And just like that, Arcane Wave becomes worthless

[zeyeti.8347]

the skill was crap before and somehow they made it even crappier , in game where it is feraking easy to cap the 100% crit chance we are having skills who have 100% crit. chance base and so are tune down cause they have this . Now we have a leap who cc and again who is oriented melee .... and therefore they destroyed the nice interaction ele had with arcane power and previously elementals surge (now arcane lightening)

And all of this deisgned specifically for pvp/wvw , i don't know if anet know that the state of ele in pve is the worst ever , the class has nothing to shine against any other class and this makes it even worse... what about splitting pvp/wvw ? who actuyally asked for arcane to be reworked , not like we have conjured weapons who are the weirdest and stupidiest deisgned skills ....

[Leo G.4501]

On 3/30/2024 at 7:02 AM, lol.9027 said:

This is the second arcane wave topic i read through because i wanted to know peoples opinions and i am really surprised what i see. First i have to say for pvp and wvw roaming the new arcane wave is amazing. Before the change it was so bad in competitive game modes, it could as well just not have existed. Now its really good for any catalyst build with the added mobility and cc.

But from what i read here, the people who are upset are pve players, mostly playing staff. (Feel free to correct me if i am miscategorizing the group of players.)

The amount of players talking about ranged staff dps surprises me. Maybe i am missing something (and i am absolutely open to learning something here) but from what i see, no matter what game mode you look at (raids, dungeons, fractals, strike missions...) in non of them is staff dps viable. And in no game mode is there a viable build that used the old arcane wave.

Dont get me wrong, of course everyone is free to play whatevere they like. But you cant expect the devs to balance the game for every specific niche build you like to play. For example i think the revenant scepter looks really cool and i would love to make it work in a roaming build, but i am not upset if the devs dont balance for that kind of niche build.

The point i am trying to make is: the old arcane wave wasnt used in any viable build in any game mode. They changed the skill in a way so that it fits the elementalists current play style. Some off meta builds may have suffered from that. But i dont think it would be beneficial for the game to adjust balance to niche cases.

I mean, you could have a redesign of staff with more melee and leaps along with its support while cutting its range and I bet it'd make the weapon better in PvP but...if no one likes staff in PvP, why bother trying to make it more viable by morphing it into a PvP weapon? And you just peeve off players that had something they liked in PvE.  Same deal with Arcane Wave: if it was garbage before, is it better to take something away from one mode to give to another? Why stop at Arcane Wave? Why not make the Glyphs better PvP tools too? Who needs the elementals glyphs, am I right? 

This isn't me defending Arcane Wave tho, just pointing out they've been doing this game of musical chairs for a long time and when you're not winning over as many new players as you did, the shuffling can lose more players than it helps. 

[Emberheart.8426]

2 minutes ago, Leo G.4501 said:

I mean, you could have a redesign of staff with more melee and leaps along with its support while cutting its range and I bet it'd make the weapon better in PvP but...if no one likes staff in PvP, why bother trying to make it more viable by morphing it into a PvP weapon? And you just peeve off players that had something they liked in PvE.  Same deal with Arcane Wave: if it was garbage before, is it better to take something away from one mode to give to another? Why stop at Arcane Wave? Why not make the Glyphs better PvP tools too? Who needs the elementals glyphs, am I right? 

This isn't me defending Arcane Wave tho, just pointing out they've been doing this game of musical chairs for a long time and when you're not winning over as many new players as you did, the shuffling can lose more players than it helps. 

Arcane wave is way better in PvE now btw. Why? Because ele is trash at breakbars.

Of course don't get me wrong. I really want ranged staff ele to be more of a thing, but arcane wave doesn't matter at all for this.

The actual issues that should be discussed is how staff still needs lots of improvements and how there is barely any ranged focus in all the ele elite specs. The latter especially is incredibly important, since it doesn't matter if you have all the ranged weapons and utilities in the world, if your elite spec forces you into melee or simply doesn't work with them.

[Poormany.4507]

As a primarily PvE ele ranged staff player, I have mixed feelings about the arcane wave rework. It's nice to finally have a decent breakbar skill on my bar that also does decent damage, but the leap effect is very wonky and feels blatantly copy-pasted (i.e., it is!). Why would you force a melee skill on staff ele (which doesn't even make sense - My first thought on seeing the new skill was "Why is my staff ele jumping around and whacking the ground with his hands?")? They could at least add the shockwave animation from boss fights. I would love if they had added the stun without the leap (and maybe decreasing damage/range slightly to compensate).

Edited April 6 by Poormany.4507

[MasterDeere.3417]

I play mostly wvw with support cele tempest with staff and I love arcane wave

[Jeydra.4386]

Really miss the old Arcane Wave. I used it a lot too in WvW. New one doesn't seem useful in most formats, it might have some use in a PvP format but the cast time is too slow.

[CETheLucid.3964]

On 3/19/2024 at 1:22 PM, cheese.4739 said:

And just like that, Arcane Wave becomes worthless

I think it was a nice change. It's great for melee. I just wish it was a stun break like Warrior's Stomp. It would add more utility for the utility slot. It would be useful for melee or for range. Right now it favors melee and has limited utility.

It's competing poorly with a lot of other options and Warrior's skill already sets a precedent for it; and similarly Stomp isn't a particularly popular pick given other options. Whereas for Elementalist we're kinda starved for stun breaks. It would have a clear niche and universal utility.

Maybe rename it Arcane Surge. Leap. Vault. Something like that.

[Bleikopf.2491]

55 minutes ago, CETheLucid.3964 said:

It's great for melee.

The tale of the meleementalist continues. 

[mirage.8046]

just remove the leap and give it a warm-up animation so people can tell you're going to 'blast' them. using this skill feels very stupid for breaking a bar yet you're throwing yourself into danger as an ele. even if it keeps the leap, then it should make you evade attacks. in general a lot of the arcane skills feel lackluster, and the arcane GM trait feels so bad since condi ele can't even make use of it apart from the immob + bleed combo. while the stability is great, other skills need some punch to make this trait and the skills themselves to be taken. who's even using arcane skills except for power ele?

[CETheLucid.3964]

8 hours ago, Bleikopf.2491 said:

The tale of the meleementalist continues. 

Most ele weapon sets are short range. Only sword and most of hammer are really melee. Rest of the weapons are 600-900 range with staff being the only long range weapon. But yeah a lot of the sets are functionally melee and even your range option you're playing in melee half the time. So I mean, it fits? Making it a stun break with (limited) movement control like it has would still give it a huge boost in utility and be useful for any setup, even on staff.

Or they could have left it well enough alone but as long as we're innovating I wish they'd go the distance with it. As it is, it's just a half functional Stomp which is itself a lesser picked utility skill as better options exist. I'd like it to at least be on par with that. The idea is good. It's a positive change. It's just not fully there. The other arcane changes were pretty solid. I don't know if they're being overly cautious of eles leaping 600 range to their deaths or what.

At least if it were a stun break you could use it to leap away, chain it with Lightning Flash. Eating two (2) utility slots to sort of compete with Mesmer's Blink would be a fair trade I'd think. And in PvE the value of it would be two fold and serve to buff core ele. Maybe I'm overthinking it.

[Bleikopf.2491]

1 hour ago, CETheLucid.3964 said:

As it is, it's just a half functional Stomp which is itself a lesser picked utility skill as better options exist. I'd like it to at least be on par with that. The idea is good. It's a positive change. It's just not fully there. The other arcane changes were pretty solid. I don't know if they're being overly cautious of eles leaping 600 range to their deaths or what.

At least if it were a stun break you could use it to leap away, chain it with Lightning Flash.

I don't really see the comparison between Stomp here? Granted I don't play Warrior, but Arcane Wave is a very aggressive skill. Get into melee, daze and crit for ~5k? That's what it seems go want me to do. 

Using it for the leap and the blast is also not bad. If they're going to improve it, I'd rather they reduce the cast time. Unless I need to close the distance, those 3/4s are too long. It's good for getting in (or out) of melee, but in melee it's uncomfortable. 

As for the combo with Lightning Flash, I think Lightning Flash should just get a Stunbreak to be on par w/ similar blinks/Shadowsteps. 

[zeyeti.8347]

I saw someone writing old arcane wasn't used in pve , it was ! you had a really good combination making a single skill with the old arcane dumping out 12 stacks of burn , old arcane power give a stacking buff of 4 to you and 2 to 4 other allies , making your next attack have more crit. damage and with old arcane trait gave your arcane skills condition on hit , so if you stood in fire while using the skill it resulted in a big damage chunk and to 12 stacks of fire who could be done aoe. 

So it was a thing and the only usable way to play deeps with arcane traitline ... now we got some utility skill who cc ... and how is a 200 breakbar supposed to compete against the already godlike cc master we have like renegade , thief , mesmer ... a change amde for pvp/wvw and that should have remain untouched on pve

I wouldn't argue about pvp/wvw a teleport/cc skill seems godlike like i said in another post , in pve it's beyond garbage rework, ty cmc , can you just do wvw/pvp balance and leave pve to somebody who actually play pve ?

cause kitten ele has been as rare as a precursor drop.

[VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.]

I actually like the skill and use it a lot. I just wish it had either more range or more  radius. 

[Stallic.2397]

On 4/15/2024 at 11:21 AM, VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig. said:

I actually like the skill and use it a lot. I just wish it had either more range or more  radius. 

Bigger radius please! I've tried it a couple times yesterday and trying to aim a moving, teleporting target is impossible

[Jski.6180]

18 hours ago, Stallic.2397 said:

Bigger radius please! I've tried it a couple times yesterday and trying to aim a moving, teleporting target is impossible

If they speed it up to 1/2 cast time i think it would be more land-able.

[uNiTy Of OpPoSiTeS.2693]

On 3/19/2024 at 6:22 PM, cheese.4739 said:

I had managed to get over my initial negativity on seeing the balance preview last month... but Arcane Wave now has a cast time? That completely removes all of its previous utility, turning it into a potential assault skill for close-range weapons and becoming useless for anyone who had any fun with it before. I'd really hoped that 'leaps' was just in reference to a teleport.

I know that melodramatically posting here to whinge about it won't do anything, but I'm really pissed off about this. It was a key part of my survivability as an instant blast finisher for Staff Catalyst, but now it's a janky forced move, with cast time, which doesn't even evade.

And now that the change has been made to completely break it, I know it's not going to get reverted any time soon.
Rest in peace, Arcane Wave. I hope someone else can find a use for you in their PvP build, because you're now dead to me.

Out of all the skills you could update and 'improve' on Ele, they chose this one...You are not Whinging... it is crap.

Yes, the new arcane wave is complete rubbish. A farcical misunderstanding of what players are doing when they play Ele. Not everyone is running an appliance-meta-lackey build n GW2! Some people are stringing together the original developer's mechanics vision in game... like blasting, whirling and leaping through fields... yes in 2024!

They should restore the older instant cast skill ASAP. Just put it back the way it was... no mistake or admission is needed... just quietly do that on the next update... many will be grateful... a couple will not guess.

Nothing is perfect, but the old skill enabled you to blast the fields of any class at 900 range... And do all kinds of other things with the now mashed-up-and-destroyed-at-last-update 'Arcane Lightning' trait  😛 You used to be able to play with the old skill and trait... so be creative. Have some fun. Boy do we need it in this game!

Ele is a flow from one thing to another.... so the previous arcane wave skill fit that ethos... quick, efficient... The new arcane wave is a clunky piece of junk. It is a delayed leap but not a field leap when it leaps, and the blast is delayed so by the time you activate it everything around you has moved on anyway and you are standing in your jump zone like a chump! What a waste of space...

If they want to update something. What about scepter water attunement, it is complete &^&!!!!... that really does need work... no condition cleanse or heal!! No real utility. Naff all really...

BTW, while we are at it, make earth trident skill 5, 'Murky Water', be a local smoke field... that way you can actually stealth inside WvW bay with a blast for a fun getaway..  yes it is a 1200 range target skill currently... WtF...

So yes, next time they should just look at the stuff that is obvious junk and update that...

[Stallic.2397]

Since we're talking about water scepter skills, the water auto should apply vulnerability. One stack, ten seconds at least. Up the damage too 

[Jackthetripper.9035]

It's made for the lightning rod trait with interrupt sigils. Sword weaver is now playable in WvW again.

[Bladestrom.6425]

14 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Buying one game 19 years ago and then buying another 12 years ago (or yesterday) doesnt make one a particularly loyal customer. Someone who never played GW1 and only bought GW2 a couple of years ago, but has spent a grand on gems is potentially a better customer.

 

17 hours ago, Jackthetripper.9035 said:

It's made for the lightning rod trait with interrupt sigils. Sword weaver is now playable in WvW again.

Its made because a certain profession designer has no clue about ele apart from an unhealthy skew towards melee ele.  Its literally been a trail of crude unskilled bodges of the last year, for EG the utter incompetent screw ups over signets, and now this mess

Edited April 21 by Bladestrom.6425

[Ashen.2907]

5 hours ago, Bladestrom.6425 said:

 

Its made because a certain profession designer has no clue about ele apart from an unhealthy skew towards melee ele.  Its literally been a trail of crude unskilled bodges of the last year, for EG the utter incompetent screw ups over signets, and now this mess

Im not sure why you quoted me there?

[Jackthetripper.9035]

6 hours ago, Bladestrom.6425 said:

Its made because a certain profession designer has no clue about ele apart from an unhealthy skew towards melee ele.  Its literally been a trail of crude unskilled bodges of the last year, for EG the utter incompetent screw ups over signets, and now this mess

Well it surprised me that arcane wave, a skill that seems otherwise useless, somehow made sword ele useful again in WvW, which it hasn't been since the powecrept EOD specs came out

[nthmetal.9652]

What do you even mean? Yes, sure, Arcane Wave now has a cast time and cannot be used in water (who cares about underwater combat that much anyways?), but on the upside it adds a movement skill and a daze. I think it's pretty much awesome. It was also good before, but I don't mind the changes at all.

[Leo G.4501]

On 4/21/2024 at 6:41 PM, Jackthetripper.9035 said:

Well it surprised me that arcane wave, a skill that seems otherwise useless, somehow made sword ele useful again in WvW, which it hasn't been since the powecrept EOD specs came out

 

5 hours ago, nthmetal.9652 said:

What do you even mean? Yes, sure, Arcane Wave now has a cast time and cannot be used in water (who cares about underwater combat that much anyways?), but on the upside it adds a movement skill and a daze. I think it's pretty much awesome. It was also good before, but I don't mind the changes at all.

But couldn't they have just, ya know, helped Sword by giving those abilities instead?