[finesselol]

This is the first of many posts I'm going to make. A lot of people lately have been asking me a lot about tempests and what builds are best for which situation, so I'm just going to refer them to here and hopefully this will help people who click on this out of curiosity and learned something anyways!

Before any people start 'hating', I'm not saying I'm a complete expert on this class, no one can really say that besides DEV's, but I HAVE done many many damage output tests with DPS monitors running, and respeced a ridiculous amount of times where I have to farm many many golds to keep up with respec costs (R.I.P. families of gold farmers :< ), this is purely just for people who want more knowledge on the class and some ideas/help.

!!!WARNING IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ BECAUSE ITS A "WALL" THEN GTFO OR YOU CAN LOOK AT THE BOTTOM FOR A REALLY FUN BUILD I CURRENTLY AM USING!!!

and another thing to think about, I like to to steer away from super cookie cutter builds and I find things that are alot better for how i play


First I will talk about leveling, since this will be the first thing you will do (obviously).

Basically, as you've have probably heard, most of the time you will be AOE grinding, with doing quests when they're on your way, just like any other MMO (or at least a majority of them) this is usually the fastest way to level, excluding PL'ing at deathmasters .
this is the build I set up for the occasion of leveling

Zangief's Leveling Build (PVE)

http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...lmpqrsu:bdefhi


With this build, you put on your 2 HoTs, storm crown, and storm field(if you can pull quickly). Basically you just run in, and hold down X for as long as you want for active block with saintly warrior rewarding you with stamina and mana regen. And whenever they're up, or big pulls are on you (whichever you want to do, I suggest whenever they're up since it will get you faster XP) Use elemental fury(42s CD), Column Lightning(1m CD), Vengence of the Gods(20% DMG increase 30s duration, 3m CD), and Spell Power of the Serpent ring(30% DMG increase 10s duration, 1m CD)
this is probably the most efficient AOE grinding build you can have, not only will it do the most damage, but you will not lose mana, and things drop quick.


Zangief's Build #1: (one of My personal favorite choices) ELoS Guiding Spirit (PVE/Raid)

http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...s:bc1dehklmnos

The way this build works isn't very ethical, and kind of hard to understand, but for those who get it, GJ

Basically Empowered Life of Set is the key to this build, and being grouped with melee.
The tooltip of Empowered Life of Set says that for the targets you heal, they will get an additional electric damage hit on the next successful Lightning Strike, Storm field, or melee attack. I'm still uncertain if it is affected by vengence of the gods or Spell Power of the Serpent Ring.
This is about 70-150 unbuffed i'm pretty sure, but with your +electrical damage feats and gear, plus idol's electrical damage, mine have sometimes hit for close to 600 or even more. Heres the part where it might be hard to keep up. Storm charge is electrical magic damage, so the +damage people receive from your idol and storm crown affects the ability.
With guiding spirit in the general tree, you have no cooldown for your Life of Set, so you can literally constantly spam it with its .5s cast time, so you affect all the melee you hit with the buff twice a second. Basically this will make it so they will have the buff on them all the time, even if they hit fast like a barb etc with combos, this will add about 400-800 PER SECOND PER MELEE!(possibly more since i personally can get 500 hits with it). This adds IMMENSE amounts of DPS indirectly, which is the best part of this is that you don't take aggro from it. But at the same time, with idol and storm field on, whenever storm field pulses, idol does too. The buff will work with your storm field, and your buff affects the idols dmg since it is electrical, so you most likely will get an extra 800-1000 dmg whenever you pulse your stormfield, which is damn good dps, ive actually found sometimes that this alone does more damage than LS builds at times. Ohhh but thats not all! Since the buff is also magic damage, it also makes coalesce ether make mana go back to your team mates, and even tho mana is normally not an issue, this makes it for sure 100% it isnt an issue, for basically all groups with melee in it getting the storm charge.
The reasons I don't have column lightning is because spamming LoS the whole time is more DPS than waiting 3 seconds to cast Column, even with just 2 melee on the thing. Points worth switching out, would be Piercing Storm Crown and Soothe the soul, thats just for more mana regen and less aggro, and you could put them into imp cobra stare to help with stunning or sets brutality for better chance to crit with storm field.
This build even does good in pvp, especially if you put switch out the points like I said and put them into cobra stare and sets brutality, just run around people hitting em big with storm field and when you want drop an idol, lure someone to you, stun em by the idol, have stormfield up already, and just spam heals on your idol and yourself while casting charged blast and they will most lilkely be dead before they are out of the stun unless they are a soilder type. Another thing about this build is that you really don't need more than one of these in a raid since I dont think you can have 2 different tempests Emp LoS on one target at once.



Zangief's Build #2: Puppets of Set LS builds (PVP/Raid)

This is a good CC ability for both PVE and PVP(ESPECIALLY pvp since you can still attack the target when they are charmed, for now)
even though they nerfed CC on raid mobs so you can't puppet pull anymore, this build also doubles as good ranged DPS, so you can just sit back, relax, throw in a couple heals and let your LS's do all the dirty work.

Now theres 3 variations I did for thise build
the first one is
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...hiknovxz:bd2fi

Puppet builds are by default more for PVP, but they have usefulness for PVE in some situations even though they nerfed for raid mobs

this first builds is definately a VERY good PVP build even though this is the more PVE version of it, for it to be more PVP take 2 points out and get elemental fury and Rousing Shock.

mana regen is a little squishy, but youll get big hits with vengence, serpent ring, and fury of the storm
Plus if you ever do run out of mana (if thats even possible for ToS) you have the building storm, which channels on allies, increasing their dmg by 10%, and if its a caster, then you regen ALOT of mana and after its done channeling, your spells are free of cost for a while, and the nice part is, its a 1 minute cooldown
as for the reason i didnt pick up column, all your points are put into LS to buff it for a reason, the more and column honestly is just a slightly better 1 minute cooldown Lightning Strike for 4points, and if you crit alot youll do more dmg overall, and sometimes even normal hits hit for more

[finesselol]

my other variation of it, which i like slightly more, is

http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...hikl2ovxz:bdeh

you dont get as much burst, but you end up getting better dps with storm crown, not to mention more mana regen and constant casting, which is always a plus


and my third and final puppet build for raiding/pvp, is not very orthodox, but i like it the most out of the ranged builds that include puppet, for PVE
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...xz:bdefhiklmos

thats right, no general

BUT this build offers the same burst dmg, but includes idol which helps out your team mates, weakens your enemies, increases mana regen, adds roughly 140+ elec dmg, which is more than going ALL the way down the general tree for exemplar, and VoG is good, but its a 3 minute cooldown for 20% DMG^ for 30s with 3m CD, serpent is immunity 100% spells, 30% DMG^ for 10seconds with 1m cooldown, more useful imo

take into consideration that the feats on the right side last 60tier+ is more for pvp, since puppets dont work anymore and can't really stun enemies anymore
so it doesnt do the MOST dmg out of LS builds, but it still does alot


Zangief's Build #2.5: Pure PvP Puppet build (P3)
im adding this part since people dont realize that the other puppet builds were for PVP/Raiding, not just one or the other

anyways here is my first one
variation 1
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...hijkmvxz:bd2fg

Gen Tree for the survivability/insta VJ is really helpful

didnt put points into Fury of the storm because youll only be criting 15% of the time, and in pvp, crits dont do NEARLY as much of a damage bonus as they do in PVE, so 40% increase for not that much 15% of the time for 5points? no thanks, put it in better things
again no column, youll be doing more dmg with LS since it has +crit and dmg mods now


variation 2
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...bdefghijmqr2ux
survavability is super low, BUT it adds more CC, lightning invuln and absorbtion from tos's and demos, not to mention if theres a tos in the other group with storm crown up, peoples procs and attacks will heal you


anyways this build is pretty fun due to its immense CC abilities, and on top of that, with lightning cast its a buff that lasts 60seconds on you and counts down, cooldown starts when you cast it on yourself, so if you wanted to you could wait until its at 1second, inner charge, LS, lightning cast again, LS

so 2 instant LS's

pretty nice, and fun to use


Zangief's Build #3: Pure DMG LS Build (PVP/Raid)

first variation
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...kmo:bc1dehklos
this build has the most +elec dmg you can get, ive heard rumors of +elec dmg not working or somthing, but w/e, i see a diff
has exemplar, static charge, and idol, with a grand total of about +255 elec dmg with idol up
and with storm crown+coalesce youll never run out of mana, gaurenteed
and this build has general for decrease aggro, more aggro on tanks, and invulns nad VoG

2nd variation is again, isnt too different from the first:
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...ik4:bdefhiklos

basically just got rid of fury of the storm (40% when you CRIT) and put in serpent ring (+30% 10 seconds every minute) I find i get more DPS this way, but if you crit alot, i guess fury might be worth it


Zangief's Build #4: Huge Survivability Thunder (PVP/PVE/Raid) but barely any dmg
This def isnt a fav of mine, but its worth putting up for informations sake
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...2deghklmnosvyA
basically just down to Serpent trans, so you can have an "OH ****" button (even though its a 15minute cooldown)
vitalizing jolt is ok for an extra heal, still doesnt do much though
imp cobra stare to get away easier from stunable mobs wailing on you
guiding spirit+Emp LOS so you can do lots of indirect dmg
you can augment this build for more dmg by goin out of general and specing into LS feats or other ways, but i didnt really try it, i just dont like the fact its a 15minute cooldown, so i wouldnt recommend this build unless your just really curious


Zangief's Build #5: Rank 5 Hurricane "Katrina"(INSANE DMG!)BIGGEST AOE (defensive PVP/PVE AoE/FUN)
Thats the nickname some of the guildies have been calling this build lol
http://feats.goonheim.com/tempestofs...y:bcdeghklmnos

UPDATE: Just recently this build is starting to get more and more popular, other people have found the same thing I have, the build is self has developed the name "Synergy Build" because of how everything works together so well making it exceedingly powerful

Funny story about this build, i respec'd to it just for fun because I farmed up another 2.5g for a respec, and when I tried it out, I didn't want to go back to anything else. This build outputs CRAZY amounts of dmg, only drawbacks is, a. takes a while to setup, b. its all ina range since cyclones and idol doesnt move, c. poor survivability due to no general tree, but it more than makes up for it for DPS
the reason i have no general is because the only thing i would really want to go for is exemplar and VoG, but those are so far down that you can get much better stuff to replace it that do more, aka idol, giving +140 elec dmg, more aoe, regening mana and weakening enemies

Way this build works
Cyclones by themselves don't do much damage, the only thing really good about them, is that they have low mana cost, stay around for about 30 seconds, and dont have a cap for how many targets they hit. BUT, the gem of this build is that its not just a cyclone. Idol of set buffs the cyclones with its +elec dmg, increases their dmg VERY noticibly. They also count as party members, so your idol will give you the x5 bonus instead of the x2 because it counts as 3 more "party members". Storm Crown feats are another important aspect, because your cyclones and idol are inflicted with storm regalia, adding another AOE for each cyclone that does ALOT of dmg, due to it just being regailia and getting the idols elec bonus. With improved stormfield abilities, you constantly have a really good dmg dealing aoe up, with idols aoe going at the same time, while able to cast column whenever you want and element fury
I can say without a doubt that this build does THE MOST dps, through all my tests with dps meters
I was averaging at about 1700dps with all my regalias, storm crown procs, regalia procs, idol supremecy, idols aoe and normal attack, and stormfield
and my cyclones were averaging at around 400dps
so thats a WHOPPING 2100 DPS average of dmg, that can be used for AOE and constantly be up, and thats on a low end. If i tried harder i could prolly do 2500dps or more PVE
its ridiculous, and you have to be careful not to pull aggro with it,
ELoS helps a little too and you never run out of mana with coalesce and storm throne with regalia on so many thing

this build is pretty ****ing hallarious in PVP too

whenever i see a group of melee, (I did this against 4) i talk trash to them from afar while setting things up (remember to cast storm crown AFTER you cast idol and cyclones or you wont get regalia) and they charge me, they were dead within 3 seconds
against casters just run around with stormfield and stun em then ele fury and column, should be dead by then
or have a friend with puppets pull em into your setup, most halarious thing in the world, I call it IMPENDING DOOM! D:


Zangief's Build #6: (current build) 1 2 punch: PVP/Raid
http://www.conanarmory.com/feat.aspx...fef6efefeaf17:

this build i recently went to and couldnt be happier
it just destroys in pvp
basically what you can do, is set idol down for elec buffs, and you can stun->puppet or if its a caster silence->puppet
the thing i love most about this build is the burst dps it has for pvp
i have alot of crafted +elec gear, and with innercharge->overcharge->wotsr->LS i do a HUGE crit, then I lightning cast another LS right after for another LS, 2 shots people if they arnt a soilder class. The big selling point for this build is innercharge and lightning cast. Lightning cast currently has a bug where if you cast a innercharge LS then immediately lightning cast for a instant LS, it also crits, very useful. so that also adds alot of dps while raiding, since you can do it every minute, the reason I put only one point into ether flow is because it gives 36.5 natural mana regen, then every point after that only gives 12 until the 5th point, so mana tap is more efficient to keep mana up. Also something I just recently found out is that brain spasms, when activated, on top of immunities, gives a 30% dmg increase, and you can activate it yourself by using rousing shock when you have spasms on. So its good for raids too. Another thing you can do with this build is take out ele fury blood mana and rousing shock to put into coalesce if you wanna have more mana regen, even though you lose some abilities.

UPDATE
i took the point out of general and a point in blood mana and put it into sets storm, for quick casting SF for more utility in pvp and when i know i cant cast anymore LS's


well thats all for now
and remember kids

those are just my opinions over the many many tests I've done
and another thing to remember is the best thing to do is figure whats best for you, best way to find what you like imo

hope it helped :]

[finesselol]

hope someone reads all of this, took me a while to write
and hours if not days of testing

[sresk]

I enjoyed it and yout last build the "Katrina" is what I've been aiming for since about level 15

[finesselol]

thanks

yeah I never really thought about having nothing in general tree til now

I always used to think that general was a must

[MarkUCLA]

Awesome builds you have there Fin and worth every moment of reading.

My build is almost identical to your Zangief's Build #1 though it's a litte more by accident then planned like your's. Oh, and it's named after me, lol.
I group with my cousin a Demonologist and my build is like yours because I wanted the mana regen & dmg from the Idol. Plus, our toons seem to have so much synergy together, especially when we both do our AOE's. Everything falls down dead & now even better since they increased Demo's damage.

Now I picked up Empowered LOS only to use every 2 mins with Overcharge & LS. (I'm only lvl 57 and don't have Innercharge yet). And it seemed like a fun combo.
But wow, I didn't think about casting Life of Set everytime it is up. And I never thought about taking Guiding Spirit from Gen tree to spam LOS.
Me thinks you might be right about the "e" word. /whisper..ethical.. I can see possible changes coming it this abused.

I was wondering though, Life of Set lasts 13 seconds or so. If you spam it, and they already have the LoS pulse going, do they still get the electrical bonus if LOS is cast during that time? Maybe it's not suppose to, creating more damage than it's suppose to, and it will be changed....

Or maybe, it's working as intended.

[finesselol]

its mainly just guiding spirit and how that works
because ELoS alone does a little bit of damage
but be able to cast it twice a second, added with the elec bonuses and giving it to everyone you heal?
thats OP

and they nerfed Triumphant Life of Set, used to be direct damage instead of a crap dot

used to be about 300dmg AoE everytime you spammed it, with necros having like 10 pets out, hitting each one making a 300dmg AoE

basically it was like this
lets just say that TLoS hit for 300 AoE
the necro has 8 pets out
Plus you, and the necro himself
with 3/3 guiding spirit you can cast LoS twice a second
So thats
10(how many targets your hitting) x 300(how much dmg you do for each target healed) x 2(casts per second) = 6000DPS

most op thing ever lol

but they nerfed it to a 3second crap dot, so its useless now, rip

so its basically just guiding spirit, since spamming heals doesnt do anything beneficial healing wise (its a HoT) then its just asking for ability abuse

[finesselol]

anddd i realized i got off topic

anyways, back to empowered life of set, its just a one shot dmg added to your attacks called Storm Charge

it only affects one target, and for one attack, or LS, stormfield, or charged blast

but spam it on about 12+melee hitting a single mob, with the +56 elec dmg and all the other buffs theyre getting, itll basically do what i talked about in the build itself, and add an IMMENSE amount of DPS indirectly, always good to have at least one of these ToS's in a raid, makes things go alot quicker

[Rayzilla]

bleh way to many letters.

here's Rayzilla guide.

Originally Posted by Rayzilla's Awesome Guide. Of Awesome. Put lots of points into the cool looking abilities and then use those things to kill people.

[finesselol]

Originally Posted by Rayzilla bleh way to many letters. here's Rayzilla guide.

rofl basically