solo spike in 3-5 seconds! ele/sin

Spiking has to actually KILL the person or it doesn't do much good in PvP.

I was just talking to my wife about running a similar build in PvE where we BOTH used it (but with an energy management elite, I'd think). Two elementalists COULD wipe out a compact mob in a few seconds. kinda off topic but it wood b awesome to have a gamer wife/gf

kinda off topic but it wood b awesome to have a gamer wife/gf Indeed it is!

She's much more into the game than I am, actually.

Charr Killer
the only comment is that your numbers are wrong. 3/4 is the casting time on PBAoE spells, but after that there is an extra second delay before you can do anything (apparently you character is strikin a pose or something...). Also since it is obvious that you'll be chaining spells, you will be very vulnerable to interrupts. Could you please explain this whole cooldown thing to me, using small words, please?

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out why I can sometimes rattle off 7 spells during Ether Renewal, and why at other times the limit seems to be 4 or 5, even though they all have casting time of 1 second or less.

You know about the aftercast on aftershock don't you? No. That's too big a word.

Seriously, I'm asking for details.

It sounds as if people are saying that certain skills shut down ALL skill use for a short period afterwards. (How short? .75 seconds?) But then there's the case of Stone Daggers, which seems to just have a hidden recharge time in that range, but not shut down the use of other skills. (I.e., when I Arcane Echo Stone Daggers or Flare it seems I can cast more often total than when I don't. Is this just an illusion?)

Point-Blank Area of Effect(PBAoE) spells have a 1.75 second aftercast. And does this aftercast shut down ALL your other skills?

I.e., will somebody please rigorously define "aftercast"? Thanks!!

And does this aftercast shut down ALL your other skills?

I.e., will somebody please rigorously define "aftercast"? Thanks!! It's really simple, I don't see how you CAN'T understand it. You just stand there for a little bit after casting, it's like a brief cooldown, it doesn't disable skills, but it's definitely not going to make them any more effective.

Too many big words? Grab a dictionary, it's plain English.

It's really simple, I don't see how you CAN'T understand it. You just stand there for a little bit after casting, it's like a brief cooldown, it doesn't disable skills, but it's definitely not going to make them any more effective.

Too many big words? Grab a dictionary, it's plain English. I doubt the word "aftercast" will be found in a dictionary, nor the sense in which "cooldown" is used to apply to Guild Wars.

I think that what people are saying is that for a short period of time (1.75 seconds?) after casting certain spells (some have said all point-blank AoE, but if that were the case how could the Whirlwind/Aftershock combo work?), you are unable to use skills, move, or make attacks.

And how does this compare to the "cooldown" on Flare and Stone Daggers, whatever that is? Same thing? Or is that just a barrier on reusing the individual skills?

Am I understanding correctly?

aftershock applies only to adjacent targets. So that means you would have to go up to the target for the "spike"

also 3-5 seconds to kill would allow the target to be healed, but if more than two person use the same skill set, maybe that would be a spike, reducing the time to 1-3 seconds/kill? Its still utterly useless in a decent PvP battle. Any infuser thats awake can stop a 3 second spike. A very awake infuser can stop ranger spike occasionally and thats a 0.75second gap between Dual Shot and Punishing Shot, of course you don't know who the target is in this case, but walking upto someone is.... pretty damn obvious.

The aftercast is the same as using a ranger interrupt. After you use it you stand there for a bit unable to move or do anything. Its probably to stop you using things like Glyph of Renewal + Crystal Wave to do 200 damage in less than a second alone.