GW2 Elementalist - all the news!

[Gorani]

Those are the rumoured changed in the April 30th update:

• Ele mist form locks you out of utilities (No more #6 healing in Mist form). This will hit Cantrip builds hard, reducing the survivability of Eles
• RTL Changed to be 40 seconds, but if it hits something it will be 20 seconds (Blocks/invul ect count as a hit). Yet another big nerf, no more RTL travelling boosts.
• Signet of Restoration passive nerfed slightly.
• 30 Point trait that removes a condition upon gaining regen (Cleansing Water) will have a 5 second CD. And another nerf
• Conjure durations increased. Still kind of useless

Another thing in the patch will be, that Elementalists skills that destroy projectiles will no longer affect trebuchet shots.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...l-Patch-Update

PS: Thieves & Warriors got buffs, because they need them (getting 3% damage increase per boon and boon stealing sword attack)?
I was hoping for some Scepter buffs, but I have to read the final update notes. This after all is just a rumour quote.

[satomz]

The first place I heard those rumors was in the Guru state of game video. AFAIK they didn't mention any scepter changes. I am really not happy with these changes

[Gorani]

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/foru...n-t-make-sense

I found this thread pretty informative about RTL math & comparison. Although I am biased, I still can not see the huge nerf RTL got, as it boils down to one thing: The Ele using D/D will be too slow to chase other professions or to run away from them now. Roaming in WvW will be a gamble, as RTL is (or was then) a reasonable gap closer.

PS: And why is everybody talking about perma swiftness Eles. My Ele needs to swap in/out of Air attunement, use GoEH for the speed buff & Backdraft, blocking those skills for other uses just to keep up the speed. My Engineer just needs to swap between two kits every 5 seconds without any repercussions.

*sigh* I am getting pretty emotional about the issue.

PPS after a cool down of 20 min:

I think I can put down in words what is bothering me so much: While the "balance" to Mist Form and Cleansing Water is aimed at those "0/0/0/30/30 bunker builds" using Cantrips, the change to RTL is hurting EVERY OTHER BUILD using an off-hand dagger. ArenaNet's team can not say in every interview that they want to increase the number of viable builds, when they cripple an important aspect of a weapon set.

[Gorani]

April 30th update

Elementalist

• Comet skill: Blast finisher now occurs at the comet’s location rather than at the elementalist’s location.
• Conjure Flame Axe skill: Updated the Flame Leap skill fact to display the proper burning duration.
• Rock Blade skill: Projectiles now correctly hit targets up to the intended 1200 range.
• Mist Form skill: Activation now locks heal, utility, and elite skills.
• Ride the Lightning skill:
  
  • Increased recharge increased 20 seconds to 40 seconds.
  • Recharge is now halved if the player strikes a foe.
  • Reduced the range to 1200 from the previous (hidden) 1550.
  
  
• Signet of Earth skill: Passive stat bonus increased by 100%.
• Signet of Fire skill: Passive stat bonus increased by 100%.
• Glyph of Elemental Power skill: Added a skill fact to indicate the percent chance.
• Signet of Restoration skill: Reduced the passive healing by 18% in PvP.
• Cleansing Water trait: Can now trigger only once every 5 seconds (only in PvP).
• Glyph of Storms skill: Increased duration of Lightning Storm by 50%, Ice Storm by 50%, Firestorm by 25%, and Sandstorm by 11%.
• Glyph of Lesser Elementals skill: Increased the health of summoned elementals by 33%.
• Glyph of Elementals skill: Increased the health of the summoned elementals by 33%.
• Conjure Fiery Greatsword skill: The Fiery Rush skill no longer consumes a warrior’s adrenaline pool.
• Swirling Winds skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles.

And of course Gorani's comment

• Comet skill: Blast finisher now occurs at the comet’s location rather than at the elementalist’s location. - While this makes perfect sense, it deprives the Elementalist not using the Evasive Arcana trait of another blast finisher. Due to the delay of the Comet, this was hard to time anyway. Verdict: needs a small counterweight which we did not get.
• Conjure Flame Axe skill: Updated the Flame Leap skill fact to display the proper burning duration. - Bug fix
• Rock Blade skill: Projectiles now correctly hit targets up to the intended 1200 range. - Bug fix, which improves the skill to its proper stats.
• Mist Form skill: Activation now locks heal, utility, and elite skills. - A hard nerf, as many Cantrip builds used this to heal themselves in a safe situation. The fix is understandable to counter the dominance of the Cantrip builds.
• Ride the Lightning skill:
  
  • Increased recharge increased 20 seconds to 40 seconds. - This removes the abilities to roam/fast travel a lot. A hard nerf which hits all off hand dagger builds and not only the D/D bunker builds in WvW/sPvP
  • Recharge is now halved if the player strikes a foe. - Changes the skill from a multi purpose skill to a battle opener. With the increased recharge it can not be used to disengage like before.
  • Reduced the range to 1200 from the previous (hidden) 1550. - Bug fix. Nothing to argue about
  
  
• Signet of Earth skill: Passive stat bonus increased by 100%. - At max level, this effectively increases the base Toughness of the Ele (without any upgrades for that stat) by around 10%, which is not too shabby at first glance. After adding 920 for exotic armour (which not everybody has) a total of around 5% armour rating increase remains.
• Signet of Fire skill: Passive stat bonus increased by 100%. - The Precision to Critical Hit chance does not scale so much but gets you an additional 9%. Pretty good.
• Glyph of Elemental Power skill: Added a skill fact to indicate the percent chance. - Clarification
• Signet of Restoration skill: Reduced the passive healing by 18% in PvP. - This is a lot compared to the armour buff the Signet of Earth recieved
• Cleansing Water trait: Can now trigger only once every 5 seconds (only in PvP). - Reasonable, no doubt, reducing the effectiveness of Cantrip bunker builds.
• Glyph of Storms skill: Increased duration of Lightning Storm by 50%, Ice Storm by 50%, Firestorm by 25%, and Sandstorm by 11%. - This is a great buff, with the greatest benefit to perhaps the Ice Storm of a long lasting "chilled area". Sandstorm was already pretty strong, so the small number of percentage rase is OK.
• Glyph of Lesser Elementals skill: Increased the health of summoned elementals by 33%. - See below.
• Glyph of Elementals skill: Increased the health of the summoned elementals by 33%. - A good buff for the squishy Elementals who where killed very fast. Earth ones are true tanks now. This goes in line with all pets & summons receiving a buff across all professions.
• Conjure Fiery Greatsword skill: The Fiery Rush skill no longer consumes a warrior’s adrenaline pool. - bug fix
• Swirling Winds skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles. - Goes in line with all "missile destroying skills" across all professions. No idea if that applies to more than Trebs, Canons & Mortars.

[Gorani]

One week after the RTL nerf that ruined the Elementalist ...

...well, not really.

What did change for me? I don't use RTL for travelling any more in WvW. I also take a second glance at the red range bar under the RTL icon, so that I am in range for the bolting attack, so the CD is set to 20 seconds. I am thinking twice about engaging Thieves in WvW now (but that is nothing new, as they are way "too strong" to fight in homelands with the outmanned buff, as they don't fear any repair costs which makes them attack very relentlessly).
The Glyph of Storms I have used regularly before, but I do not see a lot of change to how I use it - still focusing on Earth storms. The Elementals are very good now, like I predicted in the review last week.

I still have to run a signet build or a conjure build to say anything about those.

How have you changed your Elementalist play style after the April 30th patch? Share your thoughts with me

Gorani

PS: The new Sentinel's prefix with the Vitality main stat looks like a good one to mix with the To/Pr/Po from Knight's, for those that go for balanced builds.

[Gorani]

Update notes 14th of May

Elementalist

Dragon’s Claw: Fixed an exploit that caused this skill to fire at increased rates.
Shocking Aura:This skill’s icon on the buff bar now displays the same icon as the skill itself.

Gorani's comment:

Both updates are bug fixes or clarifications that should have no effect on the game play.

[Gorani]

OK, lets take a look at the official forums again:

• Most threads about weapon sets still center around Dagger/Dagger builds & usage, with Staff discussions on second place. In sPvP Scepter/Dagger seems to be more common. With the (across the board) nerf to projectile negation (kill Treb shots in WvW), the Focus seems to be drifting off the game board at the moment.
• Bunkers are still the meta for Elementalists, which is a bit sad, but a initial design problem that gave the Water Magic line stuff like Piercing Shards in the first place. Of course, Evasive Arcana & Cantrips are still everywhere.
• A few people are addressing the problems described above, by voicing opinions about balances & buffs. The omnipresent wish for a weapon swap is surfacing from time to time again, too.
• On the equipment side, Berserker stuff is still en vogue for glass canons and Cleric's looks like the thing bunkers like to wear. In some threads, people talk positive about "celestial" gear, which is the balanced stuff giving bonuses to all attributes.
• A new bug list was made, featuring old problems, like traits that give buffs for channeling or the right recharge to Glyphs.

If you have not read a lot of official forum threads about the Ele the last weeks, you have not missed something breath taking.

Forum news:

I can't really decide on a Skill of Interest at the moment, so I just added two more "not so serious skills".
Also do not forget the front page article about Conjures, if you have not read it already.

Gorani

[Gorani]

May 28th update:

General

• Sink and Float effects: No longer affect targets above water.

Elementalist

• Ring of Earth skill: No longer destroys unblockable projectiles.
• Lightning Whip skill: Now strikes targets in a similar angle to other melee ranged skills.
• Elemental Surge trait: Now functions correctly with the Arcane Shield skill while the player is attuned to air.
• Conjure skill: Summoned weapons now correctly appear in the player’s hands if certain on-swap sigils are equipped.
• Arcane Energy trait: Now works properly with the Arcane Power, Arcane Shield, and Signet of Restoration skills.
• Rock Anchor skill: No longer able to affect targets at infinite range. Now respects line of sight.
• Air Bubble skill: No longer able to affect targets at infinite range. Now respects line of sight.

Comment by Gorani:

• Ring of Earth skill: Bug fix, experts knew how to time it before, I wasn't an expert at timing anyway. Won't hurt general player
• Lightning Whip skill: Does that mean I hit more or less? I have no idea - need to check.
• Elemental Surge trait: Bug fix
• Conjure skill: Bug fix
• Arcane Energy trait: Bug fix
• Rock Anchor skill: Bug fix, although it works as a nerf
• Air Bubble skill: Bug fix, although it works as a nerf

[Gorani]

Livestream chat during the Guild Wars 2 Guru’s Master of the Mists tPvP Tournament:

Jon Peter about upcoming changes to traits:

Mod jon_peters: I think Ele air is a good spoiler…

Mod jon_peters: I will say this

Mod jon_peters: every single trait line is seeing at least 1 change

Mod jon_peters: some I think are getting as many as five changes

http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?499917-GW2-Elementalist-Traits

I have no idea what we will see with this update on the traits. Many people on the official forums expect another blow to the D/D bunkers (= Zephyr's Boon nerf), which I think would be counter productive to every other non bunker build.
Hopefully, they will add a buff to Quick Glyphs (e.g. the stun breaker ability only Cantrips have now) and One with Air, which currently is pretty useless after Signet of Air got the 25% passive buff.
My personal wish list would include lowering the internal cool down of Tempest's Defence to 60 seconds to make it a bit better as a grandmaster trait.

We will see...

[Gorani]

June 10th update:

Elementalist:

• Signet of Restoration: This skill now has its cooldown reduced by the Signet Mastery in PvP

Gorani's comment: A simple bug fix