Give Elementalists Better Armor Bonuses

The elementalist has 60 base AL. The specialized sets offer only a mere +15 AL vs element, which in my experience in pve really isn't enough to warrant purchasing the armor. I've played and nearly finished the game with my 60 AL collectors, and comparing my gaming experience with the pyromancer gear I was wearing prior, I didnt see much of a difference at all.

All other professions have sets that offer additional bonuses to aid specialized builds: extra energy, extra AL while casting, higher base AL at the expense of double dmg from holy dmg etc. Therefore I believe the specialized elementalist sets should have bonuses that compliment the purpose of the armor (in its current state I don't think the elemenealist armor really has any purpose beyond aesthetics).

My suggestions:

1. Pyromancer: reduce the duration of burning; it can be reduced to the effect of burning on the Desert Wurm. Heck, eliminate burning altogether (I dunno how that would effect balancing), but I just think that being able to burn a pyromancer in pyrmancer armor doesn’t make much sense.

explanation: Pyromancer armor gives +15 AL vs fire dmg. Elementalists aren't really "elemental tanks", as this is the ranger's job; so adding +15 vs fire doesn't really help but so much by itself (this is even truer in pvp where u encounter nukes and spikes).

Since the majority of the really painful pyro spells involve burning; if pyromancer armor were to be useful, it should provide some protection against it. Reducing the duration of burning would really help.


2. Hydroamncer: reduce the duration of hexes; again to the same duration of the desert wurm

explanation: Water magic is mostly focusing on snaring and hexing; as opposed to dealing heavy damage. Currently the only armor piece that reduces the duration of hexes is the Liutenents helm (which made its way into pvp).

Since Hydromancers deal hexes; it's only fitting that their armor protects them from it; which will also give Elementalists a fighting chance against Mesmers and Necromancers

3. Geomancer: X% chance to avoid Knock Down

Currently, this set isn't very effective (for the same reasons as the other sets); however it is even moreso in pvp as most of the heavy hitting earth magic spells ignore armor completely. Another serious cause of massive earth dmg is triggered by Knock Down.

I think that it would be only natural for the Geomancer Set to have some protection against KD, a percentage could be tied to it, or not, depending on how it should be balanced


4. Aeromancer:

a. X% Chance to evade magical projectiles OR arrows
b. OR X% increase in movement speed while enchanted
c. OR reduces armor penetration by X%

explanation: Air spikes are horrible things lol. All the spells involved have 20% armor penetration; so a natural protection against this is to reduce the armor penetration some how.

Another suggestion would be to give a chance to evade projectiles (which would help against ranger spikes), Or give a speedboost while enchanted to help kite warriors and dodge arrows.

The bottom line:

Now that I see where the new sets are going, I still think the old sets could be usefull if they were given some buffs. Of course I'm not a professional game balancer, and in all honesty I have no idea whether or not these suggestions would work.

Each profession has specialized armor sets that provide some interesting bonuses; these bonuses offer players a chance to create some very interesting builds. Elementalists do not have such bonuses, so the armor doesn't really play an active role in build creation, nor do they really offer any extra "edge" that other sets do for their respective professions.

As it stands, I see no reason to spend my hard-earned plats on a specialized set that does little for me than look "cool". I'm just curious if there are other gamers out there that feel the same way…

What do y'all think?

Now that the pvp sets, for Factions, have been released; I've noticed that the new Elementalist Armor provide no "specialized" protection against elements:

1. One set provides additional HP
2. Another set provides +10 AL vs phsyical dmg
3. Another set provides +10 AL while enchanted

Since the "core" specialized armor sets are in no way obsolete with the coming of factions; I still think there is room to buff them up a bit.

Just a summary of my suggestions (for convenience):

1. Pyromancer: reduce the duration of burning; it can be reduced to the effect of burning on the Desert Wurm. Heck, eliminate burning altogether (I dunno how that would effect balancing), but I just think that being able to burn a pyromancer in pyrmancer armor doesn’t make much sense.

2. Hydroamncer: reduce the duration of hexes; again to the same duration of the desert wurm

3. Geomancer: X% chance to avoid Knock Down

4. Aeromancer:

a. X% Chance to evade magical projectiles OR arrows
b. OR X% increase in movement speed while enchanted
c. OR reduces armor penetration by X%

Over all, the new armor sets are workable (I'm not really too ecstatic about em), but the core sets can use some serious buffing. As of now, as a pve gamer, none of them really convince me to switch from my collectors. +15 AL against element just doesn't seem worth it imo.

that hydromancer armor you made is overpowered. how about reduced duration of water magic hexes.

I think that is what he would mean, not all hexes in general, but Water Related hexs (or just maybe Elemental Hexes)

hydromancer...

you mean half hex time, and thats overpowering

I dunno, maybe just slap on a +20 elemental AL on every one of them in addition to the +15 specific, that'd make them seem more useful.

i think he means half hex time only on water, but i agree

make it 75-80% hex time

I would agree elementals have taken way too much of a back burner we need better armor better weapons. weapons that are not shared with other casters.

Its not overpowerd , if it has 20% faster recovery from hexes it would be nice, warriors have a helmet that does that, you can get it at henge of denravi...luitenants helmet, just has 20 less armor but u hardly notice it.

I think the elementalist armors should stay the way they are, coz something that eles have that other proffesions dont have is a shitload of powerfull defencive spells.

I do agree there balanced but I would love to see the return of the Adapt set that did not make it in the final version of the game that gave +5 AL to all ele type damage compared to the +10 specific we have now.

What EternalTempest said.

And...*whisper*...different helmets please!*whisper*

On a slightly more serious note...please...different helmets. Elementalists get rocks. And it's the same rock through the whole game, just the stats are different. And not only that, but it's the same rock for male and female!

defense spells that suck.

Well eles have defensive spells/skills; and so do every other profession And we can have secondaries to benifit from those spells/skills as well.

My point is; the Elementalist specialized armor sets do not have any real bonuses that make them any more significant than the plain/collector sets:

Why would I pay money for a mere +15 AL vs a specific element? When it doesn't really help that much anyway? I can keep my collectors armor (For free), and still play the game...

My suggestion for the hydromancer set was, as mentioned, based on the luitenant's helm; which also made its way into pvp (IIRC).

When I play ele, I dont rely on my AL anyway to keep me alive; I have skills like Aura, Mist Form, Armor of X etc that help give me a fighting chance... nps... which is why I have no reason to buy the hydro/pyro/geo/aero set. Now if there were other bonuses that were actually useful, then I would definitly consider purchasing.

For example; if the hydromancer set reduced duration of hexes; I would definitly buy that before headin into tombs ^-^... Or if the Pyro reduced burning... These are bonuses I think we could definitly make use of, to balance out the fact that we are squishy anyways...

With the new faction sets coming out; I'm definitly going to save my plats for the 15k set that gives extra HP. The "core" sets shouldn't be obsolete in the face of the new armor sets; but that may be the case if things remain as they are now.

I do agree that ele armors are kind of...well.. bland. I don't really see them as helping that much, and it is my guess that once faction comes out, a lot of people will move to the new ele armor.

Not only that, it's counter intuitive as well, a pyromancer's armor doesn't help with fire spell, instead it gives +15 Vs fire. This makes it so that a pyromancer in the shiverpeak mountains (Which is where a pyromancer really shines), should wear hydromancer armor. And a hydromancer in the RoF should wear pyromancer armor. That's just a bit counter intuitive...

I think the armors are fine as is. The armors proposed are horrendously overpowered, IMHO. If anything, I think it should be +20 conditional AL to the element of your choice.
Since +40 AL is half damage, at 20 this would be about 75% damage from the source of the armor you're wearing. I say that's pretty fair, no?
Also, ele defense spells do not suck. You must be using them wrong :P

Basically, I just see these buffs as being incredibly strong.

Oh yeah, the ele doesn't have +energy armor due to energy storage. If you *really* want some extra energy, try the Nolani Collectors wand.

I still stand by my +20 AL vs Element. You'd basically save 1 "hit" from every 4. That's more significant than what you may think. At 15 it's taking off about 18.75% damage from each hit. Meaning 3 out of every 16 hits would be "nullified" compared to the base 60 armor (1 hit every 5.333 times hit).
Just some numbers to think about. Just because something doesn't jump out at you doesn't mean it's not there (think mesmers :P)

Did you look at the different ones? There's six available. And only one is a rock. I'll be back in a minute with screens.

EDIT: Here's the pics. I don't have a third eye (default) or energy storage eye handy. As you can see, only the stone's eye is a rock. And rightly so. Although I agree that the glacier's eye is pretty ugly.

If it makes the game more balanced I am for it.

There is no reason why these suggestions for +20AL instead of +15 or reduced duration from burning/hexes would not be balanced.

That also reminds me Necromancers' bonelace/cultist sets. They look nice but +15 vs. piercing isnt that useful because only rangers do piercing (or warriors with piercing damage axes). It would be better if it was +10 vs. physical but w/e.

Besides, Elementalists have arguably the WORST armor since none of them are unconditional. For example, Monks have +5 vs all elemental, +15 vs. physical and mesmers have +15 while casting and +10 vs. physical sets

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Right now, there is going to be +10 vs. physical sets for ele. (Battlemage's Armor) and Tempest Armor, which is AL +10 (while enchanted).

I think they should have conditional armor sets like for example:

Geomancer armor
60 AL
+10 AL vs physical
+20 AL (req 13 Earth magic)

An Earth Ele is mainly defensive and the offensive spells are mainly up close, so they should have higher armor.


Would give extra options for tanks in pve instead of warriors always being the tank. A good earth setup can already tank now but I think they should be natural tanks.

I like the general idea of the OP. The Factions ele armors make the old ones look terrible.