I like the idea of another modifier for elemental damage added into each element, but adding a certain amount of any condition to every elemental spell of that line is way overpowered. The primary Earth condition is blind by the way, with dirt and ashes flying in your eyes, that and knockdown which is more than a condition.
It would be nice if a little something extra was added to the effect of elemental attributes, but secondary attributes revolve around increasing the power of whatever the skills in that line are ment to do, not adding secondary effects, the skill damage equations or amount of damage increased with each point in an attribute are the only things a secondary attribute should really effect.
But for energy storage, I realy do think a secondary effect should be added. simply having a large starting energy pool realy isn't helpful, it gives elementist only 2 legitimate advantages, and both are rather poor. The first is a significant starting energy pool, but with elementist skill costs, all that realy does is allow elementist to cast his overly priced skills as much as other classes, unless you have max points in energy storage plus a good energy management skill, your energy is gone in a flash. The second more important improvement energy storage allows is the ability to operate with exhaustion. With high energy you can take 1 or 2 hits of exhaustion without losing half your energy pool, leaving you energy to continue casting, wile any other class would take a serious hit in energy with 2, sometimes even one serving of exhaustion. But exhaustion is still stiffling, even with energy waving over 100, reusing exhaustion skills can put you on the bench for minutes.
I think that Energy Storage have a dual improvement, 3 energy per point, plus 1 additional point of energy regeneration per 8 points, allowing 1 energy regen at lvl 8, and 2 at the very maximum of 16. Even with maximum levels of energy and increased regeneration, elementist will still be short of the very significant effects other classes primary attribute for their skills, compared to a Monk casting Heal Party for twice as much healing, an elementist may be able to cast heal party twice as many times initially, but will have a max of only 50% more energy restoration to keep up with those heals in a continous battle.
Alternately, energy storage could increase energy by 3 per point, and reduce exhaustion by 1 point of energy for every 4 points in Energy storage. This would instead allow elementist to soully improve in exhaustion management even more so Exhaution truely doesn't hurt an elementist. This doesn't improve elementists power in any other classes skills since none of them require exhaustion as a skill cost. With 16points in Energy storage, you could reduce exhaustion costs by 4 points, with 100+ energy and an exhaustion penalty of only 6 energy, you could reasonably cast exhausting skills repeatedly without totaly shutting down yourself. This only further improves elementists ability to use skills which cause exhaustion, and allows him to cast his skills without worry. Otherwise, a non-elite glyph should be added which simply cancels exhaustion, with a recast of 10 or 15 seconds. This would allow elementist, or other classes to equipt exhaustion managment along with Glyph of Energy, or another elite, simply removing exhaustion repeatedly is alot useful then an using an elite to reduce exhaustion and cost, expecially for skills which don't cost any significan't energy anyways.
I don't mind the damage that elementists do, it is rather balanced even if it is weaker then the classes description portrays, but requiring 2 energy managment skills along with a self healing skill just to continue casting your attacks is rather limiting. Elementist skills are not way over the top in damage, they are significantly watered down in comparison, if Elementist had a little better energy storage and some faster recast times, they would actually be able to continue battle without standing around waiting for energy or recast times to return.
I agree that improving elementist attributes and skills would make elementist more powerful, and likely raise their importance in a party a rung. But I also believe that Elementist is down a rung in being able to use his own skills just reasonably, because of the massive energy demand on his own skills, outside of exhaustion managment, Expertise blows Energy Storage out of the water, even for Heal Party spamming. You have to use Energy Storage plus an elite skill to make good use of Heal Party spaming with current ES (that's short for Energy Storage). Unless Elementist ability to cast at least his own skills is improved, it will always suffer from a rather significant weakness.
The other point I would like to express is that Elementist isn't the only class which could and should be improved. There are several ways to improve and diversify other classes abilities. Expecially for certain other classes primary attributes. Necromancers Primary is only useful if enemies or allies are dieing, it allows you to gain the energy needed to use death skills immediately, but it is a seriously and possibly determental requirement. It would be good if they added a skill which granted Necromancers other benifits when enemies/allies drop as well, like a Soul Reaping skill which grants Health for every killed player/creature, or some health and temporary boost in health regeneration or armor. Something like a skill which causes all deaths in the area to grant some health and other stats as well as the energy when creatures die. Mesmers Primary is also very situational, it improves your casting speed so you are harder to interrupt and can interrupt others more easily, but that is only important if your being shutdown or skilled enough and designed to interrupt others. I realy think that several skills should be available in the Fast Casting attribute, that way improving fast casting is more rewarding. For instance, a stance, enchantment or skill which, for a set period of time, grants the Mesmer health for every enemy skill they interrupt and disable, this would be rather powerful when used with Blackout, or several interrupt skills. Getting a nice shot of health right before you wipe out an enemies and your own skills for a period of time can be a real life saver.
I am under the conviction that all the classes can be improved in one way or another, trying to weigh down certain and all classes just to keep balance causes certain classes to be much less enjoyable. And in the end, enjoyment is the bottom line, Great gameplay and mechanics, balance and flavor all revovle around the neccessity to entertain and delight customers. When balance is such a burden that it ursurps enjoyment, it betrays the true purpose it is ment to serve. Balance doesn't have to be something that holds everyone down, if a certain class needs a significant improvement, developers should consider raising the maximum potential overall, or over many classes, so certain classes can be made enjoyable. Under this pretense, and simply in the name of progress, all classes should be considered for overall improvement, in either skills, attribute effect, weapon selection, and many other opportunities.
Because Warrior, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, Mesmer and Elementist will be the core classes which we will be provided with in any and every chapter, and are the base spectrum of available classes as primaries and secondaries, these should be improved and revitalized periodicly. These are the classes which we will have every time, other classes will join in, but these are the baseline, and they should not lag behind in improvision and improvement just because they are already developed in a current fashion.
I appreciate anyone who has taken the time to recognize my perspective, thanks for reading and hopefully respecting.
). We just have to step back and realize that until we stop demanding they be the best fill in the blank, nothing will happen to them at all. Let's make them more useful (though I still honestly think they aren't bad as they are now) instead of trying to turn them into what A.Net obviously doesn't want them to be.
