I like Elementalist a lot, especially most of the Water spells. But here come to my concern… (or complain!)
Water Trident, Shatterstone and Ice Shards… basically all 3 scepter Water spells need a serious buff or rework! Staff and Dagger Water have acceptable (maybe not perfect) spells. I understand Water are meant for supportive… it is okay to not have a burst, top fire damage. But at least give us the viable option to use Scepter Water!
The fact is… Anet made some nice Water damaging spells… such as Ice Spike, Vapor blade and Cone of Cold… from the look of it, Shatterstone “suppose” to deal some decent damage but it doesn’t! Shatterstone takes an age to go off and doesn’t do much damage to compensate!
Water Trident is probably the worse worse worse Water spells ever! Funny, this is the first water spell Anet first introduced, and it used to have “knockback” bonus, why does Anet took it off? Any apparent reasons? No this can’t be balance issue because Water Trident is extremely unbalance compare to rest of the spell now.
Everything in Water Trident is just a joke! (damage, healing, 20 cooldown? Fine 16 sec cool down with a waste of Aquamancer’s Alacrity trait… but that is basically a waste of trait if we are consider scepter water!). Trident used to be such a fabulous Elite back in GW1, I’m most disappoint this spell is completely a waste of spot now.
Some people may argued Water suppose to do weak damage? I don’t think it suppose to do weak damage, because there are traits like Piercing Shards to boost “20%” water spell damage! And the fact Ice spike deal very high initial damage… meaning water is suppose play versatile role in this game… you do “okay” damage, “some” healing spell and chill… (but hey we don’t have as many Chill as I originally expect it! Frozen Ground have super long recharge… Frost Fan you rely on conjure icebow, Ice Golem you can’t control their chill etc. )
Anyway… Scepter Water is really useless compare to other option… please don’t just leave it there. You’ve create the spell… please make it at some point a viable option for Elementalist. Can the skill develop team make a little change… such as (1) Lower Water Trident’s recharge time… rework its healing amount or damage… add back the initial knockback? Or make Water Trident hit muti-enemies? And why make Water Trident ground targeting?? (2) Add maybe 1 sec chill or a combo finisher for Shatterstone to compensate the lackluster damage? Or simply increase damage. (3) Increase Ice Shards damage… or if they completely buff Trident and Shatterstone then I guess its okay to leave Ice Shards.
I know there might be people who disagree with me, but this is just how I feel after 4 months of playing since last late summer.