Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing my ele extensively in all game modes since hot launch and I have come to the conclusion that overloading is simply a very boring profession mechanic. It’s basically you being a moving area of effect for 4 seconds and a field at the end of the channel for 2 of the attunements. That’s it! You cant doing anything while you channel the overload other than the instant cast skills, anything else would just interrupt your overload. You can’t fit the overloads into any decent pvp rotation, it’s not a mobility skill, it’s not a burst, it’s not a cc and it offers no useful finishers (4 seconds channel for a blast finisher cmon!). Most of time, I simply find myself chasing down people during overload to either share boons or to dmg foes. It feels dumb, it doesn’t look graceful at all and it brings nothing new to this class. If the devs designed Overload with the intention of challenging our skill level or elevating our play style, they are sadly mistaken. I mean at this rate they might as well change the class name from elementalist to aoe king, cause that’s all we are getting just more aoes.

Yep it is, but it’s the best they could deliver (which is really troubling) in the small amount of time they took to develop Tempest. Clearly it was rushed – even Rebound was completely remade in record time and never adjusted. They removed the might from cantrips to give it to fire overloads (else fire overload would be completly worthless), powerful auras overlap the shouts (what a bad design).

Have you seen a fight between 2 tempest ele? It’s the most boring thing ever. There is so little damage going on that you can have a discussion while fighting.

With Staff it’s even worse because the overloads don’t make any sense at 1200 range.

Xillllix.3485:

Yep it is, but it’s the best they could deliver (which is really troubling) in the small amount of time they took to develop Tempest. Clearly it was rushed – even Rebound was completely remade in record time and never adjusted. They removed the might from cantrips to give it to fire overloads (else fire overload would be completly worthless), powerful auras overlap the shouts (what a bad design).

Have you seen a fight between 2 tempest ele? It’s the most boring thing ever. There is so little damage going on that you can have a discussion while fighting.

With Staff it’s even worse because the overloads don’t make any sense at 1200 range.

Not only that.

They removed might from cantrips so they could have shouts give might.
They have no idea how to balance ele so in the literally last second they gave auras vigor and protection (i.e. they made shouts into cantrips).
They also took away auras on signets and gave that to shouts.

Tempest is by FAR the most underwhelming (even if not underpowered) elite spec, coupled with Berzerker.

If only boring, but with the amount of dazes and cc in the game, in pvp you’re gonna have a hard time to finish any overload except earth and that’s risky, too. I don’t know what was going through their heads when they came up with this.

I don’t find Overloads boring. They’re actually really exciting because every time you activate one, you essentially commit to spending 4 seconds totally helpless, not knowing whether you’ll be dead or chain-CCed by the time the animation completes.

I’m using auramancer in PvP and altough i agree with some points (cantrips nerfed to make shouts more appealing) I find tempest quite fun.
Probably it’s because i’ve played DD ele only a little time and from the point of view of someone who spent years with ele this elite must look underwhelming, I can understand that.

For the old D/D eles tempest is booring. It plays quite diffrent and disrups fast elmental swaping. I can understand that it is boring. But its not a bad elite. For me it was an upgrade of my character and playstyle. But i did´t use daggers, and i think thats one of the main things. It doesn´t support offhand dagger well.
The only sad thing will be it it settles to only one viable spec(type). This woudl mean dispite so much options with ele there is not much build diversity again … And thats a pitty.

I have to agree. Waiting on the overload seems to slow down the rotation, and even then, it’s not that good without stability.

I would have much preferred a “Death Shroud” bar and overloading an attunement made that attunement that much stronger:

Fire – Increase damage modifier to all Fire skills with cool fiery particles
Water – Increase healing modifier to water regen skills with cool watery particles
Air – Increase faster recharge for all Air skills (Alacrity) with cool airy particles
Earth – Increase in toughness or something like Diamond Skin with cool Earthy particles

Since I started this threat I’ve been playing my other toons to see what the other elite specializations are all about. Now I’m more disappointed about tempest than ever. I just don’t think the devs put enough effort into designing tempest.

If you just look at dragonhunter’s virtues: the spear of justice is a pull, the wings of resolve is a leap and the shield of courage is a frontal projectile block. Each of them plays a role in the dragonhunter’s rotation and they synergize well with the other skills. Like you can use the spear to pull people to your traps if they are not going to step on them willingly or just use it to proc the dmg trait and apply burning for ur burning traits. Use the wings of resolve to heal allies or if you play aggressively use it as a gap closer.

These profession mechanisms, this is what you call good design. They are fun, intuitive and they feel impactful when you use them. Whenever I overload an attunement i just feel im not making an impact on anything around me. The animations are cool, I totally dig that, but everybody around me either allies or foes, they just keep doing whatever they were doing and I’m still chasing ppl around like a mental patient that just escaped the psych ward. Especially that air attunement, it gives me the worst feeling of them all. It makes me feel like a nuisance, like a giant wasp going around buzzing in everybody’s ear. It is an effective skill, don’t get me wrong, but what satisfaction can you get from downing someone with that thing? I know anet wants to fit eles into a pure support role and I have already accepted that, but nobody said u can’t have fun while supporting. Plus, they said it themselves, they want to go esport with gw2, how is dumbed down generic mechanisms like overload gonna appeal to any pro to main ele?

I agree. Tempest blows. Do any of the other elite specs actually provide penalties? Having to channel for 4 seconds is bad enough, and then you also have to wait in the attunement for 5 seconds, and then on top of all that, doing it incurs a penalty?? doubled attunement cooldown. wtf

I tried several times to work with it, but I can’t like it. It’s nowhere near good enough to be worth all those drawbacks.

I just type stuff to my party members and strike up a conversation while I am overloading. I mean 4 seconds is a lot of time for me to type at the speed I do. What else am I going to do? Move a tiny bit in PvE so I don’t die? That is about it.

I’ll let others figure out uses in PvP but in WvW and PvE it is very bland.

for pvp only find earth overload useful… only fix I would add is being able to cast while you do them.. so you can teleport in the the middle of the enemies as earth is finishing for 4 second immobilize…I am not an adept pvp player so what should I know… I speak from WvW point of view.

kuritsutian.2987:

for pvp only find earth overload useful… only fix I would add is being able to cast while you do them.. so you can teleport in the the middle of the enemies as earth is finishing for 4 second immobilize…I am not an adept pvp player so what should I know… I speak from WvW point of view.

You are not able to cast, but you can always use instant spells like lightning flash. I often flash and finish on players to immobilize. Unless I’m tripping, I don’t think teleporting or using any instant spells like (obsidian flesh) cancel the overload. It is too bad they made the overloads so long, cause you can even overload in mist form, but it cancels when you come out, preventing you from finishing an overload.

I think a few of the overloads need a slight boost, but mostly I am happy with them. I can understand how some people find them slow. They are in fact trying to bring a slower playstyle to the elementalist. My friend who is pretty bad at ele asked me why anyone would play the base class with tempest available. The tempest is helpful for those who have trouble the combos of elementalist. When I’m feeling more lazy, I’ll often play staff tempest for pve. With lava font on down, I often don’t even need to worry about getting downed, as I usually kill something for a rally after I do.

So overall, the overloads do slow down the playstyle, and give little actual benifit (just a different playstyle). I think they did a good job with tempest. Sure, like many others I was really looking forward to a fast paced melee sword tempest. Instead we got a warhorn and gimmicky spells. (except shouts, these rock) Some probably feel disapointed, but hopefully the next spec that comes out will be a quick and effective melee class. Hopefully a grandmaster will give 300 vit like the guard one to make it viable in real melee. And I hope it has base range 130, and lots of teleports. Kind of like watching an anime where the guy draws his sword at a distance, and the next second he is behind the person sheathing his sword, and the person explodes in flames. I can dream…

Xillllix.3485:

Yep it is, but it’s the best they could deliver (which is really troubling) in the small amount of time they took to develop Tempest. Clearly it was rushed – even Rebound was completely remade in record time and never adjusted. They removed the might from cantrips to give it to fire overloads (else fire overload would be completly worthless), powerful auras overlap the shouts (what a bad design).

Have you seen a fight between 2 tempest ele? It’s the most boring thing ever. There is so little damage going on that you can have a discussion while fighting.

With Staff it’s even worse because the overloads don’t make any sense at 1200 range.

This. Class is rushed and pretty much terrible.

I’ve been using a tanky staff tempest build in WvW that relies a ton on overloads, and it’s a lot of fun. The playstyle is radically different from the glassy backline ele staff build I used to run, but it’s new and interesting and refreshing.

That said, I think even a cursory examination of tempest would reveal that it wasn’t intended to “elevate the ele playstyle” or “challenge our skill level”. By it’s very nature overloading means you aren’t attunement swapping as much, your APM is lower…it just is what it is. It’s a slower and more calculated ele play style. That doesn’t automatically make it any better or worse, just different. If you fell in love with ele for the high APM twitchy attunement swapping playstyle, you probably aren’t going to like tempest as much. That’s ok. You still have access to the base ele.

By nature all the elite specs change their core professions in a significant way that not everyone is going to jive with. But if the tempest and overloads were designed to offer a fresh way of playing ele that is fun in its own right, I think Anet was successful in that regard. It’s just not for everyone, and probably more fun in some game modes than others.

I like Overloading. It’s a lot of fun.

BrickFurious.7169:

I’ve been using a tanky staff tempest build in WvW that relies a ton on overloads, and it’s a lot of fun. The playstyle is radically different from the glassy backline ele staff build I used to run, but it’s new and interesting and refreshing.

That said, I think even a cursory examination of tempest would reveal that it wasn’t intended to “elevate the ele playstyle” or “challenge our skill level”. By it’s very nature overloading means you aren’t attunement swapping as much, your APM is lower…it just is what it is. It’s a slower and more calculated ele play style. That doesn’t automatically make it any better or worse, just different. If you fell in love with ele for the high APM twitchy attunement swapping playstyle, you probably aren’t going to like tempest as much. That’s ok. You still have access to the base ele.

By nature all the elite specs change their core professions in a significant way that not everyone is going to jive with. But if the tempest and overloads were designed to offer a fresh way of playing ele that is fun in its own right, I think Anet was successful in that regard. It’s just not for everyone, and probably more fun in some game modes than others.

I’m glad you are enjoying the overloads in WvW since I have not been able to do the same. You are absolutely right that tempest is not for everybody. Some people like it, some people might never will and if people absolutely hate it they can play the classic ele since its still there. But, you see there lies the problem, can you still have fun playing the classic ele? And the answer is NO at least in spvp. The spvp meta has changed quite a lot after hot launch and the general consensus is that the elite specializations are significantly stronger than their classic counterparts. I have tried to play the old builds that I used the enjoy but currently they are simply no longer effective enough to compete with the new stuffs from the elite specializations. And with my fun largely based on how effective I can be in spvp games, I’m really not having any fun playing the classic ele. I know people are finding ways to enjoy tempest in pve and wvw and I’ll probably will too but I’m just a stubborn guy that want o play my ele in spvp and so far i have not found an enjoyable way to.

As an ele/mes main for 3 years I had to drop both classes. Mes because the direction chrono went is amazing but for some reason I just don’t like it and I can’t explain it. Mes engi and necro have by far the best communities as well. On the flip side I love tempest but the ele community is harsh and for the most part bad. If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

i was an Ele main for 3 years and I dropped it and haven’t played it since.

Tempest was by far the most disappointing thing in the whole expansion.

I like the concept of overloading elements but everything about the implementation just looks and feel wrong IMHO.

Azure.8670:

If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

Totally agree, it is not just fun to play but a great performer in PvP even WvW with the support provided while keeping the damage output (Specially Celestial ones).

I started to play PvP to see how it is. I still play unranked having only 34 matches solo. So its very mixed. Sometimes there are 2-4 player teams showing up and the side who gets them wins 90%.
I use my ele S/F build but had to adapt equipement since i only have amulet + rune. I use soldiers + wanderer and it works well.
I win significant more then i loose. I did feel diamond skin on tempests. In 1:1 this is realy hard for a condi build. I can´t get a well played tempest with it down.
He has a significant starting advantage and since i am tanky this usualy lasts till help arives.
Can hold points and kill in 1:1. With soldier rune and shouts i do nice in team support. I constantly get the following top performs.
Condis applied, condies removed (myself and team) and somtimes most allyhealing points taken and kills … I can bind oponents for a while.
Droping arcane for tempest is diffrent but performs…. For me it fits better then the old ele, but i can understand playing D/D for three years and then ……..

The real problem with tempest remains warhorn, even if the overload are disappointing.

Warhorn is by definition a boring weapon in this game and they didn’t make up for that with cool skills, like they did with mesmer shield. All the warhorn skills are slow and bad. Compared to the Reaper getting greatsword or the thief getting staff it’s just really disappointing.

Azure.8670:

As an ele/mes main for 3 years I had to drop both classes. Mes because the direction chrono went is amazing but for some reason I just don’t like it and I can’t explain it. Mes engi and necro have by far the best communities as well. On the flip side I love tempest but the ele community is harsh and for the most part bad. If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

Neko.9021:

Azure.8670:

As an ele/mes main for 3 years I had to drop both classes. Mes because the direction chrono went is amazing but for some reason I just don’t like it and I can’t explain it. Mes engi and necro have by far the best communities as well. On the flip side I love tempest but the ele community is harsh and for the most part bad. If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The ele is only best as waterbot bunker healer at the moment, perhaps you can consider class canon meteors being “best at something”, but that is just because the PvE AI is really lacking and enemies stay in the red circle. I will give you this, the ele is good with fields and some cc.

For condi and spike damage, at both close range and long range other classes are better.

Play another class. I love the overload mechanic for its synergy and intended effect of giving the player a reason to stay in each attunement longer.

I used to main a guardian, but I don’t like the dragon hunter, so now I play the tempest and I’m loving it!

Xillllix.3485:

Neko.9021:

Azure.8670:

As an ele/mes main for 3 years I had to drop both classes. Mes because the direction chrono went is amazing but for some reason I just don’t like it and I can’t explain it. Mes engi and necro have by far the best communities as well. On the flip side I love tempest but the ele community is harsh and for the most part bad. If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The ele is only best as waterbot bunker healer at the moment, perhaps you can consider class canon meteors being “best at something”, but that is just because the PvE AI is really lacking and enemies stay in the red circle. I will give you this, the ele is good with fields and some cc.

For condi and spike damage, at both close range and long range other classes are better.

And here lies the problem

You acknowledge that Ele is in the meta, especially in a harsh and awful pvp meta it has somehow STILL found a way to get in there, and yet you STILL bash it. Other classes cant even come close and you still find a way to put Ele down in every single post single the Tempest reveal, and actually before that. I know you love Ele but you hurt this community far more than you help it

Azure.8670:

Xillllix.3485:

Neko.9021:

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The ele is only best as waterbot bunker healer at the moment, perhaps you can consider class canon meteors being “best at something”, but that is just because the PvE AI is really lacking and enemies stay in the red circle. I will give you this, the ele is good with fields and some cc.

For condi and spike damage, at both close range and long range other classes are better.

And here lies the problem

You acknowledge that Ele is in the meta, especially in a harsh and awful pvp meta it has somehow STILL found a way to get in there, and yet you STILL bash it. Other classes cant even come close and you still find a way to put Ele down in every single post single the Tempest reveal, and actually before that. I know you love Ele but you hurt this community far more than you help it

dunno about this guy, but this topic is about tempest being boring, not about it being underpowered

Azure.8670:

Xillllix.3485:

Neko.9021:

Azure.8670:

As an ele/mes main for 3 years I had to drop both classes. Mes because the direction chrono went is amazing but for some reason I just don’t like it and I can’t explain it. Mes engi and necro have by far the best communities as well. On the flip side I love tempest but the ele community is harsh and for the most part bad. If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The ele is only best as waterbot bunker healer at the moment, perhaps you can consider class canon meteors being “best at something”, but that is just because the PvE AI is really lacking and enemies stay in the red circle. I will give you this, the ele is good with fields and some cc.

For condi and spike damage, at both close range and long range other classes are better.

And here lies the problem

You acknowledge that Ele is in the meta, especially in a harsh and awful pvp meta it has somehow STILL found a way to get in there, and yet you STILL bash it. Other classes cant even come close and you still find a way to put Ele down in every single post single the Tempest reveal, and actually before that. I know you love Ele but you hurt this community far more than you help it

He is right, though. The elite specs were supposed to be a different way to play your class, but we got a heal/buff bot instead. It’s basically the same as before, we only have less damage now. I’m bored to death each time I play tempest in pvp. It’s the same old, same old in every game mode and you can’t blame people for wanting to have options.

Laraley.7695:

Azure.8670:

Xillllix.3485:

Neko.9021:

Azure.8670:

As an ele/mes main for 3 years I had to drop both classes. Mes because the direction chrono went is amazing but for some reason I just don’t like it and I can’t explain it. Mes engi and necro have by far the best communities as well. On the flip side I love tempest but the ele community is harsh and for the most part bad. If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The ele is only best as waterbot bunker healer at the moment, perhaps you can consider class canon meteors being “best at something”, but that is just because the PvE AI is really lacking and enemies stay in the red circle. I will give you this, the ele is good with fields and some cc.

For condi and spike damage, at both close range and long range other classes are better.

And here lies the problem

You acknowledge that Ele is in the meta, especially in a harsh and awful pvp meta it has somehow STILL found a way to get in there, and yet you STILL bash it. Other classes cant even come close and you still find a way to put Ele down in every single post single the Tempest reveal, and actually before that. I know you love Ele but you hurt this community far more than you help it

He is right, though. The elite specs were supposed to be a different way to play your class, but we got a heal/buff bot instead. It’s basically the same as before, we only have less damage now. I’m bored to death each time I play tempest in pvp. It’s the same old, same old in every game mode and you can’t blame people for wanting to have options.

Ok but Ele has been able to do everything, top tier, forever. Melee, bunker, dps, range, support, everything. It has been in every Meta and still is. Berserker and Thief didnt get a new way to play, and cant even get into a pvp match. Tempest is dominating. People call Tempest boring but were fine play cele d/d forever, and cleric soldier d/d before that (thats aimed at you, DaPhoenix). Whatever tho

Azure.8670:

Ok but Ele has been able to do everything, top tier, forever.

not true at all
before I started back (which was a month or so ago), the last time I played this game, elementalist occupied pvp’s garbage tier.

reikken.4961:

Azure.8670:

Xillllix.3485:

Neko.9021:

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The ele is only best as waterbot bunker healer at the moment, perhaps you can consider class canon meteors being “best at something”, but that is just because the PvE AI is really lacking and enemies stay in the red circle. I will give you this, the ele is good with fields and some cc.

For condi and spike damage, at both close range and long range other classes are better.

And here lies the problem

You acknowledge that Ele is in the meta, especially in a harsh and awful pvp meta it has somehow STILL found a way to get in there, and yet you STILL bash it. Other classes cant even come close and you still find a way to put Ele down in every single post single the Tempest reveal, and actually before that. I know you love Ele but you hurt this community far more than you help it

dunno about this guy, but this topic is about tempest being boring, not about it being underpowered

Thanks bro! With all these comments about balancing I thought ppl were reading another thread.

Because Lava Font spam was engaging in PvE?

Neko.9021:

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The fact it’s basically overpowered and still lambasted ought to tell you how much the spec is hated.

An elite that synergizes with water has the potential of being strong to OP. This was quite clear. Cantrips could be substituted with shouts and thus the ele sustain extended to teammates. So the spec is stronger because it added team support keeping basic sustain nearly the same. And this forced into a slowed down playstyle going contrary to arcane ele … A lot of old eles had to hate this.

I enjoy fresh air overload play with scepter focus for dueling. While one can argue about tempest implementation, im enjoying the added playstyle. Maybe because i can go full zerker and get so much benefits on demand through buffed 5 shouts. This also makes it an easier build to play due to certain traits, like 40% prot and weakness on affected enemy.

nacario.9417:

I enjoy fresh air overload play with scepter focus for dueling. While one can argue about tempest implementation, im enjoying the added playstyle. Maybe because i can go full zerker and get so much benefits on demand through buffed 5 shouts. This also makes it an easier build to play due to certain traits, like 40% prot and weakness on affected enemy.

I really want to play Marauder (or even Zerker!) Tempest, but I find things in PvP just hit way too hard to make it viable. Have you found a way to make it viable in Conquest?

i just want to change attunements while overloading

That would help a lot (but wouldn’t make sense)

I took all the instant cast skills with my overload spec so it’s not so bad. (also i’m asura so it’s a big advantage)

Esquilax.3491:

Because Lava Font spam was engaging in PvE?

yea lets not discuss this. camp fire, while using a ranged weapon standing in melee range and press 2 2 2 2 2 2 icebow 4 2 2 2 2 2 meh why not 5 2 2 2 2 2 22 2 22 2

yep

Azure.8670:

Xillllix.3485:

Neko.9021:

Azure.8670:

As an ele/mes main for 3 years I had to drop both classes. Mes because the direction chrono went is amazing but for some reason I just don’t like it and I can’t explain it. Mes engi and necro have by far the best communities as well. On the flip side I love tempest but the ele community is harsh and for the most part bad. If you don’t like tempest that’s fine but calling it trash when it dominates in pvp and pve is just stupid

Ele community is bizarre. Even being the best at everything isn’t good enough for the community.

The ele is only best as waterbot bunker healer at the moment, perhaps you can consider class canon meteors being “best at something”, but that is just because the PvE AI is really lacking and enemies stay in the red circle. I will give you this, the ele is good with fields and some cc.

For condi and spike damage, at both close range and long range other classes are better.

And here lies the problem

You acknowledge that Ele is in the meta, especially in a harsh and awful pvp meta it has somehow STILL found a way to get in there, and yet you STILL bash it. Other classes cant even come close and you still find a way to put Ele down in every single post single the Tempest reveal, and actually before that. I know you love Ele but you hurt this community far more than you help it

Tempest is boring. Not that it isn’t viable. I mean who wants to bunker 24/7 to make it work? Or sit in overload for 4 seconds while you do pretty much nothing as you can’t do anything otherwise it interrupts the overload.

Glenstorm.4059:

nacario.9417:

I enjoy fresh air overload play with scepter focus for dueling. While one can argue about tempest implementation, im enjoying the added playstyle. Maybe because i can go full zerker and get so much benefits on demand through buffed 5 shouts. This also makes it an easier build to play due to certain traits, like 40% prot and weakness on affected enemy.

I really want to play Marauder (or even Zerker!) Tempest, but I find things in PvP just hit way too hard to make it viable. Have you found a way to make it viable in Conquest?

In Sapphire/Ruby im having ok results, im not playing as much i would like to get a better overview due to focus on raids and IRL. Of course the current meta holds it a bit back, but the build can hold its own in 1v1 with good burst to cover on point. U could play it as a node 1v1/careful in teamfights (u kinda wanna avoid heavy team fights tho, at least prolonged ones).

The reason it works for me is cuz we have many possible benefits via traits when going full shouts on zerk/marauder amu with soldier runes (other runes could work as well, i just prefer em for the condi removal and extra vit, tho u may want to consider how much hp u get as too much isnt really needed as we are dmg focused). If u manage shout/aura rotation thatll be ur sustain, while often u can swap between fire and air while keeping air overload up as often if possible. If scepter got some love it would be more viable, but at least tooth can cover most of the node. The downside is mobility, not being able to quickly assist sidenode, most of it relies on u having good map awareness and see inc enemy so that u can start walking and connect at the same time.

Esquilax.3491:

Because Lava Font spam was engaging in PvE?

If you’ll notice, most of the people who are complaining about tempest played D/D (or, like me, D/F), NOT staff