Guild Wars 2

It depends what weapons and class I’m using. When I’m running D/X ele is love action cam, but if I’m using staff its awful bahahah.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with Mercenary amu tempest with fire/earth/tempest. Running S/W, trooper runes, sigil of battle and smoldering. For utilities I run WtPA for the quicker heal, cleansing fire for burns and condi removal, feel the burn, flash freeze and rebound. Basically its just camping earth and fire to stack might, bleeds and burns. Air for cc, water for heals, pretty straightforward but a lot of fun!!

I’ve been using a mercenary tempest build with earth/fire/tempest and S/W….I love it! I feel warhorn offers the best offhand condi options…

I love warhorn, when traited in earth or water its great thanks to reduced CD on skills. It has the best healing out of any offhand thanks to the water field, plus heal and knock back on 4. Fire is great for might stacking, earth is amazing for boon duration and magnetic aura, plus on demand blind and bleeds. Air skills aren’t the best, but the air 4 is alright with action cam. I feel like warhorn offers the best condi option for an offhand as well.

I’ve been using a bruiserish(maybe??) Paladin build. Illusions/Insp/Chrono trait lines; with 2 phantasm summon skills, blink, signet of ether, gravity well, S/Sh and GS, and runes of the wurm. Thanks to the 2 traits in chrono that resummons phantasms and 1 clone for every 2 shattered you can get incredible uptime on illusions. This allows lots of shatter/grav well/continuum split combos as well as good sustain thanks to inspiration. Coupled with mobility from blink its pretty great I’ve found…and its super fun!!! I love the tanky shatter play style!

I’ve been playing around with a Paladin D/D tempest build….its actually a lot of fun!! I went Air/Arcane/Tempest with soldiers runes, force and air sigils. For utilities I use full shout and Ether Renewal as my heal. While its cast time makes it tricky, its amazing because it cleanses 8 condis! That with cleanse on shouts and water 5 is pretty solid. I run arcane line for vigor on crit, boon on hit and arcane evasion. In air I’m running ferocious winds, tempest defense, and fresh air. In tempest I’m running gale song, tempestuous aria, and heal on auras. Might and aoe weakness on shouts is actually pretty useful, it allows you to get up to 20-25 might stacks fairly easily, and you can dish out insane damage with air overload, burning speed+fire grab, and churning earth…ride the lightning for mobility and disengaging, and an extra dodge in air attunement. I’ve still been playing around with the build, but I really want to do fresh air D/D…I’m gonna switch out arcane for the other traitlines and mess around more with the build, but I really love when we all get to play around with new builds!!! once I perfect my build I’ll post it!

Sylvari reaper all the way!!! I love my female sylv reaper, she’s dark purple with bright yellow eyes, and pulsing yellow glow over her body its kitten, especially with nightmare armor or cultural armor

So I’ve been messing around more with tempest builds and I don’t think were as screwed as everyone seems to think. I’ve been using Air/Arcane/Tempest with paladins amulet, soldiers runes, force and air sigils. Full shouts with Ether Renewal for heal as 8 condi clear on an 18 sec cool down isn’t bad…and with the condi removal on shouts I’m fine! I’ve been using D/D and I love it, churning earth is giant damage and actually usable now, as well RTL for mobility and decent damage in fire attunement. I’ve been running fresh air, plus might and weakness on shouts in the tempest line so you can actually get some decent burst and A LOT of sustainable DPS thanks to air overload…..with less tankiness amongst all specs in general I’ve noticed DPS tempest is really effective….at least so far!!!

I’m gonna be going earth/air/tempest with D/W…still not sure about ammy. Probably menders or paladin, soldiers runes for condi clear and sigil of air and sigil of force. Don’t know why eles are complaining about sigil of energy nerf…do people really use it with ele??? We are one of the classes that has a ton of access to vigor, I have no problems without it currently. Ive been using sigil of force and battle with my cele tempest.

Norn ele master race!! Followed by sylvari!

This is a load of crap, so ele gets all of it’s defense nerfed, while reaper/necro gets buffed and nothing is done about eles total lack of stability and nothing was done about the all the chills and condi necro has access too. Wtf?

I play a GS/Staff carrion reaper, with 5 shouts. I run spite/sr/reap with dhuumfire, decimate defenses, pulsing vuln in shroud, death augury, blighters boon and soldiers runes for vit and toughness, plus the consistent cleanse on shouts. I love it so much!!! It’s killer in team fights but preforms fairly well in 1v1…the biggest issue with the build is mobility, but you can’t have it all lol

Glenstorm.4059:

Asherah.7651:

Poster above me know what’s up!! Only thing I’ll add is damage wise, air is the best DPS. So after mightstacking if you don’t need to heal go into air for the AA, air 5 and air 4, and then into air overload. Basically your rotations are gonna have to be a little flexible in PvP, because as a cele build your biggest goal isn’t damage unless your 1v1. Taking full advantage of sand squall and heatsync does allow you to maintain boons for a pretty large period of time. So you get some flexibility in your rotations

Yep, once you stack Might, you would go Air. What I do is cast Lightning Orb first, then use LW till Overload Air is off cool down. Cast Cyclone and Lightning Touch before Overloading; this lets you get at least a few Overload hits in guaranteed if your foe doesn’t have Stability/doesn’t use a Stun break. Use Shocking Aura while Overloading to discourage melee interrupting your Overload; if they still hit you, they’re Weakened by Lightning Touch.

That exactly what I do!!! Easily the best way to get air overload off without something like armor of earth

Poster above me know what’s up!! Only thing I’ll add is damage wise, air is the best DPS. So after mightstacking if you don’t need to heal go into air for the AA, air 5 and air 4, and then into air overload. Basically your rotations are gonna have to be a little flexible in PvP, because as a cele build your biggest goal isn’t damage unless your 1v1. Taking full advantage of sand squall and heatsync does allow you to maintain boons for a pretty large period of time. So you get some flexibility in your rotations

I will also say in regards to warhorn, I’ve noticed that its far more fun to play it with action camera on. It helps make the targeting on a lot of the skills a lot less clunky

Weekend yoloq is literally the worst thing ever….so many times would my team manage to get the lead and get up 200 points only to somehow fall apart. This happened all day yesterday bahah

Don’t forget about warhorn as well. I play a cele build and I prefer warhorn to focus or dagger. Its a nice balance between offense and defense. Not as mobile as dagger offhand, but you get way better heals over dagger or focus. Warhorn 5 in water attunement is a mobile water field that you can blast multiple times as well as water 4 which is a knock back and a heal.

A gaming mouse can make such a giant difference once you get used to it. With my naga, I have my entire skill bar at my thumb, and I get another 12 available keys just by holding shift….I would die without it bahaha

As an ele main, my Razer naga is indispensable!!

Sunshine.5014:

Asherah.7651:

Maruader fresh air tempest with earth/air/tempest and D/x actually works pretty well in soloq!

Give me a clip in Diamond League and I’ll believe it. Let’s see how you handle being chased by a Shiro Rev.

Firstly, shiro rev?? Without boon corrupt I still have a lot of 40% protection uptime so still doable. And the op wanted a viable offensive ele build, I personally play a cele tank. There are better builds obviously, but fresh air tempest is still workable. You can take full shouts+soldiers runes and you get a good combo of sustain and DPS.

Maruader fresh air tempest with earth/air/tempest and D/x actually works pretty well in soloq!

This is awesome! Now I’m definitely not going back to staff!! I’m just way more comfortable with D/x….dat mobility!!! Just curious, how does this compare with staff DPS?

You’re best bet with a tempest would be a maruader fresh air build or cele bunker

Firstly, what classes do you mainly play? In general, strong hybrid builds such as viper rev are powerful counters to tempests. Most carry powerful auras instead of cleansing water so their only condi clear are shouts and earth 4 with an offhand focus. So your goal should be to break DS and force them to use up shouts, then load with condis! However if you see two tempests on point together dont engage unless you outnumber them bahaha.

I personally feel fresh air suits D/x a lot better than staff. Staff build can definitely be amazing, but I would take bolt to the heart over fresh air for staff any day. Overloads IMO work a lot better with dagger due to the close range, superior mobility, and the fact that air auto with dagger is amazing. I love my D/W fresh air tempest for raids

Oh yes, I totally agree!! Getting a bit more condi damage would be great on overloads!! Maybe a small boost in power damage for fire and earth as well!! Tempest definitely needs a little more offensive presence! They should give warhorn some buffs as well. Bring back boonstrip on fire 5, and fire 4 definitely needs a rework. And then a buff to the air skills, maybe targeting on air 4 like air 5? And air 5 should pulse weakness and do more damage at least. Water and earth are great though!!!

Honestly, I don’t feel they should change the base effect of the water overload like a lot of people want(like giving it a bigger/faster heal) because that would be far too much healing on the tempest. People already claim bunker tempest is op, however it should be normalized to match the other overloads by having some sort of field when finishing it. I love the idea of a chill ice field or even a water field would be nice since you could then blast it yourself

It’s absolutely viable!! When I get bored of play cele bunker I’ll switch it up with fresh air. Though I use soldier runes with fresh air for the condi cleanse still, and I use scrapper runes if I’m running the water traitline. I use air and force sigils, and I have quite a bit of success!

Tempest can totally be fast paced though!!! You don’t have to build totally around support especially in pve content. I find the tempest line helps a TON with survivability in HoT content. I personally run D/W but I’ve really enjoyed D/D and S/W tempest as well!!! They key to a more fast paced tempest build is to make full use of fresh air. I would run either A/E/T or A/F/T traitlines. I like fire with scepter for the boost in might stacking and damage output, but I vastly prefer A/E/T with dagger main hand because earth and tempest traitlines give you so much sustain and survivabilty. With fresh air you can make full use of your air overload which is amazing for mobs in HoT and you don’t get stuck with a long CD penalty, fresh air works amazing with sigil of intelligence as well for a guaranteed recharge on air as soon as you switcht out. My rotation with both D/D and D/W are similar and basically just rotating in and out of air for the autoattack and overload (pretty much the best DPS with dagger main) and then fire for might stacking, water and earth for blasting fields, back into air, then out to recharge/heal/might stack and so on. I run WtPA, Aftershock, Feel the Burn, Lightning Flash and Rebound for my utilities. Shouts for auras and LF for the mobility!! Auras are amazing, if you run A/E/T you can get fury, 40% protection, regen, vigor and a heal from auras, I love it! Its balanced, fast paced and a ton of fun to play IMO! I love it for HoT stuff!

uhohhotdog.3598:

Sunshine.5014:

I want to ask a different question. Would any non-bunker Tempest be viable?

Not really no. Auras are about the only thing tempest has going for it and they’re defensive. Trying to build anything but a defensive build around it isn’t worth it.

Eh, when I get bored of playing a total bunker I’ve played a more offensive variant with E/A/T fresh air and maruaders amulet….I’ve actually had a lot of fun with it and a lot of success… It packs quite a punch for the amount of sustain and protection

Yeah I use a zerker/assassin tempest in pve, I love it!! I use trooper runes for a little more survivability and condi cleanse, 4 shout+lightning flash and Air/Earth/Tempest traitlines with D/W….I find earth to be a lot more useful than fire, earth gives you so much more survivability with the protection on auras since you’re an auramancer, but the fury on auras from air plus fresh air allows you to put out great DPS with air overload, while having solid sustain and good healing. Even untraited warhorns fire 5 skill gives an 8 sec fire field, plus fire 4 for more might and earth 4 for blast finishing and increasing duration of boons. Basically my rotations involve might stacking and rotating into air for overloads to maximize DPS, and then earth for boon increase and back into air and then might stacking, etc….and just using water heals while in water for the blast finisher. I personally love this build you get a great balance of offense and defence!

Sunshine.5014:

princode.2750:

Its funny when tempest just release ppl complain how useless it is and after a while people finally manage to figure out a meta build.

Because people were expecting a DPS build. It’s a Tempest for god sake, throwing tornadoes around. It turned out the only way to play Tempest was to spec 3 defensive lines full bunker. Ele already had a top tier bunker spec that was D/D cele. We didn’t need another bunker spec. That was why people said it was useless.

None of our Zerker sets is remotely viable.

Ele now only has bunker builds. As soon as enough people complain about it and ANet nerf it, Ele will have no other viable build. Even a Berserker can eat a zerker Tempest for breakfast with Rifle spam.

Umm…I main a tempest, and you definitely dont have to go full bunker with three defensive lines. I’ve been running auramncer with maruader, E/A/T and D/F since the elite specs launched and I have a ton of success with it. Definitely a more offensive oriented build, but it still benefits from all the active defenses and sustain from auras.

I run E/A/T marauder Auramancer with D/F….I usually take diamond skin because condi is so much harder to deal with close range especially with marauders gear because I’m squishier than a cele tempest. But DS+Soldiers runes gives just enough condi resistance and condi clear to melt reapers like no ones business. Reapers give me wayyyy more trouble on my chrono and rev though. I thinks its healthy for certain builds and classes to have good and bad matchups.

Sunshine.5014:

Taking all 3 defensive lines. Hit like a wet noodle.

It’s very sad that the viable Tempest builds are Bunker Tempest though.

I wouldn’t go so far to say the only viable builds are bunker. Like I said I run a more offensive tempest with earth/air/tempest and marauders gear and I have a ton of luck with…. Still a bit bunker-ish, but I can put out some major damage as well, especially with a near 100% crit rate almost constantly thanks to fury on auras.

God I love auramancer tempest, though I’m not a fan of the super defensive/total support specs with water/earth/tempest…sure you can bunker to hell and back but you hit like a soft breeze bahaha. Like seriously your damage output is pretty kitten bad. I’ve been running air/earth/tempest with D/F and marauders amulet and I love it! I can usually melt reapers and heralds 1v1 pretty easily, and I usually only have problems 1v2. But the damage output is so much higher, while still getting decent support and sustain, its an awesome hybrid class! I’ve gone against total bunker auramancer tempests and honestly they’re so easy to take down, they hit like a wet noodle. Overall I love that tempest turned out to be a pretty decent elite spec! A few small problems, but we could’ve gotten so much worse! Tempest really isn’t overpowered though, especially a total bunker tempest, they’re great at team support but they can’t do a ton outside of that unless they’re offensively specced, in which case they are even easier to focus down.

Yeah DS really isn’t over powered at all. It’s totally fine for a build to counter other builds man….and DS is sorta essential with earth/air/tempest because you have way less condi clear without the water trait line. Just don’t go plague form in a full health ele on 1v1, it really not that hard to get an ele under 90% HP….now if it were something like invuln to condition above 50% HP that would totally be overpowered, but its not….there’s nothing wrong with having active defenses against full condi builds

It recharges the attunement, allowing you to switch out of air, crit and and switch right back in even with the overload penalty! So you can spam the air overload, you just gotta wait the 5 seconds or whatever when you switch into air….but it doesn’t recharge your air skills unfortunately

BlackBeard.2873:

So here is your rule of thumb:

-Are their air swaps proccing lightning strikes (meaning they don’t have water): condi them and laugh

- Are their water swap splashing little bits of water: /dance on point and laugh while they tickle you

- Did they just swap elements: cc-time, they got nothin.

I can’t speak for other builds, but I main an air/earth/tempest ele…I run diamond skin and conditions really don’t give me a problem lol. Diamond skin makes things like condi based necros and reapers hilariously easy, and makes the more limited condition clear of a tempest a lot more workable.

Are you joking? I normally don’t like to say this, but that’s a l2p issue man…I play a tempest, and yes it’s pretty easy to melt a DH after you’ve worn out their traps and what not because they’re pretty defenseless (and magnetic aura craps on long bow)….but tempest don’t have much stability at all, like 1 stack if traited when you attune to earth. Not to mention a lack of stun breaks, so don’t blame classes here, when it was clearly due to skill, and being able to Dodge and mitigate trap damage isnt an issue.

Yeah, fire is sort of useless for you…definitely go air/earth/tempest if you are using D/F

Drayos.8759:

grahf.7540:

IMO cele bruiser (which is a ‘hybrid’ build) is the best approach to Tempest. D/F. I find it good at 1v1s and in teamfights. In 1v1 it is a stalemate against ‘bunker’ classes, which is usually ok. But against any squishy class, DH, Thief, Ranger, you totally destroy 1v1. You have huge self-sustain. If you run Diamond skin, you will obliterate Reapers/Necros 1v1 too. I’ve had so much salt from Reapers lately… ("Anti-condi ele, soooo cheap… etc)

Maurader fresh air is playable but I don’t think it’s near optimal.

Loboling, I like your condi removal ideas for Overloads. I really doubt they will ever make 2 stacks of stability baseline though. Maybe 1 stack baseline, and trait for 2-3?

what build to use to make it hybrid may i ask? :O hehe

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodn0XCNYiVYCGOAcYilHAz9xeZ/sDngMQHUIAcA2gA-TJBBAByXGAgTAQV7PAxDAAA
I use a build pretty much just like this as well, I haven’t perfected it either. But i’ll share it with you for a good starting point!
I’m running marauder right now, but celestial is amazing…I just like the massive crit with marauders and sigil of air!

Jski.6180:

Its a good dps class just not spike dmg like ele is. Air overloade is one of the strongest dps ele has as a class type when combined with fresh air.

This! For sure…I’m running fresh air air/earth/tempest with D/F….air overload gives great aoe DPS, you just can’t burst people down. But you are way tankier than a normal ele, so it works pretty well! You still get some decent team support as well

That’s not exactly what I meant…armor of earth is great way to get off an air overload in a high pressure situation. Its perfectly viable to use an overload without it, you just need to pay attention to your situation and make good use of auras…though I would still love a baseline stability on overload trait

Armor of earth makes getting an air overload off pretty easy….and with a focus, air 5 is a great stun for following up with air overload as well

zefs.8794:

@Asherah.7651 , @Gibe.8172

Can you guys please link those earth/air/tempest builds as I am a new player and want to try them on pvp? Thanks!

@zefs.8794
This Is what I run, I prefer diamond skin over stone heart just for the resistance to conditions. With diamond skin, earth 4 and soldiers runes I have a decent amount of condi clear, and I prefer gale song over unstable conduit just because I love the auto stun break! Hope this helps you out! Lemme know if you have any questions
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodn0XCNYiVYCGOAcYilHAz9x6zOcCSBdQhAwBYDC-TJBHwAAeAACOBA92fAZZAA

I’m sort of loving tempest too… I personally go celestial with D/F fresh air earth/air/tempest traitlines and man I love it. So much survivability, while still being able to provide group support with shouts and put out some decent damage with air overload