User:Masel/Builds/Specter

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Scepter + Dagger Condition Specter Specter[edit]

Build Rating (Subjective)
Criterion Rating
Burst Damage 5/5
Sustained Damage 5/5
Utility Options 4/5
Survivability 4/5
Difficulty 2/5

Condition Specter has a simple-to-learn rotation and is lots of fun to play in open world and instanced content. It can provide itself with good amounts of all essential offensive boons: Quickness.png Quickness, Alacrity.png Alacrity, Might.png Might and Fury.png Fury. It excels when you can precast  Prepare Thousand Needles.png Prepare Thousand Needles and has great burst damage in instanced content for a condition build due to  Spider Venom.png Spider Venom and  Skale Venom.png Skale Venom. It always provides a good uptime on Fury.png Fury, Vigor.png Vigor, Swiftness.png Swiftness and 10 Stacks of Might.png Might around it and can further be altered to provide Alacrity.png Alacrity with smaller tweaks.

Link to the DPS Build in the Build Editor:

Build

Playstyle & Skills[edit]

Skill Type Skills
Steal & Good Stolen Skills
Siphon.png Enter Shadow Shroud.png Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png
Shroud Skills
Haunt Shot.png Grasping Shadows.png Dawn's Repose.png Eternal Night.png Mind Shock.png
Scepter + Pistol
Shadow Bolt.png Shadow Sap.png Twilight Combo.png Dancing Dagger.png Cloak and Dagger.png
Double Bolt.png Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png
Triple Bolt.png Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png
Utility
Well of Gloom.png Prepare Thousand Needles.png Spider Venom.png Skale Venom.png Basilisk Venom.png
Skill.png Thousand Needles.png Skill.png Skill.png Skill.png

Thieves are – together with Revenants – the only profession in the game with a resource bar that determines how often you can use skills. On this profession, skills have different Initiative costs, but no internal cooldown. You regenerate 1 Initiative per second, but there are other ways to increase the inflow. Since skills have no internal cooldown, this often means that the skill that does the most damage per cast and initiative spent is repeated (like  Twilight Combo.png Twilight Combo on this build), making most rotations on Thief relatively simple to understand.

Rotation Concept[edit]

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.
Damage Log

Rotation Flow[edit]

Section Notes
General Stuff
Careful:This build scales with the number of conditions on the enemy. For guidance on setting up the training area, see my guide for it
  • This build also scales with allies due to  Spider Venom.png Spider Venom &  Skale Venom.png Skale Venom, increasing dps by ~6k when you have allies around.
  • The rotation for this build is very simple and consists of two main sections, one inside and one outside of  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shroud.
Opener
  • Whenever possible, precast  Prepare Thousand Needles.png Prepare Thousand Needles. The cooldown from Preparations ticks down after their first cast, allowing you to cast another instance right away if you can precast it 30 seconds before combat starts.
  • Against mobile bosses, this skill can become hard to use due to the 3 second delay. In those cases, use  Devourer Venom.png Devourer Venom instead.
  • Start combat by triggering the prepared AoE and then immediately put a second one down.
Section 1: Outside of  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shroud
  • Use both  Spider Venom.png Spider Venom and  Skale Venom.png Skale Venom after combat starts, as they get stripped on engage.
  • Spend all your initiative on  Twilight Combo.png Twilight Combo, as it is the strongest damage skill on your weapons.
  • While doing that, use the following skills on cooldown:
  1. Thousand Needles.png Thousand Needles
  2. Spider Venom.png Spider Venom
  3. Skale Venom.png Skale Venom
  4. Siphon.png Siphon (should be used on cooldown inside and outside of Shroud).
Section 2:  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shroud
  • Inside  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shroud, the concept is to stay inside for a particular number of casts of  Grasping Shadows.png Grasping Shadows while using  Eternal Night.png Eternal Night on cooldown. In general, you want to stay inside Shroud for two casts of  Grasping Shadows.png Grasping Shadows, not more. The reason is that the damage bonus from Lead Attacks Lead Attacks stays consistently high with shorter Shroud loops.
  • BUT: since you spend all your Initiative prior to entering the first loop inside Shroud, you will have enough stacks of Lead Attacks Lead Attacks to stay inside for three casts of  Grasping Shadows.png Grasping Shadows.
  • If you want to provide Alacrity.png Alacrity, you can freely extend the Shroud loops to provide additional Alacrity.png Alacrity.
CC Skills for Breakbar Damage

Utility Skills[edit]

Utility Skills
Skill Choice Notes
Well of Gloom.png Well of Gloom Cheap and strong heal that also heals allies and allows you to Shadowstep. For a more pasive inflow of healing, you can use  Signet of Malice.png Signet of Malice.
Prepare Thousand Needles.png Prepare Thousand Needles This skill is strong damage via Immobile.png Immobile, Bleeding.png Bleeding and Poisoned.png Poisoned on the secondary cast  Thousand Needles.png Thousand Needles. You can precast this up to 5 minutes prior to combat starting, allowing you to reset the cooldown (the cooldown ticks down after the first cast). Unfortunately, this also means that losing the precast will decrease the burst damage of this build noticeably on some encounters. On highly mobile encounters, use  Devourer Venom.png Devourer Venom instead.
Spider Venom.png Spider Venom Like the next two skills, this is a Venom skill that applies Poisoned.png Poisoned for each stack of its effect. The venom effects are applied to yourself and up to 4 nearby allies. The conditions applied by allies count for your damage and use your stats! This leads to a massive difference in damage dealt per cast between solo and group gameplay. You can use any kind of friendly NPC to apply more stacks in solo gameplay, including summons like the thieves from  Thieves Guild.png Thieves Guild.
Skale Venom.png Skale Venom This applies four stacks of Torment.png Torment and Vulnerability.png Vulnerability per ally it is applied to, leading to massive burst damage when used in groups, especially when combined with  Spider Venom.png Spider Venom.
Basilisk Venom.png Basilisk Venom Applies a Stun on cast. Since it is a Venom skill, this gets shared with 4 nearby allies too, making it one of the strongest CC skills in the game.

Gear & Traits[edit]

For gear, you can freely mix pieces of Viper's and Ritualist's. Each piece of Viper's gives you a slightly higher damage output than Ritualist's (~6-7% damage difference for a full set), but comes at the cost of more difficult Alacrity.png Alacrity coverage and less bulky  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shrouds - the size of  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shrouds is equal to 69% of your Vitality.png Vitality. If you can't afford two sets, my recommendation is to use Ritualist's Armor and Trinkets as the base variant and use Abomination Weapons. That will get you right between the two builds in terms of stats and provide a good allrounder setup of all kinds of PvE.

Important Stats (descending in Importance):

  1. ~93% Torment.png Torment Duration
  2. 100% Poisoned.png Poisoned Duration
  3. Maximize Condition Damage

Since the vast majority of damage comes from Torment.png Torment and Poisoned.png Poisoned, it is important to reach 100% condition duration on them.

Gear
Armor Prefix Rune
Illustrious Visage.png Head Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Rune of the Trapper.pngSuperior Rune of the Trapper
Illustrious Shoulderguard.png Shoulders Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Rune of the Trapper.pngSuperior Rune of the Trapper
Illustrious Guise.png Chest Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Rune of the Trapper.pngSuperior Rune of the Trapper
Illustrious Grips.png Gloves Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Rune of the Trapper.pngSuperior Rune of the Trapper
Illustrious Leggings.png Legs Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Rune of the Trapper.pngSuperior Rune of the Trapper
Illustrious Striders.png Boots Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Rune of the Trapper.pngSuperior Rune of the Trapper
Trinket Prefix
Vial of Salt.png Amulet Viper's or Ritualist's
Gift of Prescience.png Ring 1 Viper's or Ritualist's
Armbrace of Truth.png Ring 2 Viper's or Ritualist's
Black Ice Earring.png Accessory 1 Viper's or Ritualist's
Vision.png Accessory 2 Viper's or Ritualist's
Ad Infinitum.png Backpack Viper's or Ritualist's
Weapon Prefix Sigil
Meteorlogicus.png Scepter (Main Hand) Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Sigil of Torment.pngSuperior Sigil of Torment
Incinerator.png Dagger (Off Hand) Viper's or Ritualist's Superior Sigil of Doom.pngSuperior Sigil of Doom
Purpose Item Type Source
Damage Ascended Food Cilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread.pngCilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread
Damage Non-Ascended Food (Ideal here) Meaty Asparagus Skewer.pngMeaty Asparagus Skewer
Survivability Ascended Food Peppered Cured Meat Flatbread.pngPeppered Cured Meat Flatbread
Survivability Non-Ascended Food Oysters Gnashblade.pngOysters Gnashblade
Damage Utility Toxic Focusing Crystal.pngToxic Focusing Crystal
Survivability Utility Powerful Potion of Inquest Slaying.pngPotion Of Karka Toughness
Damage Relic Relic of the Fractal.pngRelic of the Fractal
Traits
Deadly Arts
Deadly Arts.png
Dagger Training.png
Even the Odds.png
Potent Poison.png
Serpent's Touch.png
Mug.png
Lotus Poison.png
Panic Strike.png
Exposed Weakness.png
Improvisation.png
Deadly Ambition.png
Revealed Training.png
Executioner.png
Trickery
Trickery.png
Uncatchable.png
Bountiful Theft.png
Quick Pockets.png
Kleptomaniac.png
Burst of Agility.png
Preparedness.png
Trickster.png
Lead Attacks.png
Sleight of Hand.png
Thrill of the Crime.png
Pressure Striking.png
Deadly Ambush.png
Specter
Specter.png
Second Opinion.png
Larcenous Torment.png
Strength of Shadows.png
Specter (trait).png
Shallow Grave.png
Dark Sentry.png
Amplified Siphoning.png
Panaku's Ambition.png
Hungering Darkness.png
Consume Shadows.png
Traversing Dusk.png
Shadestep.png
  • For a budget variant, simply replace all armor pieces of Viper's with rare/exotic Ritualist's.
  • Ascended gear is always ideal, but exotic gear is fine for everything aside from higher-tier fractals.

Open World Build[edit]

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.
Link to the Open World Build on the Editor

Increasing Survivability[edit]

  • For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.
  • The gear can stay the same as for instanced content, but the more pieces of Ritualist's you have, the easier maintaining the Boons listed below becomes and the bulkier your  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shroud becomes, as it scales with Vitality.png Vitality. The bulkier shroud allows you to outlast damage better. The difference is very noticeable!
  • Use  Skelk Venom.png Skelk Venom. It is the strongest self-heal you have available. It also heals allies, similar to the other venom skills.
  • Alternate between  Enter Shadow Shroud.png Shadow Shroud and your weapons. Always use  Skelk Venom.png Skelk Venom shortly after exiting shroud, as it will not heal you inside of shroud.
  • Stay in shroud long enough to build up a good uptime on Alacrity.png Alacrity. I recommend staying in there for 4x  Grasping Shadows.png Grasping Shadows. With Quickness.png Quickness up, you will apply Alacrity.png Alacrity faster, allowing you to make shroud loops shorter for better uptime on  Lead Attacks.png Lead Attacks.
  • Use  Dawn's Repose.png Dawn's Repose for area Barrier application in shroud. This negates a good chunk of incoming damage and makes your shroud last longer. It also applies barreir to allies, which is always great to have!
  • Use the survivability food and utility item listed above for -10% damage taken and 150 Toughness!

Boon Coverage[edit]

Dealing with Incoming Conditions and Control effects[edit]