Tempest rework ideas from a support Tempest player

[mootshell.8530]

The recent changes to Tempest have provided a good direction going forward, with the addition of Alacrity to Tempest's toolkit. However, there are still some key problems with the quality of life of support tempest, the focus of DPS tempest, and support core elementalist :

1. Elemental Bastion is the main source of healing for a healer Tempest. Having Alacrity in the Grandmaster trait slot in the form of Lucid Singularity forces Tempest to choose between healing and Alacrity, when support builds in other professions can have both.
2. Support Elementalist as a whole lacks good ways to revive downed allies. The 90-second cooldown on Glyph of Renewal is too long for practical use, with similar revival skills in other professions having cooldowns of between 30 and 50 seconds. 
3. The distinction between power DPS tempest and condi DPS tempest is a little unclear (This is more a personal opinion - it's difficult to tell at a glance which skills and traits are better for power damage and which are better for condition damage, and it requires a lot of experimentation with gear and builds to figure out).

I'd like to propose some potential changes to address these issues, and I'll explain my thinking in each instance.

 

ISSUE #1: Heal Alac Tempest trait selections compete with each other

One way to fix this is to add Alacrity to one of the Master Tempest traits. There are pros and cons to each one:

Solution 1: Tempestuous Aria additionally makes Shouts grant Alacrity

Pros: With 100% boon duration and a good base Alacrity duration on the trait, it would be reasonable to balance around running 3 shouts and Sand Squall (Earth Warhorn 4) to maintain 100% Alacrity uptime. This could allow Alacrity to fit into many Tempest builds in a straightforward way, while leaving 2 slots open for reactional-use utility skills.

Cons: Tempestuous Aria is the trait taken by DPS Tempests, purely because it grants might and there is no other Master Tempest trait that would increase DPS output. This means the only way to differentiate your build between Alac DPS Tempest and Pure DPS Tempest would be by taking a different offhand weapon over Warhorn. In order to compensate, there would need to be a damage buff/rework of offhand Core Elementalist weapons.

Solution 2: Harmonious Conduit additionally grants self-Alacrity when you start an Overload

Pros: With 100% boon duration and high enough base Alacrity duration on the trait, it may theoretically possible to use Heat Sync (Fire Warhorn 4) and Sand Squall (Earth Warhorn 4) to maintain 100% Alacrity uptime. In order to keep the gameplay fun, the Alacrity would have to last long enough after the overload is complete to allow the player to use weapon and utility skills without feeling pressured to immediately swap attunements and use another overload. Harmonious Conduit is a slightly underused trait at the moment, so it would shake up existing builds. Additionally, putting it on this trait provides a clear choice between extra damage/stability & alacrity/extra healing.

An alternative would be to make Harmonious Conduit provide 5-target stability, swiftness and alacrity around the Tempest when an Overload starts. This could be much more straightforward and less stressful to use.

Note: If this option is the chosen solution, Tempestuous Aria may need to be buffed to be an obvious DPS increase to make it clearer that Harmonious Conduit is the boon support choice. Perhaps add an effect to Tempestuous Aria saying, "Your power and condition damage are increased by 5% for 5 seconds after using a Shout skill. This trait stacks duration."

Cons: If Harmonious Conduit only affects yourself, it may not be intuitive to new Tempest players that you're supposed to go Overload Fire -> Heat Sync (Fire Warhorn 4) -> Sand Squall (Earth Warhorn 4) to provide group alacrity. However, it may also come as an 'Ah-ha! moment' and carve out a unique playstyle for boon support Tempest, so this might not a big issue since the GW2 community is very open and vocal about helping new players. There would also have to be a big difference between PvE and PvP for this trait to prevent alacrity from running rampant in PvP.

Solution 3: Invigorating Torrents additionally provides a small amount of Alacrity whenever you grant an Aura

Pros: Auramancer Tempest enabled by the Powerful Aura trait in the Water traitline is one of the most fun, engaging and unique playstyles in the game - finding creative ways to chain together Auras is a very enjoyable challenge. Definitively associating granting Auras with providing boon support would be an excellent way to bring a currently niche playstyle to the forefront.

Cons: Balancing this for PvP would be an absolute nightmare - it may even require reducing the alacrity duration granted by this trait down to 0.5s in PvP. Additionally, builds requiring both the Tempest and the Water traitlines for boon support would require some future balancing to make Alac DPS Tempest an attractive option, likely by strengthening the DPS options in the Water traitline's Adept and Master choices.

As a support Tempest player, adding alacrity to Auras is my preferred way to give Tempest access to Alacrity because I enjoy the Auramancy playstyle.

 

ISSUE #2: Support Elementalist's Glyph of Renewal does not compete with other professions' revival options

Here's my proposed solution:

1. Glyph of Renewal revives up to 3 targets regardless of which attunement you're in.
2. Reduce the cooldown to 40 seconds. However, make the cooldown increase by 50% (20 seconds) for each target revived beyond the first.
3. Renewal of Earth (Glyph of Renewal while in Earth Attunement) now grants barrier to revived targets, since all attunements now revive 3 targets.

This means Glyph of Renewal can be used every 40 seconds to revive a single target with some benefit, but if your squad is seriously in danger of wiping, you can use it as a safety net on an 80-second cooldown to revive 3 targets. This makes it far more useable, while still being rather middle-of-the-pack in comparison to other professions' options - higher cooldown than Scrapper's Function Gyro and Necromancer's traited Well of Blood, but more effective at reviving than Guardian's Signet of Mercy (which has the advantage over Glyph of Renewal of buffing concentration).

 

ISSUE #3: The distinction between Power DPS Tempest and Condi DPS Tempest is not very clear

This proposed solution is supposed to address two issues. First of all, if you move the alacrity from Lucid Singularity to one of the trait choices in the Master tier, then what does Lucid Singularity do? Second of all, trait choices in the same tier of an elite spec should ideally provide a clear question. I think this question for the Tempest grandmaster traits should be, "Power DPS, Condi DPS or Healer?"

I acknowledge that the changes I'm about to propose are big reworks, but I believe the focus it would bring to Tempest and the new playstyles it would open up would be worth the effort. Grandmaster traits should feel impactful, and traits transforming skills is a very impactful

Solution Part 1: Transcendent Tempest rework

"Your Overloads become ranged. Deal increased power damage after completing an overload."

1. Overload Fire becomes Overcharge Fire, a 600 range narrow fire beam attack/mobile fire field that emits straight ahead from the Tempest. It deals primarily power damage, a small amount of burning, and pulses might to the Tempest and anyone standing in the fire field. 
2. Overload Water becomes Overcharge Water, a 600 range narrow ice beam attack/mobile ice field that emits straight ahead from the Tempest. It deals power damage and inflicts chill on enemies standing in the ice field.
3. Overload Air becomes Overcharge Air, a 600 range narrow lightning beam attack/mobile lightning field that emits straight ahead from the Tempest. It deals power damage and inflicts vulnerability on enemies standing in the lightning field.
4. Overload Earth becomes Overcharge Earth, a 600 range series of projectile attacks fired straight ahead from the Tempest, where the Tempest coats their fists in rock and unleashes a series of punches that fire rock projectiles. It deals power damage, and the final projectile inflicts knockdown.

What I'm proposing is to make Power DPS Tempest distinct from Condi DPS Tempest by making Power DPS Tempest Overloads beams and projectiles that fire at mid-range. This is intended to improve gameplay feel and increase build diversity. The damage bonus after completing an overload will then be split out between Transcendent Tempest and Lucid Singularity to make choice between power and condition damage clearer.

Solution Part 2: Lucid Singularity rework

"Time to attain Singularity is reduced. Deal increased condition damage after completing an overload."

Split the old Transcendent Tempest trait into the reworked Transcendent Tempest and this trait to make choice between power and condition damage clearer. Additionally, make the trait with Singularity in the name affect how long it takes to attain Singularity.

To go along with this, it may be a good idea to skew the damage coefficients on Overload Fire and Overload Earth a little towards burning and bleeding respectively in order to make vanilla Tempest slightly more condition focused and enable condition Tempest builds to work better.

Edited July 26, 2022 by mootshell.8530
fixing grammar errors

[Downstate.4697]

Having to choose between healing and alacrity is the point

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

14 minutes ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

Having to choose between healing and alacrity is the point

As was stated, this restriction doesn't exist on any other healer in the entire game. Almost all full support builds are AlacHeal, and that's what's expected from you going into group content.

 

The only exceptions of course being the QuickHeal builds. Ele can't do either of them.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[the krytan assassin.9235]

Pretty good changes, basically the whole Tempest traitline needs a rework. They are either no fun to play, offer very little usefullness towards the builds that the espec is trying to achieve or makes you force between multiple traits that are both essential to the class. 

There are alot of different ways to fix Tempest, aslong as there is some thought put into it, it should be pretty fine. 

 

The sad truth however is that community made forum posts are never read by the developers balance team let alone replied by devs. All these posts are Just a way of expressing personal frustration towards the current profession balance and to make fun of the balance devs who clearly aren't in touch with their community or game. I've had only 2 sightings of a developer ingame over the course of 7.5k hrs playtime during the last 10 years lol.

 

This thread will probably drop in a day or two and after 1-2 weeks a new one will occur with practically the same content in it. 

[Serephen.3420]

I like quite a few of these ideas, especially the power dps trait. Might actually get me interested in playing tempest again. 

Actually...now I really wish it was like that😅

Might be nice to share this on reddit or some place too as with what Krytan mentioned but not sure how much that gets checked either 🤔 

Well, I can at least dream about an exciting tempest again 😂

Edited July 26, 2022 by Serephen.3420

[Jmvars.4501]

17 hours ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

Having to choose between healing and alacrity is the point

Yeah, and it's good design. Problem is that other support builds don't have to choose.