Specter - A/D Rending Shade

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:

Normal

This build was last updated on October 22, 2025.

Overview

A Specter build focused on throwing and recalling Cunning Salvo to proc numerous traits like the namesake Rending Shade. Can duel, +1, and teamfight relatively well, but has lower roaming mobility than other thief builds since it lacks Steal. As a trade-off, it has access to higher sustain, excellent condition cleansing, and a lot of boon theft.

Skill Bar

Axe/Dagger

Dagger/Pistol

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Withdraw - can be good against very bursty comps, but you lose a lot of trait synergy and the overall value is much lower.

Utility

Considerable utility skills for the empty slots, ordered by usability:

• Blinding Powder - simple, on-demand stealth. avoid taking this into teams with a lot of reveal, such as current Holosmith or Dragonhunter

• Infiltrator's Signet - low cooldown stunbreak & shadowstep (28s) that also sets you up for Cloak and Dagger. can be used to blink away from danger by targeting a far away enemy. helps to mitigate the mobility issues Specter has.

• Roll for Initiative - stunbreak, 3/4 second evade and refunds a solid chunk of initiative. this build plays more like a necromancer at times, so the additional dodge can be helpful vs. bursty builds.

• Well of Silence - pulsing condi cleanse, a shadowstep and a 2s Daze on a 30s cooldown. Gives Resistance if Traversing Dusk is taken. good tool to take against condition heavy comps, less so against power heavy ones.

• Shadow Portal - good for quickly repositioning in a fight. an ally can also go through the portal too, but the visual effect is quite small and easy to miss. has a huge range and causes you to arrive with stealth. can be used while stunned.

• Seal Area - considerable if you're taking Pressure Striking. Creates a long lasting dark field & projectile barrier which you can leap/blast for Dark Aura.

• Skale Venom - Pure damage with zero utility. If applied to the maximum number of targets this can deal up to 21840 damage, or 16800 against moving targets.

• Well of Sorrow - .25s longer cast time than the utility wells, but the damage and Resistance can be great in a chaotic teamfight. you can't really stealth while the well is active as the pulsing damage will reveal you.

Elite

Viable elites:

• Dagger Storm - excellent hybrid offense and defense on a 90s cooldown. allows you to mitigate pressure, dodge burst, correct mistakes, or counterplay projectiles.

• Shadowfall - the situational lockdown option. As with other Specter wells, there is a small window between the skill's shadowstep and when the well is placed, so you can "extend" the well by using Harrowing Storm. If you're stealthed, you can get a Cunning Salvo out after the shadowstep portion of the skill, before the first tick of the well's damage breaks stealth.

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Specializations

Variants

• Take Pressure Striking if you're confident you won't need the additional boonrip & can land CC
• Take Shadow's Embrace if you're unsure, or if you're against condition-heavy comps.
• Take Hidden Thief against power-focused comps for the Weakness.

Equipment

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger

Pistol

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Cerus - boon corruption for Rending Shade, great synergy with Shadowfall.
• Relic of Peitha - you can cast & stow Hide in Shadows to fire the dagger every 4s, resulting in much higher damage output than Relic of the Fractal at the cost of lower burst & clunkier gameplay. you'll also lose out on Burning from Fractal, which makes your bombs easier to cleanse.

Runes

• Rune of Lynx - trades damage and 1000 health for more consistent mobility. Siphon can be used on allies to gain Swiftness with Thrill of the Crime, and combined with Meld with Shadows Lynx is an unnecessary but still viable option if the mobility is really needed

Sigils

• Sigil of Cleansing over Sigil of Escape - if you better need better cleansing against damaging conditions rather than roots.
• Do not replace Sigil of Misery, the majority of Torment this build utilizes has a very low duration.

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 (or Cloak and Dagger to enter stealth), then open with Cunning Salvo. While all other axe skills will leave an axe behind even if they don't hit anything, Cunning Salvo will not, so try to land it on a target even if it isn't your priority one. Then, use Spinning Axe or Venomous Volley until you have 5 or 6 axes, then recall them with Harrowing Storm. This will shadowstep you to your target, at which point you'll want to either Enter Shadow Shroud and use your abilities there or simply Cloak and Dagger and run away with the Superspeed from Meld with Shadows to reposition yourself. This is the core gameplay loop for the build.

• Use Siphon to either steal boons with Bountiful Theft or transfer your own conditions onto a target with Shallow Grave. Siphon builds shadow force (needed to stay in Shadow Shroud, your F1), but also applies various conditions and refunds you some initiative. It's a skill you definitely want to hit, and if it's dodged or evaded, you won't even get your initiative refund!

• When the opportunity presents itself (e.g. you are low on initiative, just used Harrowing Storm, or you want to burst), Enter Shadow Shroud.

Elite specialization basics

• Specters gain access to their own version of Death Shroud called Enter Shadow Shroud. Mechanically they are the same, replacing your skill bar while active. Damage taken while in Shroud drains Shadow Force instead of HP. You lose access to your utility skills while in shroud.

• While in combat, using Siphon (Specter's version of Steal), spending Initiative and shadowstepping builds Shadow Force. Landing Siphon is extremely important as is steals two boons, applies bleed, and builds a ton of shadow force.

• Opening or exiting Shadow Shroud with Mind Shock will cover you in a chaotic situation since it gives 3 stacks of Stability.
• Landing Eternal Night's Chill will help land shroud skills 2 and 3 (Grasping Shadows, Dawn's Repose), which can otherwise be walked out of due to their delay and small AoE radius. You can also use Cunning Salvo's Cripple to help land these abilities.
• So generally, 5 > 4 > 2 > 3.
• Use Haunt Shot as filler if needed, but as a general rule you should exit shroud and start building up axes.

• Shadow Shroud can be used to stack Stealth.
• Grasping Shadows (Shroud 2) is a delayed blast finisher.
• Dawn's Repose (Shroud 3) is a leap finisher.
• use Black Powder, shroud 2 & 3, leave shroud and Heartseeker for a healthy duration of Stealth.

General

• Damage is primarily Bleed and Torment dealt with recalled axes (Harrowing Storm), Relic of the Fractal, and Shroud abilities 2 & 4 (Grasping Shadows & Eternal Night respectively)
  • Axe/Dagger is the main weapon set of the build, the other is for stealth via Black Powder and Heartseeker.

• Projectile reflects are the worst enemy of this build. Learn to watch your target's visuals; if they have Magnetic Aura, Distortion, or some other reflect, stop throwing axes, and definitely don't recall them onto that target! Use the time to reposition or Enter Shadow Shroud and use your non-projectile abilities.

• If taken, Shadowfall and other Specter Wells can be "extended" by using a shadowstep. Specter wells shadowstep you, then drop the well at your feet after a short delay, so shadowstepping again before the well is created with a skill like Harrowing Storm will cause the well's range to effectively increase. This works with most shadowsteps.

Defense

• Thanks to Shadow Shroud, Specters can take more of a beating than a normal Thief.

• If you get roughed up in a fight, try to stealth, reposition, and keep fighting with nearby teammates if you can. This build features a lot of sustain, including Merciful Ambush, Leeching Venoms, Shadow Siphoning, Traversing Dusk, and Panaku's Ambition.

• Stealth between points with Black Powder and a leap finisher (e.g. Heartseeker) to conceal your movement and also stack Leeching Venoms. The Spider Venom stacks from this trait don't have an upper limit, so try to stealth as much as possible.

• The sources of condition cleansing are Shallow Grave, Hide in Shadows, Shadow's Embrace, Grasping Shadows, and your on-swap weapon sigils.

• Grasping Shadows > Exit Shadow Shroud > weapon swap > Black Powder for stealth if you're already in shadow shroud and need to disengage.

• Avoid throwing Cunning Salvo if you need to quickly restealth. Normally, you won't be revealed if you attack immediately after leaving stealth - ambush skills are a bit different. If you cast an ambush skill during stealth and your stealth wears off before the skill hits, you will still be revealed, whereas doing the same with a non-ambush skill (e.g. Venomous Volley) would not reveal you.

Advanced

• You can take fall damage to enter combat, giving you a short window to build shadow force. Fall damage, Black Powder into Heartseeker will start building Spider Venom in addition to shadow force.

• After respawning, if no allies are around to Siphon for Swiftness (granted Thrill of the Crime is taken), you can instead Siphon the guard NPC's (e.g. an Archer) who stand at the gates of certain maps.

• After a fight, if you know there will be a lull before your next engagement (e.g. you just downed or finished a player in a duel), spam Initiative skills to build shadow shroud. It's generally best to use this on Black Powder & Heartseeker to build Leeching Venoms stacks.

• Good players will be aware of the strength of Harrowing Storm as well as its telegraph, the shadowstep. To mix things up, you can weapon stow immediately after using the skill; you will still shadowstep, but axes won't be recalled as that happens at the end of the cast. This is a hefty initiative investment so use it sparingly. You can also recall axes while in Stealth, and so long as the axes are far away enough from your target to where the cast time finishes before any axes hit you'll be able to throw a Cunning Salvo before Stealth is removed.