Guild Wars 2

Fire 5 physical projectiles (dmg reduced) (that always crit) on nearby foes. You gain 10 to all stats per foes that you hit for 30s.

or

Arcane Barrier/Arcane Blast – increase all stats by 50 for 30s. Hurl 5 arcane blasts (dmg reduced) (that always crit) at foe.

or

Fire physical projectile (that always crit) and teleport back for 480 range.

or

Fire 3 physical projectiles (that always crit) on nearby foes and pull them to you.

or

Fire physical projectile (that always crit) and pierce up to 5 foes. For each foe pierced reduce arcane skills cds by 1s.

or

Fire physical projectile (that always crit) and pierce up to 5 foes. For each foe pierced reduce number 4 and 5 skills cds by 1s.

or

Fire physical projectile (that always crit) and burn 50% energy from hit foe.

I don’t want a utility skill that always crits. It reduces the value of gear with crit. The skills themselves should hit hard enough without being a guaranteed crit.

What’s more, one dimensional damage nukes should not be a utility skill. There should be more to a utility skill than “this hits for x damage every 15-20 seconds”,

How I would make arcanes work:

Arcane Blast – 10s CD, instant cast
Does 10% of the current damage.
Fires 5 projectiles that always crit (you get 5x finishers, plus the crit now has synergy with fresh air. Alternatively give 1s of fury per-hit).

Arcane wave – 15s CD
Does 25% of the current damage
Counts as a 2x blast finisher (similar to the warrior trait that gives you 2x leap finisher)

Arcane shield – 40s CD
Same functionality as now

Arcane Power – 20s CD
Same functionality as now, PLUS those hits are unblockable

Don’t touch mah blast finisher

Griever.7480:

Don’t touch mah blast finisher

That is Arcane Wave.

I don’t think Arcane Blast is that bad right now. With the current cd perhaps it should pierce or fire more projectiles, even at the cost of some damage.

Currently I think it’s decent for applying conditions from Elemental Surge (Arcane GM trait). If the cd were reduced slightly (15s down from 20) it would be exceptional for keeping Arcane Lightning active as well as a low cd immobilize/chill/burn/blind.

Multiple projectiles would work best with the arcane GM.