Increase AOE range

In light of the new update, pve people now see how unattractive AOE damage is in pvp, since yes, real people move out of AOE damage too(in most cases). So professions like any Ele except for air is really unwanted in pvp. Once in a while you'll see a fire ele with meteor shower or something, but overall they are not in demand.

I think the AOE range should be increased significantly, rather than the small circle that is easy to move out of. So that if you realized they had a nuker on the other team, you'd have to be ready to move. If it were say, doubled, I think it'd make other profession lines a lot more effective.

Maybe not doubled, but at least 150% of what it is now.. and some other form of buff, like duration or effect, in order to make them more area denial-y.

They just nerfed it...i doubt the same line would receive a buff.

It's more likely that they would buff the other skills in the attributes that have suffered.

They didn't nerf anything, they just made AI a little smarter. IMO this change just shows what has been obvious in pvp for a long time, that most AOE is worthless. So an ele takes 3 seconds to cast a 25 energy spell, and wait...oh darn, his target just took 2 steps to the left now it's worthless.

I thought I saw something weird one time when someone used a meteor strike. Basically, the meteor strike went down on me, hit me for some initial dmg, I don't remember what, but then the next few times it hit me, the damage wasn't as high.

Maybe AoE should have some high initial damage then weaken after say 2 seconds.

I rather like BurningPants's idea there... they could make it so DOT AoE's do more damage at first then gradually decrease in damage and effectiveness overtime, but still have the same base TOTAL damage dealt to any one creature that remains in the area of effect for the entire duration of the spell. And similar changes could be made to multiple-strike AoE attacks like Mark of Pain and Ignite Arrows, where the damage dealt from them is larger when the spell/sill is first used, but decreases over time as the spell/skill wears off over the course of its normal duration. Of course this would require some rather substantial recoding work to be done to the skills, but it seems to me to be a good comprimise between the smarter AI which wouldn't have to be changed and the energy efficency and usefulness of DOT AoE's.

Drake

I'm strongly opposed to the idea of skills like Mark of Pain and Ignite Arrows being treated the same as Firestorm; it would work nicely for the area denial spells(if you want damage out of them anyway), but I don't think "offensive" skills, meaning that they don't hit in a single location for their whole duration, should be changed similarly.

Well in my opinion spells like fire storm and chaos storm should be "offensive" skills anyway, not area denial skills... there are already area denial skills in place, i.e. ward against melee, ward agains foes, etc. The recent AoE nerf has made DOT AoE's ineficient as damage spells which was their original design and intent (I believe), and now area denial is their primary use, but most people agree that they shouldn't be left that way. The other so-called "offensive" skills like mark of pain or ignite arrows are now even less likely to be useful than fire storm or chaos storm because they can't even be used as area denial. In order to make them energy efficent again they need to be capable of dealing the damage they were originally designed to do. And making them deal more damage initially is a move in that direction along with helping to make skills like fire storm offensives again like they should be.

Drake

They just nerfed AoE size??

Meteor Shower can be easily "evaded" if you know when it's being cast. Just keep running and the shower will be "behind" you. And even if you get hit, you can easily walk out from it.

MS is only good if the target doesn't know when it's coming. Otherwise, MS is pretty worthless in PvP with huge energy cost, casting time and recharge.


I think a lot of AoE spells need snare skills like Water spells to keep the target staying there for a while (not for the whole duration of course).


I don't know what's the best use of AoE spells in PvP because it does need very specific cooperation to be moderately effective (deep freeze + MS).

I agreed.
The range should be increased and some spell should deal more damage initially.

bridges , doors , and really small places , block and nuke , pve

Like it's been mentioned, Elementalists have not been directly nerfed, but with the AI as it is, they can hardly land any aoe other then meteor shower because it knocks people down. Firestorm, essentially uselss now unless you want little damage and to push the enemies away in a certain direction. But like I said, it was a "change" to "AI" not a "Nerf" to "elementalists" although it's highly considered the same thing, it in fact, is not.

If it were the case that elementalists gripe because of it, I should be allowed too as a W/Mo. They still run from Aura and Symbol. Goddangit, more people were effected then just Elems =)

<Especially FoW groups..ick...don't even need to mention the AI update needs seriously execution fixes.>

--The shim