Elementalist needs Balanced.

I've been playing as a mage for awhile, and have probably tried out all the abilities in the first 3 games. I've inadverntantly realized that some abilities just simply dont compare in effectivness to others..

For starters, look at lightning hammer. It costs 25 mana, has a 2 second casting time, 4 second cooldown, deals about 100 damage with level 16 air magic, and ignores terrain obstacles. Some people might get the impression that I'm making it out to be a good abilitiy, but nothing could be further from the truth. IF you compare this ability to another ability that has simliar mana cost ,casting time, and cooldown, i.e. the factors that determine how often you can cast the ability, it becomes obvoiusly inferior. THe ability that I'm comparing it to is Rodgorts Invocation. They have a lot of simliarities to eachother, casting time, cooldown, mana cost, and both ignore terrain obstacles, however rodgorts Invovocation has some obvoius advantanges over Lightning Hammer. Rodgorts Invocation deals about 30 more damage, deals AOE damge, and though rodgorts doesnt peirce armor, it sets enemies on fire which probably makes it deal even more damage, even against heavily armored foes.

Suggestions for Balance: Lightning Hammer should probably deal more damage, seeing as it costs so much mana, and the damage it does is only towards a single target. It should at least deal a little bit more damage than rodgorts invocation. I dont think anything should be nerfed, or decreased in effectrivness, since the mage already has a tough time as it is dealing with the high magic resistence enemies.

AoE water spells like ice spikes and deepfreeze are lacking in damage when compared to fire aoe spells, fireball deals about 45 more damage than glacial spikes..Basically its encouraged to only use ice for support, so you can slow and occasionally blind the enemies, but just for those 2 benefits its hardly worth it, when you could just as well be setting enemies on fire perpetually and dealing 120 aoe damage.

Suggestions for Balance: I think the Aoe Spells should deal at least around 110 damage with level 16 ice magic, and perhaps decreasse the slow duration, since a 10 second slow isnt really needed if your casting slow spells every 2 seconds. Fire would still be better for damage too, since it deals more damage, and would set enemies on fire.

I'll comment more on other abilities later..

Water isn't based on damage, it's based on slowing hexes. You want damage, use Fire.

End of discussion.

Lightning Hammer refreshes much more quickly. And the mana cost isn't usually prohibitive since people generally use it with either dual attunement or air attunement+GoLE.

Water is meant to snare, not damage. (Though there are damaging skills in the water line). It's primarily useful in PvP and Hard Mode, but certain water skills such as Deep Freeze can be used anywhere. As for a 10 second hex with 2 second recharge... you're meant to spread it to more than one target, not to keep using the skill on the same monster.

It refreshes one sec quicker, which isn't that special, and yeah the mana cost isn't too significant because of dual attunements, but that doesnt change the fact rodgorts invocation is so much better.

If its an AOE spell, as were talking about, its easy to slow hex all the monsters your fightning with just one spell, like deepfreeze. I said myself your encourged to use ice for slowing, but the point I'm making is that its NOT WORTH IT, only against certain enemies is it really effetive.

Spikeablity. Nuff said.
That's why the skills you point operate as they do.

If used properly, Deep Freeze can help you devastate almost any foe. It's all a matter of knowing where and when to cast it.

Water is the thinking person's element. Unlike the other 3 elements, you have to be continuously monitoring which target would be more strategical to hit. You can't just spam your spells and expect a victory every time.

Ok, heres the breakdown for an elementalist.

Air: Is for SPIKING OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!11!2!!oneone! NOT NUKING! An expert Air Spiker can kill any one single target faster then a fire AoE mage can, IMO. Thats what Air is for, spiking, nothing else.

Water: Mostly used for HM and PvP. Snares help keep enemies in AoE based skills (like Maelstrom if your going straight ice, or for an Ice/Fire build, savannah heat is extremely nice). As others before me have said, you have to spread out your skills to hit different targets, not just sit there and spam it on a single target.

Earth: Earth is mainly support, though it has its damage as well). Wards help enormously in both PvP and PvE, and the PBAoE knockdown/damage skills are also incredibly nice for a defensive build. Earth is primarily defensive.

Fire: Fire is for nuking purposes. That means AoE, hitting more than one target, and setting DoTS off. Firecan almost be easily negated by a simple tactic-spreading out. When targets are far apart, a Fire Ele is in a bad position. He can no longer use his devastating AoE skills to his advantage, and is forced to attempt a spike if he wants to kill people (Air > Fire as far as that goes)

So no, Lightning Hammer, Deep freeze, and Rodgort's Invocation are fine. Perfectly fine

Funny how you dont actually prove that air can take out a single target faster than fire. I disagree, rodgorts invocation + arcane echo deals more damage to a single target than lightning hammer +other lightning spikes, due to the setting the enemies on fire and dealing more base damage. I've already explained how it deals more damage, but then you assert this as if I should just automatically believe it. Dont waiste my time with your assertions,

By "devastate" i hope you dont mean deal a lot of damage, as its damage pales in comparison to fire AOE spells.

This made me laugh. ALL of the elements have different strategies with them not just water. Fire should be FIRST focused on lighter armored enemies, and Ice on melee enemies that are running around...And lighting....fails..

Don't buff lightning hammer. Yeah.

Fire is the damage dealer of GW. The hotspot of everything that is "OMGWTFBBQ". This is the element that most elementalist go for. If you don't wield fire, you'll be lucky to get into a team.

Air costs quite a bit for just 25% armor penetration... Yeah, it's good for spikes, but Fire is better for spiking by far. You'll rarely see an Areomancer. Ever.

Water is very strategic. Slowing down enemies and inducing mass-hexes upon the enemy is what this element focuses on the most. There is one or two skills that can do some nice damage, though you'll probably never find use for them. Hydromancers are also moderately rare to see. (this is what my elementalist is)

Earth is the defence of the elements. While they have a few damaging attacks, the damage is often lacking even compared to Air. Unless someone is looking for a geomancer, don't plan on getting into any groups for a couple months.



The elements are balanced. The GW players are not.
I would suggest you choose the element you like and be prepared to switch to Fire. Air, Water, and Earth are frowned upon and it's unlikely you'll get into many groups if you only focus on them. Teams nowadays want damage, not light shows.

You clearly missed some basic facts. Fire is not spike damage for two reasons.
1. Generally long casting times
2. Foes can kite DoT spells

Air on the other hand has generally short casting times and has no DoT spells.

As well, Air can cause several conditions (blind, weakness, cracked armor) as well as knockdown. The best Fire can do it burning and damage, which isn't always the most effective route.

Elementalists aren't *gasp* all about damage.

Frankly when it comes to Fire, it really doesn't matter most of the time. Sure you should attack casters first, but any player with a brain already knows to do that. Most Fire skills deal a substantial amount of damage to all foes, especially when they cause burning. As such, you usually don't have to think very much before casting.

However, when you're using water, slowing down an enemy caster is usually pointless unless using a DoT spell. Alternately, using Maelstrom on a group of warriors isn't going to do much. You have to actually be smart with Water skills, you can't just spam them like Fire.

Judging from the knowledge you have shown here, you obviously don't quite get elementalists.

You fail. Fire magic has plenty of spells with sort casting times, which deal massive damage and that are aoe. ALso you fail to adress rodgorts invocation, which clearly owns any lightning spell out there.
You must not use fire much, as your forgetting about the other very improtant thing fire can do, KOCKDOWN.

Fire deals about 50% less damage to warriors. SHows how much you know.. Aiming at casters is obviously the better tactic, so no you dont just spam the abilities at whoever if you want to be most effective.

Its common sense as to what you would want to use water spells on first, there is little strategy behind it.

Juding by your ignorance on numerous of things, you really dont understand the elements. I swear.. this site is full of trolls unable to accept the obvious.

yeah either ignorant trolls or, the fact that you aren't listening to what everyone is trying to say.
find a fire equivalent to blinding surge, wards, water trident, and icy shackles. if those exists then
something needs to be balanced.

random stupid data:
air and fire both at 12
60ar target-lightning orb 108 dmg
rodgorts 99
80ar-lightning orb 82
rodgorts 70

100ar-lightning orb 64
rodgorts 50

sure rodgort's is AOE and causes burning, but Orb costs LESS and hits a single target for more. which one would you rather aid a spike in?
oh and fire has almost ZERO utility, all straight dmg. lets see a fire ele shut down 2 melee enemies while also spiking a target

Ever heard of generalizations? Air has 7 spells that take 2 seconds or longer to cast, while Fire has 14 spells that take 2 seconds or longer.

You're right about me not using Fire very much. I dislike the fact that the attribute has no defensive ability whatsoever. Sure Fire can knockdown, but how well can Meteor be used to actually interrupt someone?

You're information is incorrect. Most monster warriors only have 80 armour vs. Elements, which means they take 30% less, not 50%. When my monk is being attacked by a bunch of melee attackers, I'm not going to just sit there hoping the monk will be able to kite them, I'm going to do my best to slow/stop the melee attackers so that my monk can get away.

So I'll just spam Water Trident at a stationary caster, while a warrior runs by me, chasing my monk? Or maybe I'll just Maelstrom that W/R, since Maelstrom does so much damage...

Loving the irony. Elementalists are not in need of a buff or nerf. It is you who is unable to accept the obvious.

PS. I'd love to see you do HA then tell me that Water magic is useless.

*Technically* - to play devil's advocate - Rodgort would be better.
You do a good amount of damage, cause burning, and make it so the Monk has to focus on many targets rather than one while you proceed with the spike.

However, using Lightning Orb would cause a little more damage instantly. But if the Monk catches it in time (which is possible), then you'll have to re-spike.

I don't play any PvP, so correct me if I'm wrong. But, as a Monk, Rodgort is more of a threat than Lightning Orb for me.

Lightning Hammer is in Air Magic line. Rodgort is in Fire Magic line. When you choose an ele attribute line, you use other skills on same attribute as well, not only that single skill.
So plz stop comparing each single skill of different attribute line. Think about it.

One thing though, Burning doesn't stack. The burning would only last 3 seconds after the spike, unless someone starts wanding the person.

Your forgetting about the burning affect which makes rodgorts easily deal more damage!! Just more proof of how inept people here are.

I never said fire can perform all roles, so why metnion blidning surge, or any of those abilities? Im comparing DAMAGE SPELLS, and blinding surge works on one enemy, its good for pvp, but only MODERATLEY GOOD in pve.

First of all, you never initially said you were JUST talking about spells with only one sec casting times, and furthermore nothing makes those spells that good, besides for if you need a quicker finisher, but fire has spells for that as well, and its not needed to have a full skill bar of them.

Depends where your at actually as to what resistence they have, in nightfal and factions its usually always 50% reduction.

Learn to MOVE your heros, noob.

Yeah probably why you spout out so much false information. Its called Mixing Fire with other elements, and it hardly sacrafices your attribute points; you could easily have earth magic at 10 and have fire magic at 15.

Water magic isnt useless, I just think the SLOW spells are underbalanced, as the slow fails to compensate for the lack of damage , since slowing an enemy is only good in certain conditons, and most of the time the enemies aren't even moving that much, or die before moving that much with fire spells.

well, you're semi-right. depending on the team your against, rodgort's will definately be better to spike the team if they are clumped together. and i wouldnt really count in burning as part of the spike, simply because when spiking you rely on a quick kill, not waiting for them to burn to death

I meant that all the nearby people would also take the damage and be set on fire, making it harder for the Monk to recover quickly. Even then, 7 pips or Health Degeneration during a spike is the last thing I want to see as a Monk. I suppose the burning would just be intimidating, more than damaging.

That's the only reason I see Radgort as being more threatening than Lightning Orb during a spike: the damage to multiple people and the sudden but short health degen.

If you have one Elementalist do Rodgort and one do Lightning Orb, though... That would be devastating to the opposing Monk, methinks.

But, like I've already said, this is from a PvE point of view.

burning in place of raw dmg=more time for monk to catch spike.
and eles arent ALL about damage. so stop comparing like that. sure the rest of the lines cant do as much damage, but what ELSE can fire do besides damage? if you make the rest of the lines do more damage, you will create a thread bitching about fire not having any defense,snares, or utility. so before you jump to insults, THINK

While I'd personally like to see the water line to get one or two decent damage spells, the lines are balanced in the sense of playstyle. If you want to be an ice mage that does damage, either grab a few fire spells or something else because you are going to have to deal with it like the rest of us.

That said, a snare, ward vs harm, and blurred vision can do wonders for your team. If you want to go 10/10/11 or 12/10/8 water is actually a decent complementary line. Even in PvE, monks tend to live longer when warrior mobs can't get to them or miss half the time. I mean if you BV the 2 dervs that are trying to wail on your monk, it's like the monk only has to deal with hits from one for 8-9 seconds.

In short yes I'd like to see every line have 3-4 good spike damage spells, they all have uses. Some like water and earth require a little more finesse than force meaning you can't act like a Mythbuster in a china shop.

wooooo someone who knows what hes talking about, now i can sleep

With water, you can actually spike a foe after you freeze 'em. A Warrior going after your Monk is going to have some trouble if you make them go 66% slower and then start hitting them with hard-hitters.

[skill]Shard Storm[/skill] + [skill]Shatterstone[/skill] + [skill]Vapor Blade[/skill]

85+100+135+100 damage? I bet that Warrior's gonna pull away from that Monk and come after me instead. :P

He doesn't need to prove it. Anyone who is experienced in GW knows that air has a much stronger ability to take down a single target in terms of spiking ability. Burning occurs over time, and is often turned into a healing source by restore condition, mend condition, etc.

By devastate he means you can combine it with 2 AoE nukers for more total damage effect than having 3 AoE fire nukers, because the enemies are much less likely to be able to run out of it. So yes, the damage output is higher when used correctly.

Lightning fails? Says who? An inexperienced PvEr like you who can't see the grand scheme of things? I'd like to see your wammo try to attack through blind or use your gladiator's defense against cracked armor+armor penetration.

Hate to say it, but that guy was right. And you're wrong. Bye. lrn2play.

That selection isn't so bad, but in GWEN I've found that foes tend to be a little more balanced and will be more likely to have enchantments on them. I also tend to follow up shatterstone with [skill]Glowing Ice[/skill] if only to get some E back.

I haven't played GW:EN yet on my Hydromancer.
Great to know that Hydros get another E-management skill, though. I'm gonna replace my Vapor Blade with that skill now.

Burning gives basically -around -12 health degen a second, and its true monks can dispell it, but there's always awys to INTTERUPT such moves as that, and you can also easily set them on fire more than they can dispell it.

Yeah its good for support!! I already mentioned that water is encouraged to be support! Im saying that its dissapointing I cant at least deal DECENT damage, I'm not saying the damage it deals should be similar to fire. ALso, enemies die so quickly by fire that most of the time it doesnt even matter if their slowed, and PVE enemies dont even move much, unless you use scatter abilities, which I never mentioned anything about. Also, I intiially only adressed a couple abilities, I didnt care to turn this into a debate about ALL abilities. You can easily mix in the support abilities of water/earth with the damage abilities of fire, so it doesnt validate the damage abilities just because other abilities of their attribute are good.

aha, I'm half way to my glads title, dont be so quick with your assumptions. As I've already said, you can easily just mix the elements to have lightning/waters be your support while fire is your source of damage.

To the OP: Get into PvP before making such balance suggestions.
And don't call other people for noob if you don't got a clue about balance yourself

Asking for Air to have more massive DoTS is like asking for more healing skills in the monk Smiting line, or for more bow skills in Wilderness Survival. If they wanted to have all the skill sets the same, there would be no separation. A good player knows how to set his skills for the situation. Wanna know some great areas for air spike? Got Masters HM doing Disney's Electric Light Parade with 2 Dual attunement Air Spikers. Perfect for nailing the mesmer turtles before they spam e-denial. Oh, and I know it tends not to be a good ref, but in the wiki one of four top Great ele builds? Dual attune Air spiker. For PvE. No great fire builds. Hmmm.

Halfway to Glad title? GG getting 12-13 winning streaks in RA.

Never asked for more DOTS from air magic . Never said they should be exactly the same and in no way was I insunating that . I was suggesting a slight modification that would help improve lightning in the role it's already suppose to have. I've done plenty of hard mode and I've done plenty of damage comparison tests in both pvp and pve, and I've tried out almost all the abilities. IN the end its more effective to use fire and then use another attribute like earth for defense and support. Rodgorts invocation is my primary damage spell and it easily out matches an ability like lightning hammer.
Also dual attunement works for fire too!

Thats nothing, I've easily gotten up t a 16 winning streak, making it into TA with my RA team. Anywas, its largley team based, so its not something that reflects individual skill necessarily.

Lighting skills are 'faster' and may blind. You also can deal cold damage too with Air Magic interrupt and cause weakness

Quite versatile.

You sound like a WoW'er useage of mage, mana etc and also the missunderstanding of everything being about damage. Your saying make all elements have the same purpose / damage, but why? Air isnt used like Fire, as Earth isnt used like Water, you need understanding and different logics when playing the 4 different elements.
No water doesnt do mass amounts of damage, but if it is used to snare a fleeing monk from the rest of his party then it gives the damage proposal to the rest of your team. From your messages it sounds like you are the only one who is doing damage.

Honestly, if you think Lightning Hammer/Orb is underpowered, just go into RA and try it out. 140 damage due to the penetration on a 60AL target, every two seconds. If the damage was actually augmented, it would go beyond pressure to being able to kill people in under 10 seconds from a distance, even with a healer. Couple that with blinding flash, and you there really seems to be no advantage to fire. Of course, if your facing PvE mobs/PvP idiots and they decide to mob your tank, then fire would clearly be better as that is it's niche. But I really see no reason to buff air magic.

As for water magic, the above poster's Ice shards, Shatterstone, vapor blade proves to be quite lethal as well, along with the ability to snare enemies. and please don't say you would go into fire/water/e-storage for the snare, that would just result in less damage and less snaring capabilities.

OMFG i have seen 2 eles in here, first off op you are a war primary according to your account, and i have to listen to an ele who has been an ele for 2 years, ill say the same thing i always say......

*ahem*

STOP RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOING WITH MY ATTRIBUTES!!!!!!!

the separation of attributes on an ele with the different play styles was the most balanced and beautiful in prophecies, now its getting muddled and mixed thanks to complaints like this....

ok let me lay it down very simply, as others have said

Air = spiking, but thats not exactly true, air is about single target utility... Blind stops wars in their tracks and skills like [skill]blinding surge[/skill] can be reapplied so often monks have trouble keeping up, sure other things have blind but really can it even come CLOSE to an air ele, i dont think so. Also with it knockdown skills it is effective for starting spikes or kiting, sure fire has [skill]meteor[/skill] and [skill]Meteor shower[/skill] air has [skill]mind shock[/skill] [skill]gale[/skill] [skill]gust[/skill] [skill] shock[/skill] and i wont list the rest cause you get the picture, so air can use knockdowns FOR A PURPOSE where as fire uses it to annoy people at best. Also air has a keep weakness to apply some speed boosts and even a shadow step, air is about single target utility really not just spiking.

Water=snare is also kinda true but not really, water is a multi-target utility line, water snares are used quite often and are the best, earth has some snares but they are much harder to use than a good smack in the face with ice spikes or deep freeze. now water has aoe freeze and aoe hit prevention and aoe interrupts, water is a multi target utility, and it even has some heft damage cause i use water to destroy destroyers using [skill]vapor blade[/skill] and [skill]shard storm[/skill]

Earth is multi-target defensive utility, with wards to help allies, aoe knockdown to stop enemies, some snare to enable kiting, weakness and blind to mess with, and of course everyones fav the armor spells such as [skill]stoneflesh aura[/skill] and [skill]armor of earth[/skill] they also even have some serious dps such as [skill] Obsidian flame[/skill] but they are not about dps.

Fire on the other hand is all DPS all aoe and all blast the RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO out of shit. there is basically 2 utility skills in the entire line, that is [skill]flame djinn's haste[/skill] and [skill]burning speed[/skill] and burning speed is laughable fire is dps thats it so yea OF COURSE its going to have the most damage cause it is seriously lacking in EVERY other field.

so as you can see ele are MOSTLY NOT ABOUT DAMAGE only one line in an eles arsenal is damage, the rest is utility, but players tend to focus on the DPS of fire and nothing else...... so please like i tell everyone who posts ele comments please please play an ele, and i mean REALLY play one, some ra, a lil of ha, and the beginning of pve doesn't count. please just think about what your talking about before saying it.

You're going to be interrupting them with what, Meteor? Good luck catching a .25 second cast spell with that.

Random Arena's is just barely PvP. Almost anything can win a fight. It's really just luck.

Even this build can get a glad point. http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/User:Fatigue/FrenzySmite

When I say that something is generally faster, I'm pretty sure that the casting times are exactly what I'm talking about. If one attribute has more spells with longer casting times, it is technically a slower casting attribute.

In those same areas, the casters also have higher than normal resistance. Therefore my point still stands.

You've never fought a group with snares have you?

I've gotten 20 wins in a row, so what?

lol at the frenzy smite build.

Honestly I look at all your posts and I see something stupid about all of your comments, showing a blatant ignorance.

[QUOTE]Honestly, if you think Lightning Hammer/Orb is underpowered, just go into RA and try it out.QUOTE]

I have dipshit, I already stated that. I'm not saying Lightning Hammer totally sucks, but its not as good as an ability like rogorts invocation for dealing damage, to single enemies INCLUDED, due to the setting on fire..

Blah blah blah, Not even freaking talking about single target nukes for Ice, Im talking about skills thats main use are PVE, in pvp I cant complain about the single target cold attacks.. You can easily have ice as your secondary if you go fire as your primary, and some snares wont even really lose thier effectiveness, learn to try different things.

I suggested only a couple abilities to have a slight increase in damage, an according to the majority's logic here, it just must follow that I'm wanting everything to have fire's role. I already stated in my original post that even with my suggestions for improvement, fire would STILL be doing more damage, it would be only a +20 damage increase to a couple aoe abilities that deal shit damage right now. Also I doubt the impact would be that significant in PVP, as generally people prefer signle target nukes in that, which would STILL do more damage than the aoe spells, have shorter cooldowns, and cost less mana.

I've used meteor plenty and have easily intterupted casters. A lot of times people cast constantly, and also if you have good timing like me you can do it at the perfect moment when you sense their about to cast an ability. Anyways I could just impliment other skills besides fire to intterupt them, and this would hardly decrease the effectiveness of fire, or of the intterupts.

No shit your talking about the casting times, but you were just considering the one-sec casting times, and regarded everything else as trivial, YOu failed to mention the 2 sec casting time abilities and how fire has so many of them. ALso a lot of those one sec casting time lightning abilities aren't even used for damage, as I'm speicifically talking about.

You never mentioned anything about snares, you mentioned a group of warriors attacking your monk, durr. Also, very few PvE enemies have snares (besides for the shiver peak area), so its not something to worry too much about, and also even with -66% ms your monk could easily move away in seconds and the monsters would just attack the next closest hero, which hopefully would be a tank if your smart. Having your Monk run is easily the better choice instead of taking 5-10 seconds to kill the enemies while its being attacked.

tenshi_strife, I'm not suggesting a radical change in the classes to make them all totally just damage orientated as fire is. Its true the other elements have more roles than dealing damage, but they do DEAL DAMAGE, and that is a role of thiers, even if it is a secondary role. Im not saying damage should be the main thing about them, and in fact Im content with the earth abiliities, but a couple of the ICE AOE abilities just deal ridiculous damage that, as i've stated 5 times already, deal little damage, even when damage is suppose to be a secondary role i cant be content with how little it is, and snaring in PvE is usually not even needed. REMEMBER, I'm talking about skills mainly used in PVE, not your usual PVP.

*ahem* PvE'r. If you really want any skill balance done, discuss it in the gladiator's arena because that's where Anet will pay more attention to skill balance. But then you'd just get ridiculed there...I can interrupt your rodgorts or lightning hammer too, so both do 0 damage. What's your point. Setting on fire takes a 1-2 second cast, a removal is 3/4 second cast. Much easier to remove than set on fire.

You're talking about NM PvE where monsters don't scatter as much. In HM your fire damage will be much less effective. Plus, who says every attribute line has to deal massive damage. An 80 damage deep freeze is decent enough damage for me...

It's like complaining how sword skills don't have the knockdown ability of hammers. Each is meant to do different stuff.

Until you bring this discussion to gladiator's arena section of the forums, I'll just consider you as not knowledgeable enough about the game to know what you're saying.

Guess you've never fought me. I would just stop casting or interrupt you if I saw you using Meteor. Nothing with a 3 second cast time is an interrupt. At best Meteor is a snare or an annoyance.

Wow, do you even read what people have typed? I said that Fire has more skills that take 2 seconds or longer. Even if I did include 1 second casting time spells, Fire would still have more.

Yes, because it's not like warriors have snares.

Oh wait...
[skill]Crippling Slash[/skill][skill]Hamstring[/skill][skill]Axe Rake[/skill][skill]"You're All Alone!"[/skill][skill]Desperation Blow[/skill][skill]Drunken Blow[/skill]

Besides, I said Melee, not warriors. Warriors, Assassins and Dervishes all fall under melee.

Oh and since when did you have to kill something if you snared it? I could easily just throw a slowing hex on a foe attacking my monk then go back to killing the enemy monk.