The most effective leveling build is no longer as obvious due to the many recent changes to the Tempest of Set. This guide includes two leveling progressions. One is based on building a balanced toolset focused around Lightning Strike and Storm Field. The other is a build focused on maximizing AoE damage and grinding static mob camps or instances.

NOTE: I place a high priority on acquiring the more important feats as soon as possible. As a result, the feat progression is a little messy. It may be easier to follow the build if you look at the level progression illustrated by the feat calculator. I have tried to design the most efficient/effective leveling build, but it is only a suggestion. The best leveling build is one you enjoy playing.

There is a lot of information and numbers, so if you see any errors, please drop a comment. The next time I respec, I also plan to add a section with all the abilities and feats that detail the exact numbers for a level 80 ToS.


Table of Contents
Standard Leveling Build

Feat calculator overview for every 10 levels
Level by level progression
Analysis and playstyle
Alternative feat choices
Maximum AoE Grinding Build (’Synergy’ build)

Feat calculator overview for every 10 levels
Level by level progression
Analysis and playstyle
Alternative feat choices
Feat Information and Review

Lightning
Thunder
Priest


Standard Leveling Build
Build at level 75 with 7 leftover points

This build is very flexible, equally good for grinding static camps, doing quests, running group instances and engaging in PvP. Its primary focus is improving the core DPS toolset and burst damage. This build lacks Brain Spasms and Puppets of Set, so it’s not the optimal PvP build, but the burst damage potential and general utility makes it very effective.

It also gives new ToS a chance to try out Idol of Set at level 30, to see if it suits their playstyle. A nicely feated Idol of Set provides a lot of benefits, but the 60 second cooldown makes it a playstyle choice.


Feat Calculator Overview for every 10 levels

Level 20
Level 30
Level 39 before Respec
Level 40
Level 50
Level 60
Level 70
Level 80

Level by Level Progression

10-14 Ether Flow
15-19 Growing Storm
20-21 Storm Crown
22-24 Storm Throne
25-27 Empowered Cobra Stare
28-30 Storm Regalia
30-32 Idol of Set
33-34 Idol of Set’s Power
35 Empowered Life of Set
36 Set’s Life Spark
37-39 Piercing Storm Crown
Respec at 40

5/5 Growing Storm
1/3 Storm Crown
5/5 Arcing Charged Blast
5/5 Improved LS
5/5 Static Charge
3/5 Ether Absorption
5/5 Brutal LS
1/1 Inner Charge
1/1 Elemental Fury
1/1 Column Lightning
2/2 Set’s Storm
41-42 Storm Crown
43-44 Storm Throne (2 points)
45-47 Empowered Cobra Stare
48-49 Set’s Brutality or Lightning Arc (2 points)
50 Titanic Storm (2 points)
51 Storm Throne
52-54 Storm Regalia
55-59 Ether Flow
60-61 Power of the Serpent Ring
62 Empowered Life of Set
63-67 Fury of the Storm
68-71 Wrath of the Serpent Ring
72-74 Lightning Cast
75 Set’s Life Spark

(7 points left)


Analysis and Playstyle

Pre level 30 - Until level 30, your primary damage comes from Lightning Strike (which has a splash damage component) and Charged Blast (CB). As you feat out Storm Crown (SC), it becomes more helpful. Lightning Strike is very mana expensive, which is the reason why it is very important to pick up Ether Flow as soon as possible. You don’t have to put all 5 feat points into Ether Flow at once. You can add more points as needed.

Level 30 - Once you reach level 30 and gain Storm Field, your entire playstyle changes. Cast SC, pull with LS, SF, HoT’s, then continue attacking with your melee weapon and CB. As you gain more abilities like Elemental Fury and Column Lightning, incorporate them into your attack sequence.

Double-tap back for the short but very effective evade buff. It is an essential skill to learn for ToS’s at all level ranges. Active blocking is no longer a good option for ToS, due to the 50% decrease in damage and healing. Having a ready stash of health, mana and stamina potions is also very important.

ToS have very few ways to escape when they get in trouble. With a much weaken defenses due to recent changes, Empowered Cobra Stare is almost a necessity. It is also critical in groups for protecting yourself and other group members.

Level 40 - The purpose of the level 40 respec is to get Set’s Storm as soon as possible. If you miss having Idol of Set, you can always feat for it again later on. Idol of Set’s Power has a great synergy with SF because it also emits pulses when SF is active. This can make quick work of mobs and bosses alike.

Level 50 - By the mid 50’s, quests run dry and you are forced to start grinding instances and static camps. With a nicely feated SF and SC, it becomes easy to get into a smooth routine. While ToS is no longer incredible at killing large groups, they still level very quickly compared to many of the other classes.

Level 60 - From the mid 60’s, your gain even more abilities to significantly augment your Lightning Strike. This powers up your ability to PvP as well as dishing out damage in groups.

NOTE: At this time, Inner Charge and Lightning Cast have a synergy. Casting the following sequence: Inner Charge, LS, Lightning Cast, LS will cause both LS to critical strike. If you have Fury of the Storm and additional +damage (feats, buffs, equipment), the burst damage from this sequence is impressive. You can even add spellweaving to get the maximum damage buff.


Alternative Feat Choices

This build has 7 leftover points. In addition, you may want to tweak this build to better match your playstyle. The following are feats that match well with this build or provide additional utility.

Idol of Set + Idol of Set’s Power + Idol of Set’s Supremacy
Symbiotic Idol of Set - A group skill. It adds +damage for every ally within range of the Idol. Great for raiding, groups, especially when there are necromancer pets.
Ether Absorption + Coalesce Ether - More mana is always good.
Lightning Arc - Adds a DoT to Column Lightning that inflicts about half the damage of the initial strike.
Vindicator or Grace - Vindicator is the better choice as it helps tanks hold aggro better, so it helps everyone in your group, not just you.
Presence of Mind - Making the emergency heal into instant cast is probably the most important thing you can do if you want to prioritize healing. It allows you to cast it on the run, making it a useful PvP feat as well.
Thundering Command + Staggering Voice - A silence and a root. More CC is always good, but this feat is deep in the Thunder tree.
Rousing Shock - I haven’t had a chance to test this skill recently, but many PvP builds seem to include it, so I assume it works. (My next respec will include this feat, so I will update this when that happens.)


Maximum AoE Grinding Build

Build at level 80 with 3 leftover points

The end goal of this build is to maximize your AoE grinding ability. This is done by using Idols and Cyclones and taking advantage of the fact that both are considered party members. There are several key abilities that work far better when they affect more people. Due to the static nature of Idols and Cyclones, this is not a very good PvP build, although it can be quite effective against players unfamiliar with some of the ToS abilities.

By the mid 50’s, quests are no longer the primary source of experience. It becomes necessary to grind instances or static camps. This allows the ToS to maximize the benefit from the longer lasting, but immovable Idols and Cyclones.

This ‘Synergy’ build has been gaining a lot of popularity lately, especially with more people reaching higher levels and being forced to grind experience or farm for money and resources. My ToS is 90% focused on PvP, so I’ve been slow at testing various PvE focused builds. After a lot of recent experimenting and research, I haven’t been able to improve on Zangief’s version from the official forums (Good job, Zangief! His thread on Tempest builds. There is a lot of good information for higher level ToS’s).

This guide outlines an efficient order in which to acquire the necessary feats, focusing on getting the important feats when they would be the most helpful.


Feat Calculator Overview for every 10 levels

Level 20
Level 30
Level 40
Level 50
Level 60
Level 70
Level 80

Level by Level Progression

10-14 Ether Flow
15-19 Growing Storm
20-21 Storm Crown
22-23 Storm Throne (2 points)
24-26 Empowered Cobra Stare
27 Storm Throne
28 Storm Regalia (1 point)
28-30 Idol of Set
31-32 Idol of Set’s Power
33 Empowered Life of Set
34 Set’s Life Spark
35-36 Storm Regalia
37-39 Piercing Storm Crown
40 Respec

5/5 Growing Storm
1/3 Storm Crown
5/5 Arcing Charged Blast
5/5 Grounding Charge or Improved Lightning Strike
1/1 Rousing Shock
5/5 Static Charge
5/5 Ether Absorption
3/3 Coalesce Ether
1/1 Elemental Fury
1/1 Column Lightning
2/2 Set’s Storm
41-42 Storm Crown
43-44 Storm Throne (2 points)
45-47 Empowered Cobra Stare
48 Storm Throne
49 Storm Regalia (1 point)
50-51 Idol of Set
52-53 Idol of Set’s Power
54 Empowered Life of Set
55-56 Set’s Brutality (2 points)
57-58 Titanic Storm
59-62 Cyclone of Set
63-64 Storm Regalia
65-66 Symbiotic Idol of Set (2 points)
67 Idol of Set’s Supremacy
68-71 Cyclonic Storms of Set
72 Storms of Set
73 Set’s Brutality
74-76 Piercing Storm Crown
77-80 Symbiotic Idol of Set
(3 points left)


Analysis and Playstyle
Pre Level 30 - As with a normal Lightning focused build, before level 30, your primary damage comes from Lightning Strike. Ether Flow is still important due to the mana cost of LS. As you invest more points in Storm Crown, you will notice a significant damage increase, especially in groups. The mana gain from SC is helpful as well.

Level 30 - It isn’t until you feat Idol of Set’s Power when you really start to see the benefit of having an Idol. Storm Field also pulse from the Idol, in addition the inherent damage and buff that the Idol provides. Unfortunately, you will also get annoyed with the long 60s cooldown. You can place it and drag mobs to the Idol or just pull more mobs whenever the Idol is available.

NOTE: At this time, if you queue up another Idol of Set IMMEDIATELY, you can place TWO Idols. In other words, hotkey, click, hotkey, click as fast as possible. This is a bug which will probably be fixed eventually, but there is no reason not to take advantage of it now. SF and SC pulse from both Idols, adding nicely to the overall damage output.

Learn to use double-tap back for the short but powerful evade buff. It is one of the primary abilities for keeping yourself alive. Make sure you always have a stash of health, mana and stamina potions.

Level 40 - At level 40, you respec in order to get access to the SF feats as soon as possible. While having a fully feated SC and the Idol of Set is very nice, it is useful to reduce the casting time and increase the duration of Storm Field. In addition, you no longer need Ether Flow. This build requires a lot of points, so dropping unnecessary feats is important.

Level 50 - By the early 50’s, you will regain a more powerful SC, Emp. Cobra Stare and Idol of Set. This is perfect timing for you to start grinding instances (Cannibal Caves) and static camps. You also have the benefit of the feats in the Lightning tree; Column Lightning and Elemental Fury for use when SF is up, Static Charge for more overall damage and Ether Absorption/Coalesce Ether for mana management).

At 54, you gain Empowered Life of Set, which provides a nice damage buff by itself. It also affects the Idol of Set, increasing its inherent damage and SF pulses.

Level 70 - By level 72, you gain the ability to drop 3 Cyclones and even more synergy between your abilities. Empowered Life of Set and SC affect all Idols and Cyclones, which adds a huge increase in AoE damage potential. Cyclones also benefit from all the buffs, which makes the damage respectable. Symbiotic Idol of Set gives you increased +damage. The tradeoff is a loss of mobility due to the immovable Idols and Cyclones.

The combination of Idols, Cyclones, a fully feated Storm Crown and a fully feated Storm Field creates a zone of massive AoE damage. It’s even more incredible because it is all passive damage. It takes a lot of time to cast all the spells, but once you do, you are free to cast anything you like (except for LS when SF is up). Depending on the situation, you don’t have to set up an entire field of Idols and Cyclones. At the core of your AoE damage is a fully feated SC and SF, which does a great job by itself.


Alternative Feat Choices
This build has 3 leftover points at level 80. In addition, you may want to tweak this build to better match your playstyle. The following are feats that match well with this build or provide additional utility.

Lightning Arc - Adds a DoT to Column Lightning, which adds about half the damage of the initial nuke.
Thundering Command + Staggering Voice - More CC is always good.
Lightning Cast - Primarily useful for some burst damage while pulling mobs and the occasional PvP.
Set’s Life Spark - Self resurrection on a 30min cooldown. Time saver for solo. Potential group and raid saver.


Feat Information and Review


Lightning

Arcing Charged Blast - Adds splash damage with a small AoE radius to your fast casting nuke, Charged Bolt (CB). CB is a ToS staple, so more potential AoE damage is good.
Improved Lightning Strike - Improves the damage of your primary nuke. It was reported a while ago that a Funcom developer said this skills improves the damage by 7.5%, but no further testing has been done to verify.
Grounding Charge - Adds a 50% chance of rooting the primary target of CB for 4 seconds. A useful bonus for PvP.
Rousing Shock - Instant cast, 60s cooldown. Provides an additional 5s (10s?) stun immunity.
Pillar Lightning - Increases the radius and the number of targets affected by the LS splash damage. At this time, this feat is questionable. It doesn’t seem to work properly, so consider spending the 3 points in another feat instead.
Faithful of Set - Reported by forum testers to have a minimal impact on healing. Not currently recommended.
Static Charge - Increases the damage of all your nukes. Scales with level.
Inner Charge - Instant cast, 1 minute cooldown. Your next LS is a guaranteed critical strike.
Brutal Lightning Strike - Increases critical strike chance for LS. The exact number is unknown at this time.
Ether Absorption - Ether Absorption returns a portion of your damage as mana. Once you reach level 30 and acquire SF, mana management becomes less important, until endgame and PvP.
Coalesce Ether - Adds more mana return for your inflicted damage.
Blood Mana - Yet another mana management skill. Most people find it unnecessary.
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. Damage is similar to a single SF pulse.
The Building Storm - Group skill for ToS more focused on utility, rather than DPS. (More testing required)
Fury of the Storm - When you get a lightning strike critical, this feat increases the damage by 40%.
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. In addition to the AoE column, it also has a splash damage component.
Lightning Arc - Adds a short DoT to Column Lightning that totals to approximate half of the initial damage.
Set’s Storm - Reduces casting time to 1.5s and reduces the cooldown so you can always have Storm Field up. Essential for leveling.
Set’s Brutality - Increases the chance of critical strike for SF. The exact increase is unknown at this time.
Cyclone of Set - 1.5s cast (?), lasts about 30s. By itself, it is unimpressive. It doesn’t move. The AoE damage is underwhelming and the radius of effect is fairly small. But when combined with a feated Idol and SC, it starts pulling its own weight.
Titanic Storm - Increases the number of targets for SF to 5 and improves the range of attack.
Visions of Hatred - 6.5s channeled stun with a modest DoT. 5 minute cooldown. The fact that it’s channeled and has a 5 minute cooldown makes it far less useful, but another CC is always welcome.
Cyclonic Storms of Set - Allows a ToS to place 2 cyclones.
Brain Spasms - Instant cast buff that negates or helps you quickly recover from the next stun/charm/fear. Once it is used up, it has a 3 minute cooldown until you can buff it again.
Storms of Set - Allows a ToS to place 3 cyclones.
Puppets of Set - 2.5s cast (?), lasts 10.5s, 2minute cooldown. A great PvP crowd control ability. It charms the target (basically a stun) and drags them into melee range. Even better in groups because it separates the opposing team and usually guarantees the victim is ganged and killed quickly. For PvE, you gain a pet control bar, allowing you to direct the mob to attack other mobs. It is unattackable for the 10.5s duration. It has a very high taunt, in essence allowing you to CC more than one mob. If cast on a mob that is not aggro’ed to you, it will attack a nearby mob and keeping fighting until it’s dead or until you do something else to aggro it.

Thunder
Growing Storm - Reduces the mana cost of Life of Set every time LS, CB and SF is cast. Small, but nice bonus.
Piercing Storm Crown - Increases the critical strike chance of SC. The exact number is unknown at this time.
Storm Crown - Instant cast. 30s passive buff that triggers an electric shock to a nearby enemy every few (?) seconds. Takes about 5 seconds before the first shock is emitted, so cast SC before pulling any mobs.
Storm Throne - A significant increase to Storm Crown’s damage. It also restores mana for each strike and adds a weaker SC to all team members.
Power of the Serpent Ring - 3s buff that adds magic resistance.
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.
Storm Regalia - Further increases SC damage for you and your team members. Also restores mana to team members as well.
Wrath of the Serpent Ring - 10s duration, 60s cooldown, 30% damage buff. Great damage buff for burst damage, especially for PvP.
Static Blood - Adds a small amount of electric invulnerability and a weak damage shield.
Idol of Set - 2.5s cast, 50s duration. 60s cooldown reduces the usefulness of this skill, but it is still a very good way to boost damage. Also restores mana to you and nearby allies.
Idol of Set’s Power - While Storm Field is active, it pulses from the Idol as well, providing a significant damage increase. Adds a strong +damage buff for your spells and melee attacks of nearby allies.
Set’s Life Spark - 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 instances and raids, it can be invaluable.
Empowered Life of Set - Adds extra damage to your next LS, CB, SF or melee swing. Also buffs anyone else affected by Life of Set. This can provide a significant damage boost for melee groups and melee necromancer pets. If you have Guiding Spirit, you can spam LoS on melee allies (and melee necromancer pets), dramatically increasing their damage output.
Symbiotic Idol of Set - Every group/raid member affected by the Idol of Set’s buff adds a large amount of bonus damage to the ToS’s spells. This includes necromancer pets.
Shock and Awe - (More testing required) People are reporting that it either doesn’t work or is too difficult to use properly.
Divide and Conquer - (More testing required) People are reporting that it either doesn’t work or is too difficult to use properly.
Thundering Command - An instant cast silence. 4s duration. 30s cooldown. Does not interrupt the current spell being cast. Helpful in PvP.
Lightning Cast - Your next LS is instant cast. 2minute cooldown with 1 point. Each additional point reduces the cooldown by 30s. Great synergy with the 1minute cooldown Inner Charge.
Idol of Set’s Supremacy - Improves the Idol by allowing it to hit an additional target and debuffing targets to suffer additional damage.
Improved Overcharge - (More testing required)
Storm Blood - Electrical damage suffered by the ToS is converted into healing. Very situational skill.
Vital Shock - 1.5s cast, 60s cooldown. Damages the target and restores health, mana, stamina to nearby allies. At level 80, it returns about 320 health/mana/stamina. The general consensus is that the benefit is underwhelming and the cooldown is too long.
Improved Call Lightning - Increases the damage of the Call Lightning spell, but this is of questionable value because testing has shown that Call Lightning seems to hit targets ~30% of the time. Nice when it works, but too unreliable. The primary benefit of Call Lightning is the big damage buff.
Staggering Voice - Adds a root that does not break on damage to the Thundering Command silence.
Triumphant Life of Set - Adds a moderate amount of damage to your LoS spell. (More testing required) This is much weaker than it used to be, but for a passive bonus to your core healing spell, it is a nice addition.
Summon Aura of Nebthu - 2.5s cast, 21s duration, 2minute cooldown. General consensus is that the DoT is too weak and the cooldown is too long for the amount of feat points required to gain this ability.
Serpent Transmutation - 15 minute cooldown. Lasts 7s (?), absorbing all damage and converting it into healing. Powerful, but the cooldown is so long that most ToS will forget they even have this ability.

Priest
Ether Flow - Provides very good mana regen both in and out of combat.
Spirit Armor - Provides a passive physical defensive boost, helpful for AoE nuking.
Ether Discharge - Another mana management skill.
Grace - Reduces hate generated by -1% for each point invested. Decent skill, but better to pick up Vindicator instead.
Far-Reaching Spirit - Increases the radius of your emergency direct heal. Be careful because it also means more players are hit by the 1 minute debuff.
Vindicator - Causes allied soldiers in Defensive Stance to generate more hate. This improves tanking ability, which benefits your entire group.
Spirit Aegis - Provides a small passive magic defensive boost.
Saintly Warrior - Provides mana and stamina when struck in melee combat. No longer as helpful now that active blocking is far less effective, but can still reduce downtime.
Guiding Spirit - Reduces the cooldown on Life of Set. Good synergy with Empowered Life of Set.
All-Encompassing Spirit - (More testing required)
Presence of Mind - Makes your emergency direct heal into an instant cast. Makes it far more useful. Can be cast while running.
Soothe the Soul - (More testing required) Should be unnecessary, as long as the priest knows how to manage his aggro properly.
Saintly Martyr - Not as useful as Saintly Warrior because most mobs are melee.
Exemplar - Passive increase to melee and nuke damage.
Focus - Pointless right now since Casting Concentration already prevents any spells from being interrupted.
Healing Spirit - Another mana management feat, which a ToS does not need.
Vengeance of the Gods - Good damage buff. 1s (?) cast, 30s duration, 3m cooldown. 20% damage buff. Requires a lot of feat points invested in the general tree, so for most ToS, Wrath of the Serpent Ring is the better choice.
Shroud of the Gods - (More testing required)

Fervor's original guide can be found on his Blog: Gaming Fervor .   This particular guide can be found HERE  The guides may be updated based on game changes so check there for any changes. Our thanks to Fervor for allowing us to post his guides here for the community.  great work!