DaKillaOfHell.5907

The problem is sustainability. Since alac ticks also down when casting OL, this gives you less alac uptime after OL cast. I tried yesterday dungeon, Fractal, and Raid, and it came out that with quickness, it gives you a minor advantage, which is, depending on the gear (either you go full-support with harriers or half with celestial or heal with harrier/magi), either a bit better or worse, but doesnt change much. After OL you have to switch directly to next attunement in order to keep up alac. What I found to be a viable tactic was to use pre-casting before the fight to have around 20-30 seconds of alac in the background, but I did that before patch as well. Still, the problem is that I have to rely on such tactics and quickness upkeep to keep my own buffs up, so-to-say. And as you say, it gets far worse when no quickness is there because the person providing quickness died. But I think, that, by buffing the time of the alac uptime for a bit, it should solve that problem.

After a bit of field testing: The after-patch-solution isn't really a gamechanger. Instead, it helps with recharging while doing OL, which is good, but with the overall duration being unchanged, it makes permanent sustainability harder than before, which shouldn't be like it is. However, stacking alac is an option, if you have enough pre-cast-time, which might be interesting in various raid encounters, which makes it better than the option before.

I think, meteor shower has far bigger problems than burning: - The cast time is ridiculously high - The 1.200 range and the idea of having each meteor doing individual damage is making the skill mediocre against smaller groups, not to mention single target. - That being said, it is a general problem of such skills, as with OL lightning, where they are only viable against big-hitbox-targets. - The damage reduction is far beyond reasoning as well. Instead, it should be revamped completely: - Either put down the range to 600, or make it like ticking-damage, which applies to five targets each second, and make the meteor shower design-only. This isn't grim dawn or such an rpg where such a mechanic is even good to use. - also, the casting time for the effect is far too high. 2 Seconds is more than sufficient. - And finally: remove the stupid debuff with 10% damage reduction per consecutive hit, which has been based on a whole different scenario than now!

I think there might be some sort of misconception. First of all, let's look at the healing professions having actual heal: We got specs like Druid, qHFB, or, for example, HAM and (even though it is a kinda special case) scourge. Druid with seed of life has a strong, HOT-like spell while also providing strong burst with rejunevating tides and lunar impact. qHFB provides quickness as well as perma prot (-33% damage), almost-perma-resolution (-33% condi damage), regen and that by built-in-rotation, while for druid, that's not necessarily the case. He can also provide HOT as well as burst heal with heal tome. HAM meanwhile isn't much of a burst healer, but very good for heal over time and providing massive barrier, only second to scourge. Scourge is not much of a heal in its own meaning, but providing a lot of barrier, as well as decent support abilities, while the biggest advantage is the extremely strong rezzing abilities almost instantly being able to rezz multiple people. Just to say so, HAT falls on far off the other side: HAT has decent burst heal, and prot and perma-regen. The problem, however, comes with the rotation being the only heal which has to effectively shut himself off the heal in order to provide full alacrity keepup. This, plus the fact that you barely have any kind of HOT makes HAT only a support-healer, not a full-healer like the ones I mentioned before. HAT has its own good points, but being a full healer is not one of them.

Because it is Ele. The only profession who trolls the player playing it.

Meanwhile, shift signet is 1.200 range, got stunbreak as well, removes 2 conditions on use, and has a 25 seconds cd, and gives 25% movement bonus passively when not activated. Talking about perfectly balanced classes...

The staff changes seem interesting, especially the healing rain, frozen ground, gust, and transmute earth, which finally gives a proper way to apply stab as well. This might be a nice gamechanger for some new healbuilds for pve based on staff, but have to see first... On the one hand, it was to be expected (since all the PvP trolls not playing ele flooded the forum in the last days), on the other hand, I think it is the absolutely wrong way because the far bigger problems are the catalyst itself and (since beginning) doomstacking classes, not really the scepter itself. Not sure about this part, I see major problems especially with burning speed, since the firewall and the explosion can be combined in a very good way to deal some decent dps. Lightning flash was simply necessary because the skill is by far weaker than other class counter parts such as shift signet, however, it is still far inferior in terms of range and condi removal. Soothing disruption will need a buff instead, because then, it is the weakest trait on master tier for elementalist in water. First of all, it is very nice that the problematic applying of alac has finally been announced, I am just not sure if this really solves the huge issue of OL mechanic in general with having the highest casting time out of all classes (except for downstate 4 maybe) and also de-facto locking people out of attunement when used, which would be fine if the recast time only applies when the cast has gone through and not interrupted, because the drawbacks of disrupting OL are still far too high. IMO it would be okay to put the cast time down to 2 seconds, which would solve a lot of OL problems at hand. Sword gets buffed again, which is also a very good, because as melee weapon, sword weaver was de facto inferior to almost any other melee spec in terms of dps. We still have to see about the results later. Overall, not a bad update, in the right direction, but more changes are certainly necessary.

WORD! The more important issue, which we see all the time is deathstacking one profession/spec. Where is the problem in disallowing deathstacking?

Just play grenade kit with engineer. Same idea. And same problems...

Well, that is not objective at all since you dont see the massive drawbacks of such a playstyle: 1.) You don't have enough stability for a four-second-cast being non-interrupted. 2.) Using OL is a four-second-channel, in which you cannot do anything else, not dodging, nothing. In fact, no other class, no other ability has a channel time that long, while being completely disabled not doing anything. 3.) In the four-second-cast, a lot of things may happen, group gets tons of conditions, for example, or lot of bullets incoming, which is especially bad when having the wrong attunement and wrong OL, however, interrupting the overload is the worst because full CD still applies to OL. So in order to help the group, you need to finish the cast, switch attunement, wait for 5 seconds, and then do OL again. 4.) Worse than that, the alac buff only applies if you cast the full 4 seconds, which makes it utter garbage compared to any other way of applying alacrity for any other class. 5.) Using OL applies, as stated, higher CD, which also means that changing the attunement will not let you use that attunement again for 20 seconds. So by changing, you might be locked out of, for example healing for 20 seconds. I dont need to mention how devastating it is for a heal not to be able to heal for example... But I think, this shows the large difference between devs not playing the class and therefore having no idea of affecting class mechanics as well as other players not playing elementalist to players like me, who play elementalist every day as their main. Only because something seems good on paper doesnt make it good in actual combat.

That is not the point. But instead, we already have four buffs for only the weapon skills, plus persisting flames, plus EE. And the order of how to apply the buffs, when to use grand finale etc. is also heavily affecting the overall dps output. The same goes for rotation and energy management. Augments are also being a very important aspect as well. Also, when to use glyph of storms, and FGS. So basically, you have 25 skills to manage AND 6 buffs. And all, I am asking is just, to think about not making all buffs conditional, because this is exactly the reason why catalyst gameplay is so screwed up and < 1% of people play a proper rotation, while the rest does below-average dps.

One has nothing to do with the other. The problem of EE is that it makes the game more perfect-choreography and encounter-ping-dependant than it already is. I mean, where is the problem of providing a fixed buff when in combat, and reworking the other traits for different purposes instead? Why do we have to make everything over-complicated for Elementalist, instead of keeping things a little simpler?

I mean, seriously, there are many other issues than that. Like Catalyst being buggy af with lightning 4 teleporting you into random walls. Then again, the whole collision system would need rework anyways, that would be more useful than just nerfing skills. Since I am developer myself (not for games though), it is no good strategy to "fix" an issue which isn't an issue by itself, but letting the underlying problem be untouched.

I'd say it is a bit harder to answer. First of all, Celestial to any other set is basically a bit more than 2:1 to main stat for the other set, while for other stats, the difference is way lower. For example: Berserker Armguard, Ascended: 47 Power 34 Precision 34 ferocity Celestial: 22 all stats So, the difference isn't that much, compared on one part of the set, however, overall, the differense is, of course, bigger: Total set: If you have a staff as weapon (or just any other 2h weapon): Berserker: 2502 Power 1960 Precision /51% 960 ferocity Celestial: 1759 power 1639 precision /35% 639 ferocity 639 condition damage 639 expertise Of course, no runes/sigils included. However, as it is seen here, the difference isn't twice as much power, but around 750 power more for berserker gear than celestial. With viper, it is twice as much conidition damage, 2292 power, and 633 expertise, which is even lower than celestial, same goes for precision. For builds, all I can tell is that the difference is there indeed, but it is nowhere of being completely off the charts, and with good rotation still better than your average wanna-be weaver or catalyst dps. Second point to mention would be what kind of runes you use. And thirdly, the bonus from celestial also applies to conditions of course, which is one point you can't have as a pure zerker. A lot is also depending on weapon choice, skills, and of course traits, but the biggest advantage of celestial is, that you can also use defensive traits which aren't useless, while also not loosing too much offensive capability and being much more free in your playstyle than the other ones I mentioned before. It is a viable choice, but also heavily dependent on your overall group, if you play raids/fractals, and in open world, it is just the strongest build there is (at least to me)

Oh, and which one is? Or I should ask: Which one is that unforgiving for mistakes, that much dependant on so many external factors, and needs that strict a rota (there is only one right way to do it)? First, I talk about dps. Not about heal, support, or anything else. This means: Vicious Empowerment, Empowering Auras, Empowered Empowerment. Of course, other traits are okay as well, but not in terms of efficiency. No other profession has that much drastic tradeoffs as we do. Of course, you have some built-in mechanics, which you can't use that much again, because of - you name it - efficiency. Well, Ele survivability barely works at all if you don't choose to invest instead. This means tradeoffs again. And tradeoff means less damage. Which is exactly the point why I said our class design is broken compared to any other profession. That is right, and I never said so otherwise. But the point is, that balance is based on theory-crafting instead of real application. You don't feel much of the 46k anywhere else than golem-like bosses. But the same Benchmark should be counted to nerf a spec completely instead? And for what reasons? Uh, we buffed other traits already, so should be fine (even though people might not use them)? I am in favor of a mech nerf, even though Engineer is my secondly most played class other than elementalist. However, the main problem of Mech was too-easy accessible high dps numbers, even though the benchmark was lower, with literally no exchange at all. Now this isn't a problem anymore, but it just tells that my point of view of balance is also shared by Anet. What I don't get is: If they have a problem with dps spec for cata, why not nerfing dps-spec for cata traits, instead of nerfing the weapon, which also other specs do profit from, and nerfing them as well?

Well, it would be nice, for example if something like Alacrity would work well with Tempest. Instead, we get the worst way to achieve Alacrity, meaning a four-second cast which shouldn't be interrupted, because then you get zero alacrity at all! No other profession has such a huge backlash. And the same can be said about many other mechanics as well. And then, we get said, mostly from non-elementalist players like: Uhh, but you can do Y or Z, you can use, for example Harmonious Conduit instead of invigorating torrents. But this is, again a mediocre choice, because regeneration and vigor are very important too, as well as Auras are.

That's an interesting point and I'd say even, it is at least in parts true, however, you miss the biggest points here: The class design is already overcomplicated, the (right) rotation is being the most complex of all classes, the Elementalist is basically having the lowest armor and health by nature, so it would only be right to have a higher reward. Instead, the reward is mediocre at best, but after the last patch, it was at least in parts okay. Try 30k at 100 cm. You will never reach it. Same can be said about many other encounters too. Guess why 90% of all rotation/benchmark-vids are about Golems or Golem-Like-Bosses? I hate to say it, but the Hammer is - except for some very much niche-builds - the only viable weapon to be used as a Catalyst, because class mechanics got intertwined with weapon mechanics, a weakness I pointed out a while ago already, see skill 3. So nerfing the hammer is like nerfing the whole spec. It would be good, if they listened at least to some feedbacks. And they did when buffing the 3 skill. It was simply underwhelming. Now it is back at 0.001 again for a ridiculous reason. Meaning they buffed some traits which are actually used by some builds, and said: Oh, that's enough. Great. So for me not using those traits out of some reasons (I play more a supportive dps without lightning traits and spectacular sphere) , it is a huge nerf instead. Not to mention the hidden nerf of letting the orbs hit each second, which is also a nerf to energy regeneration and overall dps output as well. No, this is exactly the point. And if you look at other classes, that is plain and simply true. Some like Mech got even nerfed because gameplay was far too easy.

Ok, just to tell some things: First of all, 44-46k is a perfect benchmark which barely anyone can even reach, and then again, under a lot of presumptions, such as perfect rotation, crit luck, not any unnecessary movement, nor dodge, and no striking back, no cc, not any kind of external factors. Second of all, there is no class with a higher risk than Elementalist. A Catalyst could even do 50k dps, it wouldn't affect the statistics that much since barely anyone can play it properly without being downstated all the time. Maybe it would make difference for the 0,000001% of player population, while the rest still struggles at around 20k. And we talk about...golem-like-boss again. Thank you for proving my point exactly.

I just want to remind: Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, Crescent Wind, Rocky Loop: These skills now strike enemies once per second instead of using a projectile. Increased power coefficient from 0.001 to 0.25 in PvE only. This was the first idea, then, they changed it to: Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, Crescent Wind, Rocky Loop: These skills now strike enemies once per second instead of using a projectile. Increased power coefficient from 0.001 to 0.1 in PvE only. Which is still a 100 times as before, okay. Catalyst desperately needed a buff, because gameplay was underwhelming and the nerfs basically made catalyst the most useless spec in overall PvE. And all of that only, because someone deemed it "meta-defining", to kill a Golem-like-boss faster than any other combination. How great, that we have such a long history of golem-like-bosses as well as raids in gw2... And now: Flame Wheel, Icy Coil, Crescent Wind, and Rocky Loop: Reduced power coefficient from 0.1 to 0.001 in PvE only. And the reason why: "The damage increase on the hammer's third-slot skills ended up being unnecessary alongside the improvements to both Empowering Auras and Stormsoul, so we're reducing the damage to where it was previously." Could anybody please explain them that they totally misunderstood class mechanics?

Most really good builds arent LI at all for elementalist, so keep that in mind. What I'd recommend you would be something like that: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGQAYlJwYZrMKGJO6SbRfA-zxIY1ogvMqOBSvA0YaOwmFA-e This is one variant of a build I play for quite a while, and it is very good for open world content, as well as instanced pve (For fractals and raids you need a different build though). It is quite defenisve, offers extremely high sustainability, a large array of powerful buffs, as well as decent (but not high) dps, and massive cc. Some important points: - Celestial gear is a MUST. - Runes, Buffs, as well as the sigils are interchangeable depending on whether you want to play more offensively or more defensively. - Other traitlines which offer some other nice bonuses are: Arcane (more support/heal), Earth (condi dps), air (fury, direct dps). I'd never want to switch away from water because of condi removal, which is very strong. - The same goes for the used utilities/elite skill. Depending on the situation other skills might be far better than what I use here. The idea is to use the staff to dish out mass AoE, with which you can charge energy very quickly and provide fields for pushing out many buffs as well as massive group support. It is okay in many situations, but very good for open world. I wouldn't use it for high-level fractals or raids though, because other options are far better.

Maybe it would be better to just let the mech be tied to the player like a leash with 360 range, instead of nerfing mech when its being out of range? The way it is now, player gets punished for bad AI of mech. It is okay for the mech to get a nerf, but that is not a nerf, it is just plain and simple very bad design on the developers part.

I think a lot is depending on the kind of build you actually play. And I think, there is a huge difference between intention and result. As a condi-mech, it is natural to stay toe-to-toe with bosses. Because many skills from rotation needs you to be close, such as pistol 4 or flamethrower 1,2,4, to benefit from full bonusses. Since the mech is melee as well, it doesn't change anything for me, since I'd need less than 360 range anyways. And HAM? I think I hardly need to explain. For rifle mech, it is a wholly different matter. And I can totally understand the intention behind the mechanical genius change. It is, to prevent from tanking while dealing tons of damage from afar without putting yourself in danger. That itself is true, and no one can deny that it made plenty of situations far easier than supposed to be. For example putting your mech far away to tank. But there is a big problem in that logic, and that is the result. And the problem is, that the mech attacks at maximum range. So either you stay at maximum range, or you might lose your bonus as well, which I'd be calling unintended behavior, because many usual situations, where you have to be close to the boss, or switch between ranges, become a lot more messy like that.

Its just kinda funny that pvp guys whine when their strategies won't work anymore and cry out for nerfing other classes than their own because once in a lifetime, they have to adjust... btw: How about we give every AA 0 damage in PvP? Damage is imba anyways because it may kill other players.

Nope, the main reason is what you can already see on GW2 Wingman. Except for HFB, which is an issue on its own, Mech is by far the most popular build. It offers extreme versatility, combined with superior dps, support, and very high sustain while having almost no tradeoff at all. Even after that patch, rifle will still continue to exist and be extremely powerful. Ppl complain about changing their playstyle while that is exactly what every demanding build is actually doing anyways.

The problem isn't the attunement system per se, but the very weird idea of giving it a jack-of-the-trade-design without thinking of the consequences of that. I mean, it makes sense, to give a class having way more skills than any other class. This design is good, if it would enable players for a very offensive playstyle. But the sad point is, out of all the builds that are out there, the only one being close to that design and being therefore extremely strong is the Celestial tempest variant. Others than that, you have some very-niche-like builds or PvP builds, which I don't want to comment on now, since it is almost dead anyways. A good example of a very good design would be Necromancer, Scepter 3. It changes with the trait you picked and therefore gets a different behavior. Why don't we get something like that for Elementalist instead of this stupid idea of using traits to enhance certain attunements, which is just completely useless and outdated? Change the traits to affect damage, or give the elements conditions or different kind of healing/prot/boons, and give the traitlines much more meaningful and specialized traits instead of this kitten that we have now, mixing up offensive and defensive traits while not being able to specialize that good at all. EDIT: Or take for example the Mech traits. All of them change the behavior of the mech drastically. Would it be too much having the same for elementalist? With high cooldowns, it would still forcing to swap attunements and other combo-like effects, which could be implemented easily, would further award good playstyle and picking of skills and rotation while keeping the balance.