Why do lightning skill effects look and sound so terrible compared to literally all of the other elements?

[LoreChief.8391]

Thunderclap, Shock Blast, Ride the Lightning, Arc Lightning, Chain Lightning, Lightning Surge, Static Field, probably more skills.

They look like placeholder animations made with super-compressed JPGs.  They sound like menu selection options from early 00's MUD browser games.  Compared to the Fire, Wind, Water type effects which are solid 7/10's minimal, usually.  Earth is also kind of in a sad state but nowhere near as bad as Lightning has always been.

[peperoncino.2516]

its all subjective either way, but i hard disagree on both ride the lightning and static field. imo those two do look cool and are even so recognizable you instantly know theres an ele. dont really care about sounds tho, i usually have my music on.

glyph of storms in air also looks times better than any other, the long cast and overall look/impact of it always makes me feel like like a zeus at least.

overall, lightning is supposed to be kinda fast, and i feel like with such consideration its current (ha) design makes more sense.

i also cant even tell one warrior ability from the other, so theres that. 

[Scar.1793]

Sword fire skills 2 and 3 aren’t any better. But especially #2, since it sounds like an obstructed fart with 0 impact.

 

[Markus.6415]

I'd like the original air overload effects back and completely redone hammer abilities.

[Ragnarox.9601]

Lightning hammer conjure looks cool, most of air spells dont.

[draxynnic.3719]

Something I've observed in games in general is that lightning effects tend to be either incredibly spectacular (by the standards of the time) or incredibly disappointing, without a lot of in-between. I suspect that a big part of this is that other elements are relatively easy to model adequately through fairly simple means: an orange ball with a surrounding particle effect can make for a decent fireball, for instance, and then you can use a blue-white spike with the same particle effect recoloured for an ice bolt. Lightning, however, tends to require specific graphics, which makes it really obvious when the investment hasn't been made to really make it look good (and, to be clear, sometimes there genuinely are more important priorities). Another factor could be that proper lightning effects tend to be flashy enough to potentially overshadow other important gameplay information, so they might at times be deliberately underplayed to avoid this.

In the Guild Wars context, I think a big part of the issue is that a lot of GW2 lightning graphics seem to be over in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it instant, possibly being a single static graphic disguised by not lasting long enough to tell that's what it is. The lightning-from-the-sky graphics in GW1, by contrast, tended to last a little longer, so you had the chance to see the lightning bolt evolve over time. That could be something to consider here. One of the ironies I've observed for a while is that several mesmer skills, despite not technically being lightning, feel more like proper lightning than most of what elementalist has.

[nobleboivin.4102]

I've thought the complete opposite.  Earth skills are my least fav and think look the least cool.  Shock and fire are asweom but it's all subjective and folk have different likes and dislikes