Water Ele: Are they pointless?

I have a question for those who are water. In my opinion water spells just slow down people, they don't do high damage like fire, the don't do good damage with some effects like Air, they don't support like earth, so what is the point? I am sorry if I offend any of you

Snares are very useful in PvP

In PvE, their use is somewhat less... Deep freeze + Maelstrom can force mobs to spend quite some time to scatter, interrupting them as well. Ward v Harm isn't bad... nor is blurred vision.

Water is a good running skill too. It's kind of a support element like earth, only more focused towards snaring and running.

Slow em down, AoE them.

So Water is just to reduce the enemy's speed, interupting the enemy's intented movement.

In places with lots of aggro, I rather see a good water ele than a nuker

Shard Storm, Water Trident, Blurred Vision... lots of warrior hate there. Sometimes it feels as though water eles are custom designed just to counter warriors.

I switched from fire to water when I made it to the Fire Islands, helped alot.

there was a water ele used in the te vs evil game, possibly the new crip rangers

Water eles are very useful in GvG. Deep Freeze is amazing to the point of almost being broken, Water Trident can cause crazy knockdowns, and Blured Vision helps mitigate War damage. Water Eles are great for catching kiters, helping your team kite, assisting with retreats, when pushing the enemy into base, or pushing for morale. They have an an unbeatable amount of utility on both offense and defense.

Like most of the elementalist lines, only a few skills are really good.

-Ward Aginst Harm (my favorite skill form Water Magic, +63 armor against Fire and +25 armor against everything else at 16 water)
-Deep Freeze (10 second snare)
-Water Trident (knockdown if moving)
-Maelstrom (only after they are slowed, 10 seconds interrupting spells)
-Blurred Vision (works on all attacks, 50% miss)
-Armor of Mist (+armor AND increased speed, the perfect running away from monsters skill)
-Mist Form (only good for farming, but take no damage from attacks)
-Rust (the only way to ensure ressurection signet takes 9 seconds. Healing signet takes 6. Better than ignorance for killing warriors, since they have -40Armor while using healing signet.)
-Mind Freeze (Why do you think runners have a hard time...90% slower)

Factions

-Mirror of Ice (good for preventing damage, while also killing the things attacking you)
-Icy Prism (Interrupt signets)

As you can see, Water is all about utility not damage. All the slowdowns work as GREAT cover hexes for your mesmers and necromancers, by the way . Rust is a good example of this.

everythig good has been summed up about water eles in this thread...were definately gonna see more of them in gvg i think

If you think water eles are pointless, you obviously have never been snared by an ice imp, and then maelstromed and then finished off by mursaat. XD

Quote: Originally Posted by lyra_song

I use Water/Earth Hybrid to farm Titans in Hell's. Water - a must have for me

Water magic has some impressive hexes too. A E/N with water and curses can put some massive debuffs on the enemy. Water makes for a good support character but not a very good damager.

In GvG use it to slow them down, very useful to spiking to if u have mind freeze(90% slower) u cant run away from a spike, Maelstrom for necros tainter?

Deep Freeze is one of the best AoE spells in the game, imo. I hate it.

Like Earth, its more of a finesse line. Until PvE is changed so that you can no longer brute-force your way through everything, Water and to a degree Earth are never going to be in much demand. And Elementalists aren't in much demand for PvE to begin with. Here's hoping PvE gets smarter in Factions.

Hybrids work okay-I've never even tried a pure water ele. With the other elements that's possible, but there's not enough good water spells to fill up you skill bar. (PvE-wise).
It's hard enough to find a group when your'e a nuker-I'd hate to be trying to do a mission and spamming "water ele lfg" ! You'd be laughed out of town.

Ele/Necro with deathly chill talk about permenant interruption.

Ward Vs Harm makes Ring of Fire much easier =)