Giving Elementalist a Role in PvP

Elementalist is in a bad place in pvp for two reasons.

1. Elementalist base stats and active defenses are terrible forcing eles to run survivability amulets, which makes them useless
2. Elementalists don't do anything better than another profession can and have weak traits.

How to fix?

• Give each core trait line a purpose that provides a viable role for ele.
• Boost Elementalist survivability through trait lines

FireFire trait line will be focused around might/damage, auras, and boon removal

• Minor Traits

  1. Burning Precision: 50% Chance on crit to inflict burning for 2 seconds, 3 sec icd per enemy,
  2. Sunspot: Same as before except it now removes a boon from all enemies it hits.
  3. Burning Rage: keep the same, but add burning a foe grants 10 endurance, 5 sec icd

• Adept

  1. Empowering Aura: Auras grant 200 power, effect does not stack
  2. Extreme Might10 extra Power and Condition Damage per might stack for ele only
  3. Cleansing Flames: Burning an enemy removes a boon, 5 sec icd per enemy

• Master

  1. Pyromancers Training, keep the same,
  2. Smoothering Auras: keep the same, but add removing a condition from an ally grants 10 endurance
  3. Cauterize: Removing a boon inflicts damage

• Grandmaster

  1. Burning Strength: Gain 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds when you burn a foe. 2 sec icd. Deal 10% more damage while under the effects of might.
  2. Explosive Purification: Create a fire explosion when striking a burning enemy that deals damage and removes 5 boons from all enemies hit. 15 sec icd.
  3. Powerful Aura: Any aura you grant yourself is granted to nearby allies, auras grant fury and might

AirAir trait line will be focused on debuffs through vuln and weakness, single target damage, cc, and damage buffs

• Minor

  1. Zephyr's Speed: Keep the 25% movement speed buff but also add 3 seconds of superspeed upon attuning to air.
  2. Electric Discharge: Keep the Same
  3. Raging Storm: keep the same

• Adept

  1. Zephyr's boon: Fury grants an extra 10% crit chance
  2. Crippling Weakness: Applying Weakness inflicts cripple and 3 stacks of vuln for 3 seconds
  3. Speedy Demise: Deal 7% more damage while under the effects of superspeed

• Master

  1. Aeromancers Training: Keep the same
  2. Tempest Defense: Keep the same
  3. Inscription: Keep the same, but add casting a glyph grants a buff to nearby allies that causes their next 3 attacks cast Electric discharge

• Grandmaster

  1. Fresh air: keep the same
  2. Lighting rod: keep the same, but add electric discharge dazes for 1 second
  3. Bolt to the Heart: Electric discharge now applies 7 stacks of vuln for 10 seconds and Critical hits have a 50% chance to cast electric discharge 3 sec icd, the Electric Discharge applies a five second effect on your target that increases your damage to them by 15%

EarthEarth trait line will be focused on personal protection, stability, signets, blasts, and condition protection

• Minor

  1. Protective Blast: Gain Protection for 3 seconds when performing a blast finisher
  2. Earthen Blast: keep the same but is now a blast finisher
  3. Geomancer's defense: Keep the same

• Adept

  1. Elemental Shielding: keep the same
  2. Earth's embrace: keep the same
  3. Stable Signet: Signets grant 1 stack of stability for four seconds

• Master

  1. Geomancer's Training: keep the same
  2. Rock Solid: Gain stability on attuning to earth, stability grants 200 toughness
  3. Punishing Blast: Blast finishes cripple and weaken foes for 2 seconds

• Grandmaster

  1. Stone Heart: Protection reduces critical damage to the elementalist by 33% aoe 5 sec weakness when critically hit, 20 sec icd
  2. Written in Stone: Keep the same
  3. Diamond Skin: Remove a condition when struck while under the effects of protection receive 33% less condition damage while under the effects of protection(3 sec icd)

WaterWater trait line is focused around support through healing, condition hate, and chill

• Minor

  1. Soothing Mist: keep the same
  2. Healing Ripple: keep the same
  3. Aquatic Healing: Healing is 15% more effective both to allies and you

• Adept

  1. Soothing Ice: Keep the Same
  2. Conditional Healing: Heal yourself and allies 2% more for each condition on them or you
  3. Stop, Drop, and Roll: Dodging removes a damaging and non-damaging condition from nearby allies

• Master

  1. Soothing Disruption: Keep the Same but boons are now aoe
  2. Cool Relief: Foes you chill pulse healing to allies while chilled
  3. Aquamancers training: Keep the same, but remove damage boost and add remove condi from allies on water attune

• Grandmaster

  1. Cleansing Water: Keep the same
  2. Soothing Power: Soothing Mist is 100% more effective, Healing to allies is 25% more effective
  3. Chilling Vulnerability: Gain frost aura for 4 seconds on attuning to water, Applying chill applies 3 stacks of vulnerablity for 8 seconds, Vulnerability now reduces the damage the enemy deals instead of increasing the damage they take

ArcaneArcane trait line focuses on boons, evasion, arcanes skills, and random stuff

• Minor

  1. Arcane Prowess: keep as is
  2. Elemental Attunement: Keep as is
  3. Elemental Enchantment: Keep as is

• Adept

  1. Renewing stamina: keep as is
  2. Arcane Precision: keep as is
  3. Arcane Abatement: increase healing

• Master

  1. Arcane Ressurection: Good for support I guess, leave alone.
  2. Elemental Contingency: leave as is
  3. Final Shielding: Leave as is

• Grandmaster

  1. Evasive Arcana: Leave as is
  2. Elemental Surge: Leave as is
  3. Bountiful Strength: Deal increased damage for each boon you have. Gain 2 endurance when you gain a boon.

TempestDo tempest stuff better

• Minor

  1. Singularity: Keep the same
  2. Stable Conduit: Gain stability when starting an overload
  3. Hardy Conduit: Keep the same

• Adept

  1. Unstable Conduit: keep the same
  2. Latent Stamina: Applying vigor grants 20 stamina, Gain Vigor when starting and completing an overload.
  3. Gale Song: Keep as is, but add shouts grants 3 seconds of quickness and 5 seconds of swiftness

• Master

  1. Invigorating Torrents: Keep as is
  2. Tempestuous Aria: Reduce shout cooldown by 20% the next attack of allies affected by a shout inflict 3 seconds of cripple and weakness and slow
  3. Speedy Conduit: Overloads are available two seconds earlier and channel 25% faster

• Grandmaster

  1. Unstoppable Singularity: keep as is, but add overloads grant superspeed and inflict cripple chill and immob for 3 seconds upon completion.
  2. Elemental Bastion: keep as is
  3. Imbued Melodies: Gain 300 concentration, completing an overload grants Protection, aegis, stability, and regen for 3 seconds to allies.

WeaverDon't really know what to do with this, but I have a few ideas.

• Woven stride: Gaining swiftness or superspeed removes condis, nix the regen, heal while under the effects of swiftness
• Boost barrier application all around

Why these changes?

FireThese changes to the fire trait line give the elementalist three roles to invest in, with added endurance regen for active defense.

1. Boon Removal
2. Offensive buffs and condition removal through auras
3. General damage through percent damage boosts and improved and faster might that frees ele from rotation to compensate for having to take survivability amulets

Air

1. High single target damage through stat boosts
2. Playstyle focused around cc and debuffs with some extra damage thrown in
3. Fresh air is still viable, but now with the revised Bolt to the Heart, air can be a good choice for a damage boost for builds that don't focus on cc or fresh air

Earth

1. Provides great personal survivability but offers little to allies
2. Can focus on stability, protection, or dealing with condis depending on your needs

Water

1. Offers greater support options to hopefully bring elementalist back as a top tier support especially if combined with aura traits in fire line
2. Can focus on aoe condition removal or improved healing or debuffing enemies

ArcaneArcane is alright in my opinion, didn't change much. Biggest change was giving a bit of survivability through evades to make bountiful power worth a choice and give an option for more active defense and damage avoidance at the expensive of the utility offered by the other two gm traits.

TempestIn 2018 stability is a necessity for overloads, should have been there from the start. I tried to make some useless traits more appealing to create a real choice at each tier of traits.

WeaverSustainability buffs to hopefully free weaver from water.

An Example of the New Roles Available

• Water/Fire/Tempest, Could be built for extreme condi hate, with good offensive support, and solid healing, could have cleansing water and aura share. Would bring support tempest back
• Water/Fire/Earth, d/d Would have good survivability and could be built for damage or boon hate
• Water/Earth/Arcane, d/d Would be very tanky, but would have to sacrifice damage, strong node holder
• Air/Water/Arcane, Could be built as traditional fresh air or d/d with high single target damage through new bolt to the heart and air stat boosts
• Weaver/Water/Air, fresh air or s/d lightning rod, improved damage and cc
• Water/Earth/Tempest, Traditional tempest but with stronger personal survivability than before

We need a bit more "apart" traits in each specs with sustain, and"passive/aggresive" traits (like Burning fire in the fire spec), but not with infinites icd or niche builds (like Smothering Auras) and attunements mandatory.Otherwise we still be stucked up into water/arcane specs and water/air attunements.

Ele's are too difficult to play, high risk, low reward. They're suppose to be more versatile with all the attunement swapping but I find them to be underwhelming in PvP. Every time I see an enemy Ele, I go straight for them because they're too easy to kill.

@"Zhaid Zhem.6508" said:We need a bit more "apart" traits in each specs with sustain, and"passive/aggresive" traits (like Burning fire in the fire spec), but not with infinites icd or niche builds (like Smothering Auras) and attunements mandatory.Otherwise we still be stucked up into water/arcane specs and water/air attunements.

What do you mean by "apart traits?"

Sounds great, but how long could this idea take to implement? A year? 2 years? This game is already 6 years old. This is even if they consider using a players ideas. And well judging by there past i dont think they taken any players ideas into consideration.

@Eddbopkins.2630 said:Sounds great, but how long could this idea take to implement? A year? 2 years? This game is already 6 years old. This is even if they consider using a players ideas. And well judging by there past i dont think they taken any players ideas into consideration.

I highly doubt they will implement all of this. If they did I'd squeal like a teenage girl for two hours. I'm just hoping it shows them how changes should be made. The key point is that changes should be made to free Ele from stat dependency and the trait lines should aim at giving Ele a competitive role. Even if they adopt a few things here, I'd be a happy camper. I came up with this all in one day, I'm sure if they decide to seriously consider fixing ele they could make some progress. Will they? We'll see. Check back in 3 years.

@Zuko.7132 said:

. Check back in 3 years.

You do know the insanity in looking/waiting for something that will never happen?

I really dont want to be an insane person.

@Eddbopkins.2630 said:

@Zuko.7132 said:

. Check back in 3 years.

Not insanity if you enjoy it. I had a good time thinking about how I would improve elementalist if I had the opportunity. I enjoy theory crafting. This one is just more theoretical than most of my others. I don't expect this to change everything, though I don't think it's impossible that an Anet employee might see this and at least consider some of it. Either way I had a good time so no loss.