Is it just me, or does Air Magic suck now?

Haven't played pvp in about a month, but Lightning Surge+Lightning orb seemed to work fine. Air magic has plenty of useful skills for spiking, but not too many good elites.

I've been using the dual-attunements air build in PvE since EotN came out, especially nice when combined with Mindbender for infinite energy fuelling continuous fast-cast lightning orbs and hammers. Of course that is just PvE.

That comes down to timing a bit as well imo. If I blind an SP sin right when he shadowsteps he is pretty sure to waste 1-2 of his attack skills in the process. Ih they see you coming blind doesn't work, it should be used for ruining spikes.

Air = Utility > damage
Fire = Damage > Utility
Cold = Snare + some prot > damage
Earth = Protection > damage

Fire is a pure damage element. really doesn't have anything else. KD in the form of meteor (/shower) and thats it
Air you get good damage, KD, weakness, blind, 2 very crippling conditions to anything using physical damage, and armor penetration helps against high armor targets (usually the same ones that deal physical damage)

Mesmer/Ele

13+ fast casting

Air Attunement
Shell Shock
Auspicious Incantation
Lightning Hammer (use after Auspicious to recharge your whole bar)
Invoke Lightning
Chain Lightning
Lightning Javelin
Blinding Flash

Makes a hella good spike with the blazing-fast casting speed...

Try the shards of Orr dungeons you will see how good can air Ele come up with support from other classes

Listen to Ensign, people. Air has been useless as a damage attribute ever since Chain Lightning got nerfed way back when.

I dont think air magic is problematic in itself. I think that if there is a problem, it's in the game. This is kind of the same reason why mesmers stink in pve. You could use utility and tricks in pve, but simple brute force is just quicker and better.

Don't fix air magic. Fix PvE.

It was until shell shock. Killing wars and paragons is much easier. If the other team doesn't have a mes its the first thing we spike.

Air is my favourite attribute as it doesn't cost to much in energy costs.There is nothing wrong with it as as I know in PvP they use it for spiking on melee types to help protect castors.That could be said for PvE as well.There are some fine Elite out of Nightfall Invoke Lighting and Blinding Surge.I mostly use 2 good PvP builds with evoke with a Sup Air rune.Air Eles aren't nor any Ele is about doing damage it is about supporting a team.

What bugs me as Monk standing back is all the Fire Eles which are male for the most part going up with the Warrior and start tanking and they are the first to die as they have a Sup Fire Rune that is not what the Ele was designed for don't forget you got 60al armour.There are a few good Air Elite out there everyone know Thunderclap is bad.
Look through here to see some good elites

Its just you, Cracked Armor/Blind/Weakness SPIKE DMG!! FTW!!

Air is fine for damage if you know how to use it. Check here for an amazing build that works extremely well in PVE:



And chain lightning works just fine. It just doesnt rape in HA anymore (But invoke does).

I pretty much stick to air magic in Alliance Battles. Blind does wonders to keep those wiki-ninjas off my ass. But hardly use it elsewhere

Owning in PVE with Air and sreenies:







I stopped at 100 kills to do the destroyer mission, destroyers die very fast indeed. I completely refused to use aspect of the Raven I did a far better job with my bar ^^. The great thing about this build isnt just the damage, but also how much protection the air skills on the player bar offer. Party members will rarely take any damage beyond 25% health as long as Weakness and Blind are spammed correctly and you stay in the ward.

LoL! Try harder or quit GW.

No it hasn't. Air has always been my favourite flag stand attribute, mainly because of the power Gale gives you, when used effectively, the damage you can throw around with Orb, and the fact that blind is still, and always will be, the best physical spike disruption in the game. Okay, vs. Dervishes you run into problems, but you can still Gale forms, and/or casters on spike, or even the Dervishes when you see converging.

I'd like to see Chain Lightning become a viable alternative for air, I think there's no reason why Chain Lightning shouldn't have a 2 second cast time

Often, air spiking build are used in PvP, although I rarely see them in PvE (most players would expect terratank or SF nuker).

I agree with cebalrai, air magic shouldn't be fixed, PvE should (not to mention the constant nerfing of farming).

Air magic and Chain lightning *are* fine as they are? But yes a 2s cast time on chain lightning would help. I dont even need to use it on my heroes bars, its deactiated most of the time.

I wish I could make a video of how much it pwns, I guess you'll never know untill you try it.

Me and my friends changed our spike to Rodgorts Invocation followed by Liquid Flames... Deals 1026dmg (including burning, and we are 4 ele's). On top of that its AoE...

Air is now more of a anti-melee element..