Tempest - Staff Support

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

Focused on: Control, Support, Healing and Condition cleanse

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on August 24, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

This build primarily fills the role of the healer and cleanser for its party.

Glyph of Renewal is an exceptionally powerful revive skill - in Air Attunement it has the unique effect of repositioning the target, allowing the tempest to fully reset a player that went down in a bad place.

Tempest provides some Might provided with Pyromancer's Puissance as well as unique auras - primarily Frost Aura and the very powerful Shocking Aura.

Compared to D/X builds, staff excels at CC but has lower personal survivability.

Skill Bar

Staff

Staff

Utility

Variants

Weapons

• Dagger/Dagger - see Build:Tempest_-_D/D Aurashare
• Dagger/Focus - see Build:Tempest_-_Aurashare

Utilities

• "Feel the Burn!" shortest CD shout, for slightly more heal/cleanse
• "Eye of the Storm!" group stunbreak and AOE superspeed

Specializations

Variants

• Lucid Singularity ~20% healing loss, but decent Alacrity uptime

Template Code

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Equipment

Head
Minstrel

Shoulders
Minstrel

Chest
Minstrel

Hands
Minstrel

Legs
Minstrel

Feet
Minstrel

Backpiece
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Amulet
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Staff
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Staff
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of the Trooper
• Relic of the Monk

Consumables

• • personal option

Usage

General

• As soon as you get 25 stacks of Sigil of Superior Sigil of Benevolence and get out of combat, swap back to the set without it
• Try to spend the majority of your time in Water Attunement so that your Air Attunement and Earth Attunement are ready when needed
  • Make sure to go into Fire Attunement as often as possible while swapping attunements to proc Sunspot

Overall Priorities

High

• Glyph of Renewal
• Condition clear
• Healing

Moderate

• Stability
• CC
• Superspeed

Low

• Aura/boonshare

Surviving

• This build has moderate passive defense
• This build has moderate mobility skill access
• This builds has low active defenses
  • Since you lack personal stunbreaks and you heavily rely on skills with longer casttimes, you want to position safely
    • Stay close to tag, but not directly on top - within 200-300 range is close enough to quickly respond to movements and get boons without getting stuck behind
    • While overloading, if needed, move further away ensure the cast finishes - Powerful Aura has 600 radius

Active defense priority

• Dodge
• Burning Retreat

Detailed Explanations

Glyph of Renewal

• Under General Options / Combat/Movement turn on Allow Skill Retargetting and set Ground Targetting to Instant Cast, this will make Glyph of Renewal cast at the location your cursor is at the end of the cast, instead of where you initially targetted
• Focus on reviving allies who are far away with Glyph of Renewal, don't waste the skill on players that can be hand rezzed.
• Use Glyph of Renewal in Air Attunement on single players and Earth Attunement on multiple players
  • If the teleportation is not needed (or actively harmful), use the glyph in Water Attunement for the extra heal
• If a downed ally can be safely revived by other means don't use Glyph of Renewal
• If you are under the effect of Illusion of Life you can cast Glyph of Renewal in Fire Attunement to avoid timing out

Condition clear

• Much of your condition clear is tied up in attunements and overloads by Smothering Auras, so conserve your shouts unless you absolutely need them
  • "Wash the Pain Away!" and "Aftershock!" each cleanse two conditions but should normally be saved for healing and Immobilize respectively

Condition clear priority

• Water Attunement
  • Healing Rain
  • Frozen Ground - Frost Aura + Smothering Auras
  • Overload Water - Unstable Conduit + Smothering Auras
• Fire Attunement - Sunspot + Smothering Auras
• Earth Attunement
  • Magnetic Aura - Smothering Auras
  • Transmute Earth - Smothering Auras
  • Overload Earth - Unstable Conduit + Smothering Auras
• Air Attunement
  • Overload Air - Unstable Conduit + Smothering Auras
• "Flash-Freeze!" - Smothering Auras + Rune of Superior Rune of the Trooper
• "Rebound!" - Smothering Auras + Rune of Superior Rune of the Trooper
• "Wash the Pain Away!" - Rune of Superior Rune of the Trooper
• "Aftershock!" - Smothering Auras + Rune of Superior Rune of the Trooper

Healing

• Most of your healing comes from Water Attunement and "Wash the Pain Away!"
• Use Ice Spike and Eruption on the fields you make with Geyser and Healing Rain for healing or Frozen Ground for damage mitigation if healing isn't needed
  • It is often worth swapping straight to Earth Attunement after Water Attunement to land Eruption on a field
    • The timing with Eruption is somewhat tight so practice it out of combat
• Tempests biggest burst heal skill is "Wash the Pain Away!"
  • Keep in mind most of the healing is on the first pulse which only has a radius of 180
• Water Attunement ⇒ Healing Ripple is instant cast, meaning it provides the healing immediately and can also be used while CCed

Healing priority

• "Wash the Pain Away!"
• Water Attunement - Healing Ripple
  • Geyser
  • Healing Rain
  • Frozen Ground
  • Ice Spike - water/ice field blast
  • Water Blast
  • Overload Water
• Fire Attunement - Sunspot + Smothering Auras
• Earth Attunement
  • Eruption - water/ice field blast
  • Magnetic Aura ⇒ Transmute Earth

Stability

• Use Transmute Earth as the first Stability application on ranged engages
• Other than ranged engages, try to fill any gaps in your guardian's Stability uptime, especially when your group is pushing

CC

• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike:
    • Winds - Winds of Disenchantment
    • Wells - Well of Corruption+Well of Suffering
    • Shades - Desert Shroud
    • Traps - Procession of Blades+Test of Faith
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive players are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups moving defensively while your group is pushing
• Save "Aftershock!" for when enemies have Stability
  • The Immobilize from "Aftershock!" hits in 600 radius

CC priority

• "Aftershock!"
• Air Attunement
  • Static Field
  • Overload Air - Unstable Conduit
• Earth Attunement
  • Earthquake
  • Unsteady Ground
  • Overload Earth

Superspeed

• Focus on using Windborne Speed when your group is pushing or disengaging from the enemy

Aura/boonshare

• Make sure you're close to your group when leaving Fire Attunement to proc Pyromancer's Puissance, it has a short 240 radius
• Use Frozen Ground on your group before pushes to give Frost Aura

Settings

• Under General Options / User Interface check Always show squad health bars and Always show party health bars. These will make it much easier to keep track of who needs your support.
• Also under General Options / User Interface turn on Thick party health bars
  • Thick squad health bars can be used too as a matter of personal preference, but is not recommended for large numbers
• Under Squad Options uncheck View as a grid. This will allow you to keep track of your allies' boons, conditions and health, enabling a better decision-making and skill management.