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.

The problems with numbers is that they can look good on paper; but thats it. In the end of the day, even warriors cannot tank higher level areas alone; AL alone wont help you survive; this is where ur skills come into play...

I get that the elementalist armor isn't really meant to let you "tank". There wouldn't be a need for Warriors/Rangers if they could; this is why I'm not requesting for a higher AL.

My complaint is: Is that it?

Why shell out the plats for an armor set that offers only a mere extra conditional +15 AL; sure it helps a bit, I'm not denying that... but that alone isn't enough imo. It's kinda pointless especially when Elementalists have such great defensive skills.

This is exactly my point. Heck, I wouldn't mind there being tradeoffs for the unconditional bonuses: They could make each set weaker against its opposing element: e.g. The Pyromancer Set could reduce burning, but take extra dmg from Water Magic. At least that would make the non-specialized set useful as well: It offers no bonuses, but offers no weaknesses either...

The new elemental sets could very well render the old one obsolete; but this won't be the case for the other professions. I have friends who are still investing in fissure for their old sets because they see how they would still need them even in chapter two...

EDIT:

Just noticed the two extra posts above me:

I like your idea Kool pajamas Sure, geomancers can currently tank; but this would definitly make the job seem more "natural" as u put it. Plus it would allow a bit of role changing; giving warriors a chance to play other roles in pve instead of the primary tank. This could be very interesting if implemented; and I would definitly invest in such a set.

Lately there have been a lot of "elementalist arent powerful enough" topics. So why not make the specific armor sets aid to spell damage? Such as for each piece of armor that is pyromancer, you get +5 damage whenever you do fire damage (and the same for the other elements).

Phoenix Avenger,

TBH m8, I dont necessarily agree with said topics. I find the elementalist powerful enough. Heck, thats what runes and weapon mods are for...

I'm not complaining about lack of power, or vulnerablility. I think eles fit very well in the gw world.

I'm just not satisfied with the lack of flexibility the current armor sets offer. +15 AL vs fire dmg isn't at all exciting (with all due respect to the devs)

I'm say this because as I play more with my other chars (necro being my current pet project), I find myself actually farming to buy armor for them, and enjoying playing them with different builds that make use of the various armor sets... I'm just not getting that kind of joy out of my ele, and its dissapointing me because this is my favorite character to play.

Heck, reduce the base AL lol... just give the core sets a lil something else "happening" yknow?

Although your suggestions sound nice, here's something you have to consider: The leutenant's helm is just 1 helm that affects all hexes. It has the same effect as a piece of Ascalon armor, and the mesmer's +15 AL while casting. You only need to wear 1 peice of the armor and its effect is global.

Some of the suggestions you made don't account for the apparent difficulty ANet has been having with these sorts of armors. Imagine an ele that wears a piece from each armor and gains the benefit of all of them.

This is not an objection to your suggestion. Just reminding you of some of the problems.

ok if elementals can not get good stats they should get nicer armor. I think that is only fare.




This type of armor could only be done to elementals armor. they are perfect for for my idea. Ok here is the deal.


ok say your a fire elemental it would be cool if your armor was on fire always.(or even partly on fire)

If your air your armor shimmers like it is there and not here.

If your a water elemental your armor is flowing with water


ok for earth you would have moving lava animation on the armor or make the armor like it is dusty all the time.




well it was idea i had. giving elementals animations to their armor.

I see what ur sayin m8. I'm not denyin that it'll be complicated, but I'm sure something could be worked out. I'm not saying that my suggestions are "this is how its going to go, or else forget it" lol... Maybe my ideas should be nerfed some how?

I dunno? Maybe they could make it location based; or tie in percentages or something...

The thing is, the sets could use some oomph somehow; I'm all open to other suggestions...

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Those are some awesome suggestions dreamhunk it would prolly kill the framerates on me ol' datamini but it would look sweeeet

I actually had a totally different vision for the elementalist; and since I'm a 3DS hobbyist I figured I'd slap together a few concepts for the ele as I see it (just for kicks)... I'll post em up here as I get around to doin it

But the other classes have non-attribute-dependant additional Energy that we don't have. PLUS we have the most energy straining spells EVAR.

An easier way to improce el's armor is to either make it better than warrior's against one element. That means the hydromancer's armor would be +40 versus cold damage at least.

A slightly more difficult thing to implement but would give a similar effect would be to consider all skills that use those elements against you as 4 levels lower (min 0) than what they actually are.

A third thing would be to give elementalists staves and wands that protect against that element in addition to giving energy. They'd be like a shield against that element. +40AL from your armor and another +20 from an artifact would make like elementalists have a really tough time against you.

Well it sounds like ur suggesting to make the elementalist armor as strong as the rangers vs elements?

I dunno. I wasn't suggesting anything to make them stronger; because I thought that might upset the balance of the game, making them akin to rangers. I just thought they could use an additional bonus.

Regarding weapons, I think the current wepon mods are enough.

And regarding elementalist energy, I think our energy pool is high enough as it is. Using the proper skills, and good pacing, my energy bar never dips below 50% (even while echoing meteorshower)... oh and there's those obsecne +15 energy wands/ artifacts that can help in tight situations lol

Just wish the armor wasn't so boring...

Although I wouldn't mind seeing this come into effect in some way, I don't think that getting different armor is really the solution. It seems like it's getting elementalists further and further away from being what they were supposed to be--magic users, not tanks.

They're problem is that they're skills are weak. They're supposed to do a lot of damage in exchange for weaker armor (and more vulnerablity). Instead, they do mediocre damage at a higher cost and have weaker armor. There have been numerous threads posted in the recent past, with much number-crunching done.

If I wanted to play a tank, I would've played a tank. I do like the idea of having added power by wearing a certain kind of armor...but more because I like the idea of added power than anything else.

For the record, I'm playing a necro now and it just blows my ele out of the water.

Menelik, I'd only want to make them really strong in reguards to one element.

In fact looking at the ranger armor, half of their sets have the bonuses of elementalist armors and one has the bonus of gladiators. However the standard one has +30AL vs Elemental (I'm assuming this means all) so overall, he'd have better protection.

Thing is atm, there is no bouns for wearing aeromancer armour when you are an aeromancer. That'll be nice, like a guy said at the bottom of the prev page.

Give them a small boost when you have 12 air attrib or something. Atm there is no correlation. It just sounds a bit silly. Like around the siverpeaks I would run around in hydromancer armour but I actually use earth and fire spells. So... I am *NOT* a hydromancer...

I also think that the armours are not different enough, if it is nice looking or heck interesting, I might think about forking out to buy different sets, but atm, they are just like the others but with different colour schemes... you got dyes for that.

Well I'll have to check those threads out because frankly, I have no complains about the Elementalist's damage dealing. For what I use him as, the damage he deals is fine. I wouldn't compare elementalist dmg to necro dmg; oranges to apples if you ask me… but this is a topic for another discussion.

Your getting my point tho. If I wanted to tank, I wouldn't bring the Elementalist. Again I'm not calling to make the Elementalist armor stronger: I'm doin fine with my collector's armor+defensive skills. The specialized armor could just use some bonuses to make it more worth while.

For example: The Pryomancer Set, with reduced burning, would still take the same dmg vs. fire magic as it always does; but it would also help against Immolate, Incendiary Bonds or Mark of Rodgort (which are the scarier spells of the Fire line). This is how I believe the Pryomancer set should behave. The +15 AL just isn't enough for it to be a set that provides "the best protection against fire".

I see what ur sayin. So Elementalists wouldn't be able to necessarily tank on AL alone (like a ranger could); but the protection would be significantly better.

I agree, that would be an improvement. When I was thinking about ways to better the current "core" sets, that was the first thing that came to mind. But then I thought; perhaps the devs reduced the conditional AL for a purpose. Maybe I'll have to think of other improvements to suggest... This is when I thought of bonuses that would help against conditions that relate to each element:

-Burning for fire

- Hexes for water (ala Lieutenant's helm)

- KD for Earth

- Armor penetration for Air (or chance to dodge magical projectile)

Now there could be ways to balance it. Making it either location based, or tie in percentages so that one piece alone doesn't give the full bonus… I dunno…

But if it turns out that simply upping the conditional AL is the most straightforward, and balance-friendly solution; then I'm for it.

EDIT:

Jummeth, I think you're confusing the role of the armor vs. the role of the head-stones.

The Armor is just there to protect you from the element it provides the extra AL against. So naturally the pyro set protects against fire; hydro against water; geo against earth; and aero against air.

The head-stones, however, boosts the magic attribute by +1. So if you're a Hydromancer; you'd wear the Glacier's Eye, regardless of what armor your using.

So say you're a water mage in ROF. You'd wear the Glacier's Eye to boost your water magic; but then you'd wear the pyro armor to give you protection against fire... Or if ur a E/R you can bring along Grater Conflag + Winter... then wear ur hydro set...

The armor you wear doesn't reflect the magic you use; it only reflects the element u seek protection from. And currently the sets don't provide much protection from anything, save for a few hits…

I'm just commenting on the fact that its called "Pyromancer's Armour" "hydromancer's Armour" ... indicating ownership.

But I just want some additional attribute that if you are that particular ele, then you get a small extra boost. I'm not saying +1 in w/e attribute or anything.

Ahhhh I get it.

So basically a person who uses the magic that matches the armor gets rewarded for it... Interesting.

For example:

Hydromancer set: 60 AL, +15 vs. Water Magic, +30 vs. Water Magic (req 12 water magic)

Its interesting; and the tradeoff is right there in the bonus: If your not using water magic as ur primary skill; you won't get the extra bonus.

I like the idea of req the same element skill

I also liked the idea of the armor adding extra damage to the spells

And the idea of armor sets that are "transparent" energy shimering like of the various elementents.

You sir have not really used them then... I use the ele defensive spells and can take on five Hydras outside Augury rock solo... they rarely even damage me.

Well there are many ways we can buff up the elementalist armor. I would have never thought about adding a req; or giving mods that boost dmg... But they are very interesting.

I just hope the devs are following this thread and eventually give the core sets some other bonuses, so they can compete with the factions sets when they are released...

The stronger the spell the higher the cost. You can't be expected to be given good energy management aswell. This is where a profession like mesmer comes in handy as your secondary. Every profession has it's weaknesses that can often be solved by the secondary you choose. Not our fault if you can't learn to manage your energy better.