Tempest - Condi Tempest

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

Focused on: Condition damage and Defense

Designed for: Open World, [[|]], [[|]] and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on February 15, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A high-DPS, high-Defense Elementalist build that is relatively easy to begin learning. This build relies heavily on its very high Burning output and its personal Might generation. It has considerable amounts of area damage which results in excellent cleave. It has both melee and ranged DPS options, and several viable build variants that allow the build to reach high levels of versatility and offer a multitude of playstyles.

This build is recommended for new players due to its ease of use, though they may struggle with the class's low HP and active playstyle at first.

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Skill Bar

Dagger/Warhorn

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Scepter - Ranged alternative to mainhand dagger.
• Staff - Use in zergs for ranged AOE
• Dagger (offhand) - Lower DPS but more mobility than warhorn

Skill Variants

Healing

• Glyph of Elemental Harmony - burst heal
• Arcane Brilliance - blast finisher

Utilities

• Glyph of Lesser Elementals - Provides powerful pets that can be buffed by your boons.
• "Flash-Freeze!" or "Aftershock!" - more defense and support for nearby allies.
• Glyph of Storms - AoE burst damage from Firestorm or pulsing blind with Sandstorm.
• Arcane Shield - breaks stun and blocks attacks.
• Lightning Flash - for mobility.

Elites

• Conjure Fiery Greatsword - high AoE damage on a long cooldown, mobility
• "Rebound!" - strong defensive elite

Specializations

Variants

• A note on Persisting Flames - this trait does not interact with the fire field creation from Overload Fire. As a result, this trait is an extremely poor choice for this build.
• Blinding Ashes - more Blind if having trouble with trash mobs.
• Gale Song - passive defensive stunbreak; very valuable in groups

Arcane

It is possible run Arcane over Earth for an increase to sustain.

• Elemental Lockdown - extra boons

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats. This set uses gear similar to this build's instanced PVE counterpart and works well for general PVE. Viper offers the highest damage, but no defense or sustain. Consult the variants below for defensive options.

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Dagger
Viper

Warhorn
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

scepter
Viper

x
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Gear Variants

Budget

• Dire + Rune of Balthazar + Sigil of Smoldering - a cheap gearset that performs well when camping fire

Defense

• Trailblazer + Rune of Superior Rune of the Nightmare - a tanky gearset for soloing difficult content
• Celestial + Rune of Leadership / Rune of Superior Rune of the Traveler - a powerful gearset with increased boon duration and healing
• Celestial - mix in a few cele trinkets for an instant defense boost
• Sigil of Energy - drastic increase to defense, replace Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bursting

Consumables

Prioritize ascended food over everything else; steak (power) and flatbread (conditions). Using cheap/budget food is perfectly acceptable in open world. Damage For damage, run and . Budget options are with . Run if running high toughness builds.

Defense Use for more dodges.

Farming Run and (or its other variants) when trying to maximize gold per hour.

Usage

• Glyph of Elementals can provide a high damage elemental in Fire or excellent defensive options in Earth or Water.
• Use blast finishers like Frozen Burst and Sand Squall over Fire Fields to grant Might.
• Use Heat Sync at 15+ might
• It can be beneficial to use Glyph of Elemental Power just before leaving Air Attunement for added Vulnerability application.

Damage

Dagger

• Don't interrupt Drake's Breath. Attunement swapping will not interrupt it.
• Activate Signet of Fire and "Feel the Burn!".
• Your primary damage skills are:

1. Wildfire
2. Drake's Breath
3. Lightning Orb
4. Ring of Earth
5. Dust Storm (against large targets or groups)
6. Burning Speed
7. Convergence
8. Shocking Aura

• Fill gaps in cooldowns with basic attacks.

Scepter

• Activate Signet of Fire and "Feel the Burn!" off-cooldown.
• Your primary damage skills are:

1. Wildfire
2. Dragon's Tooth
3. Phoenix
4. Lightning Orb
5. Lightning Strike
6. Blinding Flash
7. Dust Storm (against large targets or groups)

• Fill gaps in cooldowns with basic attacks.

Zerg Support

It is possible to play this build as an extremely effective boon support in large zergs by casting Heat Sync any time you have 25 might.

Defense

• Constantly spam skills to get the benefit from Signet of Restoration
• Water Attunement ⇒ Overload Water is a powerful defensive skill. Combine this with Tidal Surge and Water Globe for additional healing.
  • While in Water, you can Frozen Burst on a Fire field for Might or inside your Water Globe for more burst healing.
• Sand Squall grants Protection in addition to projectile hate and increasing the duration of your existing boons.
• Dust Storm is a useful blind, very strong against groups of trash mobs.
• Your overloads break stun.
• When taking the Arcane traitline, dodging in Water attunement will cleanse conditions and provide a significant heal. Additionally, it is recommended you attunement swap often to benefit from Arcane Restoration

CC

• Overload Air / Overload Earth
• Earthen Rush
• Frozen Burst
• Tidal Surge
• Cyclone
• Shocking Aura ⇒ Transmute Lightning

Video Examples

Scepter Tempest vs Chak Lobber