Guild Wars 2

So, beta weekend one is behind us, and now that I’ve had some time to ponder, here are my thoughts on three of the specializations: Tempest, Reaper, and Chronomancer. I play the vanilla classes about 30%/50%/20% of the time, respectively, so I feel reasonably qualified to make some comments.
Straight off I know that 97% of the replies to this will be negative, because I’m not going to rabidly gush over the specs and say “Oh ANet, they were perfect, change nothing!” That doesn’t help. I have concerns, and I’m going to voice them. If you disagree, that’s fine. One of my best friends mains an Ele and doesn’t enjoy the Tempest. I don’t scream and rage at him, frothing at the mouth, because of this. So, don’t scream and rage at me because I don’t share your feelings, and I won’t scream and rage at you because you don’t share mine. (I am aware that this is unlikely to help, but hey. I have to try.)
Okay, disclaimer is written. I love debates, so if you have legitimate arguments, I’m open to them. Here we go, team.
Tempest: Overall, it was one of my favorites. I loved it, but that’s because it already fit my playstyle. I play scepter/dagger a lot, so the warhorn was not that much of a stretch. The skills felt strong, and they felt as though they complemented what the Ele already had. All of the attunements were fun to play, while fire and air were my favorite (they usually are). Water makes for some excellent short-range support. That said, I was somewhat bemused by the overload skills. I enjoyed them conceptually, but in practice I felt…Meh. I had a lot of trouble using them, and I think this was because they were channeled. I’d stand there, theatrically pop my overload, and the enemies would run straight through after the Dragonhunter streaking by. I wonder if it would be more effectual to have a shorter channel and have them, perhaps, spawn out from you and move towards targets? Something along those lines, but probably not exactly that. The elite skill also felt lackluster. In dungeon/raid scenarios it might be more useful, but out in the “real world,” a lot of times the next attack is an auttoattack or you’re alone, so it doesn’t seem to do much. I thoroughly enjoyed the Tempest, and with just some minor tweaking, it will be perfect!
Reaper: Normally, I main a Necro. I absolutely love my Necro, and I was really excited to see the Reaper. I have my Ascended greatsword ready, the skin picked out—I am so pumped. After playing the Reaper, I find that I still am pumped. I was absolutely freaking out—my boyfriend and friends can attest. The skills were ridiculous in the best possible way. Nightfall and Gravedigger were my two favorite—the damage was stunning, the animations were awesome, and I was having a lot of fun with it. My concerns were, as with the Tempest, minimal. I would like a leap. Most melee greatsword wielders have a leap, so they don’t always have to trudge up to combat. I think it would make the most sense to put it on Gravedigger, a la Guardian greatsword. I also would not mind seeing a slight damage buff to the shouts. Other than that, the Reaper was fabulously fun, and I intend to take it, even if I don’t use it all the time.
Chronomancer: This was the final spec that I experimented with. Loved it! This, oddly, is my least-played caster, but my “most likely to challenge my main” after the beta. I loved the wells—not only were they beautiful to look at, but they were also extremely useful. I enjoyed the mechanics and the effects. Having more group support is exciting for a Mesmer. I didn’t use the heal well very much, because it doesn’t suit my playstyle; but the others were lovely. The shield was also fantastic; Tides of Time was awesome to watch and also powerful. My one “complaint” was regarding the Continuum skill. It takes a lot of precision to use, and sometimes it is difficult to pull of and still be useful. That said, I have very few complaints with it—the Continuum will take some practice but is probably manageable. Well done on this one—also, thank you, thank you, thank you for the passive speed boost. It is a godsend. That in and of itself will convince me to play my Chronomancer more.
I am very excited for the specs in Heart of Thorns, and the beta didn’t change my mind on any of them. I loved them all, and I still intend to take them. I hope that ANet sees these suggestions and takes some time to think about them, but I didn’t see anything that makes me say “I refuse this spec” or “it was a useless addition to the game.” Well done, ANet, and I apologize (only slightly) for the essay. I hope this helps!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Rebound-Tempest-elite-skill/first#post5369546

regarding the tempest elite skill

ple give reaper leap

Annalira.2958:

So, beta weekend one is behind us, and now that I’ve had some time to ponder, here are my thoughts on three of the specializations: Tempest, Reaper, and Chronomancer. I play the vanilla classes about 30%/50%/20% of the time, respectively, so I feel reasonably qualified to make some comments.
Straight off I know that 97% of the replies to this will be negative, because I’m not going to rabidly gush over the specs and say “Oh ANet, they were perfect, change nothing!” That doesn’t help. I have concerns, and I’m going to voice them. If you disagree, that’s fine. One of my best friends mains an Ele and doesn’t enjoy the Tempest. I don’t scream and rage at him, frothing at the mouth, because of this. So, don’t scream and rage at me because I don’t share your feelings, and I won’t scream and rage at you because you don’t share mine. (I am aware that this is unlikely to help, but hey. I have to try.)
Okay, disclaimer is written. I love debates, so if you have legitimate arguments, I’m open to them. Here we go, team.
Tempest: Overall, it was one of my favorites. I loved it, but that’s because it already fit my playstyle. I play scepter/dagger a lot, so the warhorn was not that much of a stretch. The skills felt strong, and they felt as though they complemented what the Ele already had. All of the attunements were fun to play, while fire and air were my favorite (they usually are). Water makes for some excellent short-range support. That said, I was somewhat bemused by the overload skills. I enjoyed them conceptually, but in practice I felt…Meh. I had a lot of trouble using them, and I think this was because they were channeled. I’d stand there, theatrically pop my overload, and the enemies would run straight through after the Dragonhunter streaking by. I wonder if it would be more effectual to have a shorter channel and have them, perhaps, spawn out from you and move towards targets? Something along those lines, but probably not exactly that. The elite skill also felt lackluster. In dungeon/raid scenarios it might be more useful, but out in the “real world,” a lot of times the next attack is an auttoattack or you’re alone, so it doesn’t seem to do much. I thoroughly enjoyed the Tempest, and with just some minor tweaking, it will be perfect!
Reaper: Normally, I main a Necro. I absolutely love my Necro, and I was really excited to see the Reaper. I have my Ascended greatsword ready, the skin picked out—I am so pumped. After playing the Reaper, I find that I still am pumped. I was absolutely freaking out—my boyfriend and friends can attest. The skills were ridiculous in the best possible way. Nightfall and Gravedigger were my two favorite—the damage was stunning, the animations were awesome, and I was having a lot of fun with it. My concerns were, as with the Tempest, minimal. I would like a leap. Most melee greatsword wielders have a leap, so they don’t always have to trudge up to combat. I think it would make the most sense to put it on Gravedigger, a la Guardian greatsword. I also would not mind seeing a slight damage buff to the shouts. Other than that, the Reaper was fabulously fun, and I intend to take it, even if I don’t use it all the time.
Chronomancer: This was the final spec that I experimented with. Loved it! This, oddly, is my least-played caster, but my “most likely to challenge my main” after the beta. I loved the wells—not only were they beautiful to look at, but they were also extremely useful. I enjoyed the mechanics and the effects. Having more group support is exciting for a Mesmer. I didn’t use the heal well very much, because it doesn’t suit my playstyle; but the others were lovely. The shield was also fantastic; Tides of Time was awesome to watch and also powerful. My one “complaint” was regarding the Continuum skill. It takes a lot of precision to use, and sometimes it is difficult to pull of and still be useful. That said, I have very few complaints with it—the Continuum will take some practice but is probably manageable. Well done on this one—also, thank you, thank you, thank you for the passive speed boost. It is a godsend. That in and of itself will convince me to play my Chronomancer more.
I am very excited for the specs in Heart of Thorns, and the beta didn’t change my mind on any of them. I loved them all, and I still intend to take them. I hope that ANet sees these suggestions and takes some time to think about them, but I didn’t see anything that makes me say “I refuse this spec” or “it was a useless addition to the game.” Well done, ANet, and I apologize (only slightly) for the essay. I hope this helps!

I would like to add that Reaper Greatsword 5 would randomly go in wrong direction instead of at the targeted enemy (WvW/sPvP)

you said the damage was stunning? stunningly low since just your ds #1 can do better atm

Tempest
I personally do not like the idea of shouts on tempest. I think something better could have been given to them. I almost feel like Anet could not come up with anything to give elementalist because they are already sitting in such a good balanced spot and have access to everything. Even with the addition of the warhorn its skills mostly are just redone things that they already have access to doing. If anything the only bonus that warhorn does is make tempest more support-ish…. with boon sharing and boon extension.
I’m not bashing how you feel on the profession but the reason I think you feel its near perfect is because it already was before they added its elite spec. But then again the elite specs are about adding more options to the game I guess ele just got stuck with the additional “If you want to be more support-ish without a staff” option.

Back to the shouts though. These things could have been just about anything else and I would have been happier. It feels like “Well we gave reaper shouts so lets just give ele slightly better shouts too!”
I’m not even a fan of the shouts on reaper (Cast times are a bit long and benefits are very lacking) I personally like base ele better. It sustains better, does more damage, and can possibly even support better.

Reaper
I love this thing alot despite its trade off effect when one takes the reaper line (ranged foes will destroy you easy if you don’t watch them close or cant catch them.) Its very enjoyable and I couldn’t play enough of it. When I did make other beta characters I always found myself thinking on what I could test to make Reaper better and better. You are so right about the leap on the GS it needs a gap closer that is not a pull. (because the pull is too dang slow, easily read, and tracks so slow that it can be avoided by strafing to the right or left.) We got a low cool down leap in reaper shroud which all the skills in this work amazingly don’t touch them they are PERFECT

Chronomancer
Not a fan but thats mostly due to me not being a mesmer fan… I think mesmer is full of sh…..sorry my pvp/wvw anger was slipping out right there. Its strong and based on what im told its not going to get normalized any time soon. So yeah nuff said.

Revy
I hardly touched Revy because the moment I picked it up i knew the damage was still lacking. Even with some of the nicer traits the damage output even with full zerk is hardly subpar. The traits are too situational and not good outside of specific situations. I think Anet put too much thought into them and that it should be normalized from the ground up but thats very unlikely to happen. I want to play this class i really really do but as of how it sits now I wont be touching it.

ZDragon.3046:

Tempest
I personally do not like the idea of shouts on tempest. I think something better could have been given to them. I almost feel like Anet could not come up with anything to give elementalist because they are already sitting in such a good balanced spot and have access to everything. Even with the addition of the warhorn its skills mostly are just redone things that they already have access to doing. If anything the only bonus that warhorn does is make tempest more support-ish…. with boon sharing and boon extension.
I’m not bashing how you feel on the profession but the reason I think you feel its near perfect is because it already was before they added its elite spec. But then again the elite specs are about adding more options to the game I guess ele just got stuck with the additional “If you want to be more support-ish without a staff” option.

Back to the shouts though. These things could have been just about anything else and I would have been happier. It feels like “Well we gave reaper shouts so lets just give ele slightly better shouts too!”
I’m not even a fan of the shouts on reaper (Cast times are a bit long and benefits are very lacking) I personally like base ele better. It sustains better, does more damage, and can possibly even support better.

I have to say that my disappointment with the whole Elementalist specialization has driven me to post on the forums, at long last!

I wholeheartedly agree – and don’t even typically like to post on forums, but thought that more elementalists should be heard saying that they don’t agree with Tempest. Like the OP, I also regularly play Scepter/Dagger in PvP. Really, warhorn coooould be substituted in there and be okay – but to use that, I have to take the Tempest traitline, which does not compare to the traitlines I already utilize in SPvP – earth, water, and fire. The traitline I would have to trade for Tempest would be water…which gives condi cleanse and an AoE regen while in water attunement. That being said, the overloads were fun! The shouts were pretty, and the voice-acting was fine.

The shouts and the trait line in general are unimpressive, especially when compared to the god-like abilities that chronomancers get.

The shout heal cannot even begin to compare to the Ether Renewal heal which only has a 15sec CD, pulse heals, and removes condi. with every pulse. And as an ele in PVP, you really seem to get shoehorned into either ‘glass cannon’ or ‘survival-support.’ The skills you take determine how long you can survive, really – and I’ve finally found a happy balance that lets me deal great fire damage, but keep myself alive if I need to make a quick escape. This utilizes all cantrips – the shouts, I thought, might help…but were ultimately lackluster. The fire one is no better than the weapon skills you get in fire spec, the air one is a direct rip off of an engi toolbelt skill that exists, and the earth one is just dagger 5 again, it seems. (Don’t get me started on the elite- I already visited that thread to discuss what utter garbage that skill is.)

Yes, I can continue to live happily playing the build I have, and perhaps try tempest in PvE (though I’m not a fan of dungeons in this game, and Tempest doesn’t seem like it’s made for solo-play), but I’d really like to see Tempest hold its own in SPvP, like the base Ele can. Ideally, I wish I didn’t have to take the whole tempest trait line just to get access to the overloads, and warhorn.

TL;DR – The shouts sound and look beautiful – but the gameplay really let me down. The Tempest pales in comparison to other specializations being announced.

Despite my rant on Tempest? I adore Chronomancer, though it complicates mesmer far more than it already was complicated. Which, I suppose, given the AMAZINGLY POWERFUL things mesmers can do now…is good! It will set a skill bar that not just anyone can surpass without putting real effort, and thought into how to best utilize the time-warp, heal, phantasms, and wells…etc.

I only played those two on my boyfriend’s account, as I can’t afford to pre-order the Xpac yet, myself. He plays Necro extensively, and has nothing but good things to say about Reaver (and how happy he is to finally have a greatsword!).

I expected dragonhunter to miss the bar that chronomancer set so high, as well…but I’ve only heard good things about that, as well. Thus far, it really feels like a majority of folks are truly pleased with most of what’s been released save for a few tweaks required here and there.

And, save for the whole Tempest spec. But I already lamented over that!

If Anet devs ever get around to reading these? I’d say thanks for all the hard work put into this Xpac – complaints abound, I know. And making something that pleases everyone is impossible.

(But I’d also beg for sweeping Tempest changes.)

I like chronomancer since it finally gives me a class that can do 1h sword + shield in pve without sucking.