Tempest - Power DPS
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Strike damage
Designed for: Raids
Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on February 12, 2022 and is up to date for the February 11, 2025 patch.
Overview
Also known as Fresh Air Scepter/Warhorn Tempest, this is an old Heart of Thorns build which has now become one of the best AoE burst damage builds in the game.
Fresh Air Tempest relies on spamming and resetting its cooldown with . This, combined with its high damage AoE skills, makes it excel at killing adds and trash mobs. In addition, Tempest provides a lot of 
Vulnerability, deals excellent burst damage on large hitboxes, and provides a unique damage buff to its party through 's Static Discharge.
This guide is focused on raids. For the fractal version see Build:Tempest - Power DPS (Fractal).
Skill Bar
Scepter/Warhorn
Utility
Skill Variants
Healing
- will provide the highest uptime in very low damage fights (i.e. fights where you never press your healing skill).
- for a strong group heal.
- if extra condition cleanse is needed.
Template Code
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Specializations
Specialization Variants
- on Keep Construct.
Equipment
Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Assassin
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Assassin
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Scepter
Berserker
Warhorn
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x13
Infusion
x5
Equipment Variants
- instead of on Keep Construct.
- You can run full
Berserker with and 3 Precise infusions. This setup does ~10 DPS more than the recommended option but is less convenient to adjust if you don't have .
Consumables
Food
-
- Switch to if you don't have .
Utility
Usage
Opening Burst
- The opening burst focuses on using all available cooldowns.
- Cast from afar then begin channeling . Ideally you time the cast to finish on top of the enemy the moment combat begins.
- , and swap to as soon as you begin casting.
- , , ,
- ,
- ,
Loop Rotation
- If is available, use it immediately after .
- If it is on a ~35 second cooldown, pick it up off the ground.
- Do , 1 auto attack chain, and drop the weapon.
- If is available and is not, use immediately after .
- Pick up the second Fiery Greatsword from the ground immediately after 1 loop after you have already done so with the Lightning Hammer.
- Do , , and drop the weapon as soon as the cast bar finishes to skip the massive aftercast.
- In , always cast , , , and when they are available.
- Cast after dropping your conjured weapon or, if you don't have one, immediately when it is available.
- Do not delay the cast of to cast . You can cast it after, and swap to your next attunement mid-cast.
- Immediately after finishing , swap to either or .
- If either or are available, swap to them for key skills then immediately return to to maintain high uptime of .
- Prioritize first. Cast any of the following skills if available: , , and then return to air.
- After casting , swap to and cast before returning to .
- If your next swap to will allow you to use , and together, wait for to come off cooldown rather than delay it by swapping to .
- If is about to expire, wait for rather than swap to .
- When swapping to , cast and leave as fast as possible. Doing this slowly can be a DPS decrease over simply waiting for cooldown.
Video rotation example by Roul
Notes
- Cast whenever it's available - it doesn't interrupt other channels.
- If you don't have a conjured weapon available, simply use the auto-attack in Air until your overload is ready.
- Step back from the boss before casting to maximize the hits you get from it.
- If you're unable to do the water attunement section very fast it works out to be a DPS loss, so if you're not confident in your speed you can simply skip that section.
Ratings
This build is top-tier at the moment. Damage is excellent and rotation is very simple. Go water, and air on traits.
I used this build raiding with my guild today, and it performed spectacularly. Great damage output, and it can react to mechanics with minimal disruption to the rotation.
It is somewhat lacking in survivability. If you're in a good raiding guild your healer should be able to keep you alive anyway, but in an average group a substitution might be a good idea. I ended up substituting Lightning Flash for Conjure Lightning Hammer just so I could blink out of damage zones in an emergency, but Arcane Shield would also work if mobility isn't required or feasible for a fight.
Another weakness obviously is CC, but that's more a weakness of the class than the build. Even though it's possible to be carried by a CC-heavy raid, in a fight where hard CC is vital (such as Samarog) it might be a good idea to switch to a different class if your raid is consistently failing CC phases.
The build has no active stun breaks, but if you're good at avoiding telegraphed attacks the auto-break from Gale Song is enough.
Overall though I'd definitely recommend this build. Lots of fun and very viable.
One of the best power DPS builds at the moment, with unparalleled large hitbox burst as well as high raid utility. Best in slot on Keep Construct and a solid option for power DPS anywhere.
Comments
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