My opinion on what I saw and experienced in BWE2 (first time posting so any other players feel free to criticize things i’m not accounting for/and delivery of information)
So I kinda sat for awhile here before I wrote anything. I realized all my side notes were just on gameplay mechanics, but after finishing writing my Herald review(and maybe being TOO big of a woodenpotatoe fan) I just feel the fizz is not there for the elite spec. But I think I found something that will def help me and hopefully my fellow ele community get the fizz for this spec. Bring in some SERIOUS CC for this weapon. Maybe even add it to some of the overload abilities? I mean it would be SOO COOL to be able to really lock down a target during combat. Sure I would not mind sacrificing some DPS or even sacrificing tempest being a meta dungeon build to have the access in open PvE, WvW, and PvP as CC gods! but anyway onto my actual feed back~
Pro’s – observations of synergy with rest of gw2
It really DOES make you play any existing builds a little differently. After being so used to having three full trait lines readily available to us, it suckssss having to sacrifice one for the tempest and really makes you learn how to compensate for it and try to maximize all the mechanics tempest give you. It is pretty cool how supporty the Ele really has been buffed. I always play front lines and for once I am actually a bit more aware of whats going on around me more-so for my allies sake. It feels GREAT to use warhorn earth skill 5 when you see an ally desperately trying to heal or getting CC’d down and being so vulnerable and being like nope! known of you guys get to see now(blind) lol. I like the cool AoEness of everything, especially the water overload. Whenever I do use it, I notice it. Which is great because I ve actually caught myself since the beta being like (esp with all the f2p’s we mentor) oh no I’ll just overload this and mass heal everyone…oh wait.
Con’s – solutions
Small buff to fire warhorn skills. Firefield earlier on skill 5 mainly. I have blasted that rectangle sooooo many times only to realize recently that the very last part of the rectangle(after the fire is done creeping) is where the firefield is. WHAT?! Nothing visual or in the tool tips that says this, or this is bug? I hope it is a bug, because one of my favorite synergies with scepter ele is the fury on auras, AND the auto fire aura when going into fire, I alwayssss try to get in a dragon’s tooth and find a fire field to also hit the phoenix on before my fury runs out. Previously with a focus you can summon the tooth, lay down the fire field, and hit with phoenix doing GREAT damage and getting 2 blasts out of it. Trying to repeat that in my rotation with warhorn and if I wait out the fire field to finish to blast it with phoenix, my fury has long been gone. Maybe add cripple(short duration but pulsing) with skill 5?
-Also would love to see skill 4 in air for warhorn aim like skill 5. It is a great pre -skill before skill 5 in air but it makes me feel forced to CC the enemies where they are? That seems kinda silly. It would be nice to CC the enemies in any direction sayyyy into an ally AoE then? Man what a sweet hit that be! pull the foes into aa area with heavy ally AoE, then follow by your skill 5 in air. Short combo, but definitely a nice quick DPS for just some good mechanics. ESP if you attune into air as you do this combo, getting the 2 lightning strikes with it, whew that be a nice quick insta kill on some mob coming at you mid fight say after exhausting your fire attunement.
Overall review
-Super cool if those water warhorn skills applied some sort of CC condi like chill or short freeze on one of the skills. Earth IMO is fine BECAUSE the overload provides cripple, the front line support is fun. its nice dropping dust storm on low health allies and swapping to water for quite a few heals with s/warhorn and then being able to also overload for even more quick saves for allies. it leaves a cool impression(similar to rev) how at one second you’re supplying might, dps, really laying the hammer down, then you can kinda back peddle and help mitigate some damage and control for teammates and buy them those few seconds for some of their own CD’s to pass and pick themselves back up. Almost like a front line version of the staff I guess, except not as squishy?
I played mainly knight stats with scepter/warhorn. Specc’ed fire 3 1 2; air 1, 2, 2; tempest 3, 2 ,3. Ether renewal, Frost bow, Armor of Earth, Glyph of Storms, Tornado(I mean cmon your a tempest!)
Thanks for letting us be apart of the feedback process and look forward to the changes you make!
*also love to hear player feedback on how wrong you think I am!