Update - Thursday, December 8, 2011

If rits have to be nerfed to meet ele halfway that seems like a resultant nerf to me.

I have yet to see how much they are going to adjust armor vs hp, but this looks like another polymock to me. Before EoTN was released almost everyone was so excited about polymock when they first heard of it.

Sounds interesting, my ele has been collecting dust since he got overran by so much else.

But I wonder what Ensign would have had to say about this update since he seemed so passionate about the ele's plight. I learned so much about this game from reading his posts.

Why not go and ask him? He's active ... on the QQ forum.

Well, there are a couple of things happening at the same time.

Eles aren't very popular anymore because they don't dps as well anymore in comparison.

And then there is the change for HM where mobs get lower armour and more hp.

This last thing makes eles more viable in HM and SoS builds less powerful at the same time.

The changes in HM for mobs are a direct reason for the damage reductions in the channeling line.

In PvP it wouldn't do much for the ele, so they adjusted a lot of skills to make eles interesting again for pvp and pve by giving more varied possibilities to the different element lines.

I suppose the comment that SoS will still be viable for Rit but not so much for other primaries is a very valid comment as well.

It's still gonna take a month at least before this happens but I will be interested to see what it will do.

Then on to the paragon redo please. That class needs to be able to have more viable pve builds aside from the imbagon builds. Also in pvp it needs a boost for various game types, but that's another story altogether

I don't like the focus on elites rather than builds with better synergy, for example the laughable ones in earth magic. Yet at the same time they're still buffing HM ele's too which are already troublesome due to their OP numbers. Imagine a Mind Burn from a boss...carnage.

This is part 1. Part 2 will comprise mostly of regular ele skills. This update will make HM ele mobs interesting.

"While we don't think this will make PBAoE Elementalists very common, it will provide some better options for this type of playstyle."

This shows how clueless Anet is. Hey, let's nerf an over-exploited pbaoe damage skill (DwG) and replace it with a DIFFERENT easily-exploited pbaoe skill (new Star Burst). Nobody will notice, right?

Probably not. 40AL is not going to stop arbitrarily large damage the way Shelter/PS/ProtBond does. It's also not going to do a thing against armor-ignoring damage.

The energy is nice (it's basically BiP); the hp is almost a liability. Ever played an ER ele in Slavers around those symbiosis spirits? Remember the Prophecies-era rants about why Endure Pain is bad? Same deal. You've essentially added "this skill does an additional 216 un-prot-able damage" to every enchant strip that could be used against you, as well as added a 216 un-prot-able damage penalty to the ele failing to recast Eboon before it expires.

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Regarding Double Dragon:
I'm having a hard time seeing why everyone is so excited over this skill. For starters, isn't it going to cause scatter? For another thing, the overall damage output is just not that great unless you're getting both enchanted players hitting things with their AoE; and that means running a PBAoE ele; and that means I'd probably rather run Starburst.

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Regarding Starburst:
This skill is almost enough to make me think about trying to make PBAoE work... almost. But then I start looking at what's it's going to take to make the build survivable at melee range, and what its going to take to get Starburst down to a truly spammable recharge (FYI: EBSoW isn't going to work very well if you've got to be running all over to touch things), and I really start to wonder if all that trouble is really worth it when I could get similar damage output from Searing Flames.

As for Starburstway replacing Glaiveway/Frostway. Yeah, it probably will. But so what? Glaiveway/Frostway's only real selling point is that half the roles are idiot-proof and most of the others are close to idiot-proof. It's not a "good" build by any stretch of the imagination.

LOL.

@ people talking about skill balance, I believe it's not on the top of ANets list of concerns right now (dervish). I think they're just trying to keep people interested with character revamps with interesting (even if OP) skills.

Most of us have been playing for years.. there has been unbalanced pvp for so long I don't have the energy to complain anymore. When the balance comes it comes.. just don't expect it to happen any time soon, or ever.

I can only imagine how the Imps on the Fire Islands, Crags throughout Nightfall, Afflicted Elementalists and Earthbound Ooze will be...

Whats that I hear?... Its Gwen and Norgu coming to save us all.

*Like* "Get crackin' with the Shut Down Gwenny!"

And LOVE your avatar! My gf and I crack the hell up when we see that guy!

I thought he brief Leadership buff a few updates ago was a taste for sure of a paragon tweak/update. Honestly, eles were NOT that high up on my list, and the updates look... less than steller? Some of the skills look good, but I think a lot of it is unnecessary in light of the fact that the HM change would've solved eles problem right there.

double dragon will be beyond broken, put that on a hammer war.
Its basically an improved savannas heat.
Ok, lower dmg, but way easier to apply and faster recharge.

I don't think this comment is really fair. Yes, I've played for many years, but as far as games are concerned, GW has had very balanced PvP in comparison. Look at any other MMo style game and what PvP is like there and you'll see that GW is really well-balanced in comparison.

Of course it's not a perfect balance and never was, but for me it's mostly the dual class system that is at fault for that. It's a very specific feature of GW, but I also am happy that it doesn't exist in GW2 because it does create balance issues.

Instead of the Codex Arena as it is, I would like to see an arena where you can only use skills of your primary class, but that's another subject.

Anet have done more to balance PvP than any MMO style game that I've seen or played. Still not perfect at all, but a lot better....from my point of view, if I really want to PvP in a balanced way, I play a shooter like Unreal Tournament. Nothing says equal like instagib

I will be interested to see how some of these changes will affect the game and sorry but I laugh at the people who are worried about PvE bosses in HM becoming very powerful. That'll teach you to ignore skills like Protective Spirit and Shelter in combination with Pain Inverter.

There's more out there but this is just one example of what you can do against high spikes in PvE.

Me, I'm looking forward to playing an earth build again after this comes out.

Dunno if it has been mentioned before, but wouldn't the extra HP for HM creatures mess a bit with the current SC's. I can imagine Lord Khobay beeing harder due to the damage cap from SF. Same with menzies...

I see, well that sounds all sorts of stupid. Why would you only buff one aspect at a time? Every other class buff got them done at the same time, so builds had synergy. Seems they can't even stick to an update model all these years later.

shatterstone will be amazing dmg, some people here seem pessimistic.
Actually, all these upcoming changes gonne be close to broken.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, if this update actually rolls out, it will take longer and become a bit difficult for terras to do their job properly in uwsc(esp. against skeles) and fowsc

I am for anything that nerfs uwsc. It's just way too easy to clear UW with all these pvx style gimmick builds. Even the old ursan teams pale in comparison.