Antiquary - A/D Condition Artifacts

This is a test build. You may comment and rate it.

Focused on: Mobility, Condition damage and Utility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on November 02, 2025.

Overview

An Antiquarian build focused on high sustained condition damage, mobility, and boon theft. Performs best in skirmishes but is a capable duelist as well. As with other artifact-centric builds, there is some RNG from Skritt Swipe that must be quickly adapted to during gameplay.

Skill Bar

Axe/Dagger

Dagger/Pistol

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

The default healing skill Hide in Shadows provides a lot of value with its stealth and cleanse, but can be tricky to use with artifacts that deal multiple ticks of damage over time. For less clunky options, consider:

• Antivenom Draught - a quick heal with some condition cleansing and overall good healing numbers. great for triggering relics.

• Withdraw - evade frames, good vs. burst, lower overall value.

Utility

Try not to remove Shadowstep.

• Roll for Initiative - stunbreak, 3/4 second evade and refunds 4 initiative. good against bursty builds like Chronomancer and Dragonhunter, or against teams with a lot of reveal where Blinding Powder wouldn't be as useful.

• Canach-Coin Toss - condition cleanse & initiative gain without any cast time investment. can be used while on cooldown with a risk of backfiring - if the skill has 7 or fewer seconds on its cooldown, the backfire chance is much lower.

Elite

• Skritt Scuffle - Recommended. Gives you a set of artifacts every 3 seconds for 15 seconds as long as you are in the AoE. Provides amazing value if you can stand in it for the entire duration. Works well with on-elite relics.

• Dagger Storm - Decent offense and defense on a 90s cooldown. allows you to mitigate pressure, dodge burst, correct mistakes, or counterplay projectiles. Much lower value than Skritt Scuffle but can still be good in a panic.

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Specializations

Variants

• Take Deadly Ambush for higher axe damage at the cost of utility. Artifacts deal a lot of damage this trait isn't required.
• Take Hidden Thief against power-focused comps for the Weakness.
• Take Shadow's Embrace if you're unsure, or if you're against condition-heavy comps.

Equipment

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger

Pistol

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of the Mirage provides good sustained damage, but can be swapped out for utility or burst relics:

• Relic of the Fractal - good for burst, the proc condition is easily met with Cunning Salvo
• Relic of Evasion - passively provides vigor to aid the build's survivability
• Relic of Leadership - the build struggles with removing conditions if it can't gain stealth; this relic helps mitigate that weakness and provides some team utility
• Relic of the Mists Tide - blast finishers from Cunning Salvo, leap finishers from Heartseeker and various artifacts can trigger this relic frequently, aiding with the build's poor condition cleansing outside of stealth
• Relic of the Nightmare - strong if you plan on using Skritt Scuffle immediately after Harrowing Storm
• Relic of the Centaur - good with Antivenom Draught if stability is needed

Runes

• Rune of Trapper - damage over raw health.
• Rune of Resistance - Antiquary can struggle against conditions so this can be good against certain comps if you're okay losing a lot of damage.

Sigils

Sigil of Smoldering adds good damage to Mistburn Mortar and Zephyrite Sun Crystal since the Burning they inflict has a low duration. Try not to swap off of it.

• Sigil of Revocation over Sigil of Purging - a more offensive option to compliment the build's boon theft capabilities
• Sigil of Cleansing over Sigil of Escape - if you better need better cleansing against damaging conditions rather than roots

Usage

Basics

• Axe skills 1 and 2, Spinning Axe and Venomous Volley, leave axes behind whether they hit or not so long as they weren't blocked, dodged or evaded. Axe skill 3, Harrowing Storm, recalls all of your axes onto your target, dealing the full damage of each axe again as well as additional Torment. This is the primary source of damage in this build. You can have up to 6 spinning axes present at once, and hitting a target with 5 or more recalled axes will Immobilize them for a short duration.

• Try to enter fights in stealth and open with Cunning Salvo, then use Spinning Axe or Venomous Volley until you have 5 or 6 axes. After that, recall them with Harrowing Storm. This will shadowstep you to your target, and from there you can eithger utilize your Artifacts or use Cloak and Dagger to stealth and reposition. This is the core gameplay loop for the build.

• To stealth, swap to your second weapon set and use Black Powder > Heartseeker. Each leap finisher through a smoke field gives 3 seconds of stealth. Dagger/pistol does little to no damage in this build, don't try and fight with it - only swap to it outside of combat or if you need to escape.

Elite specialization basics

• Antiquarians gain access to Skritt Swipe which functions as their Steal, benefiting from all traits that would affect it. Using it (with or without a target) will give you a set of artifacts. This build takes Prolific Plunderer which makes your artifact sets consist of 3 artifacts instead of the default 2, and you'll be able to use 2 artifacts from a pilfered set. Your F2 will always be an offensive artifact, F3 is always a defensive artifact, F4 can be either.

• Using an artifact restores 2 initiative.

• All artifacts have an immediate effect and a lingering bonus effect. The lingering effects are applied when the skill finishes casting. They don't need to hit anything for you to get the lingering effects (except for Zephyrite Sun Crystal).

• The below table briefly explains each artifact as well as their average impact (see the "priority" column). The listed values imply Meticulous Custodian is taken. Traits with a "low" priority can still be useful in niche situations, such as Unstable Skritt Bomb being an instant AoE knockback.

Artifact cheatsheet:

Artifact Cheatsheet

Skill	Classification	Immediate Effect	Lingering Effect	Notes	Priority
Metal Legion Guitar	Offensive	4 pulses of low damage & Confusion, then a 2s Stun. Long cast time	Access to 2 stealth attacks, even outside of stealth	The long cast time can be mitigated by using Infiltrator's Signet or Shadowstep before the stun portion of the skill	High
Forged Surfer Dash	Offensive	Slow slide towards a target, dropping bombs along the way that deal strike damage and mediocre Burning.	Continue to drop bombs at your feet for 13s	The bombs aren't projectiles, making the skill a decent option into projectile hate. The additional bombs can break your stealth	Low
Mistburn Mortar	Offensive	Slow moving projectile that creates a fire field upon impact, pulsing for strike damage & Burning	Next 7 attacks inflict Burning (small ICD on application that isn't listed on the tooltip)	The lingering buff lasts a while & can be applied out of combat for better burst	High
Summon Kryptis Turret	Offensive	Small range immobile turret that shoots 8 projectiles, each dealing strike damage and Torment	Your attacks deal +15% damage to any target hit by its projectiles for 10s	The multiple hits are helpful against Aegis and Blind	Medium
Chak Shield	Defensive	5s projectile shield, 6 ticks of low strike damage to enemies inside it	Next 2 initiative skills refund all initiative	The bubble is a light field. The multiple hits are helpful against Aegis and Blind	Medium
Exalted Hammer	Defensive	Leap finisher, 3/4s evade, strike damage & strong AoE heal on impact	Next 2 initiative skills trigger the AoE heal again at your location	Good backup leap finisher for Black Powder	High
Holo-Dancer Decoy	Defensive	AoE 3s Taunt, deals no damage in PvP	Next 2 utility skills have 50% reduced cooldown (does not affect heal or elite)	Great for landing high value abilities. The decoy can be destroyed, ending the taunt early. The taunt effect ignores LoS	Medium
Zephyrite Sun Crystal	Defensive	Stun break & evasion as long as skill is active > heavy Burning in 180 radius upon arrival	If an enemy is within the 180 radius upon arrival, skill can be reused twice	The first two uses of this skill can be "shotgunned" into a target if you're standing next to them	High
Unstable Skritt Bomb	Backfire	High strike damage in 180 radius + high self damage, small AoE knockback	+50% incoming strike & condition damage	The instant AoE knockback can be used while casting other abilities	Low

General

• Use Skritt Swipe without a target during downtime to fish for good sets of artifacts, or during combat on a target to interrupt a key ability.

• Use Mistburn Mortar or Zephyrite Sun Crystal's low duration but high damage burning to burst targets.

• Use artifacts near allies if possible to share Possessive Hoarder's boons.

• Pay attention to any projectile hate that would eat your axes - if possible, use non-projectile artifacts during that time instead.

• Don't stealth after using an artifact with multiple ticks of damage like Mistburn Mortar, you'll quickly be broken out of stealth by it.

Defense

• Remain at range while throwing axes, only entering melee with Harrowing Storm when a safe opportunity presents itself. Cover yourself with defensive artifacts if you have any, then try and land Cloak and Dagger when Revealed fades to enter Stealth.

• After gaining Stealth, reposition with Meld with Shadows's Superspeed as needed.

• Harrowing Storm gives a small window of evasion after use. If possible, use the skill to both recall your axes and dodge a powerful attack.

• Key defensive artifacts are Exalted Hammer & Zephyrite Sun Crystal (evasion), and Chak Shield (projectile hate & initiative refunding).

• Any artifact categorized as "defensive" will give Protection and Regeneration when used, thanks to Possessive Hoarder.

Advanced

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