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:

Hard

This build was last updated on August 03, 2025.

Overview

A Specter build focused on throwing and recalling Cunning Salvo to proc numerous traits, such as the namesake Rending Shade. Harrowing Storm also gets a lot of use, evading and repositioning the Specter for Cloak and Dagger and shadow shroud abilities. Can duel, +1, and teamfight relatively well, but has lower roaming mobility than other thief builds due to lacking Steal and shortbow.

Skill Bar

Axe/Dagger

Dagger/Pistol

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Withdraw - if you want to run Trickster, a trait which can be good against teams with a lot of reveal

Utility

Considerable utility skills for the open slot, in no particular order:

• Well of Silence - author's preference. pulsing condi cleanse, a shadowstep and a 2s Daze on a 30s cooldown. Gives Resistance if Traversing Dusk is taken. great for both offense and defense.

• Infiltrator's Signet - low cooldown stunbreak (28s) that also sets you up for Cloak and Dagger. Overall a good defensive & offensive pick.

• Thousand Needles - heavy, unblockable pulsing damage and an Immobilize. Fairly easy to set up with Harrowing Storm and forces opponents to respect space. The duration of the trap needs to be kept in mind as the pulsing damage will break stealth.

• 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.

• Smoke Screen - good for teamfights or to stop projectile-based bursts. Gives access to stealth without having to swap weapons, granted you have shroud available.

• Seal Area - great if you're taking Pressure Striking. Creates a long lasting dark field which you can leap/blast for Dark Aura. Surprisingly good.

• 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.

Elite

Viable elites:

• Shadowfall - the lockdown option. Traversing Dusk gives you ever-needed {{Tooltip|Resistance when jumping in. Remove boons first with Rending Shade if possible. You can use this skill while in Stealth and very quickly Cunning Salvo before the first tick of damage breaks you out of it.

• Dagger Storm - the default option after the axe nerfs. 90s cooldown, but allows you to dodge burst, correct mistakes, or counterplay projectiles. More beginner friendly since you don't have to watch for Stability or keep track of opposing stunbreaks.

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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 against condition-heavy comps.
• Take Hidden Thief against power-focused comps.

Equipment

Axe

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger

Pistol

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

Relic of Peitha is very strong since the build is constantly shadowstepping. However, it can be swapped out for better utility:

• Relic of Cerus - boon corruption for Rending Shade, great synergy with Shadowfall, generally a monster in teamfights.

• Relic of Akeem - fantastic burst damage and a source of Confusion. Less consistent damage than Peitha.

Runes

• Rune of Lynx - trades damage and 1000 health for more consistent mobility. as of Febuary 2025, Siphon being usable on allies to trigger Thrill of the Crime makes Lynx mostly unnecessary, but it could be good for learning the build.

Sigils

• Sigil of Cleansing over Sigil of 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.

• Open with Cunning Salvo whenever possible on a target you know it will land on, whether or not it's your primary target. It will not leave an axe if it doesn't hit and is extremely important to recall later. Use Spinning Axe until you have 5 or 6 axes, then recall them with Harrowing Storm. If you need more axes in a pinch, use Venomous Volley.
  • if a target is hit by 5 or more axes, they will become Immobilized for 2s, which has the added bonus of increasing the damage Torment does.

• Use Cloak and Dagger if you aren't Revealed to enter Stealth. Use Cunning Salvo before stealth fades.

• Use Siphon on targets with high amounts of Stability, Might, or Protection to soften them up while buffing yourself. If Siphon is dodged or evaded, it will not build shadow force.

• Watch your target's buffs; if they have Magnetic Aura, Distortion or some other reflect, stop throwing axes, use the time to reposition, or Enter Shadow Shroud if the situation calls for it. Blocked, evaded, invulned, whatever'd axes will not leave recallable axes.

• 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 a heavy 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.
• So generally, 5 > 4 > 2 > 3.
• Don't underestimate Haunt Shot as a filler; it has good range and damage, and is great to use while regenerating initiative.

• 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 Peitha, 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Panaku's Ambition gives a strong barrier whenever you stealth, and as such landing Cloak and Dagger is especially important

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

• 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.