Shocking Aura is objectively bad for the game and I'm tired of pretending it's not.

[Master Ketsu.4569]

Cannot be dodged. Cannot be blocked. Cannot be interrupted. Cannot be removed. Cuts through stability stacks faster than a knife through butter. "Don't hit it" is not a counter either, unless you think letting the entire enemy team freecast for 4~10 seconds is a good idea.

There is absolutely no reason for why it should not at the very least be changed into a daze, and even then it would still be the strongest aura. Try coming up with one. You can't.

The lamest part is, it prevents any real balance to ele. Ever notice how most ele skills are completely terrible? That's because shock aura is so broken, the rest of ele's kit has been balanced over time to be intentionally bad to prevent the class from completely breaking the game. Textbook example of nerfing around problems instead of actually fixing the root cause of the problem.

Mechanics without meaningful counterplay are not good for PvP game modes. Shocking aura is the epitome of this, and it's time the community stops pretending otherwise.

[Sahne.6950]

Okey let me go thru this, bit by bit, so we can have a discussion without your bias.

3 hours ago, Master Ketsu.4569 said:

Cannot be dodged. Cannot be blocked. Cannot be interrupted. Cannot be removed. Cuts through stability stacks faster than a knife through butter.

Cannot be dodged.✔️❌ Shockingaura will hit you even when your in a dodgeanimation. But only if you trigger it with a aoe spell or a damaging effect that lingers around you. The Transmute of it can be dodged.  ->If you dont trigger the "onhit" effect, you can indeed dodge the effect from the transmute.

Cannot be blocked. ❌ you can literally block it.

Cannot be interrupted. ❌ not quite sure what you mean with this... but you can infact interrupt the application...overloads, which will give the shockaura, can infact be interrupted... and you can interrupt the transmutes.

Cannot be removed. ✔️

Cuts thru stabiltiy stacks faster than a knife through butter. ❌ If you are not hammering on it within  a 240 units range... it will remove 1 stack from the transmute... if you keep hitting someone with shockaura, it will remove 2 stack in 4 seconds. tldr: if you have 3 stacks you can do whatever you want and a shockaura wont matter.

3 hours ago, Master Ketsu.4569 said:

"Don't hit it" is not a counter either, unless you think letting the entire enemy team freecast for 4~10 seconds is a good idea.

It is 4 seconds my guy... where the hell are the 10 seconds coming from!? Also just because someone has shockaura it doesnt mean you cant attack him. Shockaura only stuns when you are in close proximity. Anything with a range of over 240 is safe to use on shockaura. The shockaura will do exactly NOTHING if you have stuff over 240 range.

3 hours ago, Master Ketsu.4569 said:

and even then it would still be the strongest aura. Try coming up with one. You can't.

magaura. Magaura is singlehandedly carrying tempest in the current meta.

3 hours ago, Master Ketsu.4569 said:

The lamest part is, it prevents any real balance to ele. Ever notice how most ele skills are completely terrible? That's because shock aura is so broken, the rest of ele's kit has been balanced over time to be intentionally bad to prevent the class from completely breaking the game. Textbook example of nerfing around problems instead of actually fixing the root cause of the problem.

Ever noticed how Ele skills are actually awesome.... Cata is currently one of the top builds... and that is 100% not because of shockaura....  If you want to argue that ele skills are terrible.... ever thought about the fact they have double the ammount of skills that other professions have..... aka. a single skill can possibly not be as strong as a single skill from another profession.. they need to have reduced power simply because they have more.

 

3 hours ago, Master Ketsu.4569 said:

Mechanics without meaningful counterplay are not good for PvP game modes. Shocking aura is the epitome of this,

How to "counterplay" shockaura:

- just hold. Stop attacking in meele. Most build have a few meele and a few ranged attacks. Be sure to use the ranged ones during shockaura, and the meele ones during magaura. which leads to the next tip.

-Use skills that are 240 and more range. <----- This one right here! Thats all you need to do.

-Stability. Altho you say it doesnt matter.... it does.

-rupt the overload.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

Flush News:
Even if an enemy has Shocking Aura on themselves, it doesn't prevent damage dealt to them at all, it's not block, invlunerability, evade, distortion, it just punishes you for being dumdum and giving 0.5s of breath. If your skill deals 10k damage, it'll still deal 10k damage to the target and then getting stunned. Shocking, right?
End of Flush News.

[Sahne.6950]

Just now, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

Shocking, right?

😂 ❤️

[Swagg.9236]

9 hours ago, Master Ketsu.4569 said:

Cannot be dodged. Cannot be blocked. Cannot be interrupted. Cannot be removed. Cuts through stability stacks faster than a knife through butter. "Don't hit it" is not a counter either, unless you think letting the entire enemy team freecast for 4~10 seconds is a good idea.

There is absolutely no reason for why it should not at the very least be changed into a daze, and even then it would still be the strongest aura. Try coming up with one. You can't.

The lamest part is, it prevents any real balance to ele. Ever notice how most ele skills are completely terrible? That's because shock aura is so broken, the rest of ele's kit has been balanced over time to be intentionally bad to prevent the class from completely breaking the game. Textbook example of nerfing around problems instead of actually fixing the root cause of the problem.

Mechanics without meaningful counterplay are not good for PvP game modes. Shocking aura is the epitome of this, and it's time the community stops pretending otherwise.

"They hated him because he told them the truth."

[Brokensunday.4098]

Just put an icd or cant hit same target twice

[coro.3176]

12 hours ago, Sahne.6950 said:

Cannot be dodged.✔️❌ Shockingaura will hit you even when your in a dodgeanimation. But only if you trigger it with a aoe spell or a damaging effect that lingers around you. The Transmute of it can be dodged.  ->If you dont trigger the "onhit" effect, you can indeed dodge the effect from the transmute.

This alone feels so bad that it's worth changing the aura IMO. Every time it happens, I wonder if the game engine broke somehow.

Dodge is sacred in GW2. It's supposed to be your window of total immunity to anything that isn't a physical barrier. The idea that an enemy can knock you out of it by putting an aura on themselves, then touching a pulsing field you put down seconds in the past feels like messing with time. The causal chain is all messed up. You should only proc an effect like that with things that you are *currently* doing against someone that *currently* has the effect.

[Eddbopkins.2630]

3 hours ago, Brokensunday.4098 said:

Just put an icd or cant hit same target twice

It does have an icd of 2 seconds and it only last 4 seconds. So you can only get it's effects every 2 seconds.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Eddbopkins.2630

[Grimjack.8130]

every spec in this game has broken and unfun mechanics that will never go away, accept it and move on

[aelska.4609]

Back in the days the effects were visible.

Now you have to anticipate it, great changes Anet.

[Bast.7253]

I love ele and I agree. But shocking aura isn't the only instance. CC in general needs to be toned down. Not damage reduction, reduction in cc options in general. Just my opinion. 

The problem with ele is that so much of its sustain comes from outright debilitating the other player. You either roll a build that uses cc aggressively to land damage packets or you run something that's just naturally tankier and lose out on damage. 

I think engineer is another offender across the board of cc spam and should be toned down but it's safe to say that will likely never happen. Having not only a knock back that reflects projectiles and a block that stuns for shield skills versus warrior that... blocks?.. and dazes? Seem balanced? 

Necro is not as annoying as it used to be since most people are playing harbinger and have to at least be careful about landing shroud 5 and you might have to deal with a staff fear mark but Reaper/Scourge/Core and the level of cc/fear spam can be pretty obnoxious in team fights. 

I don't really know what you would replace it with though and honestly, it's a pretty fast short window so I'd say leave it. If anything look at popular/outdated core utilities and provide more stun breaks if you're not giving more stab access to them. There are a lot of core skills that look like they should be stun breaks and aren't, except for specific professions that really oddly enough needed them less than others. 

[Arheundel.6451]

Ele is trash worthy outside bunkering down on a point in pvp...basically worthless and unused in all other parts of the game...but I guess we have to remove the only things that make ele worth making outside...nothing else..lol

[Lucentfir.7430]

Shocking Aura at the very least should be changed to a short 0.5s daze and probably apply like 5 vulnerability when hit with no ICD. A full stun on a passive aura effect is a bit much, since this whole era of discussion has been about trimming unhealthy interactions from the game.   

[coro.3176]

56 minutes ago, Bast.7253 said:

Necro is not as annoying as it used to be since most people are playing harbinger and have to at least be careful about landing shroud 5 and you might have to deal with a staff fear mark but Reaper/Scourge/Core and the level of cc/fear spam can be pretty obnoxious in team fights. 

Necro's rule-breaking CC is Doom (death shroud 3). 1200 range instant hard CC that also deals damage if you trait for it. Really good and can't be reacted to except by burning a stunbreak.

Edit: I guess they did add a cast time back in 2020 in a pvp/wvw split, but it's quite short.

Edited September 21, 2022 by coro.3176

[Bast.7253]

4 hours ago, coro.3176 said:

Necro's rule-breaking CC is Doom (death shroud 3). 1200 range instant hard CC that also deals damage if you trait for it. Really good and can't be reacted to except by burning a stunbreak.

Edit: I guess they did add a cast time back in 2020 in a pvp/wvw split, but it's quite short.

That ain't the only one though. You've got engi dodge that dazes and causes the next attack to do damage/drops mines not that anyone takes it. Not quite the same I guess.

You've got uh.. something on guardian that procs an extra attack on disable right? Then you've got ele damage on cc. 

I don't think any of those are particularly healthy and kind of counter productive to the whole - making cc's not do damage thing. 

At this point I'm not sure that any of it really matters anyway. There's so much damage everywhere, passive and active, that having cc's do damage seems like kind of a moot point. They're already adding damage back to holo elite too aren't they? 

When traited you've also got tornado that does quite a hefty amount of damage and that's A LOT of cc. 

I guess those aren't 1200 range and unavoidable but it still shows there's a lot of inconsistency between in their design philosophy across professions.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

?

Either avoid it if theyre positioned where you can avoid it

Or

Hit them through it, then stunbreak and hit them through it again. It can only affect you every 2 seconds. 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[Kuma.1503]

Remember when flamethrower scrapper was a thing? I still remember all the hate I got from LR weavers and shocking aura tempests. 

[CutesySylveon.8290]

While I do think the OP is exaggerating, there's no denying that Shocking Aura is probably one of the single most annoying and disruptive effects in the game, especially when it's being applied to a team.

Hitting a ele through the Aura for the 2 second ICD is fine if you're dueling, but when that stuns you in a teamfight with the whole enemy team being basically untouchable in melee without stab, it's not hard to see why it's so hated.

[Downstate.4697]

Mag aura needs more addressing than shocking aura. It gate keeps a lot of ranged builds in ranked.

[semak.7481]

22 hours ago, Sahne.6950 said:

Cannot be blocked. ❌ you can literally block it.

You cant block it, something like random shatter during the block will stun you through your block, given that, I'm more than sure, it will ignore aegis as well, funny enough, when chrono uses shield block and it will spawn a phantasm (in general any phantasm you cast close to ele), will stun you, despite you arent even touching him, lmao.

22 hours ago, Sahne.6950 said:

How to "counterplay" shockaura:

- just hold. Stop attacking in meele. Most build have a few meele and a few ranged attacks. Be sure to use the ranged ones during shockaura, and the meele ones during magaura. which leads to the next tip.

-Use skills that are 240 and more range. <----- This one right here! Thats all you need to do.

-Stability. Altho you say it doesnt matter.... it does.

-rupt the overload.

So, it would act like 4 seconds invul for anyone who is on melee based build/stuck being in melee range with ele?

Figthing ele on the point... he follows you... but hey, just use 240+ range skills ! /s

Stability is not avail for everyone. Back in the day, I remember there was a lot of stab floating around, probably autoproc wars/eles with armor of earth/engis with stab elixir/ guardians and some BD mesmers.

In case of a tempest, you need two CC in a row to rupt it (traited stab), not like everyone can afford that.

Quote

When that stuns you in a teamfight with the whole enemy team being basically untouchable in melee without stab, it's not hard to see why it's so hated.

This

Edited September 22, 2022 by semak.7481

[Sahne.6950]

1 hour ago, semak.7481 said:

So, it would act like 4 seconds invul for anyone who is on melee based build/stuck being in melee range with ele?

 

21 hours ago, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

Flush News:
Even if an enemy has Shocking Aura on themselves, it doesn't prevent damage dealt to them at all, it's not block, invlunerability, evade, distortion, it just punishes you for being dumdum and giving 0.5s of breath. If your skill deals 10k damage, it'll still deal 10k damage to the target and then getting stunned. Shocking, right?
End of Flush News.

 

[Sahne.6950]

14 hours ago, Brokensunday.4098 said:

Just put an icd or cant hit same target twice

well guess what... it has a icd!

[semak.7481]

1 hour ago, Sahne.6950 said:

 

 

Cant adress your own points but left troll response of someone else? 🤦‍♂️

[Sahne.6950]

11 minutes ago, semak.7481 said:

Cant adress your own points but left troll response of someone else? 🤦‍♂️

okey then i do it myself.

NOPE shockaura is not a invuln. You still receive damage like you normally would. You still can be cced like you normally would. If you have 1 stack of stabi, you can attack a shockaura without drawbacks you will have 2 second of ICD where the shockaura cant stun you anymore, altho it didnt in the first place. The ICD proccs altho the shockaura was negated by stabi.

You could also blow a long CC into the shockaura. You will be stunned aswell, but so is the tempest. Especially the shockaura that comes from overloading air leaves the tempest vulnerable, because they just used their stunbreak and stabi application. So there is a 4 second window where they lack a stunbreak. If you blow a long CC into the shockaura, you will be unstunned before he is, but the 2 second ICD wont be over, so you can blow another spell into the tempest without drawbacks altho he still has shockaura. If you have a single stack of stabi and a blow a CC skill into the tempest you can completly ignore the shockaura.

 

There is indeed ways to work around shockaura, but they require alot of knowledge of both tempest and how shockaura exactly works to see these openings and capitalize on them.

im not saying shockaura is perfectly balanced, but calling it a invuln is just stupid xD

Edited September 22, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[semak.7481]

41 minutes ago, Sahne.6950 said:

NOPE shockaura is not a invuln. You still receive damage like you normally would. You still can be cced like you normally would. If you have 1 stack of stabi, you will have 2 second of ICD where the shockaura cant stun you anymore, altho it didnt in the first place. 

I didnt say its invul anywhere, you propose others to act as if that was invul

On 9/21/2022 at 10:27 AM, Sahne.6950 said:

How to "counterplay" shockaura:

- just hold. Stop attacking in meele.

You tell others - "just let him beat you all this time, what the problem? Cant take this updraft 10k burning speed into 8k ring of fire?" (and if thats ele alone, if thats teamfight, you gotta allow the entire team to do whatever unless you have a pocket core sup guardian to share stab?)

Shocking aura -> right before being hit or when enemy is using multi hitting skill like blurred frenzy or something, can be used while stunned as well, 1 of these 2 seconds of ICD you spend in a stun, leaving you with 1 second before ICD goes away, basically you can land 1 attack if ele wont decide to chainstun you to death with updraft  into ~9-10k burning speed(why it has evade and does that much damage? smh) followed by ring of fire. Exactly this already have happened to me thanks to local catas.

41 minutes ago, Sahne.6950 said:

If you have 1 stack of stabi, you will have 2 second of ICD where the shockaura cant stun you anymore, altho it didnt in the first place

If you have stab... I should become guardian real quick and see the future because thats how you apply stab before he uses instant shocking aura.

41 minutes ago, Sahne.6950 said:

You could also blow a long CC into the shockaura. You will be stunned aswell, but so is the tempest. Especially the shockaura that comes from overloading air leaves the tempest vulnerable, because they just used their stunbreak and stabi application. So there is a 4 second window where they lack a stunbreak. If you blow a long CC into the shockaura, you will be unstunned before he is, but the 2 second ICD wont be over, so you can blow another spell into the tempest without drawbacks.

 

There is indeed ways to work around shockaura, but it require alot of knowledge of both tempest and how shockaura exactly works to see these openings and capitalize on them.

What did I just read... 

Quote

im not saying shockaura is perfectly balanced, but calling it a invuln is just stupid xD

Except, I didnt say it. What is stupid is to tell others to wait it out.

Edited September 22, 2022 by semak.7481