Antiquary - Shortbow Artifact Duelist

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

Focused on: Condition damage and Control

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 04, 2025.

Overview

A rather obnoxious Antiquarian build focused on condition damage, interrupts and evasion. As with other artifact-centric builds, there is some RNG from Skritt Swipe that must be quickly adapted to during gameplay.

Skill Bar

Shortbow

Sword/Dagger

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

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

• Hide in Shadows - cleanse & situational access to another Daze. has a long cast time.

Utility

There are plenty of viable options for the optional slot:

• Shadowstep - a good all-around tool. not required for the build as Infiltrator's Arrow provides more than enough mobility.

• Emergency Jade Shield - a simple low cooldown stunbreak and barrier. the skill can be reactivated while on cooldown with a chance of backfiring - if reactivated while more than 50% recharged (in this case 12.5s remaining) the backfire chance will be lower.

• Prepare Thousand Needles / Thousand Needles - solid damage option, can be used to help land powerful artifacts. not a stunbreak.

• Stone Summit Cannon - high damage. unlike other backfire effects this one's negative effects can be easily avoided. not a stunbreak.

Elite

• None: Skritt Scuffle provides far too much value.

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Specializations

Variants

• Upper Hand provides some extra initiative at the cost of much lower sustain.
• Instant Reflexes can be strong against strike damage builds.

Equipment

Shortbow

Sigil

Sigil

Sword

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• As this build is centered around spamming Choking Gas, Relic of Agony regularly provides high damage output against both single targets and groups, but it can be swapped out for a number of other relics:

• Relic of Cerus - boon corruption, good against builds with a lot of stability

• Relic of the Mirage - another solid damage source that pairs well with the evasion the build has

• Relic of Leadership - good option against condition duelists

• Relic of the Centaur - good with Antivenom Draught if stability is needed

Runes

• Rune of Trapper - more damage over raw health.

• Rune of Resistance - good against certain comps if you're okay with losing damage.

Sigils

• Sigil of Purging over Sigil of Absorption - decent condition cleansing if needed

• Sigil of Escape over Sigil of Cleansing - if you better need better cleansing against roots & chill than general conditions. Guarded Initiation makes light CC easier to manage.

Usage

Basics

• Stay on shortbow unless you need Infiltrator's Strike.

• Use Skritt Swipe, Choking Gas, Holo-Dancer Decoy to interrupt targets. Doing so will trigger Relic of Agony and Pressure Striking.

• Fish for Mistburn Mortar and Zephyrite Sun Crystal. Interrupt any blocks or heals with Choking Gas or Skritt Swipe while the burning ticks.

• You can swap to sword/dagger and use Infiltrator's Strike to Immobilize a target before using high value artifacts.

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).

• High value artifacts: Zephyrite Sun Crystal -- Mistburn Mortar -- Chak Shield -- Exalted Hammer

• Medium value artifacts: Summon Kryptis Turret -- Holo-Dancer Decoy

• Low value artifacts: Metal Legion Guitar -- Forged Surfer Dash -- Unstable Skritt Bomb

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

Defense

• The third skill of both weapon sets give evasion for 1/2s when used. Evading any attack will trigger Feline Grace for 3s of Vigor.

• Key defensive artifacts are Exalted Hammer & Zephyrite Sun Crystal (evasion), and Chak Shield (projectile hate & initiative refunding). Holo-Dancer Decoy both Taunts a target and gives your next two utility skills a 50% cooldown reduction.

• Possessive Hoarder) causes any artifact categorized as "defensive" to give Protection and Regeneration.

Advanced

• The below table briefly explains each artifact as well as their average impact (see the "priority" column; priorities are specific to this build). 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 a blink before stun portion of the skill	Medium
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	Overall high value if you can get the additional bombs to hit	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	High
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	Leap finisher, pairs well with Mistburn Mortar to get Fire Aura	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 the first use connects on an enemy, 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