bright side of aoe nerf

Been reding some threads on the AOE nerfs and chatting to my buddy and we came up with a use for it.
Casters stand at the back as a rule to keep out of harms way while tanks do what they do (how it should work anyway). Casting an AOE into the mele is now frowned upon and rightly so as it makes hard for tanks to tank and rangers to barrage and the like. However if an enemy escapes the tanking area and gets amoungst the casters an AOE sends them running keeping everyone safe and giving people time to react to the new threat! Its defencive uses are fantastic. Also if someone gets caught in a group and the monks are struggling to keep up with the damage cast an AOE to break up the group to allow time for escape and regen.
Just a thought and I imagine I will be told exactly whats wong with this idea but it may be of use to someone

That's exactly what I use Chaos Storm for now. They seem to keep rushing at me, but that dispels them fairly well. And you could still cast if they're cornered/seriously engaged in a fight.

Anyway, don't you do more damage to an enemy that runs away, as a result of casting such a spell?

Someone's going to come in here with a blowtorch saying how this is how it's been done for months BLAH BLAH, just ignore them and be proud you found their defensive strengths.

This is how it's been done for months now you nub!!!111

As an aside, I still find a lot of PuGs that don't get this, especially fire eles, and while I'm trying to wail away on something and absorb hits from other nearby mobs, some goober casts fire storm on the group and spreads everybody, which sends me running after the now fleeing mob, which inevetiably aggros other enemies nearby which were carefully zoned before I can cancel the chase, which overwhelms the monks, which wipes the group

I just love how the fire AoE's are mainly used as defensive mechanisms now.

Fire umbrella instead of Fire Storm. lol

Gee, and I thought using Chaos Storm to make them go away was my idea.

My mesmer uses chaos storm to break up groups all the time. I read in a lot of threads that mesmers who have chaos storm on their bar don't know what they're doing, but I've found it to be extremely useful for breaking up groups that are pounding on someone, so I'll have to disagree with the sentiment.

I hadn't played an elementalist before the AoE nerf, but I'm currently playing a fire elementalist (will change that as areas change). She uses firestorm on opponents that are standing off to the side (like rangers, casters, etc.). She'll use it to break up melee when it makes sense. She's only just reached Lion's Arch, so maybe this'll change later, but she's easily one of the most powerful characters I've played (I've also played warrior, mesmer, ranger monk). Elems must have been god-like before the AoE nerf. Sorry I missed it.

This is why I only take Orion under certain circumstances.

The AoE change also made a refreshing change to the game. It forced people into altering a build they probably used everywhere and never really altered as it did so much damage and things didn't run away. To be honest I was pretty guilty of this myself with my echo meteor shower/fire storm build for my ele, it did incredible damage and I rarely changed it as I couldn't find many ways to improve it. This change made me look at new ways to play and new skills to use which I believe made me a better player overall.

It obviously also made soloing the Underworld alot slower for 55 monks. I used to play solo 55 and still do play 55 with my necro buddy but it has become more fun since this change almost forces you to play with a friend (which makes it alot more fun anyway). Also there is now the challenge of being able to do more while your in there, seeing how far you can get and thinking of ways you can get further in smaller groups to do the harder areas. True these areas weren't designed to be done in smaller groups and you will always get people saying that playing this way is wrong, but for the people that have finished the game several times over and all that is left for them to do until factions is make money then that's fair enough. The challenge of clearing a high level area in small groups is a nice change for people that know the easy way to run to places, get through missions and dont have to think about what they are doing as much as when they first played.

I went slightly off topic there and don't wanna turn this thread into a "55 should/shouldn't be stopped" discussion. But my main point was that even though the AoE update made a few skills alot less useful, it also made people rethink how they were playing their character and use other skills that they may not have even considered before. Making them use their brains and realise which skills do which things in certain situations in theory should make alot of players alot more versatile, which can only be a good thing, considering the reputation pug groups have at the moment.

Fire Storms can still be used into the melee to finish off enemies. You nuke them, and watch for when they are almost dead, then throw fire storm... they will be dead before they can scatter. Of course, this takes some good timing. It works though when you nuke enemies with everything you got and you just need one last nuke and everything else is recharging.

Nice to see most people are aware of this tactic but hopefully someone has learnt something. Out of interest I have no big casters in my selection. Ive got a warrior with any secondary and a monk im building up. These are just observations Ive made from good players and bad players alike.
I was there before the AOE nerf and what a golden time it was. However I do think play is alot more fun since then. An ele/mo dragged me up through pre searing and at lvl 7 she was god like back there. Bless you Tsunami

I think the best use of the aoe nerf occurred when I was capping Aura of Faith. I finally got the monk mursaat to spawn near THK (after checking about 10 times), so now my main problem was killing it. I had an all-hench party and we managed to clear out everything except the boss. About 10 minutes later and we've made no progress, I figure it's a lost cause. Suddenly though, I start to notice periods of time where it does nothing and just takes the damage. Thing was, it was pinned against the wall with henchies barricading it, so whenever it was getting hit by firestorm, it tried to run but couldn't. So it just sat there and took it. Eventually I finally killed it and capped the last monk elite I needed.

I use Ignite Arrows on my Ranger for the same thing. They will take 1 or 2 of these hits and then run away. So standing in the back with the casters, if 1 or more of the mob come after the Monk or Casters I can just hit them with ignite arrows and they flee. Nice protection.

Yeah, I was sad when the character I had designed the whole way as a PBAoE nuker was all of a sudden "worthless". But it did make me a better overall player, and as you mention, can be good defense.

Just wait and see, though. With some of the new skills and duplicates in factions, I'm thinking a shockwave, aftershock, crystal wave, tenai's crystals build will be able to do well on the offensive end, too.... just need aggro and one good AoE knockdown (not many good options here, but I'm looking at whirlwind or earthquake, which would be perfect if it weren't so slow).

yeah i was playing a mesmer/warrior with chaos storm right when the aoe change was made, it stopped being useful as a damage spell but started immediately being useful as a spell that made them get away from me if i was being overwhelmed in melee.

when i started my new wa/mo i started using one of the monk smiting spells the same way (balthazar's spirit or something similar) to avoid getting overwhelmed. if the aoe's aren't useful to us one way, we'll make them useful another way.

eudas

I was doing the same kinda thing with my 55 monk. I used shield of judgement as my primary killing spell, but would cast zealot fire before going in to battle and spam ROF a couple of times if I was taking to much aggro. It's a nice little break for about 2-3 seconds that allows time to heal up before fighting again.

You think it's bad for a warrior... How about the necro that blows all his(or her) energy on Arcane Echo, SS and SS, just to see the flare shoot up from the top of your friendly neighborhood fire mage? Sure that 20-ish damage per tic is nice, but you f'd up my 80-ish damage per tic in the process.

How do you know he didn't arcane echo firestorm for 60 ish per tic? LOL

wish i could get my wife to stop using aoe on groups of things ive put ss on with my necro.

lol nirhan, I wish I could get my wife to play GW...at all, or at least not hate it