Talk:Air Magic

Underpowered?
Am I alone in thinking that some of these skills are really underpowered compared to fire magic skills such as Fireball? Let's take Fireball and Lightning Orb as our examples. Damage with level 17 of their respective attrubutes: Fireball-126, Lightning Orb-112. Energy needed: Fireball-10, Lightning Orb-15. Area of effect: Fireball-Nearby, Lightning Orb-None.--Sum Mesmer Guy 16:40, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

They are very underpowered and are not Spammable unlike what this site says. The casting times kill these air magic skills to the point where they are easily interrupted and which is why fire magic is still used over this.William Wallace 10:10, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

When you say Lightning Orb does 112 at 17 air that is true. However with the 25% armor penetration, Air is much more effective against single targets. Obviously this isn't the best choice for PvE with most enemies in mobs, but Air Magic shines in PvP with high spike damage and the ability to blind, weaken, and KD. Also many of the air skills are spammable. Lightning Orb and Lightning Hammer only become spammable with a 40/40 set or something like Mindbender. Other skills such as Lightning Javelin can be spammed without the 40/40 set, but are less effective damage wise. Therefore, Air Magic isnt that underpowered, only not seen to its full potential.Falcon Assassin 02:47, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Ye, falcon's said it all. It's got a wider selection of weak skills (bad nukers take stuff like firestorm and make do, air magic doesn't have an array of bad-but-passable skills like that), but it has utility nevertheless. For PvE, try dual attune with orb/hammer/flash; still no aoe damage, but lots of single-target damage with no energy problems. - Auron 02:55, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Air magic is underpowered indeed, even channeling magic can take on air magic, with destructive was glaive a ritualist channeler can take down a air mage in seconds. 80.61.115.39 17:29, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

I agree Fire magic has more damage in it's attribute, but then again, i think each element has it's own use Water: snares, Earth: defences, Air: applying conditions and KDs and Fire: damage. What's the point in having 4 diffrent elements if they all were ment to do the same thing, deal damage?--84.192.6.24 17:31, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Impossible to Afford
Air Magic skills are impossible to afford without having to run dual attunement and the majority of the times the cost of the skills rarely justify using them if ever. When in comparison fire magic skills deal significantly the same amount of damage if not higher with a lower energy cost.William Wallace 18:51, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Two words: Armor Penetration. --SoraMitsukai 19:19, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

The armor penetration rarely exceeds plus fifty damage and the casting time for the skills are ridiculous. Fire magic does significantly higher damage and is cheaper.William Wallace 11:59, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't forget that some air skills give cracked armor, taking another 20 percent off the target's armor. Air does more damage faster. It's true, sorry.

Crack armor only works against targets who have an armor rating over sixty and will not bring below sixty al. Almost every high damage air magic skill has a two second casting time which is just begging for interrupts and allows for health regeneration skills such as mystic regeneration to heal/convert the damage. Also since the caster of the spells will have to stay still to cast their two second casting time skills, they are are very susceptible against against aoe dots such as savannah heat further decreasing their survivability.William Wallace 03:59, 6 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Except... Glyph of Lesser Energy, Air Attunement, Shock Arrow? Those keep up wards on recharge and pretty decent bsurge/lorb spam. Also, if you're being outhealed by Mystic Regen, you're doing it wrong. Bring some enchantment removal; E/Me with drain enchant, E/N with rip... plenty of good options. An even bigger problem than mystic regen is prot spirit, which takes your originally large packet of damage and neuters it; fire magic dot aoe doesn't run into a problem with that, but when you're doing single-packet damage, it's really annoying to have it all mitigated by one spell that lasts forever. Thus, bring enchantment removal :p
 * If cast time is a problem, use a 40/40 set. You'll get enough instant and 1s casts off to slip under interrupts. Standing in 3 seconds of AoE damage usually isn't a death sentence, so just move as soon as you finish casting and you won't take too much damage.
 * For PvE, there's really no reason to run Air. Blind, Air's key utility, does very little good throughout most of PvE, where the biggest damage threat comes from casters. Heavy-hitting derv bosses/mobs are the exception, but most of them kill via Mystic Sandstorm, not autoattacking, so blind really doesn't do anything there either. If your main utility really doesn't do anything, all that's left is damage; and as you've stated, fire eles simply win that contest. - Auron 04:14, 6 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I use an Invoke Lighting build where im constantly hitting over or around 100damage in PvE. If your complaining for damage you need to bring the right skills, i.e. not lightning strike; or use better runes and the air head piece. And although you spend 2 seconds casting a spell, fire nukes generally take 3 secs, making you more dead in that SH you fear so much. Also you could take glyph of concentration or mantra of resolve if your worried about rupts.Falcon Assassin 06:25, 8 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Auspicious Incantation + Lightning Hammer + Air Attunement = win. The only problem I have with Air Magic is casting time of its spells. 79.186.161.217 14:05, 17 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I've been using air on my ele, mostly PvE, and near always hit for 100 or better damage. Problem? My boyfriend's fire ele consistently does around 120 damage + burning, and does it AoE. We've played across all levels of areas in the game, and his fire always out damages air. Read what they have to say over on the Strength article about armor penetration, its really not that good. Air Magic could use a boost. 69.221.66.99 04:38, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * If your bf could hit for +120 consistent aoe damage in hm then he must be using something the rest of haven't thought of b.r // talk  05:29, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The problem is you're trying to use air for the wrong thing. Air magic far exceeds fire in terms of utility. Gale, mind shock, bsurge, bflash, storm djinn, shell shock, enervating charge - all of these are amazing utility skills. Giving air damage on par with fire would absolutely break the game, because then you'd have massive utility *and* the ability to kill everything very quickly. Remember, Guild Wars is a team game - you aren't supposed to be able to do everything by yourself.
 * Use fire for damage, air and water for utility and shutdown, and earth for wards and snares. Don't try to make any of them into something it's not. - Auron 05:42, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Air Magic Nuking
The air line is greatly lacking in nuking capability, while it has great spike options, compared to the fire line its nuking capabilities are bland.

I like the changes that were made during the last update in August, however I think a few changes would greatly improve the Air line and I would like to make a few suggestions.

Arc Lightning

Currently: Spell. Target foe is struck for 5...41...50 lightning damage. If that foe is suffering from a Water Magic Hex, one foe near your target is struck for 15...63...75 lightning damage. Damage from Arc Lightning has 25% armor penetration.

Change: Spell. Target foe is struck for 5...41...50 lightning damage. If you are enchanted, two foes near your target is struck for 15...63...75 lightning damage. Damage from Arc Lightning has 25% armor penetration.

Note:

In order to run this skill to get one extra hit the caster needs to also have investments in the water line I know you guys at A-net want synergy between the Water and Air line but the benefit is not that great. The change gives the caster a conditional clause for the additional damage and with all the enchant striping in the game is a good counter to that additional damage.

Chain Lightning

Currently: Spell. Target foe and up to two other foes near your target are struck for 10...70...85 lightning damage. This Spell has 25% armor penetration and causes Exhaustion if you are not enchanted.

Change: Spell. Target foe and up to four other foes near your target are struck for 10...70...85 lightning damage. This Spell has 25% armor penetration and causes Exhaustion if you are not enchanted.

Invoke Lightning

Current: Elite Spell. Target foe and up to two other foes near your target are struck for 10...82...100 lightning damage. This Spell has 25% armor penetration. If you are not under the effects of an Enchantment, this spell causes Exhaustion.

Change: Elite Spell. Target foe and up to six other foes near your target are struck for 10...82...100 lightning damage. This Spell has 25% armor penetration. If you are not under the effects of an Enchantment, this spell causes Exhaustion.

Note: Right now the only difference between these two skills is 20 damage which isn't much considering one is an elite. Also the small cap on the number of enemies struck is not very useful for nuking. The changes I am asking for would improve the skills nuking capability while the recharge time, cap on the number of enemies hit and conditions for avoiding exhaustion are enough to keep the skills from being over powered. These changes would resemble that of the Ranger line when comparing Volley to Barrage, but unlike the fire line would have conditions to avoid exhaustion, limit the number of foes that can be struck, and while they do have armor penetration they do not cause conditions.

Lightning Orb

Current: Spell. Send out a lightning Orb that strikes target foe for 10...82...100 [B]lightning damage and causes Cracked Armor for 5...17...20 seconds if it hits. This spell has 25% armor penetration.

Change: Spell. Send out a lightning Orb that strikes target foe [B]and all adjacent foes for 10...82...100 lightning damage.[/B] This spell has 25% armor Penetration.

Lightning Hammer

Current: Spell. Target foe is struck for 10...82...100 lightning damage. Lightning Hammer has 25% armor penetration.

Change: Spell. Target foe is struck for 10...82...100 lightning damage [B]and causes Cracked Armor for 5...17...20 seconds if it hits.[/B] This spell has 25% armor penetration.

Note:

I've always thought Lightning Orb should be more like what Fire balls was and that Lighting Hammer should cause cracked armor like Lightning Orb does.

...

I haven't changed the energy cost or recharge times for these spells because I think they are where they need to be.

The changes to Lightning Orb, Arc Lightning, Chain Lightning, and Invoke Lightning would give an Air magic nuking capability that I think would not be something different from the fire line but at the same time would also not end the Air line from having spike damage builds and would open up more alternatives to nuking for the el.

I love lightning spells and think this would give an alternative from running fire builds. The Fire line's nuking skills mostly cause burning and have no limit on the number of affected foes. Where the Air Magic lines have armor penetration but would be limited to a certain number of foes.

The number of enemies hit by Chain and Invoke lighting could be 3 and 6, but I was looking at it as a power of 2 for the steps up from Arc, Chain and Invoke when coming up with my numbers.--Chieftain Heavyhand 14:16, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

No AoEDoT?
It seems to me that Thunderstorm or Lightning Storm would make a lot of sense. --134.29.173.236 17:32, 1 February 2010 (UTC)