Guild Wars 2

The other thread was getting kind of bogged down by other things, so I decided to draw out some of the agreed upon points for the sake of clarity, into one, easily backed suggestion that we can all get behind, and hopefully get more dev attention thereby.

Arcane Brilliance is now 900 range.

Arcane Wave reverted to pre-patch.

Why: Arcane Wave change may feel better for some ranged players, but it cripples the instacast speed of Dagger builds, while really helping nobody.

Staff: Usually wants the blast finisher on themselves anyways for fast heals/group buffing. More likely to use Brilliance if they need the ranged blast finisher, as they have better built in condition removal and can sacrifice ether renewal.

Scepter: Arcane Blast is built for them. Their might stacking is best in the game already already, and Scepter is designed to be more about single target. Out of everybody they need another blast finisher the least, and again, have stronger condition removal built in, and can thus use Brilliance better if they want it.

Dagger: All fields are placed immediately on the player. Arcane wave used to be immediate response. No matter how “used to it” we get, holding and aiming is going to be slower than just tapping. The weakest build atm, D/D offensive burst, just lost the ability to BurningSpeed/LightningFlash/ArcaneWave. For those of you who don’t play this combo, it relies on casting Flash mid BS, Arriving at Target, and Waving for might and damage before BS hits. Its a core combo, and now its gone. You could wave afterwards, but you’d also lose the might for your true instant FreshAir/Hydromancy/RTL follow up. Unless you think you can aim faster than you can activate 0 Cast Time skills.

TL;DR:
Arcane Wave now feels clunky for D/D Burst, which is also the least able to use Brilliance and the most in need of true 0 time instant activation.

We know it feels good for scepters, but ask yourselves if you really need another ranged blast finisher, and if Arcane Blast really isn’t good enough for you.

Arcane Brilliance is now 900 range.

Arcane Wave reverted to pre-patch.

Regardless if you agree with the rest, if you support these changes, please leave a note here.

I completely disagree and hope they keep the Arcane Wave changes; having a ranged, instant blast finisher is amazlingly useful and I hope we can keep it.

Xernth.8561:

I completely disagree and hope they keep the Arcane Wave changes; having a ranged, instant blast finisher is amazlingly useful and I hope we can keep it.

If you want it ranged, then having a trait that turns Arcane Wave into a ground targeting skill would be ideal.

But for now, this kitten is not acceptable ArenaNet, stop trying to force everyone into Scepter and Staff.

/signed

Xernth.8561:

I completely disagree and hope they keep the Arcane Wave changes; having a ranged, instant blast finisher is amazlingly useful and I hope we can keep it.

You’ve got no ranged fields to blast unless you’re playing staff/scepter/focus, and if you are, you need to consider the fact that those sets all have their own ranged blast finishers, those sets don’t need another ranged blast finisher, those sets aren’t nearly as dependent on having a particular pbAoE instant finisher for their combo, and those sets are less dependant on ether renewal for cleansing, letting them use:

Arcane Brilliance: Now Has 900 Range

Consider your objections before spitting out a piece of selfish bias.

What’s wrong with Arcane Wave being ranged? You can hit more reliably hit more targets with it now, and that’s good, no? You might object “to taking longer to cast”, although if you simply play better the extra “delay” is a fraction of a second. My only problem with it is that it doesn’t work well underwater.

Arcane Brilliance to 900 range would be a buff for that skill. No other comments on it.

From the original post:

No matter how “used to it” we get, holding and aiming is going to be slower than just tapping. The weakest build atm, D/D offensive burst, just lost the ability to BurningSpeed/LightningFlash/ArcaneWave. For those of you who don’t play this combo, it relies on casting Flash mid BS, Arriving at Target, and Waving for might and damage before BS hits. Its a core combo, and now its gone. You could wave afterwards, but you’d also lose the might for your true instant FreshAir/Hydromancy/RTL follow up. Unless you think you can aim faster than you can activate 0 Cast Time skills.

It feels very particular and specific, but a huge number of engages for burst eles depend on doing things like whats described. It slows down the kit very dramatically, and when you have 13k hp and 1200 toughness, thats a huge, huge problem. Big enough that I think it outweighs the needless buff for other kits, who could better utilize brilliance and are built for blast anyways.

I second this recommendation. Revert Arcane Wave, make Arcane Brilliance the ranged skill instead (and thereby making Arcane Brilliance more powerful as a heal).

Why not just add more utility skills then?
Have a self blast finisher and a ranged one. They’re adding in new healing skills progressively so that isn’t apparently an issue…

Jeydra.4386:

What’s wrong with Arcane Wave being ranged?

Might stack combo rotations are gutted.

Linnael.1069:

The other thread was getting kind of bogged down by other things, so I decided to draw out some of the agreed upon points for the sake of clarity, into one, easily backed suggestion that we can all get behind, and hopefully get more dev attention thereby.

Arcane Brilliance is now 900 range.

Arcane Wave reverted to pre-patch.

Why: Arcane Wave change may feel better for some ranged players, but it cripples the instacast speed of Dagger builds, while really helping nobody.

Staff: Usually wants the blast finisher on themselves anyways for fast heals/group buffing. More likely to use Brilliance if they need the ranged blast finisher, as they have better built in condition removal and can sacrifice ether renewal.

Scepter: Arcane Blast is built for them. Their might stacking is best in the game already already, and Scepter is designed to be more about single target. Out of everybody they need another blast finisher the least, and again, have stronger condition removal built in, and can thus use Brilliance better if they want it.

Dagger: All fields are placed immediately on the player. Arcane wave used to be immediate response. No matter how “used to it” we get, holding and aiming is going to be slower than just tapping. The weakest build atm, D/D offensive burst, just lost the ability to BurningSpeed/LightningFlash/ArcaneWave. For those of you who don’t play this combo, it relies on casting Flash mid BS, Arriving at Target, and Waving for might and damage before BS hits. Its a core combo, and now its gone. You could wave afterwards, but you’d also lose the might for your true instant FreshAir/Hydromancy/RTL follow up. Unless you think you can aim faster than you can activate 0 Cast Time skills.

TL;DR:
Arcane Wave now feels clunky for D/D Burst, which is also the least able to use Brilliance and the most in need of true 0 time instant activation.

We know it feels good for scepters, but ask yourselves if you really need another ranged blast finisher, and if Arcane Blast really isn’t good enough for you.

Arcane Brilliance is now 900 range.

Arcane Wave reverted to pre-patch.

Regardless if you agree with the rest, if you support these changes, please leave a note here.

If they made Arcane Brilliance at range they would have to alter the skill mechanics. ATM with the base heal+ 20% per target up to 5 targets only makes sense as a pbAoE. At range the + 20% per target actually become a little OP because the risk is not there anymore. If they made the skill at range, they would have to bump up the base heal and take away the +20% per target.
I do agree that Arcane Wave should have probably stayed a pbAoE. But Anet does not.

Lostwingman.5034:

Why not just add more utility skills then?
Have a self blast finisher and a ranged one. They’re adding in new healing skills progressively so that isn’t apparently an issue…

Good point! Nobody knows if there’re going to be more skills of each type, or just more skill types or whatever, but it would make more sense to fit the ranged finisher niche into a new skill. As for another high damage, guaranteed crit, pbAoE instacast blast finisher? I don’t know if they fill that rather narrow niche with a new skill and have it feel different.

Linnael.1069:

Lostwingman.5034:

Why not just add more utility skills then?
Have a self blast finisher and a ranged one. They’re adding in new healing skills progressively so that isn’t apparently an issue…

Good point! Nobody knows if there’re going to be more skills of each type, or just more skill types or whatever, but it would make more sense to fit the ranged finisher niche into a new skill. As for another high damage, guaranteed crit, pbAoE instacast blast finisher? I don’t know if they fill that rather narrow niche with a new skill and have it feel different.

I don’t know…there’s a pretty big feel difference between a ranged blast finisher and a Pbaoe one…

I want Arcane Wave reverted as much as any other d/d ele, but I also do not think that Arcane Brilliance should be ranged. The whole point of the skill and the trade-off in its use is the risk inherent to being surrounded by enemies, where counterplay exists. The skill has only a 3/4s cast time, but you can be blinded or interrupted. In turn, the player is rewarded with greater healing for hitting more players and a PBAoE that eles have otherwise never had access to. To remove some of the risk in using Arcane Brilliance as a close-quarters skill by making it ranged hinders that counterplay.

Lostwingman.5034:

Linnael.1069:

Lostwingman.5034:

Why not just add more utility skills then?
Have a self blast finisher and a ranged one. They’re adding in new healing skills progressively so that isn’t apparently an issue…

Good point! Nobody knows if there’re going to be more skills of each type, or just more skill types or whatever, but it would make more sense to fit the ranged finisher niche into a new skill. As for another high damage, guaranteed crit, pbAoE instacast blast finisher? I don’t know if they fill that rather narrow niche with a new skill and have it feel different.

I don’t know…there’s a pretty big feel difference between a ranged blast finisher and a Pbaoe one…

I was saying that if they were to add a new one, they should use it to fill the ranged finisher spot, as leaving the new wave and adding a different skill to try filling the old wave’s niche would just make the new skill too similar.

Anyways, wishful thinking all around. Let’s get back to the suggestion, which the devs could put in sooner, as they already know the old wave works and it needs a change due to underwater anyways.

Elestian.6134:

I want Arcane Wave reverted as much as any other d/d ele, but I also do not think that Arcane Brilliance should be ranged. The whole point of the skill and the trade-off in its use is the risk inherent to being surrounded by enemies, where counterplay exists. The skill has only a 3/4s cast time, but you can be blinded or interrupted. In turn, the player is rewarded with greater healing for hitting more players and a PBAoE that eles have otherwise never had access to. To remove some of the risk in using Arcane Brilliance as a close-quarters skill by making it ranged hinders that counterplay.

I think thats a good mechanic, but Brilliance doesn’t heal enough to justify the risk. Its the same cooldown as glyph, heals less at base, and gives no boons. There should just be a reward for using it well, instead of a risk/reward balance, because its pretty outclassed and the risk is just holding it back instead of holding it balanced.

Linnael.1069:

I think thats a good mechanic, but Brilliance doesn’t heal enough to justify the risk. Its the same cooldown as glyph, heals less at base, and gives no boons. There should just be a reward for using it well, instead of a risk/reward balance, because its pretty outclassed and the risk is just holding it back instead of holding it balanced.

Is this based on experience or theory? I’ve been using Brilliance in pvp, and it’s common to get a huge health boost out of it. And that’s pvp, because in pve it should be even easier.

A 5-7k+ health gain for a tiny 3/4 casting time is unlike anything else the elementalist has access to, and you still deal damage and get a blast finisher. The later which you’ll want to take advantage of, of course.

I’m surprised at how well balanced this skill is. It’s strong without overshadowing any other heal we have.

Lostwingman.5034:

Jeydra.4386:

What’s wrong with Arcane Wave being ranged?

Might stack combo rotations are gutted.

No they weren’t. The player just has to play better.

Ancient Ranger.3276:

If they made Arcane Brilliance at range they would have to alter the skill mechanics. ATM with the base heal+ 20% per target up to 5 targets only makes sense as a pbAoE. At range the + 20% per target actually become a little OP because the risk is not there anymore. If they made the skill at range, they would have to bump up the base heal and take away the +20% per target. I do agree that Arcane Wave should have probably stayed a pbAoE. But Anet does not.

Sir, may I interject and offer this observation…

“what the kitten is wrong with giving us a tangible buff?”

We’ve paid the nerf toll numerous times without receiving proportionate compensation!

For what it’s worth I add my support to the original proposition.

Xernth.8561:

I completely disagree and hope they keep the Arcane Wave changes; having a ranged, instant blast finisher is amazlingly useful and I hope we can keep it.

I completely disagree with you and hope no one listens to your babble. Arcane Wave was changed from being useful because they added a new ability that they wanted to be different from the existing one. Common sense would have been to make the new ability different.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Linnael.1069:

I think thats a good mechanic, but Brilliance doesn’t heal enough to justify the risk. Its the same cooldown as glyph, heals less at base, and gives no boons. There should just be a reward for using it well, instead of a risk/reward balance, because its pretty outclassed and the risk is just holding it back instead of holding it balanced.

Is this based on experience or theory? I’ve been using Brilliance in pvp, and it’s common to get a huge health boost out of it. And that’s pvp, because in pve it should be even easier.

A 5-7k+ health gain for a tiny 3/4 casting time is unlike anything else the elementalist has access to, and you still deal damage and get a blast finisher. The later which you’ll want to take advantage of, of course.

I’m surprised at how well balanced this skill is. It’s strong without overshadowing any other heal we have.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t taken it into any high end PvE, fotm, etc.

I have taken it into arenas, along with my wvw 5 man, and solo roaming.

GoEH outheals as a burst heal up to 3 targets hit, still more if you factor in the protection/regeneration you can pull out of it. As a roamer/far point striker, there’s rarely if ever 3 enemies on point with me. When it becomes distinctly better at 5 targets, well, if I’m in range to smack the entire enemy team I’m probably down in 3 seconds regardless, and would rather have the protection.

Neither of them even compares to ether renewal, but thats a diff issue.

Its slightly more useful in WvW, where my team will get more out of the finisher than the 3might i’d get from Glyph anyways, but there, again, glyph is more useful with swiftness for running around and the protection to play off of the whole team’s heals, and ether renewal tops both by a large margin just thanks to the cleanse.

Perhaps I’m being unfair to the damage/finisher aspect, but in my eyes, yes, the risk holds it too far back. Any of the rare times it would actually outheal the other heals, which have better utility, you put yourself at too much risk for using it. The gain is appropriate, but not, I think, the melee requirement.

Ancient Ranger.3276:

If they made Arcane Brilliance at range they would have to alter the skill mechanics. ATM with the base heal+ 20% per target up to 5 targets only makes sense as a pbAoE. At range the + 20% per target actually become a little OP because the risk is not there anymore. If they made the skill at range, they would have to bump up the base heal and take away the +20% per target.
I do agree that Arcane Wave should have probably stayed a pbAoE. But Anet does not.

A little OP? The ele is the weakest of all the classes right now. What they need is a straight buff … so yeah, anything that they do to achieve that would seem OP compared to the crap we have now.

I’m scepter/dagger and arcane wave was in my loadout for almost a year but the ground targeting for it no longer works me so I replaced it with a signet.

Not a great loss because it doesn’t hit very hard but it brought that added burst needed while doing solo content.

Jeydra.4386:

Lostwingman.5034:

Jeydra.4386:

What’s wrong with Arcane Wave being ranged?

Might stack combo rotations are gutted.

No they weren’t. The player just has to play better.

Its not might stacking. Its the speed with which you can combo, and consequently, how little time you can give your opponent to react. Might enters the consideration for a particular D/D combo that relied on starting BS to Flash to Wave, before BS ended. To get the Flash damage on top of your foe, you need to flash the instant before BS ends. Moving your mouse from where you casted flash to wave on the tiny bit of trail at your feet, in a matter of frames? Good luck with that bro.

Besides, no amount of better is ever going to turn “press button, aim, release” into faster than “press button”.

It was a really short-sighted change honestly. They were just like “oh, ground target would be op on heal so let’s just slap it on arcane wave.” They just assume it’s a buff because there’s more range, when in reality it is a lot more clunky now. The beauty of that skill was how effortlessly you could throw it into combos without thinking. Half the time I’m turning the camera when using the skill and now you can barely do that.

Disagree. Please do not revert arcane wave. If you cant target a simple skill on your fields that is your problem. Only argument about arcane wave is people don’t want to target one single skill on a point every 30 seconds cus that is so hard. ‘’ oo I can’t do my combos now cus now I have this green thing pops up oooOOooo ’’. Its really easy to use it any d/d or other weapon combos. If you having hard time turn on fast targeting with range. Have you ever played engineer?

bulent.7391:

Disagree. Please do not revert arcane wave. If you cant target a simple skill on your fields that is your problem. Only argument about arcane wave is people don’t want to target one single skill on a point every 30 seconds cus that is so hard. ‘’ oo I can’t do my combos now cus now I have this green thing pops up oooOOooo ’’. Its really easy to use it any d/d or other weapon combos. If you having hard time turn on fast targeting with range. Have you ever played engineer?

You never used it with D/D obviously, you have to aim BEHIND you to get the burst with burning speed.

Nova Stiker.8396:

bulent.7391:

Disagree. Please do not revert arcane wave. If you cant target a simple skill on your fields that is your problem. Only argument about arcane wave is people don’t want to target one single skill on a point every 30 seconds cus that is so hard. ‘’ oo I can’t do my combos now cus now I have this green thing pops up oooOOooo ’’. Its really easy to use it any d/d or other weapon combos. If you having hard time turn on fast targeting with range. Have you ever played engineer?

You never used it with D/D obviously, you have to aim BEHIND you to get the burst with burning speed.

if you are really dependent on blasting burning speed use arcane brilliance on it.

Tweak blasting staff and give it the ability to make Arcane Wave ground targeted. Lets staff users continue to enjoy a ranged blast (we have so few as is), doesn’t screw with other builds rotations.

As a Staff Ele, I enjoy the ranged Arcane Wave but I do find it to be absolutely horrible to use underwater now. Unless you’re against a wall or at the very bottom it’s pretty much unusable, but who cares about underwater combat anyways right?

You say those are agreed upon points, but they are only agreed upon by unhappy people. Most people who think arcane wave was enormously buffed probably don’t bother to post in your complaint threads.

THE THING WAS ENORMOUSLY BUFFED.

Elfis.9102:

You say those are agreed upon points, but they are only agreed upon by unhappy people. Most people who think arcane wave was enormously buffed probably don’t bother to post in your complaint threads.

THE THING WAS ENORMOUSLY BUFFED.

Why buff it? What was wrong with it before other than being melee?

Why buff Arcane Wave and not Arcane Blast? Why not add a ranged BLAST finisher for a skill that has BLAST in its name? No one uses Arcane Blast anyways, why not make that a viable option instead of making Arcane Wave harder to use?

I don’t really mind either way if arcane wave is ranged or not but there’s good risk/reward with arcane brilliance the way it is.

Nobody was shouting for an Arcane Wave buff before the patch.

Buff or not, the change messes up finisher rotations which is one of our strengths as an elementalist.

I’m enjoying the trait changes, but I have been hampered by the new ground targeting requirement.

bulent.7391:

Nova Stiker.8396:

bulent.7391:

Disagree. Please do not revert arcane wave. If you cant target a simple skill on your fields that is your problem. Only argument about arcane wave is people don’t want to target one single skill on a point every 30 seconds cus that is so hard. ‘’ oo I can’t do my combos now cus now I have this green thing pops up oooOOooo ’’. Its really easy to use it any d/d or other weapon combos. If you having hard time turn on fast targeting with range. Have you ever played engineer?

You never used it with D/D obviously, you have to aim BEHIND you to get the burst with burning speed.

if you are really dependent on blasting burning speed use arcane brilliance on it.

You think people want to get might from burning speed and are having problems.

No.

People want to fit Arcane Wave into very fast combos that have been described multiple times above, and are now not possible.

You are sitting on the skill floor, shouting at skill ceiling discussions.

Elfis.9102:

You say those are agreed upon points, but they are only agreed upon by unhappy people. Most people who think arcane wave was enormously buffed probably don’t bother to post in your complaint threads.

THE THING WAS ENORMOUSLY BUFFED.

For sets that didn’t need it, and nerfed for sets that did.

Please try to support your statements or provide evidence to refute opposing statements.
Capslock is not an argument.

Wave with range takes predictability from its use. You can open with wave all on its own heck you can put someone down close to 5k health with d/d as long as your in 900 range with out pressing a weapon skill.

There was not much thought to using wave or blast with d/d

Before you just used it within your rotation just a extra button press.

oZii.2864:

Wave with range takes predictability from its use. You can open with wave all on its own heck you can put someone down close to 5k health with d/d as long as your in 900 range with out pressing a weapon skill.

There was not much thought to using wave or blast with d/d

Before you just used it within your rotation just a extra button press.

No there definitely was plenty of thought on when to use it. You’re confusing thought with ease-of-use. It requires no more thought then before — which is setting up a desirable combo.

However now it’s definitely more difficult to use in a rotation that’s tight on execution time (due to duration of combo fields). That’s a nerf.

bulent.7391:

Nova Stiker.8396:

bulent.7391:

Disagree. Please do not revert arcane wave. If you cant target a simple skill on your fields that is your problem. Only argument about arcane wave is people don’t want to target one single skill on a point every 30 seconds cus that is so hard. ‘’ oo I can’t do my combos now cus now I have this green thing pops up oooOOooo ’’. Its really easy to use it any d/d or other weapon combos. If you having hard time turn on fast targeting with range. Have you ever played engineer?

You never used it with D/D obviously, you have to aim BEHIND you to get the burst with burning speed.

if you are really dependent on blasting burning speed use arcane brilliance on it.

You’ve never actually done a might stack rotation have you?
Also
>burning your heal so you can do you formerly normal might rotation
ur so smurt, dat jus as gud. U do gud thinks

Actually, after having played with [Arcane Wave], I think that the change is really, really nice. As a staff elementalist, it’s really nice to be able to double blast a water field from safety for my allies on a point. I just wish that ANet would finally put post-cast delays on the offensive Arcane utilities, though. They’re incredibly overpowered as they are now.

Swagg.9236:

As a staff elementalist

Then you have no concept of how this affected arrays of existing builds.

Frankly, I find it fairly easy to fit into my might rotations. I have more than enough time during the cast of my other skills to throw it in. So this isn’t really an issue for me, and it lets me use it as an AoE chill/immobilize/blind if I need to, making it overall more versatile.

MarzAttakz.9608:

Ancient Ranger.3276:

If they made Arcane Brilliance at range they would have to alter the skill mechanics. ATM with the base heal+ 20% per target up to 5 targets only makes sense as a pbAoE. At range the + 20% per target actually become a little OP because the risk is not there anymore. If they made the skill at range, they would have to bump up the base heal and take away the +20% per target. I do agree that Arcane Wave should have probably stayed a pbAoE. But Anet does not.

Sir, may I interject and offer this observation…

“what the kitten is wrong with giving us a tangible buff?”

We’ve paid the nerf toll numerous times without receiving proportionate compensation!

For what it’s worth I add my support to the original proposition.

We haven’t just played the nerf troll, we have gotten run over by the longest nerf train in history. But this is Anet we are talking about do you think they will ever give us a tangible buff? I would love to see the original posters idea become true but I do not think they will happen because it is a tangible buff so the least I’m hoping for is what I proposed I think Anet will more likely do that than what the original posters idea.

What I’d really like to see is for everybody to just consider how the A Wave change fits with other weapon sets and roles, besides the one that they play. I think the original post did that fairly well, and its very disappointing to hear things like “but eh, its cool on staff”, when basically the whole post is about how yea, it might work for other things, but it didn’t need to, and doesn’t outweigh the damage it does to daggers.

Lostwingman.5034:

Swagg.9236:

As a staff elementalist

Then you have no concept of how this affected arrays of existing builds.

No, I definitely understand how the change has warped a lot of play-styles. A typical finisher that I used to perform to finish fleeing enemies would be [Lightning Flash] into [Arcane Wave] (an unfair 4-6k damage that no one can ever see coming). It also worked well as a quick way to flash into a water field filled with allies for a fast extra blast finisher for healing. As of the last patch, performing the chase combo is a little weird because you have to cursor directly below yourself right after the [Lightning Flash]. Performing the healing blast finisher flash is sort of irrelevant now.

Based on this, I can understand how it probably feels a little wonky with a build that involves a lot of in-your-face play (dagger off-hand and dagger main-hand). Even so, it remains instant-cast without a post-cast delay period, which means that you can still activate it while performing other abilities. If anything, it became stronger in the last update because you can now use [Arcane Wave] as a ranged lead attack that nobody can see coming.

If you’re looking to blast on fields while moving about, let’s think about the kinds of weapon-based combo fields that a non-staff elementalist has:

• [Ring of Fire]

There you go. It’s a 240 radius (huge) and it’s a 1/4-second cast (nearly instant). Combined with the fact that dagger main-hand is often a lot of cleaving or body-directed damage, the new [Arcane Wave] shouldn’t really be too much of an impediment to play. The new [Arcane Wave] is far stronger than it was before, it opens up a lot of new doors, and to use it in the same way that one used it before this most recent patch (except underwater since its broken in that case) requires little more than a pinch of finesse or timing (something of which this game needs more).

In short:

• [Arcane Wave] is stronger than ever before.
• A ranged [Arcane Wave] opens a lot more doors for team-play and solo-play usage.
• Using [Arcane Wave] in the same way as it was used before this patch (PBAoE attack) is still very possible.

Swagg.9236:

Lostwingman.5034:

Swagg.9236:

As a staff elementalist

Then you have no concept of how this affected arrays of existing builds.

-snip-

What Elementalist uses Arcane Wave with Ring of Fire instead of Burning Speed? I know bad Elementalists do that all the time but the good ones prefer Burning Speed for a nice, viable hefty spike.

Your argument is suited for low tier PvP and holds no ground.
This change punishes quick, skillful play. Simple as that.

Nova Stiker.8396:

What Elementalist uses Arcane Wave with Ring of Fire instead of Burning Speed? I know bad Elementalists do that all the time but the good ones prefer Burning Speed for a nice, viable hefty spike.

Your argument is suited for low tier PvP. Try again.

What elementalist doesn’t immediately cast [Ring of Fire] directly after [Burning Speed] if given the opportunity? They’re effectively a single skill by the way most players use d/d.

Besides, like I said, you can still use [Arcane Wave] as a PBAoE, you just actually have to use a little finesse now. It’s still very possible to use [Arcane Wave] on yourself while you are flying along the [Burning Speed] path. My point still stands. This change in fact opens the door to more playability with [Arcane Wave] than ever before without destroying its old functionalities.

Also, Arcane skills have never been skillful. They’re insta-target, instant-activation, no post-cast delay, minimal cue, no red circle attacks. They are honestly paragons of bad skill design with regards to balance in this game.

Swagg.9236:

Nova Stiker.8396:

What Elementalist uses Arcane Wave with Ring of Fire instead of Burning Speed? I know bad Elementalists do that all the time but the good ones prefer Burning Speed for a nice, viable hefty spike.

Your argument is suited for low tier PvP. Try again.

It’s still very possible to use [Arcane Wave] on yourself while you are flying along the [Burning Speed] path.

No. Not it’s not. It is incredibly hard to aim as you often have to have your mouse behind your character.
Plus Burning Speed activates the direction of your character and not camera, which makes it easy to miss at times if you don’t see what your character is facing in hectic fights.
If you have a large character, it is even harder.

Secondly, Ring of Fires 1/4th casting time allows the enemy to a dodge, especially when your opponent sees their health drop. They are going to dodge before you get off Ring of Fire.

This change ruins competitive use of Arcane Wave completely.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Swagg.9236:

Nova Stiker.8396:

What Elementalist uses Arcane Wave with Ring of Fire instead of Burning Speed? I know bad Elementalists do that all the time but the good ones prefer Burning Speed for a nice, viable hefty spike.

Your argument is suited for low tier PvP. Try again.

It’s still very possible to use [Arcane Wave] on yourself while you are flying along the [Burning Speed] path.

No. Not it’s not. It is incredibly hard to aim as you often have to be behind your character. Plus Burning Speed activates the direction of your character and not camera, which makes it easy to miss.
If you have a large character, it is even harder.

Secondly, Ring of Fires 1/4th casting time allows the enemy to a dodge, especially when your opponent sees their health drop.

This change ruins competitive use of Arcane Wave completely.

You should really just practice it. The 360 radius is enormous. It’s really hard to miss with it. Even if it’s trailing behind you, you can still hit with it if you time it well enough. Try practicing with the [Fiery Greatsword] whirling attack skill together with [Burning Speed]. You can get a hang for it and the trick comes pretty quick. It comes down to snap cursoring over your target as you quickly approach it while using [Burning Speed] or [Fiery Whirl].

Furthermore, any player worth his salt that knows you’re there is going to probably dodge a [Burning Speed]. Blowing the two skills together is a good way to waste damage. The new [Arcane Wave] allows you to now have range on the guy even if he moves out of the way of your blast radius. If you want “skillful” [Arcane Wave] play, just wait until your target is out of a dodge frame and then blast away. It’s incredibly overpowered.

In conjunction with what the OP stated I think the suggestion to convert Arcane Wave to ground targeted with Blasting Staff traited is good compromise.

I like the changes. Yeah, arcane wave ain’t that instant because it’s ranged now but there’s an option for fast cast AOE spells. Just hover your mouse on top of your character if you’re about to faceroll all your instant skills including arcane wave. It does suck to be changed when you really liked how it worked before, but hey, at least it’s ranged now. Not everyone likes PBAOE and melee fights. XD

Again, especially with the grandmaster arcane trait, this makes the skill incredibly versatile for use as something other than just an extra blast finisher. I am perfectly willing to have to briefly move my mouse and click during another skill animation in order to get that extra use.

If people don’t care about the might stacking, then arcane blast is and always was better than arcane wave for spiking a single target because of the lower cooldown, and that one still works.

Arcane Wave might be harder to execute in a burning speed combo now, but the benefits it brings to everything else over-weight this tiny detail. Wave is now much better when coupled with the Staff’s fields, when coupled with Focus Flamewall, when chasing opponents, or simply to hit them while kiting them. It’s also much better to tag pve mobs before you reach them in the middle of a zerg, if you need killing credit. It’s just a lot more flexible.

If you need to kill a single guy as fast as possible, go for Burning Speed + Arcane Blast.