Guild Wars 2

Fire Storm has a cooldown of 15s on conjure fiery greatsword
Frost Storm has a cooldown of 20s on conjure frost
Lightning Storm has a cooldown of 20s on conjure lightning

Only sandstorm is unavailable through another means.

So why is Glyph of storms 3x as long as the cooldown for these skills used through other means?

I suppose lightning storm is noticably longer than the lightning hammer version, but without pulling out a stopwatch, I’m not seeing a big change in frost or fire storms

If I remember correctly, it used to have a shorter cooldown. However, the Earth storm is VERY strong. It basically got the entire spell nerfed.

Frostedblaze.9017:

If I remember correctly, it used to have a shorter cooldown. However, the Earth storm is VERY strong. It basically got the entire spell nerfed.

It’s a well of darkness, except with a cast time. It’s not THAT strong.

The varients on the weapons are also much stronger. Both versions were cast with the weapons equipped to keep stats equal. No armor or trinkets were equipped for testing. A steady staff was used. Damage listed is non critical hits.

lightning storm- 126 (glyph) vs 162 (hammer)- The glyph version lasts significantly longer, but seems slightly more random and easier to miss with each bolt.

Ice storm- 337 damage + 6 sec bleed (bow) vs 120s + 3sec chill- ice bow’s seems to be the same number of shards but dropped over a much shorter period of time (3seconds rather than 6 seconds), but it’s also a channeled attack.

Firestorm- 271 damage, 9 pulses (greatsword) vs 159 damage, 11 pulses (glyph)- Otherwise they have the same function. Each pulse takes 1 second.

Sandstorm (glyph only)- 11 pulses, one per second, each dealing 116 damage with bleeding/blind in the pattern-blind(3), bleed (2s), bleed (2s) for a total of 4 blinds and 7 bleeds

My suggestions on skill changes below.

Earth storm used to be a blind a second, now its a blind per 3 seconds. Dunno why it has such a long CD

Really the skill should have a 20s cooldown, modifiable to a 16s cooldown, 25s with 20s cooldown through trait tops.

The damage is barely there, and easy to avoid. The long CD makes it a no-go.

Now if they lowered the CD to 15-30 secs, and made it a single huge explosion with interesting side effects (not just the burning, blindness, bleed and chill) of whatever element you choose, with higher burst damage of course, it would be interesting.

I think Earth Storm used to be a Blast or Whirl Finisher, so that is why it has such long CD. Then Anet see it being too strong decided to put no more finisher on Storm, but forget to put its CD to match the change.

The cooldown should be 24-30 seconds and create a fire, frost, lightning or smoke field in the spell area.

Air is terrible. I’ve cast it and hit nothing against golems in the mists (large hit box, stationary targets). The bolts should target people instead of being random.

Improve the effects of the others to match conjures and they would be fine with the lower CD.

Even with a 10 second cooldown I wouldn’t take that spell.

Well this is enlightening, I didn’t realise they nerfed the blind on the storm, no wonder my tanky spec wasn’t working as well

Tbh I think it’d be fixed if fire,air,water had combo fields, it’d bring the others up to the usefulness of earth.

TGSlasher.1458:

Earth storm used to be a blind a second, now its a blind per 3 seconds. Dunno why it has such a long CD

I knew I wasn’t crazy… I remember clearly being virtually invulnerable during the Sandstorm, and then after a patch (without any notes of changing the spell) I was suddenly going down in the middle of it.

It’s still strong though, but a blind per second before was much more awesome.
I think they reduced it because only Thieves can blind once per second, and we’re clearly not Thieves.

Malcastus.6240:

The damage is barely there, and easy to avoid. The long CD makes it a no-go.

Now if they lowered the CD to 15-30 secs, and made it a single huge explosion with interesting side effects (not just the burning, blindness, bleed and chill) of whatever element you choose, with higher burst damage of course, it would be interesting.

I like the storm effects as they are, I just think that the cooldown is extreme compared to what it does, especially when I can use a conjure frost bow and use frost storm TWICE in the time that I can use glyph of storms to cast it once, and that’s with traits to reduce glyph cooldown by 20%.

Conjure earth shield should also have a way to cast sandstorm. The current shield is well… I can’t really find a use for it. You can charge in, pull, and then…. autoattack. It’d be great if you could charge in, aoe pull, and then sandstorm on your location.

Calae.1738:

Even with a 10 second cooldown I wouldn’t take that spell.

How about 20s (16s with glyph trait), and the storms create fields (including a second source of lightning field, currently, only available through static field), and sandstorm is a whirl finisher?

The cooldown complaint should apply to every bloody skill in the game. The longest cooldowns on the most powerful skills should be 30 seconds, TOPS. Balance skill effect/damage around low cooldown, and we’d have a much more reactive game.

On the same note, our weapon skills (ele specific here) should have cast time, or animation delays, but not both. Also tweaking aftercast animation times to be shorter would be nice.

Danicco.3568:

I think they reduced it because only Thieves can blind once per second, and we’re clearly not Thieves.

necro
engi

Linguistically Inept.6583:

Danicco.3568:

I think they reduced it because only Thieves can blind once per second, and we’re clearly not Thieves.

necro
engi

Necro is on a well nobody uses. 60 sec cd, and only cast below you without trait.

Engineer meta specs do not include much blind outside static shot and blind grenade.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

Danicco.3568:

I think they reduced it because only Thieves can blind once per second, and we’re clearly not Thieves.

necro
engi

Necro is on a well nobody uses. 60 sec cd, and only cast below you without trait.

Engineer meta specs do not include much blind outside static shot and blind grenade.

The only class that blinds reliably is D/P thief, followed by guardian.

Zenith.7301:

Linguistically Inept.6583:

Danicco.3568:

I think they reduced it because only Thieves can blind once per second, and we’re clearly not Thieves.

necro
engi

Necro is on a well nobody uses. 60 sec cd, and only cast below you without trait.

Engineer meta specs do not include much blind outside static shot and blind grenade.

The only class that blinds reliably is D/P thief, followed by guardian.

a. doesnt matter; they can still blind once per sec
b. well of darkness and smoke bomb can be very useful (such as being placed after LoSing the asc frac mobs into a group)

stale.9785:

The cooldown complaint should apply to every bloody skill in the game. The longest cooldowns on the most powerful skills should be 30 seconds, TOPS. Balance skill effect/damage around low cooldown, and we’d have a much more reactive game.

On the same note, our weapon skills (ele specific here) should have cast time, or animation delays, but not both. Also tweaking aftercast animation times to be shorter would be nice.

I think that’s pushing it a bit, utility skill cooldowns need to be compared to other utility skill cooldowns, which is what I did.