Guild Wars 2

Just a question, don’t shoot me down:

Will Clerics Amulet not be any good for the Tempest Bunker?

I’ve been trying out Clerics in ranked games and I don’t think it’s that bad, it’s not meta, but I would consider it viable, I went up 2 divisions today with it solo queing. You certainly notice the HP loss from Celestial, but the additional toughness with the additional healing power does mitigate that somewhat, and the power can still net a decent meteor shower/Air Overload when your teams dishing out the might stacks.

Everyone seems to be saying the sky is falling with Celestial being removed, but Clerics seems to work? I remember it working for Guardian Bunker back in the day too?

I use it on my Tempest E/W/Temp support Staff build.

I stack up on condition cleansing with auras, and utilize the Toughness + Stoneheart to “nope” away all physical damage while in Earth if I’m focused, and condi cleanse with Auras and water swap if needed for Healing Rain (wish this had a reduce cast time).

The build absolutely laughs at physical damage but obviously has issues with sustained condition pressure. Will be very useful if Thief actually becomes a consistent threat to the condition damage builds, as this build is very anti Power thief.

What you will find playing clerics is that you are just a really bad version of a bunker/support build. You will get forced off the point way to easily, and much of the support you will give is too close-range. This is because all of your defense is prot + healing, so you have no way to survive under focus of multiple enemies (no hard mitigation), making you pretty useless in a teamfight (no damage, no point holding, no stab for resses/stomps). You are playing a build that does pretty well in 2v2’s, but doesn’t really bring any offense. Cleric ele can’t 1v1, because the pressure is SO LOW that your opponents can just go HAM, meaning eventually you will eventually die in most 1v1’s (or maybe stalemate, but still get decapped).

In short, you bring about 50% as much to the table as a true bruiser, like a scrapper, which does insanely more damage, heals about as much with healing turret, has on-demand stealth for resses, and has superior mobility to boot. You also bring about 50% as much to the table as a true bunker like guardian, which has tons of stab (for stomps and resses), greater aoe-cleanse and healing capability (further range due to many good shouts on guards, and only 1 actually useful short-CD one on ele), and lots of hard-mitigation to survive as a point-holder and focus during teamfights. Pure support isn’t a viable role, because why not just bring someone who can actually bunker the point (guard) or take 1v1’s (bruisers, like scrapper).

with no boons, celestial does 2% more direct damage than cleric’s
with perma fury and 11 stacks of might, it increases to a 9% damage difference

In either case, saying this

Cleric ele can’t 1v1, because the pressure is SO LOW that your opponents can just go HAM, meaning eventually you will eventually die in most 1v1’s (or maybe stalemate, but still get decapped).

makes it sound like you’ve just never even tried cleric. Seriously, there is very little difference. The only thing you’ll notice is the lower condition damage

reikken.4961:

with no boons, celestial does 2% more direct damage than cleric’s
with perma fury and 11 stacks of might, it increases to a 9% damage difference

In either case, saying this

Cleric ele can’t 1v1, because the pressure is SO LOW that your opponents can just go HAM, meaning eventually you will eventually die in most 1v1’s (or maybe stalemate, but still get decapped).

makes it sound like you’ve just never even tried cleric. Seriously, there is very little difference. The only thing you’ll notice is the lower condition damage

Half of ele damage comes from condis and Cleric amulet will half eles dmg via condi so add another +25% to your statement on cele dmg

only if you’re against people who don’t cleanse conditions. in which case you’ve already won

you ever check the end of combat log? damage dealt, and condition damage dealt? even when I was running settler’s and using mostly condition skills, rarely ever bothering with lightning whip or air overload, I still got a 50/50 split damage/condi. with cleric’s I’ll get stats like 390k/100k

but yes, the lack of condition damage is the main downside
on the plus side, auras heal people for a lot more

Imo, it won’t be viable.

Low hp pool – will need vit.
Change to DS – will need vit.
More reapers – will need vit.

I think the condition pressure will be too high for eles to afford to run any amulet without conditions. It’s okay now cause of how DS work, it’s even easier to maintain the treshold, but the truth is that without DS ele just melts to condis already, so I would imagine after the patch it will be even harder to survive against condi pressure.

Without vitality, healing power is useless. Without healing power, toughness is useless. Without toughness, vitality is useless. Rince and repeat.

BlackBeard.2873:

You also bring about 50% as much to the table as a true bunker like guardian

Forgive me, I have never really played a Guardian Bunker so perhaps I’m just plain wrong, but from what I can see they don’t really bring a lot more than a Tempest Bunker (with clerics) when played with the same mentality. In fact, I don’t think I’ve had a game yet where a Guardian Bunker has outlasted me (though I admit they’re rare atm) – Guardian Bunkers in the current Meta just don’t seem to be able to survive as well as the Clerics Tempest as a general statement, I don’t know if other people have had the same experience?

There are certain adjustments that I make to the Tempest Build which I believe help it. Stability on Earth swap for yourself and your team (as an example) allows for a lot more secured stomps and rezzes than you’d think, and helpful moves like a co-ordinated Geyser → Earthswap → Wash the Pain secures massive healing for your team on a point, much more than I’ve seen Guardian Bunkers produce.

I also find that Tempest Bunkers (Clerics or Celestial) have more condition removal than a Guardian Bunker for themselves and their team with shouts, healing rain. And Tempests counter ranged classes with their chain magnetic auras or even swirling winds (if you take the focus route) as an example of superior mitigation.

I’m know you say they bring 50% more, but I’m not seeing it?