A few questions about Elemental Weapon

SummerHyme

Hi there!

I haven't had the chance to experiment with Elemental Weapon yet but I see a lot of people talking about it. There are a few things I'd like to know about it:

1) Do the effects stack with other skills that affect light attacks, like Lotus Blossom? If I were to use both at the same time, would my light attack deal extra damage, apply status effect and heal?

2) How long does it take to cast it? I'm a bit worried about the length of the animation, since I've seen a few videos where it looked really strange. Since it requires two button inputs (casting the spell + doing the light attack), is it considerably slower than other spammables (Force Pulse, Screaming Cliff Racer)?

Thank you very much for your help!

Jimmy_The_Fixer

It doesn't turn the light attack into a spell, the Light attack and the EleMental weapon deal damage as separate attacks. Its just that elemental weapon doesn't deal it's damage until the next time you light attack.

In other words, weaving light attacks in between force pulse casts will deal almost identical damage to weaving light attacks between elemental weapon casts.

exeeter702

SummerHyme wrote: »

Hi there!

I haven't had the chance to experiment with Elemental Weapon yet but I see a lot of people talking about it. There are a few things I'd like to know about it:

1) Do the effects stack with other skills that affect light attacks, like Lotus Blossom? If I were to use both at the same time, would my light attack deal extra damage, apply status effect and heal?

2) How long does it take to cast it? I'm a bit worried about the length of the animation, since I've seen a few videos where it looked really strange. Since it requires two button inputs (casting the spell + doing the light attack), is it considerably slower than other spammables (Force Pulse, Screaming Cliff Racer)?

Thank you very much for your help!

1) its important to understand that EW adds a separate damage component, which is triggered by basic light attacks. It does not augment the light attack itself. Therefore it does not "stack" with effects like lotus or sets like elegance or ults like overload. They will trigger simultaneously which has its benefits ofc but for the sake of stacking damage multipliers, EW is its own thing.

2) EW needs to be viewed as a spammable. It consumes a GCD just as any other instant cast ability does. It is budgeted similarly to skills like force pulse, suprise attack, whip etc etc. When doing a rotation weaving any of these skills in between light attacks, it will feel exactly the same if you use EW in their place - GCD, light attack, GCD, light attack. The skill is an instant cast so there is no casting time to even consider.

SummerHyme

Thank you very much, these explanations really help!

jaws343

exeeter702 wrote: »

SummerHyme wrote: »

Hi there!

I haven't had the chance to experiment with Elemental Weapon yet but I see a lot of people talking about it. There are a few things I'd like to know about it:

1) Do the effects stack with other skills that affect light attacks, like Lotus Blossom? If I were to use both at the same time, would my light attack deal extra damage, apply status effect and heal?

2) How long does it take to cast it? I'm a bit worried about the length of the animation, since I've seen a few videos where it looked really strange. Since it requires two button inputs (casting the spell + doing the light attack), is it considerably slower than other spammables (Force Pulse, Screaming Cliff Racer)?

Thank you very much for your help!

1) its important to understand that EW adds a separate damage component, which is triggered by basic light attacks. It does not augment the light attack itself. Therefore it does not "stack" with effects like lotus or sets like elegance or ults like overload. They will trigger simultaneously which has its benefits ofc but for the sake of stacking damage multipliers, EW is its own thing.

2) EW needs to be viewed as a spammable. It consumes a GCD just as any other instant cast ability does. It is budgeted similarly to skills like force pulse, suprise attack, whip etc etc. When doing a rotation weaving any of these skills in between light attacks, it will feel exactly the same if you use EW in their place - GCD, light attack, GCD, light attack. The skill is an instant cast so there is no casting time to even consider.

While the skill is instant cast, the damage is reliant on your next light attack action. So, unlike a force pulse, light attack weave, where each button click represents damage, Elemental Weapon requires 2 button clicks to do the damage from both skills. The end result is the same damage but the rate at which that damage is applied is lower for Ele Weapons.

It does take an adjustment. Force Pulse and other spammables condition you into doing immediate damage. And having to relearn that action and not expect damage to happen the moment you click the spammable is interesting. I do plan on using this on a bow/bow PVP character for a spammable though, since Bow doesn't really have a quick one.

SugaComa

It's bugged from what I can tell

First the skill is it adds X amount of damage to your next light attack and adds elemental damage with the chance to prove one of the elemental status effects

How ever for testing it

The 2 second windows is too slow you have to hit the skill and then hit the light attack as the attack has to lend while timer is still active so for now and staff user this presents two problems

1 is the distance of travel
2 is which to fire first based on said distance

When ranged you have to remember it's light attack followed by EW as long as you are far enough to have it land after the skill animation

When close is EW followed by light attack

There is this akward distance some where between the two where it never procs the skill

Or at least that's how I have found it

exeeter702

jaws343 wrote: »

exeeter702 wrote: »

SummerHyme wrote: »

Hi there!

I haven't had the chance to experiment with Elemental Weapon yet but I see a lot of people talking about it. There are a few things I'd like to know about it:

1) Do the effects stack with other skills that affect light attacks, like Lotus Blossom? If I were to use both at the same time, would my light attack deal extra damage, apply status effect and heal?

2) How long does it take to cast it? I'm a bit worried about the length of the animation, since I've seen a few videos where it looked really strange. Since it requires two button inputs (casting the spell + doing the light attack), is it considerably slower than other spammables (Force Pulse, Screaming Cliff Racer)?

Thank you very much for your help!

1) its important to understand that EW adds a separate damage component, which is triggered by basic light attacks. It does not augment the light attack itself. Therefore it does not "stack" with effects like lotus or sets like elegance or ults like overload. They will trigger simultaneously which has its benefits ofc but for the sake of stacking damage multipliers, EW is its own thing.

2) EW needs to be viewed as a spammable. It consumes a GCD just as any other instant cast ability does. It is budgeted similarly to skills like force pulse, suprise attack, whip etc etc. When doing a rotation weaving any of these skills in between light attacks, it will feel exactly the same if you use EW in their place - GCD, light attack, GCD, light attack. The skill is an instant cast so there is no casting time to even consider.

While the skill is instant cast, the damage is reliant on your next light attack action. So, unlike a force pulse, light attack weave, where each button click represents damage, Elemental Weapon requires 2 button clicks to do the damage from both skills. The end result is the same damage but the rate at which that damage is applied is lower for Ele Weapons.

It does take an adjustment. Force Pulse and other spammables condition you into doing immediate damage. And having to relearn that action and not expect damage to happen the moment you click the spammable is interesting. I do plan on using this on a bow/bow PVP character for a spammable though, since Bow doesn't really have a quick one.

For pvp its definitely a bit jarring at first going to EW from a traditional spammable.

jaws343

SugaComa wrote: »

It's bugged from what I can tell

First the skill is it adds X amount of damage to your next light attack and adds elemental damage with the chance to prove one of the elemental status effects

How ever for testing it

The 2 second windows is too slow you have to hit the skill and then hit the light attack as the attack has to lend while timer is still active so for now and staff user this presents two problems

1 is the distance of travel
2 is which to fire first based on said distance

When ranged you have to remember it's light attack followed by EW as long as you are far enough to have it land after the skill animation

When close is EW followed by light attack

There is this akward distance some where between the two where it never procs the skill

Or at least that's how I have found it

That is a good point. I do like that you can hit it while your light attack is in air. It gives a small amount of forgiveness to the rotation while also making it challenging at longer rangers.

Kingslayer513

jaws343 wrote: »

exeeter702 wrote: »

SummerHyme wrote: »

Hi there!

I haven't had the chance to experiment with Elemental Weapon yet but I see a lot of people talking about it. There are a few things I'd like to know about it:

1) Do the effects stack with other skills that affect light attacks, like Lotus Blossom? If I were to use both at the same time, would my light attack deal extra damage, apply status effect and heal?

2) How long does it take to cast it? I'm a bit worried about the length of the animation, since I've seen a few videos where it looked really strange. Since it requires two button inputs (casting the spell + doing the light attack), is it considerably slower than other spammables (Force Pulse, Screaming Cliff Racer)?

Thank you very much for your help!

1) its important to understand that EW adds a separate damage component, which is triggered by basic light attacks. It does not augment the light attack itself. Therefore it does not "stack" with effects like lotus or sets like elegance or ults like overload. They will trigger simultaneously which has its benefits ofc but for the sake of stacking damage multipliers, EW is its own thing.

2) EW needs to be viewed as a spammable. It consumes a GCD just as any other instant cast ability does. It is budgeted similarly to skills like force pulse, suprise attack, whip etc etc. When doing a rotation weaving any of these skills in between light attacks, it will feel exactly the same if you use EW in their place - GCD, light attack, GCD, light attack. The skill is an instant cast so there is no casting time to even consider.

While the skill is instant cast, the damage is reliant on your next light attack action. So, unlike a force pulse, light attack weave, where each button click represents damage, Elemental Weapon requires 2 button clicks to do the damage from both skills. The end result is the same damage but the rate at which that damage is applied is lower for Ele Weapons.

It does take an adjustment. Force Pulse and other spammables condition you into doing immediate damage. And having to relearn that action and not expect damage to happen the moment you click the spammable is interesting. I do plan on using this on a bow/bow PVP character for a spammable though, since Bow doesn't really have a quick one.

This information isn't really accurate. I believe the "next light attack" part of the tooltip is determined at the point of dealing damage, not at activation of the light attack. For staff users weaving properly, it always applies to the light attack directly preceeding EW. You can test this on a target dummy with combat metrics to see. Even if you only do 1 light attack + 1 elemental weapon, it still goes off. Therefore it's identical to any other spamable.