70 replies to this topic

[Anlyon Spellrage]

Elemental Gearbolt, on 06 September 2012 - 10:59 AM, said:

I have confirmed that Frost Aura works on kiting rangers skill except rapid fire, while shocking aura doesn't trigger on ranged enemies for apparent reason

Its the range that it triggers at that i want extended. I've had it trigger off people who are up to ~Dragons Claws distance (~600?), but not really beyond that.

[abr4]

AetherMcLoud, on 06 September 2012 - 06:10 AM, said:

Spamming 1 does more damage than 2, and i play D/D so when I die I'm already in melee range to get stomped.

Fun fact:

You can cast 1 while channeling 2

But yeah, downed state is the only thing I would like to see changed on elementalists atm.

I'd rather have other classes toned down a bit then buffing elementalsts because we're already borderline in the OP territory.

[Elemental Gearbolt]

I have switched to engineer and it's great to see these base stats, multiple conditions, multiple CC...and everything got reasonable CD...there's nothing in the 80s+ range or 50s+ for a simple block or launch.

I still be waiting for ele changes, but looking at how it took Anet 6 years to buff ele properly...I don't think I'll wait that long, for people who still enjoy ele, well I guess they really like glass cannon Rambo class who die in 3 hits once their burst is gone

[AetherMcLoud]

Elemental Gearbolt, on 09 September 2012 - 12:53 PM, said:

I have switched to engineer and it's great to see these base stats, multiple conditions, multiple CC...and everything got reasonable CD...there's nothing in the 80s+ range or 50s+ for a simple block or launch.

I still be waiting for ele changes, but looking at how it took Anet 6 years to buff ele properly...I don't think I'll wait that long, for people who still enjoy ele, well I guess they really like glass cannon Rambo class who die in 3 hits once their burst is gone

Yeah I'm playing my engineer too. It's really insane, having multiple knockbacks on 15 seconds cooldown instead of 45-50, having burst skills on 20 seconds cooldown instead óf 40-50, etc. Also having a working downed state and pretty much every single utility skill being viable.

[syrianx]

AetherMcLoud, on 05 September 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

Inspired by such a thread in the mesmer forum, what changes would you like to see in the future to make elementalist more balanced/fun to play/viable?

I'll start:

• Make ride the lightning not auto-target. I tried deactivating auto-targeting but it's such a useful feature, but it killed me more than once with ride the lightning.
  
• Give focus a mobility skill. It's the only weapon we have that doesn't have one, and that's why I never use one.
  
• Give us a buff in base health.
  
• Traits could use a lot of work. I feel that there are only a very tiny amount of ele builds.
  
• Dragon's tooth ground targeted would be awesome.
  
• Air attacks from all the weapons could use a slight damage boost.

I've only really had time to invest in one spec -- D/D (and for much the same reasons you gave) -- so my list of changes would be directed there.  Ride the Lighting I agree 1000% on. I tried disabling the autotargeting but that just didn't work out.  I'd add I'd like to sewe BS have ground targeting too.  I'm in Hawaii, and I'm sure Ozzies have it even worse, but betweeen getting derailed by imaginary deceased turtles, and not getting the animation and movement completed until the enemy is ont he other side of the map, it really needs fixing.  Traits I also agree on, they need more work.  Speed bonuses don't stack and some seem broken to me.  The aura thing drives me nuts as there are some things like zephyr's boon which would be great if you had some more auras.  I'd like to see some traits that add in auras on attunement.  If not that, add auras to certain skills (e.g. Drake's breath gives you fire shield)

D/D could also use some more defensive skills IMO. You have to be in the thick of it, so you should be able to take more of a beating.  I think this could be addressed by maybe instead of auras on attunement, make traits that give boons on attunement but based on weaps, so a dagger would get say, fire shield an might on attuning to fire, whereas staff might get swiftness and fury or something (not really thinking too deeply here just off the top of my head) but that could help balance things out between weapons without having to change skills dramatically.

Firegrab sucks with the CD right now IMO.

Fire breathing is underwhelming.

Churning earth Cast time.

Water damage needs increasing, but I'd like to see that done with some combination of base damage increase along with vulnerability increase rather than just base dmg.

Magnetic Grasp, at least from my location, takes a long time to complete, there is a projectile, then a pause of about a second after it hits, and then I get pulled in.  That kills the talent.

Gotta run out, will try and tae more time later.

[Rhaerion]

I feel that to fix ele right now the following changes would be mandatory:

-fix the damned bugs with traits/skills
-change downed 2 to act as an AoE knockdown

Optional quality of life improvements
-improve glyphs
-buff air damage, air abilities are pretty laughable
- anyone who wants to pvp will take 1 elite skill only, and that is summon elemental so tornado needs to be changed ( 1 simple fix is to nerf tornado damage and just make it appear like an aura around the elementalist that does things based of attunement and doesn't disable the elementalists other skills)
-make conjure builds viable ( merge the 4 non elite conjures into 1 called conjure weapon, that changes all your skills to the attunement of the weapon , ex you cast conjure weapon, when you are in fire it is the lava axe, when you switch to earth it is now the earth shield , etc)
-no idea how to fix conjure greatsword.

[Talus G]

Rhaerion, on 12 September 2012 - 11:01 PM, said:

I feel that to fix ele right now the following changes would be mandatory:

-fix the damned bugs with traits/skills
-change downed 2 to act as an AoE knockdown

Optional quality of life improvements
-improve glyphs
-buff air damage, air abilities are pretty laughable
- anyone who wants to pvp will take 1 elite skill only, and that is summon elemental so tornado needs to be changed ( 1 simple fix is to nerf tornado damage and just make it appear like an aura around the elementalist that does things based of attunement and doesn't disable the elementalists other skills)
-make conjure builds viable ( merge the 4 non elite conjures into 1 called conjure weapon, that changes all your skills to the attunement of the weapon , ex you cast conjure weapon, when you are in fire it is the lava axe, when you switch to earth it is now the earth shield , etc)
-no idea how to fix conjure greatsword.

Those are all fantastic ideas.

[AetherMcLoud]

I love the tornado idea. Losing 20 skills to gain stability and 3 bad aoe skills is really laughable, especially on a 180 seconds cooldown (I'd consider it if it had less CD than the elemental). That's probably the problem of the conjures too. They should work like kits,being able to switch to and from them as long as they are conjured.

[ultima]

my changes:

Elementalist : 1:) little increase in staff , scepter and daggerdamage ( scepterskills are too easy to evade & staff to long casts and predictable, dagger lacks range, u even hear the scepterskills ... so u can blind dodge them...)

2.) little increase in health ( squishy ele and bad downed skill)
3.)
armor of earth doesn't give me 8 seconds stabilty as it should be just 6 so change it
4.) mistform says it makes u invulnerable for 3 sec but why do i get hit by conditiondamage. hey man i am invulnerable....
5.) downed skill : root ... takes too long to cast make it instant or give them a different skill : for example an instant stun or blow out...
6.) i know no people play offhand focus : it lacks mobility : give swirling winds a swiftnessboon like 10 - 15 sec swiftness

by the way why says the tooltip on stafffireskill duration of lava font 6 seconds and it is only 3 sec.. the same with burning retreat.

Mesmer: fix moaform let the mesmer glow while he is channeling it. dont let moaform transform players who used eliteskills like lichform and tornado. dont let moaform transform people on stability....

the damage on phantasm is too high...

Thieves: a lil damage nerf and plx fix that broken condition evasive blossom build. it is ridicoulous even top teams dont play it cause it is broken....

guardian: too much offensive power for so good defense . fix that

ranger: fine it as it is : u crying about shortbow bleedingbuild than play the ranger as he is an antimedusa . dont let the ranger flank u or hit from behind stay always in front of him...

engineer: nice class by the way but most engi i know suck. great class it is so much utility

necro: i dont know much about necro seeing so little necroplayers

Warrior: dont need nerf or buff u can evade( dodge his rush, bullscharge keep an eye on him ... if he uses frenzy let ur party attack him)

[Krauzer]

AetherMcLoud, on 05 September 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

Inspired by such a thread in the mesmer forum, what changes would you like to see in the future to make elementalist more balanced/fun to play/viable?

I'll start:

• Make ride the lightning not auto-target. I tried deactivating auto-targeting but it's such a useful feature, but it killed me more than once with ride the lightning.
  
• Give focus a mobility skill. It's the only weapon we have that doesn't have one, and that's why I never use one.
  
• Give us a buff in base health.
  
• Traits could use a lot of work. I feel that there are only a very tiny amount of ele builds.
  
• Dragon's tooth ground targeted would be awesome.
  
• Air attacks from all the weapons could use a slight damage boost.

• Disable auto targeting. Just because you can't manually click a target or hit T to get the next target, doesn't mean this should be changed.
  
• You can swap to staff/daggerOH for mobility out of combat. If you're using focus you should be playing a defensive role anyway and not roaming.
  
• Base health is fine. If you're dying too much change your build and dodge better. Ele's have great survivability even as heavy damage specs.
  
• There are viable damage/support/bunker builds. Not a whole lot more to expand on.
  
• Would be waaaaay too strong. Keep in mind at a competitive level targets will be getting locked down with CC, even 1v1 it's not that difficult to land.
  
• No idea why you think this is a problem. The damage is fine and the cooldowns are short. Maybe just dagger MH is a bit weak but the 3 is so incredibly good.

I feel like a lot of the people here have played 20 games on ele in 8v8 with terrible builds. There are so many suggestions that are completely unnecessary (sorry to pick on you Aenther), and you would understand that if you had more experience with the class.

[AetherMcLoud]

Krauzer, on 14 September 2012 - 04:24 AM, said:

• Disable auto targeting. Just because you can't manually click a target or hit T to get the next target, doesn't mean this should be changed.
  
• You can swap to staff/daggerOH for mobility out of combat. If you're using focus you should be playing a defensive role anyway and not roaming.
  
• Base health is fine. If you're dying too much change your build and dodge better. Ele's have great survivability even as heavy damage specs.
  
• There are viable damage/support/bunker builds. Not a whole lot more to expand on.
  
• Would be waaaaay too strong. Keep in mind at a competitive level targets will be getting locked down with CC, even 1v1 it's not that difficult to land.
  
• No idea why you think this is a problem. The damage is fine and the cooldowns are short. Maybe just dagger MH is a bit weak but the 3 is so incredibly good.

I feel like a lot of the people here have played 20 games on ele in 8v8 with terrible builds. There are so many suggestions that are completely unnecessary (sorry to pick on you Aenther), and you would understand that if you had more experience with the class.

I played more than 200 ele matches and you simply don't play ele. Next.

[Cowwie]

Delvaz, on 05 September 2012 - 05:07 PM, said:

Allow weapon swapping (staff -> D/D etc) while out of combat, even if it requires a cooldown.  This would prevent me from trying to dig through my bags to do this manually in WvWvW.

The dynamic nature of DE's in pve demands this imo, players should be able to switch weapons for random group events.

[manlyavocado]

AetherMcLoud, on 05 September 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

• Make ride the lightning not auto-target.

Edited by manlyavocado, 14 September 2012 - 12:14 PM.

[manlyavocado]

Krauzer, on 14 September 2012 - 04:24 AM, said:

• Disable auto targeting. Just because you can't manually click a target or hit T to get the next target, doesn't mean this should be changed.

Now, in order to use ride the lightning as an escape skill, I have to hit that tab or click a target even if it's a 1v1 fight. This is not that big a problem, but it does annoy me (especially when I have to face a thief that can make me lose the target repeatedly). If you can manually click or hit T, then it wouldn't matter to you if ride the lightning gets changed or not.

Edited by manlyavocado, 14 September 2012 - 12:24 PM.

[Krauzer]

AetherMcLoud, on 14 September 2012 - 06:56 AM, said:

I played more than 200 ele matches and you simply don't play ele. Next.

Oh no you di'int...


250 Tournament wins as Ele is slightly more experience than 200 matches.

manlyavocado, on 14 September 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

Now, in order to use ride the lightning as an escape skill, I have to hit that tab or click a target even if it's a 1v1 fight. This is not that big a problem, but it does annoy me (especially when I have to face a thief that can make me lose the target repeatedly). If you can manually click or hit T, then it wouldn't matter to you if ride the lightning gets changed or not.

It doesn't matter to me since I don't use it but trust me. It's waaaaaaay more reliable to deselect a target and go EXACTLY the direction you want to instead of targeting someone on the opposite end of a fight.

Edited by Krauzer, 14 September 2012 - 02:41 PM.

[EatThisShoe]

Krauzer, on 14 September 2012 - 04:24 AM, said:

• Disable auto targeting. Just because you can't manually click a target or hit T to get the next target, doesn't mean this should be changed.

The fact that people turn off a useful feature specifically because it doesn't work well with RtL tells me that it should be changed. I'm curious, do you have an argument for why it should use auto targetting?

[bilwit]

Elemental Gearbolt, on 05 September 2012 - 05:56 PM, said:

Here are my general wishes:

Ranger

• CD on controll skill should be increased reasonably, short-bow rangers just spamm knockback , increase the CD to 20s, control skill should be tacticful no!? so why some classes can just spamm them?

Wut. Short-bow Rangers don't have a knockback. Long-bow has a 12s CD on it's knockback but no one uses those because they're godawful at sPvP.

[EatThisShoe]

bilwit, on 14 September 2012 - 06:36 PM, said:

Wut. Short-bow Rangers don't have a knockback. Long-bow has a 12s CD on it's knockback but no one uses those because they're godawful at sPvP.

I've been seeing a lot of shortbow+longbow builds recently. Usually they burn cooldowns on longbow then switch to shortbow for fresh cooldowns and sustained DPS from crossfire.

[Krauzer]

EatThisShoe, on 14 September 2012 - 06:18 PM, said:

The fact that people turn off a useful feature specifically because it doesn't work well with RtL tells me that it should be changed. I'm curious, do you have an argument for why it should use auto targetting?

I just don't like changes that reward lazier players in general. Think about if the change gets implemented and people get conditioned to not actually clicking people, someone tries to open with RTL and they fly right past him. People will QQ either way. Solution is to disable auto-target and learn to target efficiently.

[Coldznap]

I agree with fixing RTL pathing, Fire Grab & Cone skills missing while strafing.

Here are my suggestions. Most of them are about increasing skill animations.

*Lightning Hammer Skills

Wind Blast - animation is too slow.. I had fun doing the Burning speed burst after landing this skill on someone

Lightning Storm - Damage is too litle with short range, and it's not even a finisher.

Burning Speed - Faster Skill Animation please  

Updraft - Granting 2s of quickness would be nice.

Churning Earth - lower cast time by 1 or 1.5 sec so we can use it vs mesmer clones.

Lightning Flash - 40s CD, 300ish damage, 240 Radius

Vapor Blade - 100-120 dmg, 400 Range, Vulnerable duration decrease to 5 sec or something we can use vs tanky builds.

A Grandmaster trait that would grant quickness, possibly to replace 'Grounded' in Air

[blindude]

AetherMcLoud, on 13 September 2012 - 07:52 AM, said:

I love the tornado idea. Losing 20 skills to gain stability and 3 bad aoe skills is really laughable, especially on a 180 seconds cooldown (I'd consider it if it had less CD than the elemental). That's probably the problem of the conjures too. They should work like kits,being able to switch to and from them as long as they are conjured.

elites on ele are not that usefull for being in elite category.Even then though tornado is at the very least a 15 base sec stability and fiery greatsword can get a slow build some very good mobility especially in wvw
Also the whirl on it makes you evade all attacks and has a very very low cooldown

Edited by blindude, 16 September 2012 - 08:12 PM.

[Prescia]

Personally, I would like to see the addition of another weapon designed for less versatility in exchange for more power and a simpler playstyle.

Call it a learning weapon, if you will.  The weapon will still have some utility aoes, but the skills will be artificially reduced by having some skills either be a clone of another in a different element, or having some of the skills share a cooldown.  The main purpose of this weapon is so that starting elementalists can have something to use at lower skill levels instead of getting stomped by everyone and losing faith in the class, while slowly teaching them how best to use AoEs to their advantage and transitioning them to a support role in tPvP.  The weapon will also remain as a dps option for elementalists that choose to pursue this, as well.

The lower versatility of this option will be emphasized; the skills on the weapon will do BWE2-level damage, although any top-level elementalist player will find that they do not have nearly as many options as they would on a S/D or staff build.  This keeps the weapon as a new player-friendly, skill progression weapon while ensuring that someone like Phantaram would not take it and turn himself into a raid boss.

This solves a number of problems:

• It lowers the very high entry barrier that the class currently has by giving the player a choice.  Because people actually do play sPvP and hot joins, it would give newer players (like me >.>) a soft ledge to hold as they slowly trudge up that mountain and discover more ways to use their class.
  
• The weapon could be designed as a training weapon with some aoes, so that players that wish to learn would eventually understand how best to place them.
  
• The weapon would help players in modes other than fully organized tPvP - this including stuff like sPvP or tPvP pugs where a sizable portion of the player base still plays.  Meanwhile, the weapon can still be designed so it's not 2-2-2-2-2 so that players do not get stuck in the 'spam' mindset.
  
• It ensures that we don't get BWE1-level balancing problems with the class, while allowing the top players to retain their flexibility.

And yes, I know a lot of people would go "elementalist is skilled class, say no to holding noob hands!"  However, not everyone is born a video game prodigy, and while there will be players that try to use this weapon to derp through PvP, it will also give a lot more chances for other players to fall in love with the class instead of becoming discouraged.  Sure, people can watch skilled players pwn with the class in controlled group settings, but no one is going to become Sad Fayce just by watching a video, and while a class can have a relatively higher skill dependency, it IS a problem if a class's skill floor is so high that it's inaccessible to anyone except the top PvP players (this is okay with builds, but not with an entire class).

Other than that, tackle on a few of the bug fixes and I'd be very happy.

[lmaonade]

I think they should add the whole armor penetration passives the air skills had in GW1

[ysnakke]

A massive generalization, Elementalists need more utility and less squishiness.

[Mutzii]

Honestly, at the moment all I ask for is a fix on RtL. So many times it gets stuck in midair or otherwise being annoying. I dont understand how some of you can have such long wishlists, but maybe I'm missing out. RtL fix is realistic atleast since it is, to my understanding, a bug. If I could ask santa for anything however, I'd want firegrab accuracy to get increased while strafing.

[AetherMcLoud]

It has been often said, but bears repeating: I think our downed state is in most dire need to be fixed. Making 2 not channeled and knockback instead of root would be a good start.

[Coldznap]

and possibly give RTL some sort of stability for 1 sec, getting rooted as a lightning ball is not fun at all.

Edited by Coldznap, 17 September 2012 - 11:27 AM.

[lay]

A lot of unnecessary changes are being asked for. And a lot of people requesting nerfs from other classes. Do you guys play more than one class? Its pretty easy to pick up a new class in this game and to learn at least the basics in a day or two. Do that and i guarantee you will learn its weakness quickly and what to avoid. I'd say to keep this thread on track and have it be a useful post instead of a whine post, keep your suggestions to the elementalist class, and stop comparing us to other classes. Yes, they may require adjustments, but keep your comments to the class you understand best and are the topic of this forum.

With my limited ele experience, the downed state could use some work, the trait trees seem a little unorganized, and incohesive. They seem to be made more along the ideas of sticking closely to an element rather than along a theme (eg. Power damage builds, condition, support, or even revolving around utilities effectively, etc). They also hsve the do 10% more damage while attuned traits deep in as tier 2 traits, and in every tree apart from arcane. This is just lazy, the trait itself is boring, and it goes directly counter to the supposed strength of the class (diverse range of skills to use). If you truly want to specialize you would also be taking the 20% cd reduction, another boring trait. They should just squish those two together.

Anyhow, eles could use some work, but not as much as what the general forum posts might indicate. My top concerns, tldr style:
1) Fix the trait trees to be more coherent
2) Adjust downed state to give a proper interrupt option. (might need to make our "3" skill take longer until we can use it if given a real interrupt)

[Coldznap]

lay, on 17 September 2012 - 06:16 PM, said:

A lot of unnecessary changes are being asked for. And a lot of people requesting nerfs from other classes. Do you guys play more than one class?

I play Warrior, Guardian, Engineer, Mesmer if that helps.

[MaximumSquid]

Buffs to weak weapon lines and fixing up buggy skills seem like the obvious choice

Skills that miss a lot without evades also get honorable mention