Guild Wars 2

I’ll just leave this here: note

Linnael.1069:

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

No, but it’s enough to reduce the difference to a tiny fraction of a second. Combining that with the other effects of Arcane Wave being ranged (like its ability to stack Might or hit targets without having to go into melee range, or its ability to stack Swiftness without also entering combat) I’m inclined to view this as a buff. It’s not a major one, but it’s a buff nonetheless.

What’s all this talk about aiming? Unless you’re clicking on your utility bar to use your skills you shouldn’t have to aim anything.

Oniyui.8279:

What’s all this talk about aiming? Unless you’re clicking on your utility bar to use your skills you shouldn’t have to aim anything.

Arcane Wave is ground targeted — you have to aim and click to activate the skill (depending upon your UI settings). Where you been in this conversation?

Jeydra.4386:

Linnael.1069:

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

No, but it’s enough to reduce the difference to a tiny fraction of a second. Combining that with the other effects of Arcane Wave being ranged (like its ability to stack Might or hit targets without having to go into melee range, or its ability to stack Swiftness without also entering combat) I’m inclined to view this as a buff. It’s not a major one, but it’s a buff nonetheless.

1. Stacking buffs at range is situationally more advantageous and is excluded on D/D weapon set regardless of situation.

2. stacking swiftness with Wave at range isn’t any different for entering combat than stacking swiftness locally with the old PBAoE Wave.

3. It’s a nerf with regards to execution time depending upon your skill with mouse-keyboard operation. Since Wave is instant you can cast while doing something else. Now you have to slip some click operations in there while doing that.

As an S/D ele, I support the OP’s proposal.

I very much dislike this undocumented and non-previewed change.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Skillful? You don’t know what skillful is. Want an example?

In Legacy of the Foefire, while battling for Graveyard there was a zerker Necromancer on the ledge.
I used Grasping Earth to leap towards him, Updraft to knock him down off the ledge, then Ride the Lightning to quickly follow.
Now the Necromancer is now pinned against the wall. I used Burning Speed but because of the craziness behind me I couldn’t see the line and my cursor missed my Burning Speed, I hit the wall and completely missed the Necromancer. Now the Necromancer slipped away with only a sliver of health.

It’s not really bragging when you’re just talking about standard skill usage.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Prior to this update, I should have won, I did everything right and the Necromancer made a grave error of laying a bunch of wells, thinking it would protect him on the ledge. But no, I was punished all because I couldn’t see where to aim.

I’m not sure if you’re even talking about [Arcane Wave] anymore. If you are, you could have waited until he dodged away and then blasted him while he had that “sliver of health” left.

Nova Stiker.8396:

“Blowing the two skills together is a good way to waste damage.”
And that proves you are a noob Elementalist.

It proves that I’m a patient player that waits for opportunities. Also, by the sounds of your little story just above this quote, it sounds like you did what I had just warned you not to do (used the two skills together and wasted the damage). Just because you have a line up some skills properly does not mean that they are poorly designed. In fact, it means the opposite. Working damage onto an opponent by negotiating prerequisites like aiming, timing and possible post-cast delays while also perceiving openings an an opponent’s defense is a sign of skill. Pressing buttons super fast because they have instant effects is not skillful. Anyone can do that. Also anyone can dodge that.

Nova Stiker.8396:

“The 360 radius is enormous.”
Yet for the blast to take effect, your MOUSE be on the field, regardless of the finisher size.

Again, this is very easy to do. The radius is huge and finding an enemy with your cursor is not difficult when the AoE activates instantly and is 10 times wider than the model that you’re trying to hit. You just need a tiny smidgen of timing and finesse.

Mind you, my point about [Arcane Wave] being stronger than ever still stands. All your anecdotal evidence about “I can hit with it anymore because [Burning Speed] is hard” isn’t disproving anything. All I can say to you is to practice with the newly designed [Arcane Wave] and stop mashing every offensive attack key in rapid succession whenever you see an opponent.

Let’s imagine an alternate reality where arcane wave was already ranged and, after this patch, they made it a PBAoE spell instead.

Everyone would complain about it and ask for a revert too.

In the end, people are complaining because it’s something new, it’s out of their confort zone, it demands them to adapt, and not everyone reacts well to that.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Let’s imagine an alternate reality where arcane wave was already ranged and, after this patch, they made it a PBAoE spell instead.

Everyone would complain about it and ask for a revert too.

In the end, people are complaining because it’s something new, it’s out of their confort zone, it demands them to adapt, and not everyone reacts well to that.

This. People just need to practice with it. It’s more powerful than ever and I can’t believe that people are crying for a revert because it’s slightly more difficult to do drive-bys with it.

juno.1840:

1. Stacking buffs at range is situationally more advantageous and is excluded on D/D weapon set regardless of situation.

2. stacking swiftness with Wave at range isn’t any different for entering combat than stacking swiftness locally with the old PBAoE Wave.

3. It’s a nerf with regards to execution time depending upon your skill with mouse-keyboard operation. Since Wave is instant you can cast while doing something else. Now you have to slip some click operations in there while doing that.

Maybe, but it is STILL a buff and the extra possibilities outweigh the extra execution time.

Seems to me that only the people who aren’t willing to play better and aren’t willing to switch off D/D or D/F or whatever particular build they were using prior to the patch are complaining.

The “learn to play” and “get use to it” arguments are getting very aggravating.

The buff does not outweigh the nerf when specifically examining the D/D combo chain.

If you cannot see the difficulties a D/D ele has executing a multi-stage skill combo then there’s no need to continue this discussion. There is no alternative to replace Arcane Wave in this specific use case, so in short ANet has decided that it’s not important (most likely unintentionally). The new heal is not a substitute that is worth the trade-off compared to the old Arcane Wave.

juno.1840:

The “learn to play” and “get use to it” arguments are getting very aggravating.

The buff does not outweigh the nerf when specifically examining the D/D combo chain.

If you cannot see the difficulties a D/D ele has executing a multi-stage skill combo then there’s no need to continue this discussion. There is no alternative to replace Arcane Wave in this specific use case, so in short ANet has decided that it’s not important (most likely unintentionally). The new heal is not a substitute that is worth the trade-off compared to the old Arcane Wave.

No dude, like, just l2p.
“This isn’t a nerf, just play better!”
“This doesn’t change your playstyle!……But srsly why don’t you change your playstyle then?”
“I’m a staff ele”
“Why not replace Wave with Brilliance?”

These posts are all kinds of hilarious. It’s like the ele subforum is some kind of alternate Lovecraftian dimension of mind bending.

juno.1840:

The “learn to play” and “get use to it” arguments are getting very aggravating.

The buff does not outweigh the nerf when specifically examining the D/D combo chain.

If you cannot see the difficulties a D/D ele has executing a multi-stage skill combo then there’s no need to continue this discussion. There is no alternative to replace Arcane Wave in this specific use case, so in short ANet has decided that it’s not important (most likely unintentionally). The new heal is not a substitute that is worth the trade-off compared to the old Arcane Wave.

I haven’t had much trouble landing the wave on my burning speed currently, it just takes some getting used to. Tip: take the newest aoe targeting that previews the skill on key press and executes on pulling up. It makes using arcane wave way easier and gives you as much accuracy as the other way.

Yes, it raises the skill-floor some and is slightly more cumbersome, but you also can use wave in other situations too. Chasing that guy that is almost dead but out of range: wave him dead. See that ranger drop a water field over there: wave it in. It adds more skill ceiling to our class, even as d/d with a small cost to ease of use.

I like having the options.

At the very least they should revert it for underwater. its completely useless in underwater combat. And i’m one of the strange people who likes fighting underwater. this totally ruined the skill for me. Or they could jsut revert it completely and then put in a trait that you can take to make it ranged for the handful of people who like this stupid change.

Swagg.9236:

snip

I’m going to cut you a bit of slack because you’re a self-admitted staff user talking daggers, and really don’t know what you’re saying.

1: Burning speed to ring of fire is terrible and mindblowingly kittenty. It’s as much a noobtrap as RTL to Updraft. You lose the 1s burn from BS for Fire grab if you have a setup, and if you don’t have a setup you’re guaranteed to see a dodge come out post BS.

2: People are talking about stringing things onto BS because you need to either setup or engage with the skill anyways. Its not going to be dodged some of the time, its dodged every single time. As such, taking advantage of the cc/immob/suprise that you’re using to land it is critical.

3: Flash to Wave is a completely terrible execute. It has no advantage over anything else against low health foes. Its much better as an engage to front load damage. I have no idea why you bring this up as some sort of utility that everybody used, because nobody did, and after the change even if you wanted to you might as well just wave first instead of snapping from flash to wave as you describe.

4: Saying that arcanes should have aftercast to make them more readable is just nonsensical, and i’m gonna let you rethink that one yourself.

5: The entire burst opening for D/D is instant and should happen within a frame of BS finishing. Nobody cares if you can wave after BS, because that delays the might until after all of your damage.

In response to suggestions that we use blast instead:

Blast is bodyblocked by minions/clones/spirits. Blast won’t help you clear clones. Blast won’t kill thieves. Blast’s 1500 range is useless unless by some circumstance the enemy escapes ~600 range with less than 2k to spare. Blast won’t go through walls or down through floors.

Haven’t heard anything yet on why all these other kits needed 900 range for wave and couldn’t use Blast instead. Scepter might stack builds need to be on the field anyways, and giving up 3 earth finishers so you can use a utility for 1 combo from less than 1200 range? laughable. Staff’s utility finishers are universally better when placed around the self. Clearly, though all of this is more important that being able to smooth turn and click while executing combos.

Lostwingman.5034:

“This isn’t a nerf, just play better!”
“This doesn’t change your playstyle!……But srsly why don’t you change your playstyle then?”
“I’m a staff ele”
“Why not replace Wave with Brilliance?”

Lol. Too true, too true.

Linnael.1069:

1: Burning speed to ring of fire is terrible and mindblowingly kittenty. It’s as much a noobtrap as RTL to Updraft. You lose the 1s burn from BS for Fire grab if you have a setup, and if you don’t have a setup you’re guaranteed to see a dodge come out post BS.

After going in on some of the Heart of the Mists NPCs with that combo, I now realize that. [Burning Speed] is dodge bait enough. Using [Ring of Fire] directly after it is just asking for wasted damage. This, however, has no bearing how whether or not [Arcane Wave] is worse off or not than it was prior to this patch, so your comment is irrelevant.

Linnael.1069:

2: People are talking about stringing things onto BS because you need to either setup or engage with the skill anyways. Its not going to be dodged some of the time, its dodged every single time. As such, taking advantage of the cc/immob/suprise that you’re using to land it is critical.

OK, this one I have to say that using [Arcane Wave] is obnoxiously easy in conjunction with [Burning Speed]. I had no issues whatsoever not only hitting with both of the skills at the same time but also successfully blasting the fire field left by [Burning Speed] for might. I seriously cannot understand how people are complaining about this change. It’s entirely possible to just use the skill as the old PBAoE format, but now it has range in case somebody is fleeing or dodges one of your melee attacks and moves out to mid-range.

Linnael.1069:

3: Flash to Wave is a completely terrible execute. It has no advantage over anything else against low health foes. Its much better as an engage to front load damage. I have no idea why you bring this up as some sort of utility that everybody used, because nobody did, and after the change even if you wanted to you might as well just wave first instead of snapping from flash to wave as you describe.

I’ve already said that the technique is wonkier after the patch. I never said that I kept using it. Also, front-loading damage is overrated if you know that someone has plenty of healing combined with possible invulnerabilities, stun-breaks or stealth. Playing this game in a controlled manner is often much more effective than pressing every button possible on enemy sight (except maybe in PvE).

Linnael.1069:

4: Saying that arcanes should have aftercast to make them more readable is just nonsensical, and i’m gonna let you rethink that one yourself.

Post-cast delays, not after-cast; similar to [Lava Font]. It’s much more balanced that way. Right now, dodging an arcane ability is a complete craps shoot because no one can really see it coming. It’s legitimately unfair and contrary to how GW2 was supposedly designed as a game (emphasis on reading an enemy’s attack and reacting to it). However, most players are just used to using overpowered skills so asking for balance is often jarring.

Linnael.1069:

5: The entire burst opening for D/D is instant and should happen within a frame of BS finishing. Nobody cares if you can wave after BS, because that delays the might until after all of your damage.

If you’re referring to [Arcane Wave] somehow ruining this opener, I’ve already described that one can very easily still still accomplish that.

It’s, really, really hard not to say l2p at this point. I’m serious. This change is literally a l2p moment. [Arcane Wave] is nothing but stronger now and people are complaining because they just can’t mash buttons exactly like they could before despite that fact even though one can still use [Arcane Wave] in the exact same fashion as it was used prior to its recent change.

OK, OK. Everyone. I found your problem:

Turn on fast-cast ground-targeting with the AoE indicator. I didn’t even think about this until someone told me about it because I really can’t understand why someone would play with the default.

These people who uses their mouse to cast skills needs to start learning that using your finger to keybind cast is faster..

Linnael.1069:

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 completely agree and you’ve made a great case, Linnael. I was ready to chew nails when I went to cast Arcane Wave and it all of a sudden wanted me to target it, instead of getting the insta-cast by just pressing the number. If the Devs read this—please for the love of the Six change it back to the way it was. Consider—I am not the most coordinated person in the world, and when I am trying to move with WASD, click with my left and right mouse buttons and side mouse buttons plus also pressing number buttons AND trying to type to party members/guildmates/people in the area—I really don’t NEED one more bloody thing to try to do when I’m trying to blast things with a Double Dagger build. Magnet Grasp/Magnetic Leap were already nerfed to absolute uselessness, please don’t ruin one more skill.

zCatchMee.6098:

These people who uses their mouse to cast skills needs to start learning that using your finger to keybind cast is faster..

Are you saying that you have a keyboard macro that you use to control a mouse cursor to use ground targeted skills and that this is faster than using your mouse?

Adastra.9821:

zCatchMee.6098:

These people who uses their mouse to cast skills needs to start learning that using your finger to keybind cast is faster..

Are you saying that you have a keyboard macro that you use to control a mouse cursor to use ground targeted skills and that this is faster than using your mouse?

No, and I am not talking specifically to arcane wave. The interval between dragging your mouse to your skill, then to the ground/target takes more time than using your finger, keybinded from a skill, when your mouse had always been on said ground/target. I understand that there are those who struggle with fast-pace/stress on their fingers during a fight, but as a D/D, you SHOULD be quick with your skills. Staff ele on the other hand has great use on AW.

More critical opinion/perspective from a hardcore duelist D/D ele 1v1/ wvw (I don’t use AW in wvw, but It is definitely better with a ranged AW in zerg fights with so many capabilities) is that the risk (time of interval from a keybind caster perspective, such as myself) is worth the update on AW, which is the RANGE cast. Again, since you guys are talking about perspective wise, us fast-fingers players like this update, slow-fingers players hate them.

Casuals….

zCatchMee.6098:

Adastra.9821:

zCatchMee.6098:

These people who uses their mouse to cast skills needs to start learning that using your finger to keybind cast is faster..

Are you saying that you have a keyboard macro that you use to control a mouse cursor to use ground targeted skills and that this is faster than using your mouse?

No, and I am not talking specifically to arcane wave. The interval between dragging your mouse to your skill, then to the ground/target takes more time than using your finger, keybinded from a skill, when your mouse had always been on said ground/target. I understand that there are those who struggle with fast-pace/stress on their fingers during a fight, but as a D/D, you SHOULD be quick with your skills. Staff ele on the other hand has great use on AW.

More critical opinion/perspective from a hardcore duelist D/D ele 1v1/ wvw (I don’t use AW in wvw, but It is definitely better with a ranged AW in zerg fights with so many capabilities) is that the risk (time of interval from a keybind caster perspective, such as myself) is worth the update on AW, which is the RANGE cast. Again, since you guys are talking about perspective wise, us fast-fingers players like this update, slow-fingers players hate them.

Casuals….

Maybe I should have been more direct and clear.

People are talking the increase in delay from having to click after pressing the keyboard whereas the click wasn’t necessary before. This is obviously not what you thought was being discussed.

Reading comprehension…

Adastra.9821:

zCatchMee.6098:

Adastra.9821:

zCatchMee.6098:

These people who uses their mouse to cast skills needs to start learning that using your finger to keybind cast is faster..

Are you saying that you have a keyboard macro that you use to control a mouse cursor to use ground targeted skills and that this is faster than using your mouse?

No, and I am not talking specifically to arcane wave. The interval between dragging your mouse to your skill, then to the ground/target takes more time than using your finger, keybinded from a skill, when your mouse had always been on said ground/target. I understand that there are those who struggle with fast-pace/stress on their fingers during a fight, but as a D/D, you SHOULD be quick with your skills. Staff ele on the other hand has great use on AW.

More critical opinion/perspective from a hardcore duelist D/D ele 1v1/ wvw (I don’t use AW in wvw, but It is definitely better with a ranged AW in zerg fights with so many capabilities) is that the risk (time of interval from a keybind caster perspective, such as myself) is worth the update on AW, which is the RANGE cast. Again, since you guys are talking about perspective wise, us fast-fingers players like this update, slow-fingers players hate them.

Casuals….

Maybe I should have been more direct and clear.

People are talking the increase in delay from having to click after pressing the keyboard whereas the click wasn’t necessary before. This is obviously not what you thought was being discussed.

Reading comprehension…

Sorry, English is my second language. But I believe I made it clear (second to last sentence) but here it is again: that the new AW update has a risk (the time interval) is underweighted to the benefit, the range AW (BLAST,DAMAGE,AOE). And again.. it’s perspective wise, I like it and the time difference is probably ~0.3 sec for me. Just putting my input

Also, Arcane Wave is pretty much useless underwater now.

I personally really like the new Arcane Wave targeting. However, it is totally and completely useless in underwater fighting….

zCatchMee.6098:

Sorry, English is my second language. But I believe I made it clear (second to last sentence) but here it is again: that the new AW update has a risk (the time interval) is underweighted to the benefit, the range AW (BLAST,DAMAGE,AOE). And again.. it’s perspective wise, I like it and the time difference is probably ~0.3 sec for me. Just putting my input

I was referring to the first thing you said in this thread when you said

zCatchMee.6098:

These people who uses their mouse to cast skills needs to start learning that using your finger to keybind cast is faster..

I was just giving you a hard time so I’ll apologize for that.

Swagg.9236:

snip

Before I begin this final response, I want you to know I have respect for your play as a staff ele. I’ve never seen it but I’m sure its not bad. I also appreciate the time you spent testing the A Wave change. That said, you’re plainly out of your element when trying to discuss the melee burst aspect of this change. While I will be more than willing to listen to your judgement on how this affects a Staff build, and how much of an improvement its made to your play, I will no longer be responding to your forays into the world of d/d burst. Now, lets get down to business:

The question isn’t “can we use BS and A Wave at the same time” You can and its easy. Nobody is arguing that.

Can you start BS, finish the moving portion of the skill, Flash to target, Move mouse back and cast wave, and then have BS explode? Against the thief that you need to keep a finger on blind for while turning to make sure you can keep eyes on the guardian to clickrideupdraft if he starts casting from the book?

No, you can’t. It takes longer than the frame you have on BS to move mouse from flash destination to wave, and if you can’t finish that in time you need to delay the airswap, and then if you delay that the thief hits his osnap button and theres the fight right there.

Your issue is that you’re still thinking basics, and from a staff perspective. This is why the people who actually play bursting daggers will tell you that waiting for after the block/invuln/heal to use damage afterwards is stupid. The idea is that you never let them get to even thinking about that before you smack the hell out of them. Want to try staying in the fight through shatter mesmer’s 2s invuln every 8s, distortion, heal, and staff escape? Good luck with that. You need to get it into your head that even 0.1s is an eternity when you’re playing melee burst. Spending 3/4s to cast Brilliance, or the small amount of time to cast wave, feels -wowsofast- to you, because you’re sitting at 1200 range all day.

If you wanna get an idea from a more personal perspective, go play 3 games or roam an hour with full zerker 0/30/10/20/10 d/d.

Or, you could, you know, hit the npcs in heart of the mists. I’m sure you’ll get qualified to talk eventually.

So your running around instagib mode and your instagib has taken a slight hit. I can see the issue you would have with the change. It still is a very slight hit on your setup. Running that spec every bit matters I understand your reason why you don’t like the change since that’s what you run.

It seems like most of you are talking about this skill in PvP, is that correct? I don’t play PvP because I don’t particularly like it. I’m a 98% PvE player, and the change to Arcane Wave really ruins my fightability (is that a word?) when I am surrounded by enemies and trying to blast away. Please, please, ANet….get rid of the targeting on this skill and revert it to what it was. And I am not a noob, I played GW1 pretty much every day from launch to GW2 launch, and I was in the Beta weekends of GW2 launch, and I play this every day.

oZii.2864:

So your running around instagib mode and your instagib has taken a slight hit. I can see the issue you would have with the change. It still is a very slight hit on your setup. Running that spec every bit matters I understand your reason why you don’t like the change since that’s what you run.

I agree that its a specific spec, but I also think your statements that “every bit matters” really applies a ton, and the slight hit here is far more detrimental than the buff to other specs.

Also consider that the arcane damage skills are pretty much designed to do this kind of burst. Its what its niche is, and it shouldn’t be randomly thrown out of what makes it unique just so staffs can get another finisher.

Its not like we’re telling other specs to go screw themselves either. The original post has a whole catalog of reasons why arcane brilliance fits other builds much better, and suggests that brilliance get a buff specifically for ranged specs. Rather than telling melee comboers to trade their condition removal for a blast finisher that isn’t even instant and can’t do half the things wave was useful for, why don’t we tell slower casting builds with better condition removal to do that?

To all the guys defending A. Wave change:

I’m giving up in this case, just don’t cry when Anet unintentionally do some more “unintentional” changes like they do all the time, without even writing them to patch notes etc.
I’m curious about your reaction when something crazy like changing lava font to be targetted directly on target (like DT is) or anything similar to that happen….

If you don’t understand, this is more about trying to prevent unannounced/unintentional changes to happen, not a fight over a single skill mechanic, got it?

Linnael.1069:

Can you start BS, finish the moving portion of the skill, Flash to target, Move mouse back and cast wave, and then have BS explode? Against the thief that you need to keep a finger on blind for while turning to make sure you can keep eyes on the guardian to clickrideupdraft if he starts casting from the book?

Just cast [Arcane Wave] before [Lightning Flash] then. It’s all instant-cast, no post-cast delay, AoE damage so one shouldn’t have difficulty landing the skills if you just spam in the proper order. It’s just takes a bit of practice.

And seriously, turn on fast-cast ground targeting if you’re still using the default.

STRanger.5120:

To all the guys defending A. Wave change:

I’m giving up in this case, just don’t cry when Anet unintentionally do some more “unintentional” changes like they do all the time, without even writing them to patch notes etc.
I’m curious about your reaction when something crazy like changing lava font to be targetted directly on target (like DT is) or anything similar to that happen….

If you don’t understand, this is more about trying to prevent unannounced/unintentional changes to happen, not a fight over a single skill mechanic, got it?

All I’m seeing is a lot of people upset that they have to readjust how they play spammy burst rotations. With this change, the original function of [Arcane Wave] remains intact if you use it with proper timing and aim, but it now also opens up a lot of other options for chase and ranged support/damage.

When you say something like making [Lava Font] into an on-target skill, you’re talking about destroying that skill’s integrity because it’s a skill that typically needs to lead a target in order to hit because of its (balanced and fine) post-cast delay. [Arcane Wave] is instant-cast, without a post-cast delay and with an enormous AoE. One barely needs to think at all when using it if using it as part of a raw damage rotation. Making it a ranged ground-targeting skill didn’t disrupt its original use at all; it only expanded its potential usage in combat.

It comes down to this:

• Are you close to your target?
  • If yes, cast [Arcane Wave] on your target.
  • If no, are you planning on [Lightning Flash]ing to your target?
    • If yes, cast [Arcane Wave] on your target prior to [Lightning Flash] so your cursor doesn’t have to move as much.
    • If no, just cast [Arcane Wave] on your target anyway because it’s stupid good damage for free at range.

Cast [Arcane Wave] on your target. It’s that simple.
Oh, and turn on fast-cast ground-targeting.

Swagg.9236:

STRanger.5120:

To all the guys defending A. Wave change:

I’m giving up in this case, just don’t cry when Anet unintentionally do some more “unintentional” changes like they do all the time, without even writing them to patch notes etc.
I’m curious about your reaction when something crazy like changing lava font to be targetted directly on target (like DT is) or anything similar to that happen….

If you don’t understand, this is more about trying to prevent unannounced/unintentional changes to happen, not a fight over a single skill mechanic, got it?

All I’m seeing is a lot of people upset that they have to readjust how they play spammy burst rotations. With this change, the original function of [Arcane Wave] remains intact if you use it with proper timing and aim, but it now also opens up a lot of other options for chase and ranged support/damage.

When you say something like making [Lava Font] into an on-target skill, you’re talking about destroying that skill’s integrity because it’s a skill that typically needs to lead a target in order to hit because of its (balanced and fine) post-cast delay. [Arcane Wave] is instant-cast, without a post-cast delay and with an enormous AoE. One barely needs to think at all when using it if using it as part of a raw damage rotation. Making it a ranged ground-targeting skill didn’t disrupt its original use at all; it only expanded its potential usage in combat.

It comes down to this:

• Are you close to your target?
  • If yes, cast [Arcane Wave] on your target.
  • If no, are you planning on [Lightning Flash]ing to your target?
    • If yes, cast [Arcane Wave] on your target prior to [Lightning Flash] so your cursor doesn’t have to move as much.
    • If no, just cast [Arcane Wave] on your target anyway because it’s stupid good damage for free at range.

Cast [Arcane Wave] on your target. It’s that simple.
Oh, and turn on fast-cast ground-targeting.

Maybe you should try to get the point of my post, it actually wasn’t about this exact change at all….. Also, I’m playing staff ele, it really didn’t touch my rotations at all, but I know what are our D/D colleagues are talking about, and feel their pain. D/D got smashed a lot already, there’s no need to destroy the weapon set completely with changes like this….
It’s just another example of ignoring Elementalists core issues, nothing more, nothing less……

STRanger.5120:

Maybe you should try to get the point of my post, it actually wasn’t about this exact change at all….. Also, I’m playing staff ele, it really didn’t touch my rotations at all, but I know what are our D/D colleagues are talking about, and feel their pain. D/D got smashed a lot already, there’s no need to destroy the weapon set completely with changes like this….
It’s just another example of ignoring Elementalists core issues, nothing more, nothing less……

No, I understood the point of your post. However, your comparison between what happened to [Arcane Wave] and some patch somehow making [Lava Font] target akin to [Dragon’s Tooth] is moot because [Arcane Wave] can still be used as part of a raw damage burst rotation in the same manner as that it was prior to this patch. Turning a free ground-targeted skill into a PBAoE or a skill that targets directly on top of an enemy is enough to destroy that skill’s original functionality, but going in the opposite direction is nothing but an improvement in that that skill can now be used as a PBAoE as well as a ranged bomb (since it has no minimum range factor).

This change doesn’t destroy anything. It is truly a “learn to play” situation that we’re dealing with here.

We could do it like this. Arcane Wave is a PBAoE on the user if the button for the skill is tapped, if held for longer than a half second, it turns into a groud target skill. We could easily use that kind of versatility to give both the ones that want to use it in close range and in their rapid-fire combos and the ones that want to use it as a long range Blast finisher exactly what they want.

Frankly, I also figure Arcane Brilliance should be given this same treatment. I dunno about you, but I really don’t like the idea that my squishy self has to get in close to enemies to get the most out of his healing skill.

Is this the “gutted” combo I keep reading about?

Also I feel compelled to point out that having your mouse over your skill bars when activating a ground targeting skills sets the radius to it’s default position. In this case directly under where you’re standing, which essentially makes it exactly what you guys want. That trick is also great for ensuring you spin forward on fiery whirl.

I sincerely hope these complaint threads don’t attract anet’s attention and actually cause a revert on this great gift.

Swagg.9236:

Turning a free ground-targeted skill into a PBAoE or a skill that targets directly on top of an enemy is enough to destroy that skill’s original functionality, but going in the opposite direction is nothing but an improvement in that that skill can now be used as a PBAoE as well as a ranged bomb (since it has no minimum range factor).

Hmm, you know the meaning of the word “improvement”, right?
That says it for itself.
Your “L2P/Adapt” argument is kinda the exact opposite of “improvement”, got that?

If not, you haven’t understood my point at all, and I guess that is clearly visible just because you pinpoint just the “example” from my whole comment as if it was meant seriously, dude, it was just a stupid example of totally unrealistic change, just to highlight my point of unintended/unannounced changes happening all the time.

Bluefox.9580:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpfwg5MUtww

Is this the “gutted” combo I keep reading about?

Also I feel compelled to point out that having your mouse over your skill bars when activating a ground targeting skills sets the radius to it’s default position. In this case directly under where you’re standing, which essentially makes it exactly what you guys want. That trick is also great for ensuring you spin forward on fiery whirl.

I sincerely hope these complaint threads don’t attract anet’s attention and actually cause a revert on this great gift.

Wait a second … that was a pretty good attempt, however try doing it from further back and then flashing to where you want to hit, that’s the point. You don’t only use BS + AW + LF for upfront burst, you also use it to extend your effective engagement range and direction.