Curse

Mr_Cynical · Jan 20, 2007, 04:11 PM // 16:11

I think this is actually one of the best nerfs Anet have ever done. They have cut back the 'overpoweredness' (by decreasing the burning to the same as immolate, exactly what I suggested a while back) without making the skill completely and utterly useless (take a bow Spirit Bond).

Arrows[PURE] · Jan 20, 2007, 05:15 PM // 17:15

I dont think theyv nerfed searing flames at all by decreasing burning time, with a SF team the person being targetted is always going to be on fire anyway so there was no need to decrease burning time. I think that increasing recharge time to 4-6 seconds would have been better

jesh · Jan 21, 2007, 08:13 AM // 08:13

No they won't.. only the first cast of SF will cause the target to burn. Successive casts will do damage, they don't cause a hidden burning extension.
Mark of Rodgort DOES, however. Coincidentally, it's been buffed to compensate for the lesser burning time of the new SF.
What does this mean? One of your SF elementalists will need Mark of Rodgort. SF is untouched except for the change to Glowing Gaze.

Arrows[PURE] · Jan 21, 2007, 07:46 PM // 19:46

What i meant by always on fire is that because SF is constantly being casted, there will be a very slight period of no burning but the target will quickly be set on fire again by SF

lunksunkunk · Jan 21, 2007, 09:32 PM // 21:32

You whiners got what u wanted, SF was nerfed in duration. Why complain even more? Obviously you havent been hexed w/ mark of rodgort and spammed with mind blast.

Grammar · Jan 22, 2007, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arrows[PURE]

I dont think theyv nerfed searing flames at all by decreasing burning time, with a SF team the person being targetted is always going to be on fire anyway so there was no need to decrease burning time.

100% correct.
This nerf did nothing to PvP SF teams with multiple Eles spamming SF at the same time.

What it DID do, however, is hurt the single SF Ele in PvE. Single PvE Eles just lost quite a bit of damage potential with this nerf.
Possible PvE solutions: Always bring dual SF Eles and have them coordinate their attacks; or maybe throw Mark of Rodgort into the SF build (now that it's AoE matches that of SF) so you don't have to restart the burning as often.

Everyone and their grandmother (but apparently not Anet) knew that the correct way to nerf SF in PvP while not hurting it too much in PvE was to increase the cast time to 2 seconds.

JimmyDean · Jan 23, 2007, 04:40 PM // 16:40

*boom* Head Shot

Told ya so

Arrows[PURE] · Jan 23, 2007, 05:06 PM // 17:06

I never really used it in PvE, it just felt like clicking same button all of the time, although i use the same 5 attack skills when im nuking with my normal build, i actually have fun doing that because it felt like i could actually unleash combo's and not just SF>GG>SF>LF> ........ and so on

starkce · Jan 28, 2007, 03:04 AM // 03:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grammar

100% correct.
This nerf did nothing to PvP SF teams with multiple Eles spamming SF at the same time.

What it DID do, however, is hurt the single SF Ele in PvE. Single PvE Eles just lost quite a bit of damage potential with this nerf.
Possible PvE solutions: Always bring dual SF Eles and have them coordinate their attacks; or maybe throw Mark of Rodgort into the SF build (now that it's AoE matches that of SF) so you don't have to restart the burning as often.

Everyone and their grandmother (but apparently not Anet) knew that the correct way to nerf SF in PvP while not hurting it too much in PvE was to increase the cast time to 2 seconds.

I do not believe a 2 second cast is the right way to go about nerfing this skill.

SF@ as it is now
= time for 2 casts for damage and 1 glowing gaze during recharges.

option1 SF@ 5 second burning duration, 1 second cast and 2 second recharge = time for 1 cast for damage and 1 glowing gaze during recharges.

option2 SF@ 7 second burning duration, 2 second cast and 2 second recharge = time for 1 cast for damage and 1 glowing gaze during recharges. (2nd hit for damage would land 1 second after burning ends)

Both options reduce the number of hits of damage during burning to 1.This is a very large nerf in terms of outright damage dealing capability (almost halving the net damage!). But option2 further hits the skill by making it much more susceptible to disruption. The power(and unbalancing effect) of this skill comes from using it in concert with other eles in a coordinated spike. Both changes really only address the single pve ele which is where this skill is not considered overpowered. The best possible change would be to lower the damage to maybe 95-100 @ 16 fire(while keeping the burning@ 7). This keeps the spell largely intact for pve, but lowers the damage output of a coordinated spike to manageable levels.

Thom Bangalter · Jan 28, 2007, 04:31 AM // 04:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grammar

100% correct.
This nerf did nothing to PvP SF teams with multiple Eles spamming SF at the same time.

What it DID do, however, is hurt the single SF Ele in PvE. Single PvE Eles just lost quite a bit of damage potential with this nerf.
Possible PvE solutions: Always bring dual SF Eles and have them coordinate their attacks; or maybe throw Mark of Rodgort into the SF build (now that it's AoE matches that of SF) so you don't have to restart the burning as often.

Everyone and their grandmother (but apparently not Anet) knew that the correct way to nerf SF in PvP while not hurting it too much in PvE was to increase the cast time to 2 seconds.

While the first part is spot on, a 2 second cast in pvp would kill it there too, because then it's just d shot fodder. The correct way to fix it was to adjust the damage.

Milky Goodness · Feb 03, 2007, 05:39 PM // 17:39

Eh 5 seconds is managable, but the hit to glowing gaze is silly. Actually pretty happy that I dont have time to play this game much anymore. Eh I leave for a week, come back, Everything is different, get bored disappear for another week. Most of the people I like seem to be leaving this game because of all the weird changes and what not. Also there is no "right" way to handle searing flames. As right and wrong is just a matter of opinion. which ranges from remove it from game, to hey it wasn't strong enough. Honestly I thought it was just fine.

Crazyvietguy · Feb 03, 2007, 11:30 PM // 23:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milky Goodness

Honestly I thought it was just fine.

Uhh... do you even play this game?
And glowing gaze was a nerf in response to SF. I think the nerf is justified. It keeps one SF ele from playing god in PvE and Arenas (RA/TA).

A lot of people think SF should have been nerfed even more, but I think this will do for now.

Milky Goodness · Feb 04, 2007, 12:52 AM // 00:52

A silly question... eles were far from gods. Even in pve they were not. Granted with searing flames in its original state it eles did own monsters fairly well at times. but honestly certain enemies couldn't even be approached like that. namely necros, warriors and paragons. also if any of the monsters turned on the ele, which they often did, the ele was toast. glowing gaze was fine. could be used for adequate energy managment. now its just like a lot of other things... half assed. with the 5 second burn on sf now it would in essence reduce the dps anyway. and umm.... ai is usually a lot smarter than other players. honestly players will stand in aoe far longer than an npc. not to mention how dumb many players can be when it comes to following kiting opponents. npc's do fall short of a competent team, yet even in pvp, those can be far and inbetween. eh i might take a break from this junk and go back to unreal tournament. the original not the stinky 2k3/2k4. so not overly concerned how or what anet does anyway.

LightningHell · Feb 04, 2007, 09:32 AM // 09:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_Cynical

I think this is actually one of the best nerfs Anet have ever done. They have cut back the 'overpoweredness' (by decreasing the burning to the same as immolate, exactly what I suggested a while back) without making the skill completely and utterly useless (take a bow Spirit Bond).

I forgot to comment, Spirit Bond is still useful.

Just not for farming.

Xpl0iter · Feb 13, 2007, 10:46 PM // 22:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyvietguy

Uhh... do you even play this game?
And glowing gaze was a nerf in response to SF. I think the nerf is justified. It keeps one SF ele from playing god in PvE and Arenas (RA/TA).

A lot of people think SF should have been nerfed even more, but I think this will do for now.

Apparently, you think that You play this game, which you obviously don't. Atleast not with an ele.

There were threads where this was discussed a while back, and it was said many times that the damage should have been reduced to reduce its spiking ability, and not the burning time, or cast time increment.

Reason? Biggest complaint was that it was used by many foes to spike at once, preferably more than 2 at once. At its new state, there is no different still. It still does the very same amount of damage, and yet, still manageable to some extent.

As far as "other people think" issue goes, those other people loved playing their original heal party eles, flag runners, flash bots, etc. But... lets not go there, aite?

If you need those threads, and posts in specific for me to back my silly words with over here, just give me a shout.

The hit on Glowing gaze was silly as well. Every thing boiled down to SPIKING, and nerfing SF to its current state, along with Glowing gaze's incremented recharge, made not much of a difference IMHO.

To lightning hell, i definetly agree. Having one prot spirit and spirit bond makes a whole lot of difference in most areas.

Darkest.

riojin · Feb 14, 2007, 09:44 AM // 09:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thom Bangalter

While the first part is spot on, a 2 second cast in pvp would kill it there too, because then it's just d shot fodder. The correct way to fix it was to adjust the damage.

i couldnt agree more - usually when i go to comment bangy usually has already said what i wanted to say

Phades · Feb 15, 2007, 01:55 AM // 01:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizahtteo

15, 1, 2

burning time cause -7 hp degen

recharge time shall be increased to 8 or 10
energy cost shall be 25

reduce burning time by 1 second

this will reduce the number of newbie elementalist that rely only on this skill.

Perhaps you might have missed the fact that searing flames is not rodgort's invocation and doesnt even remotely function similar to it.

Mouse at Large · Feb 15, 2007, 09:19 AM // 09:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizahtteo

15, 1, 2

burning time cause -7 hp degen

recharge time shall be increased to 8 or 10
energy cost shall be 25

reduce burning time by 1 second

this will reduce the number of newbie elementalist that rely only on this skill.

Brilliant logic - take a skillset that ACTUALLY WORKS and nerf it down to near uselessness so it's as bad as the rest and does not stand out.

To my way of thinking, the tactic should be to BUFF other skills so an elementalist (including "newbies" - which we were all once) have a wider range of attractive skillbars and skill combinations in ALL attributes.

glountz · Feb 15, 2007, 10:10 AM // 10:10

Searing Flames is left untouched.
Just go in HoH.
While being mindless spamming, Searing Flames still rampages. It's a group-spike without the need to coordinate. Just spam the same target. If it survives, nearby ones won't.
That's somewhat a shame that such a build needs very superior skill (i.e positionning to avoid mass spiking, interrupts, a high monking skill to handle both pressure and spike ability) to be beaten and/or countered.
And yes, I got my fair amount of defeats against this build, and yes, I also played it. Its real strenght lies in its simplicity.

Pwny Ride · Feb 15, 2007, 10:58 AM // 10:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mouse at Large

Brilliant logic - take a skillset that ACTUALLY WORKS and nerf it down to near uselessness so it's as bad as the rest and does not stand out.

To my way of thinking, the tactic should be to BUFF other skills so an elementalist (including "newbies" - which we were all once) have a wider range of attractive skillbars and skill combinations in ALL attributes.

Wow, what you just said defines what happens to mesmers almost every update