Curse

Hella Good · Sep 26, 2006, 04:43 PM // 16:43

After the NF preview event, I was convinced that the new Me elites are unimpressive. Even skills that sound wonderful in theory, don't really work well in practice. Some of these skills are hopeless- I really don't see what much can be done to make them better, but others seem to have great potential if only tweaked a bit. Namely:

Enchanter's Conundrum:
Reduce cost to 10

For 10 seconds, target foe casts Enchantments 100% slower. When this Hex ends, that foe loses all enchantments if under the effect of an Enchantment Spell or takes 15...75 damage otherwise.

Visions of Regret:
For 5...17 seconds, target foe takes 30...102 damage whenever that foe uses an attack skill.

Air of Disenchantment:
For 10 seconds, target foe and all nearby foes cast Enchantments 10...82% slower. When Air of Disenchantment ends, it removes one Enchantment from each affected foe.

Signet of Illusions and Simple Thevery:
Altho these skills sounds fascinating and ANet are clearly trying to make Thievery builds more viable, the process behind Thevery skills is not functioning well. Arcane Thevery and its double Larceny often times tend to steal the same skills, which is counterproductive. A Thevery spell should "know" if another spell on the bar has already been stolen and the chance of stealing that same spell should be 0 or extremely small. As for Simple Thevery it should allow you to use the stolen skill at the attribute level of the foe it belonged to.

I think these changes to the NF elites are reasonable and will pretty much be the difference between people actually using these skills or not. As of this point, I doubt any of the new NF elites will find it's way into a Me skillbar.

dargon · Sep 26, 2006, 05:58 PM // 17:58

IMO, these skills don't need any help, look at axe warriors, the majority of their skill bar is adren based skills, VoR is a very nice counter against them. The same for boon prots and Enchanter's Conundrum, it's a double edged sword, have the hex removed and loose all your enchantments, don't and either loose them all when it drops or take a decent health hit.

The only NF elite that needs a tweak in one form or another IMO (and granted I didn't look at or play with all of them) is Hypocondriac, it makes fragility based builds about as dangerous now as before Fragility got reduced in power.

Hella Good · Sep 26, 2006, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by dargon

IMO, these skills don't need any help, look at axe warriors, the majority of their skill bar is adren based skills, VoR is a very nice counter against them.

You would certainly think so, but it's not. I tried the skill, used it vs Warriors and Paragons alike and was unimpressed. If it included Rangers, Sins, and Dervishes in the mix, and triggered on attack skill, it will be way more useful. Granted, adjustments to the damage component might need to be made.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dargon

The same for boon prots and Enchanter's Conundrum, it's a double edged sword, have the hex removed and loose all your enchantments, don't and either loose them all when it drops or take a decent health hit.

Well, that's what I'm suggesting. That's not how the skill IS. Currently, it only causes 15..75 damage if the foe is under no enchantments when it ends, which is unimpressive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dargon

The only NF elite that needs a tweak in one form or another IMO (and granted I didn't look at or play with all of them) is Hypocondriac, it makes fragility based builds about as dangerous now as before Fragility got reduced in power.

Hypochondriac isn't even an elite... I am not discussing the non-elite skills here, those I'm pretty happy with. I am simply suggesting augmenting at least a few of the new NF elites so that their usability and versatility is apar the Prophecies and Factions elites. Not one of these skills comes any close to being as effective as say E-drain or Expell Hexes.

Apple · Sep 27, 2006, 04:09 AM // 04:09

Visions of regret is pretty good, as long as it's covered enough. Remember that when a warrior spikes, he's generally under frenzy, and hence will take DOUBLE damage from that... so it's pretty good spike prevention...

Phoenix Arrows · Sep 27, 2006, 04:21 AM // 04:21

Air of Disenchantment sucks...Enchanter's Conundrum sucks...

Hex Eater Vortex sucks...an elite version of Shatter Hex, yet crap.