Guild Wars 2

Looking at the new “Profession Reward Track” screenshot posted by Jon Peters this morning revealed an interesting tidbit:

Elementalists’s new specialization will be “Tempest”

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/

Seems like it could be interesting. While we won’t be getting shouts or anything of the like, I wonder what kinds of skills Tempests will embody.

I saw this and noticed there has been zero discussion on this. WTH? I thought people would foam at the mouth for something like this haha. I love the name. Shakespearian maybe? or maybe something to do with controlling weather? (even more than ele’s already do) Maybe the elite is some kind of hurricane.

Specialisation tempest: “Gain stability and shape-shift into a tornado that damages and launches foes.”

Just kidding, I really like the sound of this

If the specialisation weapon will be sword, then even more reason to craft bolt ^^

Isn’t tempest a set of skills? Like signets.

rotten.9753:

Isn’t tempest a set of skills? Like signets.

We know each elite specialization will give a set of skills associated with it.

Could be traps similar to Wells. Inscribe various elemental traps into the ground with various effects.

Tempest seems to described Tornado than a specialization.

Maybe someone has ideas of dervishes and dust storms?

Tempest can be so many things in so many cultures.

Could be a trait that dedicates to improvement of… Glyphs? I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it >.<

I’m not that excited only because I’m not entirely interested in wielding a sword on my ele. Greatswords would make me remotely interested, but rifles would have me bouncing off the walls with excitement. Still, I’m interested in the new heal/elite/utility skills but not so much for the new weapon type.

DanteZero.9736:

I’m not that excited only because I’m not entirely interested in wielding a sword on my ele. Greatswords would make me remotely interested, but rifles would have me bouncing off the walls with excitement. Still, I’m interested in the new heal/elite/utility skills but not so much for the new weapon type.

Yea, Dagger/dagger is about as melee as I can really imagine. Since we don’t have any weapon-swap, they are going to have to give some really strong ways to avoid being easily kited. Even d/d (which is semi-melee) struggled slightly with this at certain points in the past (especially during the dark days before the 4/15/14 patch). Further, being forced in melee range 100% of the time will really need some powerful defenses to avoid cleave. The 300+ range on dagger allows you to avoid some of that pressure, but sword at 130 range is really going to be vulnerable.

Another thing one might see on the screenshot: Bolt to the Heart = grandmaster trait.

Xaylin.1860:

Another thing one might see on the screenshot: Bolt to the Heart = grandmaster trait.

Noticed. It would be a nerf for full DPS build. I also predict Weak Spot to be moved to Major Master tier.

Xaylin.1860:

Another thing one might see on the screenshot: Bolt to the Heart = grandmaster trait.

I thought that too. For air and fire it looks like minors will stay the same (at least to me). Hopefully they buff the air #1 minor.

Looking at the rest of the icons, current trait names, and comparison with the power levels of skills (notice how all water cantrip traits are combined, for instance, and how water training combines 2 skills), these are my guesses.

Air adept:
1. One with air/soothing winds()
2. Zephyr’s boon
3. quick glyphs(maybe combined with inscription?)

Air Master (top to bottom):
1. Air training (maybe this gives -20% air CDs too)
2. Tempest defense (looks kind of like a shield, maybe?)
3. Arcane lighting or One with air (perhaps combined with zephyr’s focus) ()

Air Grandmaster (top to bottom):
1. Lightning rod
2. fresh air (clearly this a air freshener)
3. bolt to the heart (probably +20% damage below 50% health)

Fire adept:
1. Burning Precision ()
2. Ember’s might ()
3. Lava Tomb

Fire Master (top to bottom):
1. Pyromancer’s training (combination of Internal fire and pyromancer’s alacrity)
2. Fire’s Embrace
3. One with fire (possibly combined with pyromancer’s puissance, which makes sense for a spec that wants to camp fire)

Fire GM: (top to bottom):
1. Spellslinger (combine burning fire + spellslinger)??
2. Persisting flames
3. Blinding Ashes

Yeah, there are some very obvious icons in that screenshot. I’m amazed about your assessment for the fire line, though. Most of them look like blurry flames.

I’m really hoping for Tempest Shield becoming a Master trait. Would be awesome for Aura and Lightning Rod builds.

Xaylin.1860:

Yeah, there are some very obvious icons in that screenshot. I’m amazed about your assessment for the fire line, though. Most of them look like blurry flames.

I’m really hoping for Tempest Shield becoming a Master trait. Would be awesome for Aura and Lightning Rod builds.

Hahaha, a lot of the fire lines were guesses as to which traits made sense together and kinda/sorta looked right in the same way that Jackson Pollock paintings have some order.

As far as tempest defense, I think it makes sense as a master, although we will find out tomorrow during ready up (they are going over ALL traits!!).

Tempest seems to described Tornado than a specialization.

silvermember.8941:

Tempest seems to described Tornado than a specialization.

Some job classes from other MMOs have been called Tempest before. And it seems unrealistic to me that we would get an entire profession reward track for a single elite skill.

from what i gathered, tempest has to do with storms, from what i played on rift, that’s what tempest was, besides lightning magic, i’m not 100% on it though.

Random french ele passing by, ‘tempest’ is an old french world (‘tempête’ in modern french) meaning storm.
So, i do believe the tornado elite will be in here, but the idea of a full set of utilities and a specialization related to storms (together with the sword which usualy gives a good amount of mobility) is pretty cool

Ah, maybe is Tempest as in Arcane Storm?

I really thought the spec would revolve around the arcana element…

Sounds pretty epic. I imagine it’ll be tied into the Zephyrites in some way. Perhaps the elementalist has adapted some of their elemental magic to become more like a raging storm?

In the old pnp dungeons and dragons the tempest is a prestige class who wield two blades, the description of the class is something like this:

“A tempest is the point of calm within a whirling barrier of deadly blades.”

So dual wield sword ele? probably not…but i’m belive its something along those lines a sword wielding specialization with focus on mobility.

I’d prefer just a Main Hand Sword.

Mostly because our two off-hands (Dagger and Focus) have a very broad range of utility that I don’t see what another off-hand could add. Dagger could compliment a playstyle that focuses more on leaps and heavy offense (which I’d presume sword would have) while Focus compliments needing defense and blast finishers (which main hand Dagger has)

Necros getting Greatsword and now Eles potentially getting Sword. I love how melee the casters in gw2 can become.

Mar.4839:

Necros getting Greatsword and now Eles potentially getting Sword. I love how melee the casters in gw2 can become.

Mesmers ranged greatsword says “hi”

Revenants ranged hammer says “hi”

More likely it´s the skill type for ether renewal, torando and such. They did say all skills will have a type in future.

There´s glyphs, conjuration (conjure weapons), cantrips and signets there too, and they´re not specialisations for sure since those skilltypes have been confirmed to be integrated in other specializations (water traits for cantrip bonuses etc.)
Furthermore, skillpoint are gone so hero points will likely be what you use to get skills, and thus they are on the same page where you spend thsoe points.

i hope the new utilities will be traps. My vision for a tempest spec is a mid ranged brawler that casts from 600 range (similar to fiery great sword) and he lays down air/fire/water/earth traps.

Hm, something like a sw/d ranger + sw/f mediguardian lovechild with shout utilities would be absolutely epic!

Leaps, blinds, evades and PBAoE’s all over the place :P

Strang.8170:

More likely it´s the skill type for ether renewal, torando and such. They did say all skills will have a type in future.

There´s glyphs, conjuration (conjure weapons), cantrips and signets there too, and they´re not specialisations for sure since those skilltypes have been confirmed to be integrated in other specializations (water traits for cantrip bonuses etc.)
Furthermore, skillpoint are gone so hero points will likely be what you use to get skills, and thus they are on the same page where you spend thsoe points.

They said all skills will have a type, they never said it would be a new type. ex: Engi Mortar skill is being assigned to existing kit type. It wouldn’t make sense for one whole reward track to be assigned for 2 skills (ether renewal and tornado are the only two without a type…and technically tornado is classified as a transform.)

We know that their are reward tracks for each of the core specialization, used to unlock the traits for selection on them. So it stands to reason there will be one for Elite specializations as well (if this has not already been said directly in a blog post it has been heavily hinted at.) So unless the screen shot is from a developmental version build that does not have the new Elite spec in it yet (possible I guess, but unlikely), then the Tempest reward track is for the new Elite spec.

Weyrd.2794:

since there WILL be a reward track for the Elite specialization there is a strong likely hood that is what that reward track is for.

Gotta remember that ^

These aren’t just categories to put the skills in, they will be reward tracks, it makes very little sense that Ether Renewal and Tornado will be the only two things in the Tempest Reward Track (if they are not categorized as anything else).

Everyone says Sword is going to be a full melee set, but what about 2 elements being melee while the other two being ranged? I know, right? Too crazy.

Hynoris.3684:

In the old pnp dungeons and dragons the tempest is a prestige class who wield two blades, the description of the class is something like this:

“A tempest is the point of calm within a whirling barrier of deadly blades.”

So dual wield sword ele? probably not…but i’m belive its something along those lines a sword wielding specialization with focus on mobility.

Oh please dear lord please make this happen !!!

Given that Chronomancer is getting a spread of wells as the spec-specific utilities, I’m calling Tempest as the all-shout elite they mentioned.

Why? Because it’s weird and different and ANet claims to like those things.

The all shouts class is ranger.

But the thought of storm shouting ele sounds fun haha

Take your pick.. FUS RO DAH or Paul Atreides aka Muad’Dib

(for the uninitiated) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U86aorxbBRY

Fade.1743:

focuses more on leaps

Please no more leaps that lock you into an animation that you can’t dodge out of (looking at ranger sword).

and please no more buggy skills like RtL that overshoot fully stationary targets.

BlackBeard.2873:

DanteZero.9736:

I’m not that excited only because I’m not entirely interested in wielding a sword on my ele. Greatswords would make me remotely interested, but rifles would have me bouncing off the walls with excitement. Still, I’m interested in the new heal/elite/utility skills but not so much for the new weapon type.

Yea, Dagger/dagger is about as melee as I can really imagine. Since we don’t have any weapon-swap, they are going to have to give some really strong ways to avoid being easily kited. Even d/d (which is semi-melee) struggled slightly with this at certain points in the past (especially during the dark days before the 4/15/14 patch). Further, being forced in melee range 100% of the time will really need some powerful defenses to avoid cleave. The 300+ range on dagger allows you to avoid some of that pressure, but sword at 130 range is really going to be vulnerable.

I don’t know why they’d make sword lower range than dagger. That makes very little sense. Even if it did, S/D thief is in a similar boat and still does excellent. I expect Tempest to be similar, in that it will have lots of evasion to survive in the thick of things, lots of movement to gap close (but presumably ground targeted dashes, dodges, and charges rather than instant shadowstepping), and while it likely will have less hard CC like immobilize and stun, I expect there’ll be a great deal of softer CC like chill.

Lauriewonnacott.9841:

BlackBeard.2873:

DanteZero.9736:

I’m not that excited only because I’m not entirely interested in wielding a sword on my ele. Greatswords would make me remotely interested, but rifles would have me bouncing off the walls with excitement. Still, I’m interested in the new heal/elite/utility skills but not so much for the new weapon type.

Yea, Dagger/dagger is about as melee as I can really imagine. Since we don’t have any weapon-swap, they are going to have to give some really strong ways to avoid being easily kited. Even d/d (which is semi-melee) struggled slightly with this at certain points in the past (especially during the dark days before the 4/15/14 patch). Further, being forced in melee range 100% of the time will really need some powerful defenses to avoid cleave. The 300+ range on dagger allows you to avoid some of that pressure, but sword at 130 range is really going to be vulnerable.

I don’t know why they’d make sword lower range than dagger. That makes very little sense. Even if it did, S/D thief is in a similar boat and still does excellent. I expect Tempest to be similar, in that it will have lots of evasion to survive in the thick of things, lots of movement to gap close (but presumably ground targeted dashes, dodges, and charges rather than instant shadowstepping), and while it likely will have less hard CC like immobilize and stun, I expect there’ll be a great deal of softer CC like chill.

Don’t forget, s/d thief has shortbow to deal with teamfights and situations when it can’t just rely on evading everything. My point was that, unless ele can attain even MORE dodge uptime than s/d thief (which is basically not possible b/c we don’t have spammable evades and ports that ignore LOS), there is no way a melee build will work without going super-tanky. However, d/d ele is already pigeon-holed into tanking up. With changes to arcana it will be even harder to get out of the earth/water/arcana for sustain to justify tempest.

My guess is that the damage will be high, but innate defenses won’t be high enough for pvp. Tempest is probably a pve-only spec if its melee range.

I just have to ask, how do we know that sword ele is not going to be ranged like GS mesmer and hammer rev?

Uden Reavstone.3426:

I just have to ask, how do we know that sword ele is not going to be ranged like GS mesmer and hammer rev?

Data mining a few weeks back showed it will likely be a melee class. Also, you need to consider that so far it seems to be a mainhand only weapon – unlikely that eles will dual wield Sword.

Also, usually in RPGs tempest is used to denominate melee fighters which excel at maneuverability and quick attacks, so it also seems unlikely to go with a ranged flavor.

Another possible indication that it will be melee is that as a one handed weapon, it would only be usable with Dagger Off hand (a melee weapon) or Focus (which has more defensive skills). Ranged sword with melee dagger would be a weird combination, so you would be left with only one option – sword and focus, which kinda goes against their goal of having build diversity if it only meshes with one of the off-hands.

What leaves me concerned with tempest though is how likely it will overlap with dagger, our other melee weapon. I don’t know how they are planning on making it a good dispute between going dagger or sword, if both are focused in melee.

At the end of the day I think we will have either dagger being deemed redundant or sword being discarded, rather than having a new build option…. this is left to be seen, but I don’t have a good feeling about it after the trait changes.

Azel.4786:

Uden Reavstone.3426:

I just have to ask, how do we know that sword ele is not going to be ranged like GS mesmer and hammer rev?

Data mining a few weeks back showed it will likely be a melee class. Also, you need to consider that so far it seems to be a mainhand only weapon – unlikely that eles will dual wield Sword.

Also, usually in RPGs tempest is used to denominate melee fighters which excel at maneuverability and quick attacks, so it also seems unlikely to go with a ranged flavor.

Another possible indication that it will be melee is that as a one handed weapon, it would only be usable with Dagger Off hand (a melee weapon) or Focus (which has more defensive skills). Ranged sword with melee dagger would be a weird combination, so you would be left with only one option – sword and focus, which kinda goes against their goal of having build diversity if it only meshes with one of the off-hands.

What leaves me concerned with tempest though is how likely it will overlap with dagger, our other melee weapon. I don’t know how they are planning on making it a good dispute between going dagger or sword, if both are focused in melee.

At the end of the day I think we will have either dagger being deemed redundant or sword being discarded, rather than having a new build option…. this is left to be seen, but I don’t have a good feeling about it after the trait changes.

Ok. I see some of your points, but have you never played a S/D ele before? Ranged main hand, melee off hand, and I must say, very fun.

Something the gives your group an advantage.

will probably choose tempest due to kittenty air tree, kittenty utilities and kittenty elites in core profession. hopefully tempest will have useful traits utilities and elite

Azel.4786:

Uden Reavstone.3426:

I just have to ask, how do we know that sword ele is not going to be ranged like GS mesmer and hammer rev?

Data mining a few weeks back showed it will likely be a melee class. Also, you need to consider that so far it seems to be a mainhand only weapon – unlikely that eles will dual wield Sword.
…
Ranged sword with melee dagger would be a weird combination, so you would be left with only one option – sword and focus, which kinda goes against their goal of having build diversity if it only meshes with one of the off-hands.

Main-hand torch.

How do you mix up a 4 element class? Hybrid elements.

How do you do something new and unusual after ranged greatsword/hammer? Melee torch.

What gives you both? Main-hand torch.

Nialla Lystrome.5069:

Azel.4786:

Uden Reavstone.3426:

I just have to ask, how do we know that sword ele is not going to be ranged like GS mesmer and hammer rev?

Data mining a few weeks back showed it will likely be a melee class. Also, you need to consider that so far it seems to be a mainhand only weapon – unlikely that eles will dual wield Sword.
…
Ranged sword with melee dagger would be a weird combination, so you would be left with only one option – sword and focus, which kinda goes against their goal of having build diversity if it only meshes with one of the off-hands.

Main-hand torch.

How do you mix up a 4 element class? Hybrid elements.

How do you do something new and unusual after ranged greatsword/hammer? Melee torch.

What gives you both? Main-hand torch.

You know this is the ELEMENTALIST forum, NOT necromancer. The dead should stay dead, don’t you agree? (PS look at the date of the last post).

PlatinumMember.5274:

You know this is the ELEMENTALIST forum, NOT necromancer. The dead should stay dead, don’t you agree? (PS look at the date of the last post).

Continue a thread, people cry. Start a new thread, people cry. Post on a forum, people cry.

Alternately, people could learn to deal.