Thunder Lord

Overview

A spellblade that plays up-close, fast, and interactive—without Maul of the Black City. The core is Tempest doing the heavy lifting while you weave Arcane Bombs and a discounted Void Blade to keep pressure high. Tempest delivers wide-radius control, stagger, and damage on demand; Spirit Blade lets you safely pop bombs from range after your light-attack chain; and late-game mana tuning means you can keep the storm rolling without waiting on potions. This version also spotlights two underrated power pieces: the Coral Tip dagger (perma-chill/mini Frost Nova in your pocket) and running three electric strikes to supercharge passives and gear. You won’t face-tank bosses, but you will park entire packs in your blender and carve through Nightmare with constant CC and repeatable burst—hands on, no autopilot.

Early Game

Mages start slow, but this path ramps faster than most. In character creation, Shadow Dragons (mana regen) or Mourn Watch (affliction perks) both work—pick whichever you enjoy. Open with Tempest, Storm Surge, and Chain Lightning. Surge is on cooldown, so fire it whenever it’s up to conserve mana. Tempest is your true spender: drop it aggressively in melee to control the field and let the ticks rack up while you reposition. Chain Lightning is a filler pick here; in practice Tempest will outperform it in damage, stagger, and safety, but the chain/shock/Overwhelm package helps in scrappy early fights.

Grab Spirit Blade early and learn the rhythm: light-attack chain → flick the spirit lash to detonate your Arcane Bombs from safety. That single habit makes orb-and-dagger far smoother on Nightmare. Through the 20s you’re mostly cycling Tempest on packs, threading Surge on cooldown, saving mana for another Tempest, and detonating bombs in between. If you want the absolute easiest first 20 levels, you can level with an Evoker opener, then respec into this; otherwise, this route stays perfectly viable.

Early Levels

Level	Spell/Passive
1	Fade Strike
2	Quick Recovery
3	Chain Lightning
4	Fade Conduit
5	Elemental Catalyst
6	Perfect Cast
7	Killer Instinct
8	Reclamation
9	Amperage
10	Tempest
11	Traumautize
12	Nexus Shock
13	Conductor
14	Shock Mastery
15	Debilitating Shocks
16	Shellbreaker
17	Spirit Blade
18	Storm Surge
19	Underestimated
20	Imbued Reaction
21	Detioration
22	Finale
23	Elemental Executioner
24	Thunderous End
25	Void Blade
26	Finale
27	Blast Efficiency
28	Deterioration
29	Arcane Strike
30	Shocking Strikes

Equipment

Item	Details
Primary Weapon Veilsong Location	Provides +15% bonus damage and additional status effects
Secondary Weapon Coral Tip/Timeworn Mageknife/Thorn of Misfortune Location	More then doubles your damage at the cost of additional mana
Staff Spirit Caller Location	Additional fire damage and mana resource
Helmet Caraste’s Double Hat Location	Provides +30% damage from having all blast abilities and refunds 25% of mana cost on impact
Armor Garb of Kinship Location	The best armor piece in The Veilguard, provides longer advantage duration, +10% damage for EVERY advantage (you will typically always have 3+), makes the advantages more effective and most importantly heals you for +5% when gaining an advantage which will offset the self damage of Maw of the Black City
Ring 1 Brass Root/Call of the Hall Location	Makes your abilities a guaranteed critical hit at the cost of our health, this issue is completely negated by Garb of Kinship & Twin Buckle Binding
Ring 2 Amaranthine Loop/Focus of the Veil Location	Extra Fire Damage
Amulet Crows Perch Medallion Location	Significant boosts to our blast ability damage and returns our mana when critical hitting with blast abilities, working in perfect combination with Maw of the Black City
Belt Jumpers Binding Location	Extra healing and ability damage
Rune 1 Vivify Location	Ability cooldowns are refreshed and the next ability is free
Rune 2 Escalate Location	Passive +10% Ability damage
Rune 3 Daze Location	Passive +10% Fire damage

Equipment Overview

Weapons. Run a strike-centric kit. Veilsong (staff) pairs naturally with shock spam—stagger comes for free and takedown windows open constantly. For the off-hand, Thorn of Misfortune is the highest raw-damage dagger if you don’t mind the risk; if you want control and safety, Coral Tip is absurdly good here—every stab is a chill pulse, functionally a pocket Frost Nova that keeps targets rooted in your Tempest. Prefer a hybrid pivot? Tyor Mage Knife lets you lean further into stagger with minor passive tweaks. Round it out with Spirit Caller (staff) if you want a touch more resist while brawling in melee; it’s not flashy, but it’s the cleanest fit when you’re fighting inside your own storm.

Armor & accessories. Kass’s Double Hat is the helm—three strike abilities means a fat ability-damage bump plus mana refunds, which directly fuels more Tempests. Garb of Kinship stays best-in-slot: you’re constantly proccing advantages (quickened, resist, rally, etc.) from kills and multi-hits, so you get both damage and sustain without Maul crutches. For amulet, Crow’s Perch Medallion is perfect—your entire bar is strike, so it amps throughput and momentum flow. Rings are flexible: Brassroot and Focus of the Veil push electric and strike numbers cleanly; if you want a stagger-tilt variant, Amaranthine Loop and Call of the Hall slot in nicely (and Call is an easy early unique). Jumpers’ Binding ties the room together—three electric abilities turn its flat 15% elemental bonus into constant value. Runes: Vivify is your tempo button (cast when Tempest is down to immediately re-spin the engine), with Escalate and Daze for steady passive damage and extra control.

How to Play Late Game

Spec into Spellblade and replace Chain Lightning with Void Blade. With Blast Efficiency, Void Blade’s cost drops enough to use it freely between Tempests without starving yourself. Priorities are simple: Tempest first, Void Blade second, Storm Surge on cooldown. On pulls, sprint in and plant Tempest in the densest cluster; light-chain to seed Arcane Bombs; Spirit Blade to detonate; Surge to keep Overwhelm rolling; then carve through survivors with Void Blade slashes. The Coral Tip variant makes this even dirtier: chill pulses lock packs in place so Tempest ticks the full duration and your follow-ups land uncontested.

Keep your cadence tight—Tempest → light-chain → Spirit Blade detonate → Surge → Void Blade if mana permits → reposition and repeat. Use Vivify whenever you whiff a pack or overcast and need the wheel spinning again. Ultimates are personal taste here; neither out-DPSes your loop, so treat them as safety windows or style buttons rather than core damage. The only real weakness is distant mages—close the gap early, drop Tempest in their lane, and finish them before working back to the scrum.

This spellblade is built to be interactive, not automated: you’re choosing when to plant storms, when to detonate, and when to dash through with Void Blade. In return, you get a bar that flows, a screen that stays frozen and shocked, and a build that cruises through Nightmare without leaning on Maul cheese.

Final Levels

Level	Spell/Passive
31	Wrath
32	Precision Strikes
33	Staggering Charge
34	Staggering Strikes
35	Breacher
36	Baleful Blast
37	Pressure Point
38	Spirit of Vengeance
39	Demolisher
40	Orbital Burst
41	Conductivity
42	Demolisher
43	Meteor
44	Wrath
45	Inner Focus
46	Bigger Blast
47	Decaying Resolve
48	Providence
49	Tear Down
50	Resistant Blasts
51	Return Fire
52	Prolong
53	Wall of Fire
54	Degrade
55	Concentration
56	Imbued Duration
57	Necessary Steps
58	Time Management
59	Corrupted Ground
60	Meditation
61	Imbued Takedown
62	Shellbreaker
63	Frost Shield
64	Underestimated
65	Dark Squall

Every ability node is an extra 15% passive damage so we want to grab as many abilities as possible even if we are not using them

Build Snapshot

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