Guild Wars 2

Karl spoke about adding something to Earthen Proxy, the Tempest trait that improves protection.

How about executing a blast finisher when attuning to earth in addition to the protection buff? Seems to me like it would help.

i hope its not adding cooldown to it

- Increase protection duration
- Merge this trait with http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Elemental_Shielding (and then give something else to elemental shielding)
- Gain retaliation or any other boon of your choice
- Gain magnetic aura when critically hit
- Gain protection when critically hit
- Gain protection at a certain health threshold

What about…

• Merge Earthen Proxy with the current effect of Hardy Conduit
• Hardy Conduit now makes you immune to critical hits while channeling an Overload

I’m starting to feel like “add a blast finisher to it” is just the default buff idea for Eles. Dunno what to do with it that actually fits? Blast finisher. Blast finishers solve everything!

Playing off the idea of making you more tanky, I’m thinking something along the lines of “Enemies that strike you while under the effects of Protection are inflicted with Weakness”. 3 second duration, 6 second per-target ICD.

Get rid of Hardy Conduit as a minor trait.

Replace Earthen Proxy with Hardy Conduit.

Hardy Conduit now increases the effectiveness of protection on yourself only, in addition to giving protection on overloads.

Add a new minor trait that gives increasing buffs the longer you’ve remained in your current attunement.

Hey Karl,

I believe that the replacement trait should some sort of augmentation to auras. Auras don’t look that amazing at the moment and I think that they could use a way of making them better. Especially if it helps making them more unique in functionality when compared to other mechanics.

As it is, all auras except frost aura give boons, conditions and other effects that can be obtained elsewhere and that makes them directly compete with these other options. At least frost aura gives a flat -10% damage that cannot be applied by any other effect and can be used alongside the protection boon.

Unfortunately, I haven’t though of anything specific as of yet because I just saw your post, but I wanted to get this out there. Hopefully, other posters in this forum will come up with good ideas for an aura improvement trait.

Finally, I believe that the entire elementalist community would like to know if auras are supposed to stack in duration or not. Frost aura does stack in duration while the others do not. Is this intentional or not? Will it ever be fixed? The full potential of the tempest cannot be accurately measured if auras don’t work properly.

Karl McLain.5604:

With that being said, what sort of support/boon trait would you like to see it replaced with? Keeping in mind the roles of Tempestuous Aria (Shout ally DPS-add/Enemy weakness trait) and Harmonious Conduit (DPS/anti-control trait), is there something that you’d imagine would fit AoE support in a generic way.
H.C. was intended to be a generic anti-dps option (with ties to the spec’s stengths), so keeping it in that vein would be something we’d want to shoot for.

Cheers,
-Karl

Stability on Aura Application. 2 stacks. 4s duration. 20s ICD.

Then you have 3 Aura/Support traits.

Karl McLain.5604:

These are all great ideas. Earthen Proxy and Latent Stamina are two traits that need a bit more. It’s a possibility that E.P. could be merged with H.C.. I’ve seen quite a few mentions of that so far and it’s something that we’ve talked about a bit internally. If that were the case, we would need another Master slot trait.

One way that E.P. will probably change is that it will only affect the elementalist, because it’s just way too difficult to tell if someone is being affected by your protection, or someone else’s… so it would be the case that 100% of protection applied to you would reduce 40% damage.
It’s possible to add a ‘no crit’ line to H.C., but it would start to be crowded for the master slot and might overlap too much (and be out of theme) when compared with Stone Heart.

With that being said, what sort of support/boon trait would you like to see it replaced with? Keeping in mind the roles of Tempestuous Aria (Shout ally DPS-add/Enemy weakness trait) and Harmonious Conduit (DPS/anti-control trait), is there something that you’d imagine would fit AoE support in a generic way.
H.C. was intended to be a generic anti-dps option (with ties to the spec’s stengths), so keeping it in that vein would be something we’d want to shoot for.

Cheers,
-Karl

If you were to merge EP with HC and put it as the GM minor trait, the issue is that Harmonious Conduit is pretty much mandatory for the stability to make overloads useful. As a result, I can’t see any other major master trait being taken at all.

How about:

• Make Harmonious Conduit the GM minor trait (get rid of the 10% damage bonus)
• Make the EP + HC merged trait a major master
• Finally add a major master trait that gives a temporary power buff / might stacks / 10% damage increase to allies after you complete an overload. This will incentivize using overloads, fits in with tempests’ “supportive” design, and adds a damage modifier that tempests are missing.

What about when applying a magnetic aura, gain invulnerability for 1 second? Would allow for clutch plays to save allies or self. And it’s not like magnetic aura is something that you can apply very frequently.

Auras apply AOE Dots depending on the aura, earth ~bleeds. Air~confusion, fire~burns, water~ torment

Edit:Oh and thank you from removing icebowes nonsensical op bs. I hope this makes room for conjures to get realistic tuning

Hmm. If we’re talking aura traits specifically, maybe something that could give an offensive application to them, since they already have a lot of defensive applications.

Perhaps something like “Allies with an active aura have a 5% increased damage output” as a sort of AoE trait which gets applied to nearby allies (ala Spotter / Vampiric Aura and the like). Would not only give Tempests themselves more support through auras, but also allow simply having a Tempest around to buff other classes who utilize auras in addition to that.

Not sure if 5% is the right number, just kind of spitballing with that. Would also maybe suggest doubling the effect on the Elementalist themselves, just to give it a little more “oomph” in solo situations.

I like where this is going, an aura trait would be nice fit for the master slot. I admire how well many of the new traits for the Elite Specializations are desgined and how interesting the ones I tested during BWE2 played out. Having said that, I think auras should be THE thing for tempest. My ideas include:

• Whenever an aura you applied expires, it deals X damage (whirl finisher)
• Steal auras from enemies you hit. These auras have 50% reduced duration.
• Increase duration of auras applied by you by 33%
• Applying an aura increases damage by 5% for 10 seconds (max 5 stacks)
• Auras grant quickness for 2 seconds.
• While under the effect of an aura, your boons cannot be removed, instead the duration of an aura is reduced by 1 second per boon otherwise removed.
• When struck while below the threshold, grant all auras to yourself. Threshold 25%. (obviously needs ICD)
• Auras applied by you have increased effects. (Shocking aura has increaed stun duration etc)

Well, those are the ones I can think of right now, it is getting really late here.

D I V A

Just a few ideas:

Auras remove a condition

You and your allies cannot be critically hit when under the affects of an aura

You and your allies gain X amount of toughness (can be stacking or a base number) when under the affects of an aura

Apply AOE blind when an Aura ends

Maybe add to earthen proxy that those with an aura take less condition damage? Similar to grace of the land in the Druid line but maybe only 20%

Or go the more overpowered route and make protection cut incoming condition damage on you and allies.

D I V A.6018:

• Increase duration of auras applied by you by 33%
• Applying an aura increases damage by 5% for 10 seconds (max 5 stacks)
• Auras grant quickness for 2 seconds.
• When struck while below the threshold, grant all auras to yourself. Threshold 25%. (obviously needs ICD)
• Auras applied by you have increased effects. (Shocking aura has increaed stun duration etc)

Well, those are the ones I can think of right now, it is getting really late here.

D I V A

I really like a few of these. Increased duration is great but it would have to be made so that it wouldn’t stack with the Runes of Radiance that gives the same effect. But this would allow us to lengthen our auras and not need that rune set.

All auras while struck under a certain threshold might be a little OP. How about gain aura when struck under 50% health depending on which attunement you are in?

Thank you for your feedback, Karl! I’d just like to echo others and seek clarification on whether or not the other auras besides Frost Aura will stack and work with Aura rune sets, because if they don’t, that will limit the potential of any Aura-based build.

Also, does your “at least one application with every weapon set” statement confirm that Sand Squall will, in fact, get Magnetic Aura?

How about a outgoing healing bonus on targets with aura?
Or Frost auras you apply absorb some damage?

Bandit.8279:

…
I really like a few of these. Increased duration is great but it would have to be made so that it wouldn’t stack with the Runes of Radiance that gives the same effect. But this would allow us to lengthen our auras and not need that rune set.

All auras while struck under a certain threshold might be a little OP. How about gain aura when struck under 50% health depending on which attunement you are in?

That sounds like a more reasonable approach, to be honest. But it was said that a trait with an ICD is not desired, so the 50% or my original one are unlikely to happen.
I thought about the trait in a PvP-context, where those runes are not obtainable. But you are right about stacking, although: Why would it be problematic to have 66% if you trait it and sacrifice other runes in favor of this?
How about this:

• Applying an aura extends the duration of existing aruas by 1.5 seconds.
• Auras last an additional second.
• Auras you apply do not expire while above the threshhold (90%)
• Increase the duration of auras while below the threshold (100% increase, 25% HP)

Those are all the duration related traits I can think of right now.

D I V A

Karl McLain.5604:

One way that E.P. will probably change is that it will only affect the elementalist, because it’s just way too difficult to tell if someone is being affected by your protection, or someone else’s… so it would be the case that 100% of protection applied to you would reduce 40% damage.

Is the following technically possible?

“Earthen Proxy: Enhance the Protection boon on up to 5 allies in a 600 radius to 40%. Grant Protection to allies for 3 seconds when you Heal them for more than 25% of their total Health (5s ICD).”

I could see this type of a Master trait being highly useful for heavier support builds. Basically, it would support not only protection applied by us, but by anyone, and would have synergy with any type of emergency healing we provide when an ally is under heavy fire.

Using Wash The Pain Away or Rebound, or other healing options on various weapons, would allow most builds with even a minor investment in healing power to support a good amount of up-time on Protection, and would have very strong synergy with a Earth/Water/Tempest builds that heals and applies protection with Auras.

Alternatively, it could have the Protection Enhancing component and replace the protection granting with “Healing allies for 25% of their total health applies an Aura to them based on your current Attunement.”

Karl McLain.5604:

With that being said, what sort of support/boon trait would you like to see it replaced with? Keeping in mind the roles of Tempestuous Aria (Shout ally DPS-add/Enemy weakness trait) and Harmonious Conduit (DPS/anti-control trait), is there something that you’d imagine would fit AoE support in a generic way.
H.C. was intended to be a generic anti-dps option (with ties to the spec’s stengths), so keeping it in that vein would be something we’d want to shoot for.

Cheers,
-Karl

For a good anti-dps option, see my above suggestion with protection applied after healing allies for a decent amount, but there are a few other mechanics that have not been considered, here are a few versions:

Earthen Proxy – Heal improving version

“Enhance the Protection boon on up to 5 allies in a 600 radius to 40% and increase healing received by allies by 10% from all sources.”

Rational: Simplistic but effective, by extending the potency of protection and healing received, it makes the protection and healing exponentially more effective. This could go a long way to making a Tempest a good supportive build to other raw healing builds.

Earthen Proxy – Revive-support improving version
“Enhance the Protection boon on up to 5 allies in a 600 radius to 40%. This effect is doubled on Downed allies. (80% reduced direct damage on downed allies with Protection while you are in range)”

Rational: If raids are difficult, deadly encounters like PVP, then cleaving damage on Downed players often spells disaster for any attempt to Revive a person in time. This would open up some interesting counters to the current cleaving game-play in PVP, and could further enhance the Tempest combat-support role in this regard. With this and Rebound, we stand a good chance of creating a play style that supports glass cannon offensive builds with clutch heals and revivals.

Earthen Proxy – Aura Generating version
“Enhance the Protection boon on up to 5 allies in a 600 radius to 40%. Grant an Aura based on your attunement when you heal an ally for 25% of their total Health.”

PS:

Karl, is there any word on if Auras will be standardized in how the do, or rather do not, stack with each other, and if applying “multiple” auras should trigger aura traits if an aura is already in effect? This has a serious impact on the viability of many suggestions and on build options going forward.

Thanks for your communication we really appreciate it!

nearlight.3064:

Maybe add to earthen proxy that those with an aura take less condition damage? Similar to grace of the land in the Druid line but maybe only 20%

Or go the more overpowered route and make protection cut incoming condition damage on you and allies.

My Tempest would DROOL for this. Elementalists without abusing Cantrips are very heavily demolished by Condition Damage in the current meta, PVP especially but potentially PVE as well if higher condi spikes happen.

I could see:

Earthen Proxy:

“Enhances the Protection boon for nearby allies, increasing the Protection to 40% and causes Protection to reduce Condition Damage received by 20%.”

Crusic.6531:

Auras apply AOE Dots depending on the aura, earth ~bleeds. Air~confusion, fire~burns, water~ torment

I love this idea, would maybe give eles a viable condition-based spec.

Also, please add 20% cooldown reduction on shouts to Tempestuous Aria trait.

Karl McLain.5604:

It’s totally feasible to have an aura trait, as they’re fairly generic and supported throughout multiple lines (you have at least one application with every weapon set). Being that auras are fairly bountiful for the Tempest, it would likely be more beneficial to have something without an ICD (or really low) so that you’re not running into a wall by just using the tools you’ve got. Stability’s already an option in the master line, so we probably wouldn’t want to have two of the same applications in the same slot.
I’ve got to run for now, but wanted to stop by and talk traits.

-Karl

If it has a really low ICD then the trait has no bite to it and honestly taking Stability on Overload is almost a mandatory trait as is. The lazy solution there is to throw some Boons on Auras depending on Aura that we don’t normally have access to like Resistance, Retaliation, Quickness, Aegis, etc.

Stability on Auras opens up a whole new field to Tempest that pretty much was reserved for Guardian front line support up until now with “Stand your Ground” which is why 2 Guardians are mandatory in front line groups in content like WvW.

If I were King for a Day I’d:

1. Move Earthen Proxy to Hardy Conduit.
2. New Master Trait called “Soothing Auras” and move the healing component off of Element Bastion to this new Trait.
3. Add 2 stacks of Stability on auras with a 4s duration to Element Bastion.

This creates Boon/Condi support (Aria), Conduit/Damage boost (Harmonius), and Healing Aura support (Soothing) in Master.

I’ll repeat myself and say stability really needs to be a minor. Right now, no matter what the other 2 traits are, Harmonious Conduit is too good to not take.

If you REALLY want to make auramancy a thing, you really need to do a little bit of consolidation so that you don’t have to say “well I need tempest to get access to more than 2 auras, then earth b/c without protection I just die, and then water because I need cleanse.” The stance with auras just doesn’t seem focused – they are too spread out to make a coherent build, and base ele doesn’t have enough access to really warrant them all over the place. As such, I would:

- Move elemental shielding to tempest. This would be huge for auramancy
- Replace elemental shielding in earth with something that actually gives access to bleeds outside earth. Better yet, make serrated stones not completely useless and instead add something that blocks projectiles on attuning to earth or something.
- Merge powerful aura functionality into elemental bastion. It isn’t GM worthy (esp. since it doesn’t work with shout auras), doesn’t make sense in water, and won’t be taken over cleansing water anyway. In its place, put a trait that makes chill do condi damage, or increase the duration of conditions, or something else along those lines. It really doesn’t matter what you put in that spot because the only real choice is cleansing water.

Finally, if you want tempest to have ANY chance, you will merge some of the minor traits into the baseline tempest (esp. prot and swiftness on overloading). Instead, put traits that increase your ability to stay within one attunement, such as “Auto-attack damage increases by 5% in any attunement for each skill on-CD” or “After 3s in an attunement, gain a buff that makes auto-attacks do more damage/skills recharge faster/etc.”

condense some aura traits.

Aura’s detonate when they expire dealing damage (or inflicting conditions).

BlackBeard.2873:

If you REALLY want to make auramancy a thing, you really need to do a little bit of consolidation so that you don’t have to say “well I need tempest to get access to more than 2 auras, then earth b/c without protection I just die, and then water because I need cleanse.” The stance with auras just doesn’t seem focused – they are too spread out to make a coherent build, and base ele doesn’t have enough access to really warrant them all over the place. As such, I would:

- Move elemental shielding to tempest. This would be huge for auramancy
- Replace elemental shielding in earth with something that actually gives access to bleeds outside earth. Better yet, make serrated stones not completely useless and instead add something that blocks projectiles on attuning to earth or something.
- Merge powerful aura functionality into elemental bastion. It isn’t GM worthy, doesn’t make sense in water, and won’t be taken over cleansing water anyway. In its place, put a trait that makes chill do condi damage, or increase the duration of conditions, or something else along those lines.

Finally, if you want tempest to have ANY chance, you will merge some of the minor traits into the baseline tempest (esp. prot and swiftness on overloading). Instead, put traits that increase your ability to stay within one attunement, such as “Auto-attack damage increases by 5% in any attunement for each skill on-CD” or “After 3s in an attunement, gain a buff that makes auto-attacks do more damage/skills recharge faster/etc.”

For your missing earth trait in question…
Applying cripple applies bleeding for 3 seconds; applying bleeding applies 1 second of cripple (2 second ICD per target). Bleeding and cripple last 20% longer.

Altair.8402:

I’ll repeat myself and say stability really needs to be a minor. Right now, no matter what the other 2 traits are, Harmonious Conduit is too good to not take.

This. Stability is such an integral part in making overloads viable that it really needs to be a minor trait.

For Latent Stamina:
Gain vigor whenever you gain a boon. 5-10 seconds cooldown.

Would go another way into making the arcane/water/cantrips package a bit less mandatory.

And for Earthen Proxy, this is probably more grandmastery, but it’d be a way to not make earth (and to a lesser degree, arcane) line mandatory for an auramancer build:

Gain boons when you gain an aura, depending on which specialization you lack.
Fire spec not slotted: Might
Air spec not slotted: Swiftness
Earth spec not slotted: Protection
Water spec not slotted: Regeneration
Arcane spec not slotted: Fury

Karl McLain.5604:

It’s a possibility that E.P. could be merged with H.C.. I’ve seen quite a few mentions of that so far and it’s something that we’ve talked about a bit internally. If that were the case, we would need another Master slot trait.

Karl McLain.5604:

H.C. was intended to be a generic anti-dps option (with ties to the spec’s stengths), so keeping it in that vein would be something we’d want to shoot for.

Karl McLain.5604:

Being that auras are fairly bountiful for the Tempest, it would likely be more beneficial to have something without an ICD (or really low) so that you’re not running into a wall by just using the tools you’ve got.

I took your comments to mind when trying to design traits. I wanted to maintain the earthen aspect of name of the trait along with the concept of anti-DPS and a means of pairing well with Latent Stamina. The trait I came up with is:

Earthen Proxy
- Apply weakness to nearby foes upon successfully evading an attack.
- Weakness (3s)
- Number of Targets: 5
- Radius: 240
- ICD (1s)

I like the idea of forming a strong pair with Latent Stamina (the anti-DPS trait from the adept tier) but not restricting its potential to another trait as Renewing Stamina and Soothing Disruption are also excellent ways of maintaining Vigor. While speaking of Latent Stamina, I would personally like to see it removed from a fixed attunement. Keeping the Tempest’s abilities in mind, I propose the following:

Latent Stamina
- When overload becomes available, apply vigor in a radius. Granting vigor to allies also restores a portion of endurance.
- Vigor (3s)
- Endurance Gained: 10
- Radius: 240
- ICD (10s)

After switching attunements, overload goes on a 5 second cooldown. After that 5 seconds is up, you’ll apply Vigor in an area. The 14-20 second cooldown (varies on traits) after using an overload will also apply this effect. The only part I am unsure of is how well a timed area Vigor would go rather than on a key press, but I want to encourage maintaining an attunement to build the various overloads.

What about removing those 5 seconds till overload becomes avaliable so we can more actively use them in combat?

I do believe that overloads should not have that cd baseline. 5 secs is too much depending the situation. In WvW for example, ability timing is crucial so those 5 seconds just make overloading almost useless in most situations.

Those 5 secs + the att.swap cd increase = useless. You guys should choose one and discard the other.

I also think that Auramancer is the way to go for Tempest being really supportive. You may be trying to find some kind of new role when you already have one wich could make tempest shine in all gamestyles.

The best ideas i’ve read so far about auramancy:

• Increase duration of auras applied by you by 33%
• Applying an aura increases/reduces damage by 5% for 10 seconds (max 5 stacks)
• Auras grant quickness for 2 seconds.

Hmm…

• Looming Storm. You gain 300 Toughness while your current attunement is ready.

An Anti-DPS reason to build up to Overload readiness without immediately casting it
(and has interesting synergy with Strength of Stone).

I think Tempest has plenty of defensive traits already.

How about pursuing the concept of field modifiers.

Field modifiers would adds or change an effect on blast (as fury with fire line, for other lines)

For example a Lightning field modifier: Gain 2 seconds of quickness on blast and 2 seconds of super speed on leap

Xillllix.3485:

I think Tempest has plenty of defensive traits already.

How about pursuing the concept of field modifiers.

Field modifiers would adds or change an effect on blast (as fury with fire line, for other lines)

For example a Lightning field modifier: Gain 2 seconds of quickness on blast and 2 seconds of super speed on leap

“When a character triggers a combo on a field you created, it is triggered twice.”

SchmendrickTheMagician.8247:

For Latent Stamina:
Gain vigor whenever you gain a boon. 5-10 seconds cooldown.

Would go another way into making the arcane/water/cantrips package a bit less mandatory.

And for Earthen Proxy, this is probably more grandmastery, but it’d be a way to not make earth (and to a lesser degree, arcane) line mandatory for an auramancer build:

Gain boons when you gain an aura, depending on which specialization you lack.
Fire spec not slotted: Might
Air spec not slotted: Swiftness
Earth spec not slotted: Protection
Water spec not slotted: Regeneration
Arcane spec not slotted: Fury

Completely backward. Should be “Gain a boons when you gain an aura depending on what specializations you have”

All the traits granting Auras should grant it at the start of the skill, not the end. For example, reviving an ally grant aura. It should grant at the start, allowing clutch/skillful play. Facing a ranger? Rez in Earth so you have reflect. Facing a warrior? Rez in Air and hopefully the shocking aura will buy you enough time for the rez.

The same with Overloads. It should grant aura at the start of the cast. All Aura should also stack.

• Finishing an overload gives you quickness for 5 seconds (synergy with the dmg boost).

• Auras give quickness for 2 seconds (5 ICD).

• Shouts give us quickness for 2 seconds (5 ICD).

Final Note: Give us quickness!!!!!!

i would like to have a master trait that reduces those 5s it takes to start an overload. this would be really good for fresh air builds. something like:

when you crit an enemy it reduces the time required to start an overload for 1s with maybe a 1s icd so that you can reduce those 5s to 3s in theory. when playing fresh air you usually don’t want to stay 5 whole seconds in air so this would be an awesome trait.

btw karl, allow us to keep channeling overloads even when we swap attunements right now it cancels overloads upon swapping attunement. if you enable that i can try to make a nasty dps build during the next bwe

Probably because you’d be charged for another one by the time it ended…

Nike.2631:

Probably because you’d be charged for another one by the time it ended…

you won’t go around using overload after overload, or all you attunements will be on cooldown, so it doesn’t really matter.

I really wanted to know what offensive path Karl is going for with Tempest, if he is at all. There’s been hinting at the possibility of a truly Condition Damage based spec, so if EP gets merged with something it would be cool to have something attached to condi, like while wielding a warhorn. Or maybe some interesting procs.

you won’t be able to play a condi spec with tempest as long as not all attunements offer some kind of condition damage. can’t really see that happening, maybe with the release of the 3rd elite spec, because the 2nd will hopefully be dps sword.

Jekkt.6045:

you won’t be able to play a condi spec with tempest as long as not all attunements offer some kind of condition damage. can’t really see that happening, maybe with the release of the 3rd elite spec, because the 2nd will hopefully be dps sword.

That is sad… I know you guys must love melee agressive gameplay, and I like it aswell, but I wanted to experiment the condition possibilities of an ele. Some elite specs are getting so distinct functionalities/purposes, I admit I’m a bit jealous.

Ele will never have a condie elite spec because of its core mechanic. Each attunement needs to be distinct and offer a different play-style. You can’t possibly hope for a single trait line to change that completely because of how other traitlines interact with attunements.

It’s the same with ranger, no elite spec will ever remove its pet because of how many traits affect it.

well in my elite spec concept i pretty much had some working traits for condi specs

I believe that currently auras on overload apply on the completion of the overload. How about a trait that would make the auras apply on initiation of the overload? That, coupled with the earth trait to apply protection on aura, could be a huge help in actually getting overloads to complete.

Tempest already supports condi builds. But not enough. A good way would be to change latent stamina to a condi proc. Puting it against tempestous aria would not work. Shouts are the core condi support tempest offers.
The greatest help options: be baseline speed , condi removal or condi application for latent stamina.

Stability on aura, and remove a condition when you gain stability. That would be nice, and maybe open more builds oustide water line.