Tempest - Fresh Air

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on April 20, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Power Tempest build for open world. This build has good burst damage, AoE damage, and boon generation for self and allies, most notably Might and Fury. Through several traits, it also provides AoE Auras to support itself and nearby allies. With the trait Lucid Singularity, the build can also sacrifice some damage to provide Alacrity to allies.

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Skill Bar

Sword/Warhorn

Staff

Utility

Weapon Variants

If you don't have access to Weaponmaster Training with Secrets of the Obscure, you will not be able to wield a sword. Use scepter instead.
Scepter - ranged mainhand but lower damage

Skill Variants

Healing

Glyph of Elemental Harmony provides strong burst heal and a boon based on attunement. Other alternatives are:

Arcane Brilliance - potentially the strongest heal if there are 5 enemies in range, plus a blast finisher, but very weak healing if there are no nearby enemies.
"Wash the Pain Away!" - weak heal, but heals in an AoE and also cleanses 1 condition.
Ether Renewal - very situational heal that removes up to 8 conditions throughout its long channelling time.

Utilities

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 Marauder gear, equip a different skill.
"Feel the Burn!" has low cooldown, decent damage, and provides Fire Aura for great synergy with the rest of the build.
"Aftershock!" combines damage, defense, and crowd control. Provides Magnetic Aura to reflect projectiles and for great synergy with the rest of the build.
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.
"Flash-Freeze!" - area Frost Aura for more boons and damage reduction.
Cleansing Fire - additional condition cleanse.
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. It has a long cooldown so, if more frequent stun breaks are preferred over the block, try Signet of Air or Glyph of Elemental Power.

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.

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

Specializations

Variants

Ferocious Winds - when playing in groups already providing Fury.
Powerful Aura - when playing in groups to support allies.
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.

Fire

Fire can replace Water to trade sustain for extra damage. Useful when playing in groups with a support.

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

Sword
Berserker

Warhorn
Berserker

Sigil

Rune
x6

Relic

Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar is almost identical to Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter. Either can be used.
Other relics include Relic of the Thief, Relic of the Adventurer, and Relic of Cerus.
Equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford.
In open world, you can consider using 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.
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(and variants)

Usage

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, the extra ferocity from Fresh Air, and the extra damage from Transcendent Tempest.

Your goal is to use Overload Fire off-cooldown, filling the gaps with Overload Air. After Overload Air, attune to either Water or Earth, cast 1 or 2 skills then return to Air since Fresh Air has recharged it. 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).

Opener

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

Lightning Orb while getting close to the enemy.
Overload Air
Quantum Strike and Fire Attunement
Wildfire
Flame Uprising
Cauterizing Strike
auto attack
Overload Fire
Heat Sync and Earth Attunement
Sand Squall
Dust Storm and Water Attunement
Tidal Surge
Air Attunement and auto attack until you can Overload Air

Be sure to use Sand Squall inside a fire field for more Might.
For extra damage, use your utility skills such as "Feel the Burn!" 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.

Auras

In this build, on top of their normal benefits, Auras also provide Fury and Swiftness thanks to Zephyr's Boon, which is great because you really want Fury. 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 almost always.

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 overload thanks to Harmonious Conduit.
You get Protection when you overload thanks to Hardy Conduit, from Sand Squall (which also extends existing boons) and from Glyph of Elemental Harmony when cast in Earth.
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. However, you will lack sustain as you'll lose access to Soothing Mist due to the increased cooldown after overloading.
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.
Attune to Water Attunement periodically to refresh Soothing Mist and heal yourself with Healing Ripple. You also heal yourself with Water Globe and Riptide
Evade damage by dodging or using Riptide and Earthen Vortex. This will also heal you thanks to Flow like Water.
This build has a lot of CC, use it to your advantage.

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

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