Talk:Ebon Dust Aura

Hero will not use; she has no ebon weapon, but was using Dust Cloak AND Staggering Force. Only seemed to cause blind when used BEFORE Dust Cloak or Staggering Force.

Considering Mark of Rodgort (not an elite) causes burning, which is a much more difficult to inflict condition, this is a rather lame elite. Dancing Gnome 22:02, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

This is a lame elite?!? Consider the anti-melee potential of this skill Bertz

Dancing, you don't play RA, TA or HB much, do you? Putting this on a D/P with easily spammable and unblockable spear attacks ensures maintaining blind on at least 3 opponents. 4 of them if they don't have good condition removal. RitualDoll 07:23, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Also works wonders for the Norn Tournament...Hyper Cutter 03:50, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Note

Works well with a spell causing earth damage, such as Dust Cloak, or an Ebon weapon mod.

Well no shit, it ONLY works with one of them. --Deathwing 03:27, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Changed to: A skill that changes the damage type of a weapon to Earth Damage (such as Dust Cloak) also counts as wielding an earth weapon. 213.84.52.71 10:56, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Also I find if you blind most your targets you are nearly invincable, I thought this elite was lame till i versed a dervish with it and i couldnt land one hit on him, talk about ownage. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Bgbg (talk).

You can spread blind pretty well with this, but both condition and/or enchantment removal are plentiful in most parts of the game, making it risky. - HeWhoIsPale 18:22, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

I love this skill, and to counter condition and enchantment removal is easy. For condition removals, just spam another attack. For enchantment removals, have some sort of energy manegmant (which is very.....very...VERY...commmon for dervishes)--Raph Talky 22:03, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Relying on your elite enchantment for any class is risky, look at Elemental Attunement and the recharge timer for that skill and yeah if your using it as your elite (for an elementalist) and it's stripped your going to burn out of energy fast. The positive about this skill is that it has a twenty second recharge time so all in all it's quite useful in both pvp and pve.Highway Man 08:23, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Most dervs use multiple enchants anyway, just cover this. As far as multiple enchant removal, all builds have to have some weakness. Barkingllama 03:59, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

this spell is stupid with quarter cast, should be at least 3/4 imo 68.202.136.112 01:17, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

CONCISE DESCRIPTION IS WRONG

is saying that all attacks will trigger blindness?--220.245.178.132 04:45, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

That's how it is in-game but you still need to use an attack skill--74.61.209.219 04:50, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

which is why i said it is wrong =/--220.245.178.137 01:02, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

youre right.... cant someone add a Anomaly tag? i dont know how to do that :S Icewind 06:47, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

• "A skill that changes the damage type of a weapon to Earth Damage (such as Dust Cloak) also counts as wielding an earth weapon. Although harder to get, Staggering Force tends to be a good choice, as it causes weakness when it ends, rather than blinding them again with Dust Cloak. "

How is Staggering Force 'harder to get'? They're both available from Yohlon Haven if I read their pages right. I'm shortening the not to

A skill that changes your weapon damage type to Earth Damage will count as wielding an earth weapon.

It should be up to others to discover Avatar of Melandru, Dust Cloak, Staggering Force and any others not mentioned here. 71.127.159.233 07:05, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

How do you intend to use Avatar of Melandru with this skill? Arcane Mimicry? Anyway Dust Cloak and Staggering Force should be added to notes section -- C4K3 18:17, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Concise description doesn't say "hit"

Does this mean that I can blind people while missing? Sounds like contagious blindness. Paddymew 15:31, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Normal description doesn't say "hit" either. But aside from that, rule #1 about consise descriptions: they are often inaccurate, ignore them. <>Sparky, the Tainted 15:50, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

But does it work when only attacking, too? Paddymew 20:24, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Beforeffect

When you use this , skills you use apply the blindness after or before hitting? I mean, will this also trigger the interrupt of disrupting shot if the foe has no other condition?

Disrupting Shot doesn't need a condition to interrupt. I believe the condition is applied first. ~Shard 09:33, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

I think he meant Disrupting Throw Waverien Tidas 09:47, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

01/28/10 Nerf, only melee causes blindness

I don't do much pvp, but this seems like an over-nerf for pve. Seriously.97.118.167.60 09:58, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

So much for my volley/ebon dust aura build 66.191.117.192 01:07, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

or you could just run a dervish with a scythe and hit the same amount of people. 70.113.195.115

Not the point, a ranger is a ranged character (hence the name). You could stand in one spot and blind multiple opponents. How this is unfair, particularly when in PvE is beyond me. I could almost see their point in PvP, except that in PvP there are more builds with enchantment removal. In PvP I was constantly having this skill stripped or coming up against elementalists/mesmers/necros upon whom this skill was useless against.Supernater

Seriously, I've had it with this game, all the best ranger builds are nerfed. This skill didn't even come close to an unfair advantage in PvE. The always nerf the best ranger builds.

"the best ranger builds are nerfed"

You expect them to nerf underpowered builds instead? Anyways, nerf to EDA but not to BS is dumb. -~=Ϛρѧякγ (τѧιк) 17:07, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

"the best dervish builds are nerfed"

I think he's got a point der. D/P blindbot was one of the few effective builds a dervish had in PvP. Complaints aside (why would Anet listen to complaints in the first place?), this skill is now nerfed to dust. Ebon Dust. This nerf provides no means of creativity (Im back to being stuck with a scythe); its just a bitch move to stop pubescent kids from crying that their retarded wammos fail to hit anything.--Ipsen 18:06, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

I concur, this is the dumbest nerf yet. This skill can be removed from a ranged character using a simple enchantment stripping spell. There are no shortage of these in either PvE or especially PvP. My ebon dust ranger and paragon constantly had this removed, particulary in PvP from corrupt enchantment necros and mesmers. Maybe they should increase the recharge time. It's almost as if Anet is trying to piss us off.--Supernater 17:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Agreed, this build was really only effective against melee types. Speaking as someone that used it often, I've never noticed an example of it being "overpowered". When using this skill my paragon or ranger couldn't really do much other than blind melee types. I was still owned by blood spike or corrupt enchant necros and degen/damage mesmers. Nevermind that this is useless against eles. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.30.197.4 (talk).

Buff?

I was using my Melonni today, and I decided, what the heck, I'll use Dusty over here. Ironically, she was using it rather well with Staggering Force. I'm not sure that this has been changed over the past few months in one of the updates, or if just nobody watched their hero while having this skill equipped (probably the former rather than the latter). But I would like a second or third opinion if someone can provide it, and if necessary, remove the usage note.Aranox 03:30, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

I was using M.O.X while playing earlier and had him equiped with Ebon Dust Aura and Dust Cloack without an ebon weapon. Contray to what is noted on the skills page M.O.X. did use the two skills together without me manageing his skill bar. As said above me, heros now have the ability to use Ebon Dust Aura and skills that change their attacks to earth damage to bypass not having an Ebon Weapon mod so the Note should be removed. --MorazaDarkheart 05:48, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

changing damage type

I don't know, but i think if you use a skill like judges insight, but still use an earth weapon, this skill will still take effect. I didnt notice a drop of 20 damage when i tested it on the master of damage --The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.111.194.111 (talk).

post derv-revamp

this looks like conjure earth - and there is no scythe restriction on this, so this has a lot of potential on spear/dagger builds, especially when you see that earth prayers aint to shabby an attribute and mysticism is a new sort of expertise, sounds cool.82.156.22.85 19:36, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Won't be in spear builds, bonus damage only works for melee. 66.61.119.166 23:09, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

It will be if the bug isn't patched. Right now it does affect spears and bows (I would guess wands and staves too, but I haven't seen those). Either they will fix the bug or fix the text to match the current function. FleshAndFaith 05:25, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Also, I've noted that it causes AoE blindness regardless of your weapon's damage type. The only thing that depends upon the weapon being ebon is the presence (or absence) of additional melee damage. 69.249.223.63 19:11, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Well apparently JonTheMon disagrees, so I won't break 1RV. If anyone, uh, disagrees with the disagreement and thinks it should be re-added, feel free.69.249.223.63 18:55, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Jon is correct, the full description states that when you initially cast this spell, all nearby foes are blinded. The next line says that you will do bonus earth damage if you have an earth weapon. So, the first effect is independent of any requirements, the second effect only works if you are using the correct dmg weapon (or appropriate dmg type altering spell) The bug was that the dmg is added to any earth dmg weapon, including wands and spears when it states "melee attacks". FleshAndFaith 19:21, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Related skills

The conjure spells cause bonus damage conditional on one's weapon dealing the right type of elemental damage. Grenth's Grasp causes crippling if one is dealing cold damage. Arguably, all four skills are related b/c they all have an impact conditional on the weapon used.  — Tennessee Ernie Ford (TEF) 20:34, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

So do Orders, but those aren't really related, even though the functions are much more similar. — Raine Valen 14:22, 21 Feb 2011 (UTC)

Bug (not!)

The +damage is armor ignoring despite being earth-typed.--TahiriVeila 01:37, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

It's just listed as a note on all the other conjure pages. --JonTheMon 19:05, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, it seems like it's just a conscious decision from Anet to make these conjure-type skills to be armor ignoring...so it's not a bug i guess? I know there are other typed damage skills that also deal armor ignoring points of damage. --Lania 19:38, 01 March 2011 (UTC)

Definitely not a bug. Quoting this page, "Armor-ignoring damage is a property that damage can have, independent of its damage type." Also, spells that say they add +X damage to attacks always add the +X after the damage reduction from armor has been applied to the original attack. None of them ever add less on more heavily armored targets. So in other words, this works pretty much exactly like you'd expect it to, just like all the Conjure spells. --76.113.200.14 05:50, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

The main reason it's typed as "earth damage" is that you need to be dealing earth damage to get it to add the damage, just like the conjures are all associated with elemental damage types... 173.64.122.227 18:03, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Power Creep

Ok its hardly creeping more like running around shouting... but you get the picture. Zzz Bsurge + a Conjure for ~6 energy recharging in 10 oh and 0 cast... who thought that could ever be a good idea? --Tyris 14:20, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Meh, atm it's only annoying because of its associated bug. Kite + pin + blocking stance = very dead dervish. -- Traveler (talk) 14:53, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

An EDA Dervish with a sword... gayest fucking linebacker ever... snaring them is pretty ineffective at best because they also snare whatever they lineback and blinding them is also pretty useless due to eda... Oh and you can't KD them either... AND they pump up unblockable attacks and conditions like crazy...--Tyris 22:22, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Personally I felt the major problem with the new version of the skill wasn't the fact that it had no cast time nor was it the duration/recharge of the blind - just the fact that it was a nearby radius. The linebacking Dervish didn't even need to pretend to position themselves well to hit enough people to make it more efficient than a BSurge could with their adjacent radius. Plus, with Aura of Thorns also being nearby radius it was laughably easy to get it covered or at least continue to harass opponents that got the blindness removed. This nerf slowed it down a bit, I guess. I just don't think it really hit what was making the elite so powerful. The EDA linebacking build was hit harder than this skill was though. Fleeting, Aura and this all got hit. 173.64.122.227 18:02, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Why did they kill the damage? It's an elite version of conjure with inferior damage. Fun.--173.55.47.250 03:35, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Because D/Es can't use swords. — Raine Valen 19:13, 29 Mar 2011 (UTC)

They didn't need to kill the damage for PvE as well though. I want to make an earth build and I wanted to use this over VoS for fun but it's hard to justify that choice in any way. I'm having fun with the 3 other dervish lines but earth lacks a fun elite skill. (No, a 100b clone with a casting animation doesn't count). 173.177.49.49 23:03, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Killed the damage by knocking 5 off, amirite? — Raine Valen 23:13, 29 Mar 2011 (UTC)

People run vampiric mods for an extra 3. It makes a difference.--173.55.47.250 23:27, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

Are you suggesting that hammer warriors and dervishes are "killed" whenever they're not using a vamp? — Raine Valen 23:35, 29 Mar 2011 (UTC)

So you're just attacking the semantics of it? Fine, they 'nerfed' the damage for no readily apparent reason, and now it is underpowered compared to the conjure spells, the family of skills it is most closely related to. Happy?--173.55.47.250 00:46, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

If by "underpowered next to conjure spells" you mean "is meta whole conjure spells are not", you're spot on. Conjure spells cost more, cast slower, are shat on by strips, don't inflict AoE blind nor remove blinds, use a secondary prof (D/Es can NOT use swords), and require investment into non-desirable atts. EDA has none of those strings attached.

Yes, it was nerfed. The reason is readily apparent, though: it was too strong. It was in every gvg match because it was stronger than every other option. — Raine Valen 0:57, 31 Mar 2011 (UTC)

Good thing I was very clearly talking about PvE when talking about the damage nerf. But ok, you win. It was too powerful in GvG so it had to be nerfed in PvE as well. Obvious choice.

Balance is supposed to either exist or not exist in PvE. If it is supposed to exist, EDA being stronger than other options STILL makes it nerfworthy in PvE. If it is not supposed to exist, your argument has an invalid premise.

I was assuming that you were arguing your point under the premise that PvE skills are supposed to be balanced, but it seems otherwise. Here, then, I'll present a more appropriate counterargument: lolpve. — Raine Valen 3:15, 31 Mar 2011 (UTC)

"An elite being a better option than a non-elite makes it unbalanced" Dude, what?
Also while EDA has and always will suck in PvE, It kinda needs to be overpowered in order to be balanced. For the sole fact that as long as hard-mode is still infusing monsters with steroids you kinda need your own steroids to level the playing field. --BriarThe Spider 03:22, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

You know, being elite is not justification for being overpowered. Hard mode is its own stupidity, monsters need to lay off the steroids and go to school instead. –~=Ϛρѧякγ (τѧιк) ←♥– 04:26, 31 March 2011 (UTC)

Raine, conjure spells may cost more and cast slower, but they last twice as long. The only strips that prevent them from being covered by quicker recharging enchantments are what, rend and gaze? The blind is 6 seconds every 20 and the blindness removal is the same recharge and is hard to use if you cover the enchantment. Yes, EDA is overpowered with a sword. The solution isn't to lower the damage, it's to make EDA only work with scythes. As for the attribute spread and secondary class, I would consider those reasons for this being elite (not that I ever really use secondary skills on my dervish any more, as they seem to get in the way now). When it comes to PVE, I don't see this as being remotely overpowered, at least not until they nerf some things.--173.55.47.250 06:23, 1 April 2011 (UTC)