Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Concerns about Elementalist


System

Recommended Posts

I appreciate all the theory craft and all but in the end, for me, ele just isn't much fun to play anymore. In pvp, its a lot of work for half of what most other classes can do. In open world pve, it feels like the same: a lot of skills and atunement swaps for sub-par output. In fractals, again, a lot of effort to just barely hold my own.

Maybe staff holds its own in raids but I find staff brain-numbing to play. I've gone on to other toons for now but since my heart lies with eles, I find myself playing gw2 a lot less these days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 986
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

1- Powerful Aura shouldn't replace a Major Grandmaster trait, because you can simply run shouts only and Elemental Bastion would do the work without the need of water line. It should be introduced into Unstable Conduit, the Overload is an AoE, the effects should also be AoE, and for a spec that has Auras shaping its utilities, overloads, etc. Powerful Aura as a Major Grandmaster is humiliating. I agree this trait should be in Tempest line, core Ele and Weaver barely make use of auras, but its effect is not as healing allies and applying frost aura when going for shouts, it would synergies well with Elemental Bastion, but not replace it.

2- Although this change to Woven Stride would decrease Weaver's dependency on water line, still the sustain of the e-spec comes from water line heals and frost aura. If Weaver is to fully let go of water line, they need heals in their line, I would replace Master's Fortitude with something that actually helps weaver sustain. Building more health is not sustain, it's going for tankiness and there's nothing worse than an ele with 0 passives, trying to tank, it's the only option now for weaver as a minor trait, but I believe if any sort of heal or barrier were introduced, it would have taken over Master's Fortitude anytime. 3000 more HP would be nothing if you can heal as a DPS, and they can be amplified if you want to bunker. This replacement would let go of weaver's dependency on water line and would allow them to go for earth for more condi damage/toughness, air for some utility/damage or fire for full damage. The change to Woven Stride is great, but to let go of water line, a strong barrier or heal need to exist in the line as well.

3- Totally agree

4- Totally agree. I also would love overloads to have a charging bar, made of 3 partitions. Tempests can now reactivate their Overload once any partition is full, dispersing damage/condi/heal/etc. in a form of a shockwave based on how many partitions have been used. The duration of the Overload would also be reduced to 18s when fully charging, 15s when using/interrupted with 2 partitions and 13/12s when only one partition is full. This would allow Tempest to always make use of what comes after the overload but with reduced effects if reactivated in between and not always get punished for the long cd. Might also allow this dispersion to happen if interrupted while any of the partitions is/are full, but that might be quite strong as Tempest would go brain-dead Overloading knowing that the attacker would be punished either way, thus the reactivation is within Tempest's hands to make use of before getting interrupted.

5- I would agree on one of those. Mirage's jaunt, which is an e-spec tp, doesn't have that much mobility with all charges combined (yeah it has other features, but we're talking about a utility meant for mobility only), if that's not a good comparison; core mesmer's Blink would be weaker compared to Lightning Flash like that, there is a stun break on Blink but LF doesn't stop any casts, so lower cd and longer range would a bit powerful. So either lower cd or longer range.

But still one of the major issues lie within the core trait lines, if Tempest and Weaver were able to let go of water line and finally have a room for damage and to apply pressure, then picking fire would only allow them to camp fire element since everything that does damage would be on fire. The trait lines should allow ele to change how their attunements function, not which attunement should function imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@qbalrog.8017 said:I appreciate all the theory craft and all but in the end, for me, ele just isn't much fun to play anymore. In pvp, its a lot of work for half of what most other classes can do. In open world pve, it feels like the same: a lot of skills and atunement swaps for sub-par output. In fractals, again, a lot of effort to just barely hold my own.

Maybe staff holds its own in raids but I find staff brain-numbing to play. I've gone on to other toons for now but since my heart lies with eles, I find myself playing gw2 a lot less these days.

Staff is no longer a thing for DPS in PvE, check SC, it's no longer a thing, the last patch to boons was a huge nerf to Arcane's Major Grandmaster, its damage is now the same as Reaper probably, at least a Reaper can bring something for the squad, weaver has nothing but pure damage. Even in PvE, ele is not fine, the amount of effort you take for simple stuff is a lot compared to others, you can't maintain boons, have 0 self-defense than kiting and running away. The state of ele is sad, it wasn't that bad when staff covered these issues with its 40k+, but now it's nothing and the issues of ele are widely seen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If and when I see ele's in wvw I know they are going to do one of two things they are about to meteor shower an arrow cart or whatever siege is on the wall or throw a disabler get downed and mist inside the portal. Those are about all the uses this class has been reduced down too. Ever since hot came out my ele just sits around as a storage character and unless they do some kind of change to the class it most likely will just be class that cooks my food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Auburner.6945 said:1- Powerful Aura shouldn't replace a Major Grandmaster trait, because you can simply run shouts only and Elemental Bastion would do the work without the need of water line. It should be introduced into Unstable Conduit, the Overload is an AoE, the effects should also be AoE, and for a spec that has Auras shaping its utilities, overloads, etc. Powerful Aura as a Major Grandmaster is humiliating. I agree this trait should be in Tempest line, core Ele and Weaver barely make use of auras, but its effect is not as healing allies and applying frost aura when going for shouts, it would synergies well with Elemental Bastion, but not replace it.

2- Although this change to Woven Stride would decrease Weaver's dependency on water line, still the sustain of the e-spec comes from water line heals and frost aura. If Weaver is to fully let go of water line, they need heals in their line, I would replace Master's Fortitude with something that actually helps weaver sustain. Building more health is not sustain, it's going for tankiness and there's nothing worse than an ele with 0 passives, trying to tank, it's the only option now for weaver as a minor trait, but I believe if any sort of heal or barrier were introduced, it would have taken over Master's Fortitude anytime. 3000 more HP would be nothing if you can heal as a DPS, and they can be amplified if you want to bunker. This replacement would let go of weaver's dependency on water line and would allow them to go for earth for more condi damage/toughness, air for some utility/damage or fire for full damage. The change to Woven Stride is great, but to let go of water line, a strong barrier or heal need to exist in the line as well.

3- Totally agree

4- Totally agree. I also would love overloads to have a charging bar, made of 3 partitions. Tempests can now reactivate their Overload once any partition is full, dispersing damage/condi/heal/etc. in a form of a shockwave based on how many partitions have been used. The duration of the Overload would also be reduced to 18s when fully charging, 15s when using/interrupted with 2 partitions and 13/12s when only one partition is full. This would allow Tempest to always make use of what comes after the overload but with reduced effects if reactivated in between and not always get punished for the long cd. Might also allow this dispersion to happen if interrupted while any of the partitions is/are full, but that might be quite strong as Tempest would go brain-dead Overloading knowing that the attacker would be punished either way, thus the reactivation is within Tempest's hands to make use of before getting interrupted.

5- I would agree on one of those. Mirage's jaunt, which is an e-spec tp, doesn't have that much mobility with all charges combined (yeah it has other features, but we're talking about a utility meant for mobility only), if that's not a good comparison; core mesmer's Blink would be weaker compared to Lightning Flash like that, there is a stun break on Blink but LF doesn't stop any casts, so lower cd and longer range would a bit powerful. So either lower cd or longer range.

But still one of the major issues lie within the core trait lines, if Tempest and Weaver were able to let go of water line and finally have a room for damage and to apply pressure, then picking fire would only allow them to camp fire element since everything that does damage would be on fire. The trait lines should allow ele to change how their attunements function, not which attunement should function imo.

  1. Powerful Aura also affects the aura weapon skills and it has a niche use for auras from finishers (Blast finisher has 360 radius, while powerful aura has 600.). I actually believe that having aura share in tempest is way better than in water, even if it costs elemental bastion. First of all, you would still be able to use the exact same auramancer build with both of these traits, since you need to take water anyway. Taking elemental bastion without water is really not an amazing choice as it is right now anyway. More importantly, having powerful auras as a tempest GM means that there are many more synergies with tempest than before. You get more options than before if you choose the water line because you can opt to take soothing power or cleansing water instead of elemental bastion if the situation demands it. In addition, you can also make an auramancer spec that doesn't take water at all. You could have an offensive auramancer that uses aura traits from the offensive lines, such as using smothering auras from fire to help with cleansing condis from allies.

  2. Yes, there is more that needs to be done for weaver to get out of water, but I believe that changing woven stride is the single most important thing you could do. Though they would still need to keep adjusting ele's defensive mechanics in general even if they changed woven stride.

  3. Nothing to say here.

  4. That seems a bit convoluted. Anet's balance team is not very good at implementing complex mechanics. I'd be more confident in their balancing if they just slapped 1 stack of stability on it.

  5. Blink doesn't stop any casts either. If this change happened, the only difference between blink and lightning flash would be that one has a stunbreak and the other has damage, which imo makes them have more or less the same power. Damage is better if you use it to engage, but it's useless if you use it to disengage. Stunbreaking is nice if you want to use it to cancel a hard CC while repositioning. In addition to the obvious benefits that jaunt has, you also have to keep in mind that having three 300 range teleports is inherently much better than having one 900 range teleport. It's not only the range that matters, it's also confusing your enemies and repositioning. The best argument that I have heard against changing lightning flash is that similar skills of different professions should not be compared in a vaccum, because it's the total package that matters in the end. However, this argument does not apply here imo. If someone wanted to apply it I'd say that if that's the case lightning flash should be better than blink, because if you compare elementalist to mesmer it is obvious which profession is way more powerful than the other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"Ganathar.4956" said:(...)

  1. Woven Stride no longer grants regeneration when you gain superspeed or swiftness. Instead you now cleanse a condition when gaining superspeed or swiftness.(...)

This would nerf water weaver significantly, because of much less cleanse potential. However, it would enable air to be a great competitor, because you can cleanse 2 conditions per swap (imagine with fresh air...) and have several weapon skills giving swiftness/superspeed.

I fear It would push S/D weaver in PVP actively into air/arcane/weaver, making it the only semi-viable spec for S/D. It should give both, or, well, you should be able to choose from these cleanses on swiftness/reg on swiftness to enable S/D weaver to take on a bunker role with water or a bruiser role with air.

Add some ranges on sword skills for AoE pressure and I like the rest of your changes. :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1- I still believe Powerful Aura should be introduced into Unstable Conduit, you can go DPS and heal for every overload for 500 because of how the Major trait (Elemental Bastion) would synergies with this minor one, which isn't bad, it's like Signet of Ether when going for DPS. You'll get auras for overloading and you can share these auras, so Powerful Aura is going into Tempest line but as a minor trait, because the Auras aren't strong, Tempest makes auras look like they are something, if you remove every aplifier from Tempest to Auras, auras would get back to being useless, just as almost all of them are.

2- I agree to your point, it's just that it should be continued on, which is what I am afraid of that's why I wanted it to come as one, because of Woven Stride only got reworked, we're still hanging onto water for heals. Better introduce barriers into minor trait as well.

3- ...

4- It was an idea. The stability is good anyway given how long the cast is.

5- 3 charges is totally more powerful, but it's still an elite skill, shouldn't be compared to utilities if its mobility-wise. Well, if Blink doesn't interrupt cast as well, then I am totally with you (30s cd with stun break vs 40s with damage, 1200 range vs 900). For comparing the class's whole package vs another. From a dev's POV, they should have all classes' core mechanics without utilities at almost the same level (phantasms/clones vs 4 attunements for example), since this isn't the case, utilities are part of the core class's balance level. My point was to prevent any sort of flack, because just as mesmers might have clones and phantasms running around, some believe ele has 4 attunements to balance that out, which is not the case because of our lovely trait lines. It was just a matter of balance given that all classes are the same if utilities didn't exist, but given how ele already lacks utility/defense, it's fine to have this not-game-breaking change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It wil be hard to balance Ele, between the DMG/uselessness issue in Pve and Sustain( water/arcane jail) in PvP/roaming.But the way they did it is wretched : nerf sustain like riptide, arcane traits, but buff +30% or +50% random sword or scepter skills without taking care of CD, range and cast time ... They should start to do the opposite.And they should implant new (and unique to elem) group buffs or/and improve mechanics like barriers and auras, because weaver/elem is way too selfish (and still need to be carried) and tempest is a very cheap FB : make Harmonious conduit a group buff, make barriers shared to the group, make the +33% aura duration from the runes a tempest's trait, buff auras, etc.

If they still want Elem to be a hybrid concept, at least let us be useful to our allies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:It wil be hard to balance Ele, between the DMG/uselessness issue in Pve and Sustain( water/arcane jail) in PvP/roaming.But the way they did it is wretched : nerf sustain like riptide, arcane traits, but buff +30% or +50% random sword or scepter skills without taking care of CD, range and cast time ... They should start to do the opposite.And they should implant new (and unique to elem) group buffs or/and improve mechanics like barriers and auras, because weaver/elem is way too selfish (and still need to be carried) and tempest is a very cheap FB : make Harmonious conduit a group buff, make barriers shared to the group, make the +33% aura duration from the runes a tempest's trait, buff auras, etc.

If they still want Elem to be a hybrid concept, at least let us be useful to our allies.

A lot of ppl like the ideal of hybrid ele its just healing power has become too important for ele healing effects for there group to the point where if you not high investment into healing power the healing not worth it. The same could be said for dmg. There just been too many nerfs to the class to by called hybrid any more. What anet may need to do is give up on the ideal of having water doing raw healing unless the player builds for it and move water more into boon support or cc support.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My dearest fellow elementalists players - this thread reminds me of how I used to behave on this forums: making long threads suggesting balances or criticizing ArenaNet's balance patches, and what had that gotten me? Forum suspensions or not a single answer at all. So I had to make a choice - keep doing these posts or leave it as it is, as it's not my game but theirs. I stopped spending my $$ and only play sPvP non meta builds in ranked, because if they don't care about their own profession, why should I?No matter how much you criticize them, they will only listen if it's going to add something to their Hall of Personal Trophies (because somehow every critique means a way to teach them how to do their job...)

Regarding this post purpose: you have been deceived again. Where are the balance devs behind eles? Did they ever comment on here? Do they ever interact with us? When was the last time elementalists received a rework like mesmers received that one, last year?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, now when I have the Weaver spec unlocked, I immediately can see how dual-attacks and attunement combinations are total disaster in its current implementation.

I'm playing dagger/dagger ele, and it relies heavily on the 2 mobility skills of this weapon combo - one of each happen to be on the button 3 in Earth, and the other on button 4 in Air. When I play as a core ele and need to disengage or quickly close a gap between me and some dangerous mob with a range attack (as d/d has issues with range of its attacks), I switch to Earth or AIr and use one of those. When I'm Weaver, I can't do it anymore as when I go to Earth, dual-attack is on 3 now, and if I go to Air, I only have first 3 Air skills, and the skill I need is at position 4.

Even worse, all attunement switches now got increased cooldowns! So I can't even tap the, say, Earth attune button twice rapidly, I need to wait, and this wait for a few seconds for a lightly armored low-hp close-range fighter easily becomes a difference between life and death.

Additionally, both of d/d crowd control abilities (Earth-4 and Air-5) mandatory for survival are in off-hand, so you can't quickly select them quickly as Weaver. That even will be an issue for sword Weaver, as dagger is popular option for off-hand even in this case.

Anet, do something! This totally breaks the d/d build, I even prefer to play the core ele over Weaver because of this! And unlike other issues here, this is really easy to fix. At least, switch to any pure attunement which is the main hand of the current your combined attunements must not be affected by cooldown at all. This will allow you to double-tap a specific attunement button to get access to pure (not-combined) set of skills for it very quickly.

Additionally, it would probably be more useful if double-attack skills would flip over to normal skills of current main-hand attunement right after they are used. Will provide more options how to get to the needed skill to player.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@bluberblasen.9684 said:i have a good idea for ele.give em perma furyperma 25 might ( without doing anything)perma swiftnessand for each attunement switch you gain 3 stucks of stability.

= i think this would bring ele back to a mediocre class!maybe sarcasm maybe not

That's the reason why cele ele was once strong and why a lot of elite specs are now strong - easy access to offensive boons. However, ele still had to use both defensive traits and gear and get its boons from comboing, where most builds nowadays just run full zerk or marauder, get boons from weapon skills or passive trait procs and have no issues with staying alive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@steki.1478 said:

@bluberblasen.9684 said:i have a good idea for ele.give em perma furyperma 25 might ( without doing anything)perma swiftnessand for each attunement switch you gain 3 stucks of stability.

= i think this would bring ele back to a mediocre class!maybe sarcasm maybe not

That's the reason why cele ele was once strong and why a lot of elite specs are now strong - easy access to offensive boons. However, ele still had to use both defensive traits and gear and get its boons from comboing, where most builds nowadays just run full zerk or marauder, get boons from weapon skills or passive trait procs and have no issues with staying alive.

But nearly ever class can do that though runes and sigil and still have more hp / def and have the ability to access the real offensive boons of quickness/alcotorly as well as def of stab / resistances. Ele use to have the best protection up time and it was never perma only close to now its one of the lower end as there are classes with perma protection passively. Its like the vigor thing where anet tryed to nerf vigor up time for passive effects to make it better as an support effect. It did not work and made support vigor a joke.

If your not giving your self at least a few of the strong boons your not realy a solo class if your not giving others a few of the strong boons your not realy a group class.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Razor.6392 said:I'm not gonna list very specific changes because I know how tedious is reading through numerical stuff. Instead I'll give you a broader scope of ele's issue (mained ele since august 2012).

Pvp builds:

  • Every successful ele build relies on sustain. We have zero condi builds, and power builds are outclassed.
  • Our entire existence is tied to Water and Arcane. When was the last time you saw a build without either arcane or water?
  • Fire trait line is heavily underpowered. You could give us back the old might on cantrip and it still wouldn't be top tier due to power creep.

Pve builds:

  • Very squishy with complex rotations. Why roll ele when you can just rollface with simpler classes?

Weapons:

  • Sword does everything dagger does, but considerably better. Both weapons fill the same niche. This is a serious problem.
  • Dagger needs significant buffs in both survivability and damage. Both main and offhand (but more main hand). Weaver locking its best 2 abilities (Shocking Aura and Burning Speed) behind a double attunement is also a severe issue.
  • Staff is mostly okay, but lacking in pvp (since release). I assume this is intended by now.
  • Focus is fine. Fire attunement is very, VERY boring but meh, at least the other 3 are good.
  • Scepter is non existent in pve. It has great burst but still keeps the same issues for years. Namely Dragon's Tooth, Phoenix LONG cd, and its poor autoattacks (abysmal dps).
  • Warhorn is okay I guess. Not a lot to say about it.

Healing skills:

  • Arcane Brilliance could use the pvp recharge globally.
  • Aquatic Stance is never a good choice.
  • Ether Renewal could use a shorter channel.
  • All the other heals are okay.

Utility skills:

  • Glyphs remain bad in every game mode. Only glyph of storms sees some value in pve. GoEP 25% dmg buff was nice, but still not good enough to justify its slot.
  • Cantrips are stuck in 2014. The cooldowns are REALLY bad, and the effects are underwhelming.
  • Arcane got a really nice pvp buff in adding charges, but then they received nerfs because FA weaver was oh so OP with its zero condi removal / sustain. Revert.
  • Shouts are only useful because of the auras. Their cooldowns and effects are rather awful.
  • Stances are mostly fine, if not a little clunky. Unravel needs something more to justify its slot.
  • Conjures need a full rework. Give them the engi-kit treatment... or something at least.

Elite skills:

  • I'm fairly sure ele has the worst elite skills in the entire game. All of them need help. Tornado needs a lower CD and to be as strong as Rampage / Lich form, Glyph needs targeted aoe abilities, FGS needs a much lower cooldown, Weave Self needs to not root yourself when casting Tailored Victory and the tempest elite a full rework, because it's too similar to an engi healing ability and doesn't fit the Elementalist theme.

Talents

  • As previously mentioned, Fire traitline is underpowered. It only sees use in pve due to its ~~boring ~~flat damage increase traits.
  • Air is mostly fine, but some traits need an update. Such as Zephyr's Boon and Electric Discharge (unfairly nerfed for Core ele).
  • Earth is not a bad trait line, but the overreliance on water and arcane ultimately renders it pointless to most builds.
  • Water. Oh water, if only we could add some of your sustain and survivability to other trait lines in one way or another... I'm not one for homogenizing things, but this is needed. At least the condi clear part.
  • Arcane, the ultimate trait line for an ele, much like trickery for Thief. I don't think the answer is to nerf it, but to make other trait lines (fire, earth) more competitive. A LOT more. Also give us arcane fury back... nobody needs 1 stack of might for 8 seconds on att. swap. Seriously. It's one of those changes nobody asked, like Thief's Blinding Powder becoming a stun break. STOP DOING THAT.
  • Tempest. Very dull traits with almost no impact. Needs a full rework.
  • Weaver. Like already mentioned in water, add some standalone condi clear in here please, don't make us rely on water all the time.

Thank you for reading.

This is pretty much the tl;dr version of all complaints in this thread that summarize with arguably reasonable changes demanded. It should be clipped for balance team to think over and use as a starting point for 'updating and balancing Elementalist profession in 2019'. However, I must say, above all other complaints, Ele's staff skills (mostly 1~2 and Meteor Shower) staff for WvW is currently too slow and obsolete.

I would just chip in my input, mostly about Ele problems in WvW squad gameplay and DPS department in PvP contents:Ele's DPS department in competitive scenes (WvW, Ranked sPvP, GvG) is pretty much dead or non-existent. It's all about sustain, for group-plays and self-sustain. Heal/support Tempest is just a build that somehow luckily survived 'the culling' of non-meta classes in competitive WvW squad gameplay.TL;DR version:======================================1/ Cantrips seriously needs shorter cooldowns or need reworks.Outdated, even with shorten cooldowns, it's just not enough when ranged power builds can just use skill 1 to shoot you down upto 1500 range with longbow or shiro shadowstep+hammer bolt. The reason Twist of Fate is favored over cantrips in nearly every weaver build right now is due to it's invulnerable time and it's a 2 stack recharge skills.

2/ Ele has 0 utility counter against stealth builds except lucky AoE shots and long cooldown blocks.Eles have the lowest innate defensive stats, the given tools force Eles to react after their stealth bomb has been used. TRAITS is the only and effective counter measure against burst builds.

3/ Staff weaver Fire+Water/Fire+Air Dual Attacks projectiles speed is too slow for competitive gameplay and yet too many counters like projectile blocks or aegis, it's a waste of time to cast them.

4/ Remove stationary requirements from skills: Meteor Shower, Pile Driver. Let Eles use skills while moving too.

5/ Quicken the Ice Spike animation to drop the chunk of ice almost instantly -Staff Water 2

6/ Eruption needs either faster blast or additional soft cc till the actual blast, just like the updated Churning Earth -Staff Earth 2

7/ Fire Overloads needs a rework, it's obsolete and counters the current role as a support role in WvW. It serves no meaningful purpose but a long duration 180 radius fire field, when Might is so abundant and pumped from other classes.

8/ Weave Self and Tailored Victory, still useful but sub-par, not so useful outside sPvP scenes.======================================

Support Tempest is arguably the only viable build in competitive WvW / GvG scenes that some WvW guilds might consider to take it as a core/substitute profession to add in their roster, IF they have a spare spot. Long channeling of overloads can be troubling to finish channeling in an intense fight, but that's also Tempests weakness for enemy to counter, so I don't agree with some people saying overload channeling is too long; but I agree they lack impact. Especially, fire overloads, 4 seconds of spin dancing and lava font damage per tick for 180 radius? It's just not useful for 2019, may be moving fire field was the thing in pre-HoT meta where crowds regarded blasting fire field was a great might generator. It's obsolete now. Blasting and leaping fire fields is a neat trick, still handy for generating Might stacks for Eles, but Fire Overloads, Tempest has not enough combo finishers to fully utilize it anyways still a lackluster and tedious compared to how other classes generate Might. They are gonna hack or shot eles down, they know fire overload is not a threat to actually care about.

Staff Ele's diverse field effects and AoE masking the area within 1200 range with multiple fields sounds great, it is still helpful, but near 0 damage and duration is rather short. There is no reliable continuous damage skills except from 180 radius Lava Font and Meteor Shower, DPS eles (weavers) are often neglected from proper squad spots with supports, and commonly regarded as dead-weight. The upfront damage race is so fierce in WvW right now, hammer rev and scourges shutdown any targets including Eles (especially Eles with full dps spec) within 1200 range, nullifies any fields Eles can cast in same given time bracket. Constant WASD movement is forced and I personally like it, it's fun, but it's the biggest counter to Staff Ele's offensive skills and sustainability. Zergs nowadays simply ignore all fields that Eles drop and even commander calls on discord to just move through and ignore. Only thing that enemy cares about is 'bombing' and Meteor Shower is the only ele skill in that category. All Staff Ele does right now in WvW, is to irritate the target with rock huddles and some chilling grounds to make them move and cast slower for 1 or 2 seconds and hopefully Hammer Revs and Scourges will drop them dead with actual upfront damage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@SCVwar.3784

Sword does everything dagger does, but considerably better. Both weapons fill the same niche. This is a serious problem.

They should have given dagger/dagger setup some special properties, making it better at somethign than sword. Like, to get reliable access to off-hand dagger's skills you currently need to slot Unravel - so specifically for d/d setup they could allow to quickly switch to pure main-hand element without need for Unravel, and without any additional wait (so, for example, you switch to main-hand fire like a normal sword Weaver, but then you can immediately switch to the same element one more time without any additional delay, getting access to your normal offhand skills of this element - so it's become as easy as double-tap your Fire attunement button; optionally, it could also give you all bonuses Unravel currently offers, like, there would be a passive version of Unravel (lesser Unravel?) with a [shorter?] cooldown present if d/d is used, with the exception that you don't need to slot it, it just gets auto-engaged when you try to attune to the same element shortly after the previous attunement; you still can do the rapid switch to the pure element even if it's on cooldown, but you wouldn't get bonuses Unravel offers this way). And a general boost to main-hand dagger and other weapons would also be welcome (including their dual-attacks), as they clearly got much less love than the sword.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be honest, Unravel should have been F5 button not taking another util slot from weaver. Keeping it's core function of single element attunement should have done fine, and possibly adding depth to it's function with traits.. But this looks like a missed opportunity and I doubt Devs actually care what Eles should do in competitive scenes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To show how lovely the state of ele is. Last night during reset, all weavers were asked to get into ranged sub-s before we get kicked if any other better spec was there to take our place. This shows how ele gives so much in terms of support and damage that it doesn't even need a squad. The solo capabilities of ele are perhaps way too high that it can solo cap SM.

We'll probably get 1 or 2 lines of changes just like last patch, or nerfs, maybe Lava Font is still powerful so the damage would be 10% of the current damage while fixing MS bug that caused its damage to be higher than Air Sigil's proc. Ele trait lines are "perfect by nature" anyway and further fixes would get it into "broken" state.

Others will have positively effective changes that will keep them invested into finding newer playstyles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...