I still retain the notion that S/F ele requires the most skill out of any build in the entire game. It has the highest skill floor and it is entirely unforgiving. That’s what I love about it. In truth, Shatterstone is fine. What S/F ele doesn’t need is another skill that can do a 5k crit with little tell and a low cooldown. What would be nice for Shatterstone is more outplay. What I propose doing to Shatterstone is keeping its damage exactly as it is, but add a blind to it, maybe 3 seconds in duration. It would also be viable to make it give chill (because the animation of it makes it look like it should). The best thing to do for DT is promote “fire and forget”. Make the cast time for DT 1/2 seconds and make it so the cast time is the actual cast time and you can’t interrupt your own cast accidentally.
Personally, I would like the Shatterstone we saw in alpha footage.
You could channel it and pop it at any time during the channel. More damage the longer you channel. I remember churning earth working similarly in that footage.
It makes the ability more reliable while still maintaining the feel of the ramp up.
Another idea would be to make shatterstone chill people during the ramp up.
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Think about how you use Shatterstone. You do more damage by auto-attacking in water and using the crit to proc Fresh Air for the Air 1,2 burst, rather than waiting for Shatterstone to complete casting to do damage. Your opponent can simply not walk in the red AOE. It is so inefficient that it is even wasted cast time on cleave damage when Fire attunement does it better. At best you can use it to mind-game your opponent by casting it while kiting to prevent them from running in a straight line (as you run for your life with 11-17k health because who doesn’t run Marauder Amulet with this build?). That said it could be improved by either having a 1/4 or instant cast time (better) and maybe have the damage tick happen sooner. — Actually changing the skill to something new would not even be out of the question.
DT is only good for cleaving players already in downstate, stacking might, or fighting incredibly incompetent players who like to stand in red circles.
For those who think Shatterstone is weak and it is weaker than the auto attack on water, have you considered the vulnerability? It’s 15 seconds. You can hit someone with Shatterstone while LoS’d unlike auto attack in water, and you can hit more consistently with Shatterstone because it isn’t a projectile with a projectile hate meta (War, Druid, Necro, Thief, Ele, Scrapper, and Guard all have projectile blocks in their meta). Shatterstone can also hit while facing away from your opponent AND it can hit 5 opponents at the same time. If used more than once, you have a 10% damage buff immediately that lasts for ~10 seconds. Also, not EVERY skill has to be amazingly good like Magnetic Wave and Comet.
Instead of keep buffing its negligible damage or non existant utility, I wish they’d make it more fun to use.
Like maybe instead of exploding after a second, it summons an ice ‘mine’ that detonates when enemies touch it and freezes them for 1.5 seconds. Would happily trade the tiny damage for some utility that can be used both offensively and defensively.
Instead of keep buffing its negligible damage or non existant utility, I wish they’d make it more fun to use.
Like maybe instead of exploding after a second, it summons an ice ‘mine’ that detonates when enemies touch it and freezes them for 1.5 seconds. Would happily trade the tiny damage for some utility that can be used both offensively and defensively.
You want a 1.5 sec stun on skill with a 3 sec cooldown and 1/2 sec cast time?
Just make functionality as the one grom GW1, simple.
Make it a targeted debuff, kind of like pulmonary impact. Very small damage and 10 seconds of 5 vuln when casted, and after 2 seconds, dragon tooth-like damage and 2 seconds of chill but increase cooldown to 10-15 secs.
Or make it do 30-40% of the damage you did while it is charging to be inflicted on the enemy when it expires. That would be a nice fire-and-forget mechanic like the shatterstone from GW1.
That would make it synergize well with scepter ele without being op. Use the initial damage to refresh air, then wait a bit to line a nice spike when it expires+switch to air or, with my second suggestion, fire it and unleash hell.
Eles don’t need more useless AoE’s that can be walked out of with 2 steps or that make you target practice when being channeled.
Hmm vulnerability debuff is not that strong since most builds use it as a cover condition with the way condi cleanse is prioritized and it relies on actually having to land the skill which is difficult with the cast time. You get it on crit with Weak Spot minor trait too so the vulnerability application is there but not enough to be useful to bait your opponent into blowing their cleanse.
Also there is so much condi cleanse in general that it’s just not worth it.
Instead of keep buffing its negligible damage or non existant utility, I wish they’d make it more fun to use.
Like maybe instead of exploding after a second, it summons an ice ‘mine’ that detonates when enemies touch it and freezes them for 1.5 seconds. Would happily trade the tiny damage for some utility that can be used both offensively and defensively.
You want a 1.5 sec stun on skill with a 3 sec cooldown and 1/2 sec cast time?
Will need appropriate cd changes to balance it of course. Just getting the idea out there. As it is Shatterstone is simply a very boring and worthless skill.
For those who think Shatterstone is weak and it is weaker than the auto attack on water, have you considered the vulnerability? It’s 15 seconds. You can hit someone with Shatterstone while LoS’d unlike auto attack in water, and you can hit more consistently with Shatterstone because it isn’t a projectile with a projectile hate meta (War, Druid, Necro, Thief, Ele, Scrapper, and Guard all have projectile blocks in their meta). Shatterstone can also hit while facing away from your opponent AND it can hit 5 opponents at the same time. If used more than once, you have a 10% damage buff immediately that lasts for ~10 seconds. Also, not EVERY skill has to be amazingly good like Magnetic Wave and Comet.
I think you are missing the point about why shatterstone is never worth using: it can simply be strafed out of (and in fact is almost always avoided if the target is moving at all. Even if you predict their positioning, its just 1 step to get out and avoid completely. For that reason, shatterstone is basically a 0 damage skill. To add insult…when it does hit, all I get is something about as strong as an auto-attack with some vuln (that will get cleansed before it runs its course anyway)? For how strong the skill is, it needs to hit even easier than Mind Stab on mesmer GS. In fact, even on the short CD, with how hard it is to land…it should almost 1-shot the opponent. To put it another way…the problem isn’t the damage, its the time it takes to hit.
Dragon’s tooth has the same problem, but at least it hits kinda hard in the right build. It is still rarely worth casting in pvp (again b/c 1s cast time… wtf?!?!). The drop is so slow that people are often ressed and already away by the time it would drop, and that is when you cast it the second the guy goes down.
Of course, Anet won’t really fix the skills by making them hit fast enough/lowering the cast time. They will just add another stack of vuln to shatterstone and call it a day…if they ever even do anything at all.
for me it´s all about the cast time for DT. One second for missing a decent player 9 out of 10 times can get me killed …. Well it´s fun to strike a group fighting on a point not looking on the ele on the sideline … When i am behind such a 4:4 and see DT and phönix go through the entire brawl I smile and it often decides the outcome XD.
