Question: New Water Elite *Shatterstone*

I was very anxious to see the new water spells, so I create a PVE Elementalist. And I realize so far three water spells... including new elite.

However, the elite skill shatterstone says, target foe take xx cold dmg and HEX with shatterstone for 3 sec, then take another xx cold dmg.

What is that 3 sec hex duration do? I thought it could freeze the enemies, but it didn't do anything in that 3 sec. Does that 3 sec hex need to combine necro skill like Soul Barb for another bonus dmg or something?

Please, any Hydromancer lover here? I wanna know how that elite spell work! (hopefully it's stronger then Water Trident elite... or probably not)

"Target foe is struck for {unknown} cold damage and is Hexed with Shatterstone for 3 seconds. When Shatteredstone ends, that foe is struck for {unknown} cold damage."

Sounds to me like the 3 second hex is there to give the target a chance for hex removal (or whatever) so they aren't immediately hit with double damage.

So what you could do is drop this and spam other damage and you'll get another damage kick in if they didn't remove the hex while doing your spam.

I was thinking to combine this water elite with Curse spell Soul Barb.

However, the skill trainner doesn't provide soul barb spell, hence I can't test it. I was thinking maybe the 3 second hex give you triple soul barb hex dmg? In that case this elite is very very nice! However, if it give people time to remove it *which means if they have very fast reaction or very knowledge about this elite hex*, then it suck !

if you remove it wouldn't it also trigger it as if it 'ended'? pardon me if i'm wrong

I'm pretty sure that's right.

Ahh okay so hex remove only "increase" target foe taking 2nd cold dmg faster then 3 sec eh? At water magic 16, this spell deal around 120 dmg in total, which is almost as nice as the new Vapor Blade water spell! (that one deal 127dmg, with very fast recharge time)

However, what's the point of having this 3 second "blank" hex effect... it doesn't slow, weaken nor do anything to enemy target foe. Does anyone test Soul Barb on it? I didn't see the spell provide in preview event skill trainner, so I can't test it myself. Can anyone test if soul barb did 3 times dmg before shatterstone end? or any other combo that work with shatterstone's 3 sec hex duration?

It's just a hex. So what? A hex in its own right can be a boon or a penalty. Just think about it for a bit, it's a function of the spell, to cause a hex and then do damage. Say, with Lieutenant's Helm the damage would be done in less than three seconds (and on PvE bosses), and allows you to active other skills or modifiers that work off hexes. I dunno, think of something, get creative. It's just to make it different and not have it just do plain 120 cold damage off the bat, and lets the player think up some kind of synergy.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure if removing the hex will trigger the damage. I'm pretty sure I've seen certain hexes, when removed, not trigger the on end effects.

Of course that could have just been an ambiguity in the skill description. Feel free to experiment.

To answer all of you: this is a water Lightning Surge

Good point. With some of the damage up front. (I thought there was already a similar spell in-game.)

3 second is there so you don't take a massive amount of spike damage all in one go.

didnt they say they want to encourage cross element builds?

a water hex is a condition for 3 or 4 lighting spells.
and 3 secs is enough to fire one or even two of them.

The damage at 16 water is... not amazing to say the least. Particularly considering the cost and elite status. If it's for time delay spike damage, I'd love to see what water spells you're going to spike with it. If it's for allowing you to include a water hex in your build... You're aware that this is water we're talking about, right? >_> There're plenty of water hexes as it is.

Similarly, I don't get Vapor Blade. It's expensive, it's slow, and it's damage isn't great, and it actually gets worse, if the condition is met, than the 5 cost spammable Ice Spear. (at least it's a direct attack, I suppose)

But meh. Icy Prism is interesting, at least.

Perhaps, but many of them have little damage too, and no delayed damage either.

shatterstone + lighting arc (i believe) would trigger damage four times in 3 secs.

still no ranger spike... but hey :P

[QUOTE=Mercury Angel]The damage at 16 water is... not amazing to say

HUmm... I think Shatterstone dmg at max water is very acceptible. U do "total" 121 dmg for Shatterstone. It's already higher then other water hex. But yes, we have a lot of other longer duration water hex if we're thinking to cross-element, such as Deep Freeze *10 sec hex* or Ice Spike or Shard Stone, Frozen Burst, blurred vision or even Ice Prison << they rename it to something else.

Vapor Blade, 127dmg is very good indeed, the recharge time is 7 sec only, think about Fireball spell... they both does similar dmg and same recharge time at max level. I often inflict higher dmg on caster. But yes I agree I don't know why GW tone it down by dealing only half dmg on enchanted enemy! We'll see, maybe GW will tone it up in the official release date?

Icy Prism << very very nice! Just like mesmer skill.... deal both dmg + inturrpt any signet + disable signet. However...the cast time is 1 sec, slower then most mesmer inturrupt spell, so u ought have faster reaction. (I often has to stick with a warrior to prevent him using heal signet or a monk using monk signet)

Well, I guess someone mentioned it before... Shatterstone 3 sec hex, it's more like GW wanna make this spell unique instead of doing plain 121 dmg eh?

I will try to work on this spell and see if I can discover anything goodie !

Sounds just like Wastrel's Worry to me, except with damage when the hex is activated in addition to when it ends. Except Wastrel's can be nullified by the target using a skill, where as it doesn't sound like this one can. Look up Wastrel's Worry in any Mesmer skill listing to see how it's similar though.

Oh yeah I know mesmer spell well. That one is under domination. Humm, a bit similar I guess. But Shatterstone does more dmg and so far I didn't see enemy target remove the hex duration.

I realize this elite combine with Vapor Blade somehow does very very good dmg on Ritualist enemy! (does slight more dmg then it describe) Still trying to make best use of this elite

Shatterstone. (15 energy 2 sec casting 10 sec recharge) Elite Hex Spell. Target foe is struck for 10 cold damage and is Hexed with Shatterstone for 3 seconds. When Shatterstone ends, that foe is struck for 15 cold damage. (Water Magic)

Looks like to me that Shatterstone is the Hex it strikes the target foe for X amount of cold damage and it ends in 3 seconds ...at which time when it ends it hits the target with X amount of cold damage again. It would be really difficult I think to do a remove hex in that 3 seconds, maybe but highly unlikely.

No, even if you remove the hex, itll STILL do dmg. Look at, as i said above, lightning Surge. also, Phantom Pain.

I've removed plenty of Lightning Surges and Incendiary Bonds. It helps to use a good hex removal spell instead of Remove Hex, of course.

Any decent monk will have that off in under 1.5s unless you're running a hex stacking team. If they aren't under pressure and are feeling really nasty they'll be putting it on you in another two seconds. It works better with lightning surge though, because the knockdown is unlinked. This would just be annoying.