Guild Wars 2

Currently Tempest is useless with staffs since the overload is for close range only. Make The overload for Air to be an AoE with 900-1200 range, so staff can have at least one Overload they can use too.

I kinda agreen but only with a fue like fire and Air should be a ground targetable, luckily the did make some changes with the aoe size, and i’m sure their are more that they have not said.

I agree and would also include the fire overload as well as air.

Strongly agree, but i’d go further and make all the overloads but earth create storm AOEs that are summoned at point-blank range but then move in the direction they are cast, up to 900 range (so there’d be a mobile fire field, water field, lightning field).

At least then they can be used with all 3 weapons. I still think it’s appalling design that current Tempest only works with dagger mainhand.

scerevisiae.1972:

Strongly agree, but i’d go further and make all the overloads but earth create storm AOEs that are summoned at point-blank range but then move in the direction they are cast, up to 900 range (so there’d be a mobile fire field, water field, lightning field).

At least then they can be used with all 3 weapons. I still think it’s appalling design that current Tempest only works with dagger mainhand.

I wouldn’t go that far with all, I think earth could get a knock back, max 3 depending on the person’s range, water I don’t have any problems with, because I think it is rather strong. I do like that trait that gives swiftness to you when Overloading, but I also think the change time should be about 2~3s for all of them.

Both scepter and staff can function just fine at close range, and Elementalist has the tools to quickly get in and get out even if you want to use overloads and still fight mainly at range.

Plus, its a fact of the game that some weapons / utilities are going to work better together than others. Elite Specs are just another layer added that will work more with some options than others. I don’t see why they need to work with everything.

They don’t need to work with everything but they shouldn’t work with only 1 thing either. Especially when that one thing is a direct copy of an existing playstyle (D/D)

Personally, I disagree with the basic assumption of the thread…

Tempest works best when combined with a ranged weapon. When coupled with a dagger, it’s just adding more melee to melee. When coupled with a ranged weapon, it allows for more hybrid playstyle: using overloads for hit-and-run attacks before reverting to ranged attacks, or using your overloads as a close-range nova for when you just can’t manage to keep all of your attackers at a safe distance.

Turning the more offensive overloads into standoff skills will destroy that, especially since a longer range will probably be compensated for by less impact. If pure artillery is your preferred style, then this probably isn’t your specialisation. Maybe the next one will be more your style, but in the meantime, the core elementalist specialisations are still pretty awesome.

I would love 1 real ranged overload because in that way dagger & scepter can have 1 long ranged attack that for a non swapping class gives something new to the way they can play. Staff would benefit 2, because it already has 2 melee overloads and in certain situations those are not the best option.

Again, strongly disagree.

I do agree that an elite specialisation that uses a ‘specialisation mechanic’ to allow dagger eles to have some limited range options would be a good thing – however, Tempest is not (or at least should not be - ArenaNet has backflipped a lot over the past few years, after all) the only elementalist elite speculation there will ever be. The next one may have what you want. In the meantime, there are options available from utilities – conjures for longer-term standoff capability, and things like Arcane Blast, Arcane Wave, and Glyph of Storms if you just want to throw something as you come in.

It’s really not the end of the world if the first elite specialisation for your favourite profession is not everything you could have wished for. “You can’t please all the people all the time” is a cliche for a reason, after all. Better to let the Tempest keep the playstyle it does have rather than having it pull in multiple directions trying to please absolutely everyone - the next elementalist elite specialisation may be the one that brings what you’re asking for.

yer said this in another thread:

ow yer and could we stop focusing the ele’s abilities on close combat -.-
yes i am looking at the tempest attunement design (and new skills for that matter, horn not included),
overdrive is an awesome cool idea and i actually wrote an idea extremely similar as a suggestion way back: (i can only assume the smartest dev saw it and thought “thats sounds cool, lets see if we can’t get it in”; and he was sooo close, they just f’ed the actual effect of each attunement overdrive)
so yes, seriously stop making it a close combat thing.
allow the player to select where the overload spell is placed, in the same manner as you would with any ground target aoe… (or make the overdrive differ depending on weapons; so staff got long range abilities, scepter got the current and D gets even closer ranged)

i don’t get either why ALL the attunement overloads are basically the same thing, all aoe damage abilities around yourself (water is support though still around yourself), just silly…
fire should be AOE ground targeted,
lightning should be Single target (big laser from you to target, major damage),
water support (kinda is, but should be ground target and do something really awesome/cool),
earth should be CC+condisions or Major protection.
and all long distance, 900 or 1200 max distance)

edit:
the idea that elementalist needs to be a close range fighter is directly idiotic -.-

ow my old suggestion which is basically the overloading they put in now:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Attunement-and-Traits-Revamp-idea/first#post5440350

Tempest is a skirmish spec. It doesn’t have ranged options, just like the Reaper doesn’t, and the Dragon Hunter is more ranged. If you want to use Tempest with a staff, prepared to get in close.

In other news, I’m still waiting for OH pistol.

Wtf. It can be whatever it’s designed to be. Ele currently only has 1 real ranged weapon – even sceptre is effectively close range. A tempest casting ranged storm aoes makes perfect sense.

Ohoni.6057:

Tempest is a skirmish spec. It doesn’t have ranged options, just like the Reaper doesn’t, and the Dragon Hunter is more ranged. If you want to use Tempest with a staff, prepared to get in close.

In other news, I’m still waiting for OH pistol.

It’s ok that Reaper is melee and DH is ranged, because the weapons are 2H (even a MH weapon could have dictated this).

However with an OH, the only real mainhand this works with is dagger. Scepter seems like it was an afterthought – the blast finishers on fire don’t even work.

draxynnic.3719:

Personally, I disagree with the basic assumption of the thread…

Tempest works best when combined with a ranged weapon. When coupled with a dagger, it’s just adding more melee to melee. When coupled with a ranged weapon, it allows for more hybrid playstyle: using overloads for hit-and-run attacks before reverting to ranged attacks, or using your overloads as a close-range nova for when you just can’t manage to keep all of your attackers at a safe distance.

But this doesn’t work because the damage is poor even after buffs, can be easily avoided and interrupted.

However with an OH, the only real mainhand this works with is dagger. Scepter seems like it was an afterthought – the blast finishers on fire don’t even work.

Yeah, but you can’t think of Eles like any other class. A mainhand dagger on most classes mean they only get three abilities, and most of them are melee range. A mainhand dagger on Ele means that they get 12 abilities, most of those 400 range (over twice melee range), and a few of them 600. An Ele with a single mainhand weapon brings twice the versatility in that slot than most classes offer (even with weapon swapping), and double the range, allowing them to work that middleground of being too far out for the melee to hit, while doing more damage there than a pure ranger would.

And yes, this spec was not especially intended to work well with Scepter, although you can certainly try. Not every weapon pairing needs to be ideal, not ever spec has to work with every weapon combination. Tempest is designed to work with D/D, D/W, and maybe D/F, with S/D-W-F being weaker, and Staff being not a great idea at all. That’s fine. Just use the tools it was intended to work with, or run a vanilla Ele build instead, which is also intended to remain viable. They’ll add additional specs later that might work better for you.

I will continue to try it with scepter. For me it adds intresting things. I like the 600 range shouts with not to long CD´s. It fits my playstyle. Even the overloads are OK, but not class defining. Its the shouts/auras taht make the tempest worth for me. This means all traits put in overloads, even the basic ones, are weak. I would also add tempest on a staff support build.
The changes done till release will tell if i stick to tempest. And its not the overloads, i would not push them more. The traits are important. Speed added to tempest would be the best. Speedy conduit basline speed or even 33% which would be unique and Wooooot.