Are you content with the changes to elementalist?

[C Cspace Cowboy.5903]

Staff weaver got damage nerf, again.

[Nepster.4275]

Im just curious if they will change things around blindly and except that they will work, OR they will finally open their eyes and read some suggestions from the forum?...As others said staff is well... I dont even know if it got nerfed or buffed that 10% damage is close to nothing, the EoR change is pointless cuz it does close to nothing...So i ask it here too: What did they actually did? Because for me it seems that nothing(Talking about staff weaver now)According to dagger... Well idk ,what did they do there? What was the purpose of it?

[Einlanzer.1627]

Staffs were barely touched, and control is still too weak for how squishy Ele is. They don't really need damage, they need better control.

[NaturallyNick.4058]

Not at all. In fact, this patch was the final straw. Anet has no idea how to 'fix" ele and it's gotten to the point where it's more fun to not play anymore. I'm going to get my last 5 tickets for ascension and after that, signed resignation letters from the balance team are likely the only thing that would bring me back.

As an aside, the aura changes are neat but that's all really. The activation is awkward and they're quite buggy. Even if they worked flawlessly, they wouldn't change very much regarding PvP Weaver or PvE support Tempest. They're pretty much unnoticeable and not working with shouts or overloads is a huge miss. Support Tempest needs some sort of offensive damage buff (not boon), 10 man boons, as well as a +100 stat bonus to ever be able to compete with Druid. On the PvP side, Firebrand would have to be gutted for support Tempest to have a place.

[fuzzyp.6295]

I'm not necessary content with these buffs, as in that if this was the final patch for ele I would be very underwhelmed. But this isn't the end I'm sure and overall there aren't any changes I am really unhappy with (although the hit to Riptide is uncalled for...) So on a whole. this was a good patch for Ele and a step in the right direction.

[zencow.3651]

@LazySummer.2568 said:

@zencow.3651 said:

@LazySummer.2568 said:tempest aura even more irrevelant compared to firebrand.FTFYThanks to Signet of Courage.

I dont know about Signet of Courage on Firebrand when Mantra of Liberation is still better. In Wvw maybe you just get a couple of fb take it instead of the mantra for the extra heals but I doubt it. Makes more sense to just have 1 fb for every 5 ppl and stack more scourges instead.

The option's just there as much as the tradeoff between Ele taking Soothing Power over Cleansing Water for passive healing. This was the only way you could net more healing than other professions over a longer period of time and provided a niche for Eles as a 1 in 10 in applying the ~820 per second healing Soothing Mist on everyone. While the Fire line now lets Tempest cleanse while still taking Soothing Power, Ele still loses much more in terms of opportunity cost vs a Firebrand devoting into healing yet the Firebrand would still come out on top on ALL fronts of support taking the Signet so theres literally nothing that Ele can do better now comparatively except maybe overspamming cleanses.

[Usagi.4835]

I'm going to play around with it a bit more just to see but I feel like the stat switches, and a fair chunk of this patch, could be described as superficial changes that don't go as far as changing the actual damage coefficients on skills.

I like the change to One With Fire and the new aura transmutes look interesting. Elements of Rage now synergises a lot better with stat combos like Marauder's than it did before (Vitality into Ferocity was a really stupid change) but the damage output on scepter for playing full glass is not up to par. I don't care about getting ostensible 'buffs' to sustain. I want the damage back. Scepter was a great weapon that worked perfectly with Fresh Air and, while glassy, rewarded good play and could put out enough pressure against specs like holosmith, which is the real jack-of-all-trades in having very good damage, sustain, mobility and CC. Some decent, interesting changes in the patch otherwise but please, ANet. Damage.

[Emberheart.8426]

I was expecting nothing in this patch, because once the Anet balance team identifies a problem it takes ages for them to do anything about it. Also, this was a minor balance patch. The major ones come out every 3 months. Ele got a good amount of attention considering the scope of the patch. Look at the changes that other classes got and you will see.

The riptide nerf is a bit baffling. I wouldn't mind it if sword was actually given something really good to compensate, but I am sure that it ended up being a net nerf in PvP despite the other sword buffs. Sword will be better in PvE and WvW at least. I don't mind the ferocity and precision trait changes that much, but I really appreciate the ferocity on raging storm. Maybe FA scepter will be a bit better, but nothing special. The part of the patch that I really liked was the dagger and aura changes though. They made dagger weaver a bit better, and even buffed core dagger. The magnetic leap change is huge. Not only do you not need the setup anymore, but you can even use it for mobility without having a target. I like the concept of the aura transmute skills, but they feel like they are in beta testing right now. Hopefully they will be expanded upon in the next patch. Smothering auras is a huge trait change that finally makes ele have decent condi cleans outside water. The cleansing fire buff is also nice to have, but not that useful most of the time.

I don't see elementalist suddenly becoming an amazing class with these changes. For the moment I think that ele might just become decent in PvE. The core of the class was strengthened in a pretty good way, but it's not enough yet with all of the power creep that has happened. I believe that D/D tempest is something that should be experimented on as a dueling build. I doubt that it's up to par atm, but with a few more changes it might become good. Especially if overloads are looked at. Overloads need to not be guaranteed to be interrupted. Harmonious conduit is more affordable to get now if you spec into fire for condi cleanse. However, 1 stack of stability is so easy to get rid of on a 4 second cast. I think that 2 stacks would do the trick, especially since it allows you to take advantage of the 0.75 sec cd on stability removal. Counterplay would still be there. 2 stability is strippable in 4 seconds and boon removal exists.

[GoQ.1048]

thx for trying something. i didnt expected anything for this patch.

is it good? no. the aura thingy is to clunky. but its something atleast and maybe in time it'll add up. it's also fun to try out different lines but yeah they are not very competetive still.

buffs to other classes are also nerfs to ele regarding pvp.

[Waisenpai.6028]

Core d/d is far from Viable vs META HOT builds you lack stabilty with core. So you expect to do burst damage. There is no damage buff or trait improvement for that.

[Cloud.7089]

Yikes, I always KNEW I had no faith they could buff tempest, but this is bad. Shockingly bad. Whew, play a little wvw sometimes. Tempest is now FURTHER from being meta than before. Wait, that's actually pretty incredible you could do that WHILE "reworking" (buffing) a spec. This really is the power of ANET. /clap

[cylin.7048]

This still leaves the Elementalist in a bad place. Lava Front buff of 10% is nothing after the 40% nerf (0.6*1.1=0.66 so still a 33% nerf from what we had from before the last patch). For the effort and fckup risk involved in playing staff weaver, this is just not good enough. You can't compare a class based on DPS of top-tier players on the training golem. You gotta lock at actual fights

[Feanor.2358]

@Dadnir.5038 said:Objectively, apart from element of rage change which is a first step in the right direction for this trait, everything else is more or less meaningless showing that ANet don't really have a clue on why the elementalist suffer right now. Well the change on one with fire might help with condi management I guess.

?EoR change was just a minor nerf. So minor it borders on the irrelevant.

[Lord of the Fire.6870]

Its certainly a patch in the right direction . When I read the patchnotes I believe air builts are back (love it)I still wished I had better up time of the boons from Tempest's fireoverload or just more.

I love using icebow they got rid of the cooldown peer enemy one patch before but added the whole 10% damage reduction per hit and enemy . Like metorshower and glyphe of storm(some version) in low level regions you won't feel a difference or even a slight power creep but in high level regions with strong enemies you had at the end the feeling to get your damage through a straw. Either removing this or decide what the bow should be a power built or a healer or condi at the moment its all over the place 180 heal + 20% longer condi duration combined with some heal skills and power damage skills. There is also the decision either remove 20% coni duration and swap in 180 concentration or power for heal as a dps weapon. Anyway while I love using it for its long range breakbar damge and aoe but it has a bit of an identity crisis.

While the thinks above are more like a wish Glyphe of Storm is just a no every change of it juggles the weaver rotation around also it was/is a big DPS skill of the weaver/ele I want the old version back the current version just feel bad. The air variant felt better in sound and effect when I still use it I have the straw effect and I lose DPS also the last weaver rotation I read still needs me to go into air without m doing very much . On top of that I don't apply vulnerability as weaver anymore and the last point would be it is no consistent in some elements we have this 10% reduction per hit and enemy and in some not

[Dadnir.5038]

@Feanor.2358 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:Objectively, apart from

element of rage

change which is a first step in the right direction for this trait, everything else is more or less meaningless showing that ANet don't really have a clue on why the elementalist suffer right now.

Well the change on

one with fire

might help with condi management I guess.

?EoR change was just a minor nerf. So minor it borders on the irrelevant.

Why do you think the necromancer can stack vitality and gain this so called survivability that other profession think he have? EoR going toward precision buff allow the elementalist to consider using valkiry gear. And the reason I said it was a first step in the right direction is that they should have gone further into this and replace the damage buff by a flat crit chance buff which would have solidified this trait.

[Feanor.2358]

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Feanor.2358 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:Objectively, apart from

element of rage

change which is a first step in the right direction for this trait, everything else is more or less meaningless showing that ANet don't really have a clue on why the elementalist suffer right now.

Well the change on

one with fire

might help with condi management I guess.

?EoR change was just a minor nerf. So minor it borders on the irrelevant.

Why do you think the necromancer can stack vitality and gain this so called survivability that other profession think he have? EoR going toward precision buff allow the elementalist to consider using valkiry gear. And the reason I said it was a first step in the right direction is that they should have gone further into this and replace the damage buff by a flat crit chance buff which would have solidified this trait.

Nah. Nobody is going to use valk in PvE, it's useless. All this will do is remove the reliance on Spotter and improve your performance solo, while marginally reduce your damage potential in groups.

[Mr Godlike.6098]

Can't vote really...it feel it's to early in case of pvp/wvw builds to rate this patch...first time since years we can think about optimal builds without cleansing water based on fire traits!?

[cgMatt.5162]

It was all right, did not really want to play Support Tempest Auramancer. Opens up some condi clear options with Fire/Water/Weaver but Sword Weaver doesn't have that many aura skills on main hand weapons to detonate and you lose boons from dropping Arcane and superspeed/damage from dropping Air so in some ways options are still limited. Not enough precision like Core Guard Radiance can carry it to justify running a Valkyrie mix in WvW/PvP anyway.

Lynx Rune for PvP can kind of make up for losing perma-swiftness from Arcane. Roaming WvW looking more like Traveler if that is important.

[Junkpile.7439]

So did anet forget that ele can use scepter and offhand dagger? Why fix things that doesn't need fixing and everything that is bad stays a same? Where is vanilla eles barriers or at least some kind of useful defense skills? Running away isn't viable defense.

[Fenom.9457]

Didn't notice anything?

[Retsuko.2035]

I'd like to thank ArenaNet on a solid job when it comes to ele changes. Especially the transmuting aura's and condi cleanse in fire traitline is a nice call. Still needs to be tested of course in practise but it's a good change so far.

[Feanor.2358]

@"Retsuko.2035" said:I'd like to thank ArenaNet on a solid job when it comes to ele changes. Especially the transmuting aura's and condi cleanse in fire traitline is a nice call. Still needs to be tested of course in practise but it's a good change so far.

Condi cleanse in fire is nice option. I also like the direction of the attribute changes - Air becoming the ferocity traitline and Weaver giving you a lot of crit chance by itself. But that's about where the good things end. Aura detonation is a fun gimmick, but the way it currently works is extremely limited. It's only 4 weapon skills, scattered across different weapons. I get why this is more convenient to implement, but it is too restrictive. You can't build around this. Maybe "F5 detonates aura matching your current attunement" could make it work. Certainly needs to be much more prominent.

[Junkpile.7439]

@Fenom.9457 said:Didn't notice anything?Frost aura heal is so low that you can't notice it. Healed like 700 or something. :D

[Retsuko.2035]

@Feanor.2358 said:

@"Retsuko.2035" said:I'd like to thank ArenaNet on a solid job when it comes to ele changes. Especially the transmuting aura's and condi cleanse in fire traitline is a nice call. Still needs to be tested of course in practise but it's a good change so far.

Aura detonation is a fun gimmick, but the way it currently works is

extremely

limited. It's only 4 weapon skills, scattered across different weapons. I get why this is more convenient to implement, but it is too restrictive. You can't build around this. Maybe "F5 detonates aura matching your current attunement" could make it work. Certainly needs to be much more prominent.

I agree on detonation. Also thought of having aura's transmute/detonate on F5 as a nice new feature to the class, and be able to detonate any type of aura you get through whatever means. Makes it easier to use.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Sadly, it took me a few days to realize that the changes to air actually made DPS tempest better. The spec is still horribly outclassed by weaver for DPS, but now Fresh Air Tempest is a bit funner to play.

Good news for people like me who like to play awkward specs but still care about their performance.