Antiquary - Hybrid Axetiquary

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

Focused on: Mobility and Hybrid damage

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on August 22, 2026 and is up to date for the July 20, 2026 patch.

Overview

An Antiquary build that makes extensive use of the Deadly Arts traitline to deal high damage with artifacts. Doesn't have the same access to stealth as most other Thief builds, but it has a lot of health, evasion, and decent Protection uptime to compensate.

This build uses the Repeat Ransacker (Repeat Ransacker) and Scoundrel's Luck traits along with Canach-Coin Toss to sustain itself and keep pushing damage. Between managing initiative, axe count, enemy projectile hate, Double Edge skill backfire probabilities, and random artifacts, this build features some of the highest required resource management of any current build.

Skill Bar

Axe/Dagger

Shortbow

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• none

Elite

• none, Skritt Scuffle is imperative to the build.

Template Codes

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Equipment

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Shortbow

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of the Mist Stranger - can be a viable sustain option, though you'll lose some damage from less Might.

Sigils

• Sigil of Exposure or Sigil of Battle over Sigil of Cleansing (on Shortbow) - Minor improvement to burst. Use Sigil of Exposure if you're frequently swapping while might capped.

• Sigil of Escape over Sigil of Cleansing on Shortbow - Good for breaking roots in a pinch.

Usage

Basics

• You'll be camping Axe / Dagger 90% of the time, generally only swapping to Shortbow to move around the map faster with Infiltrator's Arrow.

• Use axe skills 1 and 2 (Spinning Axe and Venomous Volley) to throw axes. These axes remain where they land for 10 seconds and can be recalled onto a target with your third skill, Harrowing Storm. Use your first two axe skills until you have 5 or 6 axes, then use an artifact classified as "offensive" (e.g. Mistburn Mortar) to give yourself Fury and Might. After that, recall your axes with Harrowing Storm for a huge burst of damage. Recalled axes deal full damage again while additionally applying Torment, and also Immobilize any targets hit by 5 or more axes. Comboing artifacts and axe recalls together like this is the main way the build does damage.

• Axe's stealth skill, Cunning Salvo, also leaves behind an axe. This is a great skill to hit as it also blinds targets in an AoE thanks to Even the Odds.

• Harrowing Storm gives you 1/2s of evasion when used and will shadowstep you to your target, making you especially hard to pin down in a fight.

• Dagger's 5th skill Cloak and Dagger is incredibly good if you can land it. The unfortunate downside is that many artifacts hit multiple times which will break you out of Stealth, so use it wisely. As this build lacks Superspeed and expendable blinks, the best targets for this skill are often ranger pets or mesmer illusions, basically whatever you can hit.

Elite specialization basics

• Antiquaries 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. Your F2 will always be an offensive artifact, F3 is always a defensive artifact.

• Artifacts have two classifications: "offensive" and "defensive". This classification determines which buffs you get with Possessive Hoarder.

• This build takes the Improvisation trait, which for Antiquary lets you use both of your pilfered skills when using F1.

• Using an artifact restores 1 initiative. "Offensive" artifacts give Might and Fury and should always be used before landing other skills, if possible. "Defensive" artifacts tend to deal less damage but provide the defensive boons Protection and Regeneration and some other beneficial effect (e.g. an evade on Exalted Hammer).

• 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.

Artifacts

• There are 8 available artifacts that you'll randomly get when you Skritt Swipe. Many are walls of text that feel daunting to read, but at first you can probably just spam them and have some moderate success. As you continue to play the spec, it'll make more and more sense when and where to use each artifact, as well as what their icons look like.

• Here is an abridged guide to each artifact. Each artifact has an active and lingering component which will be explained.
• These are good for offense:
• Summon Kryptis Turret - Cast: moderate cast time, creates a stationary turret at your cursor. Deals very high damage via projectiles to the closest enemy. Secondary effect: you gain bonus damage against targets shot by the turret.
• Metal Legion Guitar - Cast: long channel, pulses damage and Confusion in a small AoE around you. When the channel completes you do a small overhead swing that stuns nearby enemies. Secondary effect: If the channel finishes, you get 1 free stealth attack.
• Forged Surfer Dash - Cast: channeled slide towards your cursor. Drop high damage bombs as you travel (minimum 1). Multiple bombs can't hit the same target. Secondary effect: bombs continue dropping at your feet every few seconds.
• Mistburn Mortar - Cast: moderate cast time, shoots a projectile towards an area that creates a pulsing AoE when it lands. Secondary effect: Your next two attacks burn the target. Multiple instances of this buff can stack, up to 7(?) stacks.

• These are good for both:
• Chak Shield - Cast: instant (and usable while stunned), creates a projectile-destroying dome that pulses damage to enemies and barrier to allies. Secondary effect: Your next initiative spending ability refunds 50% of the cost.
• Exalted Hammer - Cast: an instant leap & evade towards your cursor. Upon landing, deal high strike damage to enemies and heal nearby allies. Secondary Effect: Your next initiative skill activates the heal again.
• Holo-Dancer Decoy - Cast: moderate cast time, places a decoy that taunts nearby enemies for 1 second upon being placed. The decoy also pulses might to nearby allies. Secondary effect: Your next utility skill's cooldown is reduced by 33%.

• Save these for defense:
• Zephyrite Sun Crystal - Cast: instant, similar to Forged Surfer Dash, this one dashes towards your cursor, but you evade during the duration. Dashing further away or while rooted gives you more evasion. Deal strike damage, blind and burn enemies in a small AoE where you arrive, and also cleanse 3 conditions from yourself and nearby allies. Secondary effect: your next 2 initiative-spending abilities cleanse another condition.

General

• F1 (Skritt Swipe is an extremely loaded skill in this build and should be used as often as possible. Artifacts reduce its cooldown by 2s when used, thanks to Repeat Ransacker (Repeat Ransacker).

• Use Skritt Swipe (without a target) even during downtime to fish for good sets of artifacts. Since artifacts are such a big part of the build, deciding whether to use Skritt Swipe immediately as it's up or waiting to interrupt an ability with Sleight of Hand it is a choice you'll regularly have to make.

• Steal essentially resets the cooldown of Canach-Coin Toss. Learning how to space out or otherwise stack your coin tosses is key to playing the build at a high level.

• Pay attention to any projectile hate that would eat your axes - reflect fields, magnetic aura, etc.. If possible, use non-projectile artifacts while waiting for the hate to go away, or drop your target and throw your axes at nothing so you can recall them later.

• As axes require setup and a lot of initiative, it can be a good idea to swap to shortbow after landing a big Harrowing Storm and spam Cluster Bomb instead than trying to set up another recall.

Defense

• Remain at range while throwing axes, only entering melee with Harrowing Storm when a good opportunity presents itself. Always keep in mind which artifacts you have and formulate a followup plan based on them. Some artifacts such as Exalted Hammer deal high damage in addition to making you evade for the duration, making them excellent for countering attacks.

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

• Your cleanse is tricky to properly utilize and, outside of your heal Hide in Shadows, is tied to resource management. Canach-Coin Toss is the primary cleanse for this build, and since it's "reset" each time you steal, you'll want to be using a LOT of artifacts. This leads to the build being very fast paced but also tricky to get the most value out of in the heat of the moment. Of course, if you're lucky, you can also get Zephyrite Sun Crystal which is an extremely strong cleanse; 3 on the initial use, and another 1 on your next two initiative-spending abilities.

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

Advanced

• Once you're comfortable with the main gameplay of Antiquary, you can start to play around your combo fields.

• Venomous Volley's projectiles will occasionally act (20% chance) as a "projectile finisher". This gives them added effects depending on which combo field they pass through. The main ones are Mistburn Mortar, which creates a fire field and adds Burning to the axe, and Chak Shield, which causes the axe to cleanse a condition (granted you're in melee range of the target. it's weird, but if you're using Harrowing Storm you can drop Chak Shield as the axes are coming in to benefit from the finishers).

• Exalted Hammer is a leap finisher. Use it through Chak Shield to gain Light Aura or Mistburn Mortar for Fire Aura.

• Lastly, your stealth attack, Cunning Salvo, is a blast finisher. It's impractical to try and always combo this one with a field, but it's easy to use it with Chak Shield when recalling axes for additional condition cleansing.