Nerfs were mentioned for LH and IB-4 damage. If it must be, then make it so, and I would gladly trade the “Auto-attack only” and “hit 4 and drop it techniques” for more utility. BUT I think there should be REAL utility, like the kind that would make you use a conjure even in PvP.
For Lightning Hammer and Flame Axe – Since they have charges and block off attunements, they can hit harder than normal weapons since they are a hassle to summon and take up a utility while trading 20 skills for 5. However, all the damage is currently front loaded into auto attacks along with the most desirable features like blinds, blasts, and might.
Hammer- What if hammer had the blind moved to 2 (leap skill), and added an aoe stun on 4 (lightning storm)? Would make it a great control wep to synergize with all the cool interrupt air traits. For auto attack, it could maintain decent damage, but the 3rd hit blast could use the longer Guardian hammer animation on 3rd auto hit. It would spread out the blast finishers a little longer, and slow the rate of truck-like hits, even forcing you to abandon some.
Flame Axe- If burning will stack, then it is already somewhat buffed. Maybe the 2 skill does more damage to burning foes so that you stack some might with 1, use 3,4,&5 to apply it, and then 2 is a finisher. You could change 4 to a fire damage ring, but with a smoke field (Where there’s fire…), and the leap could combo stealth unique to this one conjure for ele. Also, it’s not an exact copy of dagger skill.
For Ice bow and Earth Shield – glad they are not for heavy damage and have themes of their own. Still, what good is all of the Earth Shield defense if nothing wants to hit you?
Earth Shield- This weapon needs taunt like a real tank. It could be a single-target, short taunt on skill 2 or a 3-5-target AoE taunt on skill 5 for the duration of the invulnerability. (or both
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Ice bow- needs more support, but I know that we don’t want out of control healing in just any gear or spec. However, with dps gear, auto attack feels too weak, and with healing gear, auto attack heals also feel too weak. What if auto attack also pulsed a 1-second Resistance to allies around the target? What if skill 4 damage was nerfed, bleeds changed to short chill or medium vuln, but it also created a water field OR 1 condi removal from each impact? What if skill 3 had a longer chill so it would be more useful as an aoe at a distance instead of point blank on one guy to stack a decent chill? In PvP a long chill can be punishing, but even if it hit point blank, then it’s just a question of condi removal to counter play it. Finally, for all-around usability and to deal some damage, what if it had 1200 range and the skill 2 did more damage based on distance? Like at 900-1200, it could hit as hard as a ranger’s longbow 2, but you are weaker close up so you can’t exactly mimic one of a Ranger’s best skills.
Finally…
Wackadoodle idea for a conjurer trait – Having a conjure on your bar replaces your weapon automatically while in the associated attument, and the skill on the bar creates a wep with charges for allies and grants a boon. I.E: I run daggers, but in earth attunement, I am auto-swapped to the earth shield cause I have that skill on my bar. I can run 3 conjures and replace 3 attunements that I choose. FGS would just replace fire attunement for a short time. Without cast time, Earth Shield on attunement swap could become a stun break with an internal cooldown separate from earth attunement CD and finally give a stun break to conjures. (if possible, only start stun break CD when a stun is broken, and I don’t think this is out of line with some of the traits that shrug of 1 CC every once in a while)
This would also be an alternative solution to what I said earlier about making flame axe/lightning hammer hit harder because of limitations on attunement swapping and skill bar space. Their damage could be balanced to match normal weps like engi kits are, but they would not be an exact copy of the engi kit mechanics.