Elementalist #

GW2Mists lists two elementalist builds: a support and a DPS.

Support Tempest (Frontline) #

Rotation #

The tempest is very rotation-focused. There is certainly some tactical thinking required, but less than with other classes. Your job is to rotate through your skills as fast as you can, applying and transmuting as many auras as you can. The precise order will depend on what weapons you’re using.

With focus, you generally start in air to do as much CC as you can and then switch to fire to blast and reapply the fire aura (Focus 5). Then you continually alternate back into fire whenever available. But you never overload fire! Your DPS and aura output suffers too much from the lengthy post-overload cooldown.

Weapon Choice #

The only “acceptable” main-hand weapon for support tempest is dagger. It gives you one on-demand aura (Air 3) and decent CC options in most attunements.

Staff is only acceptable for DPS builds or tempests focusing almost solely on healing. But scrappers heal better, and you give up too much (one on-demand aura instead of two and fewer defensive boons).

focus

This is the default off-hand weapon. It gives you access to a second powerful on-demand aura (Fire 5), lots of CC, and the always useful Earth 5 personal invulnerability. Because of the trait Fire: Pyromancer’s Puissance, you want to be swapping in and out of fire as much as possible. This is another reason why focus is the preferred off-hand. It gives you a very good reason to be coming back to fire again and again.

dagger

This at least gets you a second on-demand aura (Water 4) that can be transmuted. It also gives you an additional on-demand heal (Water 5). It gives you more damage in fire and earth, and more mobility in air. But again, in a well-designed comp squad, specialists are preferred over generalists. Off-hand focus will maximize your unique contributions.

warhorn

This gives you access to an on-demand magnetic aura (Earth 4), but it cannot be transmuted. So you lose some cleanse potential. What it does give you is some directional healing skills in water. But again, scrappers heal better than you do anyway, and losing fire aura is a big loss.

Trait Options #

There’s very little trait flexibility with support tempests. It’s the combination of the three traits Water: Powerful Aura, Fire: Smothering Ashes, and Tempest: Elemental Bastion that make this build tick. Without them, your utility drops dramatically.

The only room to manoeuvre is in Tempest column 2.

Utility Skills #

Assuming you took Tempest: Tempestuous Aria, then your utility skills are going to be shouts. The might this trait generates synergizes with Fire: Pyromancer’s Puissance.

Swapping in “Aftershock!” for other shouts is of course acceptable, but “Eye of the Storm!” is very valuable. You typically shouldn’t choose any non-shout utilities unless you are choosing a different Tempest column 2 trait.

Personal Notes #

Haele #

I play dagger/focus. I always start in air. I try to be right up front so my CC and weakness are most effective. After overloading air I immediately swap to fire to transmute and reapply my fire aura. I’ll often drop a fire line in the middle of the zerg if I can. Never overload fire!

Then I tend to switch to earth for more CC. I try to delay water as long as I can, but I won’t hesitate to switch to it if things are getting hairy. But I keep switching in and out of fire whenever it becomes available, and I tend to favour air whenever it’s available for the very powerful overload.

I use “Eye of the Storm!” if we’re chasing and just need that extra boost of speed or when we’re getting stunned. I tend to save my other shouts for when tag calls for CC as opposed using it for cleansing, though I will if my weapon skills aren’t keeping us cleansed enough.

Use your heal skill liberally and use “Rebound!” if anyone in your party is running low on health.

I stream more firebrand than tempest, but you can see some videos of me playing tempest on my Twitch channel.