Harbinger - Celestial Elixir Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Hybrid damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on November 21, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Celestial Harbinger WvW build designed for roaming known for its high sustain, strong damage and decent mobility.

Skill Bar

Pistol/Torch

Staff

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

There are several viable options for the off-hand slot. Torch however requires the Secrets of the Obscure expansion so if you don't have access to it then you're forced to pick one of the following weapons (except Sword, which also requires SotO):

• Warhorn - this is mostly taken with a Relic of Speed for improved mobility. The Swiftness sources in the build however are scarce and with long CDs, which makes this vulnerable to boon removal. The unblockable CC of Warhorn 4 can be good value too but it has a shorter range than the one on Torch. Warhorn also makes it easier to drop movement speed runes for something with higher stats.

• Focus - Spinal Shivers adds a great boonrip skill with high damage, it's the most bursty option (and the lowest sustain one).

• Dagger - a defensive weapon with extra condition removal and damage mitigation through Blind and Weakness.

• Sword - primarily a defensive/CC focused weapon. The Weakness and Fear make it valuable even if its damage is on the lower end.

Utility

Viable choices for the optional slot (or even in place of Corrosive Poison Cloud):

• Elixir of Ignorance - low CD stunbreak with damage mitigation, and the Resistance is useful against Blind spamming specs like Flashbang Holosmith or D/P Thief.

• Summon Flesh Wurm - stunbreak that could also be used as a mobility tool, it's especially useful at scaling difficult terrain and kiting to the highground. The downside is the long cast time, especially when you're trying to set this up as an escape tool while disengaging.

• Elixir of Bliss - if you need more cleansing.

• Spectral Ring - area denial skill that could ward off attackers or trap enemies inside.

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Specializations

Variants

• Take Dark Defiance if you want more passive survivability.

Variants

• Twisted Medicine lets you share your elite's boons with allies, something that's worth considering if you're roaming with a group.

Specialization Variants

Taking Soul Reaping instead of Death Magic for more condition damage, better Life Force management and unblockable Staff Marks is also a viable (albeit much less popular) choice. This however is a high risk/reward option, as your sustain is going to be considerably lower:

Equipment

Head
Celestial

Shoulders
Celestial

Chest
Celestial

Hands
Celestial

Legs
Celestial

Feet
Celestial

Backpiece
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Amulet
Ritualist

Ring
Ritualist

Ring
Celestial

Staff
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Pistol
Celestial

Torch
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Stats: a Ritualist Amulet + 1 ring coupled with Traveler runes would give us roughly 25% boon duration and 10% condi duration, among other things. These Ritualist pieces also sacrifice some passive tankiness (mainly Toughness) and strike damage (lower Power/Precison/Ferocity), shifting the build a bit more towards active sustain and condi damage. You can still keep playing full Cele if you prefer the Power bursts of Harbinger shroud or the slightly higher passive sustain, the difference isn't anything major either way. This is just something you can refine and tinker with. Going more into the Ritualist direction could also work, but with each Cele piece you sacrifice you become more squishy and your direct damage drops further.

Equipment Variants

Runes

Traveler is mainly taken for its passive mobility and boon duration. Other viable options include:

• Rune of Superior Rune of Surging - keeps the passive mobility boost and boon duration but focuses more on strike damage. Consider going full Cele with no Ritualist pieces in order to further lean into the Power angle.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Trapper - solid offensive option if damage is all you care about.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Firebrand - way higher Quickness uptime and good stats.

Relic

• Relic of the Demon Queen - more Poison spam and higher healing reduction from it, which is especially useful when fighting other high sustain builds.

• Relic of Vass - more bursty than Demon Queen but in longer fights the healing reduction could be better than the extra Poison stacks. Worth considering when playing with 1-2 utility elixirs.

• Relic of Isgarren - boosts both your strike damage and condition pressure while being easy to maintain.

• Relic of Nayos - extra survivability.

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Generosity over Cleansing - slightly worse condition removal for increased pressure. In most cases Generosity should be enough, but Cleansing is the safest and most forgiving option.

Consumables

Food

• - passive damage mitigation and great stats.

• - active damage mitigation.
  • - budget version

Utility

• for a condition focused approach, or for a direct damage focus.

• Budget: either from Canned Food Crates found in WvW s or purchased from the Permanent Portable Provisioner.

• Alternatively you could use a for an even more tanky build, especially if you've sacrificed some of it for Ritualist pieces.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Harbinger Shroud doesn't replace your health bar! Unlike other Necromancer shrouds, Harbinger Shroud can't be used to soak damage, which makes this spec more squishy by default. Death Magic should offset this a bit.

• You can enter shroud even with no Life Force to use, but staying inside still drains your LF each interval.

General

• Harbinger Shroud is unique in a sense that it doesn't require Life Force to activate - this skill even gives you LF! Because of that LF management is much less of a concern on Harbinger builds.

• Corrosive Poison Cloud is one of the more versatile skills in the build:
  • The healing and endurance reduction from Poison and Weakness is great for wearing down other tanky Cele roamer specs.
  • Could be used defensively for AoE projectile denial, helping you survive pressure, even shutting down elites such as Lich Form.
  • It's unblockable and the Poison does solid damage on its own.

• On Staff always try to use Putrid Mark AFTER Chillblains for a free Weakness combo.

Damage

• This part of the build is rather straightforward, there aren't any complicated burst chains you have to learn. It's all about keeping the target constantly pressured.

• In terms of damage, Shroud > Pistol > Staff. Staff is mainly a utility/defensive weapon.

• Elixirs apply Blight to you and Shroud skills can consume Blight, empowering them. Consider using elixirs right before entering Shroud. Elixir of Ambition is especially good at kicking off burst combos. You always get the boon of elixirs you use, but enemies must be inside the impact area to get the negative effects.

• Vile Blast fires quickly and with little to no animation, which makes it hard to dodge for enemies. Use it to set up abilities that have longer cast times like Weeping Shots or high importance such as Elixir of Ambition.

• Dark Barrage should always be used in melee range to ensure that all the projectiles hit the main target.

• Vital Draw serves as an ideal setup for other shroud skills (except for Voracious Arc which could "stunbreak" enemies as the daze overrides the stronger CC of Vital Draw).

• Tainted Bolts (shroud auto) is the best filler in the build, capable of delivering some serious damage if left unchecked especially with the passive Quickness.

Shroud burst combo example:

1. Devouring Cut to get into melee range.
2. Voracious Arc to deliver damage while avoiding incoming attacks and dazing the target, making it harder for them to prevent the next step of the chain. It's also yet another mobility skill in case you were still not in melee range.
3. Vital Draw for CC.
4. Dark Barrage at point-blank range for maximum effectiveness.
5. Tainted Bolts spam.

Pistol burst combo example:

1. Harrowing Wave could serve as an opener as it has a very low cast time and doesn't really require setup, but it could also be used after Vile Blast.
2. Vile Blast to set up Oppressive Collapse (OC), which has a much more visible animation and would be harder to land. Note: OC in general works best against slowed/stunned targets - the AoE ring spawns under your target the moment you press OC, so enemies with Superspeed or mobility skills could even escape the ring before the skill finishes. If they manage to leave the ring in time they'll avoid the CC.
3. Oppressive Collapse
4. Weeping Shots

Weapon swap and Staff

1. Vile Blast in melee.
2. Swap to Staff to proc Sigil of Superior Sigil of Geomancy and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom
3. Chilblains (Staff #3)
4. Putrid Mark (Staff #4)
5. Reaper's Mark (Staff #5)
6. Harbinger Shroud and do your shroud rotation.

Sustain

• Both entering and staying in shroud removes conditions thanks to Plague Sending and Shrouded Removal.

• Entering Shroud triggers Weakening Shroud and reduces incoming damage via Implacable Foe. If you're CC'd and getting focused you can enter shroud for the Weakness and damage reduction as a defensive measure. The Weakening Shroud proc can even trigger Plague Sending for some cleansing and additional counter-pressure.

• Removing and applying conditions generates Carapace stacks from Death Magic, reducing direct damage taken. At 25+ stacks Corrupter's Fervor is going to start pulsing Protection for further mitigation. This boon also reduces condition damage taken thanks to Dark Defiance (if taken).
  • Shrouded Removal grants Carapace even if the condition was removed through other means, like Spectral Walk.

• Spectral Walk (SW) is great for preventing condition pressure from ramping up on you. Activating its chain skill which "ends" Spectral Walk does not stop the cleansing. This skill has many uses, for example:
  • Activate SW ⇒ jump off a cliff while being chased ⇒ Spectral Recall when your enemies jump after you.
  • Activate SW ⇒ Necrotic Traversal (Flesh Wurm skill) ⇒ teleport back when they catch up to you. This works for stomping downed enemies as well, the channeling isn't interrupted by either of these teleports!

• Summon Flesh Wurm provides much needed vertical mobility, allowing you to teleport to the highground if you need to escape or chase someone.

• Harbinger has better mobility than the average Necromancer build which could prove useful when it comes to surviving damage. Devouring Cut and Voracious Arc are both great for building (or closing) gaps.

• Putrid Mark and Elixir of Bliss are the closest things you have to a mass cleanse.

Related Builds

• Harbinger - Pistol Curses - Conquest PvP version of the build.