Quote from Tally;1143663:
Gensokyou, I think you are forgetting one of the most important factors to Water Cannon: Heat Buster.
Theoretically, if it's pimped out, WC can do some competitive single-target damage. But one of the bigger benefits to water cannon is that it is the fastest way to charge Heat Buster. And that is some major single-target DPS.
However, this does suffer from the currently very large problem that none of the mobs survive more than 5 seconds anymore. A very sad product of Nexon's mismanagement of certain mechanics; reforges and generally constant buffing of things without accounting for pre-existing content. I am also in the camp that the combat update (aka everything is instant charge) was very highly unnecessary. I shouldn't even need to imply that reforge is the same way.
First off, I can't comment on the bolded because I didn't play before Genesis. Unless my lag and 7 seconds before skills kick in counts. =b
I'd disagree. When comparing apples and oranges, yes. If you compare a reforged, endgame, combo card water cannon to Zekkii's fighter (lolkitty), then of course water cannon's going to be better. Especially
fresh off the bat after a long-needed update to actually compete with other skillsets. Do you see where i'm going with this?
There's also the issue of water cannon being fairly bad against mana deflector mobs, kinda like AR spam on range ping mobs (If you don't kill them quickly they're going to run up and punch you, or a party member, in the face.), and the knockback and lack of ohkoing in practical circumstances. It's kinda like when people take maxing screenshots of 100k dropkicks or lance windmills/smashes/whatever. It's nice and pretty, but what matters is actual effective damage output in missions and stuff. That's why I said that Alchemy is now up to par with other skillsets in curbstomping hard and elite, but falls short on harder content.
As for heat buster, it's still like I said. Good skill, like the fireball of Alchemy. But the charge time IS the whole weakness, water cannon or no water cannon. Kinda like how you can fix fireball to a degree by snap cast. But you're also not getting massive single target dps with fireball. Is it decent after the update? Yes, at endgame tier and fully reforged and enchanted, it's
decent. But then again, so is everything. If you compare apples and apples with a real single target skill like firebolt spam or fighter then water cannon is pretty much left in the dust.
But what Kendoza said is a good point:
Regardless of whether something is better or not, people will always choose to play differently and that's okay. It's a game. Contrary to popular belief, you ARE allowed to do what you want and have fun. The main issue that I have isn't with alchemy itself so much as statements such as "Competitive single-target damage" when you're comparing apples and apples.
Heck, if you really want to go there, i'm absolutely CERTAIN that water cannon has a higher potential single damage output then act 7 after the update (Possibly only due to the inclusion of combo cards, idk, too lazy to calc). But you don't use act 7 for single target damage, you use it for killing the whole room/spawn dead, and that's something that it will always do better then water cannon.