Guild Wars 2

Tempest builds seem to be the only choice for elementalists when they are 80 if you want to get the most out of the class. Are there other builds that don’t use tempest but are just as effective?

Tempest improves on everything: damage, defense, support. There are only two scenarios in which you can do better without tempest.

1: You don’t have time to overload.
But even here, if you have time to start an overload before you’re in range and drop the overload down once you’re in range, tempest is going to still have better damage. So this scenario is even more specific than advertised.

2: You stay at range the entire time, and defense and support are of little value.
Tempest’s damage advantage is in the overloads, which are all close range. If you are never in range to overload, tempest has no damage advantage. But it still offers a ton of defense and healing and general support, so that would have to be of no value as well.

So my conclusion is a fire/air/(water or arcane) staff build that tries to never get close to anything

Theres a ton of build you can play that are effective , simply experiment until it works for you – synergies is the key. Tempest is only needed if you are in a competitive arena (ranked spvp, raids) Most are effective but only a couple will be ‘meta’ for a given role.

Thank you for the responses. Yeah, it seems as though the overloads really do boost tempest well above all other builds if you are anything other than staff in PVE.

Tempest also makes auras amazing. So even if you’re not doing overloads, Tempest will turn your auras into buff and heal machines. You could use your overloads for aura application, rather than DPS (although that’s about 4s wasted in your rotation, unless it’s water overload).

Also Tempest makes protection reduce damage by 40% instead of 33%. That’s pretty significant when it comes to survivability.