Spear: Devs, Please Add ELEMENTS To the Elementalist Spear Skills (It's NOT a Power Class)

[paininverter.2930]

I've 4k hours in GW2 on my current acct alone (and invested money in the game for years to support the devs), at least 2k hours on an old acct I lost access to when I move across the country, and have played since before release (beta tester, actually) and I, and many others, are beyond tired of half-baked decisions.

I'm genuine hoping, and asking for, the devs might actually read this post and give it some thought.

I apologize ahead of time for the sarcasm coming out of my frustration but, as a gamer of many decades, so many decisions in GW2, which is otherwise a fantastic game, just make absolutely no sense.

VISUALLY, the spear with the Elementalist is EXCELLENT, with impressive elemental effects you can actually see (unlike the pistol)... GREAT!

Yet, only ONE of the skills ACTUALLY inflicts elemental damage (burning, bleed etc).

It's an ELEMENTALIST... i.e. should be inflicting ELEMENTAL DAMAGE.

We should actually being seeing elemental damage being done to go along with the visuals on the Elementalist.

Why am I seeing these incredible fire effects (finally) searing down from the sky, and lava effects boiling and exploding up from the ground, yet not setting anything on fire?

It's just senseless (just like the "niggly" irritating annoyance that Meteor Shower is a power skill, inflicting no burning, despite it being flaming meteors, which has always driven me nuts).

It's not a power class. If I wanted to be playing a power spec, I'd be doing so on another class.

Please, consider some serious changes to the effects of the Elementalist's skills with the spear because visually, at least, your team finally really nailed it with most of effects for most classes.

Oh, and please... don't tone down any of the visuals on any other class skills. GW2 has already been a bit visually lacking for years. Meanwhile, a 20 year old game like WoW (which I hate) has actually had better visual effects, from lighting to fire to others, than GW2, especially since their update.

 

[Vennyhedgie.5369]

You have literally all other weapons for this. Elementalists have been asking for a power based ranged weapon since the game came out. 

Plus, "elemental damage" is not a thing. The only one that sort of matches is burning, but chill does no damage, bleeding is also not necessarily derived from earth magic, it just so happens to be the most commonly associated DoT effect, and air doesn't really have any unique DoT, the closest being confusion which is not in the elementalist's kit to begin with.

[ippy.9048]

I strongly disagree with your opinion. I've played for 6,800 hours myself, and I completely oppose what you're saying. In this game, we either have balanced, half-baked, or condi-based builds, and now that Elementalist finally got a pure power weapon, you're suggesting we go back to condi-based or half-baked builds? I can't just stand by and let that happen.

Anet, thank you so much for finally giving us a proper damage weapon. Even if it makes us squishy, it's a fantastic weapon. Let's focus on more damage-oriented builds. If you want to play condi-based, please use another spec. Seriously.

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

the only thing i agree with is that the fire skills should apply burning... because of how fire trait synergy works... the power damage multiplier is based on whether the target is burning, therfore, to get the power damage multiplier, the spear should apply burning on most fire skill.

spear still feels like a wet noodle.

[Markus.6415]

What do you mean "it's not a powet spec"?? Who says that? I think Ele got enough hybrid weapons that do everything half good and seem to be a nightmare to properly balance because of this. Having a pure power weapon, with even 1200 range is what Ele really needed. And I'm so happy how spear turned out, numbers might still need finetuning, but I definately like my spear tempest.

[Twilightmage.8309]

look spear may not be great, but at least it is meant to be a power weapon. They are so kitten at balancing hybrid weapons and usually one side of it is just bad because of it.

[Dadnir.5038]

I wouldn't say that conditions are "elemental damages". At least not in GW2.

[TrollingDemigod.3041]

9 minutes ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

I wouldn't say that conditions are "elemental damages". At least not in GW2.

Condition damage in GW2 is replacement for "Magic Damage" that you can find in other MMO.
It'd be nice if GW2 had elemental damage, since everything is physical damage with different animations.

[NayNay.7680]

The spear shoots itself in the foot by forcing us to pause our class mechanic for a shot at mediocre damage.

The 3 skill is a cop out. It should do damage. We didn't design weaver, they did.

Either make overload range, or make etchings proc overload triggers.

Also why the rodgort can't we have 1500 range like longbow, huh? 

[Dadnir.5038]

2 hours ago, TrollingDemigod.3041 said:

Condition damage in GW2 is replacement for "Magic Damage" that you can find in other MMO.
It'd be nice if GW2 had elemental damage, since everything is physical damage with different animations.

Nope in GW1 there were conditions and hexes. That's what GW2 conditions replace.

Elemental or magic damage in GW1 were all "power" but with the twist that they were "super effective" (dealing double damage) on specific kind of target. For example fire magic was super effective against Ice elemental or holy magic was super effective against undead/spirit.

[The Ghost.3087]

On 8/22/2024 at 7:54 PM, Dadnir.5038 said:

Nope in GW1 there were conditions and hexes. That's what GW2 conditions replace.

Elemental or magic damage in GW1 were all "power" but with the twist that they were "super effective" (dealing double damage) on specific kind of target. For example fire magic was super effective against Ice elemental or holy magic was super effective against undead/spirit.

They should seriously implement that in the game a decade ago! I am still shocked how synergy is simply none-existent in this game between elements. If I dredge an enemy in water based skills the moment I switch to Lightning this should literally fry them to the core of their bones. This is simply none existing in this game.  

If I rain down rocks on the enemy the moment I release a fiery tornado it should melt those rocks and literally melt the enemy's skin bones and everything leaving nothing. Simply none existing in this game again. This is the synergy which Elementalists are seriously missing or lacking and this should be the core gameplay for Ele. If they are going to make an Elementalist class, they need to consider the brutal synergy between the elements. 

Once more, I am completely shocked how come when you attack your enemy with water/ice etc, and switch to lightning how come the lightning doesn't do triple its damage for example... 

[Keyto.3672]

1 hour ago, The Ghost.3087 said:

They should seriously implement that in the game a decade ago! I am still shocked how synergy is simply none-existent in this game between elements. If I dredge an enemy in water based skills the moment I switch to Lightning this should literally fry them to the core of their bones. This is simply none existing in this game.  

If I rain down rocks on the enemy the moment I release a fiery tornado it should melt those rocks and literally melt the enemy's skin bones and everything leaving nothing. Simply none existing in this game again. This is the synergy which Elementalists are seriously missing or lacking and this should be the core gameplay for Ele. If they are going to make an Elementalist class, they need to consider the brutal synergy between the elements. 

Once more, I am completely shocked how come when you attack your enemy with water/ice etc, and switch to lightning how come the lightning doesn't do triple its damage for example... 

You can play Genshin for that.

It wasn't intended in the game, and having elementalist specific effect to do damage / conditions / stuns etc would be an even bigger nightmare for balance. 

Also, the tooltips are already big, so having 18 more lines saying : if wet -> this. If rocked (?) -> this would be unreadable.

And I think summoning a volcano or having a meteor shower is way cooler for an elementalist manipulating elements then sprinkling water on someone and doing triple damage with a lightning bolt, but that's on me.

Edited August 24 by Keyto.3672

[The Ghost.3087]

12 minutes ago, Keyto.3672 said:

You can play Genshin for that.

It wasn't intended in the game, and having elementalist specific effect to do damage / conditions / stuns etc would be an even bigger nightmare for balance. 

Also, the tooltips are already big, so having 18 more lines saying : if wet -> this. If rocked (?) -> this would be unreadable.

And I think summoning a volcano or having a meteor shower is way cooler for an elementalist manipulating elements then sprinkling water on someone and doing triple damage with a lightning bolt, but that's on me.

What you call sprinkle I would call a Tsunami, a Downpour, a Water Ball that explodes when it hits the target covering all the enemies in a specific area drenched preparing them for the lightning damage.

And speaking of the volcano, if someone stood in the middle of a lava, they should take enormous damage. Lava melts everything, probably the only ones that could resist it are fire elementals and creatures having fiery resistant skin. 

 

[Doggie.3184]

I believe some people in this thread should play "Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2" and get a grasp on how cool mixing elemental magic can be in games. But I think only Larian does that. After experiencing it I've wondered why more games don't do it. 

As for Power; well I wanted a ranged weapon that did high power damage & huge AoE on every element including Water and put support on the backburner for once so yeah. Dragons Dogma Sorcerer style and just blow up maps. I always liked Ele more in GW1 more cuz every element did high damage and just had different bonus features...

For enemies actually being effected by elements, my favorite thing of that in all video games is killing things with Ice/Water Magic in "Path of Exile"~ Cold damage visibly chills and freezes enemies solid and shatters them... and shattering huge hordes of enemies at once never gets old, and I love the sound effect it makes. Some enemies on GW2 do have elemental death effects~ at least for fire and lightning, but it doesn't really go deep. Aurene legendaries can add random elemental finishers which are fun.

[Markus.6415]

3 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

I believe some people in this thread should play "Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2" and get a grasp on how cool mixing elemental magic can be in games. But I think only Larian does that. After experiencing it I've wondered why more games don't do it. 

As for Power; well I wanted a ranged weapon that did high power damage & huge AoE on every element including Water and put support on the backburner for once so yeah. Dragons Dogma Sorcerer style and just blow up maps. I always liked Ele more in GW1 more cuz every element did high damage and just had different bonus features...

For enemies actually being effected by elements, my favorite thing of that in all video games is killing things with Ice/Water Magic in "Path of Exile"~ Cold damage visibly chills and freezes enemies solid and shatters them... and shattering huge hordes of enemies at once never gets old, and I love the sound effect it makes. Some enemies on GW2 do have elemental death effects~ at least for fire and lightning, but it doesn't really go deep. Aurene legendaries can add random elemental finishers which are fun.

I realized that the elemental death animations are completely missing on the spear skills. I hope they'll add that in the future, but doubt anet will ever notice. Always brightens my heart when an enemy starts screaming and rolling on the ground while burning.

[draxynnic.3719]

4 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

I believe some people in this thread should play "Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2" and get a grasp on how cool mixing elemental magic can be in games. But I think only Larian does that. After experiencing it I've wondered why more games don't do it. 

There are a few others. Even GW1 did it a bit, although mostly in a "this skill has a stronger effect if an effect from another element is already on the target". GW2 pretty much tried to cover all that with the skill combo system, which tbh worked out to be a bit simplistic and often counterintuitive.

Edited August 24 by draxynnic.3719

[RazieL.5684]

the devs don't read the forums and don't care what you think/want... if something works out great it's because "they made the great decision" if something doesn't work out great it's because "you don't get it" and "it will work out great in next patch"... so far ele got 3 horrible weapons in a row and i wasn't surprised by any of them... the devs think they are doing a great job because look at how much support they get and how many people are still playing the game after so many years... just accept it, you get a kitten weapon that has 0 survivability 0 sustain 0 cc and 1 damage... if you want to complain go play a blue boy that does more damage with his F1 than you do with a full etching... nothing's gonna change, the devs don't care... sincerely - another open beta player

[Hyper Cutter.9376]

I feel like the fire autoattack should apply burn, at least. It's weird that it doesn't.

[Curennos.9307]

Having more burning would be nice, at least. I don't know why they made this a (almost) pure power weapon, though, instead of just doing something with staff, which has been in a very wibbly wobbly weird spot for ages and a few niches where it shines. Ele spear feels like staff 2.0. Which I'm not exactly opposed to, but just...why?

[Markus.6415]

On 8/25/2024 at 1:36 AM, RazieL.5684 said:

the devs don't read the forums and don't care what you think/want... if something works out great it's because "they made the great decision" if something doesn't work out great it's because "you don't get it" and "it will work out great in next patch"... so far ele got 3 horrible weapons in a row and i wasn't surprised by any of them... the devs think they are doing a great job because look at how much support they get and how many people are still playing the game after so many years... just accept it, you get a kitten weapon that has 0 survivability 0 sustain 0 cc and 1 damage... if you want to complain go play a blue boy that does more damage with his F1 than you do with a full etching... nothing's gonna change, the devs don't care... sincerely - another open beta player

0 sustain? Healing+ 3 condicleans on water 3, 5k selfheal on Jökulhlaup, barrier on earth 3, pulsing stab on earth 5. 0 cc? Water4 150, air4 300, air5 300, earth3 200. Never had more cc on a weapon before.

Damage definately needs a bit more for what we have do for it, o give you that.

[RazieL.5684]

On 8/27/2024 at 5:36 PM, Markus.6415 said:

0 sustain? Healing+ 3 condicleans on water 3, 5k selfheal on Jökulhlaup, barrier on earth 3, pulsing stab on earth 5. 0 cc? Water4 150, air4 300, air5 300, earth3 200. Never had more cc on a weapon before.

Damage definately needs a bit more for what we have do for it, o give you that.

3 condies on a cleanse OMG INSANE!!! too bad condi classes drop 6 condies on your face per button press so 3 condies on an 18 second cd is pretty meh...
self heal on 5 is 2k in wvw...
pulsing stab on earth 5? not bad...
good luck hitting any of those skills on someone with eyes...

i will never be impressed by these meh skills while willbenders run around critting over 7k with their kittening F1 on an 8s cd and their other F skills have more sustain than my entire skillset...

Edited August 29 by RazieL.5684

[Markus.6415]

On 8/29/2024 at 5:47 PM, RazieL.5684 said:

3 condies on a cleanse OMG INSANE!!! too bad condi classes drop 6 condies on your face per button press so 3 condies on an 18 second cd is pretty meh...
self heal on 5 is 2k in wvw...
pulsing stab on earth 5? not bad...
good luck hitting any of those skills on someone with eyes...

i will never be impressed by these meh skills while willbenders run around critting over 7k with their kittening F1 on an 8s cd and their other F skills have more sustain than my entire skillset...

Ahhh I see, you're talking about PvP/WvW. No idea how it plays in those modes. I'm a PvE guy and enjoying it though