Harbinger - Pistol Curses
The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good
Focused on: Condition damage and Boon removal
Designed for: PvP Conquest
Difficulty:
Normal
This build was last updated on July 02, 2024 and is up to date for the August 20, 2024 patch.
Overview
A high condition damage PvP Harbinger build made to teamfight.
Skill Bar
Pistol/Torch
Staff
Utility
Skill Variants
Utility:
Always keep
but the other 2 slots are more flexible. Other viable options include:- Stability and Might into Fear and Weakness for instance could save you. - 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
- - less bursty than but it's AoE.
- - works both as a defensive and offensive AoE skill.
- Blind spam or Immobilize. - low CD stunbreak + damage mitigation and defense against soft-CC like
- - area denial that can save your life or cage in enemies to set up kills.
- Poison and Weakness spam to the table, further mitigating damage as well as enemy healing. - excellent anti-projectile skill which also brings
Weapons
Torch can be replaced by either of the following weapons:
- Offhand Dagger - defensive pick with condition transfer and some damage mitigation via Blind and Weakness.
- Offhand Sword - ranged CC and Weakness.
Template Code
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Specializations
Specialization Variants
Soul Reaping can replace Death Magic if you want to play a more high risk/reward version of the build:
Variants
- makes your Staff marks unblockable but weakens your shroud auto spam.
Equipment
Pistol
Torch
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet
Relic
Equipment Variants
Runes and sigils
- With the Soul Reaping variant and on Pistol/Dagger also become viable options because of synergy.
Relics
- - improves condition variety on your bursts if you can proc it consistently with CC.
- offers better cleansing at the expense of damage.
- - might offer you more damage than Demon Queen if you're also using utility elixirs, but losing out on the extra healing reduction of Demon Queen could ultimately make it harder for you to kill high sustain bunker and support builds.
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, 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. (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
- Entering Shroud triggers Weakness and boon rip as a defensive measure and even proc for some cleansing and additional counter-pressure. . If you're CC'd and getting focused you can enter shroud for the
- 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.
is one of the more versatile skills in the build:
- Entering gives you life force, so start dropping in/out of shroud the moment the game starts (before you'd even leave spawn) and keep doing it even out of combat for the rest of the match for free LF (and mobility from skills 3-4).
Shroud burst combo example:
- to get into melee range.
- 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.
- for CC.
- at point-blank range for maximum effectiveness.
- spam.
Pistol burst combo example:
- 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.
- 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. 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
Sustain
- Both entering and staying in shroud removes conditions thanks to and (Death Magic-only).
- When playing with Death Magic removing and applying conditions generates Carapace stacks, reducing strike 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 .
- 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!
(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:
- 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 when playing with Dagger offhand: and .
Related Builds
- Harbinger - Celestial Elixir Roamer - WvW version of the build.
Top Streamers
- Twitch: Bel
Ratings
Tough spot for this build currently. Pre SOTO, started working on a very in depth guide for Harb builds based around the Pistol Curses build with some tweaks, as it was my favorite and most played build for the entirety of EOD. But it feels very underwhelming currently where there are so many melee burst builds that can blink on top of you from what feels like out of nowhere, projectile denial and people running in packs and with what seems to be pro-tier supports even in unranked matches.... Pistol Curses and variants used to be a super hard carry build. It's just not in a good place and it's hard to see it coming back to 4 or 5 stars without some significant changes to the meta, even in unranked. Can still be fun for sure, the build itself still flows nicely and feels smooth to play, and if you go up against a team of mostly lower skilled players, you'll wreck. Otherwise you're crossing your fingers and clenching your jaw.
Not what it once was, gets blown up in mere seconds in this burst meta, extremely vulnerable when Wurm/Spectal Walk/elite elixir are on CD. I'd rank this last among necro elite specs and arguably even power Harb is better now. Has a couple of redeeming qualities like the damage which is still great when playing with Soul Reaping, shroud mobility allows for skillful gameplay if you know how to use those skills properly. Weakness uptime is nice but more and more specs are getting Resistance for free which lets them ignore that. It's still playable but there are better options out there.
This build has it all for a dps. Great weakness spam. An escape button with wurm, projectile denial with Cloud, 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. EDIT: Don't play if enemies have core guardian or tempest.
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.
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
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