[BTW, in case you missed it, Ele is now a primary melee class]

22 hours ago, scerevisiae.1972 said:

yeah existing options for Ele are pretty decent like you say.

however, many of us have been playng those specs you mention since release.

fact is, there hasn't been a new ranged weapon for Ele for ***9 years***.

hammer could have been a novel take on a ranged weapon  -- 600-900 range, however Anet totally failed to deliver that, instead they made yet another melee weapon that just happens to have a few (kinda bad) ranged skills thrown in as an afterthought.

don't get me started on the stupid #3 skills which seem to only exist to pump up practise golem DPS benchmarks.

I too have been playing elementalist since release. In fact, I was a beta player who on launch switched to mesmer after the beta nerfs and the old version of the forums cried the elementalist was "weak".

After 2 days into launch, I switched back to Elementalist because it is more interesting of a class.

After playing hammer today, I realize hammer is similar to a melee/mid-range version of staff and shares a lot of the principles with staff before some of the nerfs and implements a bit of old school dagger/dagger.

 

EDIT: My break was around 6 months before POF to ~1 year after POF

[Get ready for the disappointment]

2 minutes ago, SauroN.2501 said:

I'll be visiting the forums daily for updates on catalyst. I'm not buying EOD cause of this garbage spec until it has been massively buffed. 

It really didn't need a buff. It needed nerfs to its damage output.

That said, the nerf did occur. Some projectiles seem faster though (Air 5 in particular)

[What has changed about the new specs with the EoD update?]

Catalyst has some slight damage nerfs on all Hammer abilities (comparing with the GW2 skills calculator) and a larger nerf on the Hammer 3 (about 60% damage nerf).

 

Some of the projectiles seem a lot faster, but no quantitative data on that.

[Hammer is still terrible]

Hammer is probably some of the most fun I had with elementalist in my 10 years of playing this game. I didn't vibe with it at first; however, someone posted a video of them soloing some HPs in the feedback threads. Once I got the gist of the videos (what does damage, when to swap), I was able to successfully create my own builds by branching off those concepts.

Playing hammer like you would sword/dagger won't net you much success, it really is its own playstyle.

[BTW, in case you missed it, Ele is now a primary melee class]

On 2/25/2022 at 7:15 AM, Xaylin.1860 said:

This a totally valid statement to make and I agree on that. But that's not really the whole story being discussed here, is it?

 

Again, please don't get me wrong. Personally, I'm totally fine with Elementalist getting more ranged options. I can also see why peoples expectations were disappointed with yet another not exclusively ranged spec. But that's about it. Expectations. There is no objective reasoning to why the e-specs are bad or inappropriate based on their weapons or overall range. Elementalist wasn't marketed to be more ranged than Mesmer or Necromancer (and it clearly isn't worst at range despite OPs statement). All scholars are marketed/described as more ranged than scouts and soldiers. Additionally, GW2 actually favors melee overall. So as others mentioned: Melee isn't bad - at least when it comes to performance.

 

In the end, the real question here probably is whether it can be expected for e-specs to build on specific core playstyles or offer more diversity. In my opinion, core Elementalist basically covers all ranged archetypes quite well already. Feel free to disagree. But from my point of view, the only justification for more range would probably mean being okay with more of the same unless the defining feature is not range but something else (e.g. weapon swap and 2 Attunements instead of 4 Attunements). Because otherwise you will end up with an "ANet stole from Acrobatics to create Daredevil"-scenario. However, if you feel that e-specs should create diversity and open up different playstyle, ANet actually mostly did a good job when looking at Elementalist. From this perspective, I'd argue that WH is the worst with the most overlap with existing weapons (and please let's not forget that there were many people actually asking for Sword) and the overlap between Overloads and Jade Sphere coming in second. Regardless of weapon, Tempest and Weaver play different than core. I can't really say for Catalyst at this point based on betas. But Hammer probably won't be the issue here. I'm way more bothered by Catalyst traits and ANet not being able to make Energy management for the Jade Sphere a relevant factor for gameplay than by Hammer.

 

Which brings me back to what I've already said earlier: In my opinion, a ranged e-spec would mostly bring flavor. Which is nice. But not needed from a gameplay perspective. I mean, what does Elementalist realistically lack from a ranged perspective? A Catalyst with, for example, Bow would probably play mostly like Staff or Scepter.

I love this post because it really sums up my feelings.

Today I played raids using scepter/focus cond tempest. Was top dps, had a blast (even though it was a pug group).

Then I ran some dragon response missions (farming master of draconic ice title) using Power weaver sword/dagger, but I did often switch to staff to clear mobs. It doesn't really matter in this case, but I was also pushing out great damage while saving the squad.

Then I switched into WvW mode with Power staff weaver, and had my usual fun time playing Elementalist. My guild keeps tracks of a lot of metrics, and I was doing well in terms of damage, down contribution, and a few others.

The point of me stating this is that I played the ranged elementalist options in 3 contexts (2 if you really want to merge the PvE content) and they all performed very well at what they do. I too enjoy the range aspect of elementalist, so I complete a lot of my PvE and story content using staff or scepter/x. The elementalist range options from the base game are really good and extremely effective in the contexts they succeed at.

I don't typically play sPvP and when I do, I run the sword/focus weaver. I do talk to Ele players who utilize staff and scepter in sPvP scenarios who have a decent rank, but that's their story to tell not mine.

People on the ele forum blow things out of proportion. 

In fact, when I returned to this game from break (and I returned because no other game had a class like Elementalist), I did not know there were any issues with elementalist until I joined the forum or read the downstate memes on reddit.

[Buffing/Re-working Staff]

13 hours ago, thepolishman.2348 said:

Lots of interesting suggestions here.  That said, a little too op if they all got implemented.  The change to water auto alone would make ele the unquestioned king of support.  

And funny enough, Staff Tempest is already the best healer in the game with what we have right now.

[Are Elementalists supposed to be "Mages"?]

4 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Which is why I've used terms like 'typical mage' or 'traditional mage' or 'classic mage'. I've seen people use the term 'battlemage' for what the elementalist has become, and that term, while accurate, still has the term 'mage' in it.

But that's semantics. Literally. Not the colloquial sense of 'semantics' to refer to an argument that sounds impressive but is just smoke and mirrors, it explicitly falls under the definition of lexical semantics, or the analysis of word meanings.

But it's still an attempt to smokescreen over the underlying complaint by arguing a minor point in how the complaint is presented.

Fuzzyp has already responded, so I'll keep this brief, but it's not a semantical discussion. People are straight up lying for whatever reason. We have our suspicions, but it's always veiled in threads like these. 

Quote

People want a ranged elementalist. The character selection screen still describes elementalist as preferring range - something which is basically lying to new players at this point. Core elementalist with scepter or staff just isn't viable these days, and while full ranged weaver builds technically exist, weaver is still a melee-oriented specialisation overall, and ranged weaver is basically making something out of a bone that was thrown to a concept that is still limited to the same heavily-nerfed weapons it's had since 2012.

Once again, we have scepter/staff/focus. Even Dagger, Sword, Warhorn, and Hammer have ranged lite options.

Another issue with these types of dicussions is people saying, "X is not viable". Where? All of our ranged weapons are viable in PvE. I personally run power staff,  power/condi scepter/focus, and power/condi sword/focus for my PvE.

In high end raids, scepter/focus is a viable build for power and condi (Having a 37k/36k benchmark respectively). Now at this point, people will move the goal post and say benchmarks don't matter etc; however, benchmarks tell you the upper limit of a class's damage output. The next goal post move is usually about, "The build takes too much skill to play". Thankfully, you don't need anything beyond 15k-20k for raid bosses.

In WvW Staff is the premier zerg weapon.

In PvP, there are users on this forum who use Staff, Scepter, Focus and share the builds/videos of them playing it.

Elementalist's ranged weapons see play in all game modes across all of our specializations.

Quote

And I don't think asking for something that is still being advertised in character creation to actually be supported is gatekeeping. Telling people that Arenanet has decided the profession should be a certain way and people should just accept that rather than offering feedback when they're disappointed by that direction is gatekeeping. Telling people that a particular playstyle shouldn't be catered for because it isn't well suited to your preferred mode of play while ignoring that the game has multiple environments that reward different styles is gatekeeping. Having had your style of play catered for 3/3 times and telling people who want something different that they have no right to complain is gatekeeping.

For me, it's not about the play style doesn't exist. The play style is there. The issue is, the play style that people want is overpowered.

I don't know how long you've played this game or anyone with these complaints on staff/scepter; however, what you all are asking for existed in this game once upon a time and it was not balanced.

Staff Ele 1v5'ing on launch in clocktower, lightning flashing through elevation and permanently kiting

Staff Tempest 70k and then later 56k dps benchmark.

Staff Ele in WvW using Tornado to increase power/ferocity and meteor shower doing 20k-40k damage per meteor. My guild ran with me as 1 Ele and 2 guards, 2 warriors. We would wipe out zergs because there was no AOE cap.

The suggestions want Elementalist to be oppressive, when right now, Elementalist is probably the most balanced class in the game. 

 

3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

It's been pretty clear what most people in the thread have been arguing for or against, apart from Jski's weird argument that 'magic' should have a special damage type or more condis. Part of the context of the wider discussion is that a classic archetype is being neglected and people are upset about that. There's nothing wrong with doing something unusual every so often - in fact, it offers valuable spice in a game of this nature - but people have the right to ask for the more conventional interpretations as well.

It is not clear because as Fuzzyp already pointed out, this thread is just a veiled "Buff X" using different language to obfuscate the goal; however, the language doesn't even make sense.

The conventional interpretation already exists. Play with Staff or Scepter. "Classic mage" weapons. If anything, if you wanted a "classic mage archetype", then there are no more weapons to give to Elementalist...because we already have them all.

Quote

There are few good reasons for elementalist to go 3/3 on melee-focused specialisations, and fewer still to go for 4/4 (given that I don't think there's any realistic chance for Catalyst to be so fundamentally reworked at this point, we're now basically pushing for the next expansion).

The specializations are not inherently melee. They all can utilize the ranged options for elementalist (and in the case of Weaver, supercharge them). 

Also side note, Staff Catalyst is a lot of fun.

 

EDIT: Rip to keeping it short

[Are Elementalists supposed to be "Mages"?]

3 hours ago, frareanselm.1925 said:

Read fantastic literature and games... a melee elementalist will never be a mage. Mages are casters with a staff. Melee eles are kind of monk/battlemages

And elementalist has a staff.

As well as a scepter.

And a focus.

 

All standard magical weapons that are ranged.

[Catalyst feels like trash]

On 12/15/2021 at 1:13 AM, scerevisiae.1972 said:

It wouldn't matter if every hammer skill were a combo finisher.

Hammer sucks because it's just another melee weapon that competes with dagger and sword. The 6/20 short-ranged skills don't differentiate the playstyle enough for it not to feel/play like a melee weapon.

Also it completely sucks in the only game-mode I care about: WVW, and I've been playing staff/sceptre/dagger for 9 years now.

So as far as I'm concerned, it's a total design fail, cause the design/playstyle is really the only thing that matters at the end of the day.

 

22 hours ago, Avatara.1042 said:

Staff Earth 1 is a 100% projectile finisher, not 20%.  You also neglect to mention the biggest issue: COOLDOWNS.

Not only does Hammer have the longest finisher cooldowns, by far, half the finishers are liked to critical utility.

You both are not following the discussion. 

 

Person A says, "Hammer skills do not have many combo finishers"

I list all of the combo finishers.

It does matter if every hammer skill was a combo finisher, because the discussion is on how many combo finishers it has.

Hammer being a melee weapon is irrelevant to the amount of combo finishers.

Hammer being bad in WvW is irrelevant to the number of combo finishers

Staff 1 being a 100% finisher is helpful, but it still puts hammer at equal to staff and still more if you purposefully combo. You are correct there are cooldowns, but then that brings us to our next point, the trait we are talking about has a 10 second ICD per attunement.

So even if you can spam Staff Water 2, it is irrelevant to the conversation.

You can express your disdain with hammer and Catalyst, that is fine; however, do not flat out lie and derail comment threads.

[Catalyst feels like trash]

6 minutes ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

Ah ok. It's difficult to talk about betas due to lack of info and constant changes.

The skill is still worse for no reason, they should stop trying to force hammer to actively be engaged with players to benefit from it's sustain when other weapon's DON'T have to do that. 

Do blinds/blocks/aegis/dodge stop the additional cleanse like water4s heal?

I have seen dodge stop the secondary effect, so it makes sense to me that blinds/blocks/aegis will stop it.

 

EDIT: Maybe something to test on release.

[Catalyst feels like trash]

1 hour ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

It's 1+1 on hammer vs 3 on focus.

2 ~= 3

From the Beta 2 thread:

• Cleansing Typhoon: This skill now cleanses two conditions before attacking in addition to its other effects. This skill is now a whirl finisher.

Which means the wiki page for it is updated:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Typhoon

[Catalyst feels like trash]

14 hours ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

2 ~= 3.

Note that his statement (you quoted it) was: Hammer doenst lack condi cleanse at all, in fact, it is the same as focus if you hit someone with it.

The base is 2 condi cleanses. Hitting 1 target is 3 condi cleanses. Hitting 3 targets is 5 condi cleanses.

13 hours ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

The Jade sphere needs more flexibility in how and when it is summoned i.e. need a minimum summon amount however if you have over that then it will steadily drain unless you unsummon it. Having to keep summoning it every 5 seconds seems like it can be cumbersome.

Also, we have a WHOLE line of traits for auras.....but have no natural aura generating abilities beyond doing combos. Yet creating a combo for an aura requires a blast or leap finisher and not many hammer skills have them. The spec is too convoluted and potential TOO spread out. This lack of cohesion makes the spec unfun because in order, I guess, to get the max viability out of this spec I have to give up creativity and cycle through all attunements and certain utility skills no matter my play style. No thanks.

The elite skill is very uninspiring also...refresh all weapon skills....yay...... They really should do a mega jade sphere attack where it overclocks the Jade Sphere to make an even bigger combo field (of your current attunement) with more effects and with some cost adding time to change attunements.

It doesn't required a blast or a leap finisher, it requires a combo. The hammer's combo finishers are:

Blasts:

• Molten End
• Shock Blast
• Ground Pound

Whirl

• Cleansing Typhoon

Leap

• Crashing Font

Projectile

• Grand Finale in any of the four attunements of your choice

Giving you 6 combo finishers, or 9 depending on if you're actively looking to chain.

For comparison:

• Main Hand dagger has 2 finishers
• Off hand dagger has 2 finishers
• Scepter has 3~4 finishers (Earth auto has 20% chance)
• Staff has 5~6 finishers(Earth auto has 20% chance)
• Focus has 2 finishers

Hammer has the most combo finishers of any elementalist weapon combination. The only ones that compete, have combo finishers with a 20% chance.

Reminder that  the trait has a 10 second icd per attunement, so you shouldn't be spamming these mindlessly. Another reminder that you can start the combo finisher and swap attunements to gain a different aura.

 

[Catalyst feels like trash]

18 hours ago, Kain Francois.4328 said:

To gauge public reception, for the purpose of metrics and information gathering. It's a useful resource for ironing concepts, along with other metrics (eg. success rates, how often something is used, where...) a dev might collect within the game itself. This data allows developers to make informed decisions as they develop a class and its concepts.

This does not mean a developer ever intended to release an underpowered class, nor does it indicate a lack of foresight. It means they are experimenting with data collection and numbers when polishing concepts.

All that is to say developers are smarter than we think because they have more access to metrics and internal excel documents and formulas. It's possible the mathematical calculations they draw may contradict some of the popular opinions we might think are correct, but aren't.

Sorry for cutting your post, but I wanted to address these ideas because you are spot on.

I am not a developer in the game space, but I work in data science and what Kain is describing here is the fundamentals of experiement design and data analytics. Anet has already mentioned that they keep almost all their data for analysis. This means that even if we don't have an architecture, you don't keep that many log files for fun.

12 hours ago, Peter.3901 said:

So, they failed with the profession when you need deep math to balance stuffs, i don't need math to get high dps with necro or any other usefull profession.

Kain has already explained this to you, but fundamentally, every game you play is a set of mathematical equations/functions. If any of these do not work, you do not have a game. 

What you're complaining about is that there are less equations used for other classes compared to Elementalist; however, if you keep this in mind, it tells you, from the start of the game, Elementalist was designed to be a complex class, which is consistent with all the developer interviews from before launch (if you were around at that point in time).

[This profession needs a rework]

 

1 hour ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

Ele doesn't need a rework. Weaver is an incredibly well designed spec and Sword is a masterfully crafted weapon.

Tempest, staff, and Catalyst, however, do need to be reworked.

I think Tempest is also in a pretty good space. There is a condi, power, and support build for tempest and they all do pretty decently or excel at their role.

[Catalyst idea: Let's turn it into Revenant.]

3 minutes ago, Daddy.8125 said:

kitten 😂 half the forums are setting emselves on fire accusing the new elites of being recycled and uninspired and your posting about making catalyst play like core revenant 😂😂 

I'm not sure copy and pasting proffessions over one another would be a strong idea long term. Although given the circumstances I could understand why you'd ask for such with catalyst. 

Elite specs have always been recycled class mechanics. Anyone who didn't realize until now wasn't paying attention.

[It's time to make Conjured weapons a kit please!]

23 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I'm not going to argue semantics over the word "suck" but even the best ele players in the game will tell you that there is no payoff for playing the class well. Other classes do it better without giving up the versatility of a weapon swap.

I say there's no call for that in a game where classes like firebrand are allowed to dominate.  I mention firebrand specifically because it has about the same number of skills as weaver but none of the limitations while basically doing more and better than ele can. 

We don't need to, but you brought up Firebrand and that is a class that nearly everyone agrees is overloaded.

In other words, I agree that Firebrand does a lot; however, the solution is not to make every class like Firebrand (power creep), the solution is to nerf Firebrand.

[Catalyst feels like trash]

3 minutes ago, Mattmatt.4962 said:

That is insanely wrong, Ele has lost top damage spot looooong ago, while also beeing super hard to play "high risk high reward" is not something that define ele (wvw player here).

If you want one super simple exemple of higher damage: engineer spamm 1 bomb kit. it's the dumbest build ever and it outdamage ele by a tons XD

In WvW, Elementalist has the highest damage uptime of all the classes and the only complaints is that staff can't burst, but it's generally understood that a staff Elementalist can consistently lay down damage.

We have several really good power scrapper players in my guild and they can top the dps charts fairly easily; however, when I am playing well and mindfully, I can outdamage them in fights by hundreds of thousands and I run marauder (We only play against organized guilds).

[It's time to make Conjured weapons a kit please!]

1 hour ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Why? You can still only use one weapon/attunement at a time and all the skills have individual cooldowns.  They also take up utility slots.

In my opinion, conjures should fill the gaps left by the lack of a swap.  Their current design doesn't allow this due to obnoxiously long cooldowns.

 

20 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Opportunity cost.  If you're using a conjure you can't also be using your attunement skills. Add a normal swap cooldown and there's no issue.  If having tons of skills were an automatic advantage ele wouldn't suck.

 

There's no need to make up for a lack of weapon swap because we already have 4 attunements making up for a lack of weapon swap.

Elementalists on this board already complain about the complexity of Elementalist and you want to double it?

Elementalist doesn't suck, people just can't effectively play Elementalist.

[Hammer is still terrible]

 

2 minutes ago, Kain Francois.4328 said:

I'm actually enjoying Hammer very much.

It's my personal opinion that, while I disagree with implementation of Hammer 3, it's honestly not as hard to use as some posters are saying. You just... press 3 while swapping through your damage rotation (Rolling your face all over the keyboard, pressing everything off CD except Air 4 and Earth 4....). That's it. That's what people are complaining about? Wow...

 

You sometimes do want Air 4 though for the CC, but I agree. I did not find the orb mechanic difficult. I've suggested it somewhere else but will do it here as well.

1. Practice the hammer without worry about the orbs. Once you get that down, the orbs have no cast time, so it's pretty easy to implement them into your rotation.
2. If you start your first orb before you leave the attunement, that gives you more time in your next attunement.

[Core Ele buffs]

8 hours ago, Mem no Fushia.7604 said:

Buff Core ele without buffing elite specializations. Add to skills, utilities, elites and trait codition: "if elite specialization not equiped skill, utility, elite or trait have increased efficiency".

Examples:

Staff ele: fire 3 - increase radious from 240 to 600. Add third stack of burning.

water 4 - enemies slide (there is mechanic of slide in game). Make slide new control effect that works even if enemy have stability.

air 2 - increase radious from 180 to 360. If enemy have already blind damage is increased by 25%

earth 2 - make cripple and a little damage proc every 1/4s before eruption

earth 5 - press second time to teleport to procjetile

Scepter ele: fire 2 and 3 - swap cooldwons

earth 2 - increase thoughness to 500, hurl still have 5 projectiles, but bleed stacks increase from 1 to 2 per projectile.

earth 3 - rename to Dust Angel. Make it ground target. For 3 seconds make dust creature (that can't move) that cripples and blind enemies. Press second time to make it burst and teleport to its loaction.

 

New elite specialization for thief Specter have targeting allies and enemies if I'm not wrong. Ele could have same treatment on staff water 1, conjure frost bow 1 if we could have "heat seeking" projectiles for those two it would be good.

Staff

Most of these suggestions are too much. The Fire 3 is maybe the least invasive, but Staff isn't a condi weapon. The burn there is primarily to proc traits.

A CC effect that involuntarily moves a character and stab doesn't prevent it is too strong. Keep in mind that Water 4 is also instant cast and very easy to drop on a group.

Air 2 doesn't need anymore damage, it's already one of the hardest hitting abilities on staff with a 1.44/0.91 coefficient. For reference Ice Spike 1.5/0.91, Eruption 1.5/1.25 and Meteor Shower is 1.6/1.1. Revenant CoR in PvE/WvW/PvP is 1.75/1.15/1.5. Even the range increase is huge if you consider how groups typically stack.

Earth 5 why does staff need a teleport into combat/melee range? 

Earth 2, as mentioned above, already has a ton of damage and staff doesn't need any more CC. Remember that Earth 1 applies weakness, Earth 3 reflects projectiles (and if you're mindful, you can use it to reflect high impact projectiles), Earth 4 is hard CC/knockdown, and Earth 5 is immobilize. 

Water 1 suggestion is good.

 

Scepter

Fire 2 is low CD, high damage because it is very unlikely to hit without setup. The low cd prevents you from getting punished too heavily when your setup is down. Fun fact, Fire 2 is a 2.25/2.0 coefficient

Fire 3 is a hell of an ability. You get Vigor. It is unblockable. Removes 1 condition. Then you can get THREE hits with it. 0.75/0.4 coef for the passthrough hits x2 and then the 1.7/1.5 coef on the explosion. 

Earth 2 is so/so on the toughness/bleeds. Scepter is a great burst weapon.

Earth 3 increases the reliability of landing the above abilities. Scepter doesn't need additional mobility (Run dagger offhand if you want some).

 

 

[Catalyst feels like trash]

3 hours ago, Lynx.9058 said:

What does catalyst really offer if you don't use hammer?  The traits feel like they're less powerful and have fewer synergies than tempest or weaver, and the utilities feel subpar.  The only thing it really stands out for is jade sphere Which is still clunky, too short lived, and unnecessarily impeded by energy mechanics.

From my playthroughs I've identified

• The most consistent stability application of any Elementalist spec
• Unique boons not found on any Elementalist spec
• Perma application of said unique boons (depending on your game mode and/or stat combination)
• Traits that boost your stats, allowing you to spec into more interesting stat combinations than the standard meta or "do more" within the standard meta

25 minutes ago, Anthony.8056 said:

I like how people are defending the catalyst because of numbers that will eventually get nerfed by the time it launches. Numbers are going to be changed throughout its cycle but the design and having to manage so much on this class will stay the same. The excuses people are giving is laughable because elementalist shouldn't have to work twice as hard on a low hp class to get mediocre damage while heavy and medium armor do less work providing better damage just at the press of a button (not buttons). The fact that they have a trait line just to build up stats instead of giving it to minor trait is garbage and laziness. Everything you have to manage on this class is like trying to get a strike every time from bowling because you have to micromanage a lot to get the full benefit of the damage. 

I'm not sure how long you've played, but this has always been Elementalist. We have double the skills of any class, so generally speaking, two of our buttons = 1 of another class.

Typically, Elementalist is THE highest damage class across the game modes I play in (high end PvE, WvW). The reason people usually don't want to bring Elementalist isn't the lack of damage, it's the lack of the players ability to survive or the lack of visible group utility.

I play every class and in my experience, it's easier to deal damage on another class; however, Elementalist has a higher damage ceiling. 

[Catalyst idea: Let's turn it into Revenant.]

I love this idea a lot. To tune it further, so you could apply it to older utility skills, we could make it something like:

Quote

Reduce the CD of Elementalist skills by X% seconds. The X% seconds reduced now becomes the energy cost of the skill.

With this, the change applies to all ele weapons and utilities.

[Catalyst Structured PVP opinion and suggestion]

1 hour ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

The jade sphere is stationary and trying to get allies to stand in it for more than 2s is not worth the trouble. If it was aoe around you then it would be a good choice as a team fighter. If in comms you could make the most use of what you described so could be possible in tournaments. On demand quickness can help counter the res utility meta. 

With team fights becoming the win/lose condition these days you may find a lot more bruiser type fighters in team fights with boon support. 

Once EoD comes out I wouldnt be suprised if berzerker and reaper become more widely used since they can have a spectre be their dedicated babysitter at mid. Everyone else will probably be a bit tankier and have more mobility option for rotations. That is where a d/d catalyst could fit in.

This makes a lot of sense; it's the coordination required when pugging that makes it difficult to get the full use. Thanks for the answer!

[Catalyst Structured PVP opinion and suggestion]

1 hour ago, Kulane.5932 said:

2-The Jade Sphere fell very underwhelming in pvp all it does it create a combo field and give some not very desired boons. People are moving all the time, the only way we can get value out of this is if we are fighting on a node and even if you stay in the field for the full duration it feel lack luster. Also the sphere is on the same global cooldown as the attunement meaning you cant switch attunement place the sphere immediately and combo into it you have to wait an awkward 1 second before placing the sphere it just doesn't feel good.

Suggestion: Make the field do the same damage as they do in PVE.

-Lightning : Is the only one that feels good to use because quickness is such a good boon. I wouldn't change it.

-Fire: Only 5 mights ? Why would someone waste their energy for this. I feel like it should pulse 1 second burning

-Water: Resolution? Regen which has more synergy with other elementalists traits or a pulsing heal would be better in my opinion.

-Earth: Protection is good but it would feel a lot better if it had the PVE damage like I said above and maybe cripple to help sticking to your targets ?

-4 My last concern is with the trait Hardened Auras (+2% damage when you gain a aura up to 10%). This is such a bad trait it takes a lot of time to reach 10% you have to get 5 aura which take a long time and is almost impossible to maintain. Don't get me wrong the Elementalist need traits like that but its lack luster when you compare it to other classes trait like the Rev Close Quarter (10%), Warrior hardened Armor (10% +resolution) etc...

Just a quick question on the boons. I'm not a sPvP specialist by any means, I play it for fun whenever I'm bored (I do play WvW), but isn't Protection and Resolution super strong PvP boons. In WvW protection is quite valuable and against any condi class, Resolution puts a damper on their damage.

With Spectacular Sphere, you can get:

- 10 might with Fire

- 5s Fury, 5s Quickness with Air

- 5s Resolution, 5s Vigor with Water

- 5s Protection, 5s Resistance (anti immob, anti chill, anti cripple) with Earth

With sphere specialist, you can give them a 50% duration increase. 

All of those boons, to me, seem very PvP centric, so how are they not desired/desirable? Is it the duration?

[Catalyst feels like trash]

1 hour ago, Lynx.9058 said:

I've been considering weaver mostly sticking to fire/earth, how would that work out?  Other option at this point is dumping ele entirely and rolling something else

It's actually a viable way to play Weaver. Power Weaver usually focuses on Air/Fire and Condi Weaver Earth/Fire (Although pyro vortex is also crazy strong). 

The only build that requires you to attune to all elements is Condi Weaver during the Weave Self rotation, otherwise it's at your own discretion.