After 10 years...elementalists can finally look forward to an expansion weapon

[draxynnic.3719]

5 minutes ago, Rittsu.5698 said:

I think that Hammer is not the worst, it still gave me angry when i remember that lack the enough balls to Arena make the elements works in another way. Like imagine a power build inspired from bomberman Engineer, but with a Power Earth Hammer focused build; i think that the main problem behind the Hammer is that it cames with the most nonsense and boring spec. Is actually kinda fun to use in Weaver?

Speaking for myself, hammer's... okay. But sword is more fun, and once it became clear that hammer air and fire attunements were not actually going to be a practical range option, I think the general consensus view on it is "why did we need another melee weapon, on yet another elite specialisation designed for melee". 

Personally, I'd really like to see ArenaNet actually giving every element on a weapon a different function. Imagine, say, an elementalist rifle, where fire is a flamethrower, air is a long-range sniper, water is a midrange AoE-oriented weapon, and maybe going into earth attunement causes a crystal bayonet to appear and it works as a melee weapon - really selling that idea they promoted in prerelease where attunement-swapping is used to adapt to the situation rather than simply being a means to access more cooldown skills to do more damage.

5 minutes ago, Rittsu.5698 said:

The main problem with pistol is the weapon itself, the complex mecanic try to make up that the skills are not powpow with different colors, i like the whole Idea behind the mechanic, just looks boring; the thing that Just made me upset about pistol is that Air is the most cool element for pistol fantasy, and its a condi weapon. The same happens with Spear, where Water is just soo-won fantasy and Water is not a damage element.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the whole 'could not put a condition on air despite engineer having a long precedent of applying confusion through electricity'. I get that confusion is not traditionally an elementalist condition, but they couldn't have made an exception to make air not an immediate damage loss on the dedicated condi weapon?

The skills being mostly powpow with different colours is a big part of the 'lacklustre graphics' - I was trying not to be too verbose there, but I recognise I did gloss over too much with that. I think the mechanic is a major turnoff as well, though - everybody knows what the optimal rotation for damage is (at least for nonweavers), but it's so easy to fail to generate or consume a bullet when you expected to for whatever reason and unless you're paying close attention to the buff bar or the bullets floating behind your character it might be several rotations before you notice. Elementalist is complex enough to play as it is that having three more things to track (would be four if air wasn't garbage) just isn't welcome even before you consider trying to figure out what you should be doing with weaver.

[Doctor Hide.6345]

5 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the whole 'could not put a condition on air despite engineer having a long precedent of applying confusion through electricity'. I get that confusion is not traditionally an elementalist condition, but they couldn't have made an exception to make air not an immediate damage loss on the dedicated condi weapon?

The skills being mostly powpow with different colours is a big part of the 'lacklustre graphics' - I was trying not to be too verbose there, but I recognise I did gloss over too much with that. I think the mechanic is a major turnoff as well, though - everybody knows what the optimal rotation for damage is (at least for nonweavers), but it's so easy to fail to generate or consume a bullet when you expected to for whatever reason and unless you're paying close attention to the buff bar or the bullets floating behind your character it might be several rotations before you notice. Elementalist is complex enough to play as it is that having three more things to track (would be four if air wasn't garbage) just isn't welcome even before you consider trying to figure out what you should be doing with weaver.

     I will agree that the graphics for pistol are not the best(bullets need to be bigger for notice) and that air should have been like engi doing condi lightning damage. But with all that said, I still don't think pistol is a bad weapon. I didn't find the rotations for it that hard or complex compared to any of the other specs. I also still think the idea of a Spellslinger theme works well for it for me to think it one of the best weapons the profession has to use. I see people using pistol in the OW a lot too, so it is not a dead weapon because people do use it for content. Myself included in that list unlike hammer which I don't see at all.

     As for spear, yes, it has better graphics than pistol in that regard, but it lacks a proper theme in my opinion for me to enjoy it. I look at it, and I think it is a boring weapon. Granted I am a gun nut, so I will always praise firearms regardless. I still enjoy some melee though like the sword. I can see the sword being played into a rapier mage like fantasy like a Red Mage from FF14. I can even see hammer somewhat even if it is not my favourite. Spear though is just meh for the fantasy theme department for me even if its graphics are better than most.

[Ashen.2907]

On 6/28/2024 at 2:49 AM, Atoclone.4810 said:

Can you explain how no one was excited about the following please?

A. Warhorn

B. Sword 

C. Hammer 

D. Pistol 

I like Sword and Warhorn, not fond of Hammer or Pistol though.

[Markus.6415]

On 6/29/2024 at 5:14 PM, Josspai.4356 said:

I mean, other weapon skills with area effects do damage, pulse boons, heal etc., the same goes for overloads and jade spheres, but etchings are... kinda there for a few seconds?

Eh? Etching volcano pulses might, etching Jökulhlaup pulses heals, etching derecho pulses fury, etching haboob pulses stability.

[Jski.6180]

There are some cool effects for sure on spear and realty good ideals but it dose feel a bit too slow (maybe too long after cast?) and the dmg is for sure on the low side for an all in power dmg wepon. The flip skill is a good ideal but the full pay off needs to give you the boon effect on top of the big hit an example is earth 5 is better to just throw out there for the free stab and not use use the big shot as you will lose the pulsing stab effect.

The core ideal of the spear is good for sure but it needs some work.

[Markus.6415]

16 hours ago, Jski.6180 said:

There are some cool effects for sure on spear and realty good ideals but it dose feel a bit too slow (maybe too long after cast?) and the dmg is for sure on the low side for an all in power dmg wepon. The flip skill is a good ideal but the full pay off needs to give you the boon effect on top of the big hit an example is earth 5 is better to just throw out there for the free stab and not use use the big shot as you will lose the pulsing stab effect.

The core ideal of the spear is good for sure but it needs some work.

Hm... the overloaded etching stay for a short duration after you perform the finale skill. But i didn't test if they still pusle their boons/heal in this state though.

[Jski.6180]

7 hours ago, Markus.6415 said:

Hm... the overloaded etching stay for a short duration after you perform the finale skill. But i didn't test if they still pusle their boons/heal in this state though.

Ya same here i got some play in wvw but nothing very organized. The balance patch for d/d tempest got most of my play (i always play ele more as support with aoe dps then then as pure dmg.)

Spear dmg was hit very hard in wvw vs pve it was not enofe to realty get use out of over say hammer or even staff.

[Jungario.6485]

I was excited almost every ele weapon through the years, the spear is the worst for me. 😅 But this is it, not everyone can be always pleased, I agree with that. For me spear is clunky and boring. I know most ele players wanted long range weapon, but I was counting on melee spear just for Last Airbender vibes. 😛I'd rather they rework another weapon for long-range. But that's ok, maybe we get melee trident in the future? 🤔

[Arheundel.6451]

 

On 7/2/2024 at 4:10 PM, Jski.6180 said:

There are some cool effects for sure on spear and realty good ideals but it dose feel a bit too slow (maybe too long after cast?) and the dmg is for sure on the low side for an all in power dmg wepon. The flip skill is a good ideal but the full pay off needs to give you the boon effect on top of the big hit an example is earth 5 is better to just throw out there for the free stab and not use use the big shot as you will lose the pulsing stab effect.

The core ideal of the spear is good for sure but it needs some work.

That's the point I am making. The good ideas are there and this is where we want to be, forget about the dmg numbers and golem benchmark people are so fixated on, those can be increased at any time. The spear needs work but it's far from being as worthless as pvers want you to think.....heck pvers complaining when the dmg of spear in wvw was cut by 50-60%