The water elemental has utility value, so it’s nice to have, but the DPS difference to Lonely Winter is a bit too wide. I use it out in the world, but not for group PvE and will probably stop using it for most PvP too.
How much would it take to make it more appealing without becoming an obviously better choice for everything? Maybe slight conditional damage buffs like this:
- Double Waterbolt damage when Freeze is not on cooldown.
- Reduce Water Jet cooldown while Freeze is not on CD.
So in situations where you use Freeze, it’s the same as now, but if you don’t need the range AOE freeze, you get more DPS benefits.
I think at the moment Waterbolt damage is comparable to a Ruby Whelp trinket proc, which is pretty sad.