Quote:
Originally Posted by bhavv
AP was the most ridiculous way I've ever seen ellys played. You devote a whole skill bar to just 2 elementalist skills (chain lightning and lightning orb), only actually use chain lightning, and claim that this is the best 'elementalist' skill bar when it uses just two offensive elly skills and relies on several PVE skills plus an assassin elite.
If its so good, then give your elly heroes AP + Chain Lightning instead of Invoke + Chain, and thats your minor invoke nerf sorted out.
I dont subscribe to this method of logic. Compare elementalist options now with with elly elites and skills to the same thing before, they are a huge improvement to having only two options as a player elly - ER or AP, or for heroes only having Invoke as an option.
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You can't possibly be this stupid. You cannot possibly consider that a legitimate argument.
AP builds are, by far, the strongest offensive option for
casters beyond spirit spamming and minions.* The Elementalist is not in a unique situation in that regard, it never was.
I've explained why AP builds dominate and why this update was never going to change that, so I won't bother repeating. Where Elementalists fell behind was in tiers below this top tier and the majority of complaints stem from that because the majority of players don't really play in that top tier of builds, or feel that their arbitrary definitions and constraints should apply in some way (e.g. E/A AP builds aren't
real Elementalist builds).
*They may even best those two, but summons are harder to gauge in terms of offense.
Now as for heroes, we have a different set of circumstances that better reflect the skill situation; notably we don't have PvE skills. We also lose much of our ability to create ridiculous combos due to the AI, but we tend to look at bars in vacuums anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bhavv
Invoke was good only because everything else that ellys had sucked in HM. This was the one valid build that pre update ellys could use in HM without relying on their secondary profession, just like the Imbagon build for Paragons. Anet noticed this, and thats why we got this update.
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The Invoke+Chain Lightning template on a hero was good because it was efficient. Those two skills were enough together to create a decent offensive hero that could serve as a reliable platform for something else; notably Fallback but an Elementalist has the energy (just about) for other options. The actual damage from Chain Lightning and Invoke may have been weaker compared to single casts of ESurge or whatever, but Invoke has a very generous cast time and both it and Chain have excellent recharges; the build needs nothing more for decent offense.
Now this update has nerfed that build; you can still run Invoke
or Chain Lightning in a build, but running both cuts the reliability of the hero that made it useful and only running one severely reduces it's offensive power.
As for other Elementalist options; well not many were really introduced that can compare: not many Elementalist skills offer the efficiency that Invoke Lightning and Chain Lightning had. Rodgort's Invocation was always had some potential but it's position in Fire Magic always held it back, there was nothing else in Fire Magic worth looking at really, and its energy cost was always debilitating. This update helped a little in that regard; Fireball got its cast time reduced. However, Elemental Attunement + Rodgort's + stuff in fire was never as good as Invoke+Chain Lightning and that would still be true if Invoke wasn't hit.
Some of the new elites may look promising, but they're invariably going to have to be coupled with very weak non-elites and so the strength of such options plummet; Shatterstone in particular comes to mind.
The top option for Elementalist heroes was hit in a way that destroys the aspects that made it good. Options below it were buffed yes, but not to the point were it's a straightforward replacement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
I do think it's worth pointing out that I've consistently cleared Hard Mode content faster with an Ele + Ele heroes than with a Warrior + Necro/Mesmer; even Ele + Necro/Mesmer heroes is faster than Warrior + Necro/Mesmer.
I really have no clue what to make of that observation.
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You play an Ele better than a Warrior?
Ever since the Rit update came along, I've consistently found playing a caster in a h/h caster ball easier than playing as a melee character, but since I've always believed I truly suck at playing melee, I've never given it much thought.