Tempest - Fresh Air

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

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on August 04, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

Fresh Air Tempest is a power-based tempest build that excels in doing AoE damage by spamming Overload Air over and over again thanks to Fresh Air. Through several traits, it also provides AoE Auras to support itself and nearby allies. This build has permanent Fury and Swiftness.

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Skill Bar

Scepter/Warhorn

Utility

Weapon Variants

You can use a variety of weapons with this build:

• Scepter is good because this build spends a lot of time casting Overload Air, and scepter's Air skills have no casting time so they can be casted during that channel.
• Dagger (mainhand) - more mobility, less blast finishers, less range, AoE auto attack in Air.
• Staff - more AoE, lower dps, higher range.

Skill Variants

Let's explain why we recommened these skills, and alternatives you can consider:

Healing

Glyph of Elemental Harmony is a great burst heal and povides a boon.

• Arcane Brilliance - the strongest heal if there are 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 heal and also cleanses 1 condition.
• Ether Renewal - very situational heal that removes up to 8 conditions throughout its long channeling time.

Utilities

Signet of Fire is only here for the precision buff, so never cast it. If you already have 100% crit chance, 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.
Glyph of Lesser Elementals - this is an excellent skill, with the only downside being that elementals die when you mount up. Check the Elementals section below.

• Glyph of Storms - AoE damage over time.
• "Flash-Freeze!" - area Frost Aura for more boons and damage reduction, and to chill enemies.
• "Aftershock!" - area Magnetic Aura for more boons and projectile reflection, and to impair enemies.
• Lightning Flash - for mobility.
• Arcane Blast strong single target burst damage, but quickly falls off.
• Arcane Wave strong AoE burst damage, but quickly falls off.
• 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, if more frenquent 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 Earth for defense, on Water for an excellent middle ground between defense and offense and healing, or on Air for a Stun.

• Conjure Fiery Greatsword - consider this when you're playing in a group and don't need the utility of the elemental. It offers more burst damage with skills 4 and 5.
• "Rebound!" - very situational skill that can be considered against certain bosses with oneshot attacks.

Specializations

Variants

• Soothing Power - if there are no nearby allies nor elementals for Powerful Aura to share any aura.
• Ferocious Winds - if nearby allies are already providing fury.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats. This set uses the same gear as power elementalist builds for strikes, raids, and fractals, making it a good investment for general PvE.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Scepter
Berserker

Warhorn
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x17

Infusion
x1

• This setup relies on Signet of Fire and precision food like to reach 99,99% critical chance.

Budget

• Rune of Superior Rune of Strength - budget option while working to get Scholar.
• Rune of Superior Rune of the Pack - less damage, more boons.

Defense

• Marauder - can be mixed with other sets to increase defense.
• Rune of Superior Rune of Vampirism - defense.
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy, Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing - defensive sigils.

Gear Variants

If open world and story content is your main game mode, you should really consider investing into a gear set tailored for it. This gear set is obviously worse for strikes, raids, and fractals, but is infinitely better for open world and story.

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Dragon

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Scepter
Marauder

Warhorn
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

• This gear set has about 54% more health and reaches 100% critical chance without Signet of Fire, freeing up that utility slot for another skill.
  • You should always use to reach 100% critical chance and some life steal. This food is very cheap, use it always in open world with this build.
• For ease of gearing at a very minor dps loss, you can just use full Marauder.

Consumables

Prioritize ascended food over everything else; steak (power) and flatbread (conditions). Using cheap/budget food is perfectly acceptable in open world.

Damage

The build is optimised around precision buff. The best food is but for open world you should use the budget option / . For utility, offers the highest damage, and has good budget options in .

Farming

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

Usage

Overload Air

Fresh Air resets the cooldown of Air Attunement every time you critically hit while attuned to a different attunement. This includes resetting the cooldown of Overload Air. Thus, the build just keeps spamming Overload Air over and over again, continually triggering Electric Discharge, the extra ferocity from Fresh Air, and the extra damage from Transcendent Tempest. Never delay Overload Air.

Damage

The build is extremely simple and revolves around spamming Overload Air while filling the gaps with weapon and utility skills.

Scepter+Warhorn

In Fire, use Wildfire + Phoenix + Dragon's Tooth. Phoenix and Dragon's Tooth are blast finishers (more about this below). Consider casting Heat Sync for boons.

In Water, use Shatterstone.

In Air, use Lightning Orb. Spam Lightning Strike off cooldown. Cyclone can be used for damage if CC is not needed.

In Earth, use Dust Storm. Consider casting Rock Barrier for free extra toughness (never use Rock Barrier in raids). Consider casting Sand Squall for boons.

Dagger+Warhorn

In Fire, use Wildfire + Burning Speed + Drake's Breath (you can leave Fire during the casting of Drake's Breath). Consider casting Heat Sync for boons.

In water, use Frozen Burst. This is a blast finisher.

In Air, use Lightning Orb and Convergence. Air also has the strongest auto attack.

In Earth, use Dust Storm, Earthen Rush, Ring of Earth. Consider casting Sand Squall for boons.

Staff

In Fire, use Lava Font + Flame Burst + Meteor Shower (you can leave Fire during the casting of Meter Shower). Burning Retreat evades and distances you from your enemy.

In water, use Ice Spike, this is a blast finisher. Remember Healing Rain cleanses conditions.

In Air, use Lightning Surge then auto attack until you can Overload.

In Earth, use Eruption and Shock Wave. Eruption is a blast finisher.

Finishers

Elementalists in general have many combo fields and finishers. These skills provide additional effects when interacting with each other. Here are some good combos you should keep in mind, you have to be near the skill to receive these effects.

• Fire fields like Wildfire: use a blast finisher like Phoenix to generate AoE Might, 3 stacks for 20 seconds.
• Water fields like Water Globe: use a blast finisher like Sand Squall to create AoE 1320 healing.

You can also use combo fields to generate auras.

• Fire field + leap finisher = Fire Aura
• Frost field + blast finisher = Frost Aura

If you want to know more about combos, check the official wiki.

Elementals

Elementals are really good allies in any open world elementalist build. Their only downside is that they die when you mount up.

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 AoE damage, and attacks from melee range. 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 highest singe target dps of all Lesser Elementals.
• 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 burn in an AoE.
• The ice elemental can be commanded to deal damage in an AoE, while healing nearby allies by 6401, kocking 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.

Fiery Greatsword

If taking Conjure Fiery Greatsword, use it right as you attune to Air. Cast Firestorm and Fiery Rush then drop it and Overload Air while casting Lightning Strike. If using dagger or staff, you cannot use skills during the Overload so you can keep the greatsword until the chanelling finishes and drop it when leaving Air to benefit longer from the extra power.

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.
• Glyph of Elementals is great for defense, as the elemental will often draw aggro away from you. The earth elemental is quite tanky.
• Arcane Shield blocks 3 attacks.
• Starting an overload gives you stability thanks to Harmonious Conduit.

Sustain

• Attuning to Water gives some healing from Healing Ripple and Soothing Mist.
• Tidal Surge heals a bit.
• You can create a water field with Water Globe and then blast it with Phoenix or Sand Squall for area healing.
• Phoenix cleanses a condition.
• You can run Ether Renewal against enemies with several conditions.
• Glyph of Elementals, used in Water Attunement, creates an elemental with strong healing and condition cleanse on a short cooldown.
• Glyph of Elemental Harmony in Water gives you regeneration.
• If you need healing really badly, you can run away and Overload Water.

Crowd Control

• Shocking Aura ⇒ Transmute Lightning (dagger only)
• Cyclone
• Tidal Surge
• Crashing Waves (from Ice Elemental)
• Shocking Bolt (from Air Elemental)
• Gust (staff only)
• Unsteady Ground and Static Field (staff only, only work if an enemy walks crossed the edge of the skill, has no effect on targets that don't cross it.)