Kyon.9735

Anet Devs: You want another UI change after your pistol bullets? Ok imma put it on the boon bar!

Lowering the CD and giving it back its stunbreak is good enough for me. Bonus if it gets 1200 range. If Anet feels like actually doing their jobs, buff it to 2024 levels. Maybe add AoE healing or make it provide AoE Aegis or AoE 3 stacks stability for all game modes on top of CD reduction. Personally, I think the damage should go. It forces Anet to balance it around preventing it from doing 1 shot combo gimmicks in PvP/WvW.

True, I guess my statement was more on WvW wherein Elemental Bastion is the main healing mechanic after the recent patch. Ele is still the worst healer of all meta healer classes in terms of healing numbers because of how Elemental Bastion is tied to auras. I don't think there's any other class that has its main healing mechanic doesn't overflow to squad.

This is what I thought as well, glad to finally see some kind of confirmation. So if this is the case then that makes Elemental Bastion Tempest one of the worst squad healers out there simply because its aura heals doesn't overflow to the squad. Especially because all of the game's content promote stacking together which means your aura will always prioritize your own subgroup even at full HP thus, no overflow healing will come from Elemental Bastion.

Topic. Anybody know if the healing overflows to squad if your party member (who will get the aura based on priority) is at full health?

I thought it would be obvious that there should be other trait changes after consolidating the aura traits into a single trait line. 1. Consolidating traits doesn't mean that traits would be simply slapped together and combined. 2. Not all Aura traits will be moved, and those traits not moved will be reworked. 3. Some E-Spec specific Aura traits will stay or will need to be reworked. Some examples: Staunch Auras for Catalyst - You don't include this in the consolidated traits. Let's say we want the consistent stability access in Catalyst only. Instead of triggering stability from auras, change the effect to proc Stability when doing combo finishers (ICD per attunement will remain). The meta PvP build which is hammer only has Immutable Stone (Earth 4) as an aura generating weapon skill. All of Hammer Catalyst stability procs come from auras generated by doing combo finishers which generate the auras (Elemental Epitome) anyway. After that, rework Immutable Stone. Make it a combo finisher upon getting hit. This would look like a straight up nerf for Immutable Stone but I think Catalyst design should be based on combo finishers instead of Auras anyway. Hardened Auras for Catalyst - Change trait (and name) to gain damage reduction stacks when doing a combo finisher. Else, can also fully rework this trait. Empowering Auras for Catalyst - Change trait (and name) to gain increased outgoing damage stacks when doing a combo finisher. Invigorating Torrents for Tempest. This can probably stay in Tempest as the E-Spec is designed to have the ability to further strengthen Auras if you choose to anyway. There are existing Tempest builds that doesn't focus on Auras too. I know there are a lot of even better ideas out there. And yes, I fully agree that this is a big fail if nothing else is adjusted and we blindy consolidated aura traits. Which is why I'd like to see what people think about this but it seems I was not clear enough since people thought we'd be simply moving and combining traits. Yes, that would definitelt create a monster if done that way.

I believe they do, especially in the past few weeks. We know we're expecting a WvW-centered patch and I've actually been seeing a lot more dev tags in the game in the past few weeks (not sure if its always the same person) . I've also seen devs in player live streams too and one thing I liked was they actually asked some players why they run a specific build over something more generally used (more specifically why use support cata over support tempest). They've also reverted some of the more controversial planned changes based on feedbacks as well. If anything, I'm glad to see they're actually in the game or even in player live streams. At least we know they're actually checking out the game and playing it instead of balancing by simply reading wiki pages or based on their biases 😉

Warrior's Hammer and Mace traits are being consolidated into a single trait next patch (Merciless Hammer). For Elementalist, the aura related traits are scattered among different trait lines. What are the general thoughts about consolidating them into a single trait line (not a single trait), Arcane maybe? Then replace the old traits being moved to Arcane with new ones that synergize more with the Element. It kind of makes sense that there is a specific trait line that specializes in Auras. However, one issue I see is that some people might raise is that we'll be going back to 2012-2014(?) Elementalist diversity issue again wherein 1 trait line (Water) was so good that it became mandatory to take if you want to survive. Another issue is that the design for both Tempest and Catalyst (on a lesser note) revolve around auras, which again would make the new trait line "Mandatory" for most of the builds for these 2 specs. Thoughts? P.S - I myself am not sure if it would be a good change overall.

This. What I see is that at the very least we'll see a bit more Tempests and probably Druids depending on how Druid buffs turn out.

Unless it's Elementalist of course, it must stay in its natural habitat which is downstate. Catalyst got blasted into oblivion even before it became widespread as it was going to be "meta defining" also while ignoring the 2 classes dominating 40% of the raid playerbase (pre-balance). I accepted my fate and rolled Mechanist. All I can say is "Praise the Sun".

Please someone stop this certain dev from slowly turning GW2 into a mobile game MMO where everything is auto. Whats next on the list? Auto-stunbreak from utility slot? Auto-pathing and auto-quests?

Just a concept of Equivalent Exchange. TBH I'd rather kill existing builds if it would make all 5 conjures actually viable. That being said, I do doubt that these changes are "equivalent/better" to what Eles will lose under the existing "functioning" Conjures.

If HP affected their precious golem benchmark numbers then maybe solar and cmc would look into this. But who are we kidding? Wouldn't be surprised if they just give the lowest armor + hp tier class another bunker melee spec next expac. And we, hopeless ele plebs, will still buy it.

How about giving Water line a GM trait that gives a good amount of barrier similar to Necro's Blood Bank or Scrapper's Impact Savant? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blood_Bank https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Impact_Savant Reapers can get 10k barrier bursts during shroud and FT Scrappers can consistently get 3k+ barrier in largescale fights where they're hitting multiple targets. If Eles had a trait that gives sufficient barrier then it would open up melee DPS builds. A hefty sum of barrier is one of the reasons why these builds can play full marauder with scholar runes in WvW (on top of their base HP & Armor tier). Do not lock it behind defensive actions like Invigorating Strikes does (gain barrier when dodging). Preferably when dealing damage or receiving healing (including external sources) so it gets better when used in a group/against a group. Make the barrier of this trait scale from offensive stats so support builds can't abuse it. Make it scale properly so it's still serviceable in small scale fights like sPvP. Put it in a core trait line so it can be used by any specialization. Put it in a defensive trait line since it's a defensive trait and it makes sense that builds need to spec for it. I imagine putting it in an offensive trait line would make it too powerful as you can still pick other offensive traits plus another offensive trait line. Rework Weaver's Invigorating Strikes as it already gives barrier on dodges. I'd welcome more DPS traits in Water but personally I'd prefer having a decent amount of barrier as it would open up Melee DPS builds to cover for Ele's pitiful base HP and Armor for large scale fights.

Only thing Catalyst is good for is making Core Dagger/X Ele playstyle viable in PvP again. This is beyond underwhelming.