NaturallyNick.4058

I don't think anyone has even read it. I don't blame them. Most of the suggestions in here are misguided or working towards completely different goals. Without some actual dev interaction to provide clarity on what they want to do with elementalist, everyone is pulling it in opposite directions with their random and usually quite foolish suggestions. This thread was purely to relegate the eles that want to blow off steam into one area and quarantine us from the rest of the forums. If this thread had actually been about changes, the devs would've started off with a post on their vision for eles. Then they would have participated in shaping and directing the conversation in a productive way. But only the "dev" response we've received has been Gaile.

PvE doesn't need balanced mechanically. You can give them whatever mechanics you want and change the numbers to fit the desired benchmarks. PvP and WvW need mechanical balance which is far more finicky. Balance for PvP and WvW first, then change the numbers to fit the desired PvE benchmarks. It's actually pretty simple when you think about it like that. Starts with the modes with narrow restrictions, then fit what works in the "narrower" modes into the ones with very wide restrictions. That's what people mean when they say PvE doesn't need balanced.

I mean, Ele is undoubtedly the worst class in PvP now so I'd be curious to hear it too. If I were to rank all the specs from 1-27, 25, 26, and 27 would be Weaver, Tempest and Core Ele respectively. Maybe Core Rev would vie for worst position somewhere down there, but I'm inclined to give it spot 24 and call it good. Literally everything in the game (except for maybe Revenant) can kite you at this point. Ele hasn't been this unpleasant to play since I started the game so I've just stopped playing it in PvP entirely until it gets some major buffs. Actual buffs at that, not whatever Anet thinks they're doing when the bug "fix"/nerf 3 of its main traits and skills.

Or make them work like kits that turn your "Elite" skill into Summon "x" Conjure (for a friend) preferably with a separate CD than your actual Elite skill. But that could be OP, so I'd be happy with kits. (or even just leaving them as is. They're a neat part of the Elementalist's skills.)

I'd make PvE Support Elementalist more viable with as little direct effect on other Ele builds as possible. Mainly by focusing on revamping a few of the signets and underused Specializations that wouldn't be taken unless you're already supporting. Rework the Signet of Air passive to provide x% chance of lightning bolt strike on a hit/critical hit for the party (Power based, using the allies stats), Active: 1-2 second daze/stun. Signet of Water Passive: remove 1 condition cleanse every ten seconds in AoE for 5 people (15 second CD in WvW/PvP?), Active: 2 AoE CC cleanse Signet of Fire should probably be left alone. It's in a good place now for offensive Eles where some builds use it and some don't. Signet of Earth, on the other hand, isn't isn't in such a great place and is almost never taken. Having it's passive be x% chance of bleeding on hit/critical hit for the party (based on the allies stats) would give it priority in some nice comps at least. Active: Take the immobilize up from 3 seconds to 4 seconds or give it a 2 second knockdown for the increased break bar damage. Add 5-10 man Fury somewhere in the Earth Specialization. Strength of Stone (small Toughness->condition damage converter) would be a good trait to trade out. It's very underwhelming compared to everything else on that tier. (Even in PvP+WvW) Add a useful +150 stat to Party Bonus to either the Earth or Water tree. +Condition Damage added to the Earth Specialization or Expertise added to either makes the most sense. Toughness is another option, but would see much less use in PvE. Since a lot of their buffs and the majority of their healing are tied to auras/shouts, they also have to carefully weigh the number of signets they would take. More than one or two and it'll be quite challenging to keep up your buffs. On top of that, the Ele would have to run boon duration gear since they can't effectively use Sigil of Concentration, which prevents them from adding in any significant damage. This would help in keeping it restricted to supports and preventing power creep. *edit: Another way to handle the Air and Earth Signets would be to have it so that the damage is stored up and released when you used the Active. (The CDs for those two would need to be lowered significantly to prevent massive spike damage) Since it wouldn't be storing up damage while on CD, you would almost need the Earth trait Written in Stone (Signets passive works on CD) to fully make use of them. This would discourage DPS Eles from picking up Signet of Earth and Air to give their party an extra boost, since they'd also need to take the earth tree to compensate. It would also differentiate it from the druid's AoE damage support as a single target damage support. The effects for the Air Signet could be a single target bolt of lightning that does power damage and the Earth, a spike from the ground that causes bleeding.

I think it would be a no-brainer to add it in to some consumables at large amounts, like they did with empyreal fragments. The hard part is deciding what stats it should give. +50% luck (+10% more than current items) + 20% karma is one idea. That should be enough that people will get it for farming runs, but a single recipe might not be enough to keep up with the excess luck so I'd keep adding in consumable items that used it. (or even just a converter). 1 time sinks don't seem like they'd be enough. This also sounds pretty awesome. The randomness of the currency would add a lot of fun to consuming the luck. Much more fun than just a recipe or two. (Though I'm all for both.) Worst that happens is everybody consumes their luck for extra currencies causing the consumable prices to go through the roof unless you craft it yourself. (In turn adding value for the crafting discipline/disciplines?) But please no more timegates! They turn "playing" into a chore.

I mean they did just release a new expansion with a lot of things to fine-tune. I'm just going to assume it was an oversight/mistake that'll get fixed in a little bit. Sort of like how the 32 -slot bags went from account to soul bound.I'm actually looking forward to crafting one now.