Arcaneus.6931

For eles:

More long range options.

Don't tie new weapons to elites.

Ability to specialize in different elements rather than pyromancy.

Make other elements a viable build choices.

> @"Jski.6180" said:

> Your best bet is to unlock tempest and weaver and use what build they have core ele is effectively a dead class.

>

> Super important to understand about gw2 is there are no mages classes as there no dmg types to start with. You can get effects that look like different dmg types though condis and unshockable but you realy do not find these effects on ele vs other classes.

IMO what you said makes as much sense to me as having all heavy armor classes 1 melee weapon and the rest being long range only. Just think about it if that was the case, would you still enjoy it and say " that's the way it is because its GW2 "?

I think it also devalues the armor types too Heavy, Medium and Light and their respective professions. Why bother making them options in game in the first place if majority of the classes are required to play at melee range to get any decent performance with the aid of elites and traits that makes Light armor just if not better than heavy armor classes at melee.

> @"AliamRationem.5172" said:

> It's difficult for any class in this game to suck at everything and ele is no exception. Especially if you're new, I'd give it a try for yourself before listening to the salt on the forums.

I played ele to lvl 80 and leveled artificer to max. Eles lack decent long range damage. I don't really enjoy being put into the support category because I main staff. It would be nice if they gave us more long range options, like trident for example to me its the most fun to play around with. The main reason I choose ele is so I can play a long range damage dealer.

I hate it when elites weapons on cloth classes are focused around melee range. Majority of the people I have seen opt for using melee weapons because its viable build and I do feel like I am forced to play melee because of those reasons. IMO the Elites also restrict weapon choices than add more to them.

It would have been better if they just created weapons that can used without having to equip an elite trait. It just isn't fun to be forced into having to pick elites for weapon choices or better damage output.

I have been playing Mage/Cloth classes in MMOs for along time now, the reason I play them is because I enjoy doing damage at long range, having so little options just kills the fun for me. I am not going to be forced into playing some weeb anime trait for better damage output to satisfy the min/maxers this game is plagued with.

I wanted to main an ele but since they suck, and long range is trash its been difficult to get into this game in general. I may end up playing OSRS or something at least you can be a decent elementalist on that game.

> @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> Possibly they could have, but that would probably require making four different versions of each weapon just for core and then each core weapon would need to be remade every time a new legend was introduced. Would be fairly cool if they could pull it off, but it'd have been a big ask to call for back during HoT's development, let alone now.

>

> That said, being a little less ambitious, it _could_ offer a possible solution of making hammer have different effects depending on legend, similar to how trident works. That way, hammer could be a condi weapon when used with Mallyx, a support weapon when used with Ventari, and so on.

Honestly I'm not even sure why they even bothered making it if they didn't have the resources to fully flesh it out like the rest of the classes in the first place.

They could have just gone with a Dark Knight class and made it more edgy warrior with dark magic or something low effort.

Currently it just feels like a waste of space for what could have been.

Or maybe they could have just had it so Legends changed your weapon abilities as well, so some legends would change weapon abilities to melee and others would change them to long range and have them match legends utility. This would have also would have made no-weapon swap thing more viable for the class.

It would have been better justified if legends also changed weapon abilities.

It would be nice if they added more weapon choices like dual wielding Axes, Scepter, Greatsword and Longbow as core at least. Currently it does feel very unfinished and the lack of weapon choices unsatisfying. The problem is with core rev and I hope it gets addressed.

Minor gripe with hammer for ability 1 it would have been more satisfying if the animations changed like having at least 3 different animations for ability 1.

Personally it would have been a better choice if the legendary chosen also changed the players weapon abilities to better accommodate a specific build rather than having weapons accommodate a legend as it creates more restrictions than anything. IMO this would have justified the lack of weapon choices, currently it does seem unfinished and I hope they listen and add more to it in the future.

Yeah, I'm starting to notice a lot of toxicity in PvP and WvW specially with classes as well where you are required to take specific builds and weapons and elites that are meta and anything outside that is looked down with hostility. This is also starting to seep into the PvE content were I am noticing higher level players telling low level players in dungeons they should play another class or calling them stupid because they may be new to the class.

I feel like these elite specs are causing more toxicity than anything as well. I am just trying to have fun and people on here can get pretty toxic if you don't also adhere to their shitty metas because fuck what you want to play and what's fun for you.

> @"steki.1478" said:

>

> You're not using its full potential if you're not using elite specs, swap weapons based on situations and you only camp one attunement.

>

> Literally contradicting yourself multiple times, yet you call yourself experienced and passionate. The whole point of gw2 build system is to adapt to every situation by using all available resources, yet you want one weapon to fill every single purpose that a class can achieve, while not even using half of its potential.

I never called myself experienced or mentioned I was only camping one attunement. Where did you get that from? I used Fire Attunement in PvP to prove my point that you don't necessarily need to do full attunement swaps.

I am just mentioning how I find the majority of the abilities for staff useless because fire is the go to for damage so I never had to use ability 1 or 2 on different attunements just because fire has better damage. By the time I use 3,4,5 other attunements are off cooldown so I swap.

I can get around just fine in PvP and PvE.

> @"montecristo.1324" said:

> First of all we are talking about elementalist not pyromancer. Ele is supposed to cycle through elements and camping one element is out of discussion in every competitive scenario. Second of all there are plenty of good water traits and skills to use if you prefer to play around it. There is a entire trait designed on DPS on enemies with vulnerability and water attunement. Plus you have also conjure frostbow which have some good DPS.

>

> I don't know how long do you play else, I'm playing it since the release and I feel that the point of the class is the cycling on elements, it is his strength and used correctly every attunement is really strong. There are one shot builds based on earth, and competitive builds based on water.

>

> Of course for the nature of this class when you play some hybrid build it shines, the old cele else, or the more modern auromancer, but as you said, if you want to play only with one attunement then you can play another class because you are not using the full strength of the class

What BS give me a break dude. I Literally played PvP with only fire attunement and managed to win majority of the matches with the right team this also the same for me in WvW. The only abilities that I often find useful for staff are Static Field and Unsteady Ground the rest are useless and I don't even use those outside of PVP/ WvW because I can just Fireball almost everything to death. The only reason I end up using other abilities/attunements In PVE is because of Champions or I am bored of spamming the Fireball over and over again.

I think the healing for staff is rubbish even with the water trait equipped, IMO its a waste of space to give players ability to heal at long range as it doesn't benefit anyone since majority of the players tend to run close to the enemy so you are essentially using heals at scepter/dagger range on staff. I run ELE not Tempest because I don't want to loose additional bonus damage for a gimmick Elite.

I think the trident abilities are way better than staff and IMO I think some of the abilities should be similar to it mainly the Water abilities. The "cycling on elements" gimmicks your on about is just for RP if ask me nothing more, its useless in majority of the PVE content but not as much in PVP/WvW sure I can agree with you there.

Also stop telling me I should play another class. I enjoy the class and I am using it to its full potential. Its just a crappy thing to say to someone who is probably more passionate about the class than you and wants to see it in a better light.

> @"montecristo.1324" said:

> I think you are missing the point. The strenght of ele was and is the field play. If you remove the fields from his staff you are killing the class. What ele bring to a zerg is that, one dps that can quickly switch to water drop down staff 5 wich is op and go back to dps with fire. Or goes to earth and cc enemies.

> Every attunment has is strenghts, it's not only dps or only heal. this is the design of ele, like it or not, it's also his strenght.

>

Can you explain what the point of Water 1 ability is for staff? How would this help me in combat? I get what you are saying but currently Its, meh. I would like it to have more diversity with the elements trait you equip making that attunement more useful, hence I can have the attunements of my choosing as my primary or secondary at least. IMO the healing skills on staff are useless at long range, I would rather they be on scepter and staff get more chill and vulnra or defensive abilities or even mobility to help us keep at a distance.

I want to do damage with Air/Water and Earth if I choose too and not use it as simple tool to cycle back to fire again as it makes the number 1 abilities on all attunements practically worthless if I am cycling back to default fire for better damage. I feel like this class has potential for more diversity with combat.

You have to understand not everyone enjoys playing a Pyromancer or Melee as a cloth class with 0 mobility and abilities that can easily get canceled. If I wanted a healer/support or melee class I would have picked Guardian or Warrior.

I don't know man, personally, I think it would be cool if they swapped some of the water abilities with scepter mainly the no 1. Water Blast with Ice Shards and no 5 Healing rain with Shatterstone. I would rather see staff have more DPS options than have a healing spec because IMO healing spec is useless specially if I swap it by accident I do 0 damage with ability 1 and for ability 5 Healing Rain isn't worth being a long range skill.

I also think they should do the same with air attunement too. Swap no 1 Chain Lighting with scepters Lighting Arc(Maybe reduce duration for staff) and No 4 Windborne Speed with Blinding Flash/ or Focus 4 Swirling Winds . Reason because staffs air ability 1 is too slow and useless at long range and I feel that Windborne doesn't benefit anyone at long range as well and should be a scepter skill.

Overall what I am trying to get at is that I want Staff to be more like the classic "Mage" style were people can choose what elements are their primary by equipping their respective trait lines, because currently I am forced to take fire and play as a pyromancer because that's were my damage comes from as a staff main. I would rather see attunements getting buffed when I have that trait equipped so you can use as your primary or secondary at least and not because I have to for better damage or certain boost.

I get that some people may not like this idea and like the healing spec but I would rather it moved to scepter because I find them useless for long range anyways. IMO healing/condi cleanse should be for short range.

I just want to see more people play as Water, Air and Earth mages specially In PVP/WvW it would be pretty cool to encounter someone with opposite elements.

> @"Stallic.2397" said:

> Water doesn't have to be the main DPS traitline or even close to the strongest. But it's sad to see Eles miss the opportunity of becoming ice mages.

>

> Reaper for example, has much better effeciency with Chill than Ele does. Why can't Eles have the option to build around Chill and vulnerability.

>

> Piercing shards is a good start but that idea needs to be elaborated in Water itself. Right now, Air and Water traitlines have to be combined to get a good benefit.

>

> Make chill deal damage. Or Chill applies vulnerability. Make crits deal chill on an appropriate cooldown

IKR its is sad that we are stuck as pyromancers, I hope they at least decide on making a future elite spec that allows players to specialize in 1 element type. It just one of those things that bugs me.

> @"Tuco.2419" said:

> I don't judge anyone for disagreeing but IMO, I like that the four elements have roles associated with them. I think each element should have an ability that does respectable damage with varying cooldowns to motivate elementalists to switch to it, but I don't see a benefit to making water a viable DPS element when it comes with the detriment of making the class harder to balance.

I understand what you are saying but I would at least rather have 1 ability on eles water do nearly as much damage as fire 1 ability , or at least be able to apply vulnerability to targets because IMO the 1 ability on water is useless, I am mainly talking about staff but I assume its the same for the other weapons too. Ideally I would prefer to see more conditions being applied from water like vulnra and chill.

Just so there is at least some form of attack/defense while other attunements are in cooldown because in PVP/WvW some people can take advantage of that because you wont have access to any hard hitting ability or decent damage to defend yourself with.

If not they can always make a new elite spec in the future that would cater to people who want to play as 1 element type of the players choosing. It would be a neat idea IMO.

I agree, IMO water should do nearly as much damage as fire does just so people have better options to pick their primary attunements. It will also will be more useful for people who want to specialize in specific attunements as an option for those of us who want to rather than having fire as primary now all the time. Healing/support should be moved to utility I think.

I want conjures to be in the elite spec instead and be based on your current attunement, as for axe conjure maybe it can be optional with the greatsword, so it spawns axe and greatsword together so player can choose which to pick up to use with better stats and short cooldown. The free space can be used for more valuable skills like defensive and healing/support. As of now conjures are useless.

Waste of space if you ask me, there is nothing worse than using close range weapons on the most squishiest class, its just asking for insta kill.

> @"Junkpile.7439" said:

> Why not give elementalist more hp and damage if they don't use any elite spec lines? Funny play ele when you have under 14k hp and 2k armor and still damage is horrible. I really hope that dude who got idea add barrier in game and give it only to the elite specs doesn't work for anet anymore.

IMO we chose elementalists because they are cloth class and for better damage at long range so you can kill your enemy while keeping a distance, that's how its supposed to be that's why we choose cloth class, I don't get why they go and make it melee oriented, if I wanted a melee class I would have gone for heavy armor classes. I would rather them have more long range damage options at least then their squishiness would be understandable. Currently its just feels absurd to play a cloth class at melee and long range, no wonder they die so easily.

I wish they just removed utilities from long range weapons and just made them more damage and defensive oriented based on attunements and moved utilities to utilities ffs, its kinda dumb imo for eles to have to use utilities from weapons than the utilities bar because for me the utilities bar is probably the most useless thing I have seen the abilities don't do that great deal of damage or give good support and have stupid cool down that's not worth it. I only see eles running with pets and the rest of utilities seem to be there for RP.

> @"JohnWater.5760" said:

> Staff skills needs to be faster, it is just horrible.

> Looks like they are carrying a 10Kg stick.

> It is super slow and weak, I totally agree with you.

I can see why Fire is slow but I don't understand why other attunements are slow as well just because they do low damage.

IMO they should just make the staff 1 ability for water, air and earth do equal amount or as much damage as 1 for fire does because currently they are redundant, having those skills do so little damage is nothing more than bad RP to me because you will be just switching to fire 1 for better damage anyway and at best you lose what a millisecond in switching attunements? It adds nothing to gameplay of it.

I feel like it would be nice way of making players use different attunements as their primary besides Air and Fire, you would also have a decent damage ability while other attunements are in cooldown as well.

> @"steki.1478" said:

> FA tempest focuses on air mostly, so do LR d/f weaver and FA scepter weaver. Support tempest builds are basically water focused, with some earth and fire depending on content and purpose. Condi builds are usually built with both fire and earth.

>

> Most weapons actually favor air over fire when it comes to power builds.

Yeah but I shouldn't be required to take a specific weapon if I want to focus on a single element.

I prefer using Staff on eles because I like long range.

Fire and Air shouldn't be the only elements that should available for damage dealing. I think it would be better if they just moved all of the utilities away from weapon skills all together, I just want to play as an Ice Mage but I cant even do that on Eles. I don't like the idea of having some elements locked for utility and support only :/

I get were you are coming from but I would rather just have the option to focus on 1 element and maybe have F1 for a chosen element to be damage based and F2 be Utility skills instead for that element. For example:

**Ice Mage**

F1: Ice = Condi/Damage

F2: Water= Healing/Support

**Earth Mage**

F1: Earth = Condi/Damage

F2: Magnetic= Defensive/Support

**Fire Mage**

F1: Fire = Condi/Damage

F2: Magma= Dodge/Defensive

**Air Mage**

F1: Lightning = Condi/Damage

F2: Air = Dodge/Mobility

One thing I find frustrating about this class is that you are always forced to play as a Fire Mage, it has Elementalist in its name but you can't actually play a Earth, Ice/Water, or even Air Mage, just because the rest act more like crappy utility skills than anything and you will find yourself cycling back to Fire Attunement Always. I get that they have this mixed rotation you are forced to cycle through but it gets very irritating after awhile for me.

For me it would have been nice if they gave us an option to choose the elements we want to focus on like 1 or 2 elements and the F1 to F2 would be only be the element you chosen, the down side being you now longer have access to the other elements unless you respec or something but you can now weapon swap.

The funny thing is you can already play as a Fire mage if you go Guardian, Warrior Berserker(Melee), Mesmer or Necromancer, all have some form of fire condition or damage based trait or abilities. So in essence Eles Fire Attunement isn't really all that unique or special of a skill to be forced into playing it just because other other classes can also deal fire damage as well.

I really wanted to play as an Ice Mage but god damn is it disappointing.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> In case you purposely missed that in your search: The majority of search results (not related to movie media) shows that phantasms are related to mind trickery, imagination and illusions. So we can safely say that Phantasms in GW2 aren't related to Death **at all.**

>

> Geist literally means ghost in German. Thus, you directly mentioned Death-relation within one of the proposed names of the elite specialization.

>

> You don't see the many, MANY traits and skills that interact shatter skills and Illusions in complexer ways than Shroud traits do?

> You don't see all those skills and traits that won't work with your envisioned Orb mechanic?

I don't know why you keep insisting I am going for a Death/Necro theme for mesmers, sure the name 'Geist' leans more towards death, but that really isn't the idea I was going for I just couldn't think of a better name hence I also put Geist/Sorcerer or what ever name fits the class.

As for traits I am sure they can still benefit with Orb Mechanic if not there are probably many other ways to go around it, was just offering my idea. No Need for the aggressive attack dude. If you don't like it that's fine also. Just chillout.

> @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> Scourge remove the traditional "shroud". I don't think it would be very different to have mesmer have a transformation instead of it's shatters and have the skills#2 to 5 of this transformation benefit from the core traits associated to the shatters. The _life force_ thought is out of place there, I'd say _mental focus_ as a ressource instead and make it generated by any weapon skill that would otherwise summon a clone.

Yeah I actually like that idea, sure it might not follow the tradition of Mesmer Elites but I feel like it would make it interesting and diverse for sure.

> @"Fueki.4753" said:

> > **Name:** Geist

> Why should a Mesmer dabble in Death magic?

>

> > **Weapon:** Hammer, Mace , Warhorn.

> > **Theme:**

> > Mesmer now gain Life Force bar sorta like Necromancers and loose all shatter skills, so now Mesmer's can became a Phantasm on activating the Life Force for a short time and gain phantasmal abilities. In Phantasm form players gain long range abilities maybe some can consume enemy boons for more Life Force or better damage.

>

> Most Elite specializations so far have iterated on the profession's core mechanic and none have removed it.

> Why should an elite specialization remove the Mechanic and replace it with that of another profession?

>

You do realize Phantasm also means apparition, or ghost. So I am not sure what your on about Mesmers dabbling in Death magic, never really mentioned Death Magic.

Scourge removed the traditional Shroud skill? I see no problem with them doing the same with mesmers to keep the class fresh to add more diversity and variation that changes the gameplay of the class so it doesn't became the same thing.

> So, you take everything that makes a GW2 Mesmer a Mesmer and slap on a pinch of GW2 Necromancer, as well as WoW Demon Hunter (Soul Fragments) and WoW Monks (Chi Spheres)?

> Didn't it occur to you that this idea might be significantly more fitting for actual Necromancers?

I have no idea what your saying, never played WoW. Mesmers can already summon Phantasms of themselves I don't see the problem in where we are given the ability to take form as one and change up the gameplay a bit. Sure most of the Elites will eventually will end up feeling the same as other classes but at the end of the day if they change up how classes are played I am all up for it.