Guild Wars 2

I find that, at least compared to some other profesisons I’ve played, our underwater weapon is very underwhelming. Especially for condition damage builds.

A good underwater weapon can make or break your personal underwater combat experience. I have a horrible time playing on my Elementalist, but going underwater is fun and welcoming on my Engineer, who, even aside from their underwater grenade kit, has great underwater abilities.

Our underwater weapon has poor synergy, especially across attunements. It doesn’t have enough defensive/retreat abilities. It is even more horrible for condition damage builds, as the only moderately viable DPS is spamming Earth #1 and #2.

In my opinion, we really need some of the underwhelming abilities removed and replaced with abilities that help remedy the aforementioned issues.

even with full power the underwater skills of an ele dont hit kitten.. that and downed state are 2 things that might need quite a rework.

I actually think the trident is one of the best weapons that the Ele has. I think it’s just a great combo of skills, that function at different ranges with a variety of effects. While some are arguably more useful than others, I think it offers the greatest versatility for the reason that you can function at different ranges and the ability to deal with single/multiple mobs well. I just don’t find this with the land based weapons, I feel locked into a specific range, and some skills just feel redundant in PvE (lightning surge and its 50 second cast time for example).

I’m not experienced in underwater combat with other professions, I can’t make a comparison here.

Otherwise, I’m not opposed to tweaks for underwater, I think one of the biggest issues is extremely poor collision detection. I notice that the earth skills can be impossibly hard to hit people with, even when ‘level’ and close to person, the 1 skill in particular tends to shoot over their head. This is on occasion though.

(Also, water attunement under water appears to be the biggest damage dealer, don’t underestimate 2, 3 and 5 )

I avoid underwater combat like the plague.
Lvl 75 + areas underwater, not a chance in hell.
Not worth the effort.
I die more underwater x 10 then i ever do on land.

Agree. When I play my ranger or guardian though, I kinda like getting wet.

Leon.1972:

Agree. When I play my ranger or guardian though, I kinda like getting wet.

Same with my engineer. I didn’t know how awesome underwater combat could be until I went from my elementalist to my engineer!

I definitely did not expect the viability of my underwater weapon to change how much I enjoyed underwater combat as much as it did.

Admittedly I’m level 69, so I’ve still yet to venture into the super high level/end game areas. The story here could be different from my post

Outside of that though, I’ve been ok. Again I’ve not been able to compare to other professions… Maybe they have much easier lives under the sea?

what i tryied ele hits harder then mesmer underwater (except of illusionary mariner, which have something like hundred blades and needs to be dodged), so i dont think dmg is a problem and on earth you have bleed on autoattack, on second skill too, add sigil of earth on trident or +10% bleed duration and you are fine

I think the devs should have put as much effort into designing the staff skills as they did designing the trident skills. I actually feel much more comfortable underwater with trident than I do on land with staff, as far as damage goes. If you’re having trouble stacking bleeds, I dunno what to tell you. Run a Sigil of Earth, and is there a trait to cause bleed on crits? I know there is for burning but not sure. Also, use your Rock Anchor to drag an opponent down, then get close and spam your earth 1 and 2 and you’ll stack bleeds fairly quickly. I can’t remember off the top of my head how many fire skills apply burning, so you’re on your own there.

Westley.4716:

I think the devs should have put as much effort into designing the staff skills as they did designing the trident skills. I actually feel much more comfortable underwater with trident than I do on land with staff, as far as damage goes. If you’re having trouble stacking bleeds, I dunno what to tell you. Run a Sigil of Earth, and is there a trait to cause bleed on crits? I know there is for burning but not sure. Also, use your Rock Anchor to drag an opponent down, then get close and spam your earth 1 and 2 and you’ll stack bleeds fairly quickly. I can’t remember off the top of my head how many fire skills apply burning, so you’re on your own there.

Earth isn’t the issue. The only burning skill is Fire #5, which is on a long cooldown. We need at least one other ability that deals burning and isn’t on a lengthy CD.
I roll between all four attunements quite elegantly while on land, but underwater, it’s either earth or my DPS becomes extraordinarily negligible.

Most people who complain about our underwater damage haven’t learned how to use Water Attunement yet. I’m not saying the damage is excellent, but i’m saying it’s not something to complain about either.

I found underwater to be ok. It was a bit weird at first but after learning all the attunements properly and knowing how to use the skills things were much easier.

I do have to agree though that in the case of condi damage builds, underwater does suffer a bit. Power/Precision oriented builds, however… I find all the elements except earth to be very effective. Water is actually one of my favorites.

I must be the only one who uses water underwater.. And it just tears stuff up, ontop of chill and heals.

Skaan.1423:

Most people who complain about our underwater damage haven’t learned how to use Water Attunement yet. I’m not saying the damage is excellent, but i’m saying it’s not something to complain about either.

I agree with Skaan. Water attunement is great underwater. Take on multiple enemies easily. Also Tornado/Whirlpool tears up anything.

It isn’t the weapon that is bad, just the skills that go with it. And the fact we are a wet paper bag when it comes to defense. Most of our problems is if a second monster sneaks up behind you, your done. To counter our squisheyness, we need to have overpowered abilities to kill a monster before it can get to us. Or defense shielding boons that last a few minutes instead of seconds.

Most of the time it is just give up and let it kill you so you can respawn again, a way to save time.

To those of you having no problems underwater, could you be persuaded to post video of yourself soloing underwater in Orr? I’d really like to see what you’re doing that I’m not. I can win if Whirlpool is off cooldown…if not, I mostly either run or die because engaging less than 3 mobs at a time seems to be a problem.

I use carrion gear with a few cleric accessories at the moment.

Stack less condition. Stack more power. Problem solved.

Korath.7402:

Stack less condition. Stack more power. Problem solved.

So you’re saying underwater combat is terrible for condition damage? I don’t disagree, but that’s a problem. In theory since a good portion of the skills also use power, and I have pretty balanced stats across the board (save crit) this seems like a rather large design flaw.

Korath.7402:

Stack less condition. Stack more power. Problem solved.

Nope. Condition damage is quite powerful and is a very viable way to build your character outside of underwater combat.

Whirlpool has a 3 minute cooldown, and for a long time did NOT function in PvE at all.

Tidal Wave (water 5) has a 25 second cooldown, and can easily miss if a mob decides to move to the side.

Ice Globe (water 2) is great if you can perfectly time the detonate, which can be tough if you have other things to worry about (like in Orr).

Your major CC has 25 (water 4), 30 (fire 4), 35 (air 4), 35 (air 5), 35 (earth 4), and 45 (earth 5) second cooldowns. Three of the CC effects do no damage, and two of them are single target only.

Lol? I love underwater battle on my ele. My skills hurts like a kitten truck. And beside, we got skills for pretty much every situation, just learn to switch elements.

Skaan.1423:

Most people who complain about our underwater damage haven’t learned how to use Water Attunement yet. I’m not saying the damage is excellent, but i’m saying it’s not something to complain about either.

you are exactly right. in water attunement, not only does your nuke also aoe heal, but your 5 skill when lined up well, does INSANE damage. the 3 skill also does a decent explosion and currently is my hardest hit (for the achievement.) i hit a grey mob for some 200k damage. I suggest the OP try using the water attunement in water.

For the purpose of this discussion, can we assume everyone is switching elements and has gone, “What does this skill do?” at least once for every trident skill? People keep saying “Switch attunements, Try water attunement” like somehow nobody thought of that.