Build:Tempest - Alacrity Support Healer

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Healing, Support and Utility

Designed for: Raids

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on June 26, 2024 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

Tempest is capable of providing permanent uptime of Alacrity, Fury, Might, Protection, Regeneration, Swiftness and high Vigor on their subgroup, along with a lot of healing.

The need to constantly switch attunements makes the rotation quite rigid, so it has to rely on utility skills for reactive healing, and its reliance on being close to the squad for boons makes it a poor kiter. On the plus side, you gain "Rebound!" which will allow you to skip certain mechanics that would otherwise down the group, and Arcane Resurrection allows you to help revive players without locking yourself into the animation.

Skill Bar

Dagger/Warhorn

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Staff has greater healing potential, but the lack of Warhorn creates a shortfall in boons that needs to be addressed.
• Sceptre can be used instead of Dagger if you need to be at range, but you will lose significant healing from Cone of Cold.

Skill Variants

Utility
As you need to leave Water Attunement for boons, this can leave you without sources of healing, so Signet of Water, Conjure Frost Bow and Glyph of Elementals (water) are there to fill in the gap. "Feel the Burn!" provides long-range Might to make up for the small AoE of Overload Fire. Any of these skills can be swapped out if desired:

• If using Relic of Karakosa, Arcane Wave provides some extra on-demand healing (assuming there is a field to combo with).
• Most utility shout skills provide a number of boons thanks to Invigorating Torrents, so it is important to keep at least one on your bar, but you can bring more if desired.
  • "Aftershock!" provides Aegis and a blast finisher if using Relic of Karakosa.
  • "Eye of the Storm!" provides a group stunbreak as well as Superspeed which can be particularly useful on "event" encounters such as Spirit Woods or Siege Escort. It also offers some extra Stability, which may be useful during Overload Fire as you don't use Harmonious Conduit and being interrupted mid-cast will cause you to drop Alacrity.
  • "Flash-Freeze!" is your only reliable way to access Frost Aura, which can be a potent defensive tool against attacks that cannot be blocked with "Aftershock!".

Elite
"Rebound!" provides a way to skip certain mechanics that would otherwise down the group.

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Specializations

Trait Variants

• Stop, Drop, and Roll on encounters with a lot of Burning or Chilled.
• Powerful Aura, in combination with the Fire variant below, can be used for extreme condition removal.
  • Unstable Conduit could be used in combination for even more auras.
• Gale Song for easier Protection uptime.
• Tempestuous Aria will let you build Might up faster, but you lose the ability to provide permanent uptime of Vigor for the squad.

Specialization Variants

Arcane is chosen as a default traitline as the lower cooldowns on attunement swapping and overloads allows you to be more flexible with your rotation, and the extra Protection from Elemental Attunement means you don't need to rely on "Aftershock!" to make it permanent. Arcane Resurrection is a nice bonus.

This said, Arcane is a rather unimpressive traitline, so it can be freely swapped to another traitline:

• Fire and Earth add a lot of potential condi cleanse via Smothering Auras and Diamond Skin, respectively. They both provide a comparable amount of condi cleanse, but Earth doesn't require you change other traits and has more synergy with the rest of a healer's kit.
• Air offers higher CC.

Earth

• Rock Solid provides Stability, which can be problematic on encoutners that corrupt boons. In this case take Earthen Blessing instead.

Equipment

Head
Harrier

Shoulders
Harrier

Chest
Harrier

Hands
Harrier

Legs
Harrier

Feet
Harrier

Backpiece
Magi

Accessory
Magi

Accessory
Magi

Amulet
Harrier

Ring
Harrier

Ring
Harrier

Dagger
Harrier

Warhorn
Harrier

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x16

Infusion
x2

Relic

Equipment Variants

• Relic of the Monk is the best option for players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure.
• The gear above is designed to cap boon duration when using +70 concentration food.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Renewal and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Water offer nearly identical healing. Water was chosen as it is cheaper and heals more frequently.

Consumables

Food

• • as a cheaper alternative

Utility

Usage

The basic rotation idea will be the same regardless of which mainhand weapon you're using, as your key skills are on your overloads, warhorn, and shouts, leaving mainhand weapon skills predominantly for damage.

Opener

Start in Fire Attunement

1. Throw out any quick DPS skills such as Wildfire and use "Aftershock!" in the fire field to blast some Might
2. Overload Fire to start stacking Might
3. Stay in Fire Attunement until you hit 25 Might
4. Heat Sync to share the Might and Fury with your squad

Swap to Air Attunement

1. Convergence to blast

Swap to Water Attunement

1. Frozen Burst to blast more Might
2. Tidal Surge
3. Cone of Cold and swap during the cast

Swap to Earth Attunement

1. Sand Squall to apply Protection and extend boons on everyone
2. Dust Storm and other DPS skills
3. Wait until Overload Earth is ready and use it

Main rotation

The core of your boon application is to use Heat Sync and Sand Squall whenever they are available (every 24 seconds, with Alacrity), also using the overloads in these attunements. This means you want to switch to Fire Attunement within ~3 seconds of it coming off cooldown, and repeat the Opener. You should alternate between Water Attunement, Air Attunement and one of the other attunements, using whichever healing skills are available whenever you return to water. It is important NOT to use Overload Water as this will lock you out of Water Attunement for too long. While in Air Attunement you can use Cyclone for extra Swiftness or CC.

The blast finisher from Convergence is slightly delayed, so it is possible to cast it then switch to Water and use Frozen Burst before the blast hits, getting two comboes.

Be aware that your skills that generate Magnetic Aura - Sand Squall, "Aftershock!", Overload Earth via Unstable Conduit, and "Rebound!" while in Earth Attunement - will cause you to reflect projectiles. This can be very useful, but can also lead to problems at encounters such as Matthias or Cairn if you are not careful when you use them.

Video example

Staff Rotation

The main selling point of Staff is the amount of long-range healing it can provide while in Water Attunement, so it is worth camping this attunement for most of the loop. Overload Water does not quite provide enough Alacrity to make it permanent, so it is necessary to regularly swap to Fire Attunement for a second overload and Might.

As it also lacks the utility of Warhorn, "Feel the Burn!" is essential as you otherwise lack Fury, and your Might would be less reliable.

Be aware that the boon radius for Might on Overload Fire is only 180, so significant Might uptime will be lost if you're not stacked tightly on your group. This can be somewhat mitigated by bringing extra blast finishers and comboing with fire fields, or using Glyph of Lesser Elementals in Fire Attunement (or swapping to a Warhorn build).

Opener
Start in Fire Attunement

1. Overload Fire to start stacking Might
2. "Feel the Burn!"

Swap to Earth Attunement

1. Eruption for the blast finisher

Swap to Air Attunement

1. Windborne Speed for Swiftness

Swap to Water Attunement

1. Ice Spike quickly to squeeze in another blast finisher

Rest of the Rotation
While in Water Attunement you can autoattack and use Geyser for group healing. Ice Spike is a blast finisher on a low cooldown, and your skills 3-5 all provide combo fields, and Healing Rain provides AoE condi cleanse. Use Overload Water as soon as you can, but don't swap attunement immediately. A good rule of thumb is to use Ice Spike three times while you're in Water. Use a combo field as one of your last skills, then swap to Earth Attunement for Eruption, then Fire Attunement. None of the skills in fire are particularly useful, so just use Overload Fire as soon as you can and repeat the Opener.

Healing

• Swapping to Water Attunement will trigger Healing Ripple
• Tidal Surge and Water Globe on warhorn
• Cone of Cold on dagger, plus you can use Frozen Burst to blast the water field from Water Globe for more
• Water Blast and Geyser on staff.

Your sustained healing will be lower when outside of Water Attunement, so you should use your other skills to maintain your group's health:

• "Wash the Pain Away!" is your bread and butter emergency heal, as it doesn't require you to break from your rotation to use
• Signet of Water is a substantial heal and partial revive that can target players up to 1200 away. This makes it by far your most reliable ranged heal and therefore it should probably be saved for when it's needed rather than using it on the stack
• Conjure Frost Bow is a powerful conjure that will provide you with sustained from Water Arrow if Water Attunement. The splash healing only works if you hit a target, but it could be used to provide healing to the stack if you need to be at range
• Crashing Waves is an enormous heal on a very low cooldown for as long as your elemental is alive
• If using Relic of Karakosa, Arcane Wave is an instant-cast blast finisher, and thanks to it having two charges, it can be provide a lot of burst healing if used in quick succession.

Healing tips

• While not exactly a heal, "Rebound!" can be much more effective by negating incoming damage that would otherwise down multiple people - good encounter knowledge will help you make the best use of this

Damage

Conveniently, just about the only skill that isn't a DPS increase or a heal is Earthen Rush on dagger, so as long as you keep switching attunements at the correct time you can go pretty far by just mashing any skill that's off cooldown

You may also wish to avoid Rock Barrier on sceptre, as the extra toughness might make you the tank on some encounters

Fresh Air rotations If you're running Fresh Air, you can structure your rotation for a bit more damage by going from Earth Attunement → Air Attunement → Water Attunement → Air Attunement → Fire Attunement after the opener staying in Air Attunement long enough to use Overload Air each time. This is a minor reduction in boon generation that allows you to get two uses each of out Overload Air, Cyclone, and Lightning Orb each loop.

Vulnerability If your group has low Vulnerability, you can boost it significantly by taking Fresh Air and/or sceptre:

• Overload Air generates about 15 stacks
• Lightning Orb can generate 25 stacks even on a small target if aimed properly
• Shatterstone's short cooldown allows it to be used twice each time you switch to water, for an extra 10 stacks per loop

Crowd control

You don't have a huge amount of CC available, and what you do have is part of your rotation so you may need to delay some skills if there is a defiance bar coming up:

• Deep Freeze is a significant amount of CC, and can be pushed higher if you're able to build up two stacks of water arrow before using it
• Crashing Waves if your elemental is alive
• Tidal Surge
• Cyclone
• Shocking Aura → Transmute Lightning on dagger

If you're running Fresh Air you can keep your air skills off cooldown and go about your rotation as normal, as this trait means you will always be able to switch to air as soon as a defiance bar appears.