[Snake]

There's no sensitive way of stopping Lightning damage due to the addition of Soaked (-15% Lightning Resistance) and the old Mercalan Mist (-25% Lightning Resistance, or even -30% if Spirited). Also, thanks for reminding me, Indignant Idol! -10% to that too.

Both of these together score a whooping total of -50/-55% Lightning Resistance. Basically a Charge Mind that lasts for more than one spell and for 5 rounds. On top of that, most Lightning-based skills and spells can critically hit, which does 100% of your Lightning ATK on top of this +50% damage. This is not fair one bit in terms of player versus player combat, and there's zero counterplay. There's no bigger damage steroid in this world that's equally as more accessible as that.

People can casually dish out over from 550 to 950 damage every round with one or two spells. That, and LUC is the element of Dodge, Crit and Hit all together, which not even Evasion procs can help salvage any fights.

Suggesting these to end this and make all elements fall in line again:

- Lightning damage, Wind damage and Fire damage all should reduce the duration of Soaked by 1 round. Once Soaked is over (or enhanced by Ice or Earth damage into Muddy or Immobilize), the player gains a 2 round immunity to the status effect.
- Soaked should also not be able to be refreshed.

Alternatively:
- Soaked should be a status that reduces/increases Lightning/Fire resistance by LV%, and Water damage increases the LV equal to 10% of the damage or 2, whichever is higher. (Up to 15%)

- Mercalan Mist's Lightning Weakness should only apply versus Non-Player enemies. It already gives +10 HP regeneration and +50 Evade. It doesn't need any more in PvP combat.

- Lightning impact critical hits should only use 50-75% of your maximum Critical. They happen too consistently to be 'just an add-on that is on pair with the other elemental impacts'.

Tis all. I don't think there's a discussion to this. Why should Lightning be the best element in all regards and the most effective on top of it? It's plain unfair and imbalanced.

---

TL;DR Lightning weakness stacking bad, possible solution this:

- Mercalan Mist
>> Lightning weakness is changed to Light weakness. (This way it plays more in favor with Priest than a lightning Spellthief, and solves 1/3 of the problems listed in the op. And we kind of lack ways to inflict Light weakness anyway.)

- Soaked
>> LV starts at 5 and scales from Water damage taken. (10% of Water damage taken or 5, whichever is higher. Max LV is 15)
>> Fire damage creates a Smokescreen (LV = Soaked's LV * 5) in a diamond shape in 1 range, and removes Soaked.
>> Lightning damage chains one more time if LV is 10 or more.
>> Earth damage makes the enemy slip (knocks down) immediately, if LV is 10 or more.
>> Ice damage inflicts Frozen (LV = Soaked LV * 5) instead of Immobilize, if LV is 15 or more.

- Indignant Idol
>> -15% Light, Slash, Pierce and Blunt resistance on the user.

[Autumn]

While I do think that lightning resist debuffs can get overbearing at points, I believe this to be the fault of the three evils combined rather than anything else, I would much rather resistance shreds apply the highest one available rather than all of them.

Either that or finally introducing more lightning resistance items, after all I don't think every build in the game can be a Raijin + Beldam Aegis build.

[Senna]

It's been a thing for a while now...A year or two (I know this because I abused it long before custom tomes and the lightning changes). It only got more notice due to lightning crit changes since people won't need to build GUI anymore and Idol being added. Soak itself, isn't exactly the problem since it's quite easy to lose that status and replace it with another, or even screw over your teammate if they use fire, it's single target, has a CD, (Longer if you're an ST). The problem is the idol and Mercalan Mist. Those two alone can push someone over -40% lightning resistance.

The mist itself provides the entire enemy team 25-30% weakness. Add that with Idol and lightning crit and we have a problem. Due to this, people are either forced to have +25% lightning resistance to avoid procing weakness or just give in to the fact they will more likely be eliminated if they don't stall the mist.

It's not like it can be dispelled and due to the lack of silence option (Mage counters), it's almost unavoidable.

I can understand why it's seen as the best element now but completely murdering things over salt ain't a good thing, friend. What I would say is Mist should lose the 25/30% weakness against non-monsters (sure why not) or have the weakness tied to faith/light stats similar to its regeneration portion.

---

A lightning resistance accessory would be really nice. The rubber belt.

[Snake]

Murdering the highest permanent multiplier for elemental damage that there is? I don't see any murder here, only people who abuse Splash's 1M, no status infliction and insta +15% Lightning damage slipping out of their shells to defend their cheese.

Where is my +15% Wind damage? +15% Earth damage? +15% Light damage??? That's what I'm talking about.

A lot of other elements under-perform because they have -nothing- tied to it. No "soaked" for increasing their effectiveness. That, and their stats are all niche. Luck is essentially the most beneficial status in this videogame. It has a little of everything in it. The fact Lightning keeps getting embellished while other elements get nerfed (such as Cinders) or are plain ineffective and never addressed (Earth, Wind, Light) is the reason why I'm bringing this up.

It's an absurd.

Also yeah Amber, I also agree that the 'highest elemental debuff' should be the only one to apply. Them stacking is the issue, though in general Mercalan Mist is too strong. Lightning criticals are also a freebie +60 damage increase.

[Deja Vu]

I'll make a small input and say I've only made a few lightning builds in my time, but each time I did they were fairly powerful. My first serious build was a lightning fan double dagger rogue build, which showed me 400+ dmg per round for the first time. More recent and relevant builds includes my Onigan Lightning Kensei- as most people is cool looking as heck but also outshines the other elements except MAYBE wind due to increase range. I also load that chain shell for easy damage in my MG, and I once turned a rather inefficient mechanation into a lightning kensei without any actual study beforehand, and she worked well.

Not saying that lighting as it stands is overpowered, (I'd rather the other elements get a buff or less hard counters) but when you talk about removing 55% lightning res using a class that's capable of making the most of elemental damage? That's wacky. Trying to play a wind kensei has been a sobering experience, because I need all kinds of buffs to make an evade char work, because my damage output relies on my careful positioning and ability to manipulate my enemies with Raging skills and traps. 

Meanwhile with lighting kensei can commit FFXIV: "my damage is my utility" which is well and good but when comparing lightning to other elements, it's also got the least counters and is overall a better choice. So lightning doesn't need a way to remove 55% resist when it's already the best in the game, from my pov.

And obviously, these are just my personal experiences. I am no expert, these are just my observations.

[Ham]

Lightning has always blown every other element off the competition, crits for days and whatnot. This new meta just kinda amplifies it to 11, as if the days of lightning Kenseis in 2018 weren't enough that people used to make 'ghost can be good too' memes. and man, poor mechanations now being COMPLETELY hopeless in PVP even m o r e than they were before against a lightning user. That's gonna give all of them PTSD.

Back to the point, imagine this, you try to make a build and go 'oh huh why did no one try this element again it seems fun', but oh no! it occurs to you:

-'darkness seems really cool-' it's the most resisted stat in the game it's become a fucking JOKE
-'fire seems fun-' second resisted, lmao just brush the flames off dude it's no big deal (ofc aside from burn, but fuck burn)
-'ice?' no one uses it outside of verglas and very specific gimmicky build
-'wind?' celerity exists
-'water?' before aquamancer we've legit had barley any water related spells or any effective and reliable way to use it, which kinda justified it being strong especially being linked to Vitality, a *vital* stat to every build. now EVERYONE and their mom uses water, is it cuz it's fun or cool? nope, cuz it's guranteed strong stonks
-'acid?' water pre-aquamancer 2 featuring WT
-'sound?' water: the prequel prequel
-'earth is lame but atleast tell me-' lmao nope, it's kinda just there, i don't recall the last time i saw an earth evoker for years
-'light??' fuck u, outta here
you get the idea

the gist is, crit element makes my pp soft, make darkness great again

[Senna]

The thing about it is that each element has its own bonus them. Not all lightning magic/skill can crit so keep that in mind as well.

I'm not disagreeing that Lightning isn't strong, I just don't believe the 'MURDER MURDER I LOST TOO MUCH TO THIS, KILL IT' approach is needed.

Wind - Push and extending range. (You can kite)
Light - This is mainly priest/curate. Other light applies glow or light shaft (outside of youkais), or archer (Cough)
Dark - This does need some help, sure but as far as it goes, it blinds.
Earth - Magnet, pull, and if soaked, muddy. In some cases, knockdown.
Fire - Cinder tiles which procs per a step, sometimes burns (Which is powerful in itself) and sticks around for god know how long. We only recently got them nerfed so it's cash money now.
Water - Not many options outside of healing, support, and reducing negative stats but Aquamancer is quite deadly in its own way....*PTSD*
Lightning - Can crit but follows the standard 'Build a lot of skill/luck, weapon crit bonus doesn't apply' format so it isn't always certain. In some cases, can inflict interf.
Ice - This is still powerful, gimmick or not. Either apply frostbite, Frozen, immobilize and create ice sheets that affect movements.

Let's not ignore that those. Each element has its own thing, Lightning's is that it does a lot of damage. It's just unfortunate that it's possible to overstack lightning weakness at the moment.

But as I said, Mist and the lack of lightning resistance items are the main problems. Splash isn't that much of a problem unless you either run Spell thief or combine Tact with Evoker.

Also, lightning crit skills aren't exactly affected by soak or Mist...Only lightning damage.

If Splash is going to generate that much salt if Tact isn't main class, it only sticks around for one damage instance. If it'll affect other skills like Rebia and so on, focus on Mist and Idol then.

[Kameron8]

To keep my thoughts concise, I believe one of the biggest contributing factors is that nearly no lightning-resist itemization exists, and Splash exists.

Every other element usually has some combination of boots, gloves, accessory, or torso pieces to get (up to) 30% resistance.  Lightning has Raijin and a shield, both of which cannot be used by most setups, and a half-effectiveness torso in Cloak of Many Colors.  Splash mitigates the latter entirely, as does Indignant Idol.

Indignant Idol is its own can of worms with regard to effectiveness, but I would recommend first adding a pair of 10-30% lightning resist boots, and a 10-30% lightning resist accessory.  If this proves insufficient, I would limit Splash or Idol's ability to throw people into negatives in some manner before biting at the heels of an invocation.

[Ham]

It's not really a 'i lost to it so kill it' approach, it's just boring seeing nothing but the same meta build used over and over because of cheese so pvp becomes a chore. Hell, interference on its own is a huge problem too.

[InsainArcaneBirdbrain]

Alright, time for me to pitch in on this conversation as the one of the premier lightning abusers (I'm the one who plays Abi/Boomworm for those not in the know). I'm not going to deny that lightning can absolutely demolish someone from stacked -ele res, but here's a few factors that might not be immediately apparent to those who haven't played a set like this.

1. Lightning mage builds are forced into a tight stat-spread due to the nature of lightning crits, with luminary not being a viable option.
Mages run eva builds all the time, but due to the nature of autohits, they don't need all that much skill unless they want super high inflict. Due to the way lightning crits use your unmodded-crit however, you REALLY need to stack skill to high levels to reach reasonable crit since weapons are a non-factor. Lowering the lightning crit rate is not the way imo as it's already hard to build without seriously gutting stats. The rng nature of basic-hit crits/hit are already a problem discussed in the past, so I feel like lowering the odds will just cause people to use lightning without the crit skills at all.

2. Idol is one of the largest factors I feel that tip the scales juuuuust a bit over the top, 
and I feel that this goes for all mages and not just lightning. Even with mist and splash up, my dh/soldier impact skills fail to hit weakness procs on a lot of people since having 21+ lightning res will stop you from hitting -25% (Which is very easy on most builds even without dedicated res items).  Idol makes this benchmark 31+ however, which is much harder without the dedicated res items. I've discussed idol being an issue in-game a lot as being one of the biggest reasons for the current mage meta. Idol turns the resist threshold to 35%, which makes it hard to hard-counter more than 1-2 mage elements, while not having any real drawback (Light res penalty is pretty much ignored and irrelevant most of the time).

3. The setup is not completely free, or un-counterable.
This is a bit more build specific to the ST/DH set which I feel is a large reason why lightning is being put into question. Is it strong? Absolutely. Does it have counters? The answer is also yes if you've played it. The largest advantage of the build is that people below 31 lightning res will get hit by weakness procs, and hence generate momentum for the user IF splash, idol, and mist are all up combined with the movement options of Thunderhoves + Skyburned Winged Serpent. I do emphasize "if" here as even being 1% below the weakness threshold seriously cripples the build. The aforementioned crit need of the stats make the build literally paper, and actually has less cel/eva than most dodgy builds. I hit people for crazy damage, but if cobra/evasion is circumvented (Which is also easy to do if you're smart about it), I have absolutely no mitigation to speak of. My worst enemy by far is a basic hitter that outspeeds me and can get around my eva (If you have at least 300 hit, you can hit me consistently as I have 190 eva base). Interrupting mist invo with a fast or lengthy silence source such as MG shells, Absolute fear, DW Drown, or a fast Black Bubble severely cripples my ability to both dodge and do damage. FP is also a huge issue, as mist is NOT cheap to cast and only lasts for 4.5 self-usable turns. Someone could just spam 4m+ guards and burn out my fp by turn 6, especially if I have to run Heron Feather over Mage Cape to deal with silence. Splash being a 3 turn cd on ST also hurts since it disappears on any ice/earth damage (More of a problem in partied fights). Also to note, splash and mist are on completely different classes, making ST/DH the ONLY viable user of them both. Cobra + Pearls are an absolute must to make up for the abysmal DR and middling eva (for an eva build) that the stats demand for a lightning-crit mage. Spirited mist also means holy enchant weakness, which is a very relevant counter-play to it I feel.

Ok, with all that out of the way, let's get to what I think could be fixed using my prior points as reference.

1. Lightning crit damage can be toned down, but I feel like lowing the rate is the wrong way to go about it as people already hate basic hit rng when they can just autohit. If it gets sizably reduced though, raising the odds might be a good idea, such as using weapon crit instead of unmodded.
2. Tone down Idol. If any point gets more attention than the others, it should be this. The major contributor to mage meta is how strong this one item is. It needs more drawbacks in it's current state, as every single mage's optimal offhand is this one item. I don't foresee mage meta (for any elements) going away until this item is addressed.
3. Adding in a lightning res accessory I imagine would make people happy to deal with lightning in general, as there is a lack of them in the current moment.

To respond to what others brought up:
"boring seeing nothing but the same meta build used over and over because of cheese so pvp becomes a chore."
- As someone who spends 90% of their time in SL2 hanging by the arena, I have to disagree. Mages are very common, lightning mages not so much. I have only seen ONE other ST/DH in recent times (which use mist and splash). PvP already has much cheese worse than ST/DH, and has more counterplay than those imo (*cough1v1summonerscough*)

"Meanwhile with lighting kensei can commit FFXIV: 'my damage is my utility'"

- Pretty much summarizes my build and other lightning users. Mist in my case DOES provide 60 eva, but the 12hp per turn is barely a factor at all considering mist's most important application is the -res, it takes 9m to do so for 4.5 turns, and slower enemies can just counter mist/fog.

"Where is my +15% Wind damage? +15% Earth damage? +15% Light damage?"
- Splash is an interesting case as ST takes much better advantage of it than Tact. The biggest issue was brought up by Senna though that ST's splash is still single target, gets removed by two elements, and has 3 turn cd. Lightning is already very much burst or be burst, hence why it gets tools such as this to make it unique among the elements.

Sorry for the monster post, but I feel like people are just a little too unga on a nerf push here while not considering these points.