Tempest of Set - Feat Advice

Here is another article I came across.

On June 23rd, the Tempest of Set (ToS) was nerfed yet again. This time it was a change to their core leveling abilities. The primary change is a 3 target limit to Storm Field and Lightning Strike now does splash damage instead of pure Area of Effect (AoE) damage. This impacts ToS leveling at all level ranges, so the goal of the leveling build is to minimize the changes while still maintaining an effective AoE nuking strategy.

Leveling Build Summary

10-14 Ether Flow
15-19 Arcing Charged Blast
20-23 Improved LS
24-26 Pillar Lightning
27-29 Static Charge
30 Respec

5/5 Arcing Charged Blast
5/5 Improved LS
3/3 Pillar Lightning
3/5 Static Charge
5/5 Growing Storm
2/3 Storm Crown
31-32 Static Charge
33-34 Ether Absorption
35 Elemental Fury
36-38 Ether Absorption
39 Coalesce Ether
40 Set’s Storm (2 points)
41 Column Lightning
42 Storm Crown
43-45 Storm Throne
46-47 Storm Regalia
48-49 Set’s Brutality
50 Titanic Storm (2 points)
51 Storm Regalia
52 Set’s Brutality
53-57 Ether Flow
58-61 Spirit Armor
62-64 Saintly Warrior
65-66 Spirit Aegis
67-70 Exemplar
71 Vengeance of the Gods

Detailed Leveling Build

This build incorporates a respec at level 30 to take advantage of Storm Field. Also remember that this is a leveling build, so it has some potential weaknesses in PvP. When possible, I tried to give some options for ToS’s playing on PvP servers.

5/5 Ether Flow - Lightning Strike (LS) is extremely mana expensive. Although the cooldown was removed (6/23 patch), LS now does 40% splash damage on up to 3 additional targets. This means you kill single targets faster, but you need more overall casts if you encounter a group.
5/5 Arcing Charged Blast - Adds splash damage to your fast casting nuke, Charged Bolt (CB).
5/5 Improved LS - Increase the damage of your core nuke.
3/3 Pillar Lightning - Increases the radius and the number of targets affected by the LS splash damage.
3/5 Static Charge - Increases the damage of all your nukes. Scales with level.

Leveling Build at level 29

At level 30, you gain Storm Field (SF), a class transforming skill. SF is a passive skill that attacks targets while you are free to run around, cast other nukes, swing your weapon, evade or active block. Combined with Storm Crown (SC), this will be your core leveling strategy. LS cannot be cast while SF is running, but CB and other nukes can still be used.

Unfortunately, with the 6/23 patch, SF can only attack 3 targets at once. Until you get Set’s Storm at level 40, you cannot have SF running constantly, so there will be times when need to rely on LS. The priority is to get Titanic Storm as soon as possible (level 50). This increases the number of targets to 5, which allows the ToS to level almost as well as before the latest nerf.

Respec at level 30

5/5 Arcing Charged Blast
5/5 Improved LS or 5/5 Grounding Charge - Grounding Charge gives CB a 50% of rooting the target for 4 seconds. Useful for PvP.
3/3 Pillar Lightning
3/5 Static Charge
5/5 Growing Storm - Reduces the mana cost of Life of Set every time LS, CB and SF is cast. Small, but nice bonus.
2/3 Storm Crown - A 30s passive buff that triggers an electric shock to a nearby enemy every few seconds.


Respec Build at level 30

Due to the nerf to SF and LS, it is more important to get the SF improving feats as soon as possible.

5/5 Static Charge
2/5 Ether Absorption or 2/5 Brutal LS - Ether Absorption returns a portion of your damage as mana. Since you are relying on Storm Field and Storm Crown, you usually don’t have mana problems. Ether Absorption is the better PvE choice. Brutal LS gives a higher critical hit chance to LS and it is a good choice for PvP servers, since it’s also a prerequisite for 1/1 Inner Charge (instant cast, guaranteed critical strike on next LS, 1 minute cooldown).
1/1 Elemental Fury - Instant cast AoE nuke with a 45 second cooldown. Instant casts are great for PvE and PvP. Another nuke to use with Storm Field.
5/5 Ether Absorption or 5/5 Brutal LS
1/3 Coalesce Ether or 1/1 Inner Charge - Coalesce Ether is another mana management skill that also provides mana for your teammates. Get Inner Charge if you invested in Brutal LS.
2/2 Set’s Storm - Reduces casting time and reduces the cooldown so you can always have Storm Field up. Essential for leveling.

Leveling Build at level 40

1/1 Column Lightning - Column area nuke that does great damage. 3 second cast, 60 second cooldown. Can also be used with Storm Field. Good for PvE and PvP. If you play on a PvP server, consider getting this skill before Set’s Storm. Set’s Storm is hugely helpful for PvE, but Column Lightning is only 1 point. It also has a splash damage component that can add to up significant numbers when used against a group.
3/3 Storm Crown
3/3 Storm Throne - Improves SC by increasing damage, number of targets and restoring mana. Adds a weaker SC to all team members.
2/3 Storm Regalia - Further increases SC damage and adds a chance of restoring the team’s mana and inflicting electrical damage.
2/3 Set’s Brutality - Increases the chance of critical strike for SF.
2/2 Titanic Storm - At level 50, get this essential leveling feat. Increases the number of targets for SF to 5 and improves the range of attack.
3/3 Storm Regalia
3/3 Set’s Brutality
Leveling Build at level 52

At this point, you have a choice. Either go directly to the general tree or invest in Idol of Set. The general tree build provides Saintly Warrior sooner, which helps with keeping stamina up when active blocking. I’ve been experimenting a lot with Idol of Set recently and I’ve changed my mind about the usefulness of that skill. The Idol of Set build order can be found further down the page.

5/5 Ether Flow - Provides very good mana regen both in and out of combat.
5/5 Spirit Armor - Provides a passive defensive boost, helpful for AoE nuking.
3/3 Saintly Warrior - Provides mana and stamina when struck in melee combat. Helps PvE because it allows you to active block longer. Also good in extended PvP battles for both mana and stamina.
2/5 Spirit Aegis - Provides a small passive magic defensive boost. Nice filler.
5/5 Exemplar - Passive increase to melee and nuke damage.
1/1 Vengeance of the Gods - Great for PvE and especially for PvP. 1s cast, 30s duration, 3m cooldown. 20% damage buff.
Leveling Build at level 71

At this point, you have a lot of options. I recommend the following skills. Consider getting any of these skills sooner if it suits your playstyle.

Empowered Cobra Stare - Stun doesn’t break on damage. Essential for PvP servers. Very useful for ToS’s who group a lot. If you get aggro, this stun is a great way to stop the incoming damage and give your tank a chance to regain aggro.
Power of the Serpent Ring + Wrath - 10s duration, 60s cooldown, 30% damage buff - Similar to Vengeance of the Gods, provides a nice damage boost. Helps with burst damage for PvP.
Empowered Life of Set - Only 1 point. Adds a good damage buff to your next LS, CB or SF.
Idol of Set + Idol of Set’s Power - 60s cooldown reduces the usefulness of this skill, but it is still a very good way to boost damage.
Far Reaching Spirit + Presence of Mind - Makes your emergency direct heal into an instant cast. Makes it far more useful. Can be cast while running.
Fury of the Storm + Pillar Lightning + Imp. LS - Always good to improve your primary nuke.
Ether Absorption + Coalesce Ether + Blood Mana - If you didn’t get these skills before, it’s helpful if you do any LS spamming.
Set’s Life Spark - Only 1 point. Gives you the ability to resurrect yourself once every 30 minutes. Can be very useful. Unfortunately, you resurrect at the location you died, which is typically surrounded by whatever killed you in the first place. Without your buffs, you die a much faster second death. For parties, it can be invaluable, especially if you are the only rezzer.
Visions of Hatred + Brain Spasms + Puppets of Set - An essential part of the PvP build right now. Visions of Hatred provides a channeled 6.5s stun (5 minute cooldown). Puppets of Set is a 2.5s cast with a 10s ‘confuse’ (2 minute cooldown). For PvP, I don’t think I need to explain why these skills are useful. In PvE, having more crowd control skills can be very useful as well. Brain Spasm grants a significant chance of immediately recovering from stun, charm or feat. I’m not sure if it works, but potentially very useful.
Lightning Cast - Makes your next LS into an instant cast, but increases the cooldown.
Idol of Set build order

Note: Before you read further, you should know that you do not need Idol of Set. The ToS grinds and kills fine without it. The Idol can speed up some grinding and create a different gameplay which can be fun. It also helps make up for some of the power lost in the June 23rd nerf.

Delaying getting Saintly Warrior can sometimes lead to stamina issues when active blocking. You can either use cheap stamina potions or run in circles around the Idol to minimize damage.

Leveling Build at level 52

Investing 5 points in Idol of Set and Idol of Set’s Power provides a dramatic damage boost to your Storm Field grinding. You can take down a group significantly faster. This makes it possible to pull a bigger group of mobs and get more bonus experience from longer chain kills.

Since Idol of Set has a long cooldown and the duration (50s) is shorter than the cooldown (60s), you have to manage it properly. Unlike a non-Idol build, you are less mobile, so you have to plan ahead.

1/3 Piercing Storm Crown or 1/3 Empowered Cobra Stare - A filler point to get you to the Idol of Set feats, but both are useful choices. Empowered Cobra Stare is the PvP choice. It’s not a bad decision to go 3/3 on either feat before moving on to Idol of Set.
3/3 Idol of Set
2/2 Idol of Set’s Power - This skill provides additional Storm Field pulses from the Idol itself. I don’t recommend getting the Idol until you have the Storm Field feats first. That gives you more damage and a longer range.
1/1 Empowered Life of Set - Every time you cast Life of Set (which is very often), your next LS, SF or CB gets a damage bonus. The damage bonus is significant, so it’s often worth casting Life of Set prior to every LS, SF or CB cast.
5/5 Ether Flow
5/5 Spirit Armor
3/3 Saintly Warrior
Note that this build is better for grinding, rather than questing. It’s often not worth the time or effort to place an Idol if you are only killing a few mobs. Be careful of using Idols in instances with elite mobs. All that DPS will make the mobs very angry at you.

At this point, you can either continue down the general tree to get Vengeance of the Gods or any of the other useful feats I recommended above.

Idol of Set leveling build at level 70

Originally Posted in Age of Conan http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=91623&page=2 poster Fev0r