Curse

chikorita23 · Aug 27, 2006, 03:10 AM // 03:10

I'm always a fan of water magic ever since Guild War first chapter came out last year. Although I hardly seen Hydromancer in both Pve and pvp area.

I've seen people discuss the similar issues in the Elementalist Skill Section. But I've decide to post one thread here and hopefully Anet would pay some attention with.

Few reasons people neglect water might be:

- In Chapter One, newbie area does not teach you any water magics. This might give new elementalist player an idea (FIRE) or (AIR) are the main ele forces. *I realize other profession in newbie land get to learn 1 or 2 skills from every skill attribute, such as Mesmer get the chance to try spells in the illusion, domination, inspiration field, Warrior get to try out axe, sword and hammer skill..... but when it comes to ele why neglect water?*

- In Faction, we have 3 henches with 3 elements except we don't have a pure Water Hench.

- People already associate eles as nuker = fire, spiker = air. Especially if players does not own an ele or spend time trying all the ele's spells. Its hard to wash away the stereotype impression.

- In Faction, if you browse the Ele spell list. Water has the least spell.... compare to 3 other spells. *Very very limited choice!!!*

- In Faction, there are lesser enemies using water magics. *Compare with Tyria both North/South Shiverpeak area*

- During one of the spell-adjust.... water magic Swirling Aura secretly got tune down, and it's even WORSE now. Only has 50% for blocking arrow. Used to be 75% blocking rate for both projectile and arrow. With *1 min* recharge time. (Although this might not be the most reasons which make water least popular)

- Ice/Teinai Prisoner, the spell can be counter by fire magic. But other elements doesn't have spell that can be counter by other elements. (Again might not be the main reason, but just becoz that, I've heard people in my guild and some other BBS ppl mis-taken most water spells gets counter by fire)

In my humble opinions, Anet could do certain thing to encourage player trying this field, such as:

- Most people pay attention on Ele's spell dmg. In fact, some of the Water spells has the same dmg as Fire does! *Frozen burst 116dmg, Vapor Blade127dmg , Ice Spear74dmg, Water Trident 74dmg etc.*
However... how about strength a little bit on Water field? Such as the dmg wise or the actual effect.

Example:

Vapor Blade, at water magic 16, it does wonderful dmg, and the recharge time is short. But with the "deal-half dmg" on enchanted foe, how about adding also removing one enchantment? That make it fair no?

Ice Prisoner, how about keeping the slowing effect, and ditch the counter by fire part? (Consider this spell has long recharge.... and does NO DMG!!)

Swirling Aura, I even remember posting up the issue about swirling aura when Anet tune down this spell WITHOUT listing it out. This spell is aweful.... 60 sec recharge time + short duration + only have 50% blocking rate on arrows only + it's a removable enchantment.... I wonder WHO WOULD USE IT? Hydromancer included.... How about "Adjust" this spell instead of keep on nerf it?? Such as.... shorten the recharge time? or make the blocking rate higher? or block both physical + Arrow dmg?

Armor of Frost, again.... why having the take more dmg on Fire if you use this armor. Consider there are a lot of fire-dmg even ranger can shoot out fire-arrows.... I never really seen people using Armor of Frost *Most use Armor of Mist for running purposes*

Deep Freeze, everything is fine... the slow effect, the range... except at energy cost of 25, water attribute 16, it does 90 dmg only? So often when I cast it at higher armor melee enemies it end up dealing 30-40 dmg only. Humm, Anet if you make it only a bit higher like 100-110~ I'm sure more player would try it as people pay attention on the dmg wise!!

I'm perfectly happy with the rest of the Water spells... but how about adding new "condition" for water? I remember during 05 Xmas event. The Mini-game. Snow Ball Fight. Ring a bell? A lot of those Snow-Spells are perfect for Water magic.... such as create an Ice Barrier on yourself, or Freeze your opponent for very short period of time, or create ice obstacles like earth ward spells etc.

I'm sure with little improvement and new ideas with Water. Anet can encourage more players trying out this wonderful field. And sorry that English isn't my first language, I know I might make some part sound unclear....><! And please I'm only making suggestion here, please don't flame me if anyone disagree.

Thanks for spending time reading my post.

LifeInfusion · Aug 27, 2006, 03:21 PM // 15:21

Erm all you see are ice imps, siege golems, and other annoying water mages (for pure water). In factions we have the air hench who uses water hexes like Tenai's Prison with Arc Lightning. Also in Factions, Dragon Mosses and Kappas use Water Magic.

The strength of air is spike/armor penetration, fire is aoe , earth is wards, KD, but Wateronly has slows and miss chance (blurred Vision).
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Basically Water is the mesmer/necro wannabee in all respects besides snaring...ever notice Icy Prism = watered down Complicate? Blurred Vision = Reckless Haste/ Shadow of Fear more or less.

Water slows/snares are the only thing holding it up because of the 66% reduction in speed, which is only paralleled by Mesmer's Illusion hexes which slow 50% (and have higher recharges).

Now, slows are nice and all...but they don't really help as much as Air spike (Lightning orb), AOE KD (Earthquake, Meteor shower) or AOE damage (Fireball) in PvE, mainly due to recharge times in the range of 10-15 seconds. If you compare water, it only has a few attacks (not hexes) that are worth bringing, like Water Trident, Ice Spikes and Deep Freeze because of snare effects.

Veripare · Aug 27, 2006, 03:36 PM // 15:36

I play a hydromancer (low level factions character, but still) and all the skills work fine. I use swirling aura when I'm going into a ranger heavy area and it works well. I also use it on my monk while running a build that I made myself (which works out well too).

People will choose water if they want to do something different. But until people make this choice, sit tight and wait for a new flavour of the month to come out needing a hydromancer.

dgb · Aug 27, 2006, 04:08 PM // 16:08

Quote:

Water Magic: Anet should do something to encourage player using this ele-field.

It's called GVG.

Water is fine, it sees plenty of play. Maybe not in PVE but that's because crowd movement control isn't highly valued there. Maybe if A-net can be bothered to make AI monks kite and scrub PUG monks learn to kite AI warriors then it will become valued.

Until then, it's held back by the limited call for movement control in PvE. You can introduce it earlier all you want, but to make it a damage dealing line along with movement control would just be stupidly overpowered.