Will heal-alac tempest be worth going for it?

[Valisha.8650]

I have recently obtained a legendary dagger, and the recent buffs to H-A Tempest seem rather interesting. But, since I have never played an ele, thus know nothing in that department - To ask simply, will it be worth it?

[zeyeti.8347]

This is my point of view , but for me tempest as healalac will still be far away from a HAM or a HFB , changes are good and open new ways to increase ele effectiveness , but not quite sufficient , we have way better skills in both e-specs mentionned up (just do the math , eye of storm will give 1stab for 5s , stand you ground give 5 stacks of stab. for 6s...) And there are way other problem with ele as healer :

-Not a lot of sustained heal , soothing water has a duration of 10-7secs when you go out of water , then you are left with your healing skill and maybe 1 utilty to heal (cause you gonna take  eye of the storm and aftershock to have stab + aegis)

-Boon aplication , if you want to generate fury (as hfb and ham has) you ll have to take air traitline , whos a shore to take as healer for only 1 interesting trait.

-Strong overload but 20 secs cd on attunement you overloaded , never overload water , the longer cooldown on it is actually a heal loss (great design.... your "strongest" heal skill actually input your heal further in time ....).

All those problem will make tempest heal a choice for player who want a challenge , for efficiency ... well do not take ele ... only good point of healtempest is "rebound" who can save your subgroup from a wipe .

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

I don't think so, because without the healing aura and Alacrity traits merged, their healing can't keep up outside of water attunement. That means they lose all other utility while healing, by camping water.

 

Also we had a healing Tempest in T4s yesterday and although our health stayed maxed due to them camping water the entire time they had no Aegis or Stability output so we kept getting thrown all over the place in every fight, unlike with HAM, HealBrand or even HealScrap.

 

They will only provide these boons on high cooldowns in the update, its good but not enough. Lastly, Tempest still has no source of barrier for allies, underperforming compared to HAM, HealScourge and even Spectre when your group's HP stays full, but they need to survive one-shots (Boneskinner, etc.).

 

Disclaimer: I've mained support Tempest for many years.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Mariyuuna.6508

[Kuma.1503]

I've played it a bunch in raids/fractals. It's worth getting into if you enjoy it. 

 

HAM is getting some pretty herfty nerfs next patch at the same time that it's recieving some buffs. Condi buffs to staff also opens up some potential hybrid staff builds. Staff heal alac tempest is very proficient at carrying pugs even now before the buffs, while dagger/warhorn does decent dps on the side, but relies on frost bow to heal outside of water attunement. 

 

If you don't mind the learning curve or enjoy ele I say go for it. 

 

[Valisha.8650]

Sigh, guess I will pass on it and stay with hscg instead.

10 hours ago, zeyeti.8347 said:

(great design.... your "strongest" heal skill actually input your heal further in time ....).

This, basically.

[Nash.2681]

Biggest issue of Healtemp imo is the mediocre role-compression. While giving it Alac was a good idea, the implementation is lackluckster. Being forced to cycle to attunements and fully channel overloads just for the sake of keeping the Alac running has a high chance of you not being able to fullfill your healing role when needed. Getting some tiny access to stab and aegis changes nothing, but unfortunatly that's the feedback they listened to. 

We'll see how usefull HAMs will be after the patch tomorrow, but I doubt they'll become useless. If anything will change, then druid will become more relevant again since it's quite easy to maintain alacrity and the recent buff to LL buffed they're healing capacity (at the cost of might generation, but since almost every class produces Might "on the fly" anyway, that's no big deal imo).

 

For healtemp, one can only hope that A.Net will wake up until octobre, right now it's an "ok'ish" choice at best.

[zeyeti.8347]

you can try it , but i think when you have touched ham or hfb you will be dissapointed.

True hfb and ham are getting some nerfs , but what make those two powerfull is there boon access and their heal access , Ham has not very strong pure heal , but its has healing 100% of the time trough medkit spray , it's not huge , but bieng able to heal whenever you want is the key . Example you are playing ele , you need to go fire attunement from water , because your stacks of mights start to deplete , then a groupmember take a huge hit leaving it with 1000hp ... what are you gonna use ? your healing skill on a 20 secs cds , or water signet ? 20 cd too... , no healtempest has two huge problem :

-boon access locked from swap attunement making you choose between heal/boon momentum (the patch correct it a bit with stab and aegis from shouts , ... but clearly not sufficient)

-healing access : while the heal of the tempest are strong , it's their accessibility who is the problem , before the alac trait you could take bastion of elements who was a huge healing out of water option , now you have to choose between healing access or alacrity ...

those two option should ne merged...  

Just look at ham : he pulse barrier with f3 skills that give might fury barrier and from that barrier pulsing alac .

Hfb just belch out with no interruption quickness and has many option for huge heals in melee and long range  with staff with both low cooldown and great accessibilty 

Another problem is i mentionned up is the alac bend to overloads (should have been auras) just imagine starting to overload and hop you get interrupted get your attunement to the 20 cd and destroyed your boon uptime (especially alacrity) ,... no , healtempest is taking a huge risk for no rewards at all , take it if you are a fan of it , but if you like efficiency do not touch it , sincerely ...

[DaKillaOfHell.5907]

Dagger Ele is dead for a long while except for maybe WvW or PvP - I don't know, never involved in that.

Dagger OH might be good for weaver, but not heal tempest.

 

And overall, heal tempest can best be seen as "support heal", but not a full heal.

Mostly it comes down to

- Wand and Warhorn because of being the best combo overall with TONS of decent support.

- Tempest as Traits (that's explainable), but depending on if you want alac, you need to pick up alac, for heal, you need to choose, which makes it mediocre while other classes have a lot more heal.

- Water as Traits, which actually helps healing....

 

and the rest:
- Fire for very good condi cleansing combined with Auras, if you go for them (plays well with heal of Tempest gm, but then you cannot distribute alac)

- Arcane for a huge boost in concentration, not to mention Regen, protection, swiftness

- Air for fury/swiftness

- Earth for Stability and Protection

 

So overall, you have to take your pick. Since you need Tempest and Water for sure, the rest is a question of what you want to play. But none of them come even close to HFB or HAM.

[the krytan assassin.9235]

it kinda depends on the content, but i'd say that cele HAT is in quite a decent spot post balance patch. You can maintain ~10-17k dps with 100% boontime on alac, might, swiftness, vigor, prot and regen. HAT also has some party aegis& stab (on quite a long cd unfortunately) and pretty good burst healing. Ofcourse it won't be viable in every boss encounter, but i'd say it's in a pretty good spot right now. especially due to the heal engi & heal guard nerfs. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by the krytan assassin.9235