Antiquary - Condi DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on July 22, 2026 and is up to date for the June 2, 2026 patch.

Overview

A condition DPS build for Antiquary.

As a Thief, it has excellent out-of-combat utility for speeding up fractals and raids.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Dagger

Spear

Utility

Weapon Variants

The nature of initiative means that you rarely use more than one weapon, so there are a number of options:

• For players that only own Visions of Eternity, Dagger/Dagger is the best option.
• If you own Janthir Wilds, Spear is the strongest weapon, though it is needs to be in melee range, and is significantly more complicated to use. It is worth keeping Scepter/Dagger in the second set to give you a strong ranged option when necessary.
• You can bring an offhand Pistol or Spear in the second set to have CC available on swap.

Utility Variants

Caltrops requires your target to stand in the area for the majority of the duration. On encounters with lots of movement, you might find Devourer Venom or Stone Summit Cannon is more effective.

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Specializations

• If Bountiful Theft will be of no benefit, you can take Pressure Striking for a little bit more damage.

Equipment

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Scepter
Viper

Dagger
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Spear
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bursting deals very similar damage to Sigil of Superior Sigil of Torment.
• Relic of the Fractal deals very similar damage to Relic of the Blightbringer, for players that own Secrets of the Obscure but not Janthir Wilds
• The best option for players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure or Janthir Wilds is Relic of Thorns.

Consumables

Food

• , or ascended alternatives

Utility

Usage

Key to Antiquary is the random artifacts that it steals with Skritt Swipe. Thanks to Prolific Plunderer, each time there are three artifacts to choose from and you can use two of them. The first slot is an offensive artifact, the second is defensive, and the third is random.

When using Skritt Scuffle, every three seconds a new set of artifacts will appear, and you can only use one artifact from each set. Additionally, there is a chance that one artifact will be replaced by an Unstable Skritt Bomb, which deals significant damage to you if used. You have to remain in the radius of this skill to continue receiving the artifacts.

This means that Antiquary's effectiveness has a high degree of randomness, and learning to recognise the different artifacts is necessary for optimal play. It should come as no surprise that in general the offensive artifacts are more worthwhile than the defensive ones, but it is a bit more complicated than that. Consider the following guidance:

Offensive Artifacts

• Forged Surfer Dash - In addition to the initial damage, this gives you a buff that continues to drop bombs at your location for some time. One of the strongest artifacts if you don't have the buff, but the duration doesn't stack so the effectiveness is reduced if the buff is still active.
• Summon Kryptis Turret - Good damage, and provides a buff to strike damage for a duration. The duration doesn't stack, but as a condi build it's not that significant and the skill is high priority regardless.
• Mistburn Mortar - Ok damage, and the buff stacks so it's always fine to use.
• Metal Legion Guitar - Not amazing damage, and the cast time is long. Lower priority than all the other offensive artifacts, as well as some of the defensive ones.

Defensive Artifacts

• Chak Shield - The damage is ok, but the real value is in the initiative refund that allows you to spam more Twilight Combo.
• Holo-Dancer Decoy - The damage is irrelevant, but it causes the next utility skill's cooldown to be reduced by 80%. Ideally this is used on Spider Venom, but it's good for any utility. The interaction with the backfire mechanic on Stone Summit Cannon is awkward as it is wasted if not triggered on the use that backfires, so it's best to avoid using on this skill.
• Zephyrite Sun Crystal - Does enough damage to be a DPS increase, but is lower priority than all the artifacts listed above.
• Exalted Hammer - A DPS loss to cast, so there shouldn't be any reason to use this.

Rotation

All Double Edge skills except for Skritt Scuffle can be reactivated while cooldown down, but they have a chance to backfire when doing so, with the chance increasing the more cooldown is remaining.

In the case of Stone Summit Cannon, the backfire damage is higher than the regular skill damage, so you want to use it rapidly to trigger the backfire. By immediately using it again you are almost guaranteed to get the backfire on the second use, but if you are slow there's a small chance you will get an extra use so just keep using until it backfires. There is a small delay on being able to activate the skill again, so intersperse each use of Stone Summit Cannon with another skill. The damage on the backfire is quite significant so you may wish to move out of the AoE, but make sure to keep attacking to not lose DPS.

Once the backfire is triggered, you must wait for the full cooldown before using again.

Opener
Begin with Prepare Thousand Needles precast if possible - the cooldown starts when you place the trap. You can also use Skritt Swipe without a target, allowing you to start with artifacts ready.

1. Caltrops or Stone Summit Cannon
2. Skritt Swipe, or an Artifact if you have some prepared
3. Stone Summit Cannon (if using), plus any instant-activation skills like Spider Venom or Thousand Needles if you precast it
4. Prepare Thousand Needles (if available)
5. Stone Summit Cannon (if using) if it still hasn't backfired
6. Artifact ⇒ Skritt Swipe if you prepared them
7. Any remaining Artifacts
8. Skritt Scuffle
9. Twilight Combo
10. Continue using Artifacts and spamming Twilight Combo as much as you can. Remember that you must remain within the AoE of Skritt Scuffle to keep receiving artifacts.
11. Once you've used your last artifact from Skritt Scuffle, you can immediately use Skritt Swipe again.

Rest of the Rotation

• Keep spamming Twilight Combo (or Death Blossom on Dagger/Dagger) as much as you can, while using utility skills off cooldown.
• Remember to reactivate Stone Summit Cannon with a skill in-between until it backfires.
• Try to follow the artifact guidance above to pick the best options.
• Outside of the opener, Skritt Swipe and Skritt Scuffle don't line up as nicely - try to use the artifact from Skritt Scuffle as soon as they refresh, then immediately Skritt Swipe and use the two artifacts. Hopefully you can do this before Skritt Scuffle refreshes again.
  • During this section you particularly want to avoid Metal Legion Guitar due to its excessive cast time.

Spear Rotation

Spear is more complicated than other thief weapons as it employed a combo system where skills 2 and 3 each have three sub-skills that are classified as Lead Attacks, Follow Ups or Finishers. These flow together in order, with the active skills changing depending on where you are in the chain, and you can switch between 2 and 3 for different effects.

Additional complexity is added by your stealth attack, and skills 4 and 5, all gaining bonuses if they are used after a Finisher:

• Ashen Assault regenerates 4 initiative
• Distracting Throw grants a 10-second damage buff
• Shadow Veil blocks additional attacks

If this isn't enough, Distracting Throw will also count as a Lead Attack in this case, which means the next combo will skip the normal Lead Attack.

Opener

You can "pre-cast" a spear combo Mantis Sting ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Falling Spider without a target in order to start with Distracting Throw and benefit from the buff. Otherwise just start the encounter/phase with the combo.

1. Caltrops or Stone Summit Cannon
2. Skritt Swipe, or an Artifact if you have some prepared
3. Stone Summit Cannon (if using), plus any instant-activation skills like Spider Venom or Thousand Needles if you precast it
4. Distracting Throw
5. Prepare Thousand Needles (if available)
6. Stone Summit Cannon (if using) if it still hasn't backfired
7. Artifact ⇒ Skritt Swipe if you prepared them
8. Any remaining Artifacts
9. Skritt Scuffle
10. Entangling Asp
11. Falling Spider

Rest of the Rotation

Cycling through the following combo while using utility skills off cooldown:

Distracting Throw ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Falling Spider

When running low on initiative, refill it with your stealth attack:

1. Distracting Throw ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Shattering Assault
2. Ashen Assault
3. Mantis Sting ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Falling Spider

After this return to the regular combo.

• Try to follow the artifact guidance above to pick the best options.
• Outside of the opener, Skritt Swipe and Skritt Scuffle don't line up as nicely - try to use the artifact from Skritt Scuffle as soon as they refresh, then immediately Skritt Swipe and use the two artifacts. Hopefully you can do this before Skritt Scuffle refreshes again.
  • During this section you particularly want to avoid Metal Legion Guitar due to its excessive cast time.

Utility

CC

• Basilisk Venom - up to 750 defiance break if all five uses hit
• Metal Legion Guitar - 300 defiance break Stun
• Holo-Dancer Decoy - Taunt
• Headshot, if bringing offhand pistol - 200 defiance break Daze

Support

All your Scepter skills can be used with an allied target to provide AoE barrier and boons. This is a DPS loss, but can be used to save people if a healer isn't going to (particularly helpful on the tank).

General Tips

• Maximising damage on this build involves knowing the priority list of artifacts and how the list changes based on different conditions, as well as quickly recognising the icons.
• When starting out it may be easier to learn which skills to avoid rather than the whole priority list:
  • For example, you can opt to always use the Offensive Artifact. This simplifies Skritt Scuffle, and for Skritt Swipe you focus on avoiding Zephyrite Sun Crystal and Exalted Hammer.