Point of Water Magic in PvE?

[The Boz]

Is there any at all? I've tried everything, on heroes, on my own Ele, nothing really works. Problems: ridiculously bad bar compression issues, low overal damage, low cycle rate, long cast times and only a few really useful skills (Mainly Maelstorm and Ward Against Harm). All the Water Hex combinations and interactions with Fire and Air require HUGE slot investments, and with them, you'll devote like two or three skill slots to inflict blind or knockdown, with a bit of slow to go with it. Slow is nearly useless because heroes kite for ****, and enemies mostly die to focus fire in 3 seconds. All of it's relative abilities in crowd control are VASTLY outdone by Earth Magic, and that also brings in a lot of damage as well. Mobs with low armor against cold damage are very, very few, and Water Magic deals such miserable damage that you'll barely manage to reach the same numbers that Earth, Fire and Air pump out, even with 40 Armor difference.
Wat do?

[raspberry jam]

I use water magic mostly to make things stay put while they're being killed, either by physicals, hexes, or by other eles using fire.

[The Boz]

Again, Earth does it better. It has a few slows, a million knockdowns, and Churning Earth still tears HM PvE a new one with every cast.

[Alaris]

Seems to me that water is better at snaring, and earth is better at KD.

Yes, earth has snares, 4 of them in fact. 4 affect the area around you (so pretty useless unless you are frontlining) and 2 have undesirable side-effects (1 only works on burning foes, the other makes target immune to all damage except lightning).

The KDs are also either costly and/or conditional, so they're not that reliable as snare, unless you use those two that have high costs and exhaust you.

[raspberry jam]

I was referring to Deep Freeze, same AoE as Churning Earth and twice the duration, even at 0 water magic. Shorter recharge, too.

That said, Churning is one of my favorite spells for HM.

[Alaris]

Churning earth 15e 3ct 30r
Spell. Deals 10...34...40 earth damage each second (5 seconds). Hits foes near target's initial location. Causes knock-down to foes moving faster than normal.

Deep freeze 25e 2ct 15r
Hex Spell. Also hexes foes in the area of your target (10 seconds). These foes move 66% slower. Initial effect: deals 10...70...85 cold damage.

Pros of water:
-hex applied to foes, not location
-2x faster recharge
-2x duration of effect

Pros of earth:
-KD (conditional)
-lower cost
-does more total damage

[The Boz]

It should be noted that all foes in HM have a 10% speed boost, making the KD automatic on any type of movement. Since slow is only useful if the target plans on moving, I'd say the KD works better, as it frequently knocks down targets more than once. As it is a DoTAoE spell, it will even shut down casters, who will try to move out of the area and instantly be knocked down.

[Alaris]

Oh right, I didn't think about the increased speed in HM. Good point.

[Gorani]

Hmmm....I find Water pretty useful

Mirror of Ice + Rust + Blurred Vision + Deep Freeze + Glowing Ice + Water Attunement + Elemental Lord + Take what you like/Maelstrom

=> Ice Spikes & Rust are your "spammables" for damage, everybody will have 50% chance to miss and signets will have a harder time; Deep Freeze as an extra punch, Maelstrom to mess up with casters, once they are snared and balled up. Mirror of Ice adds additional cold damage to almost everything you cast.

I always run a 16 in Water, though

[Guildoholic]

Water in PvE is incredibly useful against the player. Think about how many annoying times an Ice Imp casting Mind Freeze + Maelstrom, or Dragon Moss casting Blurred Vision, or Ice Elementals casting Deep Freeze on you?

Player-wise, I rarely use water magic only because I don't find it that fun at all. I'm guessing it's because most of the spells either cost 10-15 energy, casts in 2-3 seconds and deal about 70-90 damage. Sure most water spells have some sort of snare, but they're hex snares, and against bosses that have half hex duration or enemies with hex removal, well, it's not as appealing to me.