Curse

Satire Elexus · Jun 14, 2005, 01:56 PM // 13:56

I would like people to examine these two elementalist skills.

Armor of Earth You gain 24+ armor, but move 50%- slower than normal.

Grasping Earth All adjacent enemies are Hexed with Grasping Earth. For 8+ seconds, those enemies move 50% slower but have +24 armor rating against physical damage. This spell causes Exhaustion.

Is it just me, or is the Grasping Earth skill doing your enemies a favour?

Rajamic · Jun 14, 2005, 06:44 PM // 18:44

It's not really a balanced spell due to the exhaustion, but it is designed to let you flee. Anything else is just to keep you from trying to abuse it.

Jijimuge · Jun 15, 2005, 08:58 PM // 20:58

The bonus to armour provided by armour of earth is vs all damage types whereas that provided by grasping earth is only versus physical damage.

How useful it is depends how much physical damage your team uses, I guess.

Edit: Forgot to add, frozen burst is quite similar

Frozen Burst (Hex) at skill 12
Foes adjacent to you are struck for 68 cold damage and are slowed for 10 seconds.
Casting cost: 15 energy
Casting time: 3/4 sec
Recharge time: 30 sec
Relevant attribute: Water Magic

Higher energy cost and shorter duration but no exhaustion. I would probably go for the burst, personally.

Mercury Angel · Jun 15, 2005, 09:50 PM // 21:50

Grasping Earth doesn't have exhaustion. Don't know if it ever did, but that part of the description is outdated.

Energy - 5
Casting time - 3/4th second
Recharge - 30 seconds

Use:
Ever tried to run from minotaurs or drakes? There're some monsters that have either inherent or stance run buffs, and a simple 33% speed buff won't get you away from them. However, run, gather a group, stop for a moment and let them almost encircle you, then cast Grasping Earth to snare them. Run, and because they can't keep up, they'll turn around.

Admittedly, water has Armor of Mist for defence and speed buff, AND Frozen Burst for a speed debuff, but the point is, Grasping Earth has a use.

Grapsing Earth is quick and cheap to use, so for its limited purpose, it's still great.

Never used it in PvP, but it might be useful for a mo/e to make a getaway with.

Rieselle · Jun 16, 2005, 09:07 PM // 21:07

I haven't tried this myself - but I was thinking Grasping Earth would be useful as a snare in a team that has elemental damage on their weapons.

For example, my E/W uses Conjure Lightning on a Lightning weapon, presumably I could cast Grasping Earth and continue to hit/chase the enemy without penalty to my damage. As long as my teammates are also using elemental weapons, or spells, we should be fine.

It's better than Ward against Foes because they can run out of the ward...

Also, the speed penalty for Armour Of Earth goes down to 21% @ 12 earth... at that point it's not so noticeably slow anymore.

Vermilion Okeanos · Jun 17, 2005, 12:28 AM // 00:28

the armor from grasping earth are regular armor... that means it deduce any kind of damage that count armor in... elemental or physical...

the one with lightning that have no penalty was iron mist.

Falconer · Jun 17, 2005, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Grasping earth has a lot of uses...

Ever needed to snare something so it can't get out of your maelstrom/firestorm team AoE builds? Classic example.... If you have other ele's casting those skills... you could have one earth ele with their armor buffs... run into PB... drop a ward against foes, and grasping earth and laugh... they're moving at 25% speed. And can't get out of the firestorms/maelstroms/meteor (showers)... etc. And the earth ele is in the right position to further augment that damage with more PB AoE's such as crystal wave and after shock (right after the meteor hits for that delicious nearly 200 points of damage).

Already have greater conflagration in play... who cares... nobodies dealing physical damage anyhow... now we have an AoE 50% speed debuff... which is hard on hex removers because it's AoE. So they need to cast it on 3 or 4 different people.

Others have covered it's use in covering a retreat, or as a general snare.

Rieselle · Jun 17, 2005, 04:23 PM // 16:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vermilion Okeanos

the armor from grasping earth are regular armor... that means it deduce any kind of damage that count armor in... elemental or physical...

the one with lightning that have no penalty was iron mist.

No, I believe that grasping earth only increases armour vs. physical. Read the description. Whilst Iron Mist leaves the target vulnerable to lightning, Grasping Earth only protects against physical, and is still vulnerable to ANY element.

Pharalon · Jun 18, 2005, 12:44 AM // 00:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falconer

Classic example.... If you have other ele's casting those skills... you could have one earth ele with their armor buffs... run into PB... drop a ward against foes, and grasping earth and laugh... they're moving at 25% speed.

Speed Debuffs are capped at 50%, so casting one of those spells will have the same affect as casting two. Your point is right though, the best use of the spell in PvP is to pin groups in large AoEs.

Falconer · Jun 18, 2005, 12:51 AM // 00:51

You certain on that Pharalon... I remember cripple and ward turning people into utter molasses. (barbed trap paired with ward against foes).

But it's been a long time since I tested that aspect. But it still helps because IIRC, speed buffs/debuffs are additive. So layering the two of them would counter any speed boosts in play.

Rieselle · Jun 18, 2005, 10:00 PM // 22:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pharalon

Speed Debuffs are capped at 50%, so casting one of those spells will have the same affect as casting two. Your point is right though, the best use of the spell in PvP is to pin groups in large AoEs.

Are you sure? How does this apply to spells that debuff speed 90% like Iron Mist?

Digital Limit · Jun 19, 2005, 04:04 AM // 04:04

That's what I was wondering. Maybe they simply don't stack.