new elite spec idea

[arazoth.7290]

• What if you could choose 1 element, but instead of 1 element bar, you have now 4 total. It replaces the other 3 elements.

To dig deeper in mastering 1 element theme.

• You would be able to select beforehand hand which element you want to have active while in combat.

• In pve/WvW you would be able to switch it only when out of combat.

In pvp you will be locked in the chosen element once the match starts

[DanAlcedo.3281]

20 fire skills at once. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

The ultimate fire wizard! 

Let collect some ideas. 

- Fireball

- Big slow Fireball

- Small fast Fireball

- Fireball Rain

- Fireball that splits into tiny Fireballs. 

- Juggling Fireballs

- Blue Fireball

- Green Fireball

Edited April 23 by DanAlcedo.3281

[arazoth.7290]

4 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

40 fire skills at once. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Wait how you got to 40? 😅

4 elements with 5 each are 20 for ele normally, so it would be then 20 of 1 element now.

In total 80 though for the e-spec, they better start thinking already 😂

[asket.5674]

Na just lock attunement switch and enable weapon switch . Add a effect per element to compensate the missing other attunements. The effects are getting triggered with weapon skills deal some strike dmg or heal+cleanse (water), provide boons and/or condis and have a cd. For fire grant burning and might stacks, earth bleed and protection, water regeneration an chilled, air superspeed and fury. 

[Panda.1967]

Imagine if elementalist weapons had Arcane skills by default and activating an attunement temporarily changed them to stronger elemental versions but CDs were shared…

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

I've been saying for a while but Catalyst should have been that "master of a single element" spec. We're now allowed to weapon swap, but we're limited to 1 element. Or 2 elements, to ensure the same amount of available skills as any other Ele specs. So F1 is channeling the 1st element, F2 is channeling the 2nd element.

And since that already sounds so much like core Revenant, the energy mechanics could easily work exactly the same way as Rev's energy bar; or we could have another way to fill it (just not being reliant on multi-hit skills please). And the Sphere could be F3, or we could incorporate that energy mechanics to something more interesting than just placing circles.

The current Catalyst is just...........eh. It used to be somewhat amusing to me being Avatar with a big Hammer. Now I don't even know what it is. 

[Sahne.6950]

On 4/23/2024 at 3:02 PM, arazoth.7290 said:

• What if you could choose 1 element, but instead of 1 element bar, you have now 4 total. It replaces the other 3 elements.

To dig deeper in mastering 1 element theme.

• You would be able to select beforehand hand which element you want to have active while in combat.

• In pve/WvW you would be able to switch it only when out of combat.

In pvp you will be locked in the chosen element once the match starts

I dont like it unfortunately :C

i very much enjoy that "master of the 4 elements" theme that is going on with ele.   Dumping it down to one element, is not something i would enjoy personally.

 

If i had to design a new ele spec, i would do something like this:

Centered around the element, that generally sees the least play: WATER.      Its introducing tradeoffs, and risk, while also having a very high reward, should you play your cards right.   The theme is centered around controlling the water in your enemys blood,mainly with taunt and fears. The main defensive mechanic is lifesteal and Darkaura.

---->The Bloodmage<----

gain 500 vitality(results in 16k basehealth)

You can no longer benefit from toughness. Every point of toughness is converted to vitality with a 1 to 1 ratio. 

traditional healing and regen has no effect on you, and you are forced to take the healskill "Vampire".     Your skills are turned into Bloodspells. 

They still function very similarly, but they now always drain 2% of your CURRENT hitpoints, but they give 4% of your MAXhitpoints should they hit.    (multihitskills, still restore 4%. AA´s dont cost or steal anything)

When you are at full hp, the excessive healing is converted into Barrier. This can be changed via the GM traits.

When equipping bloodmage, the waterskills are changed to 5 completly new and powerfull spells... you know... bloodbending from avatar... that kinda thing. 

Healskill Vampire:  makes your next 5 skill, restore 10% of your MAXhitpoints should they land, and they have no cost.

You can offer 15% of your CURRENT hitpoints, to gain barrier for 30% of your MAXhealth and instantly refresh the Water/blood attunement cooldown. All water attunement skills have increased lifesteal and strong sustain and damage mitigation effects.

Every combo you do, puts a darkaura on you.  You have a trait, that whenever you get hit with dark aura active, you take 5% reduced damage,which stacks up to a maximum of 15% and you restore 2% of your health. Multihitskills only trigger this once.  dmg reduction stacks last for 5 seconds.

Elite is Bloodwell.   You gain 250 vitality and create a area around you, where every enemy looses 5% of their hitpoints per second, and you heal for 5% of your maxhealth. Should you not hit a enemy with this, you instead loose 2% of your maxhealth per second.  Effect lasts 6 seconds and has a 30 second cooldown.

When dipping below 15% hitpoints, all lifesteal is doubled for 5 seconds, and "lesser bloodwell" is cast around you, this trait has a cooldown of 30 seconds.  After those 5 seconds, you heal for 15% of your MAXhitpoints.

 

With this rough layout, there is room to implement some interesting traitchoices, like:  

 

gain 0,5% dmg reduction for every % of health that is missing

gain 0,5% more dmg for every % of health that is missing

Heal for 0,5% of your hitpoints more on every hit, for every stack of bleeding on your enemy

 

share overheal with nearest teammate,

send back dmg to your opponent,

or grant you the overhealed value in barrier.

 

Darkauras grant you protection and heal you for double the ammount

When having a darkaura active, your dmg output is increased by 10%

Gaining a darkaura instantly heals you and every ally around you for 10% of your maxhealth.

 

i believe there is room to create a few VERY intersting builds with this. There is each a traitline focused on Damagedealing, one for damage reduction, and one for teamsupport.

 

These are some rough Ideas for new water/bloodskills:

Every weapon gets 5 new waterskills, the each fit the weapon thematically.   They could look something like this:

  Control blood:  "control your foes blood"    Enemy is taunted for 3 seconds, every hit they do to you, heals for 10% of your maxhealth. (this would synergize really well with your Darkauras for example)

Blood rain:  Kind of like Healingrain, and meteorshower fused into one skill, but you are the center of that aoe, and it moves around with you. You gain 2% of your maxhealth, every second, for every enemy inside the rain.

Blood barrier:  surround yourself with a flow of blood and apply darkaura to yourself.  That flow of blood, is something similar to primordial stance, where every hit, will grant you full lifesteal.  Projectiles hitting the blood barrier, will get stuck in it.  Reactivating that skill, will launch the blood at your enemy, rooting them in place.

Blood sacrifice: Sacrifice 10% of your current hitpoints, to gain 20% of your maxhealth as barrier, a darkaura, and 4 seconds of superspeed.  Leave behind a trail of blood. Enemys passing that trail, are rooted in place, and you are healed.

Blood tranfusion: Fear your enemy, while stealing 10% of their maxhealth. Gain health for damage dealt.

BLEED! : inflict severe bleeding on your opponent.  bleed duration is 5 seconds.  Over the next 5 seconds, you apply 1 stack of bleed to your opponent, per second. Should he reach 5 stacks of bleeding while "BLEED!" is activated, you heal for 15% of your maxhealth.

 

yada yada yada    Theres a shitton of good things and synergies that you could create with the bloodtheme.  And i think there could be a good... flow... of skills.

ie: A warrior is charging you in pvp. sacrifice your health, to gain barrier and refresh water attunement. You double this up, by also casting bloodbarrier. Sacrifing a big chunk of your hitpoints, to gain a enormous barrier to absorb the dmg.  You then cast "control blood", to taunt the warrior and force him to further hit your darkaura, to regen the health you just paied.    

I think there could be some very interesting, and arguably brand new mechanics and interaction between traits and weaponskill, to provide a completly new experience and approach to "surviving".   

The benefit of being able to "be offensive while being defensive" paired with the risk of "having to hit your opponent to resustain, and paying with our own health should you not land the skill" is what i like about it.

 

Risk vs Reward.   Tradeoff vs benefits.    Interesting traitchoices to fit diffrent playstyles....   it has it all.

 

but realistically speaking...i dont think we will see any more specialistaion xpac´s.... i hope so.... but i doubt it.

Edited April 24 by Sahne.6950

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

I hate the idea already.

 

Edit: also this idea comes up at least once per year. And I am tired of seeing it.

Edited April 25 by VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.

[arazoth.7290]

2 hours ago, VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig. said:

I hate the idea already.

 

Edit: also this idea comes up at least once per year. And I am tired of seeing it

Let me put it in my agenda for next year too

[Tabootrinket.2631]

On 4/23/2024 at 3:09 PM, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

20 fire skills at once. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

The ultimate fire wizard! 

Let collect some ideas. 

- Fireball

- Big slow Fireball

- Small fast Fireball

- Fireball Rain

- Fireball that splits into tiny Fireballs. 

- Juggling Fireballs

- Blue Fireball

- Green Fireball

Not gonna lie, this would actually be fire

[zeyeti.8347]

you do understand that idea is gonna need to make 10 weapons which with offhands and mainhand and two hand make alone 33 skills x by 3 (cause 3 attunement would change) + the fact you may switch them to full water fire air or earth , maybe i am wrong in the math but it make 33 x 9 new skills to make and not counting a new weapon addition cause we don't know if it will be offhand , mainhand or two handed , pretty sick e-spec indeed , the idea is nice but the change to see such thing being released are same as raining donuts , sorry to be a party pooper though.

i've seen another idea were you could lock elements and gain bonuses , boons etc per attunement locked , also specific bonuses depending which attunement locked.

and ofc a 5th attunement seems crazy too , too many skills to add sadly.

[arazoth.7290]

14 minutes ago, zeyeti.8347 said:

you do understand that idea is gonna need to make 10 weapons which with offhands and mainhand and two hand make alone 33 skills x by 3 (cause 3 attunement would change) + the fact you may switch them to full water fire air or earth , maybe i am wrong in the math but it make 33 x 9 new skills to make and not counting a new weapon addition cause we don't know if it will be offhand , mainhand or two handed , pretty sick e-spec indeed , the idea is nice but the change to see such thing being released are same as raining donuts , sorry to be a party pooper though.

i've seen another idea were you could lock elements and gain bonuses , boons etc per attunement locked , also specific bonuses depending which attunement locked.

and ofc a 5th attunement seems crazy too , too many skills to add sadly.

I know it would be a lot, but they have time to think about it maybe 😅.

donuts

[Dadnir.5038]

I know they ain't affraid of giving elementalist many new skills with each e-spec but... This might end up being a bit too many.

[pipo.6075]

Just thinking...
I used to play a game called "Last Chaos" where there was a sorcerer class that can transform into 2 different types of avatar (much like the necro shroud): a earth-water avatar (defensive option with earth shield and ice sword) and a fire-air avatar (a red demon dps option).
And well, I think this would be a good idea for the elementalist... Maybe we could have a specialization where we could choose between 2 strong combinations of elements with even fewer skills to manage (maybe just F1 and F2 options, like fire mixed with air and water mixed with earth, one focused on dps and another on support).

Anyway, I'm not saying that gw2 should copy other games, I'm just giving an example of interesting mechanics that I've already experienced. 😉

Edited May 9 by pipo.6075

[oscuro.9720]

I’d love to see ele have an elite spec that focused on one element, then enabled weapon swap. Then give it bow that is focused on true ling range dps, like an elemental archer. 
 

Maybe if it’s an archer style class, have F1-4 become “arrows” that you can cast for different effects based on your chosen attunement. This would help push elements into dedicated roles? just some thoughts off the top of my head.

[Liewec.2896]

i had a similar idea for an elite spec, Acolyte, focusing on a single element and role, no attunement swapping.

Fire Acolytes would be the king of area denial and condi damage.

Air acolyte would be all about direct damage and big crits.

Earth Acolyte would be able to tank with the big boys.

and Water Acolytes would be incredible healers.

in my mind the spec would use Staff as its weapon, but get a whole new set of skills (some similar to other elementalist skills, just buffed up)

for instance Air Acolytes would get a bigger and more potent version of Arc Lightning as its auto attack, dealing more damage and chaining to enemies.

i've thought about how the trait tree would work and came to the conclusion that it would probably be best to make a new trait tree for each Acolyte spec and a base Acoylte elite trait line as the 3rd.

(so as a Fire Acolyte you might run the Core Fire trait line, the Acolyte of Fire trait line and the mandatory Acolyte elite trait line.)

Edited May 11 by Liewec.2896

[agnlaa.7594]

Ele does  need a 'make it simpler because switching attunements is too hard' spec. They did that with engineer and we got mechanist, a spec that only appeals to people who don't actually like engineer. People play ele for its complexity, I don't understand the desire to remove that. 

[Yasai.3549]

It's an interesting idea but also a really difficult one to implement. For one, so many more skills to balance and bugfix. 

[Mascarun.7910]

Obligatory ele should have never been designed the way it is; these suggestions of having an elite spec with a one role, one element focus only highlight how limited elementalist is by its unintuitive design... Can people not seriously envision or imagine a one-element spec that isn't just hyperfocused on the same "dedicated role" BS that it already does? Not that I want a master-of-one elementalist spec, but we could easily have water as power dps (tidal waves, floods etc.) and condi dps (blizzards, frostbite, trait that applies torment whenever chilled is applied like how reaper can apply bleed on chill).  Fire can also be used as healing (warmth, phoenix fire, burning to cauterise a wound and stop bleeding etc.). Class fantasy aside, a one element spec wouldn't even work for a healer build because might generation is usually locked to fire, protection to earth and fury to air, to name a few examples. Ok then, let's say water can give all those boons by itself; as a healer, would you ever want to go back to playing other ele specs then? 

Overall, I would like to see a spec that pushes away from the general: power = fire + air, condi = fire + earth, support = water + everything. I want to see some flexibility in attunement choice and forgiveness for not swapping to another element as soon as you hit your one or two skills in a given element. One thing I do agree with is perhaps the concept of an already existing weapon, like staff, getting new skills exclusive to the elite spec, because the lack of exclusivity of weaponskills has led to the current balance dilemma. Let's say we do get a " elemental specialist" specialisation and a weapon that allows for one element to potentially cover more roles; this would cause the other ele elite specs to shoot out crazy numbers again due to their high multipliers, leading us back to square 1 i.e. weapon gets nerfed and becomes the same kitten as everything else. If weapon selection is already dictating what our role is, then why do we also have attunement selection doing the same thing? 

Anyway, I've been thinking of an elementalist spec that uses draconic magic as a substitute for elements, with the ultimate goal of unlocking an "Avatar of Aurene" shroud or holoforge mode with some strong skills. The main issue with this though is that there are six elder dragons, excluding Aurene, and only four elements to the elementalist, even if we can lump Soo Won and Jormag together as water (and Zhaitan and Mordremoth together as earth). Since we are so fascinated by "role purity", I propose that: Primordus = Fire, power + condi; Jormag = Water, condi + CC; Soo Won = Water, power + boon removal + support; Zhaitan = Earth, condi + boon corruption; Mordremoth = Earth, power + support; Kralkatorrik = Air, power/condi + CC; Aurene = All. The main idea behind this is to have both damage types (condi and power) covered by all elements potentially, and no single element must be relied upon for a specific thing. 

 

Other idea probably mentioned a million times already:

->Transmute aura as an elite specialisation mechanic. Having to have a very specific weapon for one, maybe two transmute auras is so stupid. This mechanic deserves better. 

Edited May 12 by Mascarun.7910

[draxynnic.3719]

3 hours ago, Mascarun.7910 said:

Obligatory ele should have never been designed the way it is; these suggestions of having an elite spec with a one role, one element focus only highlight how limited elementalist is by its unintuitive design... Can people not seriously envision or imagine a one-element spec that isn't just hyperfocused on the same "dedicated role" BS that it already does? Not that I want a master-of-one elementalist spec, but we could easily have water as power dps (tidal waves, floods etc.) and condi dps (blizzards, frostbite, trait that applies torment whenever chilled is applied like how reaper can apply bleed on chill).  Fire can also be used as healing (warmth, phoenix fire, burning to cauterise a wound and stop bleeding etc.). Class fantasy aside, a one element spec wouldn't even work for a healer build because might generation is usually locked to fire, protection to earth and fury to air, to name a few examples. Ok then, let's say water can give all those boons by itself; as a healer, would you ever want to go back to playing other ele specs then? 

Overall, I would like to see a spec that pushes away from the general: power = fire + air, condi = fire + earth, support = water + everything. I want to see some flexibility in attunement choice and forgiveness for not swapping to another element as soon as you hit your one or two skills in a given element. One thing I do agree with is perhaps the concept of an already existing weapon, like staff, getting new skills exclusive to the elite spec, because the lack of exclusivity of weaponskills has led to the current balance dilemma. Let's say we do get a " elemental specialist" specialisation and a weapon that allows for one element to potentially cover more roles; this would cause the other ele elite specs to shoot out crazy numbers again due to their high multipliers, leading us back to square 1 i.e. weapon gets nerfed and becomes the same kitten as everything else. If weapon selection is already dictating what our role is, then why do we also have attunement selection doing the same thing? 

I think this is something that would work better through weapon design than elite specialisation design. Scepter and pistol have already moved towards water being a viable damage element with a bit of self-healing - now, if only pistol had also given air a damaging condition. The concept of using fire attunement for healing could draw from concepts used for the sun aspect in the aspect arena with a truly dedicated support weapon, while air and earth provide other support effects (barrier would make sense on earth, for instance). Maybe make it a one-handed weapon and then it can be used with warhorn, which is already a decent support weapon across multiple attunements.

One-element elementalist is something that I do think is pretty much contraindicated by elementalist's basic design: too many of the core traitlines assume you'll be swapping attunements to remove that functionality. I think there might be room for a "trade two attunements for weaponswap" spec, but not for going all the way to a single element. (And the idea of ArenaNet making dozens of new skills for existing weapons is just... unrealistic. The devs talked about how insane it was with Weaver bringing six new skills per weapon, at a time when there were only three weapons that were affected and they didn't plan on weaver mechanics being introduced to any future weapons, and hammer and pistol have already been showing signs that they just don't have enough inspiration to make a good set of twenty-odd skills together for an elementalist weapons and are relying on gimmicks to try to paper over how uninspired most of the weapon skills are.)

[VocalThought.9835]

Warrior: Weapon Master- These Warriors have 3 weapons sets instead of 2. Your normal weapon swap (~) will goto the next weapon where your F3 will toggle back to the previous weapon.  The adrenalin would be one bar and the F1 will still be the burst attack. An F2 ability will mark a combat area called "Battle Grounds" which will buff the Warrior when in it or attacking a foe that' in the marked area. The new weapon will be either Dual Focuses (Foci) or Main hand Shield. Their skills will be similar to Elementalist Augmentation, which will add buffs to the Warrior and additional buffs when their in or attack a foe that's in the Battle Grounds.

Guardian: Summoner- Guardians now have mystical mythical spirit animals that morphs based on the virtues the summoner attunes to. F1 will be Chimera, F2 will be a  Caladrius, and F3 will be a Spirit Fox. The Summoner will always attune to one virture when the animal spirit is active and only has the passive of the unattune and off cool down virtures.  The F1 - F3 will Summon the corresponding spirit animal and mark their destination. The spirit animal will attack in their area while also pulsing out their corresponding virtues. F4 will dismiss or re-summon the animal spirit if it dies and when it's not on cool down.  Their weapon will be the War Horn. Their skills would be similar to necro's punishment skills.

Revenant: Remnant- These Revs use the F2 to  transform to an Avatar of the Mist. Like a necro shroud, it changes all their weapon skills and reducing the energy cost for using their right skill bar while loosing the ability to weapons swap while in this state. They're new legend could be the first master of the mist or a legend from the Future, since the mist knows not time. Their skills would be similar to Glyphs. 

Rangers: Shapeshifter- Simply put, these Rangers can finally merge into their pet, opposite of the Soulbeast. The F5 will transform the Ranger into their pet and change the weapon skills to their pet skills, where while their in animal form, skill 1 will be the pets first attack,  2 will be the second, 3 will be the third, 4 will be the known beast ability, and 5 could be the soulbeast's archetype skill or a new skill altogether. Their new weapon would be the Shield. Their new skills will be Nature Whisper, where they can call animals or plants to damage enemies or buff their allies. 

Engineer: Mastermind- These Engineers are master planners that professional mechanics change from "Tools" to "Tactics" against their enemies. Like the Thief's Steal ability, Engineers' F1 Surveys an enemy granting an engineer an F2 tactical skill based on the enemy surveyed. This Tactical ability can be an attack that damages/conditions foes or a buff for allies. Their new weapon is the Focus. Their new skills would traps.

Thief: Raider- These thieves have a new mechanic called Intuition, that generaes when Initiative is full and when the 5 intuition points are maxed, generating a point/sec, they can automatically evade the next incoming attack.  Their new weapon would be Torch. Their new skills will be Improvisations, similar to Ranger Survival Skills.

Elementalist: Archemage- These Elementalist F5 skill is a Arcane, the 5th element, that relies on a energy bar that builds with Arcane magic as the Elementalist switch between the Core Attunements , and allows them to use the 5th element, "Arcane" to go into the Arcane Shroud. While in this Shroud they can't use any other skill, but when they attune to any other element, it goes on cool down. Their new weapon is the offhand Scepter. Their new skills are meditations.

Mesmer: Doppelganger- These Mesmer have only one clone instead of three, that has a health bar and regenerates health every time a skill is used that summons an illusion, instead of summoning a new clone. The F1 causes damage around the clone and command the clone to attack a marked area, F2 causes confusion around the Mesmer and the clone and they swap places. F3 Dazes those around the Mesmer and clone. F4 causes Distortion around you and summons the clone back to your location. The clone will always use the same weapon as the Mesmer and will swap weapons either at the same time or after it lands it's last attack. If a Phantasm is summon, the clone will be replaced by the phantasm and will convert back to the clone after the last phantasm attack. If the clone dies, than the next clone skill will summon the next clone but at a low health. Their new weapon will be a main hand focus. Their new skills will be a new type of Illusion call Poltergeist. Like minions, these are horrid illusions cause a range of conditions when they attack, while also, like the phantasm, replacing the clone when summoned.

Necromancer: Warlock- F1 is a Shroud that allows their life force to be used as a second health bar, but provides no new Shroud skills, but F2 is now a Burst ability where when the life force bar builds up they use energy to cause a major attack based on their offhand weapon or Two-Handed weapon. Their new weapon will be the Shield. Their new Skills will be Glyphs that change when their in Shroud.

[Dadnir.5038]

12 hours ago, VocalThought.9835 said:

Elementalist: Archemage- These Elementalist F5 skill is a Arcane, the 5th element, that relies on a energy bar that builds with Arcane magic as the Elementalist switch between the Core Attunements , and allows them to use the 5th element, "Arcane" to go into the Arcane Shroud. While in this Shroud they can't use any other skill, but when they attune to any other element, it goes on cool down. Their new weapon is the offhand Scepter. Their new skills are meditations.

This is the only e-spec relevant here. The off-hand scepter probably isn't going to happen. I'm not sure an F5 providing yet another skillset is what the elementalist need to gain in popularity. Even if the spec become "meta" it will most likely be ignored by the vast majority of the players since it's rotation would be "too complicated".

[VocalThought.9835]

21 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

This is the only e-spec relevant here. The off-hand scepter probably isn't going to happen. I'm not sure an F5 providing yet another skillset is what the elementalist need to gain in popularity. Even if the spec become "meta" it will most likely be ignored by the vast majority of the players since it's rotation would be "too complicated".

Please explain the rotation concern. I would think everyone has their own play style and those that like this elite will adjust like others done with prior elites. How is this different than a conjured weapon?

Edited May 14 by VocalThought.9835

[VocalThought.9835]

On 5/12/2024 at 2:55 PM, Mascarun.7910 said:

Obligatory ele should have never been designed the way it is; these suggestions of having an elite spec with a one role, one element focus only highlight how limited elementalist is by its unintuitive design... Can people not seriously envision or imagine a one-element spec that isn't just hyperfocused on the same "dedicated role" BS that it already does? Not that I want a master-of-one elementalist spec, but we could easily have water as power dps (tidal waves, floods etc.) and condi dps (blizzards, frostbite, trait that applies torment whenever chilled is applied like how reaper can apply bleed on chill).  Fire can also be used as healing (warmth, phoenix fire, burning to cauterise a wound and stop bleeding etc.). Class fantasy aside, a one element spec wouldn't even work for a healer build because might generation is usually locked to fire, protection to earth and fury to air, to name a few examples. Ok then, let's say water can give all those boons by itself; as a healer, would you ever want to go back to playing other ele specs then? 

Overall, I would like to see a spec that pushes away from the general: power = fire + air, condi = fire + earth, support = water + everything. I want to see some flexibility in attunement choice and forgiveness for not swapping to another element as soon as you hit your one or two skills in a given element. One thing I do agree with is perhaps the concept of an already existing weapon, like staff, getting new skills exclusive to the elite spec, because the lack of exclusivity of weaponskills has led to the current balance dilemma. Let's say we do get a " elemental specialist" specialisation and a weapon that allows for one element to potentially cover more roles; this would cause the other ele elite specs to shoot out crazy numbers again due to their high multipliers, leading us back to square 1 i.e. weapon gets nerfed and becomes the same kitten as everything else. If weapon selection is already dictating what our role is, then why do we also have attunement selection doing the same thing? 

Anyway, I've been thinking of an elementalist spec that uses draconic magic as a substitute for elements, with the ultimate goal of unlocking an "Avatar of Aurene" shroud or holoforge mode with some strong skills. The main issue with this though is that there are six elder dragons, excluding Aurene, and only four elements to the elementalist, even if we can lump Soo Won and Jormag together as water (and Zhaitan and Mordremoth together as earth). Since we are so fascinated by "role purity", I propose that: Primordus = Fire, power + condi; Jormag = Water, condi + CC; Soo Won = Water, power + boon removal + support; Zhaitan = Earth, condi + boon corruption; Mordremoth = Earth, power + support; Kralkatorrik = Air, power/condi + CC; Aurene = All. The main idea behind this is to have both damage types (condi and power) covered by all elements potentially, and no single element must be relied upon for a specific thing. 

 

Other idea probably mentioned a million times already:

->Transmute aura as an elite specialisation mechanic. Having to have a very specific weapon for one, maybe two transmute auras is so stupid. This mechanic deserves better. 

You ever try just having all of one element on you skill bar? It might not be meta, but it's definitely doable.