Earth Line... Let's talk about it.

[steki.1478]

> @"MyPuppy.8970" said:

> Earth is so kitten... 1 poor bleeding here and there, 5% damage against bleeding foes when you do barely any damage at all when you slot earth because all the traitline is dedicated to personal defense, condi removal on hit-with icd-and health treshold on the squishiest profession that already needs to be hit for auras having any use at all. Sure ele can be tanky when specced for it, but so can any other class with higher base defensive stats/mechanics.

>

> Since earth was the condition line historically, I think poison and torment would fit as well. Maybe replace bleeding with torment on immobilize [Earthen shackles], poison on burning [suffocative gas] in Fire, burning on chill in Water line [Frostburn] and change serrated stones to apply bleeding when you do damage with earth skills.

> And voilà we have our ~~cancerous~~ lovely condition build.

 

 

Torment makes no sense with immobilize, the rest feels like they should be an arcane trait (instead of the useless arcane precision that relies on both crit chance and has % chance to trigger AND has icd on top of 2 rng dices). Speaking of that trait..who thought that 100 damage every 3 second is a worthwhile option? 1 vuln every 3 seconds (if you get lucky of course)...pathetic.

 

Serrated stones need condi damage/duration improved (instead of direct damage) vs bleeding targets. Rock solid needs better stability duration (even if it's a second or two) and extra stack on ele only. Elemental shielding could use another boon since it's a core trait and you don't really have good access to auras on it (the best change would be increasing the duration by a decent amount and putting icd on it that way it's actually usable on builds that aren't tempest with 3 utility shouts and fire spec). Strength in stone needs more...strength. Stone heart could add some barrier when getting critically hit outside of earth (for example 500 barrier every 5 seconds or similar). Diamond skin should be swapped for some supportive trait like transforming skill 2 in earth attunement on every weapon to share aoe barrier around you when the skill does damage (and some extra effect like another blast finisher on staff and sword, extra toughness and bleed on scepter, 3rd ring on dagger that does more damage or reflects instead of destroying projectiles etc).

 

In the last 2 or so years, I made too many examples of traits (including earth) that have a usage in more than one specific build, it's getting old at this point.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

You don't care about bleeding and burning on Arcane Precision, but you have weakness for 3sec, everywhere 3sec and the vulnerability is not bad either with Piercing Shard, a free +5%/10% dmg for ~8sec.

Yes the trait alone is useless, all the point is to have easier access to some synergies.

[Kodama.6453]

> @"MyPuppy.8970" said:

> > @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> > > @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> > > The Earth line isn't any worse than the other traitlines. They're all quite bad because they specialise in just one thing, and you can only take three of them at a time, or less if you have a subclass, which effectively limits your build.

> > >

> > > Compare this to say, Revenant, who can trait both Legends they use. Ele will never be able to trait all attunements with the current system which means there's always some dead weight, and usually that's going to be Earth.

> > >

> > > The class just doesn't fit well with the trait system.

> >

> > Truth be told, I sometime wonder why ANet carried on the element traitlines from GW1 to GW2 while they forsook warrior's weapon traitlines.

>

> Lack of inspiration or imagination maybe. But all the traits/skills have been watered down. I'd love if staff earth 1 stoning had the same effect as the original skill. Or if MS had original KD to justify the cd+rooting+forever casting time (and i think it did in gw2 alpha) although aoe was increased.

 

Knockdown on auto attack.

Yeah, that doesn't sound broken at all. /s

[supreme.3602]

> @"Kodama.6453" said:

> > @"MyPuppy.8970" said:

> > > @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> > > > @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> > > > The Earth line isn't any worse than the other traitlines. They're all quite bad because they specialise in just one thing, and you can only take three of them at a time, or less if you have a subclass, which effectively limits your build.

> > > >

> > > > Compare this to say, Revenant, who can trait both Legends they use. Ele will never be able to trait all attunements with the current system which means there's always some dead weight, and usually that's going to be Earth.

> > > >

> > > > The class just doesn't fit well with the trait system.

> > >

> > > Truth be told, I sometime wonder why ANet carried on the element traitlines from GW1 to GW2 while they forsook warrior's weapon traitlines.

> >

> > Lack of inspiration or imagination maybe. But all the traits/skills have been watered down. I'd love if staff earth 1 stoning had the same effect as the original skill. Or if MS had original KD to justify the cd+rooting+forever casting time (and i think it did in gw2 alpha) although aoe was increased.

>

> Knockdown on auto attack.

> Yeah, that doesn't sound broken at all. /s

 

First, you need Stoning to actually hit someone. That is a big challenge.

 

(I didn't play GW1)