Specter - A/D Condition Artifacts

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

Focused on: Mobility, Condition damage and Utility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on October 30, 2025.

Overview

An Antiquarian build focused on high sustained condition damage, mobility, survivability, team utility, and a lot of boon theft. Excels in skirmishes but is a capable duelist as well. As with other artifact-centric builds, there is a fair amount of RNG that must be taken into account and played around. Snap decision making is a must for this build.

Skill Bar

Weapon 1: Axe

Weapon 2: Dagger

Weapon 3: Dagger

Weapon 4: Pistol

Healing skill: Hide in Shadows

Utility skill 1: Shadowstep

Utility skill 2: Infiltrator's Signet

Utility skill 3: Blinding Powder

Elite skill: Skritt Scuffle

Skill Variants

Heal

The default healing skill Hide in Shadows can be tricky to use with artifacts that deal multiple ticks of damage over time. For more beginner friendly options, consider:

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

• Withdraw - good vs. bursty comps.

Utility

Try not to remove Shadowstep.

• Roll for Initiative - stunbreak, 3/4 second evade and refunds a solid chunk of initiative. you won't always have access to evasion artifacts so this isn't a bad option against specs like Chronomancer.

• Canach-Coin Toss - gives a lot of initiative and condition cleanse without any cast time investment. can be used while on cooldown with a risk of backfiring - if the skill has 7 or fewer seconds on its cooldown, the backfire chance is much lower.

Elite

Elites:

• Skritt Shuffle - Gives you constant access to artifacts, including ones that give you evasion, CC, and high damage, but is difficult to properly use as you have to both remain in the AoE and quickly adapt to what you get.

• Dagger Storm - decent offense and defense on a 90s cooldown. allows you to mitigate pressure, dodge burst, correct mistakes, or counterplay projectiles. far lower value than Skritt Shuffle but can be good in a panic.

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Specializations

Trickery: Bot, Top, Bot

Shadow Arts: Mid, Mid, Bot

Antiquary: Bot, Mid, Mid

Variants

• Take Hidden Thief against power-focused comps for the Weakness.
• Take Shadow's Embrace if you're unsure, or if you're against condition-heavy comps.

Equipment

Weapon 1: Axe

Weapon 2: Dagger

Sigil 1: Smoldering

Sigil 2: Purging

Weapon 3: Dagger

Weapon 4: Pistol

Sigil 3: Energy

Sigil 4: Escape

Rune: Necromancer

Amulet: Carrion

Relic: Relic of the Mirage

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of the Mirage provides high sustained damage, but can be swapped out for utility or burst relics:

• Relic of the Fractal - good for burst, bleed stacks are easily met with Cunning Salvo.
• Relic of Evasion - passively provides much needed vigor.
• Relic of Leadership - the build struggles with removing conditions if it can't gain stealth; this relic helps mitigate that weakness and provides some team utility.
• Relic of the Mists Tide - blast finishers from Cunning Salvo, leap finishers from Heartseeker and various artifacts can trigger this a lot, aiding with the build's poor condition cleansing outside of stealth.
• Relic of the Nightmare - strong if you plan on using Skritt Scuffle immediately after Harrowing Storm.
• Relic of the Centaur - good with Antivenom Draught if stability is needed & you always backfire the draught.

Runes

• Trapper - more damage. the increased condition duration pairs well with the low-duration Burning that many artifacts apply.

Sigils

• Revocation over Purging - a more offensive option to compliment the build's boon rip & theft capabilities.
• Cleansing over Escape - if you better need better cleansing against damaging conditions rather than roots.

Usage

Basics

• Axe skills 1 and 2, Spinning Axe and Venomous Volley, leave axes behind whether they hit or not so long as they weren't blocked, dodged or evaded. Axe skill 3, Harrowing Storm, recalls all of your axes onto your target, dealing the full damage of each axe again as well as additional Torment. This is the primary source of damage in this build. You can have up to 6 spinning axes present at once, and hitting a target with 5 or more recalled axes will Immobilize them for a short duration.

• Try to enter fights in stealth and open with Cunning Salvo, then use Spinning Axe or Venomous Volley until you have 5 or 6 axes. After that, recall them with Harrowing Storm. This will shadowstep you to your target, and from there you can eithger utilize your Artifacts or use Cloak and Dagger to stealth and reposition. This is the core gameplay loop for the build.

• To stealth, swap to your second weapon set and use Black Powder > Heartseeker. Each leap finisher through a smoke field gives 3 seconds of stealth. Dagger/pistol does little to no damage in this build, don't try and fight with it - only swap to it outside of combat or if you need to escape.

Elite specialization basics

• Antiquarians gain access to Skritt Swipe which functions as their Steal, benefiting from all traits that would affect steal. 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. Your F2 will always be an offensive artifact, F3 is always a defensive artifact, F4 can be either.

• If Prolific Plunderer is traited, you'll get a "stack" from Skritt Swipe which allows you to use one artifact from a set without the rest disappearing. This can cause confusion with Skritt Shuffle as you'll still get sets of 3 artifacts, but without the "stack" from Skritt Swipe only be able to use one of them.

• 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.

• The below table briefly explains each artifact as well as their average impact (see the "priority" column). The listed values imply Meticulous Custodian is taken. Some 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	Priority
Metal Legion Guitar	Offensive	4 pulses of low damage & Confusion, then a 2s Stun	Access to 2 stealth attacks, even outside of stealth	High
Forged Surfer Dash	Offensive	Slowly slide towards a ground target, dropping bombs along the way that deal strike damage and Burning	Continue to drop bombs at your feet for 13s	Low
Mistburn Mortar	Offensive	Slow moving projectile that creates a fire field upon impact, pulsing damage & Burning	Next 7 attacks inflict Burning (small ICD, not listed on tooltip)	High
Summon Kryptis Turret	Offensive	Summons a turret with a small range that shoots 8 projectiles, each deals strike damage and Torment	Your attacks deal +15% damage to any target hit by projectiles for 10s	Medium
Chak Shield	Defensive	5s projectile shield, 6 ticks of low strike damage to enemies inside it	Next 2 initiative skills refund all initiative	Medium
Exalted Hammer	Defensive	Leap finisher, 3/4s evade, strike damage & AoE heal on impact	Next 2 initiative skills trigger the AoE heal again at your location	High
Holo-Dancer Decoy	Defensive	Slight delay after cast > AoE 3s Taunt, deals no damage in PvP	Next 2 utility skills have 50% reduced cooldown (does not affect heal or elite)	Low
Zephyrite Sun Crystal	Defensive	Stun break & evasion as long as skill is active > heavy Burning in 180 radius upon arrival	If an enemy is within the 180 radius upon arrival, skill can be reused twice (also stunbreaks, these don't trigger artifact synergies)	High
Unstable Skritt Bomb	Backfire	High strike damage in 180 radius + high self damage, small AoE knockback	+50% incoming strike & condition damage	Low

General

• Use Skritt Swipe without a target during lulls to get a fresh set of artifacts & Swiftness, or during combat on a target to interrupt a key ability & steal boons

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

• Pay attention to any projectile hate that would eat your axes - prioritize using non-projectile artifacts for their duration instead, if possible

• Don't stealth after using an artifact with multiple ticks of damage, such as Mistburn Mortar, as you'll quickly be broken out of stealth by it. However, if you learn the timing of the ticks, it is possible to Cloak and Dagger and immediately stealth attack before you're revealed. This doesn't work with Summon Kryptis Turret as it attacks too frequently.

Defense

• Utilize Stealth, defensive artifacts & the evade+shadowstep from Harrowing Storm to stay alive and remain mobile. Defensive artifacts give Protection and Regeneration when used thanks to Possessive Hoarder.

Advanced

• Todo