Talk:Sandstorm

Dang...if combined with Unsteady Ground this would be one hell of an AoE elite. Arcane Mimicry anyone?>> Trace 20:30, 24 September 2006 (CDT)
 * That would be counter productive. Attacking foes would be knocked down so that they couldn't attack as often. This would be best paired with attack speed boosts. [[Image:Chuiu Me Icon.png]] (T/C) 20:32, 24 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Attack speed boosts won't help much with this spell, you'll still only be dealing the extra damage per second, not per attack. --Kiiron 23:18, 24 September 2006 (CDT)
 * So this elite pretty much stands on its own? Sliver Armor maybe? >> Trace 14:09, 26 September 2006 (CDT)
 * Use to protect the hero on KotH maps in HA. --Xeeron 06:54, 2 October 2006 (CDT)

'This plus Churning Earth ? Assassinman 22:06, 2 October 2006 (CDT)

Sandstorm - after 3 seconds, all nearby mobs stop attacking and run away due to AoE panic. This Elite seems to ignore this completely. Even if you cripple or snare them so that they cannot leave the Area of Effect, they won't attack in this state. This Elite is a badly designed skill. --Long 09:18, 21 October 2006 (CDT)
 * I think it's more like an offensive ward or... something. Even if they don't attack, it strikes for up to 420 earth damage, which is more than Fire Storm even, and when they do, it deals up to 730.  On a target with about 100 AL, such a warrior, it should strike for about 40 while they're attacking, which is actually worthwhile for once.  Still, yeah, I don't think I'll really run it in many builds.  Merengue 15:32, 22 October 2006 (CDT)
 * Did I miss something? I didn't test it in-game, but... as-is, the description doesn't specify any type of damage. That means it should do the same against Warriors as spellcasters. DancingZombies [[Image:Aura_of_the_Lich.jpg|24px]] 20:09, 24 October 2006 (CDT)
 * Pretty sure they just forgot to specify it as with savannah heat, but we'll find out soon I guess. Merengue 13:32, 25 October 2006 (CDT)

One of the best spells in the game in my opinion. Incredibly powerful against everything. The combo i use for the arenas is: Glyph of lesser energy + Sandstorm + Deep freeze. By the time they try to get out of it they are already taking massive damage.
 * well, it got nerfed, and hard. Mobs now move out of the AoE and wait in PvE.  The damage is now inconsequential to (good) tanks, as well - heck, I even attacked through it with self healing on my warrior (mainly with just Live Vicariously). The extra 5 seconds recharge time is a slap on the wrist.--Falseprophet 12:22, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * even worse - make that 10 seconds - the 5 seconds charge change was in the "messed up" first attempt.--146.122.71.143 18:38, 2 February 2007 (CST)

Too powerful. Im an ele and using this I say myself Like other nightfall skills this is gonna get nerfed. I mean imagine 8 eles using it on the guild lord...ok ECHOING IT than using it on the guild lord..ok closing in on guild lord trapping the guild lord. A firetorm too..ouchie quick guild win.
 * Amulet of Protection, Shield of Absorption? &mdash; Skuld 02:14, 27 November 2006 (CST)

dmg does not ignore armor, no need to nerf anything here xyz 10 December 2006

I must say, Searing Flames aside, Earth Elementalists got some serious love in Nightfall. DancingZombies 21:04, 10 December 2006 (CST)

HA usefullness
In theory it seems this would be incredibly useful in HA. Due to most of the maps not having really huge open spaces, the AoE would take up a good portion of the battlefield. I could see 6 E/Mo's running sandstorm and heal party, something akin to the Starburst groups we see alot of now. It could be very effective imo.

6 e/mo with sand storm,heal party is not the best idea as you can't spam hp without ether prodigy. Howerver here is a build I think would be effective on control the alter,spike, fighting hero way teams. 2 monks and 4 e/any Sandstorm, obsidian flame, ebon hawk,stoneflesh aura,earth atunument,ward (each person brings a diferent ward being stability,melee,foes, and elements), and of course rez sig.

3 e/mo with sand storm, obsidian flame and healing seed, 3 e/mo with obsidian flame, prodigy, heal party, Wards and stuff as well, would be two birds in one stone (Massive AOE damage up onthe alter all the time, and spikes for when it is needed). Saw something very close to a short while ago, it nearly won. Dr Titan 03:02, 13 December 2006 (CST)

Just take 2 melee and a sandstorm, kills heroes cos they bunch, and the melee is more reliable for spiking vs good teams &mdash; Skuld 03:04, 13 December 2006 (CST)


 * Definately an excellent build for HA, use it with my guild. Its like a spike build and a pressure build in one you simply retool your style to exploit the weakness of the other team. Works amazing well if your opponent is heroway the AI casters like to clump up and the AOE is large enough that they dont kite out of it unless the human does as well. You can kill the opposing party in ten seconds or less sometimes.

But its kinda useless when the monks are garunteed to prot spirit said hero if your all doing something like that, so enchant shatter might help, maybe add gaze of contempt to just dominate?

Capping
I dont get how I should be able to cap sandstorm in the mission rilohn refuge when the drought is dead the movie starts and you have no time to cap the skill..? what must I do? could some1 please help me gw name ( tacticman of power)
 * Kill him before the droughtlings. --Fyren 19:43, 3 January 2007 (CST)
 * Or capture the skill later in the game, this is "far" in the desolation area. Check the maps to see where it is. Somewhere up north/west. [O-T]
 * I found capping this skill from the drought much easier than from the elemental boss in poisoned outcrops...

Nerfed
Overnerfed? The 1 February 2007 nerf reduced unconditional damage and increased recharge. Personally, I think it was destined to be nerfed because in PvP it was almost overpowering for protecting a guild lord. In PvE, however, the nerf destroyed the skill - the monster AI was changed at the same time to completely leave the AoE and not attack until after Sandstorm expires. Even if you trap them in the AoE the unconditional damage isn't enough to justify carrying this as an elite anymore. I've found it takes about 2-3x more castings to kill warriors using this skill than before on most monsters even if you trap them in the AoE using knockdown (keeping them from regenerating by wanding them). I'm sure if the warriors were attacking that may make a difference, but since this is armor reduced damage, probably not.
 * I've heard NUMEROUS times that it doesnt effect PvE players.  TBDMurder[[image:Spirit's Strength.jpg|20px]] 17:16, 2 February 2007 (CST)
 * The wording on the original test week implied that, but both the first test and this one affected PvE. If you try it and watch the little 6s appear where 46s were before you'll probably start crying (I'm pretty sure it was at least 30DPS if not 40 - definitely not 6) --146.122.71.143 18:38, 2 February 2007 (CST)

It was nerfed. There's no denying that. But what a lot of people are failing to realize is that for every flashy skill that got nerfed, there were no shortage of overlooked skills that got buffed. Have you looked at the other earth pulsing aoe skills? Every single one, if I'm not mistaken, got a buff. Eruption's like a ranged Dust Trap now, with better damage than before. Unsteady Ground got a buff. Churning Earth got a buff. If you're willing to employ some trickery or brute force to pin the enemy in your pulsing aoe anyway (quote: "even if you trap them in the aoe by knockdown..." certainly implies to me that you're no stranger to the process), you can still do a whole lot of damage with earth aoe spells. Yeah, Sandstorm was the only one that lasted for 10 seconds, and that's unfortunate, but just because you have to work at it a little harder doesn't mean that AoE earth damage is dead. Zaq 15:25, 4 February 2007 (CST)
 * Some of the boosts to other skills are nice, but the problem is that this specific skill is Elite and generally ineffective because it's best against those that can absorb most of the damage. Case 1) Melee - warriors and rangers sometimes attack right through it now because even doubled it barely hurts them. Dervishes often regen or heal as fast or faster than the damage they're taking and the only melee type I've seen the "new" Sandstorm hinder is assassins, but they're used to having to hit-n-run, so it may be no big deal for them.  case 2) casters - they suck up a little bit of damage while leaving the AoE and then continue to attack from range or (as I saw in observer) just cast while standing in it and rely on party heal to remove damage.  Skills like Eruption needed to be changed - it was 25 energy, 2 second cast, difficult to keep foes in the AoE in either PvE or PvP, and didn't do much damage. Unsteady Ground is mostly useful for runners, but the 3s cast time is a killer for any follow-up (e.g. aftershock) unless they're coming straight at you or massively slowed.  I've found Churning Earth is relatively ineffectual in practice, as well - you only get 2 knockdowns if they're very stupid and the damage isn't very much except if you hit non-melee (again counter-useful - low damage on the targets it's best used on).  It works against noobs, but few others.  Shockwave seems better with the damage bump and may warrant a test to compare it with Star Burst damage, since it seems like it might spike better, but with a longer recharge (it was significantly weaker in practice before).  Grasping Earth might be fun now for snaring - it's also on my list of skill changes to test--Falseprophet 19:59, 5 February 2007 (CST)

So in my opinion sandstorm was nerfed mainly because it was overpowered in HA, where AoE spells could not be avoided. In many ways sandstorm is a victim of a general trend in GW to nerf all powerful AoE spells, elite or otherwise, because of HA's structure. I think it's much better to change the places that made Sandstorm overpowered than to merely kill the skill like Arenanet decided to. However, even if you think all of what I've said so far is just wanking, then I can point out one thing that arenanet should legitimately address: with the nerf, Sandstorm stands proudly shoulder-to-shoulder with firestorm on DPS. Sandstorm's an elite, though, and firestorm still sucks. In my opinion, Sandstorm's been nerfed to lame. -- Black Miriduin 13:26 8 February 2007 (EST)