Guild Wars 2

When using the earth attunement with a staff we are able to cast this very OP spell called unsteady ground. It has the power to cripple numerous enemies to the point where they can only walk at 50% movement speed for… 2… seconds! It also deals ’’humongous’’ amount of damage while applying the cripple.

Ok… joking aside. This spell is horrible. Why on earth (hehe) do elementals have this so called ’’spell’’ in their spellbook? Enemies are able to go through the field without being crippled and even if they are crippled they will only be that for 2 seconds… not necessarily even that. Frozen ground and static field are 5 times as good as unsteady ground when you try to get away from someone, they are also combo fields and have about the same cooldowns.

Any suggestions how to make it better?

A channeled earth/mud wall for max amount of 4-6 sec which would be impassable by everyone, also projectiles? I can see some problems though…

You’re supposed to use in on choke points. Like a stairway that is kind of narrow. Sure it isn’t that great but it CAN help you and if you force your enemy to go around it maybe you’ve succeded and escaped.

Why use unsteady ground when I have frozen ground and static field? Tbh we don’t need so many similar spells.

Fair enough. If it had some combo field it would be much better indeed. Or if it did some other condition other then that. And again I have to agree with frozen ground and static field..they’re far superior.

But I do not like the 4-6sec channeling idea tbh. If I were to change that skill I’d give it a combo field and maybe don’t allow anyone to get through(as if stone arms grasp the enemy to keep them from going past it)..for 3secs without the channeling part.

Well I hate that skill too, it’s the only one which need real buff, simply the design is wrong, you need to keep passing over it, because enemies get affected by 2s cripple only if they stand on it…quite rubbish as mesmer got curtain which applies 5s cripple..

I’ve been thinking since beta that unsteady ground and shockwave should have their snaring conditions swapped. Unsteady ground immobilizes, and shockwave cripples. Decrease the cooldown on shockwave (15 or 20 seconds?) because a cripple and single stack of bleed doesn’t deserve a 30 second cooldown. I don’t want unsteady ground to change drastically; I’m not a fan of big changes when simple ones should suffice.

Tei.1704:

I’ve been thinking since beta that unsteady ground and shockwave should have their snaring conditions swapped. Unsteady ground immobilizes, and shockwave cripples. Decrease the cooldown on shockwave (15 or 20 seconds?) because a cripple and single stack of bleed doesn’t deserve a 30 second cooldown. I don’t want unsteady ground to change drastically; I’m not a fan of big changes when simple ones should suffice.

Now this would be a great idea, nice job^^!

Unsteady ground should knockdown anyone attempting to cross it.

/fixed

Caffynated.5713:

Unsteady ground should knockdown anyone attempting to cross it.

/fixed

+100

I didn’t play ele in the beta, but wasn’t unsteady ground similar to line of warding? They should consider changing it back.

Alilinke.7690:

I didn’t play ele in the beta, but wasn’t unsteady ground similar to line of warding? They should consider changing it back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiuNbqPWpEo#t=04m53s

God…how many nerfs this profession received…and all those kittening noobs out there asking for more nerfs.

Don’t take me wrong ,I do great with staff even in 1vs1, against thieves,warriors,mesmers I can handle them..but to think that many skills on staff have been nerfed behind any possible use and not for a single kittening good reason….and don’t let me start on the focus…it was so good during BWE1 than all those crying noobs ( who didn’t even play the game) cried for months and months on GW2 guru forum..until they got the focus nerfed to the ground…same thing will happen now and when that will happen I’ll just move to the next big thing, got no intention of playing Thief Wars 2 or Warrior wars 2, and with titles like : Rome Total war 2 ; Kingdom under fire 2 and Elder scroll Online coming out soon..got no reason to do so

I quite like the idea that unsteady ground and shockwave conditions swap. Add the same animation as grasping earth when enemies try to cross unsteady ground and it would be perfect
3 second immobilize though because if it was 2 seconds static field would do the exact same thing with an added daze.

I hope they’ll just add smoke field to it someday.

I played Elementalist in Beta, and as you can see in the video it hasn’t changed. It’s definitely not great and I wish it were a circular AoE instead of a line, but it has its uses. In PvE, it’s pretty easy to get the AI to walk all over/along the line. In WvW it’s good for choke points, especially those you can view perpendicularly (example, ramp to 3rd floor of Garrison inner). It works much better if you can immobilize (or stun) your target on top of the effect since the condition stacks in duration.

The absolute best use of Unsteady Ground that I’ve found is using Elemental Surge + Arcane Power for an AoE immobilize that re-applies/stacks every second.

Kaleden.9386:

I played Elementalist in Beta, and as you can see in the video it hasn’t changed. It’s definitely not great and I wish it were a circular AoE instead of a line, but it has its uses. In PvE, it’s pretty easy to get the AI to walk all over/along the line. In WvW it’s good for choke points, especially those you can view perpendicularly (example, ramp to 3rd floor of Garrison inner). It works much better if you can immobilize (or stun) your target on top of the effect since the condition stacks in duration.

The absolute best use of Unsteady Ground that I’ve found is using Elemental Surge + Arcane Power for an AoE immobilize that re-applies/stacks every second.

In the beat video I linked, Unsteady Ground blocked off enemy movement, forcing them to walk around, and if they tried to walk over, they would be crippled.

Guardians have a move called Line of Warding that does the same thing as Unsteady Ground’s beta version, but knocks down people trying to walk over.

You may be right (I wasn’t in the first BWE), but I’m going to have to disagree with you there. I think that’s just the enemy AI and pathing. The enemies didn’t need to get any closer because they were already in range and when the player dodged, they followed. Plus, you do see the targeted wolf cross the AoE indicator line at the edge (not that that really means anything, since we know those graphics are just guidelines and effects may actually be wider or smaller – see healing rain, some nasty boss AoEs, etc.).

I notice the same thing happen with Burning Retreat when I use it close to an enemy. They SHOULD walk along the line, but their AI decides to reposition and walk beside or zig-zag over it instead.