Tempest - Staff Support

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

Focused on: ControlSupportHealing and Condition cleanse

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on September 05, 2023 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

This build primarily fills the role of the healer and cleanser for its party.

is an exceptionally powerful revive skill - in it has the unique effect of repositioning the target, allowing the tempest to fully reset a player that went down in a bad place.

Tempest provides some Might Might provided with as well as unique auras - primarily and the very powerful .

Compared to D/X builds, staff excels at CC but has lower personal survivability.


Skill Bar

Staff
Staff
Utility


Variants

Weapons
Utilities
  • shortest CD shout, for slightly more heal/cleanse
  • group stunbreak and AOE superspeed


Specializations

Variants
  • ~20% healing loss, but decent Alacrity Alacrity uptime


Template Code

[]
Copy Template Code


Equipment

Head
Minstrel
Shoulders
Minstrel
Chest
Minstrel
Hands
Minstrel
Legs
Minstrel
Feet
Minstrel
Backpiece
Minstrel
Accessory
Minstrel
Accessory
Minstrel
Amulet
Minstrel
Ring
Minstrel
Ring
Minstrel
Staff
Minstrel
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Minstrel
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic


Equipment Variants

Relics


Consumables

    • personal option


Usage

General

  • As soon as you get 25 stacks of and get out of combat, swap back to the set without it
  • Try to spend the majority of your time in so that your and are ready when needed
    • Make sure to go into as often as possible while swapping attunements to proc


Overall Priorities

High
  • Condition clear
  • Healing
Moderate
Low
  • Aura/boonshare


Surviving

  • This build has moderate passive defense
  • This build has moderate mobility skill access
  • This builds has low active defenses
    • Since you lack personal stunbreaks and you heavily rely on skills with longer casttimes, you want to position safely
      • Stay close to tag, but not directly on top - within 200-300 range is close enough to quickly respond to movements and get boons without getting stuck behind
      • While overloading, if needed, move further away ensure the cast finishes - has 600 radius
Active defense priority Toggle
  • Dodge


Detailed Explanations

Glyph of Renewal

  • Under General Options / Combat/Movement turn on Allow Skill Retargetting and set Ground Targetting to Instant Cast, this will make cast at the location your cursor is at the end of the cast, instead of where you initially targetted
  • Focus on reviving allies who are far away with , don't waste the skill on players that can be hand rezzed.
  • Use in on single players and on multiple players
    • If the teleportation is not needed (or actively harmful), use the glyph in for the extra heal
  • If a downed ally can be safely revived by other means don't use
  • If you are under the effect of you can cast in to avoid timing out


Condition clear

  • Much of your condition clear is tied up in attunements and overloads by , so conserve your shouts unless you absolutely need them
    • and each cleanse two conditions but should normally be saved for healing and Immobilize Immobilize respectively
Condition clear priority Toggle
    • - +
    • - +
  • - +
    • -
    • -
    • - +
    • - +
  • - (+ )
  • - (+ )
  • - (+ )
  • - (+ )


Healing

  • Most of your healing comes from and
  • Use and on the fields you make with and for healing or for damage mitigation if healing isn't needed
    • It is often worth swapping straight to after to land on a field
      • The timing with is somewhat tight so practice it out of combat
  • Tempests biggest burst heal skill is
    • Keep in mind most of the healing is on the first pulse which only has a radius of 180
  • is instant cast, meaning it provides the healing immediately and can also be used while CCed
Healing priority Toggle
  • -
    • - water/ice field blast
  • - +
    • - water/ice field blast


Stability

  • Use as the first Stability Stability application on ranged engages
  • Other than ranged engages, try to fill any gaps in your guardian's Stability Stability uptime, especially when your group is pushing


CC

  • Use your CC when:
    • Your group calls a spike:
      • Winds -
      • Wells - +
      • Shades -
      • Traps - +
    • On top of enemy downs (while alive players are on top of them)
    • Enemy groups moving defensively while your group is pushing
  • Save for when enemies have Stability Stability
CC priority Toggle
    • -


Superspeed

  • Focus on using when your group is pushing or disengaging from the enemy


Aura/boonshare

  • Make sure you're close to your group when leaving to proc , it has a short 240 radius
  • Use on your group before pushes to give

Settings

  • Under General Options / User Interface check Always show squad health bars and Always show party health bars. These will make it much easier to keep track of who needs your support.
  • Also under General Options / User Interface turn on Thick party health bars
    • Thick squad health bars can be used too as a matter of personal preference, but is not recommended for large numbers
  • Under Squad Options uncheck View as a grid. This will allow you to keep track of your allies' boons, conditions and health, enabling a better decision-making and skill management.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 3 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Soldier198 gave this build 5 stars • July 2023
Staff is objectively the best weapon set for a support Tempest to be running right now. D/D brings great healing and cleansing as well as high frost aura uptime but has virtually no utility outside of that. D/F is great for might stacking and cleansing but has little healing. D/Wh is well rounded with good boon support, aura support, and decent healing but has less condition cleansing due to a lack of transmutation skills. Staff is genuinely superior to all the other weapon sets. Briefly, it has high condition cleansing, high healing, two 10 man CC skills that can be used at range and in melee, native superspeed, multiple applications of group stability, higher frost aura uptime than D/D. That is all in addition to the incredible utility that Tempest brings by itself like auras and boon support.
4 stars
Tyroxin gave this build 4 stars • February 2023
Okay, but feels underwhelming. The hot fancy new stability source is nice and may or may not be equal to guard numberwise - but, access to it is gated to earth, which directly hampers its usability compared to guard, which has it in the utilities. Would need Eye of the Storm to fill the stunbreak role, which is single charged and therefore considerably less flexible compared to FBs Mantra. The rest of the support package is still good - healing, cleanses - but I wouldn't want to run myself as the only stability for my group. (Even the engage stability role feels iffy to me).
5 stars
Jaukk gave this build 5 stars • February 2023
After the february 14th, 2023 patch, staff tempest definetely became a top tier option for open field over the standard dagger/x build, specially for players who enjoy the non-stop usage of ground targeted skills and its gameplay aspect. The access to magnetic aura through multiple sources (overload earth, staff3 earth, "aftershock!", etc) allows a continuous AoE stab and cleanse output with transmute earth. On top of that, the recent buffs to staff skills, such as healing rain increased cleansing and healing for each condition removed, frozen ground now granting frost aura, better heal output through geyser and staff autos (on allies), and superspeed access on air4, definetely improved the overall viability of this build. Also, the possibility to use 10-men ground CC skills such as static and line along with the commander's call to drop wells or spike really makes the gameplay feel more interactive as you aren't purely supporting but also contributing to your group's effectiveness on generating downstates through coordinated damage and CC.

Comments

Get MetaBattle Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium