Guild Wars 2

Making the Overloads ground-targeted actually seems like a nerf to me. Anyone with half a brain would move out of the AoE. As they are currently, you can chase people around while Overloading, due to Speedy Conduit and Overload Earth’s cripple. I’d rather there be a Major trait to reduce Overload charge-up time to 2.5 seconds replacing Harmonious Conduit, which in turn should be part of a minor trait IMO.

Ele for life. Dervish in GW1.

Nike.2631:

Glenstorm.4059:

Maybe saying “cop-outs” was wrong on my part, and I do apologize for that.

Sorry. “Long night” would just be an excuse so let say you happened to fall at the end of a very long list of people making comparisons to other classes that are extremely slanted.

All of them are a work in progress and many of them are extremely tightly built to deliver on one vision when a little bit of shuffling could definitely open up some more build-space for us to explore. I hope Elementalist (and the others) gets one good last look between now and launch day with an eye towards how trait effects can be placed so that we’re enabled instead of constrained.

I think we’re on the same page there .

Agreed

Nike.2631:

Glenstorm.4059:

They feel like cop-outs. None of the other Elite specializations’ Master/Grandmaster minors are so narrowly targeted to their unique mechanics.

Why? Why do people even SAY things like that out loud?

Go look at Druid (heals or nuthin’), at Dragonhunter (damage bonus only at a range greater than 85% of the class’ kit) or Berserker (bonus while in your profession’s special place… sound familiar?). Then drop the woe-is-me persecution complex and try again.

Whoa there, take it down a notch. I don’t feel persecuted at all; in fact, I think Tempest is in a generally good spot. The thing is, most of those other specs’ minors have at least some utility outside of their unique mechanics, and I think that ours can and should be that way too. Ours literally make Overloads better. I’m not saying that’s bad, but the traits can be merged, and a new Grandmaster minor can be introduced that gives us synergy outside of Overloads.

Maybe saying “cop-outs” was wrong on my part, and I do apologize for that.

I agree with Tempest Master and Grandmaster minor traits being very lackluster.

They feel like cop-outs. None of the other Elite specializations’ Master/Grandmaster minors are so narrowly targeted to their unique mechanics.

Speedy Conduit, Hardy Conduit and Harmonious Conduit should all be merged into the Master minor trait (perhaps axing the damage buff after Overloading), and the Grandmaster minor should offer something unique and flavorful that isn’t related solely to improving Overloads.

Started a hotjoin match, running into team fight, hit Air Overload, nothing happened, got sad.

Anyone else miss Overloads and can’t wait till you can play Tempest for good? :p

While I think it is too late in the HoT development cycle for Anet to a minor trait overhaul, I know that they are still looking to overhaul Latent Stamina and Earthen Proxy, so with hope, I suggest the following:

-Merge Harmonious Conduit AND Speedy Conduit into Hardy Conduit as the new Master minor trait. Call it Harmonious Conduit.

-New Master Major Trait:

Intensity: Overload charge-up time reduced to 2.5 seconds.

-New Grandmaster minor trait:

-Tempestuous Escalation: Remaining in a single Attunement grants you a stacking bonus for each second you remain in that Attunement:

Fire: +1% Damage (10% cap)
Air: +2.5% Critical chance (25% cap)
Water: +2% Outgoing healing affecting other allies (20% cap)
Earth: +1% Condition damage (10% cap)

This trait’s Attunement-specific bonuses end when switching Attunements, but the trait is always active. For example, when you switch to Water after being in Fire for 10 seconds, you would lose the 10% damage bonus but immediately start accumulating the 1% outgoing heal bonus.

This synergizes well with the theme of each Attunement and each Overload. Plus, the bonuses are not boons, so they can’t be abused by boon duration/boon share, nor can they be stripped. Most importantly, it incentivizes remaining in a single Attunement, which is a major change from the Attunement dance of the base Ele.

Shuai.7435:

Shiny effects
Classes like guardian and necromancer get really fancy effects behind their skillbars and revenant, being the new class, tops them all. The elementalist skillbar, however, leaves quite alot to be desired as it’s completely void of any special effects at all. This is despite the fact that we’re talking about an elementalist, user of [fire/water/air/earth], meaning I’d be really easy to come up with four different background effects for the different attunements.

I would LOVE this!

There’s like…a 1% chance of it actually happening, but boy, would I love this.

Valento.9852:

I have a feeling that the most decent build for PvE (raids) is auramancer healer/boon sharer, there seems to be another layer of complexity as to when you should use a certain overload. I’ve run across situations where I had to decide if I should move to earth to anticipate a huge damage from mobs so protection could be paramount, or attune to water for healing ripple+water globe blasts. On some cases I wanted to smash Overload Fire on mobs’ faces, but felt too vulnerable, and even so I had that feeling “I have to complete this so it will be worth channeling, c’mon HP hang in there!”! ALL of the overloads got to a decent level, it’s just too difficult to make a decision.

Someone mentioned a 5second-cooldown stunbreak is OP, and I unfortunately have to agree. There should be an ICD on overload stunbreak before it goes unbelievably OP (remember we got already pretty nice stunbreaks such as Mist Form, Armor of Earth and now “Eye of the Storm!”, though this last one lacks a Shocking Aura).

I don’t agree that the stun breaks are OP. If you had the stun breaks ready to go upon attuning to an element, then yes. The fact that you have to stay in an Attunement and weigh the importance of the stun break versus swapping and using another skill, along with the cool down penalty, balances the stun break. Not to mention the decision of wanting to use the Overload for its effect versus purely for the stun break.

Earth Elemental is a baws. :p

I may be totally wrong, but the way I understood it, in Guild Wars 1, Dhuum (the god of death before Grenth) did not tolerate resurrection or undeath at any cost; however, when Grenth overthrew him, he allowed certain mortals to return to life if they died; our player characters were part of this special group.

In Guild Wars 2, the way I see it, resurrection is no longer commonplace with the retreat of the gods. So, being “defeated” (I don’t think Anet calling it “defeated” rather than “dead” is an accident) means you’ve been incapacitated, not killed. Waypointing requires some suspension of disbelief; I choose to believe that my character at some point regains consciousness long enough to activate an Asura waypoint, which are usually safe locations; upon arriving there, he can recuperate.

Of course, I could be totally wrong, but that’s how I see it.

Easy to dodge, yes, but at times impossible to see coming in a team fight lol. I hope it’s fixed quickly.

Although I did reflect it on two separate occasions yesterday. That was fun.

Air/Earth/Tempest with Marauder amulet and D/W was a LOT of fun.

After spending a significant amount of time with Earthen Proxy, I am in love with this trait. With its great synergy with Elemental Shielding, Hardy Conduit, Imbued Melodies, Sand Squall and Overload Earth, it provides very good and somewhat consistent damage reduction; combined with the Earth Grandmaster Minor trait, it really helps with team fights/support.

However, I believe that it REALLY SHOULD AFFECT ALLIES as well.

To circumvent the difficulty of knowing whose Protection is being affected, I suggest the following change: Earthen Proxy applies an AoE buff on you and on allies around you, like Soothing Mist or Spotter. The buff gives you the current effect of the trait, with “Source: you,” like Spotter.

Thoughts?

IMO Shatterstone’s issue is that you can avoid it even by just backpedalling. I don’t think its damage should be buffed any more, since it stacks Vulnerability decently, and Water isn’t supposed to be the damage Element anyway (Aquamancer’s Training notwithstanding. :P)

I think Shatterstone should instead pulse Chill while charging up, and its charge up time should be lowered a bit.

I agree with your other changes. I’d also like to add that Scepter has the unique potential to be both a great burst weapon OR a great condi weapon, with traits and equipment deciding which role it plays. I’d like for it to maintain that flexibility. Your suggested buffs to Fire 1, Earth 1 and Earth 3 should be enough for that to happen.

Valento.9852:

Why don’t they replace Lightning Orb to a teleport? Like Lightning Flash style, or something along the lines.

Or lower the travel speed (so it doesn’t fly past the enemy and stop attacking when it’s out of range) and add an effect that any enemies it touches are stunned.

nearlight.3064:

Later in going to try out a cele D/F build based on aura share and fire aura mightstacking. It sounds like it could work on paper with all the bottom line tempest traits, I’m just slightly worried about condition removal with fire/water/tempest, so I might be forced to take ether renewal :/

Or Rune of the Soldier/Trooper

Context: I decided to approach Tempest as a support spec oriented around Auras, rather than a DPS-oriented spec.

I’ve mostly been playing hotjoin SPvP with this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYncMAdOgNOA2NAcYiFRAzttGXzrEdgFwBYIAMAufA-TJBHABfs/AAPAgsLDMwJAAA

I know it’s not optimal in any way, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. The general gist is group support in team fights on point. Trait setup and Water/Earth Overloads give you defensive group support, while Sigil of Intelligence and Fire/Air Overloads give you offensive group support. You can do a little bit of everything, and I definitely felt like I was making a difference.

-I REALLY wish Earthen Proxy affected allies. I wish it worked like Soothing Mist or Spotter, where it places a buff on you and allies around you. The buff would state the trait’s current effects, with you as the source.

-The Earth GM Major trait is a situational pick; I went with Diamond Skin because I’m not very good with active condi cleansing, but you can just as easily go with Stone Heart or even Written in Stone, since this build does use 2 signets.

-Did I go overboard with condi removal? I have Diamond Skin, Cleansing Wave, Signet of Restoration and Crusader amulet with decent Healing Power; do I really need Cleansing Fire? Could I maybe have replaced it with one of the new Shouts (“Flash-freeze!”)?

-Should I have gone with Runes of the Solider (PvP version of Trooper runes) for the AoE condi removal, with Shouts replacing Signet of Air and Cleansing Fire?

-I’m really thinking of ditching “Rebound.” and going with FGS for the mobility.

I know it’s not a very good build, but I had fun playing it, and I’d like to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to share your Tempest builds too.

I do agree that Air Overload is in a very good spot. I don’t think that the damage is too high for the risk you’re taking with channeling it.

I hope they keep the stun breaks. The charge up time and the Attunement cool down penalty balances them IMO.

Context: I decided to approach Tempest as a support spec oriented around Auras, rather than a DPS-oriented spec.

I’ve mostly been playing hotjoin SPvP with this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAoYncMAdOgNOA2NAcYiFRAzttGXzrEdgFwBYIAMAufA-TJBHABfs/AAPAgsLDMwJAAA

I know it’s not optimal in any way, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. The general gist is group support in team fights on point. Trait setup and Water/Earth Overloads give you defensive group support, while Sigil of Intelligence and Fire/Air Overloads give you offensive group support. You can do a little bit of everything, and I definitely felt like I was making a difference.

-The Earth GM Major trait is a situational pick; I went with Diamond Skin because I’m not very good with active condi cleansing, but you can just as easily go with Stone Heart or even Written in Stone, since this build does use 2 signets.

-FGS can definitely be used instead of Rebound.

OVERLOADS

-They feel much, much, MUCH better to use!

-Please don’t get rid of the Stun breaks! They make the Tempest play style flow better, and are balanced by the Overloads’ charge-up and cool-down times. At no point did I feel OP, or like I had way too many stun breaks available.

-My biggest issue with them: Attunement swap should not cancel the Overload! It’s very frustrating to have to wait for the Overload to charge up, only to have it cancel on you because you swapped to Earth to proc Stone Heart while Overloading, or Air to add some extra damage with Lightning Strike.

-Harmonious Conduit should be baseline! There is no way a good player will let you fully channel an Overload in PvP. I hate being forced to pick between this and Earthen Proxy, which is amazing with Elemental Shielding and Overload Earth.

Overload Fire

-I love that you are now a mobile fire field when channeling! Great change.

-Does good damage, and the Might stacks are very nice. You can channel this while waiting for the gate to open at the start of the match, or as you’re running with your allies to a team fight. You can even use this as a serious rez/stomp deterrent, but you’d better have Stability up.

-My ONLY suggestion would be to SLIGHTLY up the radius.

Overload Water

-In a very decent spot; great group support. Has saved my behind a couple times.

-My suggestion would be to make it a mobile Water field while channeling, like Overload Fire…but I can see how that’d be a bit OP.

-I’d also like for it to have a pulsing end effect like the other Overloads. Maybe it can leave behind a Geyser-like fountain that continues to pulse the Overload’s heal and condi cleanse.

Overload Air

-HANDS DOWN MY FAVORITE OVERLOAD. So much utility.

-Hits hard even in non-DPS gear. I love popping this as I’m running into a team fight.

-Great offensive group support with the AoE Vulnerability and Static Charge buff that it gives allies.

-When enemies are dead, blast the Lightning Field for AoE Swiftness.

Overload Earth

-The “dust tornado” effect was a great change.

-Has tremendous synergy with Elemental Shielding and Earthen Proxy.

-Haven’t tried out condi builds with it yet, but it seems to have potential with the pulsing bleeds and cripples.

SHOUTS

-I didn’t really use them much in PvP. For one thing, with how important positioning is when Overloading, Lightning Flash was simply indispensable. Signet of Restoration is great when you’re wielding main hand dagger, as I was. And I personally love Signet of Air for its mobility and low-cool down stun break/AoE blind. The only utility I guess I’m willing to forgo is Cleansing Fire, and I’ll play around with “Flash-Freeze!” or one of the other shouts. But in the meantime, my issues with shouts are as follows:

-They ABSOLUTELY need a cool down reduction trait! Why are the devs so resistant to this idea? Every other utility in the game has a corresponding cool down reduction trait. IMO, it would be best to roll this into Tempestuous Aria.

-I think they’d be a heck of a lot better if ALL of them (except, of course, “Wash the Pain Away!” and “Rebound.”) had instant cast times. I’d love to use them while Overloading, and I don’t think any of them would be OP with instant cast times.

-Shouts and Powerful Aura don’t work together! Their lack of interaction with each other needs to be fixed! Under no circumstances should equipping Shouts render a Grandmaster Major trait ineffective!

“Wash the Pain Away!”: Quite nice, but I wish the radii were just a LITTLE bit larger. I think it still needs condition removal per pulse though, since Tempests with Shouts most likely won’t be running Water (more synergy with Earth and Air with Auras, and Powerful Auras is redundant with shouts.) Also, it’d be awesome if it gave Light Aura, but I don’t know if that would be thematic.

“Feel the Burn!”: It’s good, but I feel like it lacks punch for its name and theme. It could use a slight damage buff and/or a couple more burn stacks (Cleansing Fire burns more AND removes condition, so I feel this shout is outclassed.)

“Flash-Freeze!”: As others have pointed out, the low-duration Chill feels very underwhelming. I’d suggest upping the Chill duration to 5-6 sec.

“Eye of the Storm!”: Could use Shocking Aura; I don’t think it’d be OP with it.

“Aftershock!”: ITS COOL DOWN IS WAY TOO LONG. Either reduce the baseline cool down to 40 seconds or add a Blast finisher to it (or two, to match the two shocks :P.)

“Rebound.”: Every time this actually saved me, I didn’t realize it, because the heal is very small and there is no visual cue that it just saved you. It’s much more useable than its original iteration, but it still needs a slight buff. At the moment, this just delays the killing blow. Perhaps a 2-second invulnerability after it heals you, or just a straight-up buff to its healing, is in order.

WARHORN

-Ironically, I now believe the Warhorn is the weakest aspect of the Tempest.

-NEEDS A CONDI CLEANSE SKILL. ALL of our other weapon sets have at least one condi cleanse; D/W is the one exception.

-I think the weapon has good synergy with Lightning Rod, but the Water and Air control skills need to have some QoL changes as follows:

Heat Sync: Thank you for not changing it to only share Might! I think it should share all boons EXCEPT Stability, Resistance and Quickness.

Wildfire: The fire field really needs to spread out more quickly. Also, the tooltip is missing a duration fact. I’m also not sure if it’s working properly with Persisting Flames. This skill doesn’t feel impactful enough for a “5” skill, but I don’t know what else to add to it. It’s just too easy to walk out of. Maybe re-add the boon strip? Or just lower the cool down a bit?

Tidal Surge: The knockback on this skill is too slow. Needs to happen immediately. Alternatively, if the speed is to remain unchanged, the knockback needs to be for a longer distance.

Water Globe: Either the Water field’s speed needs to be decreased, or the field should appear around you and move with you.

Cyclone: PLEASE speed up the projectile and widen the radius of the pull!

Lightning Orb: Needs to have its speed decreased and its damage buffed. This is my least favorite Warhorn skill; feels useless for being a “5” skill, like Fire Shield on the focus. Also, we need to be able to cast it in any direction; at the moment, you can only cast it directly ahead of you, and it is very awkward. Other changes I’ve read on the forums that I like are being able to swap places with it or having it stun enemies it touches; however, with Karl’s emphasis on small changes, I don’t know how practical these would be.

I think Sand Squall and Dust Storm are good as they are.

TRAITS

Latent Stamina: Though I tried out every other Tempest trait at least once, I never ONCE used this trait, nor did I feel like I needed or even wanted to. Its effect is not bad I guess, especially now seeing as how Renewing Stamina was “normalized,” but it feels out of place and lacking Tempest flavor. I know that you all are working on it though, so I’m looking forward to see what you come up with.

Harmonious Conduit: PLEASE make this baseline and merge it into Hardy Conduit! I hated having to pick between this and Earthen Proxy.

My suggestion for a new functionality to Harmonious Conduit: Overload charge-up time is reduced to 3 seconds.

Earthen Proxy: This is an amazing trait, and REALLY SHOULD AFFECT ALLIES. To circumvent the difficulty of knowing whose Protection is being affected, I suggest the following change: Earthen Proxy applies an AoE buff on you and on allies around you, like Soothing Mist or Spotter. The buff gives you the current effect of the trait, with “Source: you,” like Spotter.

Lucid Singularity: Feels a little underwhelming for a Grandmaster Trait, but I don’t know what else to add to it.

Element Bastion is amazing.

ANIMATIONS

-All the Overload animations for most of the races look a LOT better!

-The Air Overload animation doesn’t always show the cloud, at least for Human males. Pretty sure this is a bug.

-If you haven’t seen the Water Overload animation on Asura yet, do it. Kudos to the animators.

-Charr animations are lacking, particularly the Water and Earth Overloads. Hopefully they’re still being worked on.

MISCELLANEOUS

-I LOVE how much synergy Aura Tempest has with the Tempest Defense trait…heh.

-It would be fantastic if Arcane Shield counted as an Aura.

Thank you for your hard work, Karl and dev team! I had a blast playing this spec, despite how negative I’d been about it before BWE3. The Tempest IMO is shaping up to be very fun to play, and should be more than viable with a few more numbers tweaks.

That sounds like a bug. Hope it’s fixed.

Thank you, Karl! Yes, I also agree that being able to swap Attunements while Overloading would be a massive help.

I wanna play Zerk (scepter) Ele so bad, but I’m afraid of getting blown up on sight by Thieves and Mesmers.

I will admit I need to l2burst; but I also think there is some truth to the statement that Thieves/Mesmers keep other zerk classes out of the meta, with the possible exception of Guardians.

Yep, I made a thread here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/9-29-Written-in-Stone-Bug/first#post5546916

Please also submit an in-game bug report! I want them to fix this quickly. Thanks

But can’t you avoid Shatterstone simply by running away from it? Don’t need to waste a dodge on it.

I feel like ALL the Overloads should leave behind an effect once you’re done channeling.

Overload Fire: fire tornado; AoE might, damage, burning
Overload Air: lightning field, static effect on allied attacks; (could someone please clarify if the field also pulses damage?)
Overload Earth: “dustnado” confirmed by Karl to pulse damage, cripple, bleeding and protection

So that leaves Overload Water.

I think Overload Water, when done channeling, should leave behind an Ice field that pulses Chill.

Leo G.4501:

Does anything happen if you’re chilled or slowed while/during casting of the signets?

Haven’t been able to test this out myself. I’d imagine there’d be more of a downtime between the passive buffs.

Hope this is fixed.

With the 9/29 change, Written in Stone no longer allows for 100% uptime on Signet passives for most Signets. When Signets with cast times (Restoration, Fire, Earth and Water) are activated, the trait places a buff on you that is identical to the Signet passive; however, this buff has an uptime that is less than the recharge of the signets themselves. This is an anomaly, and does not allow for 100% uptime of the passive bonuses of the Signets with cast times. PLEASE FIX THIS! Thanks.

EDIT: I think the problem is that the passive buff the trait places on you doesn’t take into account cast time/aftercasts for Signets of Restoration, Earth, Fire and Water.

With the 9/29 change, Written in Stone no longer allows for 100% uptime on Signet passives for most Signets. When Signets with cast times (Restoration, Fire, Earth and Water) are activated, the trait places a buff on you that is identical to the Signet passive; however, this buff has an uptime that is less than the recharge of the signets themselves. This is an anomaly, and does not allow for 100% uptime of the passive bonuses of the Signets with cast times.

EDIT: I think the problem is that the passive buff the trait places on you doesn’t take into account cast time/aftercasts for Signets of Restoration, Earth, Fire and Water.

Alekt.5803:

Glenstorm.4059:

Alekt.5803:

Glenstorm.4059:

-Eliminate charges, keep cool down (weapon disappears after 1 minute; needs to be cast again.)

-Weapons stay where they are when dropped instead of disappearing.

-Earth Shield is instant cast, and breaks stun when summoned.

-All other Conjures have a cast time of 1/4 seconds.

-Conjurer trait:
Reduces all Conjure summon and weapon skill cool downs by 20%. Each Conjure creates an AoE effect where it is summoned:
Lava Axe: Flame Blast (like Staff Fire skill 3, but no damage)
Frost Bow: Cleansing Wave (like Evasive Arcana Water, but half the healing)
Lightning Hammer: AoE Knockback (like Updraft)
Earth Shield: AoE Magnetic Aura
Fiery Greatsword: AoE Might and Fury, in addition to its current damage and burning

IDK, just spitballing

I always use Earth Shield. Instant cast is way too broken I feel like. But maybe I am too harsh on myself.

Well, the reason I suggested that is because I think every Utility should have a stun break, and Earth Shield just seems to be thematically most fitting. Although I could see why it could be powerful with a Lightning Rod/Tempest Defense build.

I use it on a Settler Lighting Rod build. And don’t dream about Tempest Defense’s damage increase on Lightning Rod; do you really think elementalist deserve something functionnal? Try with and without Tempest Defense; the damage of Lightning Rod does not increase.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Tempest-Defense-not-increasing-Lightning-Rod/first#post5498610

Oh wow…I did not know this. Ugh.

Alekt.5803:

Glenstorm.4059:

-Eliminate charges, keep cool down (weapon disappears after 1 minute; needs to be cast again.)

-Weapons stay where they are when dropped instead of disappearing.

-Earth Shield is instant cast, and breaks stun when summoned.

-All other Conjures have a cast time of 1/4 seconds.

-Conjurer trait:
Reduces all Conjure summon and weapon skill cool downs by 20%. Each Conjure creates an AoE effect where it is summoned:
Lava Axe: Flame Blast (like Staff Fire skill 3, but no damage)
Frost Bow: Cleansing Wave (like Evasive Arcana Water, but half the healing)
Lightning Hammer: AoE Knockback (like Updraft)
Earth Shield: AoE Magnetic Aura
Fiery Greatsword: AoE Might and Fury, in addition to its current damage and burning

IDK, just spitballing

I always use Earth Shield. Instant cast is way too broken I feel like. But maybe I am too harsh on myself.

Well, the reason I suggested that is because I think every Utility should have a stun break, and Earth Shield just seems to be thematically most fitting. Although I could see why it could be powerful with a Lightning Rod/Tempest Defense build.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

lol most OP profession in the game complaining about a 33% damage buff…

Meanwhile necro’s scepter “buff” got us a net gain of 0% damage…

gg Anet.

Ele is not, and has not ever been OP because of the Scepter. In fact, we’re asking for buffs to Scepter to make builds with it more viable, so that we can play something besides D/D (which has been OP in PvP) and Staff (which has been meta in PvE and WvW.)

And I know Necros love playing the perennial victims, but you guys are getting buffs more frequently that most other classes at the moment, have one of the better-designed Elite specs, and a developer who actively engages your feedback. Heck, Robert Gee even made an appearance on your forum TODAY to discuss today’s balance changes. The future of your class is bright; don’t come here to troll legitimate discussion of things we’re lacking.

And another thread that linked to Roy’s tweet got removed…

My perspective is purely PvP-oriented.

While I normally don’t like the idea of buffing auto-attacks, I feel like the Scepter really needs it. It’s supposed to be our burst weapon. Other burst classes like Mesmer have decent auto-attacks to fall back on in between bursts; I think it’s fair for us to have that too if we are to play anything more than support/jack-of-all-trades builds. Auto-attack buffs can also help us with our weak condi builds, and, since you can’t really be BOTH burst AND condi, I think it’s fair to buff the autos.

Flamestrike: Needs its cast time and/or aftercast delay reduced. 1 attack per 1.54 seconds is very clunky.

Ice Shards: Projectile travel time needs to be reduced, OR its damage needs to be slightly buffed. Although, I feel like it could have its damage reduced, and instead have healing or Vulnerability instead.

Shatterstone: Either its wind-up time needs to be reduced, OR it needs to have an effect that makes it harder to just walk out of. Something like a pulsing Chill while winding up. A Chill would also help set up Dragon’s Tooth, etc. Cool down can be adjusted accordingly.

Water Trident: (Greedy change) I would love for this to knock down moving foes, like Water Trident in Guild Wars did. But otherwise it’s not really a bad skill; the regeneration that Anet added onto it not only buffed it, but also gave it better synergy with Cleansing Water.

Arc Lightning: 3.95 seconds for a full channel, and the damage is very mediocre, especially seeing as how Air is supposed to be the spike damage Attunement. Needs to have its cast time and aftercast delay reduced, and damage needs to be upped. Could also apply Vulnerability and/or Weakness when the channel is completed.

Stone Shards: 1 attack every 1.9 seconds is beyond clunky for an auto-attack with projectiles. Cast time and/or aftercast delay and/or flight time and/or flight arc needs to be reduced.

Rock Barrier: Cast time for the barrier itself should be 0.5 seconds.

Dust Devil Could use a very slight increase in speed, but not reaaaally needed.

Orangensaft.7139:

Glenstorm.4059:

-Eliminate charges, keep cool down (weapon disappears after 1 minute; needs to be cast again.)

-Weapons stay where they are when dropped instead of disappearing.

-Earth Shield is instant cast, and breaks stun when summoned.

-All other Conjures have a cast time of 1/4 seconds.

-Conjurer trait:
Reduces all Conjure summon and weapon skill cool downs by 20%. Each Conjure creates an AoE effect where it is summoned:
Lava Axe: Flame Blast (like Staff Fire skill 3, but no damage)
Frost Bow: Cleansing Wave (like Evasive Arcana Water, but half the healing)
Lightning Hammer: AoE Knockback (like Updraft)
Earth Shield: AoE Magnetic Aura
Fiery Greatsword: AoE Might and Fury, in addition to its current damage and burning

IDK, just spitballing

you would nerf the only conjure weapon that is still useful if you give that cc to lightning hammer
it is very often casted during fight after ele blasted all his best attacks or it is put down for other classes with weak attack rotations
making it automatically cc the enemy where you drop it (and you always drop it on yourself ofc…) would kitten up defiance control….

and updraft would even make it worse when it actually knocks enemies around… your whole group would lose out on damage…

so please no CC on lightning hammer conjure

the basic idea of reworking the conjure trait is nice thouhg… because i have basically NEVER used more than the normal amount of skill uses before the weapon disappears anyway

Fair; how about AoE blind on summoning? No effects on Defiance there.

Agree completely with your thoughts OP. Disappointed that they didn’t touch Ice Shards, Arc Lightning, and especially Stone Shards. I play S/F condi build and really was hoping for a Stone Shards or Hurl buff to help make condi builds more viable…nope.

-Flamestrike: Increased the damage by 33%.

-Dragon’s Tooth: Changed to a ground-targeted skill.

-Shatterstone: Increased the vulnerability from 4 stacks for 15 seconds to 5 stacks for 15 seconds. Increased damage by 10%.

My opinions:

-While I like the changes to Flamestrike, I feel instead of buffing the damage, they should have just reduced the cast time/aftercast.

-I like the Dragon’s Tooth change.

-Shatterstone’s problem was never its damage or vulnerability; it was that it’s just too easy to walk out of. It needed a cast time reduction, or a pulsing Chill while charging up, or something that kept enemies in it; its cool down could have then been adjusted accordingly.

-Why weren’t there any buffs to Ice Shards, Arc Lightning and especially Stone Shards? You can avoid Ice Shards and Stone Shards with just Swiftness, and Arc Lightning hits like a wet noodle considering its long cast time.

Not sure if these changes will help make Scepter meta again. Meh.

Welp, looks like Auras won’t be stacking.

From today’s update: “Frost Aura: This aura now replaces itself as other auras do instead of stacking duration.”

Sigggggghhhh.

At least they buffed Power Aura’s radius to 600?

-Eliminate charges, keep cool down (weapon disappears after 1 minute; needs to be cast again.)

-Weapons stay where they are when dropped instead of disappearing.

-Earth Shield is instant cast, and breaks stun when summoned.

-All other Conjures have a cast time of 1/4 seconds.

-Conjurer trait:
Reduces all Conjure summon and weapon skill cool downs by 20%. Each Conjure creates an AoE effect where it is summoned:
Lava Axe: Flame Blast (like Staff Fire skill 3, but no damage)
Frost Bow: Cleansing Wave (like Evasive Arcana Water, but half the healing)
Lightning Hammer: AoE Knockback (like Updraft)
Earth Shield: AoE Magnetic Aura
Fiery Greatsword: AoE Might and Fury, in addition to its current damage and burning

IDK, just spitballing

Jski.6180:

Why not just make it an passive class only boon like other classes who give out +150 or something but have it a stronger protection effect. In fact you can have a new set of class only boon like effect that buff a type of boon such as an stronger might stronger fury stronger / faster ticking reg etc.. The crazy ideal would be just to give tempest the abitly to make all boon generally stronger when they are on your pt (the 5 ppl in your pt but not the tempest it self).

Herald has something similar to this with +50% boon duration for the party.

My suggestion for a Master major trait: When you gain an Aura, you remove 1 condition from yourself and from allies around you (5 targets, 360 radius.)

-This is powerful enough to seriously compete with Harmonious Conduit, if you’re dead set on Harmonious Conduit remaining a Major trait.
-This can also help reduce reliance on Water for condi removal, since you won’t need Powerful Aura or Cleansing Water, given the good access to Auras with Shouts/Warhorn assuming Sand Squall gets Magnetic Aura.)
-All Auras need to stack duration.
-Hardy Conduit can then take on Earthen Proxy’s effect, in addition to its current effect.

Here’s a list of the current Tempest traits, updated with Karl’s list of changes from the sticky thread, for convenience:

Singularity: Attain elemental singularity by remaining in an Attunement for a period of time. Upon attaining singularity, you may Overload the Attunement to your vicinity.

Gale Song: Trigger “Eye of the Storm!” when a foe attempts to control you by stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, fear, taunt, or launch. (CD: 45 sec.)

Latent Stamina: Apply vigor in a radius when attuning to water. Granting vigor to allies also restores a portion of endurance. (Vigor duration: 3 sec; Endurance gained: 10; Radius: 240; CD: 10 sec.)

Unstable Conduit: Overloading an Attunement grants an aura based on the element you’re attuned to when the ability is completed. (Aura duration: 5 sec.)

Speedy Conduit: Gain swiftness when Overloading an Attunement. (Swiftness duration: 5 sec.)

Earthen Proxy: Damage is further reduced when you are under the effects of Protection. (Protection effectiveness increased: 20%)

Harmonious Conduit: Upon activating an Overload, gain Stability for 4 seconds. If the overload is successfully completed, gain 10% damage for 5 seconds.

Tempestuous Aria: Allies affected by your shouts gain might. Enemies are affected by weakness. (Might: 2 stacks; duration: 10 sec.; Weakness duration: 3 sec.; Radius: 600)

Hardy Conduit: Gain Protection while Overloading an Attunement. (Protection duration: 3 sec.)

Element Bastion: Auras you apply heal allies. Apply a frost aura to yourself and nearby allies when struck while below the health threshold. (Healing: 522+0.33 Healing Power; Health threshold: 75%; Frost Aura duration: 5 sec.; Number of allied targets: 5; Radius: 360; Frost Aura CD: 30 sec.)

Imbued Melodies: While wielding a warhorn, your boon duration is increased by 20%. Use Sand Squall when you are struck while below the 90% health threshold.

Lucid Singularity: Remove and gain massive resistance to movement-impeding conditions while Overloading your Attunements. (Condition duration reduced: 100% for Cripple, Chill and Immobilize)

Wildfire could be so much more than just another Fire field. I don’t know why the boon strip was removed. My idea:

Wildfire: Enemies burned by this skill spread burning to their nearby allies.

Thank you for your feedback, Karl! I’d just like to echo others and seek clarification on whether or not the other auras besides Frost Aura will stack and work with Aura rune sets, because if they don’t, that will limit the potential of any Aura-based build.

Also, does your “at least one application with every weapon set” statement confirm that Sand Squall will, in fact, get Magnetic Aura?

Simple question:

What if the Attunement recharge after Overload was simply dropped? Would that make Tempest worth speccing into?

After all, none of the other elite specs that add on a new mechanic (Chronomancer, Berserker, Herald) actively penalize them for using the new mechanic.

Nike.2631:

Glenstorm.4059:

My biggest issue with Overloads is that we are punished too harshly for trying to use them. Or rather, we are not incentivized enough to use them. The way I see it, Tempest’s biggest difference from vanilla Ele is that it discourages Attunement dance. However, if they want to encourage staying in an Attunement with the eventual goal of Overloading, then not only does the Overload have to be powerful, but there also needs to be some inherent bonus to staying in the Attunement while the Overload charges up. At the moment, our weapon skills have too long individual cool downs to make Attunement camping worth it, and auto-attacks other than Fireball and Lightning Whip are lackluster. Which is why I keep suggesting a Grandmaster Minor trait that gives us a stacking, Attunement-specific, non-strippable, non-shareable buff each second that we remain in an Attunement.

Would you be satisfied with something along the lines of~

• “When your current attunement is recharged you gain +15% cooldown speed on all weapon skills.”

Which would make Tempest completely unlike core Elementalists in wanting to stay in a single attunement to pump out that single attunement’s effects faster.

It makes popping the Overload (with it’s stun break ) a real tactical decision and not something you mash as fast as it comes up. Camp your souped-up sped up weapon skills or throw the big button and move on to another attunement?

Hmm, tempting to be able to spam skills more often. Especially if you’re running Focus or Warhorn.

rchu.8945:

Supreme.3164:

Shadowflare.2759:

Inflames.8026:

Your post is full of errors mate. Don’t worry, I’ll help you out.

For those who enjoy their classes even when you could not 1v4 in SPvP…

For those who keep going despite the general hated for the class due to imbalancing issues and become nothing more then a balanced class with good damage

Rest is fairly accurate.

Ele hasn’t always been the meta. We have fallen in and out from one balance patch to another. There were periods where we were barely able to compete even as bunker builds.

These last few months after specialization change, the one Ar/Water/X cantrip build got out of hand, and that’s getting its deserved nerf. I agree that people who main this build is complaining too much, but at the same time, it’s not like ele as a whole has always been doing what you claim it does.

You’re wrong saying that people complain about the nerfs ( save ice bow nerf thread maybe), you can clearly see that are still people who want several more nerfs on ele, like they want ele to become a walking free loot bag

And why not? Other classes have endure being the “free loot bag” at least once or more, why shouldn’t ele be exempted from that experience?

Ele has been in the trash tier PvP-wise in the past, for nearly a year at that.

In any event, anyone who wants ANY profession to be useless (as in, not viable at all) is someone who has no business talking balance. Yes, professions fall in and out of the meta all the time—this is inevitable when party size is 5—but no one should seriously be advocating for a profession to be completely unviable.

My biggest issue with Overloads is that we are punished too harshly for trying to use them. Or rather, we are not incentivized enough to use them. The way I see it, Tempest’s biggest difference from vanilla Ele is that it discourages Attunement dance. However, if they want to encourage staying in an Attunement with the eventual goal of Overloading, then not only does the Overload have to be powerful, but there also needs to be some inherent bonus to staying in the Attunement while the Overload charges up. At the moment, our weapon skills have too long individual cool downs to make Attunement camping worth it, and auto-attacks other than Fireball and Lightning Whip are lackluster. Which is why I keep suggesting a Grandmaster Minor trait that gives us a stacking, Attunement-specific, non-strippable, non-shareable buff each second that we remain in an Attunement.