Virtuoso - Celestial Virtuoso Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Hybrid damage and Sustain

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on March 22, 2024 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A WvW Cele Virtuoso roaming build focusing on hybrid damage. Virtuoso is infamous for its high durability which makes it quite easy to play, but its damage is rather low outside burst windows.

Skill Bar

Staff

Scepter/Shield

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

Shield requires the Secrets of the Obscure expansion, if you don't have it then your options are:

• Torch - defensive weapon with condi cleanse, stealth and a delayed AoE CC.

• Pistol - better damage and a quick stun that could be used to set up burst.

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Specializations

Variants

• Medic's Feedback could also be considered (especially when roaming in a group) as this is quite a strong rez trait, and giving up a bit of cleansing for it shouldn't be a problem on this build. It's useless in 1v1s though.

Equipment

Head
Celestial

Shoulders
Celestial

Chest
Celestial

Hands
Celestial

Legs
Celestial

Feet
Celestial

Backpiece
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Amulet
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Scepter
Celestial

Shield
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Staff
Celestial

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Relics

• Relic of Antitoxin - trades healing for more cleansing.

Consumables

Food

• - better endurance regen equals more dodging. Dodging is a crucial part of your gameplay flow due to its synergy with various Virtuoso traits and of course it could help you avoid incoming damage too.

• - passive damage mitigation and great stats.

Utility

• Optimal: or , whichever is cheaper (the difference beween them is negligible, a grand total of 2 condition damage stat in favor of Tuning Icicle).

• Budget: either from Canned Food Crates found in WvW s or purchased from the Permanent Portable Provisioner.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Shatters are replaced by Bladesongs (we're still going to refer to these as shatters).

• Instead of generating clones in combat you now stack Blades and Blades persist even after combat. The maximum count is 5 instead of 3.

• Bladesongs are a bit more clunky than regular shatters. They require you to face the target to activate and have a cast time, therefore cannot be used defensively while stunned.

General

• Blink is a very simple yet versatile skill allowing you to chase enemies, retreat to the safety of the highghround, break stuns, or get around the map faster.

• Signet of Humility's more about securing a kill on an already pressured target rather than setting it up. The Moa doesn't last long and the Moa'd player has access to a few defensive/mobility skills to avoid your followup attacks if played well. This however is still great for denying low HP enemies access to their heals and cleanses inbetween two bursts.

Sustain

• For Virtuoso the best defense is a good offense. Bladesongs/Shatters are crucial for sustain.

• Shatter skills grant Aegis from Bladeturn Refrain while blocking an attack procs Duelist's Reversal and Psychic Riposte, applying boons and generating 3 Blades.

• Relic of the Defender also heals you whenever you block an attack, be it from Aegis or any skill you have.

• Stocking a Blade heals you from the passive of Signet of the Ether.

• Try not to use the active of Signet of the Ether unless you're in serious trouble as the passive is way too valuable.

• Every Signet skill grants Distortion. Signet of Midnight is your panic button: break stuns, applies Stealth + Distortion and cleanses 5 conditions thanks to Blurred Inscriptions. SoM is the only mass condition cleanse in the build, keep that in mind when facing condition specs. Correcting mistakes or recovering from bursts becomes harder while this is on CD.

• Bladeturn Requiem acts as an instant cleanse and source of Aegis, plus the multiple hits could rip Aegis from enemies and get rid of Blind in you so that your more important skills can connect. Aside from that it doesn't do much, it's by far your weakest shatter.

• The build has plenty of ways to deal with conditions:
  • Weapon swapping removes 3 conditions via Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing.
  • Signet of Midnight is your mass cleanse, removing a total of 5 conditions with Blurred Inscriptions.
  • Mender's Purity removes another one when you use your healing skill.
  • Last but not least, The Prestige is another source of cleansing when running Torch.

• Chaos Armor can be used even while stunned, blinding nearby enemies and giving you a chance to gain Protection whens struck.

• Same goes for Phase Retreat, you could use it to get out of harm's way even while stunned.

• Echo of Memory needs to block an attack otherwise its chain skill (a copy of this skill) won't become available. Make sure that this happens even if your opponent is trying to play around it by briefly moving into hostile AoE fields or using the Echo of Memory right in the middle of an enemy's attack animation so they can't cancel in time.

Damage

• Every shatter inflicts Torment via Maim the Disillusioned.

• Try to use shatetrs with 4-5 Blades stocked if possible for maximum effect.

• Bladesong Sorrow is your main burst skill.

• Bladesong Harmony is burst skill #2 but also more of a filler for dumping your Blades.

• As for weapon skills Scepter/Torch is the primary damaging set in the build. Illusionary Counter is a block with Blade generation that has nice synergy with all the other block related traits, you can always follow up here with a shatter.

• Confusing Images is best used after blocking so you can have Fury and Quickness for its entire duration.