Searing Flames Nerf Possibility

Gaile Grey mentioned that Searing Flames would be "dealt with" and a skill balance update would be coming in Mid-January.



Personally, I feel that there's plenty of ways to beat Searing Flames that a nerf isn't needed. Pretty much every build in the game has a counter to it. Is it really SF eles' fault that no one runs the counters to them?

Blech.

Blech blech blech.

I've just started playing again (PvE) after a hiatus, and if they nerf fire badly again I may not be all that thrilled about continuing ...

In which case I should probably resign as editor of the DMOZ Guild Wars category. I didn't do much editing during my first hiatus.

Who cares, Searing Flames is boring to run anyways. Perhaps people might try to be more creative with this 'inhibitor' adjusted. Sounds good to me...

Finally. I got sick of seeing full ele teams everywhere.

Searing Flames doesn't need a nerf, it needs to be balanced. You can't exepct people to run exact counters of the build in anticipation of meeting a Searing Flames team.

I personally like running 1 Searing Flames Elementalist in PvE myself (with my Paragon with they are on fire ). I guess if it is hit bad enough I'll switch to Savannah Heat which is pretty sweet and under used and maybe use mark of rodgort.

There are many ways of Countering Searing Flames like the OP has mentioned and it really isn't dangerous unless you got like 4 and anything with 4 can be dangerous (Like Obsidian Flame as an example)

-Extinguish
-Martyr
-Avatar of Melandru

Just to name a few.

If there really will be a nerf to this skill maybe reduce its damage effect if it hits a burning target maybe.

Quote: Originally Posted by konohamaru heaven

Maybe just take out the "if terget isnt burning, then all nearby foes start burning for ____seconds." With that out, people need to bring rodgorts, mark or imolate.

I don't use Searing Flames in PvE myself, having assumed from the outset that it would get balanced into uselessness or perhaps crippled with exhaustion! This is one of those "too good to be true" skills. But ele's have a lot of those at the moment. Mind Blast could get hit too. Blinding Surge is likely to get balanced in the Air category. In GW, the PvP squeaking wheels have historically been the ones that get the grease.

The frightening part of what Gaile said is that this might happen about mid January. Now guess what else also happens in mid January? World of WarCraft's new expansion, Burning Crusade is scheduled to release on January 16!

If the balance changes for PvE, which will be called "nerfs" in PvE, irritate or annoy PvE players, they will have a nice alternative in the all new and as yet un-nerfed WoW expansion. I'm not trying to be a prophet of impending doom, but I think ANet marketing should keep that consideration in mind.

The thing about Searing Flames builds in PvE is not that they're uber-powerful. Rather, it's that of the more powerful builds, they're one of the ones the AIs actually do a good job of playing.

There are only a limited number of hero build types I'm really happy taking -- mainly SF, MM, healing, Barrage, and domination. And the only henchies I'm really happy about are the defensive ones (monks, paragon).

Nerfing SF too badly would be a big loss for us antisocial types who like to play the game alone at odd hours.

Fridged armor is a very good counter to SF, and fire ele's in general, not to mention it's armor bonus.

And people won't change to WoW, because paying for a game monthly just don't appeal to alot of people.

I think they should quit worrying about sf and more about stoneflesh aura. Its way too annoying, and now a lot of people are catching on to it and using sf less. I saw 1 sf ele in AB, and 3 stoneflesh, go figure.

After this "skill balance" I won't be surprised if some people quit. I may take a break again.

Quote: Originally Posted by Hyprodimus Prime

I hope they realise that if they nerf searing flames eles will go back to being utility and flag runners rather than damage dealers. If they do make a change to SF they should atleast buff up some other ele skills that are in dire need of re-vamping..

Stoneflesh Aura is a great farming skill. That alone has to put it in the nerf cross-hairs.

As for Searing Flames -- I don't see where it needs a nerf at all. If anything, the skill that's overpowered is Glowing Gaze, which returns more net energy per minute than Glyph of Lesser Energy and also does some decent single-target damage in the process.

i hope you noticed that no where gaile mentioned a nerf...she specificaly said a "skill balancing"...im guessing they will do something to it like they did to eviscerate. eviscerate wasnt a "nerf" because it still does the same thing, its just now balanced out. im guessing they will either decrease the damage dealt to burning foes, reduce the burning time or increase the recharge.

in my opinion, if they increased the recharge to 3 seconds, that would make it pretty balanced out. (yes, 1 second can make a huge difference)

The best way to deal with this skill is to reduce damage to 105. Any thing less, and ur messing up with this skill

If buffinf Rodgorts by 119 to 127 made it "good" than decreasing 8 dmg should be considered a SKILL BALANCE.

And no, 1 second makes 119 damage reduction, so keep that in ur head.

If that is to be the case to Increase recharge time, than increase Burning duration as well so eles have CHANCE TO USE IT IN PVE.

Not every freakin skill should get "Balanced Out" ( a fancy term used to call Nerf ). Specialy when its only because kids whined in PVP.

PVE needs to be given Consideration as well.

jokes are ENOUGH. If SF is getting a hit without increasing burn, Buff the damn fire line. Fire Line needs it. People have seen the difference already between SF and Rest of the fire line.

Once someone has SF, they do not need any other ele skill. Sound's a bit stupid to me that SF just kills every other fire skill available to an elementalist for damage dealing purposes. I wonder if thats because of the insane energy cost, a lame projectile, or whether its the recharge that kills those other skills... or was it the pathetic cast time?


Francis, Glowing Gaze returns if Foe is Set on FIRE. COnditional. GoLE is Not conditional.\\



TO ANET: STOP Freakin Advertising a SKILL based BUILD on GW.com Site if your going to "Balance" it. It was your idea to promote the build in First place!

As I said, increasing the cast time to 2 seconds, and reducing the recharge to 1 second, would fix the skill.

so have an ele with migrane, and see how it feels to cast it, keep QZ and Serpents to increase the speed, let me know if you like the result.