lLobo.7960
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Posts posted by lLobo.7960
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@Feanor.2358 said:
@"maddoctor.2738" said:Talking about PVE now:What would everyone say if they removed Conjures from the game, or at the very least they rework them to fit a very specific playstyle.I think the best Conjure at the moment is the Lightning Hammer. It's the only conjure with a set style and the only Conjure with useful auto attacks, it's the only Conjure that you cast it and use it's full potential instead of cast it to get access to one or two skills then discard it. It buffs critical chance and critical damage, all the skills are about dealing high power damage, a leap and some crowd control.Earth Shield is another well designed Conjure weapon with abilities that fit with each other. The main issue with it is that it's not very useful in PVE, it's a defensive/tanking weapon.Conjure Flame Axe is a mostly useless weapon because most of its abilities are surpassed by the Elite Conjure Fiery Greatsword, making this skill an excellent candidate for a rework or even removal. It's supposed to be a hybrid power/condition weapon but the elite is better at both so the Axe lacks a unique purpose and identity, which is why it's not used anywhere.Conjure Fiery Greatsword is a terrible skill for an Elite slot. It's only used for the later skills while the auto attacks are worthless. It's one of those "I pop this, press 4/5 then discard it" kind of weapon which is sad, given the enormous cooldown. Comparewith...) they are both called Firestorm and look redundant, one of these could go, and most likely the Greatsword skill.Conjure Frost Bow is the worst of the conjures. It only has 1 useful overall skill (4) and a situational (due to the long cast) CC skill (5). It buffs healing power although the healing output it provides is abysmal. It buffs Condition duration, yet it has a great Power damage skill. This conjure is all over the place and needs kind of a rework. Also,and) are similar, the first applies bleeding, the second chill. Honestly these two skills should be swapped or something.I know making these kinds of changes to Firestorm and Frost Storm would nerf Elementalist DPS further. But, both of those skills make the rotation more complex, require the clunky usage of conjures and provide a good amount of damage. Damage that appears on benchmarks and if it's removed somehow, perhaps the rest of the Elementalist can get a boost instead.First off, LH is used in exactly the same manner - you press 4, you do an AA chain (which is actually terrible for an ele... I mean, with so many skills available you still resort to auto...) and then you discard it. It's not fundamentally different from the usage pattern of Icebow (which is still used in some places by the way) or FGS. Personally, I like that. It fits the Elementalist concept as a whole - access different weapon skills to use only the best/those applicable to your situation, then move on to another skill set to do the same.My only gripe with conjures is how inconvenient their use is, particularly picking them up from the ground. That's plain awful. Aside from that, I don't mind their current state. Sure, I'd like to see Lava Axe being brought to some semblance of useful state. But I wouldn't like to see them made into something powerful enough to make me want to stay on it. It's not what ele is about.Furthermore, any changes that begin with "nerf ele further in the name of a brighter future" - no. Just no. I have zero faith in brighter futures in general, and particularly when it comes to ele balance in this game.There are various playstyles for conjures.You can use them as your main weapon while camping an attunement that has poor skills (the old LH in water attunement style, still very good at early levels)You can use them as utility situationally to cover something that you can't with your weapon (like using frostbow for CC, or LH against projectile reflecting opponents)You can use them quickly for burst (LH and FGS are good example of burst)
They do need improvements but really don't need to be removed. They are very cool concepts and a great utility for a class with no weapon swap.1: Make the conjure utility ammunition based.2: Make the conjure utility summon only one weapon per use. It summons one weapon at the caster hands if the caster is inside the conjure AoE, and summons at the ground if the caster is not inside the AoE.3: Frostbow skill 4: froststorm needs to apply chill to foes and regen to allies instead of bleeding. Making frostbow a good CC option for ele.4: Flame axe skill 1: lava axe needs to apply burning so that Flame axe becomes more condition based
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On the subject of the current top raid/group DPS build for weaver:
It seems that a lot of skills from core ele (staff, conjures, gliph of storms) have been nerfed/changed due to how powerfull they were on this specific build in specific group encounters (static bosses with large hit boxes).
The nerf was done in a way that moved most of the dmg on storm skills to the initial strikes and reduced power dmg on other skills.The issues with this are:
- Storm skills should be area negating skills. By reducing the power over the time they are in effect you remove the flavor of this type of skill making it just a burst skill.
- Staff fire skills completely lack burning. Reducing the power dmg should be an option to increase/add the burn dmg. This would increase diversity by creating option for a hybrid or condi dmg staff ele (core or weaver)
- Weaver has mechanics that make its rotation complicated but reward good execution (elements of rage and weaver prowess), this should be encouraged and not nerfed.
- Main issue with the weaver power dps build is Bountiful Power. With the support from chronos this trait gives up to +20% flat dmg increase. This trait should be reworked to be more in line with the arcana tree and spread its benefits according to attunements (like the other grandmasters) making it still competitive on a group scenario, but not so good that is better than the whole air line on a burst spec.
- add burn to fireball and lava font, make flame burst copy burn stacks on the target to 5 targets in the aoe: Staff needs more condi dmg. This would open dps options for staff condi dps (maybe even with tempest), hybrid dps (power and condi).
- Normalize meteor dmg from meteor shower and add burn to each hit, same for GoS:Firestorm: Fire is the sustained dmg attunement. Not burst. Make the storm skills in fire apply a good portion of BOTH condi/burn and power dps in a steady way, not in burst. This will make timing of those skills important in fights, instead of just the first few hits. Leave the burst storms for air one (conjure hammer and GoS in air) so the ele can decide, based on how long the opponent will be in the storm area (or if it has the vulnerable debuff on, making burst better), to go with a burst power storm in air or with a more steady storm in fire. MAKE THEM BOTH VIABLE IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS.
- 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.
- elements of rage remove the flat ferocity increase and add +10% crit dmg to the buff (so, only dmg increase when in the 10s window of dual attunement). So it is a 10% normal dmg increase and 20% for crits, when in the 10s window after a dual attunement. This is comparable with the other 20% dmg from other GM traits, and rewards good rotation and well timed bursts, while weaver prowess acts similar to condition dmg.
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The issue is the ceiling is too low for such a high floor.
Ele has complicated dps rotation (not just in terms of how many skills you use, but the window and order of use has a high impact on results), it is squishy with little room for taking defensive utilities or attunements without major impacts in dps, it brings little to the team besides raw dps, and is highly dependent on group support and heals.
The skill floor for the weaver dps role is high(er).But the benefits for doing it all perfect are not there. Others can put out more dps, with more room for error and bringing more party utility/support.
Meanwhile, ele as a support role, although able to bring good heals, it brings bad dps (if you want to go for a offensive support), low support (not enough boons or buffs) so its not only not good, its not even an option on most game content (CMs, most raids, PvP).
Ok, Here is my take on what is limiting the ele:
Class traits and weapons:Elementalists have the attunement system, this change what their weapon skills do (heal, dmg, condition, control, burst, cleanse) while the weapons itself change how this is done (long range slow AoE, mid range burst, fast PBAoE, etc).The traitlines are one for each attunement and its theme, while arcana works for all attunements in a leaser extent (short boons instead of greater buffs) and the e-specs focus on staying longer on attunment (tempest) or moving attunements fast and combining them (weaver).
The issue here is, that traits on each traitline are very limited on their scope (mostly only function on each attunement) and are not powerfull enough to cover this limitation. For instance the ele does not have any trait to lower CD of its weapon skills, but of its attunment skills, and at the same extent other classes have for their weapons.
At the same time, traits related to utility skills are on very random places. Why conjurer is on fire if we have conjures for each attunment? Why gliphs on air?
With PoF tempest was pushed further into the realm of support, specifically with auras. But to use auras as a support you need water attunment. This locks tempests on defensive support and makes it not viable as a decent offensive support. Meanwhile weaver is a great spec for dps or sustain/dueling, but dual skills, sword and some of the stances are just very lackluster. The idea of elements of rage and weavers power is great, but elements of rage need to give its crit dmg bonus (ferocity) on the same way it gives the main dmg bonus, so it creates an improved gameplay (by giving temporary bonuses when dual attuning) instead of flat bonuses.
I've made a lot of sugestions to give ele more synergy, to give options to dealing with condi outside of water, to give tempest more room to work with other traitlines and create opportunities for offensive and defensive support roles, to create more options for hybrid dmg (condi and power), etc:
StatsEle has the lowest base defensive stats. But it has no greater coefficients on its weapon skills to compensate that. Sure, it has attunements, but it already has no weapon swap to balance for attunements. A engi has kits and toolbelt while still having medium HP and armor. We got attunements and low armor and hp.
Not only this but attunements are very specific and need high specialization (gear and traits) to work decently. So a zerker ele does not have better sustain than a zerker warrior due to having water attunement, it does not have higher dmg or crit coefficients on fire or air, it does not have higher mobility or condi dmg output.
There is no value on having lower defensive stats if everyone else (with more HP and armor) can achieve the same level of dmg or burst or heal or support than you can ever specialize in.
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@Arkaile.5604 said:Idk, I'd say it's pretty transparent by this point that ANet wants ele players to move away from using staff so much. Sounds like a good idea in a vacuum, having players use more of a class' weapons instead of just sticking with one, but not so much when there's other builds to compete with. For instance, deadeye.
I disagree with this. And seems quite a narrow viewpoint.
Staff is an AoE ranged weapon. It is still the best potential dps on large hitbox or groups.Deadeye is the best dps on single target. Seems fair.
Ele is not in a spot where you will be kicked out of raids (and if you are, either you are bad or the commander is a kitten) for not being good dps.
The thing that, IMO, is wrong with the way the nerfs are coming is that staff ele is being pushed to burst without an option for sustain.If they increased the condi dmg on staff skills to (even partially) cover for the power nerfs, then maybe the ele could choose to go zerker on short (or phased) fights and hybrid (griever or whatever) on longer fights.
It would be nice to have options.
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Stuck in 'match about to begin' right after map selection.
Tried relog, restart, join a pvp match from game browser, wvw... nothing makes this go away
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On a serious note...
Longbow is the most logical choice for elementalist next weapon.Long range, 2 handed, single target.
We got long range aoe with staff;We got mid range burst with scepter;We got short range PBAoE with dagger;We got melee range with sword;We got OH defense with focus;We got OH offense with dagger;We got OH support with warhorn;
We had an OH Elite spec with tempest warhorn...We had a MH Elite spec with weaver sword...
We have shortbow, hammer, axe, shield and greatsword conjures...
So, unless they give a weapon we can already conjure (very lame, IMO), we have mace, pistols, rifle and longbow.Dual pistols could be really fun as an elemental spell-slinger type. But pistols are usually mid-range burst and we have that with scepter.Rifle and Longbow are both long range single target 2 handed weapons, with the longbow fitting the current elementalist setup more.
So unless they plan to give the ele some more modern tech (pistols or riffle) or a weapon we can already conjure, or another MH melee weapon (mace - pls NO), we should be getting a longbow.
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@Doctor Hide.6345 said:I am going with pistol or dual pistols. I will always pick this option when given a choice because of my love for firearms in this game.
Although dual pistols could be really fun for a fast paced ele mid range gameplay (think unload on thief, but with elemental magic), I think dual pistols (and rifles) will likely go to mesmers while eles will get the more traditional weapons...
But yea, elemental gunslinger would be quite fun.
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@mbhalo.1547 said:Dual-wielding foci
The monk! Yes
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We got long range aoe with staff;We got mid range burst with scepter;We got short range PBAoE with dagger;We got melee range with sword;We got OH defense with focus;We got OH offense with dagger;We got OH support with warhorn;
We had an OH Espec with tempest warhorn...We had a MH Espec with weaver sword...
We have shortbow, hammer, axe, shield and greatsword conjures...
The logical option next is a long range single target LONGBOW.
Arcane Archer Elite spec.Longbow and offensive support. Attunements become weapon enchantments you provide to the group for bonus dmg and effects.
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My Suggestion from the previous forum also:
2 charges, charge recharge 60s (90 for FGS?).Utility skill summons one conjure weapon, 30s duration.Target AoE (as now).If you are inside the AoE: summons on your hand,if you are not inside the AoE: summons on the ground.
Concerns about Elementalist
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