Armor of Earth CD too high

[Arheundel.6451]

In line with the current state of the game, it would not be too much to ask a reduction by 10s on the global CD

[Jski.6180]

It is but it should do something else then give you boons as the armor of earth is a real effect that simply dose nothing.

[Alpha.1308]

it's really strong, so i don't agree, there's already a cantrip trait for that

however, i do believe it's very strange for a skill to give so much stability up front the way it does, considering there's absolutely no way for this to be utilized, quite literally, assuming perfect math, with the 6s duration and the internal .75s cooldown, it would take 7.5 seconds to actually strip all 10 stacks by being chain CC'd

unless you ran boon duration, but this is also a strip-heavy pvp meta, sooo, that's counter-intuitive

being an ability that would have literally 0 use in pve, (at least, i'm fairly certain?) if you're not counting some absolute niche like "put on boon duration and go do a jumping puzzle with CC", it's still so astronomically questionable

so, i agree with jski, it should either have a split between pve/pvp and do something entirely different in pve, or the skill should be reworked for both, because it's still a strong pvp ability, albeit having an internal struggle with its own logic, as well as being worthless in pve, while doubling down on that internal logic

but, look at a bunch of other utility skills, traits, etc., the balance team seemingly doesn't have a very cohesive plan of what they're doing, so it's not entirely surprising, i'd actually even consider this skill in particular to be one of the better designed skills, despite better options existing, honestly

[steki.1478]

@"Alpha.1308" said:it's really strong, so i don't agree, there's already a cantrip trait for that

however, i do believe it's very strange for a skill to give so much stability up front the way it does, considering there's absolutely no way for this to be utilized, quite literally, assuming perfect math, with the 6s duration and the internal .75s cooldown, it would take 7.5 seconds to actually strip all 10 stacks by being chain CC'd

unless you ran boon duration, but this is also a strip-heavy pvp meta, sooo, that's counter-intuitive

being an ability that would have literally 0 use in pve, (at least, i'm fairly certain?) if you're not counting some absolute niche like "put on boon duration and go do a jumping puzzle with CC", it's still so astronomically questionable

so, i agree with jski, it should either have a split between pve/pvp and do something entirely different in pve, or the skill should be reworked for both, because it's still a strong pvp ability, albeit having an internal struggle with its own logic, as well as being worthless in pve, while doubling down on that internal logic

but, look at a bunch of other utility skills, traits, etc., the balance team seemingly doesn't have a very cohesive plan of what they're doing, so it's not entirely surprising, i'd actually even consider this skill in particular to be one of the better designed skills, despite better options existing, honestly

When you look at the stand your ground and dolyak stance you'll see that the skills have same purpose, are much stronger and have nearly half the cooldown (outside of pvp).

[Stallic.2397]

I concur, shorter cool down and possibly, (my addition) pulsing stab rather than up front.

Obsidian flesh was a good alternative when you could actually cast skills with it. But that got nerfed.

Earth's embrace, the trait that coincides with armor of earth, also needs an update. Core Ele's defense is already lackluster and a 300 sec cooldown doesn't help

[Downstate.4697]

If anything it should give 3s of resistance too

[Alpha.1308]

@"steki.1478" said:When you look at the stand your ground and dolyak stance you'll see that the skills have same purpose, are much stronger and have nearly half the cooldown (outside of pvp).

why would i do that?how are you getting stand your ground or dolyak stance on elementalist?

those classes don't also have access 20 weapon skills, or some of the strongest trait lines in the game (guardian questionable)

directly comparing a class skill to another class' skill is not how you address an issue

also, my stack+duration point was not specific to armor of earth itself, more like a side jab at how it's just poorly designed to ramp up complete boon rips while making something not have a use (the extra stacks) outside of adding boon duration, while simultaneously making boon duration largely irrelevant due to previously mentioned strip meta

i still don't believe armor of earth is bad on its own, just because you said there are skills that are "stronger" in the game on other classes, considering its position and supporting traits; the fact is, it's still a strong ability that can sit comfortably in an elementalist's utility slot and get value in pvp on the button pop (if stab isn't ripped)

the real problem is, it has competition for the same slot on the same class, where as the other skills you mentioned do not for their respective classes;you aren't giving up stand your ground for anything on guardian if you need that stunbreak+stabyou aren't giving up dolyak stance on ranger for anything if you need that stunbreak+soft CC immunity+damage resist

which is why i suggested to just change it entirelybuffing it likely won't change much, unless it's drasticyou reduce its cooldown, "by 10 seconds", or whatever, it's not going to matter, it'll either be too good to pass up (unlikely, in which case we're also back here again with the other skills), or it'll still not be good enough compared to its competition of lightning flash, mist form, and twist of fate all fighting for a panic button

armor of earth should be a sustain button, not another panic button, and i don't know about you, but a 48s cooldown/40s cooldown with OP's suggested buff for 6s of stab+prot+regen+vigor+a cleanse screams "CC/condi panic" to me, you ain't hitting that button with the intention of sitting in damage, or pre-emptively popping it for stab just for it to be ripped/converted into more CC from fear and now you don't have a stunbreak/cleanse and have its entire utility wasted

[Jski.6180]

@Alpha.1308 said:

@"steki.1478" said:When you look at the stand your ground and dolyak stance you'll see that the skills have same purpose, are much stronger and have nearly half the cooldown (outside of pvp).

why would i do that?how are you getting stand your ground or dolyak stance on elementalist?

those classes don't also have access 20 weapon skills, or some of the strongest trait lines in the game (guardian questionable)

directly comparing a class skill to another class' skill is not how you address an issue

also, my stack+duration point was not specific to armor of earth itself, more like a side jab at how it's just poorly designed to ramp up complete boon rips while making something not have a use (the extra stacks) outside of adding boon duration, while simultaneously making boon duration largely irrelevant due to previously mentioned strip meta

i still don't believe armor of earth is bad on its own, just because you said there are skills that are "stronger" in the game on other classes, considering its position and supporting traits; the fact is, it's still a strong ability that can sit comfortably in an elementalist's utility slot and get value in pvp on the button pop (if stab isn't ripped)

the real problem is, it has competition for the same slot on the same class, where as the other skills you mentioned do not for their respective classes;you aren't giving up stand your ground for anything on guardian if you need that stunbreak+stabyou aren't giving up dolyak stance on ranger for anything if you need that stunbreak+soft CC immunity+damage resist

which is why i suggested to just change it entirelybuffing it likely won't change much, unless it's drasticyou reduce its cooldown, "by 10 seconds", or whatever, it's not going to matter, it'll either be too good to pass up (unlikely, in which case we're also back here again with the other skills), or it'll still not be good enough compared to its competition of lightning flash, mist form, and twist of fate all fighting for a panic button

armor of earth should be a sustain button, not another panic button, and i don't know about you, but a 48s cooldown/40s cooldown with OP's suggested buff for 6s of stab+prot+regen+vigor+a cleanse screams "CC/condi panic" to me, you ain't hitting that button with the intention of sitting in damage, or pre-emptively popping it for stab just for it to be ripped/converted into

more

CC from fear and now you don't have a stunbreak/cleanse and have its entire utility wasted

Why not have Stand your ground or dolyak stance on ele? If any thing AoE should have a persisting effect like dolyack staces or even the ability to give it to others like Stand your ground.

AoE is a very out dated skill that only means of dealing with classes that have high cc only need to wait for the very low duration of the skill vs its high duration or simply have any number of strips that you can get from classes or sigils comply destroy any use of 10 stack of stab would give to the ele class.

[steki.1478]

@Alpha.1308 said:

@"steki.1478" said:When you look at the stand your ground and dolyak stance you'll see that the skills have same purpose, are much stronger and have nearly half the cooldown (outside of pvp).

why would i do that?how are you getting stand your ground or dolyak stance on elementalist?

those classes don't also have access 20 weapon skills, or some of the strongest trait lines in the game (guardian questionable)

directly comparing a class skill to another class' skill is not how you address an issue

also, my stack+duration point was not specific to armor of earth itself, more like a side jab at how it's just poorly designed to ramp up complete boon rips while making something not have a use (the extra stacks) outside of adding boon duration, while simultaneously making boon duration largely irrelevant due to previously mentioned strip meta

i still don't believe armor of earth is bad on its own, just because you said there are skills that are "stronger" in the game on other classes, considering its position and supporting traits; the fact is, it's still a strong ability that can sit comfortably in an elementalist's utility slot and get value in pvp on the button pop (if stab isn't ripped)

the real problem is, it has competition for the same slot on the same class, where as the other skills you mentioned do not for their respective classes;you aren't giving up stand your ground for anything on guardian if you need that stunbreak+stabyou aren't giving up dolyak stance on ranger for anything if you need that stunbreak+soft CC immunity+damage resist

which is why i suggested to just change it entirelybuffing it likely won't change much, unless it's drasticyou reduce its cooldown, "by 10 seconds", or whatever, it's not going to matter, it'll either be too good to pass up (unlikely, in which case we're also back here again with the other skills), or it'll still not be good enough compared to its competition of lightning flash, mist form, and twist of fate all fighting for a panic button

armor of earth should be a sustain button, not another panic button, and i don't know about you, but a 48s cooldown/40s cooldown with OP's suggested buff for 6s of stab+prot+regen+vigor+a cleanse screams "CC/condi panic" to me, you ain't hitting that button with the intention of sitting in damage, or pre-emptively popping it for stab just for it to be ripped/converted into

more

CC from fear and now you don't have a stunbreak/cleanse and have its entire utility wasted

I mean, at what point would those 20 skills stop being brought up for balance? They have more weapon skills, but they are also weaker compared to 10 skills of other classes, so it balances itself already. Their weapon skills traits only work while you're attuned to that attunement, otherwise you lose the stats, unlike other classes who gain 40-50% of the buff while not wielding the weapon. Not to mention that there are elite specs like firebrand which add more skills without even addressing the weapon (or utility since you seem to find them related to each other) skills and make them weaker like ele's balanced to do so.

What trait lines are "some of the strongest" actually? Literally all of ele's core specs come with drawbacks due to how attunements work or just give poor bonuses compared to others (pyromancer's puissance miserable might uptime compared to literally every single class). Sure there are traits that stand out as strong (like sunspot+smothering auras cleanse potential), but you have those on every class.

As far as I know, everyone has 3 utility skills (except rev, but that's a category on its own because of energy) so I dont see a reason why one skill would have almost double the cooldown compared to others if they do the same thing, especially if the worse one is not shared to allies. It should be the opposite - longer cooldown because it affects more people and/or provides more effects, not shorter.

The reason why you're not giving up those skills on ranger/guard is because they are much stronger than the alternatives or alternatives have much different usage and are on the same cooldown so you're free to choose either one (lightning reflexes for evade or quickening zephyr for quickness), just like ele has better alternatives due to how weak AoE is. Air signet/glyph are mainly used because of cooldown since that's the main factor of stun break skills considering that being stunlocked means that you're most likely dead. Literally the only reason why air signet is used is the cooldown, even if the secondary effects arent so good compared to evade, stability, damage reduction etc, you want it because of low cooldown.