Guild Wars 2

I will use this thread to list all the changes happened to this profession prior to game release and im my opinion there were all wrong decisions that should have been reverted months ago. All these changes have shifted a whole weapon set from being the most efficient one to one of the less efficient.

Static Field

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=227s

Before:
-Create a combo field which stun (3s) targets as they cross it-
An excellent way to create distance between you and your opponent, force him to go around it or directly stun him by placing the field at the right time

Now:
-Create a combo field which stun (2s) targets as they touch the borders, you can sit in the middle of static field and don’t get stun…how stupid seriously, it cannot be used as area negation and pale in comparison with chaos storm..as control skill the efficiency has been lowered by over 50%

Unsteady ground

[url]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=289s[/url]

Before:
-Create a wall rock that enemy cannot cross, thus allowing you to seal your escape route or stopping enemies from reaching your allies while they’re capping a point

Now:
-Enemies get…crippled for 2s, looking at the big picture what those 2s cripple will do?….absolutely nothing, you won’t stop pursuing enemies from reaching you and neither help your allies if they’re getting pressured.
This skill was both an excellent control & support skill…now it’s neither of those, a complete decision failure, this skill is garbage..100% garbage

Shatterstone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=894s

Before:
-The increased radius was enough to force an opponent to dodge or take the full dmg, furthermore the delay was slighty less

Now:
-Decreased radius ( by roughly 30%) which help the enemy in the sense that you can walk out of it without any need of wasting a dodge, the damage has been decreased along with the delay…why? is there any sense behind this decision?

Gale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=1038s

Before:
-The 50s CD was justified by the fact that I was able to Kd a foe for 3s ,allowing me to combo burst him with dragons’tooth and phoenix effectively.

Now:
-The CD it’s the same but the kd effect has been reduced by 1s making the CD completely unnecessary and unjustified, why we should have a multiple targets KD+ dmg at 45s(earthquake) along with a 50s CD single target kd with no dmg…where is the logic behind it?

What are your opinions about these changes?

My opinion is that ele would have been nerfed even quicker if they were released like that.

3 seconds stun is a lot, and a wall that blocks pathing can be very overpowered.

Now, the way they dealt with those skills was terrible though, I’m sure there were ways to fix them without making them completely useless. Seeing the Gale, shatterstone and unsteady ground changes, it makes me wonder what was the logic behind turning them from great all the way to trash, without stopping at “balanced” or “still useful”.

Well, it’s just ANet’s attempts at ‘balancing’ their game. They’ve always been knee-jerk balancers who went way too far on both ends of the spectrum (nerfs & buffs), and they’re continuing that tradition in GW2 it seems.

For them as a company it’s justifiable; at the end of the day, there’s more people complaining about how certain skills of a certain profession may be to strong than there a people complaining about the uselessness of these skills once you nerfstomped them below sea level. Smaller number of complaints = job done.

Yes..3s stun is indeed too powerful and I didn’t complain at all about the reduction in duration what I don’t like it’s the fact that they changed teh " get stunned as you cross it" to “get stunned if you try to cross it”

As area negation they both work more or less, but in the first case I was able to use the stun as a mass interrupt and combo field, that mass interrupt has been taken away for not good reasons in my opinion and I’d like it to be re-introduced

Necro-Mesmer and Engineer got a mass interrupt but it’s the ele that is advertised as the profession with the best control skills in the game, still we lack an effective mass interrupt at range

Arheundel.6451:

Static Field
Before:
-Create a combo field which stun (3s) targets as they cross it-
An excellent way to create distance between you and your opponent, force him to go around it or directly stun him by placing the field at the right time

Now:
-Create a combo field which stun (2s) targets as they touch the borders, you can sit in the middle of static field and don’t get stun…how stupid seriously, it cannot be used as area negation and pale in comparison with chaos storm..as control skill the efficiency has been lowered by over 50%

That’s not stupid actually. Since you cannot dodge through the edges without getting the stun, static field does exactly what you want it to: lock an opponent in place. They can either sit there waiting for the field to disappear (which takes 2 seconds) or try to go through it and be stunned for 2 seconds.

Unsteady ground

Before:
-Create a wall rock that enemy cannot cross, thus allowing you to seal your escape route or stopping enemies from reaching your allies while they’re capping a point

Now:
-Enemies get…crippled for 2s, looking at the big picture what those 2s cripple will do?….absolutely nothing, you won’t stop pursuing enemies from reaching you and neither help your allies if they’re getting pressured.
This skill was both an excellent control & support skill…now it’s neither of those, a complete decision failure, this skill is garbage..100% garbage

Except if you time it correctly, or combine it with other snares like Glyph of Elemental Power, it starts to really shine. Like most staff skills, they’re not that good on their own but when stacked they start to shine.

Shatterstone

Before:
-The increased radius was enough to force an opponent to dodge or take the full dmg, furthermore the delay was slighty less

Now:
-Decreased radius ( by roughly 30%) which help the enemy in the sense that you can walk out of it without any need of wasting a dodge, the damage has been decreased along with the delay…why? is there any sense behind this decision?

Maybe the damage was too high for a water skill. Water isn’t supposed to be a primary damage attribute to begin with, and on the other hand, you should always be chilling or crippling your targets anyway.

Gale

Before:
-The 50s CD was justified by the fact that I was able to Kd a foe for 3s thus allowing me to combo burst him with dragons’tooth and phoenix effectively.

Now:
-The CD it’s the same but the kd effect has been recude by 1s making the CD completely unnecessary and unjustified, why we should have a multiple targets KD+ dmg at 45s(earthqauke) along with a 50s CD single target kd with no dmg…where is the logic behind it?

It’s not so much a snaring skill as it is a disruption skill. I’ll refer to Glyph of Elemental Power again for the neccesary snares, though your Earth and Ice Elementals can do so as well.

I would bet money that you’ll see RTL on that list shortly, and some annoying changes to the water line.

Quote: “3 seconds stun is a lot, and a wall that blocks pathing can be very overpowered.”

You mean just like Guardians wall & bubbles?

Quote: "Since you cannot dodge through the edges without getting the stun, static field does exactly what you want it to: lock an opponent in place. "

You can, I`ve regularly dodged though static fields in WvWs, although whether meant to be able to/a bug I`ve no idea.

Fishbait.6723:

Quote: “3 seconds stun is a lot, and a wall that blocks pathing can be very overpowered.”

You mean just like Guardians wall & bubbles?

Quote: "Since you cannot dodge through the edges without getting the stun, static field does exactly what you want it to: lock an opponent in place. "

You can, I`ve regularly dodged though static fields in WvWs, although whether meant to be able to/a bug I`ve no idea.

I believe those guardian bubbles are point blank aoe’s. Meaning that you cannot cast them from the 1200 range that the staff has.

Razor.6392:

Fishbait.6723:

Quote: “3 seconds stun is a lot, and a wall that blocks pathing can be very overpowered.”

You mean just like Guardians wall & bubbles?

Quote: "Since you cannot dodge through the edges without getting the stun, static field does exactly what you want it to: lock an opponent in place. "

You can, I`ve regularly dodged though static fields in WvWs, although whether meant to be able to/a bug I`ve no idea.

I believe those guardian bubbles are point blank aoe’s. Meaning that you cannot cast them from the 1200 range that the staff has.

But line of warding which is exactly what unsteady ground was, does work at 1200 range, therefore if it was Anet intention to make the blocking wall a guardian exclusive, they should have made sure unsteady ground wouldn’t become the sorry skill is now

While we’re at it, let’s talk meteor shower. Someone can be static and only be hit once with the aoe.

Pyrial.2917:

While we’re at it, let’s talk meteor shower. Someone can be static and only be hit once with the aoe.

That’s by design. Meteor shower is a unique large imprecise aoe not designed to be used against normal targets, but against very large targets or large groups of targets. Bursting Someone down with meteor shower makes very little sense.

First of all you use a yogscasts video..I mean -lol-.
They say unstready ground is blocking enemies from passing through it and if you watch the video in hd you can see clearly in the tooltip that it just applies cripple.The mobs dont pass through them cause of their crappy AI!!!
Second of all staff imo just needs a projectile and damage increase.Its a weapon that really requires a lot of skill to get the most nout of it.But theres a lot of secrets hidden here.
For example after the last patch skills like arcane power wont lose their charges if you miss.Thats HUGE !!
It means i can cast metero shower and have each meteor crit while also applying an effect cause of elemental surge trait.Also i can cast unsteady ground and if the enemy pass through it he ll get IMMOB for 5 sec while also having 2 sec cripple applied to him with every pulse.And the rate the pulse is happening is just perfect so that you dont lose any second of the immobilizes(the elem surge immobilizes dont stack so if you hit with 2 arcanes for example at same time only 1 sec of immob would be applied)

Er, what? I can’t speak for shatterstone or gale because I never really used those in beta, but Unsteady Ground works the same it did before. It never blocked movement – the person recording the video is plainly wrong (as he is on several skills in the video). Check out the wiki’s history on the skill – in Feb 2012, it lists a 2 second cripple for enemies that move through it (meaning enemies can move through it).

I also don’t see the issue with Static Field. Are you complaining that the stun is 2s instead of 3s? I used to be able to dodge through it (perhaps it was just a bug in beta), but now I can’t. Seems like a good change, to me.

Meteor Shower is a skill that is worthless against one target (unless it’s a large target), and epic against a zerg – it is the only AoE skill in the game with no target limit as each meteor is an individual projectile. I find it to be a fun skill.

Really, though, it’s those nerfs that helped make “dagger/dagger” the only real combo.

How I would like it changed (instead of them just nerfing d skills)

Static Field
-Create a combo field which stun (2s) targets as they cross it (so you have a direct stun control)

Unsteady ground
- Complete revert or at the very very least increase cripple to 5s. One would think that a ground torn up and shaken like that would twist your ankle and have it hurt for more than 2 secs. Making it an actual wall, though, would stop people from going to earth eles and getting their super easy dodge dailies though. :p

Shatterstone
- Revert the radius only. “Walk away” damage fields actually annoy me as the create just a “kite” game rather than a more active “bait dodge and skill” game. Though considering Anets opinion of AoE, maybe all fields will be shrinking?

Gale
- Simply said, 50s cooldown for a 2s single target knockdown is weak. Preference is revert as 3s has better synergy at a high cost. Otherwise, this should be on a 30/35s cooldown.

With staff having its control skills again, or focus that has a CC that lets you land the slower scepter skills, you just may see more variety in Ele and the builds that support those weapons. Though with only 4 weapon choices, there will always be a more limited build for Eles. :p

Pyroatheist.9031:

Pyrial.2917:

While we’re at it, let’s talk meteor shower. Someone can be static and only be hit once with the aoe.

That’s by design. Meteor shower is a unique large imprecise aoe not designed to be used against normal targets, but against very large targets or large groups of targets. Bursting Someone down with meteor shower makes very little sense.

It doesn’t serve the purpose you’re stating. You can drop it on a node and it won’t hit anyone more than once. So if it isn’t for point control, what is it for? Oh did I mention the cast time on it?

Pyrial.2917:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Pyrial.2917:

While we’re at it, let’s talk meteor shower. Someone can be static and only be hit once with the aoe.

That’s by design. Meteor shower is a unique large imprecise aoe not designed to be used against normal targets, but against very large targets or large groups of targets. Bursting Someone down with meteor shower makes very little sense.

It doesn’t serve the purpose you’re stating. You can drop it on a node and it won’t hit anyone more than once. So if it isn’t for point control, what is it for? Oh did I mention the cast time on it?

It’s for getting large targets or large groups. And how many people do you know stand still in the fire once it starts? Most I’ve seen move out of it, and thus get hit by more than one.

pdboddy.4162:

Pyrial.2917:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Pyrial.2917:

While we’re at it, let’s talk meteor shower. Someone can be static and only be hit once with the aoe.

That’s by design. Meteor shower is a unique large imprecise aoe not designed to be used against normal targets, but against very large targets or large groups of targets. Bursting Someone down with meteor shower makes very little sense.

It doesn’t serve the purpose you’re stating. You can drop it on a node and it won’t hit anyone more than once. So if it isn’t for point control, what is it for? Oh did I mention the cast time on it?

It’s for getting large targets or large groups. And how many people do you know stand still in the fire once it starts? Most I’ve seen move out of it, and thus get hit by more than one.

When you’re fighting for node control, you can have 2-3 people on the node. It doesn’t act as a deterent, because you rarely get hit more than once while remaining static. In fact, you’re more like to get hit more than once when backing off the node thinking you are going to get hit than you are actually getting hit.

I agree with OP that things have turned into crap.

Staff, scepter and focus need some serious lovin’.

As a Staff user, I can tell you that its effectiveness is
dimished in anything other than defending or assaulting
a keep. In open world battles, the zergs are constantly
on the move, which results in most of your AOE not
hitting. Necros dont have this problem since their marks
trigger so fast.

The Scepter/Dagger is fun, but when you really look at
the damaging spells on the scepter, they are very limited.
Some great comboes with fire, but most of the time you
are waiting on those CDs, and the majority of the other
spells are lackluster.

As said above, allot more attention has to go into the
weapon lines on Ele. With other alternatives coming in
the future like Elder Scrolls online, I think its in their best
interest to address things much faster than currently as opposed
to fixing bug in dungeons that most people dont care about.

I agree with most of what the OP said: If they do nerf our AoE I hope these skills are improved.

Currently the staff is just a keep defending weapon set.

you need to cross static field off that list.

the nerf is actually reasonable. a full aoe stun field is really crazy in wvw. if it would still be in place it would be abused to no end. how many timed eles do you need to effectivly kill a whole zerg? anyone who has played daoc knows what i am talking about – if you can effectivly shut down multiples for 5-6s you can have the rest of an organized group dish out so much damage that everything dies.

5- eles teams incomming… 3 staffies 2 d/d – there would be so much whine, tyria would drown …

by the time the zerg reacts you have 3 eles in position fireing aoes all over the place while 2 dd eles rip through everything comboing on a bunch of fields…

Im still firm in the belief that AOE does not need a nerf
across any of the classes. Its so easy to avoid it, and I have
no sympathy for people who stand in it (reminds me of the
WOW days when 50% of players would stand in obvious AOE).

Well, the one thing I can say for sure is it’s the worst implementation of the (ranged) mage archetype of all the MMOs I’ve played. So many badly designed skills, useless traits, and limited options.

^^ Couldnt agree more. After 5 years of a warrior in WOW
than 2 years of a rogue in Rift, I thought it time for a “mage”
class in my next MMO. I never would have believed that that
translated to the most effective build being a bunker “tank”
build on a caster.

My first GW2 character was an elementalist and I think it characterizes a ‘mage’ or ‘caster’ very well. It’s a bit flashy for my tastes but I guess that fits the aesthetic of the game. I don’t like mages who mostly just shoot fire from point a to b (or ice, or lightning, or energy, etc). I like mages who can control terrain, and the elementalist has a lot more terrain and area-control than, for example (in my experience), a warlock or mage in WoW.

As far as Static Field goes, it is listed as unblockable, which should prevent people from evading through it. This has been my experience, at least, both as the creator and victim of a Static Field. This seems pretty balanced to me: You either sit unstunned but essentially tethered or rooted for 4 seconds, or you eat a 2s stun and then can do as you please. Lots of skills in MOBA games work similarly to this, to create a bit of dynamic gameplay as opposed to just “you are now stunned (in an AOE).”

Also, I think it’d be awesome to have a terrain blocking Unsteady Ground, but it’d mostly be awesome because of how powerful it’d be. I’m ok with the current version and it does fill some niches like stacking procs or giving a long cripple + some damage on enemies that won’t or can’t move (perhaps because they’re in a static field or got hit with shockwave first).

Static Field is strong as it is. It does its purpose well, and is still a combo field, so your allies can even rupt foes within it.

I enjoy the idea of Unsteady Ground working like Guardian’s wards, but I suppose the devs thought it would make eles too strong and/ or take away the uniqueness out of Guardians. I do not mind the current implementation, but it should be stronger: 3s, for a start. The number can stack pretty high this way, though. Or a non-stackable, immediate 4s or more of a cripple effect. Or even a immobilize, but the most logical idea is simply its original. The ground is unsteady so you get KDed. Lol.

The idea of Shatterstone requiring dodging already justifies its nerf, even if the skill is not good enough at the moment. Spamming something that forces people to waste their dodges over and over does not seems fair to me. In fact, it’s outright mindless.

I think Gale’s change might be due to be very unfun to play against. It’s a ranged KD that’s hard to counter. I wouldn’t decrease its cooldown neither, for the same reason. However, I wouldn’t mind if it did something else in addition to it. Maybe working as a combo finisher, for a unique ring of fire + dt and phoenix + gale combo? I suppose devs want to keep the skill elegantly simple, though.

Razor.6392:

3 seconds stun is a lot, and a wall that blocks pathing can be very overpowered.

And yet guardians still have what, three such ‘wall’ abilities if I’m not mistaken?

Asmodal.6489:

you need to cross static field off that list.

the nerf is actually reasonable. a full aoe stun field is really crazy in wvw. if it would still be in place it would be abused to no end. how many timed eles do you need to effectivly kill a whole zerg? anyone who has played daoc knows what i am talking about – if you can effectivly shut down multiples for 5-6s you can have the rest of an organized group dish out so much damage that everything dies.

5- eles teams incomming… 3 staffies 2 d/d – there would be so much whine, tyria would drown …

by the time the zerg reacts you have 3 eles in position fireing aoes all over the place while 2 dd eles rip through everything comboing on a bunch of fields…

EXACTLY. people who clump up and zerg deserve to die the most ignominious deaths imaginable. If I could make the attacks debit their bank accounts in real life I would.

Zergs are destroying pvp.

plasmacutter.2709:

Asmodal.6489:

you need to cross static field off that list.

the nerf is actually reasonable. a full aoe stun field is really crazy in wvw. if it would still be in place it would be abused to no end. how many timed eles do you need to effectivly kill a whole zerg? anyone who has played daoc knows what i am talking about – if you can effectivly shut down multiples for 5-6s you can have the rest of an organized group dish out so much damage that everything dies.

5- eles teams incomming… 3 staffies 2 d/d – there would be so much whine, tyria would drown …

by the time the zerg reacts you have 3 eles in position fireing aoes all over the place while 2 dd eles rip through everything comboing on a bunch of fields…

EXACTLY. people who clump up and zerg deserve to die the most ignominious deaths imaginable. If I could make the attacks debit their bank accounts in real life I would.

Zergs are destroying pvp.

I love your choice of words in every post you make. Allows me to expand my vocabulary. Thanks!

Anyway, on topic: I fear that there will be more unreasonable changes to ele especially the fotm d/d spec in the upcoming patch just to shut the QQers up but nothing to compensate for it.

DiogoSilva.7089:

I think Gale’s change might be due to be very unfun to play against. It’s a ranged KD that’s hard to counter. I wouldn’t decrease its cooldown neither, for the same reason. However, I wouldn’t mind if it did something else in addition to it. Maybe working as a combo finisher, for a unique ring of fire + dt and phoenix + gale combo? I suppose devs want to keep the skill elegantly simple, though.

I wish they also change the stealth mechanic since i find it very unfun to play against too sometimes. XD

If they were highly considering the Air Grandmaster trait Grounded with regards to the reduction of KD in Gale, i think they should rethink this even more since going too deep into that trait line just for a chance to burst every 40sec is too limiting and not that worth it.

static field is nice as it is now (auto stunning anyone in it would be OP)
i dont see why unsteady ground was changed…the cripple is so short the only use i find for it is if they’re snared with earth5 before hand… the the cripple duration even after that is horrible)
gale, and focus overall definitely need some attention; its just horrible; and the useful abilities are far too situational to warrant constantly using it

- id also love to see the old phoenix (size) and arc lightning (no horrible glitchy beam) back… they were awesome

I do not understand why unsteady ground is not a combo field though…it functions in a very similar manner to fire wall.

International.7980:

I do not understand why unsteady ground is not a combo field though…it functions in a very similar manner to fire wall.

Maybe cuz we don’t have a category for earth fields. XD

I think the skill is okay as it is. Serves its purpose just about right.. in PVE. :P

Gallrvaghn.4921:

International.7980:

I do not understand why unsteady ground is not a combo field though…it functions in a very similar manner to fire wall.

Maybe cuz we don’t have a category for earth fields. XD

I think the skill is okay as it is. Serves its purpose just about right.. in PVE. :P

Dunno, lightning is also an ele exclusive combo field so I cant understand why they don’t make earth. Either way, it’s a redundant skill, as Frozen Ground does pretty much the same thing; only 100 times better (and it is a combo field to boot).

International.7980:

Gallrvaghn.4921:

International.7980:

I do not understand why unsteady ground is not a combo field though…it functions in a very similar manner to fire wall.

Maybe cuz we don’t have a category for earth fields. XD

I think the skill is okay as it is. Serves its purpose just about right.. in PVE. :P

Dunno, lightning is also an ele exclusive combo field so I cant understand why they don’t make earth. Either way, it’s a redundant skill, as Frozen Ground does pretty much the same thing; only 100 times better (and it is a combo field to boot).

Maybe they originally intended Unsteady Ground to be a blocking wall or to cause knockdowns because the ground is shaky and it’s just logical to make people fall off their feet, lol. But realizing that these two scenarios are quite OP, they settled for measly cripple. :P

Earth fields don’t make much sense to me IMO, unless they make it magnetic field or something. XD

I think a lot of guardians would actually take a swap with Line of warding for Unsteady Ground. It’d give us a viable escape option on the staff, and the eles can deal with that self rooting clunky road block thing that doesn’t block anyone with half a brain.

Heinel.6548:

I think a lot of guardians would actually take a swap with Line of warding for Unsteady Ground. It’d give us a viable escape option on the staff, and the eles can deal with that self rooting clunky road block thing that doesn’t block anyone with half a brain.

You know guardians would lose a combo field if they made that swap. Though it doesn’t say so in the tool tip, Line of Warding is a light field that could offer retaliation and remove conditions. Any Ele would go for that trade as the staff ele’s only combo finishers lie in the earth attunement.

International.7980:

Heinel.6548:

I think a lot of guardians would actually take a swap with Line of warding for Unsteady Ground. It’d give us a viable escape option on the staff, and the eles can deal with that self rooting clunky road block thing that doesn’t block anyone with half a brain.

You know guardians would lose a combo field if they made that swap. Though it doesn’t say so in the tool tip, Line of Warding is a light field that could offer retaliation and remove conditions. Any Ele would go for that trade as the staff ele’s only combo finishers lie in the earth attunement.

So let’s petition for it to happen. Everyone wants it.

Heinel.6548:

International.7980:

Heinel.6548:

I think a lot of guardians would actually take a swap with Line of warding for Unsteady Ground. It’d give us a viable escape option on the staff, and the eles can deal with that self rooting clunky road block thing that doesn’t block anyone with half a brain.

You know guardians would lose a combo field if they made that swap. Though it doesn’t say so in the tool tip, Line of Warding is a light field that could offer retaliation and remove conditions. Any Ele would go for that trade as the staff ele’s only combo finishers lie in the earth attunement.

So let’s petition for it to happen. Everyone wants it.

/signed :o

npc static field stuns if you dodge through it, but not sure player ones do.

“a lot of guardians would actually take a swap with Line of warding for Unsteady Ground”
hahahahahahaha!xD

Line of warding is one of the main reasons why so many guardians run staff in organised wvw raids.

And considering how staff eles are already strong in wvw, giving them their own line of warding would be crazy and obsolete staff guardian’s.

And because devs decided for the earth’s skills to be combo finishers instead of combo fields, let’s be creative here:
- Unsteady Ground would be a chained skill. If you activate it the second time, the ground would blow for a blast finisher and some damage (and launching foes to all directions? xD).

Or we can simply go the GW1’s UG route: have it apply damage each time it connects.

But for simplicity’s sake, increasing the cripple duration to 3 from 2 could be enough, if we want to keep the tactical combinations with other immobilize skills. Or if we simply want the skill to be more immediate at stopping movement, without needing any combination (after all, you’re blocking the kittening road, right?), then have it just give a 4-6s or more of non-stackable cripple. Pass it through once, and the full effect activates.

But in order to make its flavor make as much sense as possible (shouldn’t an unsteady ground KD people, really?), have it connect cripple as it normall does, and KD ONLY at the end of the skill. Meaning no one would be KDed if they could leave it.

The only skill which I can live with atm is static field, I can find some partial use when blcoking gateways and forcing enemies into staying in the red circle, other than that gale need a buff asap, I can wait for a fix on US, but gale too UP

Arheundel.6451:

The only skill which I can live with atm is static field, I can find some partial use when blcoking gateways and forcing enemies into staying in the red circle, other than that gale need a buff asap, I can wait for a fix on US, but gale too UP

If I could change any 1 Ele skill it would be Dragon’s Tooth. Designing a skill that is intended to miss its target most of the time is just such bad gameplay design.

DiogoSilva.7089:

And because devs decided for the earth’s skills to be combo finishers instead of combo fields, let’s be creative here:
- Unsteady Ground would be a chained skill. If you activate it the second time, the ground would blow for a blast finisher and some damage (and launching foes to all directions? xD).

They could make it the functional opposite of Mesmer’s Temporal Curtain: Cripple when you pass through it, detonate it for an AoE knockback. Fun If Mesmers can pull me off keep walls, I want to be able to blast them off in return.

Doomsayer.8250:

DiogoSilva.7089:

And because devs decided for the earth’s skills to be combo finishers instead of combo fields, let’s be creative here:
- Unsteady Ground would be a chained skill. If you activate it the second time, the ground would blow for a blast finisher and some damage (and launching foes to all directions? xD).

They could make it the functional opposite of Mesmer’s Temporal Curtain: Cripple when you pass through it, detonate it for an AoE knockback. Fun If Mesmers can pull me off keep walls, I want to be able to blast them off in return.

That is SO COOL! I want this change now!!! >.<

Arheundel.6451:

I will use this thread to list all the changes happened to this profession prior to game release and im my opinion there were all wrong decisions that should have been reverted months ago. All these changes have shifted a whole weapon set from being the most efficient one to one of the less efficient.

Static Field

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=227s

Before:
-Create a combo field which stun (3s) targets as they cross it-
An excellent way to create distance between you and your opponent, force him to go around it or directly stun him by placing the field at the right time

Now:
-Create a combo field which stun (2s) targets as they touch the borders, you can sit in the middle of static field and don’t get stun…how stupid seriously, it cannot be used as area negation and pale in comparison with chaos storm..as control skill the efficiency has been lowered by over 50%

Unsteady ground

[url]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=289s[/url]

Before:
-Create a wall rock that enemy cannot cross, thus allowing you to seal your escape route or stopping enemies from reaching your allies while they’re capping a point

Now:
-Enemies get…crippled for 2s, looking at the big picture what those 2s cripple will do?….absolutely nothing, you won’t stop pursuing enemies from reaching you and neither help your allies if they’re getting pressured.
This skill was both an excellent control & support skill…now it’s neither of those, a complete decision failure, this skill is garbage..100% garbage

Shatterstone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=894s

Before:
-The increased radius was enough to force an opponent to dodge or take the full dmg, furthermore the delay was slighty less

Now:
-Decreased radius ( by roughly 30%) which help the enemy in the sense that you can walk out of it without any need of wasting a dodge, the damage has been decreased along with the delay…why? is there any sense behind this decision?

Gale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLBF2912D72F052EC7&feature=player_detailpage&v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=1038s

Before:
-The 50s CD was justified by the fact that I was able to Kd a foe for 3s ,allowing me to combo burst him with dragons’tooth and phoenix effectively.

Now:
-The CD it’s the same but the kd effect has been reduced by 1s making the CD completely unnecessary and unjustified, why we should have a multiple targets KD+ dmg at 45s(earthquake) along with a 50s CD single target kd with no dmg…where is the logic behind it?

What are your opinions about these changes?

Yeah they kittened it up.

staff changes at least is completely rediculess and the staff is stupidly bad now for anything then mega zerg gameplay (which lets be honest is anything but a “rl skill based gameplay”)..

but well…. you can’t really do much anet is just terrible beyound comparison at balancing anything…
they completely limited your skill combinations to the bare minimum by forcing “weapons” to skill lock you into x skills and still they can’t get the balance right, i mean the next step to make it easier is to have only 1 class/1skill, so its simply the same for every one
find it very sad the way they have to limit and overnerf everything becouse they lack the capability of balancing anything unique and “out of the box” content.

I haven’t seen terrible balancing done for eles since release, to be honest. Staff builds were good because of the old Evasive Arcana? Yes, but that’s because the old EA was beyond broken. The old EA needed to be fixed. If staff builds are no longer useful because of a broken trait, then the problem lies on the weapon itself.

So far, Anet has polished our MH Dagger and OH Dagger skills to near perfection. There’s almost no underpowered skill left in either of them, one or two possible exceptions aside. Now, all they need to do is to repeat the same for the remaining options.

Scepter is probably the easiest to make buffs for at the moment. The fire and air lines are strong, and so is Water Trident (which will probably even get a nerf) and earth’s auto-attack. That leaves them 2 skills from water and 2 skills from earth to make them more appealing.

DiogoSilva.7089:

I haven’t seen terrible balancing done for eles since release, to be honest. Staff builds were good because of the old Evasive Arcana? Yes, but that’s because the old EA was beyond broken. The old EA needed to be fixed. If staff builds are no longer useful because of a broken trait, then the problem lies on the weapon itself.

So far, Anet has polished our MH Dagger and OH Dagger skills to near perfection. There’s almost no underpowered skill left in either of them, one or two possible exceptions aside. Now, all they need to do is to repeat the same for the remaining options.

Scepter is probably the easiest to make buffs for at the moment. The fire and air lines are strong, and so is Water Trident (which will probably even get a nerf) and earth’s auto-attack. That leaves them 2 skills from water and 2 skills from earth to make them more appealing.

Lol gl with that..personally I have been asking for changes on shatterstones since BWE1, created many threads on different forums…nothing has been done, all they need to do is to add proper damage ( 800 base dmg) to dust devil and shatterstone ( 1k base dmg with 10s CD) , with these changes the scepter would be gold