Antiquary - Power Antiquary open world

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

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on January 04, 2026 and is up to date for the December 09, 2025 patch.

Overview

Power antiquary build for open world. Assisted by their helpful skritt helpers, antiquaries Skritt Swipe to gain lots of new skills to turn the fight in their favor, should luck be on their side. They also provide themselves and nearby allies with permanent Alacrity.

We do not recommed this build if you hate RNG, as it is present on the artefacts that you plunder, the artefacts you get from Skritt Scuffle, and the chance to backfire on your utility skills. Additionally, this build isn't easy to play. On top of the normal Spear minigame with its unique skill chains, you also need to juggle your artefacts and must learn what each one does.

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Skill Bar

Spear

Rifle

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Spear requires Janthir Wilds. If you don't have access to spear, replace it with dagger+dagger.
• Rifle requires Weaponmaster Training with Secrets of the Obscure. If you don't have access to rifle or you'd rather use another option, replace it with pistol+pistol.

Backfire

Antiquary healing and utility skills can be used again while they are on cooldown, but doing so may trigger a backfire and block skill usage until it cools down. Generally speaking, backfires are bad.

Heal Skill

Signet of Malice provides good passive healing.

• Antivenom Draught - weak healing but removes conditions. Heals for more, and removes more conditions, when it backfires.

Utility skills

Stone Summit Cannon is great for damage, never replace it. If it backfires, get away from the explosion, it deals significant damage and can get you killed.
Haste is an offensive stun break with great boons and low cooldown. Can be replaced if needed.
Canach-Coin Toss gives initiative and removes conditions. If used while on cooldown and it backfires, you may instead not regain initiative and have your boons converted to conditions.
Other options you can consider are:

• Shadowstep - amazing mobility plus stunbreak and condi cleanse.
• Shadow Refuge - long duration of stealth for channelling Hero Challenges.
• Signet of Agility - if conditions are a problem, though its passive precision is not needed due to Keen Observer.
• Scorpion Wire - very situational. Extremely good for pulling the bomb in Battle in Tarir south lane meta event.

Elite Skill

Skritt Scuffle is a great source of damage through artefacts. Although the skill cannot backfire, you have to be careful since the skritt have a chance to prank you and give you a deadly Unstable Skritt Bomb. Do not use this artefact. Other options can be considered.

• Dagger Storm - a 4 second evade.
• Basilisk Venom - strong crowd control if there are allies nearby.
• Thieves Guild - good damage skill

Specializations

Variants

• Invigorating Precision - sacrifices a small amount of damage for sustain. Great option for solo open world.

Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.
This set uses gear similar to Daredevil - Power DPS, making it excellent for general PVE.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Assassin

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Spear
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rifle
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Relic

If you are gearing this character from zero, start with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Nika" armor. Then search for the weapons you want to use: "Exterminator" rifle, "Usoku's Needle" dagger, "Shattered Short Bow" shortbow. Upgrade to ascended gear as you progress. See also: Guide:How to Gear a Character.

• For the relic you can instead consider Relic of Zakiros to trade a Quickness for sustain.
• For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford.

Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• /

Farming

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• (and variants)

Usage

Artefacts

The antiquary's profession mechanic are artefacts, which occupy the F2, F3, and F4 slots (you gain a third artefact due to Prolific Plunderer. If needed, rebind these keys to something you can press with ease. You gain artefacts by using Skritt Swipe or Skritt Scuffle. The F2 artefact will always be an offensive one, the F3 artefact will always be a defensive one, and the F4 is fully random. Note that Skritt Scuffle might backfire and give you a Unstable Skritt Bomb instead, which deals huge damage to yourself.

Damage

Spear

Spear works with a combo mechanic of lead attack + follow up + finisher.
Engage enemies with a 2,3,2 combo: Mantis Sting + Vampiric Slash + Falling Spider.
Now that you have finished a combo, you can start the next one with Distracting Throw for a damage buff. Continue as normal with Vampiric Slash+ Falling Spider. You can repeat this 4,3,2 combo once before your initiative runs low, unless you regain some with Canach-Coin Toss or Enterprising Aristocrat.
Note that Distracting Throw has to be used within a 2~ second window of your previous combo for it to count as a combo starter lead attack and give its damage bonus. This means you can use an artifact in between your combos, but don't take too long or the combo chain will reset.

When low on initiative, you need to use the stealth attack Ashen Assault to recover some. This can be done by using the guitar artefact, or by ending the spear combo with skill 3 to enter stealth, for example Distracting Throw + Entangling Asp + Shattering Assault. After the stealth attack, continue with Mantis Sting.

Example

1. Mantis Sting (2)
2. Vampiric Slash (3)
3. Falling Spider (2)
4. Distracting Throw (4)
5. Vampiric Slash (3)
6. Falling Spider (2)
7. Distracting Throw (4)
8. Vampiric Slash (3)
9. Falling Spider (2)
10. Distracting Throw (4)
11. Vampiric Slash (3)
12. Shattering Assault (3)
13. Shattering Assault (1)

You can weave your Skritt Swipe and arterfacts inbetween these skills. Doing so gives you initiative thanks to Enterprising Aristocrat.

Rifle

Rifle should only be used when ranged damage is needed. It has decent burst with Three Round Burst. You can replenish initiative with Canach-Coin Toss. If you get the guitar artefact, you can also use the stealth skill for good damage. If using Action Camera, they keybind "Look Behind" can be used while casting Death's Retreat to quickly and seamlessly jump forward. If you don't use action camera, you will have to stop running, turn your character, cast the skill, turn the character again, and resume running. The keybind "About Face" can help with that.Use Sniper's Cover to destroy dangerous projectile attacks like the volley of arrows from the Tengu Hero Point in Auric Basin. Death's Retreat deals damage before teleporting, if you are in Stealth, it will reveal you. Most of your rifle bullets pierce their targets. When fighting groups of enemies, try to line them up to strike them all.

Artefacts

Aside from their on-cast effects, using an artefact provides a lingering buff for a few seconds, improved by Meticulous Custodian. While artefacts can be ranked by the amount of damage they do, in open world one must also consider their deffensive utility or the buffs they provide. As such, you should adapt to the situation at hand to decide which artefact to use.
If damage is the only concern and utility is not needed, artefacts rank as follows:

1. Summon Kryptis Turret
2. Forged Surfer Dash (stay near the enemy to drop the bombs from the lingering buff on them)
3. Zephyrite Sun Crystal (use it again if you hit an enemy)
4. Mistburn Mortar
5. Metal Legion Guitar
6. Holo-Dancer Decoy
7. Chak Shield

Remember to adapt to your current fight. For example, if you are fighting an enemy that shoots dangerous projectiles, Chak Shield becomes a lot better; if your enemy inflicts crowd control, the stunbreak from Zephyrite Sun Crystal makes it a better choice, etc.
Using artefacts also gives you and nearby allies boons thanks to Possessive Hoarder, most notably Alacrity. Sigil of Superior Sigil of Concentration is required, and can help if needed.

Notes

• Try to stay above 50% health to benefit from Keen Observer and Twin Fangs.
• When possible, try to attack from behind to benefit from Twin Fangs. This isn't required against bosses or other enemies with defiance bars, the trait is always active against them.

Defense

• Some of your artefacts heal, or evade, or let you dash to safety, or block projectiles. Review your options.
• Invigorating Precision provides some sustain, especially since this build has permanent Fury. It stacks with Relic of Zakiros.
• Remember that you can always kill enemies with Skirmisher's Shot while running away, and they won't even come close to you.

Crowd Control

• Metal Legion Guitar or Holo-Dancer Decoy
• Distracting Throw (it only dazes if the enemy already had a movement impairing condition, for example by using it two times in a row since the skill does Cripple)
• If you need more crowd control you can use Basilisk Venom, or Scorpion Wire, or Prepare Pitfall.