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: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on September 28, 2022 and is up to date for the November 28, 2023 patch.

Overview

Fresh Air Tempest is a power-based tempest build that excels in doing AoE damage by spamming over and over again thanks to . Through several traits, it also provides AoE Auras to support itself and nearby allies. This build has permanent Fury Fury and Swiftness Swiftness, and can inflict permanent 25 Vulnerability Vulnerability.


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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 , 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

is a great burst heal and povides a boon.

  • - 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.
  • - weak heal, but heals in an AoE and also cleanses 1 condition.
  • - very situational heal that removes up to 8 conditions throughout its long channeling time.

Utilities

is here only for the precision buff, so never cast it. If you already have 100% crit chance, equip a different skill.
has low cooldown, decent damage, and provides Fire Aura for great synergy with the rest of the build.
- this is an excellent skill, with the only downside being that elementals die when you mount up. Check the Elementals section below.

  • - AoE damage over time.
  • - area Frost Aura Frost Aura for more boons and damage reduction, and to chill enemies.
  • - area Magnetic Aura Magnetic Aura for more boons and projectile reflection, and to impair enemies.
  • - for mobility.
  • strong single target burst damage, but quickly falls off.
  • 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 , which also blocks 3 attacks. It has a long cooldown, if more frenquent stun breaks are preferred over the block, try or .


Elites

is simply the best elite for solo play. Cast it on Fire for damage, on Water for support, healing and Knockback Knockback, on Air for a Stun Stun, or on Earth for defense.

  • - 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.
  • - very situational skill that can be considered against certain bosses with oneshot attacks.


Specializations

Variants
  • - if nearby allies are already providing fury.
  • - if there are no nearby allies nor elementals for to share any aura.


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 and precision food like to reach 99,99% critical chance.
Budget
  • - budget option while working to get Scholar.
  • - less damage, more boons.
Defense
  • Marauder Marauder - can be mixed with other sets to increase defense.
  • - defense.
  • , - 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 , freeing up that utility slot for another skill.
    • You need precision food to reach 100% crit chance. Use for that, and some life steal. This food is very cheap, you should always have it on when playing this build.
  • For ease of gearing at a very minor dps loss, you can just use full Marauder 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

resets the cooldown of every time you critically strike while attuned to a different attunement. This includes resetting the cooldown of . 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 , the extra ferocity from Fresh Air, and the extra damage from . Never delay Overload Air.


Damage

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

Scepter+Warhorn

In Fire, use + + . Phoenix and Dragon's Tooth are blast finishers (more about this below). Use when you have boons to share them with nearby allies or elementals.

In Water, use .

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

In Earth, use . Consider casting for free extra toughness (never use Rock Barrier in raids). Use when you have boons to extend their duration.

Dagger+Warhorn

In Fire, use + + (you can leave Fire during the casting of Drake's Breath). Use when you have boons to share them with nearby allies or elementals.

In water, use . This is a blast finisher.

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

In Earth, use , , . Use when you have boons to extend their duration.

Staff

In Fire, use + + (you can leave Fire during the casting of Meter Shower). evades and distances you from your enemy.

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

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

In Earth, use and . 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 : use a blast finisher like to generate AoE Might Might, 3 stacks for 20 seconds.
  • Water fields like : use a blast finisher like to create AoE 1320 healing.

You can also use combo fields to generate auras.

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


Auras

In this build, on top of their normal benefits, Auras also provide Fury Fury and Swiftness Swiftness, which is great because you really want Fury. You have several skills that produce auras, including your overloads thanks to :


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

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 Burning, and provides Might 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 Chill (80-90% uptime) through an ice combo field.
  • The Lesser Air Elemental deals great single target damage and generates Swiftness Swiftness. It has the highest singe target dps of all Lesser Elementals.
  • The Lesser Earth Elemental deals low damage, inflicts Weakness 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 Burning 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 Stun for 1.5 seconds.
  • The Earth Elemental can be commanded to inflict nearby enemies with 1 second of Immobilize Immobilize and 5 seconds of Cripple Cripple, while providing 3 seconds of Protection Protection to nearby allies.


Fiery Greatsword

If taking , use it right as you attune to Air. Cast and then drop it and Overload Air while casting . 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 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.
  • is great for defense, as the elemental will often draw aggro away from you. The earth elemental is quite tanky.
  • You get Stability Stability when you overload thanks to ,
  • You get Protection Protection when you overload thanks to , from (which also extends esixting boons).and from when cast in Earth.
  • Magnetic Aura Magnetic Aura from or + reflects projectiles. If using dagger, blocks them.


Sustain

  • Attuning to Water gives some healing from and .
  • Some of your water scepter and warhorn skills do a little healing: , , . Other weapons do too: and on dagger, and on staff.
  • Make use of your finishers. Remember your water fields such as can be blasted with finishers like for area healing.
  • You can cleanse one condition with . Or if using staff.
  • You can run against enemies that inflict several conditions.
  • , used in , creates an elemental with strong healing and condition cleanse on a short cooldown .
  • in Water gives you Regeneration Regeneration.
  • If you need healing really badly, you can run away and .


Crowd Control

  • - Pull Pull
  • - Knockback Knockback
  • Enemies that attack you or allies from melee range while having Shocking Aura Shocking Aura - stun stun
  • (from Ice Elemental) - Knockback Knockback
  • (from Air Elemental) - stun stun
  • (if using dagger) - stun stun
  • (if using staff) - Knockback Knockback
  • and (if using staff) - Stun Stun and Knockback Knockback, respectively. These only work if an enemy crosses the edge of the skill, they have no effect on targets that don't cross it.
  • If you need a lot of crowd control you can use so that you and an ally can use to stun stun.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 2 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Starlitjupiter gave this build 5 stars • April 2023
Fresh Air Tempest is a mainstay in optimized farm zergs. While it doesn't pack the same punch that Condi Weaver or Catalyst would solo, it provides extremely high cleave / AOE while also maintaining high uptime on Alacrity for itself and nearby allies, something that is essential for a good zerg. In short, this is by far the best elementalist build for general group play in open world and I strongly recommend it.
4 stars
Warming Hearth gave this build 4 stars • December 2022
If you want to play power Tempest, this is the build to use. A very simple but effective build that spams Overload Air over and over. It also provides AoE auras for more boons and aura effects without sacrificing any dps. The only downside of the build is that, albeit it has excellent AoE capabilities, its damage is just okay and it's a bit squishy.

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