Harbinger - Pistol Curses
The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Condition damage and Boon removal
Designed for: PvP Conquest
This build was last updated on May 22, 2023 and is up to date for the May 02, 2023 game patch.
Overview
A high condition damage PvP Harbinger build made to teamfight.
Skill Bar
Pistol/Dagger
Staff
Utility
Skill Variants
Utility:
Always keep but the other 2 slots are more flexible. Other viable options include:
- - unblockable single target boon corruption that's hard to avoid, great for bursting targets without any other setup. It's even good for defensive purposes while under pressure - quickly corrupting
Stability and 
Might into 
Fear and 
Weakness for instance could save you.
- - works both as a defensive and offensive AoE skill.
- - less bursty than but it's AoE.
- - relatively low CD stun break + damage mitigation and better Life Force management.
- - area denial that can save your life or cage in enemies to set up kills.
- - excellent anti-projectile skill which also brings
Poison and Weakness spam to the table, further mitigating damage as well as enemy healing.
Template Code
[&DQgnGgIrQC7nGqIAvQH6AC4BMAGLAL0B6BqSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Specializations
Specialization Variants
If you're comfortable with giving up sustain for more damage, replace Death Magic with Soul Reaping:
Variants
- makes your shroud auto spam stronger.
- trades survivability for more damage.
Equipment
Pistol
Dagger
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet
Equipment Variants
Runes and sigils
- If you're playing the Soul Reaping variant take and replace one of the Pistol/Dagger sigils with .
Usage
Elite specialization basics
- 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
- Role: follow the teamfight, stay with the support if you have one.
- Don't spam your marks on the ground out of combat - they are easy to spot and a single dodge from the enemy can get rid of them. Skills 4-5 are also valuable defensive cooldowns and you don't want to risk not having them for the next fight. There are exceptions of course, (because it's not a key skill and has a low CD) or even can be used a bit more freely. For example place them at an entrance or under yourself to help your team spot
Stealthed enemy movements or force a dodge at the start of the fight. Or if you see an enemy with teleport skills approaching you could place right before they jump you to ruin their burst.
- Entering Shroud triggers . If you're CC'd and getting focused you can enter shroud for the Weakness and boon rip as a defensive measure and even proc for some cleansing and additional counter-pressure.
- is one of the more versatile skills in the build:
- The healing and endurance reduction from Poison and Weakness is great for wearing down enemy bunkers/supports.
- Could be used defensively for AoE projectile denial, helping you and your teams survive pressure, even shutting down elites such as .
- It's unblockable and the Poison does solid damage on its own.
- The healing and endurance reduction from
Sustain
- Both entering and staying in shroud removes conditions thanks to and .
- Removing and applying conditions generates Carapace stacks from Death Magic, reducing direct damage taken. At 25+ stacks is going to start pulsing
Protection for, well, further protection. This boon also reduces condition damage taken thanks to .
- grants Carapace even if the condition was removed through other means, like .
- (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 ⇒ when your enemies jump after you.
- Activate SW ⇒ (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!
- should be placed well before entering combat, preferably at a spot where your enemies can't reach it easily. Wurm provides you with an escape route and makes it easier to travel around the map in general. Last but not least, teleporting to the wurm with grants 10% life force, which means you could consider using the teleport before even leaving spawn at the start of a game in order to start off with some LF.
- Harbinger has better mobility than the average Necromancer build which could prove useful when it comes to surviving damage. and are both great for building (or closing) gaps.
- Skill #4 on both weapon sets is a condition transfer: and .
Top Streamers
- Twitch: Bel
Ratings
This build has it all for a dps. Great weakness spam. An escape button with wurm, projectile denial, very long range with staff, and solid CC. Excellent ability to scale damage from single target (pistol) to staff (aoe). Fantastic condi build during the condi build drought.
For ranked this is still the meta. Every game I play has 2-3 harbs at least, this build just has it all. Annoying CC especially weakness spam, high sustain, potent mobility tools.. isn't even hard to play. Maybe the most noobfriendly build after mechanist.
Honestly I don't consider this build to be as meta as other people say. Reaper feels a little stronger to me. I Think maybe it's easy to do though since mostly just using auto attacks and pistol/shroud 2 and occasionally throwing your potions at people
Seriously, is it the best, is it the most powerful? Probably not. But using condi removal when condi is supa pop right now is awesome. As well as regen casting acting as an opening or upkeep. Then you spike condi right back. I did put signet of spite. since i act almost like a tank / gw1 necro bomber then get out with spectral or my worm bud - I like a little more power. Also, like sending the spite as active when we target or if i need to spam/overwhelming the area while being attacked.
High damage, decent defense and your sheer presence makes others fear you. If you get popping off your target is going to fold fast, and that's the name of your game. Sheer overwhelming force.
Remember your shroud here doesn't cover your HP so you're taking all that damage to your face.
Excellent damage, good mobility, okay sustain. One of the strongest builds of the new expansion. Harbinger is even squishier than the other nec specs so might take some time to adjust for some, but the damage makes up for it. Brings the usual necro things to the table, not much else to say.
Great build with good pressure and survivability if played well. Virtually unbeatable if you have no condition cures. I play this as Pistol/Dagger, Scepter/Focus and it works well. I'm currently running Blood Magic instead of SR which might be worth a shot if you are struggling with sustain. Give it a go!
The fun part about this build, is that it can be overwhelming to your opponent to fight if you play it aggressively. Good crowd controls, if you utilize the utilities correctly you can be very mobile. High damage, carrion amulet is a great choice since harbinger doesn't have a second HP bar. I recommend this to anybody, especially if you're used to playing support classes. This is the glassy spec you need, to break you out of that defensive support class mentality, and into the world of dps. Overall it's a good option for anyone to pick up. :)
Comments
Get MetaBattle Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium