Guild Wars 2

So usually 99/100 times other players can completely avoid churning earths, it’s so telegraphed, and such a long cast time that a simple dodge usually negates it.

Most people do just walk out or dodge it. I noted yesterday as a thief was butchering me they simply blinded me and took 0 damage.

So if i’m blinded does everyone in the churning earth vicinity take 0 damage?

Also, really??, a blind prevents damage from an aoe spell?

Am I just going mad?

It’s also:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisher

Should it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?

im not using this skill, waste of time, only when some1 is ressing.

You cant put it right next to shatterstone and dragons tooth, on the “great skills to never use in pvp”

Rottaran Owain.6789:

It’s also:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisher

Should it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?

There is a trick how you can use Chruning earth and hit with it most of the time, you just start casting it, then use Lightning Flash to close in on your target, as the earth finishes its cast time.

My main issue is the blind effect, I know that this is a game, and realism etc etc..

But how exactly does a blind prevent you from taking damage from an aoe spell, there is no visual component to it, no targetting required, my vision has nothing do with someone being caught up in the effect.

Lawful.5314:

There is a trick how you can use Chruning earth and hit with it most of the time, you just start casting it, then use Lightning Flash to close in on your target, as the earth finishes its cast time.

True, and this ability really shines when it comes to group play. I’ve seen small groups wreck shop in WvW by stacking this, and getting the drop on the enemy with the help of a thief.

Edit: Every single hit AoE is effected in the same illogical way. If someone is doing that to you though, you could lend the blind to lure them into a false sense of security. Try cleansing the blind just before the attack with cleansing flame. If you time it well, it won’t even matter if they put a blind field on you.

My problem with churning earth is that it has become the most easily avoidable skill in the game, you almost always have to use an utility skill to land it (either teleport or stability), you’re completely vulnerable for 3 freaking seconds! It may be one of the highest damages in the game but if you compare it to other high damaging skills ,when it comes to landing the hit, churning will possibly be the loser.

I wish they’d reduce the cast time a little, or do something crazy like being able to walk while you cast it….. Would that be too crazy? With so many interrupts and blinds being thrown around, I think it would be fine.

Rottaran Owain.6789:

It’s also:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisher

Should it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?

It is so hard to land (without LF exploit) that spell itself became completely useless. I’d be happy to see it nerfed in damage, radius or whatever, but usable.
Or add immobilize instead of cripple on every tick to prevent dodge – that would be fun.
Or make ele invunerable (like earth shield’s skill) – that will make it nice defensive/area denial skill.
But currently its a joke usable only with LF or in tunnels.

If you use Lightning Flash to teleport to the target area, it does damage with a 120 radius. That will use up the blind which only affects the next outgoing attack.

Pretty much to land CE you have to use LF anyway, so just be sure to teleport close to your target. More players will use a dodge or have swiftness to move out of range than be quick enough to use blind. :Either way LF will take care of that.

Arcturus.8109:

Rottaran Owain.6789:

It’s also:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisher

Should it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?

It is so hard to land (without LF exploit) that spell itself became completely useless. I’d be happy to see it nerfed in damage, radius or whatever, but usable.
Or add immobilize instead of cripple on every tick to prevent dodge – that would be fun.
Or make ele invunerable (like earth shield’s skill) – that will make it nice defensive/area denial skill.
But currently its a joke usable only with LF or in tunnels.

LF is not an exploit. It’s a tool the devs have given the class to make sure that #5 skill is not useless. #5 skills are the strongest skills any class has and have long cooldowns. Designing the game so that ours would be useless in any WvW or SPvP environment would be a huge nerf.

It’s cast time needs to be cut in half for what it’s worth and unfortunately, unless you cast it in a mosh pit, people will just walk out. Use lightning flash which will also east the blind.

Rottaran Owain.6789:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)

Wow, just wow.

Baladir.2736:

Arcturus.8109:

Rottaran Owain.6789:

It’s also:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisher

Should it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?

It is so hard to land (without LF exploit) that spell itself became completely useless. I’d be happy to see it nerfed in damage, radius or whatever, but usable.
Or add immobilize instead of cripple on every tick to prevent dodge – that would be fun.
Or make ele invunerable (like earth shield’s skill) – that will make it nice defensive/area denial skill.
But currently its a joke usable only with LF or in tunnels.

LF is not an exploit. It’s a tool the devs have given the class to make sure that #5 skill is not useless. #5 skills are the strongest skills any class has and have long cooldowns. Designing the game so that ours would be useless in any WvW or SPvP environment would be a huge nerf.

But it is useless in WvW and SPvP without lightning flash. The skill is either worthless taking one slot or marginally passable taking up two. Saying it is among the top five skills in damage is pointless, measuring its damage up against any two skills would be more accurate. And I would wager under that it wouldn’t measure up as being worth slotting under any circumstances.

Rottaran Owain.6789:

It’s also:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisher

Should it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?

- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.
- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.
- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.
- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.

Also, how are you calculating the damage? because its from the bleeds, even if it hits that damage is nothing more than POTENTIAL damage, until the very last tick. All the condition removal means no one is going to take the full damage anyway.

A wide AoE. That is EASY to escape from, so that means nothing. Even the Cripple is a joke. A blast finisher….Yay. Nothing more than Might stacking unless you are with a group of course.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Also, how are you calculating the damage? because its from the bleeds, even if it hits that damage is nothing more than POTENTIAL damage, until the very last tick. All the condition removal means no one is going to take the full damage anyway.

A wide AoE. That is EASY to escape from, so that means nothing. Even the Cripple is a joke. A blast finisher….Yay. Nothing more than Might stacking unless you are with a group of course.

It has a base damage of 1092, and power co-efficient 3.25-ish before considering bleeds. For reference, backstab is 806/2.4, and eviscerate is 1008/3.0. Neither of which can hit multiple targets, and both have to have conditions met to be used.

I would argue that the arguably strongest weapon skill in the game should be the hardest to hit with.

I would also argue that it’s uselessness in a 1v1 fight is negligible as there is no mode in GW2 that is balanced around 1vx PvP.

Rottaran Owain.6789:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Also, how are you calculating the damage? because its from the bleeds, even if it hits that damage is nothing more than POTENTIAL damage, until the very last tick. All the condition removal means no one is going to take the full damage anyway.

A wide AoE. That is EASY to escape from, so that means nothing. Even the Cripple is a joke. A blast finisher….Yay. Nothing more than Might stacking unless you are with a group of course.

It has a base damage of 1092, and power co-efficient 3.25-ish before considering bleeds. For reference, backstab is 806/2.4, and eviscerate is 1008/3.0. Neither of which can hit multiple targets, and both have to have conditions met to be used.

I would argue that the arguably strongest weapon skill in the game should be the hardest to hit with.

I would also argue that it’s uselessness in a 1v1 fight is negligible as there is no mode in GW2 that is balanced around 1vx PvP.

Is that it? It needs to be much higher considering its near impossible to land compared to a skill that is used from stealth…

I have used it, with 74% Crit damage and 1,600 Power it deals about 4k crit damage. Yet, take 6-12k damage from a skill that is a 4 second cool down and even taken more than 12k damage before…

Lesson 1, on using Churning Earth:

1- Make sure you have Lightning Flash and Armor of Earth ready
2- Cast Armor of Earth
3- Cast Churning Earth
4- Lightning Flash on your enemy 1 sec before it ends

Otherwise: Don’t use it.

Xillllix.3485:

Lesson 1, on using Churning Earth:

1- Make sure you have Lightning Flash ready
2- Cast Armor of Earth
3- Cast Churning Earth
4- Lightning Flash on your enemy 1 sec before it ends

Needing a 90second and 40 second cool down to make it even remotely useable and you would only be able to use it once as the enemy would then be expecting it every time you try it after…

…Says it all about the skill.

Lawful.5314:

Rottaran Owain.6789:

It’s also:

-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisher

Should it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?

There is a trick how you can use Chruning earth and hit with it most of the time, you just start casting it, then use Lightning Flash to close in on your target, as the earth finishes its cast time.

people haven’t learnt to count to 3 then dodge yet? because once you face these people that can count, then you’ve had 3 seconds of letting beat on you, used a utility skill and all that you have to show for it is 4 seconds of cripple.

Another Problem is, a 3.xxx power coefficient may sound nice, but dont forget the class u are on.
This Skill is melee, has a 3 sec channel and dont forget the class u are on.

So in zerker its kinda useless, u get killed before u executed the skill most of the times.
So you have to at least run in soldier gear and skill at least one of the defensive trees (water or earth).
Most of the ppl prefer the lightning tree over the fire tree, cause the lightning tree boosts 2 offensive stats while fire only boosts one.

So u have to sacrifice a lot of stats and use at least use LF in order to land it.
Without zerker stats churning earth dmg is far from scary for any opponent.
If you are tanky ppl can even ignore it.
When I tried out an Aquamancer Build I got up to 4.5k crits on NOT tanky ppl.
Being a immobile target for 3s, as Elementalist doesnt justify this.

There are some limited uses it can be quite useful though, baiting thiefes out of their houses before they get really invisible e.g.

Lightning flash doesn’t help Churning earth vs people who know the dodge timing. If I ever see an ele doing churning earth I always dodge before it hits even if they are too far out because I know they will lightning flash.

Churning earth has too much risk for it’s incredibly high potential of getting no reward.

So, OP, I would guess by now you know the best way to land it. In 1v1 the damage is not the best because it doesn’t land all the time, especially against good players.

Fiery Greatsword will give very good dps. I’m surprised an advocate of that hasn’t already stuck his head in here and dismissed the damage of CE in comparison to it. They often do when someone brings up CE.

I am assuming you are DD. If so, there are a lot of other skills you can put into your rotation other than CE. CE can be good when there are a fair number of players on a point, just because some just are not going to see it when they are concentrating on players other than you, unless of course they all together targeted you first which often happens to eles. It can be interrupted too, more so with a long cast time, and that is disheartening after spending several seconds to get nothing out of it at all. The player who interrupted it then generally starts beating the tar out of us and we start blowing our dodges and heals just to get away alive. Sure you can use Arcane Shield or Armor of Earth to cast it, Lightning Flash to land it sometimes, but that is 2 or 3 utilities and for what? All of which you didn’t ask about

A lot of players are not good enough to counter it when used correctly, but if you run into someone who is, there are consequences.

If you’re a condition ele with perplexity runes you can use churning as a beacon for OMGLETSINTERRUPT and then pop shocking aura for the stun, this usually results in about 3k raw damage + bleeding + confusion…. And it’s quite funny to watch

Xillllix.3485:

Lesson 1, on using Churning Earth:

1- Make sure you have Lightning Flash and Armor of Earth ready
2- Cast Armor of Earth
3- Cast Churning Earth
4- Lightning Flash on your enemy 1 sec before it ends

Otherwise: Don’t use it.

1- Second before Churning Earth ends you flash to hit
2- Armor of Earth and Lightning flash are on cooldown

3- They immobilize you. IF you have Cleansing Fire you remove that condition, taking some damage.
3- They immobilize you. IF you have Mist form you deny some damage.

4- You start to flee. They immobilize you again!
5- Dead.

Not worth using two skills for Churning Earth. Unless you have your team mates nearby that can protect you from taking tons of damage.

Dolores.5471:

If you’re a condition ele with perplexity runes you can use churning as a beacon for OMGLETSINTERRUPT and then pop shocking aura for the stun, this usually results in about 3k raw damage + bleeding + confusion…. And it’s quite funny to watch

I think there are better runes for Eles I don’t need confusion length if I have no skills that deal confusion at all. But it might work. Did not try.

Remove the root while channeling the skill and instead change it to 50% reduced movement speed while channeling.

phaeris.7604:

My main issue is the blind effect

You could solve that too with lightning flash, because the flash will deal some damage (and thus consume the blind debuff) before churning earth lands.

Duran.3196:

This Skill is melee, has a 3 sec channel and dont forget the class u are on.

With such a large redius you can hardly call it ‘melee’. In fact none of the ele’s main weapons are melee. Most attacks have at least 300 range.

Churning earth was designed originally as a charge skill, you would have been able to release it early for a lesser effect.

I suggest reverting it to that.

what’s the highest damage anyone ever done with CE anyway?

imo it need to hit like 11k and above for me to even consider it (not counting bleed).

and killshot is way easier to land than CE imo, with better reward too.

Too bad that no developer will listen to us XD After all, we’re elementalists and not thieves.

You have to keep in mind :

1- Some skills are useful to zone people.
2- Some skills are meant to be set up, you’re not playing alone for gods sake.
3- Downstate damage is a role elementalist has to take care of. Dragon’s Tooth is amazing at it, and so is churning earth. Just get used to casting a dragon’s tooth on a downed body, and then unleash as much damage as possible if you need to.
4- Churning earth/blink combo is the most predictable gimmick in the world and a waste of blink. Unless you’re fighting ppl that haven’t played much. Then again, you prolly don’t wanna bank on other people’s ignorance rather than actual good plays.
5- WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM

Churning earth is amazing.

Guess what, its not meant for pvp! Or at least not for people who think they will actually easily succeed when they hit a button and it will always hit target in a 1v1….

Yes it is very difficult to hit that spell against something with a brain, but that is what makes it all the more awesome when u rarely do hit it on someone! And as some above stated, its something you can much better use in combination with others, to get a chain of cc down and cast it or whatever.

Meh, I just want churning earth to always crit. It’s easy enough to avoid that it would be fair to ensure that struck enemies take as much damage as you can deal.

I’d like a more reliable churning earth too, but that will never happen. Dragon’s tooth, shatter stone, ice spike, lava font and eruption make it pretty clear that anet wants ele aoe to be countered by casual strolling.

Odin.1354:

Guess what, its not meant for pvp! Or at least not for people who think they will actually easily succeed when they hit a button and it will always hit target in a 1v1….

Actually, I think churning earth is meant for pvp, spvp. I think all the delayed aoe ele skills exist because anet only balances around conquest. You can argue that not hitting anybody with attacks is ok in conquest because you’re potentially “zoning” the enemy out of the capture circle. Nevermind that killing people and knockback spam tend to expel them from a circle too with the advantage of interrupts and killing people.