Guild Wars 2

I seriously hope they don’t nerf AoE as bad as it looks like they will. I’m probably one of the last few staff eles out there. Running a 30/30/0/0/10 offensive build focused entirely around hard hitting AoEs and high sustained fireball damage to pressure enemy zergs in WvWvW. If they nerf AoE even slightly my entire build becomes trash. I’m already just barely doing enough damage to warrant not rolling the water/arcane dagger build that’s so popular right now.

And please leave Meteor Shower alone! It’s literally the only skill staff has that stands out. If it gets nerfed then not only is my build trashed by staff’s biggest battlefield utility goes down the tube as well.

It’s almost ironic. But if this nerf goes through staff elementalists will literally be reduced to the status of full time healer, as it’s the only thing the staff will have left. Isn’t that was Anet was trying to avoid with this game?

Just rebuilt my PvE Elementalist for a staff damage spec right before the news, but it’s okay because I’m going to be able to do wicked damage and stack mad weakness with my Earth auto-attack, right guys?

If the point of this was to nerf, say, Meteor Shower and Frost Bow 4 on zergs in WvW and large targets (Nightmare Tree, Graveling Burrows) in PvE, I’d understand it. But from my limited exposure to the subject, it’s not sounding like this is going to be the case.

Good thing I can fall back on my Epidemic Necroma… oh no

Fox Soul.4809:

now i will stop craft my legendary dagger… D/D ele will be nerfed as hell.
Some times i think that developers dont play their own game…

They all play thieves i said this many times.

StugLyfe.2134:

Fox Soul.4809:

now i will stop craft my legendary dagger… D/D ele will be nerfed as hell.
Some times i think that developers dont play their own game…

They all play thieves i said this many times.

Before today I would have said this was just a community myth.

Now, they were asked point blank if the instakill thief build was overpowered, and their response was that ele is overpowered.

Add in their insistence that AoE counters stealth (despite being openly mocked by the community) and now they’re nerfing AoE… What other conclusion can you come to?

Conquest.7629:

Hospis.4607:

I’d be very disappointed in Anet if eles got nerfed and thieves, which are so brokenly OP, were left as they are.

Thieves are single target so nerfing all AoE is effectively like buffing thieves.

This.

The sad fact is AoE is the only thing that can actually counter thieves. So this is just baffling. I don’t even. x_X

Seems like its time to start a Thief of Mesmer ;P

actually I don’t understand, dropping AoEs on players ressing other players is wrong now? It is a freaking WAR. Are you expecting a “time out” where everyone stops fighting for 10 minutes while everyone get their players up and continue afterwards? So, if this is the justification for nerfing AoE, then might as well ban elementalist from entering WvW. Better that way, since most of eles skill are AoE based.

not only most. The D/D weapon set has not only 1 singel target spell

Does anybody know when the patch is rolling out? I can’t seem to get any info on a date.

i have a mesmer already …..

But if they continue to prove they don t have any idea of how to manage a game, its time to look at other games maybe….

Best PvE class is warrior already and it isn t aoe based….

You still se groups of 4war+guardian or 4 war + mesmer and they dare to speak about aoes?

Well no wonder people thinks they don t even know what they are doing….

They already mention the nerf down to 5 targets maximum.
————————-
Upcoming AoE skill balancing (nerf)
One of the issues brought up a lot in WvW./sPvP is AoE (Area of Effect). We feel like they are too strong at the moment and a lot of people in WvW are gaming the system using AoEs.
For people that don’t know – max targets for siege weapons is 50 while max targets for AoE is 5.
Reducing AoE effectiveness to bring them in line with the single target damage skills.
Major update coming to all the AoE skills – make classes that are good at single target damage stand out a bit more.
Same thing with dungeons – right now if you have a lot of AoE you can past encounters by just spamming AoE which is not what we want.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/16rsh9/jan_17_dev_livestream_summary/

Alilinke.7690:

Vissarion.6509:

Q: Elaborate your plans for changing AoEs

• If your skil does 10 damage to a single target, if you have another skill that have the same opportunity cost but deals 8 damage to 5 targets, the AoE skill is better – we don’t want you to use AoE skills on single target mobs.

Too bad I, as a staff ele can’t switch to single target.

This is what I don’t get. Do they not recognize how they designed their classes and weapons sets?

wait, if they want to make everything single target, then why don’t they remove all profession and make everyone make a warrior? That way, no AoE crap.

They need to remember, if I have a party of 3 eles and a warrior plus some other class, and we 3 eles spam meteor shower, is not intended gameplay to them, then why even bother letting us make our own party? then they should put:

1. Restriction of one 1 class per party.
2. Elementalist ban from entering WvW.
3. Elementalist ban from entering dungeon.
4. Elementalist only allow in LA.
5. Revamp all elementalist skills to be single target only.

or better yet, why don’t they just remove the profession altogether.

Meteor Shower really does not hit much. If you are lucky, you can get 5 hits in, if you are unlucky, you only get 1 hit in on a single target. And most of the time, I have seen my ele’s meteor shower hits like 2 times on a single enemy target. Since the TARGET MOVES. PvE or in WvW, Meteor shower hardly can get any kills at all. It’s staff skill 1 that gets the kills.

Well, anyway, after the patch lands and everyone got over their whining about Elementalist being OP due to AoE spam, you will see players roll other profession. Elementalist will be a rare breed after while.

And I would dread to see the “lfxm CoF P1 & P2, no elementalist” kinda call in LA

Alilinke.7690:

Does anybody know when the patch is rolling out? I can’t seem to get any info on a date.

Patch is out on 28.01. i dont know will it have this specific nerfs on our AoE.

Besides, i enjoy to be rare breed

Yeah, rare breed. When you start getting 1 shotted by a moa, please come tell me if it is worth to stick to be an elementalist.

This game has one mentality, which is “we want you to play how WE want you to play.”
So much for trying not to be like other mmos, it is slowly becoming like other mmos. And to those who still are in denial mode, I hope you will wake up soon from the dream. Because the mother tree is actually a nightmare courtier in disguised!

When i started playing this game 1 month after it launch and rolled an elementalist, it was the best in my opinion at that time really a different MMO than the usual MMOs that I had played before this. Now, I am feeling it is turning back to the usual MMOs.

So, kudos to you ANet. I wonder where is your manifesto now? At the nearest landfill?

I really cant get it. Whats the prob with AOE damage? Am I playing another game like Anet?

In WvW AOE spell damage is pathetic compared to siege weapons and single target burst classes. My rifle warrior hits for 8k+ with volley every 8s on 1200 range. My d/d eles fire grab crits for 4k every 45s on burning targets. lol

Sure, mobility + healing is great on my d/d ele. But it takes me FOREVER to actually kill anyone in WvW. When they nerf aoe damage (aka 99% of our spells) there’s no reason to use damage spells at all.

SirDrygan.1823:

And I would dread to see the “lfxm CoF P1 & P2, no elementalist” kinda call in LA

You are late.

Since ever you read LFwarrior and 1 mesmer for cof1

Nerf AOE !!!!!!!!!!

I’m fine with it aslong as they buff our auto attacks, significantly

:( This feels like GW1 all over again. Is Izzy Cartwright still involved into balancing and stuff? Because as far as I remember, that guy single handedly destroyed every GvG teambuild he didn’t like and did everything he could to keep at least 3 professions completely out of competitive play..

I still played GW1 for more than half a decade despite all the nonsense their balancing department came up with, hoping it will become better one day. That day never came, so eventually I quitted. If GW2 is gonna take the same route in its balancing policy, it won’t take anywhere as long to drop it I guess.

Seems that Anet doesnt know how to make balanced classes. Well Anet, u are on a good way for more people o leave the game

Limiting targets on AoE to 5 means they should elevate the damage up not nerfing it down lol. What is the point of taking trait for larger AoE attacks…?

GW – Guilds of Warriors?

Yeah I play a supportish staff ele…this will murder my build if it’s too harsh. All I have are AoEs

Azrael.1408:

Limiting targets on AoE to 5 means they should elevate the damage up not nerfing it down lol. What is the point of taking trait for larger AoE attacks…?

GW – Guilds of Warriors?

Nope, It become the Meta of Thief since they can do so the single highest burst damage with 3 button like 15-16k, so might as well rename it to ThiefWar

makku.2508:

:( This feels like GW1 all over again. Is Izzy Cartwright still involved into balancing and stuff? Because as far as I remember, that guy single handedly destroyed every GvG teambuild he didn’t like and did everything he could to keep at least 3 professions completely out of competitive play..

I still played GW1 for more than half a decade despite all the nonsense their balancing department came up with, hoping it will become better one day. That day never came, so eventually I quitted. If GW2 is gonna take the same route in its balancing policy, it won’t take anywhere as long to drop it I guess.

I dont think Izzy is destroying elementals, he is one of us after all

Well lets see how this AOE nerf patch will affect us…… but i get the feeling that is time for me to look for another MMO….when ESO comes out?

Every time i hear about something new coming out i think “how they are going to mess up with the gameplay again”…..firegrab doesn’t hit, our grasp stun us for 2 seconds, our lightning auto attack cant hit smaller target….
Well lets just keeping the nerfing make this game less enjoyable…. ¬¬

I think I am done for MMOs. Since Ragnarok era, I have been playing the usual MMOs, GW2 promised me a different experience. Now, it has become another usual MMOs..

Buying Borderlands 2 tonight. ANet can say goodbye to my money. :P

@ Benjamin: From what i read last quarter of 2013. Cant come fast enough.

As Anet considers WvW as part of PvE the nerfs to affect WvW will also affect PvE. Lets face it people: Everyones tired of how eles equipped with a staff are able to easily survive running glass cannon gear meanwhile totally destroying everyone in PvP and PvE and being god amongst mere mortals in the hands of a good player. Those guys definitely need a nerf. Staff is simply to strong in every part of the game. Just watch this staff ele easily soloing Arah path 2:

Do i need to mark this post for sarcasm and irony ? Just in case an Anet employee happens to read it and actually believes what i said above ?

lOKI.8152:

@ Benjamin: From what i read last quarter of 2013. Cant come fast enough.

As Anet considers WvW as part of PvE the nerfs to affect WvW will also affect PvE. Lets face it people: Everyones tired of how eles equipped with a staff are able to easily survive running glass cannon gear meanwhile totally destroying everyone in PvP and PvE and being god amongst mere mortals in the hands of a good player. Those guys definitely need a nerf. Staff is simply to strong in every part of the game. Just watch this staff ele easily soloing Arah path 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKy67S6uvNU

Do i need to mark this post for sarcasm and irony ? Just in case an Anet employee happens to read it and actually believes what i said above ?

Yep…….lol….. =)

Btw….well…as it seems the warrior cannot kill that legendary fast enough….soooo they will buff it =)

The ele community must really be traumatized, the amount of preemptive tears here is amazing.

I mean, nobody here doesn’t even know what they plan to do with AoE. “Reduced effectiveness” – how does that translate directly to reduced damage? It means only that they think (correctly, btw) that AoE in this game is too abundant and that it reduces gameplay to AoE spammage, which it does.

Since there are many classes which have AoE skills, this more than likely means that they will change those skills in such a way that:

a) some of the AoE skills will be now more geared towards single target damage with reduced AoE effects
b) AoE skills will have requirements making them unpractical to use in every encounter (which probably means longer setup times, or preconditions requirements and so on)

Just reducing AoE damage is the single worst way to do it, and they haven’t mentioned such a move anywhere. I doubt they are so dumb to blanket nerf AoE damage when they have classes which are practically all AoE and other classes which would hardly get touched by the nerf at all.

actually 2 things

1) our fears got true every time till now

2) read again interview…..its talks about how dealing X dmg to 5 opponents is for them like dealing dmg X5

What do you expect from devs like that? an intelligent and coherent balancing patch?
If you do just change section and ask engineers.

DJRiful.3749:

They already mention the nerf down to 5 targets maximum.
————————-
Upcoming AoE skill balancing (nerf)
One of the issues brought up a lot in WvW./sPvP is AoE (Area of Effect). We feel like they are too strong at the moment and a lot of people in WvW are gaming the system using AoEs.
For people that don’t know – max targets for siege weapons is 50 while max targets for AoE is 5.
Reducing AoE effectiveness to bring them in line with the single target damage skills.
Major update coming to all the AoE skills – make classes that are good at single target damage stand out a bit more.
Same thing with dungeons – right now if you have a lot of AoE you can past encounters by just spamming AoE which is not what we want.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/16rsh9/jan_17_dev_livestream_summary/

AoE nerf, and single target damage boost? Is that correctly interpreted? If so, they will be pushing the remaining eles into a corner (even more), making the bunker build a mandatory choice. And they even said they wanted to make more builds viable in the past..

I think we shouldn’t think too much about it, until it hits. If those words are indeed from Anet, eles will not be rewarding to play in any way anymore.

Personally I always play caster classes (wizards/sorcerers/mages etc.), and their early description of the profession was alluring. Many ways to build your character with lots of freedom. And I do prefer the PvP aspect (SPvP mainly, as TPvP almost always requires you to play a bunker to be successful (and bunker builds are dull), and WvWvW can be too laggy, which is sad because that is the part I want to play the most (and TPvP, to a certain degree)).

Now, as nearly every other game that has mages and such, it is about dishing out good damage, while being fragile.
I was surprised how little damage the ele did from the day I started playing, and thought it might be my build. Then I tried making a bazillion different builds with focus on damage, but the frail form that is the elementalist was not capable of producing enough damage to make it viable as a glass cannon, and would die at most encounters, due to being brittle and having few means of escape (see below).

Yes, we have escape methods, but it only works if you are alive. Simply being targeted meant that you had to plan your escape already, and there is seldom means to start your attack without being noticed. We don’t have clones to confuse enemies or invisibility to make the damage route usable.

In the end, I had to admit defeat and build for survival (without making it a bunker, as the pitiful damage doesn’t enable you to compete properly in fights and is dreadfully dull). The idea that they placed in my mind with their description of the profession faded.

Now, expecting some love in the damage department (and doing so in ways that won’t break balance and upsetting others, and enable more viable builds for the enjoyment of the players, which in the end should be top priority), it appears that the class will be a much lesser version of the original idea.

-Sigh- We (the elementalists) need options and freedom, not limitations. The game gives you freedom in many ways, and I LOVEEEEEE to have many options. But barely any freedom when it comes to elementalists. Anet, you should focus on making the options a viable reality, instead of hampering your own vision.

P.S. I find that Anet made a brilliantly fun game, and not having to pay monthly fees for this amount of quality is truly respectable. However, I don’t see myself playing other classes than the ele, so I need to stick up for the endangered profession with already doubtful damage output.

/rant

Gaudrath.6725:

The ele community must really be traumatized, the amount of preemptive tears here is amazing.

I mean, nobody here doesn’t even know what they plan to do with AoE. “Reduced effectiveness” – how does that translate directly to reduced damage? It means only that they think (correctly, btw) that AoE in this game is too abundant and that it reduces gameplay to AoE spammage, which it does.

Since there are many classes which have AoE skills, this more than likely means that they will change those skills in such a way that:

a) some of the AoE skills will be now more geared towards single target damage with reduced AoE effects
b) AoE skills will have requirements making them unpractical to use in every encounter (which probably means longer setup times, or preconditions requirements and so on)

Just reducing AoE damage is the single worst way to do it, and they haven’t mentioned such a move anywhere. I doubt they are so dumb to blanket nerf AoE damage when they have classes which are practically all AoE and other classes which would hardly get touched by the nerf at all.

You must be quite optimistic on how ANet will be handling it. Playing an ele as my main for 3 months, I can say for sure my Meteor Shower did not finished off players in WvW nor did it help much in many situation.

I expect ANet to really murder the Elementalists by nerfing the AoE. To them it is too effective, but to us playing Eles, it is not as effective as it seems to be. Sometimes, I wished some of our skills have a shorter cast time and shorter cooldowns, because of the 2-3 secs casting time it takes to actually cast the skill in the first place. And not everytime AoE hits because targets MOVES away. So, tell me if that is not already bad enough. I sometimes have to predict where the target will be running into and it is like a 50-50 chance I get it right. So, tell me if AoE is effective at all. Single target? One example is single target tend to dodge most of the AoEs attack and there is no point casting meteor shower on a single target most of the time, unless you cast it first, which you may or may not even get a hit in because the target may have already move away or running towards you. So, tell me how effective is it at all on any single target?

AoEing to clear dungeons faster? You have got to be kidding me. Like for example if we don’t AoE the gravelings in AC, we
1. get swamped
2. kite like it is CoF P2.

Then again, AC most of the time is we skip the gravelings.

As for other dungeons, AoE hardly does much. The only contribution worth mentioning for an Ele is CoF P2 final boss.

And besides, if I am playing a staff ele, at least 5-6 skills from different attunement are already aoe based. if I don’t use them, then I may as well just use skill 1 and kite around. Or better, I switch to my thief or warrior, why bother playing an ele in the first place when I can’t do much at all.

So, yeah, I am very pessimistic on how ANet will be handling it. As past patches are any indication, it only make me cringe in pain as to what they would do.

Whats the surprise? Devs dont play the game. Im gonna laugh when the servers start to get empy (even more)

I am not optimistic, I am realistic. Do you actually think that devs base their decisions on forum QQ and because they “play thieves”?

No, first every MMO has a set of developer tools called metrics, which gather statistical data on a very large sample (five people whining on a forum is not even a sample, it’s nothing) and present the developers with the data they need to assess how the game is doing. THAT is what they base their decisions on. Which is also why they don’t read forums that much – player opinion on class balance doesn’t mean anything when put up against hard statistical data.

And for the second… they would get FIRED so fast, they’d probably break the speed of light on their way out. Balance team doesn’t own ANet, they’re just employees. Anyone caught fixing the game just so they could OP their characters is fired immediately because it really, really, really messes up the PR of the company.

So realistically speaking if they are talking about reducing AoE effectiveness, they are talking about exactly that – NOT damage reduction, but usability reduction. And if they have AoE heavy classes, this more than likely means those classes will receive a gameplay change which will push them more towards single target damage.

Whether this means changing AoE skills, replacing some AoE skills with single target, high damage ones, or buffing more single target oriented builds remains to be seen. As I said, there is a TON of ways to reduce the effectiveness of AoE and just blanket damage nerf is pretty much the stupidest way to do it. And the devs have nowhere said it will be that.

So let us just wait and see. I’ll rage with the rest of the ele community if they pick the dumbest option, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to such major changes before I start yanking my hair out.

Gaudrath.6725:

The ele community must really be traumatized, the amount of preemptive tears here is amazing.

You must not have been here when they nerfed evasive arcana a few months back. They said they were watching some ele bunker builds, and everyone thought we would get some adjustments. Then, BAM no blast finishers and staff bunkers haven’t been seen in competitive play since. An entire build erased from the game.

When it comes to ANet and elementalists, prepare for the worst and expect them to surprise you with something even more drastic.

The thing is, Gaudrath, that while you do make a good point, it’s also pretty silly to think the players will never come with useful suggestions ever. Also, while Anet may have statistics, we have gameplay experience. For the optimal result, the two should be combined.

Remember the old saying ‘better safe than sorry’? Well, that’s what I’d like to see. If the change turns out to be ok, then I’ll be happy…but unless Anet comes out and gives details, there’s no way we can be sure it’s a good fix…and I’d prefer to prevent the bad fixes.

Elementalists and Engineers vs Warriors and Thiefs. Nice balance anet

What the hell is this
nerf all aeo but then we should get other abilities

and i want back my 60gold from buying the corrupted shards

Anet.. just trying to solve the problem as long as they dont have to work for it

Anet.. just trying to solve the problem as long as they dont have to work for it

Kind of funny everyone saying Anet must play Thief etc, one of the Anet staff plays an Ele`, he admitted this during a livestream once.
I remember it because he said he dies loads, so he “main a Warrior & a Guardian so I can just charge in there & faceroll things.”
Another one played an Ele` live & ye gads, he was sodding awful.
I guess their easy fix is to ruin the profession so much that no one plays it & therefore saves them the effort.

AoE isn`t even that high damage & is ridiculously easy to dodge, walk or even stand still & not get hit by it.

There are so many D/D & a fair few S/whatever, because staff is bloody awful as it is.
This is going to wipe that weapon out completely I guess…

@Caffynated, I have been here, and seen the wailing, and lo and behold, despite that bug fix we elementalists still managed to dominate the bunker field with D/D just as before. And staff ended up being used as a support weapon, as it should be (not sure what will it end up as after the next patch, we’ll see when we get the notes).

@ThiBash, players do come up wuth good ideas, which is why ANet has another set of employees going over the suggestions forums. But I can pretty much guarantee you that 99% of forum crying and complaining is completely ignored by ANet simply because it is not an objectives source of information.
People who enjoy the game, play it. Most of the playerbase never even visits the forums.

But metrics report it all, and do it with solid numbers! That’s what a balance team needs, solid numbers, not “it feels too weak” or “kitten thief wtfpwned me AGAIN!”

So yeah. We’ll see. Patch is in ten days, so not too long to wait. Until then, relax and have some faith, this is a big change, chances are they won’t be just “winging it” on this one. Or else the amount of forum rage will probably reach critical levels and create a massive rage-fueled black hole which will swallow the balance team whole – in any case fun to watch. :p

Eh, if it ruins the job I’m pretty much finished playing the game. Hopefully FFXIV: ARR and ESO are good.

If d/d has only 2 single target spells and rest are AoE, does that mean they’re going to nerf greatsword for warriors? Every attack with GS is AoE after all.

Gaudrath.6725:

@Caffynated, I have been here, and seen the wailing, and lo and behold, despite that bug fix we elementalists still managed to dominate the bunker field with D/D just as before. And staff ended up being used as a support weapon, as it should be (not sure what will it end up as after the next patch, we’ll see when we get the notes).

Ele bunker is nowhere near as good as a guardian. People bring an ele bunker because he can beat the enemy to their close point and keep them from capping it, or because the players just like ele/suck at guardian.

Staff elementalists already make the trade-off between single-target damage and AoE firepower by choosing that weapon, because, lets face it, the damage is not all that good. Staff’s power lies in its versatility and in the ability to play off combo fields.

The only real problem with AoE is the ability for groups to stack so many effects in one place that anything entering is instagibbed. This is only a “problem” in 2 places: dynamic events with large numbers of participants, where stacked AoEs destroy most normal monsters before they even render; and at choke-points in WvW like keep walls, where stackings AoE attacks on the walls makes it very difficult to defend. The second problem can easily be solved by giving a defence buff to wall defenders. The first might be solved by preventing mobs from spawning in big, tight groups. I’m sure there are many other solutions, but it seems to me that nerfing AoEs in general should be the last thing considered.

As I commented on the necro forums this looks like a change introduced by PvP/WvW. All the complaints about AoE I’ve seen were centered on WvW.

Also bunker builds. I don’t know what is a bunker build but when it comes to PvE I find my elementalist rather squishy. Either I kill all enemies fast or I’ll go down myself. If I need a specific build to be actually viable in PvE I’m going to drop elementalist fully. It already takes way too long to kill some enemies. I simply can’t outlast many of the veteran enemies.

Actually this does not touch me much at all at the moment even if I primarily play staff elementalist as I rarely touch my elementalist nowadays. I mostly farm with my necro or if I’ve to play seriously I’ll either break out my guardian or mesmer. They have much lower skill gap than the elementalist plus they are tougher out of the box and more efficient in solo killing.

Essentially with a guardian and mesmer I can do same solo and with fewer key pushes as I can do with my elementalist in a group.

Lets hope they can balance the class and not nerf the class.

This is why we will never have nice things, the QQer’s do there crying, the devs knee jerk react to the qq, fire off nerf after nerf, ruin the game for the players that just want to play, once the game is ruined by the whiners the players leave.

In the last 8 years I have been burnt too may times. MMO_AAAomgIT’sDashet is being developed, everyone is saying we are the cats play me. Then once the game is released the original vision gets tossed months after launch and attempted balance becomes nerfs because they are listening to the qq and not following the original vision.

That is how I have witnessed MMO in the past, I’m my biggest enemy. Every time I tell myself this is the last MMO, your done. Then the carrot gets deployed and I bite. The only game on my horizon is EQ Next but I’m apprehensive, and it’s still a long wait till it comes out.

Azrael.1408:

Limiting targets on AoE to 5 means they should elevate the damage up not nerfing it down lol. What is the point of taking trait for larger AoE attacks…?

GW – Guilds of Warriors?

Guardians Warriors 2

Brutelas.2903:

It will moast likley do the oposite. Seriusly, Meteor Shower as it is now is super OP. It’s
Meteor shower i can understand using some tweaking, it’s a very powerful skill but it’s the only AoE i can think of that would draw good amount of attention to ele’s. Most elementalists here are concerned about cross the board skill nerfs for ele’s since majority of every skill is an aoe and many of them don’t always connect the damage to intended targets since most AoE’s can be dodge rolled or walked away from.

Actually, if Anet is serious about the idea that aoe shouldn’t be used against a single foe, meteor shower is one of the best examples of what all aoe should be. Meteor shower might just deal zero damage to a single foe, and auto-attacking is pretty much guaranteed to be more damaging to one player. Every single meteor could miss a single person standing still. I literally stand in meteor shower in wvw because that skill does pitiful damage to me individually. Meteor shower can deal good overall damage to large group of foes, but it is little more than pressure or area denial to the individuals that comprise the group. I every aoe skill was more like meteor shower, Anet would have exactly what they want.

So do you stand in five meteor showers?

This is also a pretty large buff to thieves who, when complain it’s impossible to hit them because they are in stealth 80% of the fight, seem to always respond: “hurr-durr AOE the little house noob!!!” Without viable AoE Thieves are going to get even MORE powerful relative to other classes.