User:Masel/Builds/Tempest

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Sc/F Fire Condition Tempest[edit]

Build Rating (Subjective)
Criterion Rating
Burst Damage 3/5
Sustained Damage 4/5
Utility Options 5/5
Survivability 5/5
Difficulty 1/5

Fire Tempest is not a build that’ll put you on the top of the dps charts everywhere, but does great damage nonetheless. It excels at doing harder content in OW and in situations where support is lacking. It is my personal favourite open world build for elementalist due to its versatily, support options and easy damage. Plus, it fulfills the definition of a fire mage!

Link to Build in the Build Editor

Playstyle & Skills[edit]

Skill Type Skills
Overloads
Overload Fire.png Overload Water.png Overload Air.png Overload Earth.png Skill.png
Fire Attunement
Flamestrike.png Dragon's Tooth.png Phoenix.png Flamewall.png Fire Shield.png
Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png Transmute Fire.png
Utility Skills
Arcane Brilliance.png Signet of Fire.png Signet of Earth.png Glyph of Elemental Power.png Glyph of Elementals.png

Overall, the Tempest adds a few dimensions to the Elementalist profession, giving players access to potent shouts and overload abilities. These overloads are one of the defining aspects of the Tempest. Overloads have different effects depending on the attunement the Tempest is currently using and provide powerful offensive or defensive capabilities. In this build, we’ll be camping fire attunement all day, except for when defense or breakbar damage is needed, then we’ll go into earth, air or water briefly.

Overloads[edit]

The main overload to use is  Overload Fire.png Overload Fire. This skill shoots a barrage of fire projectiles, creating fiery explosions and inflicting Burning.png Burning on foes caught in the radius. It also grants 2 stacks of Might.png Might per pulse, allowing you to cap it on yourself and allies quite easily, especially when using arcane or combined with the shout  "Feel the Burn!".png "Feel the Burn!"; more on that later. The first part of this ability is a channel, during which you spin. This applies burning while spinning and is both a moving Fire field and a Whirl finisher. So, on top of the burning you see in the toolip, it applies more during the channel. Once you stop spinning, this overload leaves behind another Fire field.

Depending on the trait choices, overloads gain additional benefits. With Harmonious Conduit Harmonious Conduit, you gain both Stability.png Stability and Swiftness.png Swiftness when starting an overload, preventing enemies from interrupting the channel. Unstable Conduit Unstable Conduit also makes your overloads apply Auras.

Auras[edit]

Auras are effects that apply conditions, damage, stuns etc. to enemies and boons to you when you get hit. Auras are an integral part of tempest, since granting or gaining auras has additional benefits too. When using Tempestuous Aria Tempestuous Aria, you gain additional damage when you apply an aura to yourself or allies and when using earth, Elemental Shielding Elemental Shielding applies Protection.png Protection whenever you grant an aura.

Rotation Guidance & Showcase Video[edit]

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.
Damage Log

Rotation Flow[edit]

Section Notes
General Stuff
  • This build is very simple, since it only uses  Fire Attunement.png Fire Attunement for damage and only dips into others for CC or other benefits.
Opener
General Rotation

In  Fire Attunement.png Fire Attunement, you’ll want to use all skills on cooldown. They are all more or less there to apply tons of burning to enemies.

CC Skills for Breakbar Damage

Utility Skills[edit]

Utility Skills (DPS)
Skill Choice Notes
Signet of Restoration.png Signet of Restoration Passive heal and another larger heal and Frost Aura on demand. This and the other two Signets retain their passives with Written in Stone Written in Stone
Signet of Fire.png Signet of Fire BIG DAMAGE
Signet of Earth.png Signet of Earth Application of Bleeding.png Bleeding for Relic of the Fractal.pngRelic of the Fractal. Gives you some control over what enemy you want the relic to trigger on.
Option 1:  Glyph of Lesser Elementals.png Glyph of Lesser Elementals
Option 2:  Glyph of Elemental Power.png Glyph of Elemental Power
Precast as many elementals as possible for a faster damage rampup!
More straightforward option, can be precast for a bit more burst. Can be used during other skills and is thus very convenient.
Glyph of Elementals.png Glyph of Elementals DAMAGE

Gear & Traits[edit]

Important Stats (descending in Importance):

  1. 100% Burning Duration (60%% overall condition duration)
  2. Maximize Condition Damage
  3. For a budget starter set, simply replace all ascended armor pieces and trinkets of Viper's with rare/exotic Ritualist's and Abomination Weapons . Pieces of Sinister can be replaced by Carrion.
  4. Using the starter set allows you to play the Full DPS build and the Alacrity.png Alacrity DPS build with one gear set, with a ~9% damage tradeoff compared to full exotic Viper's and Sinister.

Since the vast majority of damage comes from burning, it is important to reach 100% condition duration on it. I chose the gear variant below to give more freedom regarding the food option, since you can use any standard condition food that includes 70 Expertise.

Gear
Armor Prefix Rune
Illustrious Masque.png Head Sinister Superior Rune of Balthazar.pngSuperior Rune of Balthazar
Illustrious Epaulets.png Shoulders Viper's Superior Rune of Balthazar.pngSuperior Rune of Balthazar
Illustrious Doublet.png Chest Sinister Superior Rune of Balthazar.pngSuperior Rune of Balthazar
Illustrious Wristguards.png Gloves Viper's Superior Rune of Balthazar.pngSuperior Rune of Balthazar
Illustrious Breeches.png Legs Sinister Superior Rune of Balthazar.pngSuperior Rune of Balthazar
Illustrious Footwear.png Boots Viper's Superior Rune of Balthazar.pngSuperior Rune of Balthazar
Trinket Prefix
Vial of Salt.png Amulet Viper's
Gift of Prescience.png Ring 1 Sinister
Armbrace of Truth.png Ring 2 Sinister
Black Ice Earring.png Accessory 1 Viper's
Vision.png Accessory 2 Viper's
Ad Infinitum.png Backpack Viper's
Weapon Prefix Sigil
Meteorlogicus.png Scepter (Main Hand) Viper's Superior Sigil of Earth.pngSuperior Sigil of Earth
The Minstrel.png Focus (Off Hand) Viper's Superior Sigil of Bursting.pngSuperior Sigil of Bursting
Howler.png Warhorn (Off Hand) Ritualist's Superior Sigil of Concentration.pngSuperior Sigil of Concentration
Purpose Item Type Source
Damage Ascended Food Cilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread.pngCilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread
Damage Non-Ascended Food Plate of Beef Rendang.pngPlate of Beef Rendang
Survivability Ascended Food Peppered Cured Meat Flatbread.pngPeppered Cured Meat Flatbread
Survivability Non-Ascended Food Oysters Gnashblade.pngOysters Gnashblade
Damage Utility Toxic Tuning Crystal.pngToxic Tuning Crystal
Survivability Utility Powerful Potion of Inquest Slaying.pngPotion Of Karka Toughness
Damage Relic Relic of the Fractal.pngRelic of the Fractal
Traits
Fire
Fire.png
Burning Precision.png
Burning Rage.png
Persisting Flames.png
Empowering Flame.png
Conjurer.png
Sunspot.png
Smothering Auras.png
Pyromancer's Training.png
Pyromancer's Puissance.png
Burning Fire.png
Power Overwhelming (trait).png
Blinding Ashes.png
Earth
Earth.png
Earth's Embrace.png
Strength of Stone.png
Diamond Skin.png
Stone Flesh.png
Serrated Stones.png
Earthen Blast.png
Rock Solid.png
Geomancer's Training.png
Written in Stone.png
Elemental Shielding.png
Earthen Blessing.png
Stone Heart.png
Tempest
Tempest.png
Gale Song.png
Tempestuous Aria.png
Transcendent Tempest (effect).png
Singularity.png
Latent Stamina.png
Gathered Focus.png
Harmonious Conduit.png
Hardy Conduit.png
Lucid Singularity.png
Unstable Conduit.png
Invigorating Torrents.png
Elemental Bastion.png
  • Ascended gear is always ideal, but exotic gear is fine for everything aside from higher-tier fractals.

Open World Build[edit]

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.

Increasing General Survivability[edit]

  • For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.
  • Here, the two key traits are Elemental Shielding Elemental Shielding and Written in Stone Written in Stone. Written in Stone Written in Stone makes your signets keep their passive effects when they are on cooldown, and further grants you an aura upon activating one.
  • Through this, every utility skill i chose applies an aura, either only to yourself (signets) or even on allies around you (shouts).
Utility Skills (Open World)
Skill Choice Notes
Signet of Restoration.png Signet of Restoration This heals you for every skill you cast, including instant casts. This leads to a quite nice amount of passive healing. You can also activate it for another heal without losing the passive healing. It will also apply a frost aura, reducing damage you take by 10% for 4 seconds.
Signet of Fire.png Signet of Fire BIG DAMAGE (and Fire Aura in Open World)
"Feel the Burn!".png "Feel the Burn!" FTB grants another aura and might to yourself and allies and applies damage + burning in large radius. Really good skill, especially for open world.
"Aftershock!".png "Aftershock!" Aftershock is a great shout that synergizes very well with the kit. It grants aegis and and a magnetic aura to allies and causes bleeding for Relic of the Fractal
Glyph of Elementals.png Glyph of Elementals
  • If you want, you can also use Elemental Bastion Elemental Bastion instead of Transcendent Tempest Transcendent Tempest. This will heal the target of any aura you apply, including yourself. It also gives a Frost Aura.png Frost Aura in an area when you get hit below 75% health, giving you and allies another safety net.

Boon Coverage[edit]

Dealing with Conditions and Control effects[edit]

  • In case you need frequent condi cleanses, Smothering Auras Smothering Auras in fire is worth looking at. This cleanses conditions whenever you grant an aura to an ally, and transmuting one via focus 5 cleanses 2 conditions in an aoe around you. This costs some damage, but can make your life in some situations much easier!
  • Finally, using Harmonious Conduit Harmonious Conduit gives you Stability.png Stability and Swiftness.png Swiftness on using an overload. This is good to prevent enemies from interrupting your overloads!