The Might of Water (A Sarcastic Title)

I find that water elementalist is currently a very underpowered class that focuses a bit too much on reducing enemy movement. As great as that might be in PvP, it is almost useless in PvE seeing as how mobs never run unless hit with AoE damage. Most spells barely do any damage at all, except for the spammable one, yet costs a large amount of energy and long casting time just to slow down enemies for short periods of time. What’s even worse is that these water hexes all do the same thing, slow to 66%, so you are basically forced to be a lame support character to allow easier kiting, increase usefulness of AoE damage, and make warriors’ lives easier. If you want to do damage, you have to take soul barbs and stack these similar hexes on top of each other which becomes totally redundant and pointless. Most people find that earth eles can help better with kiting by throwing down difficult to counter wards and deal spike damage; whereas, water hexes are so easily removed with holy veil and do horrible damage. Worst of all, the best way to use these hexes is with AoE spells found in other lines; too bad I’ve seen monks walk away from a meteor shower and maelstorm WITH mind freeze on them.

I want to suggest to buff the hexes with additional conditions. Instead of having all the spells slow, add in additional conditions like slower attack speed and slower casting rates along with the slowing affect. It makes perfect sense that someone frozen would not only move slower but act slower as well. Attack rate could be lowered by 15% and casting rates reduced by .25 seconds; these reductions are low because of balance purposes. A maximum of 33% reduction in attack speed and maximum of .75 seconds reduction in casting would make water hex stacking a bit more threatening; I’ve never seen monks actually try to get rid of these hexes before.

The buff to mind freeze would be 90% slower movement rate with a 50% reduction in attacks and addition of 1 second casting time. After all, something that requires you to have more energy than the target and causes exhaustion should be able to do more than super slow a target and do miniscule amount of damage.

I understand your concern. I'm a long-term Water Elementalist in GW since 2005.May.

It would be nice if GW improve Water magics a bit. In most Online RPG game. Water magic (or Ice magic) often given the "Frozen" status.

If GW can add new condition in the game such as "Frozen, totally stop enemies movement and action for like 3-4 sec with 25% success chance? Or maybe set something like Water magic 12 or higher will increase the chance? to make more people play as Water Elementalist.

So far in the game. Water magic work as supporting magic, well it really depends on how different person feels. Soul Barb + Water hex are nice... in my opinion, because it really make perfect sense of having your "2nd" profession helping ur first profession magics!

Example, necro elite Feast of Corruption, if u case Deep Freeze, first, then use Feast of Corruption, it will be a good dmg combo!

Another combo I use for my Water Elementalist = Water + Smite, I call it Holy Water magic. You snare your target, prevent it walk away, then cast Bal-Aura on your warrior ally. This work even after GW improve enemies AI~ This also work with Maelstrom, u first snare them, use maelstrom, then use Water Trident prevent enemies flee from ur maelstrom.

About Damage wise, humm... In general, Warriors and Rangers all have Elemental resistant... so even Fire spells can't dish out the exact same dmg that was describe on the spell describution. My Water Ele have max 16 points on. With Flint's green weapon (Water magic + 1 20%) I can still dish out find dmg.

The strongest Water dmg spell = Frozen burst... at Water magic 16, u have enemies around u 119 dmg. Unless they have ele or cold resistant. U can combo it with Armor of Mist spell, so u can flee away faster after Frozen Burst close range attack.

Maelstrom is another wonderful spell.... I know Meteor shower is good, but Maelstrom also have very good dmg + it interrupt enemies perfectly *gurantee interrupted if they are in the range, the spell looks tiny, but it has hidden larger range, u can see it when u cast the spell*
Enemies will try to flee, but I've seen a lot of enemies flee away but "Come back" to maelstrom spell range again and take all the dmg. *It depends, and u can always snare them + use Water Trident*

Alrighty, but yes.... I still agree with the person who complain about water magic need a boost. It would be very handy if Water magic strength a bit, but still Water magic are still very nice! And very "FUN" U just need more timing and more tactics to use.

P.S I've read from internet, chap2 newest Water magic "Shatterstone"... I think it does freeze ur target, and another spell "Steam" it work with fire magic.

Personally I made a tank using an Ele/War. Mainly based off of stances and Water enchants, I actually beat an axe/ranger with it, although I ran to regain energy and hp about twice. It was a small achievement on my part, plus there was a lot of hype in the fight, his team was dead he had no res signet, mine was dead I used my res signet. And he was talking shit about how water ele's sucked so it made me feel good when I beat him, although I admit they're too weak (Not just damage, all around weak)

Here is something that will make people love Water Ele !

Okay right after I visited guru and response few topics with Water magic issues. Tonight I actually use my life-long Water Elementalist helping a friend doing GW final mission (Hell's Percipe) *mind my spelling*

With Water magic 16 points.... gosh it dish out fabulous dmg. I'm not very good with English, so I can't remember the exact name of each fire-creatures
but often I can use "Frozen Burst" doing 198dmg!!!! No kidding....especially on certain type of enemies. Frozen Burst at water magic 16 can deal 116dmg, but somehow it deal a lot of extra on these fire island. Same thing apply on every other water magics! (I use Water Trident, Ice Spike, Deep FReeze, Maelstrom, Frozen Burst mostly)

For the final boss Lich! I was MORE surprised.... each "Water Trident" deal out """"116 dmg""" on him. Ice Spike deal about 140dmg, Deep Freeze deal out 160dmg!!!! And Maelstrom deal out about 44 dmg each second on Lich. (With water magic 16, Ice spike suppose only deal 85dmg, Water Trident suppose to deal 69dmg, Maelstrom deal 26dmg each sec and Deep Freeze deal 90 dmg)

With all the extra dmg!!! Imagine Water trident recharge so fast and I keep on Trident the boss with 116 dmg, and he die REAL fast! (I'm the only Ele in the team, the team are mostly warriors and monks.... so I gurantee I'm the one who deal fast dmg on him.)

Like I said in the previous and other post.... most people are too stereotype on Ele = Fire. But we always have to remember every enemies has certain defense or weakness against each Elements. So I'd say GW probably just have to make "more" enemies that are weak agasint cold dmg in Chap2. This will balance Water magic fair enough.

And in general speaking, if you are willing to build up Water magic above 13 (please, water sup-rune is very cheap only 300g + a water head helmet) U will noticed the dmg is still acceptible and often it SUPRISED u a lot !

I was in Tomb all these days with my Water Elementalist, I actually got a lot of positive comments from my teams (random team) So guys don't give up on Water magic, but of coz if GW can improve a bit more that will be even more ideal! Thanks for reading my gaming experiences

You may think water elementalists are underpowered, but they have their uses. Think in gvg. Water elementalists are natural flag runners. With stuff like Armor of Mist, they can quickily get to the flag. They can also cause flag runners havoc with Ice Prison. And no warrior likes blurred vision.

And then there is Water Trident. Think Gale without exhaustion.

I have seen extremly high rank guilds use water eles. They are NOT underpowered.

If you want a good thread about water magic, look here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...d.php?t=113664
I'm not about to repeat all that.

Water Trident is an elite and cannot interrupt people casting spells, signets or attacks in the same way as gale.
Water Trident is good, but it's usage is much different to the way you'd want to use Gale.

I agree water ele needs to do something. Every other element has a full use. All of water hexs are useless b/c of hex removal. Wow Water Trident, Maelstorm and Ice Spear. I have a lot of choice to make a good water ele build .