Guild Wars 2

Karl McLain.5604:

We added two things to overloads today:
Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

Nice!

Love how Overload Air will now provide offensive support to allies! I’m assuming Lightning Jolt stuns/dazes the target?

Especially love the dust-nado; more condi love is always nice.

Karl McLain.5604:

We added two things to overloads today:
Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

Sounds awesome. I think an ending effect is exactly what these needed. This coupled with the stability helps even out the risk/reward.

Do auras still proc at the end of the overload? Any chance they could proc at the beginning? That’d have great synergy with the earth trait for protection on aura, especially since we cannot dodge while overloading.

Karl McLain.5604:

Following up on the Stunbreak conversation: This is something we’ve talked about in the past and felt like it might just be way too strong. However, it still sounds like way too much fun to not try it out… so I’m going to change them over and we’ll see what that plays like in BWE3.
Please keep in mind that this will be a test and we may have to compensate for or remove it at some point in the future, if it’s too strong.

-Karl

GREAT change….at least to try out. thanks!

Karl McLain.5604:

We added two things to overloads today:
Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

really like this change to air overload.

keep this up…..its getting there.

Valento.9852:

Phantaram.4816:

I’d just like to pop in and say I like the changes. I have a build planned for BWE3 that I am excited to try out. I will say that it does not involve warhorn.

Only thing I’m super afraid of is necros. They are going to corrupt my overload stability with signets all day

90% it’s D/D. :P

It’s Dagger/Focus.

Oh holy… these are much better than I anticipated.

I’m loving it Karl! Tempest is beginning to look very fun.

Overloads seem far more interesting with those changes.

I’m still worried that the stability trait will be obligatory in PvP and WvW: even if it blocks only 1 CC and can be removed or corrupted its the only thing that can give you at least a chance to use fire or air overloads vs a good opponent.

Still the fact that the earth overload will give 3 stacks baseline will make us feel what is the difference between 1 stack, 3 or 4 and bring feedback about that.

Karl McLain.5604:

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing)…

Type “Dust Devil” into Google and click ‘images’ and you will see everything you need to know .

Then do it again for “Fire Whirls” and be amazed at how awesome real weather is.

Karl McLain.5604:

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing)

Chickenado, IMO.

e: For clarity I believe the tooltip should describe it as a ‘twister’ (since I think most people would be familiar with that as a synonym for tornado) and that you should use the chickenado as the animation as a nod to Dry Top (and also because the chickenado animation is hilarious).

It would also mean Tempest players with the chickenado finisher and mini-pet could have chickenados everywhere. Always need more chickenados.

If there are chickens in the dustnado animation then it would make up for any balance issues the Tempest might have.

I’m also happy that the communication regarding Tempest is starting to be a lot more open. And the changes to traits and stuff and whatnot actually make me excited to try and play Tempest again, compared to the last beta where not much had changed so I barely played it.

But I won’t truly feel satisfied with Tempest until I can make a a build that feels good with it that doesn’t use Arcane, as the basic design principles and the things like Imbued Melodies 2.0 seem to be pushing a substitute for arcane that spams boons without the need for attunement swapping, so we’ll have to see how that works.

Also regarding the lightning jolt, and overload air’s new function, could we receive more clarity of this? I assume that the jolt would be equivalent to an air sigil or scepter 2 or air minor 2 proc (lightning strike). A daze proc would be kind of broken, it would be like venomshare storm style. And does the jolt buff apply at the beginning or end of the channel?

Karl McLain.5604:

We added two things to overloads today:
Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

These changes are great Karl! Actually gives me a reason to use the Air Overload not to mention the Earth Overload is looking sublime.

Also, a much needed change to Dust Storm. Much like the clunky Tidal Wave (which still needs tweaking imho) the speed increase to Dust Storm puts this skill in a really good place.

I still don’t like Aura’s triggering at the end of Overloads. They should trigger at the beginning so they can be used with some reliance. Really makes using overloads for Aura’s a big crap shoot. Would be nice to see a change here so that we the players have more control over WHEN our aura’s trigger.

Also, I still want shocking aura (or something at least – maybe a blind?) tied to Eye of the Storm. This shout feels so situational as it is. I would love to have other reasons to have this on my skill bar.

Either way great job Karl! I was already excited to test a few builds in BWE3 but now you have me super excited to test these changes out!

#chickenado

Karl McLain.5604:

We added two things to overloads today:
Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

Wow, those are awesome changes, but maybe instead of a “dust-nado”, sandstorm or whatever the name, why not leave behind a crumbling ground like the elementalist down state skill “Grasping Earth”. Elementalist has a lot tornados already. XD

I’m rather surprised i didn’t think of the stunbreaker overload idea. Kudos, Nike! Very thematic and i hope it makes it into bwe3.

Regarding the changes, i like it. Im assuming the lightning jolt is a daze? Can we have said daze and damage use the tempest as the source so it can proc lightning rod?

Every attunement should have a kind of “proc on condition” trait like that just like lightning strike on interrupt and blind on burn…like weakness when you apply cripple for earth or icy burst when you remove conditions.

But back on topic, can fire overload also have added team utility? If you’re lowering its damage, can you think about some projectile destruction for it?

Wow, those are awesome changes, but maybe instead of a “dust-nado”, sandstorm or whatever the name, why not leave behind a crumbling ground like the elementalist down state skill “Grasping Earth”. Elementalist has a lot tornados already. XD

True, but it’s very thematic to the spec, and people were already complaining that “Tempest” was not being literal enough for them yet.

Ohoni.6057:

Wow, those are awesome changes, but maybe instead of a “dust-nado”, sandstorm or whatever the name, why not leave behind a crumbling ground like the elementalist down state skill “Grasping Earth”. Elementalist has a lot tornados already. XD

True, but it’s very thematic to the spec, and people were already complaining that “Tempest” was not being literal enough for them yet.

I agree with Akath. Dust devils and such have a precedence for causing blind and bleed, not not cripple, protection and bleed. Besides having nice variety, its more clarity of effect because it’s not a vfx thats taking up a lot of air space as well as being distinct from other tornado effects.

Also, can wildfire please remove boons again?

The reason that the boon removal on the skill was removed was never explained to us. Even if its toned down to be less boon removal, I still think that boonhate is a serious potential niche for tempest to help differentiate from base elementalist in terms of functionality.

Karl McLain.5604:

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

If you could make wildfire(Fire 5) expand faster aswell it would make it way more fun and rewarding to use

I had a shower thought today and I thought it might be fun to share.

“Rebound” is getting an interesting change this upcoming beta weekend, and I hope it works. It sounds really nice when used well. But on the other hand… It’s an AoE version of Engineer’s A.E.D. healing skill… Which is not terribly often used. But A.E.D. competes against the awesome Healing Turret, while “Rebound” competes against skills that are generally considered none too impressive… Anyway…

“Rebound!” (Fictional BW4 edition! …Could use a more appropriate name though…)
Cast time: 1/4 second.
Cooldown: 60 Seconds
Effect: Cast your current attunement’s Overload, regardless if it’s on cooldown. Instantly recharge all of your attunements.

Probably in need of number tuning (cooldown’s most likely far too low)… But think of the fun! One nearly guaranteed overload per minute isn’t that bad. But the fun would really start if you had a way to drop a proper overload beforehand. Earth Overload into a surprise Fire Overload? Air+Fire for PvE? Plus you’re charged up and ready to attunement dance. So once in a little while, a proper storm will hit out of nowhere, and wreck faces.

Karl McLain.5604:

Harmonious Conduit: This trait has been re-worked. Upon activating an overload, gain stability for 4 seconds. If the overload is successfully completed, gain 10% damage for 5 seconds.

Since most of the changes discussed here are from a pvp/wvw standpoint, I want to discuss pve issues as well.

The specializations patch killed all build variety for ele in pve. Everyone is now running staff. D/F Fresh Air used to be a viable meta build, not anymore. It seems Tempest is the same way. Karl, please consider what changes to make to Temest to make it work in pve as well. Tempest needs selfish options too.

Regarding the Harmonious Conduit trait (quoted above), 10% damage for 5 seconds is simply too short. Put the 10% bonus in another trait and make it compete with a strong option that will usually be taken in pvp/wvw (e.g. make it compete with stability on overload). Make the bonus damage last for much longer (e.g. 30 sec), or just make it permanent. This way in pve you can take the 10% damage trait without Tempest being too strong in pvp. The way the Arcane line achieves this is pretty good, in pvp/wvw everyone is running Evasive Arcana, whereas in pve you’d run Bountiful Power. Even with a 10% damage modifier Tempest might end up not being used in pve, but it’s a start.

Alphard.6529:

Even with a 10% damage modifier Tempest might end up not be used in pve, but it’s a start.

10% for 5 seconds on overload is just another sign that they’ve decided not to give any damage to the elementalist elite profession. Even water has 30% damage modifiers that someone can upkeep pretty well.

Great changes. Now i wait what will be done to WH fire skills. Maybe WH becomes an option for me then. When i used it it felt slow and could not compete with focus i usually use. An earth overload now gets realy jummy :-). And the air change lets me think to use air overload for engagement ….
Now i still hope for shouts being instant cast not 1/4 :-).

While we are at it, why don’t you change the Water Overload as well. Make it a moving water field like in Warhorn#5. Even in an organized group it’s easy to miss the warhorn#5 water field. Rework that skill if you can.

Also, both water#5 and air #5 are not suitable skills for a game with multi-directional combat like GW2. Enemies can literally escape to every direction and once you fire the projectile off, they will switch positions for sure. If it was a stationary aoe effect you could disable or immobilize them, but it’s not the case for these skills. You can’t even use it on capture points effectively. Please turn them into one of those huge AoE skills in GW with slow, freeze, blindness and maybe knockdown. Ah, also that fire#5, keep it for torch elite spec and replace it with fire storm or AoE magic damage which scales according to the burning stacks the enemies have.

Alphard.6529:

Since most of the changes discussed here are from a pvp/wvw standpoint, I want to discuss pve issues as well.

The specializations patch killed all build variety for ele in pve. Everyone is now running staff. D/F Fresh Air used to be a viable meta build, not anymore. It seems Tempest is the same way. Karl, please consider what changes to make to Temest to make it work in pve as well. Tempest needs selfish options too.

What’s killing build variety in PvE has more to do with those conforming to a supposed meta than anything else. Perfect balancing across all game types is darn near impossible. There will almost always be some form of meta. Not to mention playing staff ele has a lower skill cap than the other weapon sets imho.

I run different types of builds through various PvE content and do just fine. Our guild did a 3 man fractal the other day and I ran with my D/D Sinister build. Still was able to cleanse those around me and the burns were glorious. The bigger issue is the OP Ice Bow. I just can’t leave it out of any dungeon/fractal path due to it’s kick-butt nature. We ran a 4 man all ranger team through HotW P1 and did it in 12 min. Those that conform to “a meta” with most of the PvE content being rather easy have themselves to blame. Anyways, this is the wrong place to discuss this.

One can imagine these Elite Specializations are being tailored for and tested on HoT content. Meaning they should excel or at least be made viable in raids, in the 4 new maps, Stronghold and the new WvW map.

In PvE I ran both condi and support builds on my Tempest in BWE2 and had a lot of fun doing so and with these latest changes the Tempest is getting to a better place. Heat Sync and a few other issues aside. Still plenty of time for iteration prior to release.
#Imiddlefingerthemeta

Bandit.8279:

What’s killing build variety in PvE has more to do with those conforming to a supposed meta than anything else.

We can have a discussion of whether this should or shouldn’t be the case, but we have to deal with the current reality. Just look at necro. There are many builds on many classes that are in the exact state necro is in, i.e. (almost) no one wants them. People choose not to use them and do not want them in their party. Maybe things will change some day, but for now there are easy ways to make Tempest more viable in pve in our current reality.

Karl McLain.5604:

Following up on the Stunbreak conversation: This is something we’ve talked about in the past and felt like it might just be way too strong. However, it still sounds like way too much fun to not try it out… so I’m going to change them over and we’ll see what that plays like in BWE3.
Please keep in mind that this will be a test and we may have to compensate for or remove it at some point in the future, if it’s too strong.
-Karl

Well, that idea crossed my mind but I thought it would be too strong.

…But it also justifies the fact you have to wait 5 seconds to get into that overload. It’s definetly worth trying out!

Please consider adding back the CD reduction on Overloads, maybe to Lucid Singularity? That trait is a little plain as it is.

Karl McLain.5604:

We added two things to overloads today:
Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

My suggestion was that the lightning field you leave on the ground would daze enemies that pass by, your idea is even better! The overload earth change is awesome as well.

I’m still sad about heat sync’s nerf, but it was needed, what if this skill now applies a fire aura? You seem to have reconsidered the idea of Magnetic aura on Sand-Squall.

Pretty good changes so far Karl, if we include the updates in the new posts. The only disappointment is how heat sync has been gutted. Don’t get me wrong, I know that it was a very OP ability that practically carried warhorn by itself. However, might is incredibly easy to share as an ele so it needs something more to become more worthwhile. Maybe this ability could also increase aura duration like sand squall increases boon duration?

I really like how you started listening to feedback. I also like that you are trying changes that you think might be too strong, like the stunbreaks on overloads. This is a beta after all and not the live game, so it’s ok to try stuff that might seem a bit crazy. If it turns out to be too strong you could just remove it.

Just like Tornado has a chance to throw a cow…the dust-nado should have a chance to have chickens.

@Ganathar, Karl hasn’t been ignoring our feedback. It’s just that eles are a bit complex in the way traits work, and he probably has been tweaking and testing a plethora of stuff to make the elite spec fun.

The changes to the overloads are such a huge step because it gives a distinction and rewarding feeling to each overload. Overload Air in particular deals with a very particular AoE effect, I wish they went more towards this kind of concept (just like Super Speed).

Another stuff I brainstormed with a friend is similar to the necromancer trait Terror, in that it could cause an extra stuff when the target reaches a certain amount of burning stacks, like an explosion that spreads x stacks of burning to nearby foes.

Karl McLain.5604:

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

When overload earth end character had fearfully levitate and teleport to ground, now when you came with idea of leaving dust-nado, you can do proper landing of our character embrecing ourself with sand and when land its suddenly gather into our dust-nando.

Its how you could wrap it up in that attempt.

Btw landing/ while breakbar fails or while interupted make sure to be also noticable in other ways to make easy know by animation what happened: we finished, we cancelled, we were rupted, breakbar stunned us.

Give your best into animations:) cheers. PS. water overload waiting.

nearlight.3064:

Also, can wildfire please remove boons again?

The reason that the boon removal on the skill was removed was never explained to us. Even if its toned down to be less boon removal, I still think that boonhate is a serious potential niche for tempest to help differentiate from base elementalist in terms of functionality.

Wildfire could at least remove might from enemies, so then we would share our might to allies with heat sync and remove might from enemies with wildfire. Might management with fire attunement of warhorn.

My biggest gripe with Tempest is still that it does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING NEW. All other elite specs get something new, something awesome, something the class couldn’t already do.

We still give might, regen, swiftness and prot, and that’s it. The tiny two things that gave the spec something new (boonshare and boon-ripping) was taken away swiftly.

With Tempest offering NOTHING NEW TO ELE it’s either gonna be straight up better or worse, and all eles will either be Tempest or no one will use it.

Aka the exact problem the class has with arcane and water and cantrips already.

—

Engineer: want to melee with some pet support? Spec for Scrapper!
Thief: Want to dodge even more and punch and kick people? Spec for Daredevil!
Necro: want to cleave left and right? Spec Reaper!
Guardian: want a real ranged weapon? Spec DH!
Mesmer: Want to turn back time? Spec Chrono!

Ele: Want to what what you’re doing already, just a bit different? Want the exact same DD frontline support spec but with different names? We got you covered, spec for Tempest!

Karl McLain.5604:

We added two things to overloads today:
Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Overload Earth will now leave behind a dust-nado (name ongoing) at the tempest’s location when complete, which delivers the same effects that occur while overloading (cripple, bleed, protection). Increased bleed duration to 9 seconds per strike.

Dust Storm – warhorn: Increased the velocity that each storm appears by 33%.

This is what overloads should do when casting them provide your pt with a very strong buff on attk or some other way that the tempest it self cant gain benefit from. A true support effect. I would love to see this for all of the overloads fire having some type of fire dmg or might on hit effect water having an chill or reg attk and earth having a cripple or bleed effect on attk.
(Though i still think fields on overload would of cover this just fine with out making a new effect but if this is the chose taken it should be workable.)

Karl McLain.5604:

Overload Air will imbue allies with electricity, giving them the Static Charge buff. An ally with this buff will deliver a Lightning Jolt to the first enemy they strike.

Question: Is the lightning jolt counted as our attack, or the ally’s? Would be nice if it took our stats and showed up as our like a venom share thief.

these changes seem fair for the most part, none seem overpowered none seem too hindering, but I am not sure that the fire overload was in need of a nerf as it is the fire overload. it is a fire tornado with really really really REALLY small range and is blockable.

I would love to see what you are going to do to the Warhorn air and fire 4 and 5 to make them worth using now that fire 4 got destroyed( which it needed) and will now never be used as 25 stacks of might is currently always up as it is.

Mem no Fushia.7604:

nearlight.3064:

Also, can wildfire please remove boons again?

The reason that the boon removal on the skill was removed was never explained to us. Even if its toned down to be less boon removal, I still think that boonhate is a serious potential niche for tempest to help differentiate from base elementalist in terms of functionality.

Wildfire could at least remove might from enemies, so then we would share our might to allies with heat sync and remove might from enemies with wildfire. Might management with fire attunement of warhorn.

This is one of the best ideas I have read regarding Wildfire. It provides some serious play against heavy might-stacking classes.

Valento.9852:

Mem no Fushia.7604:

nearlight.3064:

Also, can wildfire please remove boons again?

The reason that the boon removal on the skill was removed was never explained to us. Even if its toned down to be less boon removal, I still think that boonhate is a serious potential niche for tempest to help differentiate from base elementalist in terms of functionality.

Wildfire could at least remove might from enemies, so then we would share our might to allies with heat sync and remove might from enemies with wildfire. Might management with fire attunement of warhorn.

This is one of the best ideas I have read regarding Wildfire. It provides some serious play against heavy might-stacking classes.

I would feel more content if it removed regen, stability and quickness as well, otherwise this ability still seems lack luster for the super long cooldown of 30 seconds

Edit: or applied weakness

When I think of a wildfire, I think of a blaze that spreads quickly and almost uncontrollably. So here’s a crazy idea for Wildfire:

Enemies burned by this skill spread burning to nearby foes (even foes who weren’t already burning.)

any word on whether sand squall is still getting a magnetic aura?

Mem no Fushia.7604:

Wildfire could at least remove might from enemies, so then we would share our might to allies with heat sync and remove might from enemies with wildfire. Might management with fire attunement of warhorn.

Well at least it would serve a purpose other than being just another fire field. Not a bad idea at all.

Eles have so many skills tied to might, it could devote a spec to it and call it Mightmancer.

still no Ice Bow nerf? It’s going to be fun in raids.

Aside from overloads and warhorn skills there is one thing I want to point out. A unique mechanic that was introduced with Tempest which changed the effect of a boon, protection in this case, by buffing it +7%.

This can be tied to successful overload channel by buffing several boons for 5-10 seconds after overload ends.

Fury crit chance to 40%
Might gives +50 power and +50 condi damage instead. (This could be a unique damage modifier compared to +10% we see everywhere)
Protection gives 66% damage reduction.
Regeneration effect is doubled.
Swiftness gives 66% movement speed.
Vigor regeneration is increased to 100%.
Aegis blocks all attacks.
Stability works as the old stab and doesn’t get removed when disabled.

LiQuid.3958:

A unique mechanic that was introduced with Tempest which changed the effect of a boon

Not quite unique. Thieves with the acrobatics line make their own vigor +75% endurance regen, and revenants with roiling mists in invocation make their personal fury give +40% crit chance. Revs also have a trait in herald that gives an extra stack of stab whenever they get stab.

I just came to say that Lightning Orb really feels a bit too slow and clunky. If you would like to keep the damage I’m fine with that, but consider changing the way it works.
Instead of slowly flying and shooting around, make it bounce like a fast lightning between the enemies in front of you.

Looks cooler and kind of makes more sense if you ask me. Check the Static Shiv effect in LoL.

I thinl Lightning Orb is perfect from BWE2. It’s for cheese builds that just like to spam Lightning Whip autoattack, without worrying about element swapping. Sometimes Lightning Orb for burst on recharge.

No changey plz!

Kain Francois.4328:

I thinl Lightning Orb is perfect from BWE2. It’s for cheese builds that just like to spam Lightning Whip autoattack, without worrying about element swapping. Sometimes Lightning Orb for burst on recharge.

No changey plz!

Were you attacking golems with it? Actually, I never got it to do good damage on anything…

Here are some trait ideas I think would make the specialisation better:

- Add the 1 stack of stability to Hardy Conduit
- Change Speedy Conduit to grant superspeed while overloading, and a boon based on your attunement when finished. This would let it compete with the Arcane tree.
- Scrap Latent Stamina. It does not fit the Tempest.
- Change Unstable Conduit to give the aura at the start of the Overload, so that it gives more needed defense.

Lightning Orb should fire an orb that sits in the air, zapping everything in its radius. Like a evil disco ball.