Tempest - Fresh Air

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on August 08, 2025 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

A Power Tempest build for open world. This build has high AoE damage plus some boon generation for self and allies, most notably Might and Fury. Cast Overload Air to fry your enemies with a nimbus of lightning, then do it over and over again thanks to Fresh Air refreshing its cooldown.

With the trait Lucid Singularity, the build can also sacrifice damage to provide Alacrity to allies.

Template Code

[&DQYpLx8dMBcXARcBwxLDEnQSdBLLAMsAJgCWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADVgBnAFkAAA==]

Copy Template Code

Skill Bar

Scepter/Warhorn

Utility

Weapon Variants

We default to Scepter+ Warhorn as they provide a good mix of damage and support.

Sword+ Offhand dagger provide higher damage and mobility, but are melee focused and have less support. Sword usage requires Weaponmaster Training with Secrets of the Obscure.
Hammer higher damage and some AoE but requires you to maintain the buffs from the 3rd skill such as Flame Wheel, Crescent Wind, etc. Hammer usage requires Weaponmaster Training with Secrets of the Obscure.
Spear - can be considered by players with Janthir Wilds, providing great AoE damage, but it's harder to use as it is more stationary.

Skill Variants

Healing

We default to Glyph of Elemental Harmony as it provides strong burst healing and a boon based on attunement. Other alternatives are:

Arcane Brilliance - weak heal by default, but is greatly increased if it strikes nearby enemies. Performs a blast finisher, and heals for more when doing so. Excellent synergy with water combo fields. (See: Guide:What are Combo Fields).
"Wash the Pain Away!" - weak healing, but heals in an AoE and cleanses 1 condition per pulse.
Ether Renewal - very high healing and condition removal throughout its long channelling time. Great option for raw healing if you can afford the cast time.

Utilities

We default to:
Signet of Fire is here only for the precision buff, so never cast it. If you already have 100% crit chance because you're using full Marauder gear, equip a different skill.
"Feel the Burn!" has low cooldown, decent damage, and provides Might.
"Aftershock!" combines damage, defense, and crowd control. Provides Magnetic Aura to reflect projectiles.
Other alternatives are:

Glyph of Storms provides AoE damage in fire and air, while on earth it will blind trash mobs.
Glyph of Lesser Elementals - spawn a small elemental army that dies when you mount up, good for fighting strong bosses.
Glyph of Elemental Power - very flexible skill that can do damage, or cleanse conditions, or daze enemies, or give barrier, depending on your current attunement, and breaks stun.
Cleansing Fire - condition cleanse and stun break.
Lightning Flash - for mobility.
Your overloads break stun when cast, but if you want a dedicated stun break you can use Arcane Shield, which also blocks 3 attacks, or Mist Form for invulnerability, or Armor of Earth for Stability.

Elites

Glyph of Elementals is simply the best elite for solo play. Cast it on Fire for damage, on Water for support, healing and Knockback, on Air for a Stun, or on Earth for defense and tanking.

"Rebound!" - very situational skill that can be considered against certain bosses with oneshot attacks.

Specializations

Variants

Tempestuous Aria - sacrifices defense for extra damage. The loss of Stability from Harmonious Conduit may cause you to be interrupted while using an Overload, so be careful about that.
Lucid Singularity - useful in groups to provide allies with Alacrity. You can technically provide permanent alacrity with only the bonus concentration of Gathered Focus, but this isn't realistic in real fights. This trait works best if you can acquire more concentration from food or gear like Diviner.

Water

Water can replace Fire. This slightly lowers your sustained damage but slightly improves burst damage and provides some healing and extra Vitality for more health.

Equipment

This build uses the same gear as power weaver and power catalyst for ease of gearing.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Scepter
Berserker

Warhorn
Berserker

Sigil

Rune
x6

Relic

If you are gearing this character from zero, start with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Zhed" armor, "Hypnotic Scepter" scepter, "Kodanroar" or "Shattered Warhorn" warhorn. Upgrade to ascended gear as you progress. See also: Guide:How to Gear a Character.

We default to scepter+warhorn as they provide a good mix of damage and support, but players with Weaponmaster Training with Secrets of the Obscure can use Hammer or Sword+ Dagger for slightly higher damage but less support.
Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar is almost identical to Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter. Either can be used.
You can use Relic of Zakiros to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain, Relic of the Cavalier to start combat with boons, or Relic of Durability for a little extra defense.
Equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford.
In open world, you can consider using full Marauder gear instead of Berserker to sacrifice a small amount of damage for a massive health increase. If doing so, switch your runes to Rune of Superior Rune of the Deadeye. The amulet can be Dragon. With this gear set you no longer need Signet of Fire and can use another damage or utility skill instead.

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
/
/

Defense

Farming

Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
/
(and variants)

Usage

Overloads

Overloads are the profession mechanic of the tempest. After attuning to an element, remain in it for a few seconds to achieve Singularity, allowing you to press the attunement key again to Overload that attunement and cast a powerful skill but place the attunement on a long recharge.

In this build, you will focus on Overload Air.

Damage

Fresh Air resets the cooldown of Air Attunement every time you critically strike while attuned to a different attunement. This includes resetting the cooldown of Overload Air. Thus, the idea behind the build is to use Overload Air, attune to another element and maybe use some skills of that element, and then return to Air, triggering Electric Discharge and getting the extra ferocity from Fresh Air and the extra damage from Transcendent Tempest.

Your goal is to spam Overload Air for damage. If you are playing alone, you can also Overload Fire for damage and Might. Since Overload Fire creates a fire field, you can use combo finishers to provide yourself and nearby allies with even more might (See: Guide:What are Combo Fields).

After Overloading, attune to another element, cast 1 or 2 skills then return to Air since Fresh Air has recharged it.

Opener

Against bosses and other strong enemies, try to follow this opener:

Overload Air
Lightning Strike and Fire Attunement
Wildfire
Dragon's Tooth
Phoenix
Heat Sync
Overload Fire
Air Attunement
Lightning Orb + Arc Lightning
Lightning Strike until Overload Air is ready
Overload Air
Water Attunement
Shatterstone
Water Trident and Air Attunement
Arc Lightning + Lightning Strike until Overload Air is ready

If playing in a group giving you Might, skip Overload Fire and just return to Air quickly.
Lightning Strike has no cast time nor animation, use it while casting other skills or overload.
Use "Feel the Burn!" off cooldown.
If using high damage skills like Glyph of Storms or Conjure Fiery Greatsword, use them when you attune back to Air because you will be under all these damage modifiers: Aeromancer's Training, Fresh Air, and Transcendent Tempest.
You will activate Relic of Fireworks with Overloads, Wildfire, Lightning Orb, and Dust Storm.

Spear

If using Spear (requires Janthir Wilds), your priority is still to spam Overload Air, but you will want to use Derecho, Volcano and Haboob as well, which will obviously work better if an ally is giving you Quickness so you don't delay Overload Air too much.

Overload Air
Fulgor and Fire Attunement
Etching: Volcano
Blazing Barrage
Meteor
Seethe
Volcano and Air Attunement
Etching: Derecho
Twister
Fulgor
Energize
Derecho
Overload Air and Earth Attunement
- Etching: Haboob (skip if you have alacrity)
Earthen Spear
- Fissure (skip if you have alacrity)
- Harden (skip if you have alacrity)
- Haboob (skip if you have alacrity)
Air Attunement and autoattack until Overload is ready, then repeat from step 1.

Always empower Volcano by casting Seethe directly before.
It's generally not worth it to stay in Earth for Haboob, but you can do it if you don't have Alacrity from other players. Likewise, Water attunement should only be used if you need condition cleanse from Ripple or a little healing from Jokulhlaup.

Auras

Auras provide useful benefits to yourself. If needed, they can be shared to nearby allies by using the trait Powerful Aura and even provide boons with Zephyr's Boon. You have several skills that produce auras, including your overloads thanks to Unstable Conduit:

Fire Aura: "Feel the Burn!", Overload Fire.
Frost Aura: "Flash-Freeze!", Overload Water.
Shocking Aura: Overload Air.
Magnetic Aura: Sand Squall, "Aftershock!", Overload Earth.

Elementals

Elementals are really good allies in any open world elementalist build. Their only downside is that they die when you mount up. Consider summoning a few elementals before fighting bosses or other tough enemies.

Glyph of Lesser Elementals

Glyph of Lesser Elementals summons one elemental for 2 minutes. If you cast it off cooldown, you can have 3 elementals alive most of the time.

The Lesser Fire Elemental deals good melee range AoE strike damage and Burning, and provides Might. It has the highest AoE damage of all Lesser Elementals.
The Lesser Ice Elemental deals very low damage and inflicts a lot of Chill (80-90% uptime) through an ice combo field.
The Lesser Air Elemental deals great single target damage and generates Swiftness. It has the second best damage behind Fire, but it's single target.
The Lesser Earth Elemental deals low damage, inflicts Weakness, and is very tanky.

Glyph of Elementals

Elementals have the same attacks and behaviour as Lesser Elementals, but can be commanded to do an additional skill.

The Fire Elemental can be commanded to deal damage and Burning in an AoE.
The Ice Elemental can be commanded to deal damage in an AoE, while healing nearby allies by 6401, knocking back enemies, and removing 1 condition.
The Air Elemental can be commanded to Stun for 1.5 seconds.
The Earth Elemental can be commanded to inflict nearby enemies with 1 second of Immobilize and 5 seconds of Cripple, while providing 3 seconds of Protection to nearby allies.

Defense

The best defense is always to dodge or sidestep attacks. You have permanent Swiftness so you can run around enemies while they die to your AoEs. You cannot dodge while doing an Overload or you will cancel it, but you can use that swiftness to get out of the way of telegraphed attacks.
Glyph of Elementals is great for defense, as the elemental will often draw aggro away from you. The earth elemental is quite tanky.
You get Stability when you start an overload thanks to Harmonious Conduit.
You get Protection when you start an overload thanks to Hardy Conduit, from Sand Squall (which also extends existing boons) and from Glyph of Elemental Harmony when cast in Earth.
You can increase your toughness with Rock Barrier.
Magnetic Aura from Sand Squall or Unstable Conduit+Overload Earth reflects projectiles.
Overload Water can be used in emergencies to cleanse 5 conditions and heal you a little.
Overload Earth is great for chipping away at breakbars with its crippled and immobilize. It also gives you stability at the start, and the lingering storm provides protection.
When using Water, you should attune to Water Attunement periodically to refresh Soothing Mist and heal yourself with Healing Ripple. You also heal yourself with Water Globe and Water Trident
Dodging attacks will also heal you thanks to Flow like Water.
Blind trash mobs with Blinding Flash, Dust Devil or Dust Storm.

Crowd Control

Cyclone - Pull
Tidal Surge - Knockback
Enemies that attack you or allies from melee range while having Shocking Aura - stun
Crashing Waves (from Glyph of Elementals Ice Elemental) - Knockback
Shocking Bolt (from Glyph of Elementals Air Elemental) - stun

Tempest - Fresh Air

Contents

Overview

Template Code