Curse

Zonzai · Jan 03, 2007, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Hi, my name is Bob... er, Zonzai. I've been an elementalist addict since what now? April 2005 or thereabouts. Whenever the game went gold. Anyway, I've seen the elementalist change a whole lot in the past 21 months. Some of it has been sweet and some of it has been extremely bitter (insert your bitter beer face here).

Anyway, after Nightfall I've actually come to enjoy the PvE part of the game again. And, since my elementalist mostly sucks the big one for the type of PvP character that I like to play, I've been playing him again in PvE. And that brings me to the point of all of this nonsensicle rambling.

I have an idea or two I'd like to share with you, the forum viewer. As such, your input would be greatly appreciated. Flame on, rant on or just add a thought or suggestion or whatever makes you feel superior/helpful/cool/whatever.

Just remember that, though I appreciate your feedback, I am going to ignore posts on how these skills will throw out the overall class balance of the game. Because there is no way to know that. And though I did not compare all skills for each class before writing this, I did compare these suggested skill concepts/ideas/thoughts to other elementalist skills in each attribute and between each attribute.

AIR

Now, I've played an air spiker or two in my day and they are certainly worthwile even in PvE. But it's the AoE that makes the elementalist. And it's cool that air is more effective on the PvP end of the spectrum, but it sacrafices almost all else to do that.

While an air elementalist is good in PvP and decent in PvE, I'd still like to see a bit of AoE in their line up to make them more acceptable (e.g. an easily viable option in groups) in PvE. I know the line was ORIGINALLY designed as PvP single and single target big damage.

But the other elementalist attributes have adapted and grown from their original concepts, so why not air? And whats more, I think that can be done without unbalancing the attribute. Which we must be careful of as it is an easy balance to throw out. Anyway, these are just concept skills.

Tornado
Cast: 4
Cost: 25e
Recharge: 60
Spell. Create a tornado that wanders in the area and deals 5...24 damage each second to adjacent foes. This tornado persists for 8...18 seconds. This spell causes exhaustion.

I'm not certain if this should be elite. It doesn't seem very elite compared to MS and other AoE spells but maybe because it is in the lightning line it should be. Maybe it would be elite if you added some sort of effect to it, like causing characters hit while in a tornado (not "by" but "in") to be interrupted. But if it is elite the cast time will need to be reduced.

Whirlwinds
Cast: 2
Cost: 15e
Recharge: 60
Spell. Create 1...3 whirlwinds that wander in the area and deal 1...17 damage each second to adjacent foes. Each whirlwind persists for 5 seconds.

This one could be turned into an elite too. Which is fine, just so we can get some form of DECENT (key word) AoE in the air lineup. Again, these are just idea skills. But even now I'm farly certain that a longer recharge time on air AoE spells is a must, as it is not the focus of the attribute. 60 is just a random guess at what the recharge time should be.

Also, notice how these spells don't have any armor penetration? Yeah, they aren't supposed to.

EARTH

I love earth. And not just because it's the only planet I have ever been to. It's also my favorite attribute in the elementalist's arsenal. Especially when you tag on air for some hard-hitting damage or fire for some serious hellfire.

And now with skills like ebon hawk and glowstone the attribute is even better than ever before. And the best part is that there is no "but" to this. Sure earth has weaknesses, but it should have them.

The one thing I have always wanted to see more of in the earth lineup is wards. So, here's an idea I came up with to add a few additional earth wards.

Ward Against Heat
Cast: 1
Cost: 15e
Recharge: 30
Ward Spell. For 8...18 seconds non-spirit allies in the area gain 24 armor against fire attacks and do not suffer from the burning condition.

Ward Against Frost
Cast: 1
Cost: 15e
Recharge: 30
Ward Spell. For 8...18 seconds non-spirit allies in the area gain 24 armor against cold damage and cannot be the target of water hexes.

Ward Against Lightning
Cast: 1
Cost: 15e
Recharge: 30
Elite Ward Spell. For 8...18 seconds non-spirit allies in the area gain 24 armor against lightning attacks and do not suffer from armor penetration.

The idea behind these wards is simply to counter some of the extra effects of other elements. Which may be going too far, at least with the lightning one. Even as an elite. These wards could be useful in PvP but they will also make the elementalist even more useful in PvE against certain enemies. Which isn't such a bad thing.

FIRE

Fire makes stuff burn. It already does that quite well and is much more balanced than it has been in the past. Unfortunately there's not a lot I could add to this attribute as it is in need of little else.

WATER

Water is a necessity, if you want to live more than a few days. But that's only in the real world. In GW water is a bad joke. Sure it has a few specific uses and that's cool and all. But the advantages that water has it has in short supply. So it's general mediocrity, lack of clear direction, easily dodged spells, dependancy on hexes and conditions and poor energy to damage ratio overwhelm those few advantages.

What water really needs to make it shine is a couple more options for low energy cost damage spells and more knockdowns to round it out. Of all the elements water has the fewest knockdown skills. Now does that make sense when ice has so much potential for making you fall over? No! And I think it need sto do that without losing too many snares.

Ball of Frost
Cast: 2
Cost: 10e
Recharge: 7
Spell. Target foe and adjacent foes are struck for 20...68 cold damage.

This spell doesn't do that much damage (nothing like the 7..91 of fireball), but it doesn't cost much, it has a fair recharge time and it is AoE. You lose a snare here but you gain a better damage to energy ratio. It's not enough to make you drop fire for damage, but it is enough to greatly aid water in one of it's biggest setbacks - poor damage for the energy.

Frost Crystal
Cast: 2
Cost: 15e
Recharge: 20
Spell. Create a frost crystal that explodes after 3 seconds dealing 10...68 cold damage to foes in the area.

This is a decent spell... for a water spell. Like all the other water spells it's nothing to write home about but it adds more damage to the lineup. You lose a snare here, but it's worth it.

Frost Touch
Cast: 1/4
Cost: 5e
Recharge: 20
Hex Spell. Target touched foe takes 20...92 cold damage and moves 66% slower for 5...10 seconds.

For half the cost of frozen burst you can do exactly the same thing only to a single target. Thereby making this skill much more useful in most situations. And what about throwing this on a w/e? Huh? Yeah? Huh?

Ice Slick
Cast: 4
Cost: 15e
Recharge: 45
Elite Spell. For 5...15 seconds target foe and adjacent foes move 66% slower. Foes that enter or exit the area where the ice slick is are knocked down.

What's so interesting about it is that it forces you to stand still. Combine with Maelstrom or Frost Crystal for a mean combo.

Anyway, these are just ideas on how to advance the elementalist's skills in a way that actually advances the class and hopefully adds a bit more balance. (Well, aside from the wards.)

It was my attempt to do all of this without breaking any other skills or attributes, at least in the elementalists lineup. If I missed something please let me know.

-EDIT 1-

Changed Ice Slick a bit to try and make it a littel more viable. Upped the recharge, dropped the energy cost and ditched the exhaustion.

Kendar Muert · Jan 03, 2007, 11:31 PM // 23:31

I like them all, but ice slick would be a joke spell unless it was 90% or more slower, since they can and will walk out. Balanced stance anyone?

Zonzai · Jan 04, 2007, 05:23 AM // 05:23

That's something I hadn't thought of.

Ice Slick doesn't deal damage and making it do so would be silly. So how could it be made a viable skill? It has to cost a lot since it is a knockdown. But it could be reduced to 15e or not cause exhaustion. Possibly both?

I don't think 90% slow is a good idea for an AoE but maybe that would work too.