Fans who were anticipating Outriders for any amount of time are already familiar with what the Tempest build looks like. The developers were so excited about how visually spectacular and tactically intriguing that they released an early look at the "Fire Witch." While the name would end up changing, the moves stayed the same and, as a result, the Pyromancer was one of the most popular classes in the early going.
However, seeing a professional developer execute a build that they designed and managing to play that build as a normal gamer is easier said than done. Even after copying the build, fans shouldn't settle for playing the build the way the developers did; as exciting as it was visually, there was a ton of running away during combat and waiting for big skills to come back from cooldown. Pro players in Outriders have added a twist to the Tempest build and the community agrees that this is the best Anomaly Power damage build in the game right now.
Updated on July 5th, 2022 by Hodey Johns: Many will look at the new endgame content, new weapons, and additional talent trees and already get a sense of how the builds have updated since Worldslayer. But this is only a fraction of the equation. The new foes and bosses employ different moves and tactics. These types of targets should not be a second-hand consideration. This build has been updated to account for the new opponents, giving players the skills and gear that best counters anything Worldslayer has to throw at them.
Class Points
Node |
Points |
Effect Per Point |
Archmage |
5 |
+6% Anomaly Power |
World Ablaze |
2 |
-15% Explosive Skill Cooldown |
Gifted |
2 |
+5% Anomaly Power and +5% Weapon Damage |
Wildfire |
1 |
-10% Skill Cooldown |
Mark's Cumulation |
3 |
+8% Damage against Marked targets |
With Fire And Rifle |
1 |
+35% Weapon Damage for 10 seconds after using an Explosive Skill |
Inferno Bullets |
1 |
Firepower increases by 15% of Anomaly Power |
With Fire And Anomaly |
1 |
+12% Anomaly Power for 10 seconds after using an Explosive Skill |
Unquenchable |
1 |
+6% Skill Leech |
Conflagration |
1 |
+15% Resistance Piercing |
Grave Ablaze |
1 |
+30% Explosive Skill Damage |
Flames That Burn Twice |
1 |
+10% Damage against Elites |
Unlike many of its counterpart casters, the Tempest gets no benefit from nodes casting anything other than Explosive skills. Target casting nodes without any hesitation as gunplay is only a small part of this build. The rest comes from skills and will be further boosted by armor and mods.
When gaining an understanding of how higher Apocalypse Tiers function, many players abandon skills and go for weapon damage. This is a mistake for the Tempest. Yes, there are a few nodes here that boost weapon damage, but this is only to prevent serious damage falloff in between using skills.
Pax Points
Node |
Effect |
Melting Point |
Increase resistance piercing by 15% when above 80% health and 30% when below 40% health |
Master Exploder |
Explosive skill damage is increased by 100% of resistance piercing |
Convection |
Reduce all skill cooldowns by 4 seconds when all skills are on cooldown with a 3-second cooldown |
Backdraft |
Anomaly power is increased by 30% for each skill on cooldown |
Trigger Sequence |
Activating Explosive skills increases the damage of the next explosive by 25%, stacking three times and then starting over |
Most casters in Outriders will struggle in between cooldowns on their skills, using an inferior weapon in the meantime. The Tempest has no such limitation with the power of Convection. When combined with the rest of this guide, there will be essentially no time "in-between" skills.
There is also an increased incentive to go for all the resistance piercing available. With Master Exploder and using three explosive skills, this becomes a permanent double damage buff (and perhaps higher).
Ascension Points
- Most important nodes: Anomaly Power, Resistance Pierce, Anomaly Damage
- Most important category: Anomaly
The nature of Ascension points is that every class and build, given the time to farm, can max out every node. So this build only provides an accurate starting point for gamers. After that, the rest of these points have more to do with luxury than necessity.
Of course, with a caster, the Anomaly category should be the top priority. There aren't any bad choices over here. When filling out the rest of the Ascension points, the only wrong answers are anything to do with physical damage or weapons, everything else is fair game.
Skill Selection
Eruption |
Does damage to a target and a small area around that target. |
Overheat |
Deals damage and interrupts units in a large area. Units who are inflicted with Burn will lose their Burn status and take extra damage. |
Thermal Bomb |
A targeted enemy received a Burn debuff and is Interrupted and damaged. If the enemy dies with this effect, they explode and deal damage in a wide radius. |
Without any debate, all three skills that the Tempest selections should be Explosive skills. They provide enormous boosts to each other thanks to the nodes selected and rotating them all acts as a permanent buff to both Anomaly Damage and Firepower.
Some of these aren't available until after getting close to the max class points. Even just having one or two will boost the build's output far more than the other skills. The trick is to make sure a Burn effect is always applied with Thermal Bomb, not because the Burn damage is great, but because this counts as a "mark" for the purpose of doing additional damage.
Weapon & Mods
Weapon |
Shelrog's Excrescence |
Mod 1 |
Ultimate Burning Bullets |
Mod 2 |
Ultimate Vulnerability Bullets |
Mod 3 |
Ultimate Anomaly Surge |
There is an extensive list of legendary guns which might make players feel like getting creative. Unfortunately, while weapon damage isn't the feature of the build, it is hardly negligible. Even if the gun itself did not damage, having mods helps out with Anomaly damage.
Not many builds specialize in double guns, but the Shelrog's Excrescence is perfect for the Tempest since it has a good amount of range and the first mod automatically applies a Burn effect to any unscorched targets. Replace the second mod with Ultimate Vulnerability Bullets, which allow the Tempest to do more damage with their skills to Vulnerable targets.
Armor & Mods
Head |
Helmet of the Lava Lich |
Mod 1 |
Pompeii |
Mod 2 |
Magma Coat |
Torso |
Upper Robe of the Lava Lich |
Mod 1 |
Increased Duration |
Mod 2 |
Giga-Blast |
Legs |
Lower Robe of the Lava Lich |
Mod 1 |
Improved Damage |
Mod 2 |
Debris |
Hands |
Charms of the Lava Lich |
Mod 1 |
Etna |
Mod 2 |
True Blast |
Feet |
Boots of the Lava Lich |
Mod 1 |
Even Odds |
Mod 2 |
Fire Frenzy |
The Tempest is in a tough place when it comes to legendary armor sets. None of the options boost two Explosive skills, so players are forced to pick their best skill and replace half of the mods with ones that make more sense.
The Lava Lich Set increases the damage and decreases the cooldown on Eruption. Since this is the highest damage skill for the Tempest, it's as good as it gets. This shouldn't be treated like a consolation prize, Eruption is likely the highest burst damage move in the game. It's just going to take a little work to make it perfect.
By the end of this workshop process, players should have every mod that applies to Eruption in the game attached to the armor. That leaves two extra slots, in which case players should focus on their second-best ability, Thermal Bomb. True Blast and Fire Frenzy increase the damage and provide an extra charge respectively, making them the clear options.
Outriders is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.