Meet the Tempest: Elementalist’s Elite Specialization

[Karizee]

Meet the Tempest:
Elementalist’s Elite
Specialization

by Karl McLain on July 23, 2015





Welcome back, friends, for the next reveal! I’m Karl McLain, and this week we’re here to talk about the new elite specialization for the elementalist. With the coming of fierce enemies and Elder Dragons, you’ll reach deep into the elements in order to harness some of the most pure and dangerous aspects of natural magic and even infuse them into sound. Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™ will see the dawn of the tempest, a close-range specialization capable of blasting out damage and support as they charge into the fight against evil.


Pushing the Limit

While the elementalist has mastered the elements of fire, water, air, and earth, the tempest looks to extend the boundaries. With the design of this elite specialization, we’re aiming to add a more direct frontline support option that rewards precise positioning and the ability to turn a fight with sound decision making and deft blows.

Remaining attuned to an element for a period of time will now allow you the option to overload that attunement for a short while. Once you’ve attained a singularity with the attunement, you can reactivate it to perform a special channeled ability. These abilities are so chaotic and draining that they exhaust your current attunement, locking you out of it for a period of time should you move to another element. Before you ask, yes, the Fresh Air trait will refresh your exhausted air attunement and allow you to overload it much sooner.





Harness the Elements!

Each attunement will obtain its own overload ability, and here’s how they’ll work:

• Overload Fire: Allow flames to leak out from your essence, building an infernal tornado over time that continuously damages and burns enemies while granting allies might. Successfully completing the ability leaves the tornado at your current location for a period of time.
• Overload Water: Pull water into an aquatic bubble around you as you regenerate and cleanse conditions from yourself and nearby allies. At the end of the ability, your water bubble pops to give a larger heal to nearby allies.
• Overload Air: Become a conduit of electricity, creating a nimbus cloud above you that repeatedly strikes nearby enemies, rending their armor. Successfully completing this ability leaves a lightning field at your location that strikes enemies in its vicinity.
• Overload Earth: Rend the earth, bend it to your will, and take a ride on it, granting protection to nearby allies and crippling enemies. When you return to earth, deliver a tremendous immobilizing blast.

The Sound of Power

Specializing as a tempest will allow you to use eight new abilities as you wield their newest weapon—the warhorn. These abilities will assist in helping you both support your allies and create disruptive areas for enemies. While in water attunement, you’ll be able to unleash a moving water field that heals allies. Air attunement’s cyclone will pull enemies to a point, while its lightning orb will fire projectiles at all enemies within its path. Along with these and other skills, using a warhorn will also unlock the elementalist’s latent potential to share boons and extend their durations among allies.





Let Your Voice Be Heard!

With newfound abilities in audio mastery, you’ll gain the ability to use shout skills as utilities. Here’s the list of healing, utility, and elite skills you’ll have access to as a tempest:

Healing:

• “Wash the Pain Away!”: Heal allies, and cleanse conditions from them. This healing skill is a bit more unique, as it heals allies for the same amount that you are healed for outside of the initial healing when activating the skill.

Utility:

• “Feel the Burn!”: Sear your voice into the ground and cause continually growing flames to emit from that location.
• “Eye of the Storm!”: Call the storm down on yourself and nearby allies, breaking stun on anyone affected and granting them superspeed for a time.
• “Aftershock!”: Emanate a powerful earthen force around yourself, crippling enemies. After a short delay, an aftershock ripples forth, immobilizing enemies in its wake.
• “Flash Freeze!”: Command the air around your foes to cool and harden, damaging and chilling your foes for a period of time.

Elite:

• “Rebound!”: This is the only arcane aspect available to the tempest. Using this arcane shout will affect allies in the area around you, causing the next ability they use to have a 25% reduced recharge.

Bolstering the Tempest

The elite specialization’s traits will have multiple options to promote defense, support, and overloading your attunements. Let’s delve a little into the tempest’s minor traits and a couple of major traits you’ll see.

• Minor Trait One—Singularity: This minor trait unlocks the ability to overload your attunements. You’ll see multiple traits that beef up your overload abilities, such as Unstable Conduit, which grants an aura specific to your attunement when you successfully complete an overload ability.
• Minor Trait Two—Speedy Conduit: You’ll gain swiftness while overloading an attunement, allowing you to move more easily around the battlefield. You can enhance this movement by equipping the Lucid Singularity trait, which cleanses and then reduces the duration of incoming inhibiting conditions by 100%.
• Minor Trait Three—Hardy Conduit: Gain protection when beginning an overload ability. In order to use these channeling skills for damage and support, you’ll occasionally need to soak up a little extra damage yourself. If you so choose, this trait can be bolstered by a specific major trait in the line called Earthen Proxy. The effects of protection on you will be increased from 33% to 40% damage reduction.

Elementalists, you are called upon to unleash the inferno, drive the uncontrollable torrents, rain hell and lightning upon your foes, and harness the earth and ride it into victory. The tempest cannot be stopped; your enemies cannot endure. Press forward!


https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-tempest/

[Deleted]

no video?

[Arlee]

It does feel like the least inspired of all the elite specs so far, but I suppose that it's hard to figure out what to give a class that kinda already has everything.

Eh I feel like that title still goes to Dragonhunter

[Karizee]

The Tempest will be the focus of tomorrow's livestream (feat. #believeinkarl McLain)

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/s...s-of-interest/

[Arlee]

I dunno, Dragonhunter - as seemed to be the standard for the elite specs - opened up a previously unavailable (or at least, very subpar) playstyle for the class.

It might not seem like an exciting one, but it was still that.

That's true, it does add some things Guardian really needed, but it feels less exciting to me at this point. Of course my main is pretty my Ele at this point so I am probably biased.

[Karizee]

Meet your new Elementalist overlords.

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/v/8428828

[LilSaihah]

I'm not entirely certain what to make of it.

Other than Wildfire. Wildfire could carry the spec on its own.

[zito]

I like how Anet bitched and moaned about mesmers and guardians having too much vigor but let ele keep their perma vigor and OH LOOK THEY ADD MORE VIGOR WITH ENDURANCE REGEN

fuck you anet

[Rukh]

I'm not really a fan. With the other specs, it seems like it takes the class in a new direction. Not just the abilities but the whole theme is almost a different but related class. Maybe someday when the newness wears off, people will even use the normal class also. We'll see both guardians and dragonhunters about. On the other hand, Tempest just feels like Elementalist+1.

[Fencers]

The trouble I have with these advance class previews for HOT is that I have no clue whatsoever as to what any of the skills in GW2 are named. I know dagger skill #1, 2, 3... or sword #1, 2, 3... etc.

I honestly don't know anyone who knows what their skills are called in GW2 either.

[Arlee]

Well, now you do!

<--- Knows just about all the names of all his class skills.

(In fact, I don't think I've ever referred to something as "Greatsword #2" unless discussing it with someone who is already calling it that.)

Now Fencers knows two as well!

And I get the disappointment over Tempest not taking Ele in a different direction like the other elite specs, but I am super excited for this specifically because it's basically more of everything I love about Ele already. Plus I currently run dagger/focus on my Ele and many of the warhorn skills sound like they will sub out for the focus skills really well.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Seems to be a trend, where an elite spec with a new 2h weapon (Dragonhunter, Reaper) overhauls the class entirely, and one with just a change in the off hander (Tempest, Mesmer) just improves upon the base mechanics. I can see why one wouldn't choose to be a reaper or a Dragon hunter (since they completely change how you play), but ATM there seems to be absolutely no reason NOT to go Tempest/Chronomancer. Who doesn't want a city shatter and essentially a CD wipe? Who doesn't want mega burst damage plus a massive buff?

[LilSaihah]

Seems to be a trend, where an elite spec with a new 2h weapon (Dragonhunter, Reaper) overhauls the class entirely, and one with just a change in the off hander (Tempest, Mesmer) just improves upon the base mechanics. I can see why one wouldn't choose to be a reaper or a Dragon hunter (since they completely change how you play), but ATM there seems to be absolutely no reason NOT to go Tempest/Chronomancer. Who doesn't want a city shatter and essentially a CD wipe? Who doesn't want mega burst damage plus a massive buff?

If you're taking Tempest just for the overloads and the Elite, and there's a high possibility you will use it just for the overloads and the Elite, if you have poor access to Stability you will basically have a wasted tree if you're going against a high control enemy. S/P thief, any variant of mace Warrior, even a stock standard Necro or Mesmer let alone a Reaper or Chronomancer will be able to shut down a lot of your overloads.

Why do that when you can go Fire/Water/Arcane and do what you've been doing as an Elementalist since release?

[Rivellana]

Since it's been a few days now, I'm curious what the other people who were trying tempest think. I was on the official forums and just saw tons and tons of people complaining about it and how they couldn't do anything. Seems like it makes a big difference how people tweak it because I think the people who are having trouble doing anything at all are running full berserker D/D or something so they go around saying the whole thing sucks as a spec, etc.

I like staff so I found a spec someone put on the internet with staff and fire/water/tempest, I have a mix of soldier and celestial gear on with berserker accessories and I haven't had any issues whatsoever with most mobs. I have even been able to partially solo some champs (wasn't able to kill them before the timer ran out solo, but could stay alive just fine).

Just wondering what everyone else's experiences have been. I personally love tempest and the overloads are tons of fun for me.

[Kazgrel]

Since it's been a few days now, I'm curious what the other people who were trying tempest think. I was on the official forums and just saw tons and tons of people complaining about it and how they couldn't do anything. Seems like it makes a big difference how people tweak it because I think the people who are having trouble doing anything at all are running full berserker D/D or something so they go around saying the whole thing sucks as a spec, etc.

I like staff so I found a spec someone put on the internet with staff and fire/water/tempest, I have a mix of soldier and celestial gear on with berserker accessories and I haven't had any issues whatsoever with most mobs. I have even been able to partially solo some champs (wasn't able to kill them before the timer ran out solo, but could stay alive just fine).

Just wondering what everyone else's experiences have been. I personally love tempest and the overloads are tons of fun for me.

As noted in the general "How do you like your elite spec" thread, I'm running S/W tempest right now, full berserker, and haven't had much issue. The Hylek Shadowhunter "fuck your ranged attacks" mobs are the only thing that has consistently thwarted me. May try dagger MH next time I run into them to see how that goes.

Given the amount of time the heavy hitting warhorn attacks can take to get going, combined with the long channel of the overloads, I'm not confident that tempest (with warhorn at least) would be that great for pvp, but I have very little pvp experience in GW2 (especially compared to my wow experience, lol). For the pve content so far, though, it's been a few new thing to use.

[Deleted]

The Hylek Shadowhunter "fuck your ranged attacks" mobs are the only thing that has consistently thwarted me.

These guys thwart anything. I'm a thief. They obliterate me every time. Even as a daredevil I can't beat a veteran one of these. 3 dodges + permanent weakness doesn't even help against their dumb as fuck barrage of one-shots. The hero challenge in VB canopy has like 3 of those, one of which is a champion, and I went up against it alongside a Herald and a Berserker, and even those guys were one-shot by its bullshittery.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that if Tempest could take on the shadowhunters without being torn a new asshole, it would be the most broken spec ever.

[Kazgrel]

These guys thwart anything. I'm a thief. They obliterate me every time. Even as a daredevil I can't beat a veteran one of these. 3 dodges + permanent weakness doesn't even help against their dumb as fuck barrage of one-shots. The hero challenge in VB canopy has like 3 of those, one of which is a champion, and I went up against it alongside a Herald and a Berserker, and even those guys were one-shot by its bullshittery.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that if Tempest could take on the shadowhunters without being torn a new asshole, it would be the most broken spec ever.

Main thing tempest + warhorn has going for it against those toolbags is magnetic aura uptime. Aftershock shout, along with earth 4. I suppose I could count the grandmaster trait that procs earth 4 (Sand Squall is the name, I think) when you dip below 90% hp (which WILL happen vs. those mobs).

Took a group of 4-5 of us to beat that hero point you mention. The champ there wrecks pretty much anything 1 on 1. The adds die quick, though, so go for them first (if you haven't completed it).

[Deleted]

Took a group of 4-5 of us to beat that hero point you mention. The champ there wrecks pretty much anything 1 on 1. The adds die quick, though, so go for them first (if you haven't completed it).

Did it with me, a herald and a berserker. We wouldn't have done it if not for Shadow Refuge, though. The champ just takes one look at someone and they're practically dead. Popping down shadow refuge + getting like 15 seconds of free time to revive somebody is a live saver. Literally.