Guild Wars 2

While this is more of a suggestion, I felt it would be best to post here first to see what everyone thought. If it feels out of place, please move it to suggestions.

Tornado was an elite I looked forward to. Now I’d regret it if it didn’t also give me whirlpool. So I got thinking on what to make it better, and I came up with this idea.

First, remove the knockback and weapon skills. The weapon skills are decent, but I thought of a better way to go about it. And instead of knockback/launch, the tornado should pull. Why? Well, isn’t that what tornados do? Pull things in? not throw things out… also, because the tornado is slow to move, to it makes more sense to pull foe to you than throw them away.

Next, increase the range. Maybe make the torando a 360 radius, same as meteor shower. However, the damage would be weaker towards the far edges and higher up close. So within 120 radius you would be hit for, lets say 300. Then in 240 raduis it would be 200, and then 360 would be 100. The exact numbers from the damage may be different, but that is just an example of what I mean.

Lastly, I think the effects of the tornado should depend on your attunement. Yes, glyphs already do this, but I am suggesting that the tornado should change as you change. So if you cast it in fire, it has the fire effect. But then you can change to water and it gains water effect. The base of the tornado would be the same for all, but each would offer a special effect to make it more versatile.
Fire- When attuned to fire, the tornado would visually change to show flames through it. Foes hit by the tornado would be burned (the closer to the center, the longer the duration).
Water- When attuned to water, the tornado would visually change to a water cyclone with ice in it. Foes hit by the tornado would be chilled (the closer to the center, the longer the duration). A possible alternative would be healing nearby allies.
Air- When attuned to air, the tornado would like it does now, maybe with some lightning in it. Air would make the tornado launch or knockback foes like it currently does (so it would push away, and then pull it).
Earth- When attuned to earth, the tornado would visually change to a brownish color full of sand and dirt. Foes hit by the tornado would be blinded (the closer to the center, the longer the duration).

It is also possible that each attunement could change how the attributes are modified (fire=more power, water=more vitality, air=more precision, earth=more toughness). I am a bit unsure if the attributes themselves would need to be changed.
Also, I am not sure if you can use 6-0 skills while in tornado (been a while since I used skill and wiki doesn’t mention). But if you can’t, I’d suggest that be changed so you can. I know you can’t in whirlpool, which really sucks since I can’t throw up arcane shield or heal.

So do you think this idea would improve tornado? Or would it just make it a wannabe glyph? Personally I think the pulling and changing effect on attunement would make the skill far more useable and fitting to the elementalist.

My main annoyance with tornado is that you suddenly become a giant target and die very quickly. :/

I was toying with the idea that tornado would initially suck in surrounding players once (and only once), then it would spit them out in the direction the player is facing (or just spit them out in the direction they came in from if this can be abused too easily). Afterwards, it just acts like the current tornado. I assume we’re still able to continuously bounce people who are at the boundaries/edges right?

The reason I say this is that it would make the tornado situational, but very useful in the right situation. Also, there’s a chance for opposing players to escape, so that this doesn’t become a “I can safely use it, and now I only have to wait until it ends without considering what escape + counter options my opponents may have.”

I like this idea. I think your earth one also needs bleed as well, or its a little weak. I think the air should only pull in, or give it two skills to pick if you want in or out. Also, make it a cantrip, that way traits can actually affect it like they do the other elites. Maybe instead of different modifiers on on each element, it can just give a different boon for the duration? I fear that might get gimmicky though.

To comment on the OPs idea though. How long do you imagine it would last? Recharge time? Interval between pulls? (e.g., whirlpool pulls every x sec. which I don’t know the exact detail of). Pull radius?

I just think it could be either too weak or abused depending on the interval of the pulls (and radius of the pulls). (e.g., elementalist pulls them all in constantly and teammate just AOEs them). The reality is that people can escape the whirlpool due to its pull interval. However, since the underwater skills are limited, people can’t punish the whirlpool too much. On land however, this will be different.

Obviously the magnitude of the effects would have to be checked for balance, but I really like the idea of incorporating attunement swapping into the skill.

I’m trying to think through it… At this moment, I think I wouldn’t mind it, but I still wonder if there could be more interesting ideas that would require the player to really consider the context of the situation (i.e., positioning, opponent’s build and skills on recharge, etc.).

personally i think all tornado needs is either some form of projectile protection

either give it projectile reflection like dagger storm or something new.
like for every projectile that hits it, it absorbs the projectile and because its now part of the tornado ur tornado’s dmg and/or range increases.
another way would be it stores up the projectiles as charges and either u get a skill to release projectile as dmg, more projectile stored the more dmg or it can be if u let the tornado run its full duration, it will release all its stored projectile as it dissipates, dealing dmg and maybe bleed/cripple as status effect.

feel like that much simpler to balance compared to basically completely remaking the skill.