Ultimate Proof: Wall of Elements is weak

Kaliki · November 2015

I am a Magicka-Templar and I was playing around with some bow abilities and I noticed that Wall of Elements does almost the same damage in my usual magicka setup as Volley, a bow ability. I could not believe my eyes, but the tooltip don't lie.

My raw stats without foodbuff:
32k Magicka and 2200 Spell Power vs.
9k Stamina and 1400 Weapon Damage.

Tooltip values:
Wall of Elements: 386 Damage every 0.5 seconds over 8 seconds
Volley: 381 Damage every 0.5 seconds over 8 seconds (+ 146 Damage/sec over 6 seconds with Scorched Earth morph).

And no, I did not have CP assigned to boost the damage of either ability.
How come a bow ability does more damage than an ability from the only offensive stave skill line when fully geared towards magicka dps and in 5 pc light armor?

Another recent post found that one of the coefficients for damage scaling seems a bit strange on Wall of Elements as well.
And after this comparison I believe that there must be something wrong with the ability.
Can this really be intended?

Screenshots I took for reference:
7HDPO

Sorry, screenshots seem to not work.

Emma_Overload · November 2015

Not sure what could be wrong here... according to the devs, you should be "melting down" mobs with OP Wall of Elements!

Alucardo · November 2015

It's not that bad. I nearly took out a level 1 spider using WoE

Alucardo · November 2015

Here's your screen

zerosingularity · November 2015

Emma_Eunjung wrote: »

Not sure what could be wrong here... according to the devs, you should be "melting down" mobs with OP Wall of Elements!

Oh but we can melt mobs with this skill, I do it all the time! On level 30 enemies... On a vet 16 endgame geared Sorc...

Alucardo · November 2015

zerosingularity wrote: »

Oh but we can melt mobs with this skill, I do it all the time! On level 30 enemies... On a vet 16 endgame geared Sorc...

Laughter was produced.

Jumper45 · November 2015

only thing i can say is because the wall offers other effects there from elements like concussion/burn and frozen. Which makes its a CC/DPS vs just a DPS ability. The damage is very weak though. To think that much damage on 20-30k hp is laughable. Then again it is only rank 1 there as well on scorched and you havnt morphed wall. Rank 4 might produce different numbers.

That being said. CC/DPS vs a DPS ability. CC/DPS will be lower ofc. Not to mention passives coming into play.Too much unknowns. We would need to see both abilities at rank 4. Which i dont expect Magicka build to rank a bow move that high just to see numbers lol.

Kaliki · November 2015

The damage of unmorphed Volley is the same as morphed to Scorched Earth. So comparing it with unmorphed wall should be about right.
The skill levels do not lead to vastly different numbers anyway.

As for the CC part:
After the recent nerf to status effects, Wall is by no means a reliable CC. I would rather compare the extra chance to slow or do more damage to the extra damage effect on scorched earth.

I do think those two abilities are quite comparable. If anything Wall should have higher damage or at least a reliable CC and the same damage as its a melee range spell vs. a high range, placed bow aoe.

Also dont forget I am wearing all magicka gear. If I wore stamina gear Volley would probably do twice as much damage...

Would be interesting if anyone had numbers for Volley as V16 in stamina gear.

zerosingularity · November 2015

Just logged so no accurate numbers, but its over 1k per tick at vet 16.

olsborg · November 2015

Wall of elements has been weak for quite some time now...I hardly ever see it used and never use it myself.

Draxys · November 2015

Jumper45 wrote: »

only thing i can say is because the wall offers other effects there from elements like concussion/burn and frozen. Which makes its a CC/DPS vs just a DPS ability. The damage is very weak though. To think that much damage on 20-30k hp is laughable. Then again it is only rank 1 there as well on scorched and you havnt morphed wall. Rank 4 might produce different numbers.

That being said. CC/DPS vs a DPS ability. CC/DPS will be lower ofc. Not to mention passives coming into play.Too much unknowns. We would need to see both abilities at rank 4. Which i dont expect Magicka build to rank a bow move that high just to see numbers lol.

Even the CC is terrible though

eliisra · November 2015

zerosingularity wrote: »

Just logged so no accurate numbers, but its over 1k per tick at vet 16.

-50% battle spirit
- Elemental Defender
- Thick skinned
- Player Mitigation

Pretty sure health recovery is alone is enough to out heal Wall of Element in PvP.

zerosingularity · November 2015

eliisra wrote: »

zerosingularity wrote: »

Just logged so no accurate numbers, but its over 1k per tick at vet 16.

-50% battle spirit
- Elemental Defender
- Thick skinned
- Player Mitigation

Pretty sure health recovery is alone is enough to out heal Wall of Element in PvP.

The 1k per tick is volley, wall of elements can be out-healed in PvE as is.

Jura23 · November 2015

eliisra wrote: »

zerosingularity wrote: »

Just logged so no accurate numbers, but its over 1k per tick at vet 16.

-50% battle spirit
- Elemental Defender
- Thick skinned
- Player Mitigation

Pretty sure health recovery is alone is enough to out heal Wall of Element in PvP.

Unless you are a vamp. Beware vamps the Wall of Elements.

Nestor · November 2015

Wasn't WoE nerfed because PvP was stacking the Skill and wiping out zergs?

Kaliki · November 2015

@Nestor:
I thought this was only due to one person being able to stack multiple walls (which was the only reason it was used before).

I cannot recall any damage nerf, but since the stacking was adressed there has been no reason to use this skill.

Sharmony · November 2015

Nestor wrote: »

Wasn't WoE nerfed because PvP was stacking the Skill and wiping out zergs?

WoE was bugged and could be purged which resulted in the entire damage being taken at once, it was a purge related issue. WoE was unnecessarily nerfed therefore making it unusable now apart from for the MA staff.

Waffennacht · November 2015

Yes, but they nerfed it and removed the stacking both. They should have not done both, just the no stack. Its a complete waste as is. Even in PvE. It could be interesting if it had something worthwhile...

Ezareth · November 2015

Much like Impulse, I think this is an ability that was overnerfed because it was abused in PVP.

@wrobel I hope you're taking notes!

cschwingeb14_ESO · November 2015

Devs are still butthurt about how badly they screwed up the PvP meta by allowing this ability to stack with itself from the same caster...for months. Sadly, they don't seem to have the same reaction to steel tornado screwing things up

Every other AE ground DoT does 2-3x the DPS of WoE, but no change in sight.

Joy_Division · November 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJJb863umd4

Kaliki · November 2015

@Joy_Division:
I never get tired of that video. But maybe needs some funny circus music added.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO · November 2015

Wall of Elements, Volley and Path of Darkness were three powers that were made for a different role and the role was changed and the power weren't change to match.

Trihugger · November 2015

Not that I'll have a properly traited MSA staff anytime soon, but I can't even begin to describe my disappointment when I saw it was WoE.

lolo_01b16_ESO · November 2015

WoE is a great skill, your just not using it right.
Imagine you are play in DC and your friend in AD. You meet in Cyrodiil to team up and fight some EP players. Then WoE is one of the few skills that allows you to heal your friend. You just need to get Impenetrable gear, a high crit chance and some cp in elemental defender / thick skinned.