, as it actually reflects projectile hits.Ice gives a 10% dmg reduction..

Although, I really like your idea of auras pulsing effects.Maybe that would be good for a elite spec, another way to be an auramancer ele, instead of spreading auras, pulsing effects.

@Megametzler.5729 said:

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:

change lightening rod to include: electric discharge hits twice on disabled foes;

Oh, my bad you're right!But in that case your original suggestion is still confusing, did you intend it to hit twice if the enemy was already disabled prior to the triggering disable?Either way, glad you like my suggestion despite my confusion :)

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:

@Megametzler.5729 said:

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:

change lightening rod to include: electric discharge hits twice on disabled foes;

My suggestion was that lightening rod would work as it does now (when you apply CC), but would also cause electric discharge (the lightening bolt when you attune to air) to hit twice on disabled foes.I think his suggestion is to have lightning rod to hit twice when you interrupt someone (once when you apply the cc, as it is now, the second if you interrupt a skill).

One suggestion makes going into air to burst a disabled foe more rewarding, even if you didnt apply the CC yourself. So I guess more useful on PvE, as you don't really interrupt anything with a breakbar.

The other suggestion makes interrupting a foe more rewarding (lightning rod has nearly double the dmg of electric discharge), but it doesnt require you to go into air, so you can interrupt a foe with a earth or water CC and burst it with another attunement (churning earth or fire grab come into mind).

Read the first change, skimmed the rest, saw absolutely nothing good in any of it. Please no, I hope no dev takes this thread seriously especially the blatant power creep.

Haven't been playing ele for long as a main but you've nailed it from what I've felt so far. Hope this gets some notice.

Oh arena net please notice itI always wanted that they reworked the classes giving a strong identity focus on each trait line.

@lLobo.7960 said:

@Jski.6180 said:I am of the mind that auras need to stop acting like armors and act like auras. The though is ele is a mages class it should not have when hit effects it should be when near the ele auras should apply there old on hit effects and when team mates are near the ele (the one with the aura) should get a supportive effect.

This means something like light aura becomes a light armor that acts like the caous armor when hit apply effect to the one being hit and the one doing the hit. I would not mind seeing a dark armor added in as well.

I think this would go a long way to pulling ele core and tempest out of there current state as well as give some boost to melee d/d weaver as a cc build with forst aura being an aoe pulsing chill as well as an aoe def -10% physical dmg taken.

I have thoughts on how the new aura would changes there effects as well. (Would not mind seeing a water aura added in there as well.)

The ideal is to have an support and offsive effect on the pulsing aura.Fire would burn in 300 aoe and give 1 stack of might in a 300 aoe every 1 sec.Magnetic would be a aoe cripal and a -10 % condi dmg aoe support.Forst would be aoe chill and -10% phical dmg aoe support.

On these lines of thinking.

Some suggestions for Staff:

Fireball - Add burning (0.75 s) (so its normally 1 tick per firebal, 2 ticks with 100% burn duration, maintaining 3-4 stacks if you have quickness on top of that)Lava font - Add burn (1 s) per tickFlame burst - Change to: copy burn stacks from your target to nearby foesMeteor Shower - Add burning on each hit, burning duration increases for each meteor landing (so initial meteors cause more direct dmg, but later meteors cause more condi dmg)

(for comparison, scepter auto is 3sec burn and a secondary 1 sec burn, dragons tooth is 10 sec burn, flame wall is a 2.5s burn per tick. All that before traits and gear)

Lightening surge - add: piercesStatic field - Foes that are at the edge of the field trigger a chain lightening (like the auto) effect.Unsteady ground - Add: Cripple foes in the area

Fire staff got some nerfs and is now under-performing for power dps. I think its fair that it gets some condition dmg (that staff serious lacks) to improve its capacity as a viable hybrid dmg attunement. Lava font is probably the only fire field in the game that doesnt burn!! Thematically fireball, lava font and flaming meteors should apply some burn. Mechanically, with the current dmg nerfs I think there is room for them to have some condi dmg.

Meteor shower has a reducing dmg per meteor to hit the target. I think it would be interesting to add the opposite effect on the condi dmg side of it. So the more meteors to hit a target the longer the burns stack.

Flame burst acting as a limited (burn only) epidemic, would add an interesting twist to it, making it great to use on packed mobs and a good synergy with other burn condi classes like engi or guard, but requiring good timing as burn stacks tend to not last long.

Static field and unsteady ground seem to work only on moving targets, so adding something so that they become useful for static ones (be it a smaller CC or a dmg tick) makes them more useful on most current raid bosses and other encounters, if placed properly.

Love it.Fire power base dmg should be low, but condi dmg the highest (perhaps even in the game!).Air should be highest power dmg, burst potential and most cc.Water should be all about cleansing and healing (and access to more chill).Earth should have mediocre power, mediocre condi dmg and access to very effective defense and a few cc.

I also suggested some changes in those lines, so i'm all for it.

Edit: Also Stealth is stackable for thieves, why auras could not be stacked for eles?

Most of these are really good hopefully anet look at itImo Ele need more reliable access to stability and tempest needs to be less sucky