Build:Specter - Condi DPS

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

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on October 12, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition DPS build for Specter. Gaining a defensive shroud similar to Necromancer as well as a powerful ranged weapon in Scepter, Specter can feel much safer to play than other Thief specialisations. It deals great damage, which can be enhanced even further if it is able to pre-cast its venoms (particularly relevant in fractals). At the same time, it provides some incidental group boons whenever it Siphons and it always has access to powerful single-target barrier, enabling it to act as a support in emergencies.

As a torment-focused class, it prefers stationary targets, but the simple rotation and ability to deal almost all its damage from range means that it is able to maintain damage very easily even on mobile encounters.

As a Thief, it has excellent out-of-combat utility for speeding up fractals and raids.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Dagger

Utility

Weapon Variants

The nature of initiative means that you rarely use more than one weapon, so there are a number of options for the second set:

• If you own Janthir Wilds, Spear is the strongest weapon, though it is needs to be in melee range, and is significantly more complicated to use. It is worth keeping Scepter/Dagger in the second set to give you a strong ranged option when necessary.
• You can bring an offhand Pistol in addition to the dagger to have more CC available on swap. As entering and exiting Shadow Shroud counts as a weapon swap, you will still gain the benefits of Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom.

Utility Variants

There are three strong contenders for the third utility slot:

• Caltrops - Has the highest theoretical DPS, but requires the target to remain inside the AoE for 10 seconds, and ramps up slower. It also becomes less efficient in phased encounters, unlike the other two options.
• Prepare Thousand Needles - The cooldown starts as soon as the trap is placed, allowing it to be precast before the fight or new phase, though the arming time makes it vulnerable to your target moving away from it.
• Skale Venom - The lowest damage option, but also doesn't require your target to stand inside an AoE for 5/10 seconds. The boonstrip present at the start of many encounters also removes venom stacks, but it can be precast during split phases as long as your allies don't waste it attacking an invulnerable boss. The instant cast time and fact that it has the same cooldown as Spider Venom also makes it much less disruptive to your rotation than other options.

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Specializations

• If Bountiful Theft will be of no benefit, you can take Pressure Striking for a little bit more damage.
• For a ~4% DPS loss, you can take Consume Shadows to offer some extra healing/barrier to your subgroup.

Equipment

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Scepter
Viper

Sigil

Dagger
Viper

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Non-SotO Gear

Relic of the Aristocracy is the best relic for players that don't own Secrets of the Obscure, which necessitates switching some gear to Sinister stats:

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Sinister

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Sinister

Accessory
Sinister

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Scepter
Viper

Sigil

Dagger
Viper

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Consumables

Food

• if using Spear
  • is slightly higher damage, but more expensive

Utility

• • or similar for a cheaper alternative, it should also be stronger if using

Usage

Scepter Rotation

If you're using a pistol offhand, ignore any weapon swaps below. It is also optimal to skip the Post-Shroud section in this case.

As the third skill is variable, just ignore any skill casts that you don't have.

Opener

1. If possible, precast Prepare Thousand Needles such that you can immediately trigger it and place it a second time.
2. Twilight Combo
3. Spider Venom, Skale Venom and Thousand Needles. These are all instant cast, so can be used during the cast time of step 2. Make sure you're within range of allies for the venoms!
4. Well of Sorrow
5. Prepare Thousand Needles if it's available.
6. Siphon
7. Twilight Combo x2
8. Weapon Swap
9. Twilight Combo
10. Enter Shadow Shroud

Opening Shroud Loop

The first two uses of Shadow Shroud are slightly longer than during the rest of your rotation. This makes cooldowns line up better, as well as optimising Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom triggers.

1. Grasping Shadows
2. Mind Shock (if using Relic of Akeem)
3. Eternal Night
4. Haunt Shot until Grasping Shadows is off cooldown
5. Grasping Shadows
6. Haunt Shot until Grasping Shadows is off cooldown
7. Grasping Shadows
8. Exit Shadow Shroud

Post-Shroud

1. Twilight Combo x3
2. Weapon Swap
3. Twilight Combo
4. Siphon
5. Twilight Combo
6. Shadow Bolt → Double Bolt → Triple Bolt - if you're fast, then you have time to fit Shadow Bolt between steps 1 and 2, and complete the chain here.
7. repeat Opening Shroud Loop

Rest of the Rotation

The rest of the rotation has no strict skill order:

• You should enter Shadow Shroud as soon as it becomes available, and use one of the shroud loops below.
• If using Relic of Akeem, use Mind Shock off cooldown while in Shadow Shroud.
• Use Siphon, Well of Sorrow, Spider Venom, Skale Venom, Prepare Thousand Needles and Thieves Guild off cooldown.
  • Triggering Thousand Needles can be delayed if necessary, as the cooldown is only gated by preparing it.
  • As Thieves Guild lasts for 24 seconds, it may be worth saving until the next phase of a boss if the current phase is about to end.
• Spam Twilight Combo to use up all your initiative.
• Try to finish autoattack chains if possible. Unusually, you have a lot of grace time between the chain skills to use other skills without cancelling the chain.
• If you have no other skills to cast, you can use Hide in Shadows to gain access to Shadowsquall. The cast time is very long though, so be sure you won't have to delay other skills in order to finish it.
• Weapon Swap, Enter Shadow Shroud and Exit Shadow Shroud will all trigger Sigil of Superior Sigil of Doom and Quick Pockets. These have a 9- and an 8-second internal cooldown respectively, so if you are able to track these cooldowns you can squeeze extra damage out of the rotation.
  • Otherwise just Weapon Swap off cooldown and hope for the best, being sure that you have less than 9 initiative to prevent wasting the effect of Quick Pockets in case it triggers.

Normal Shroud Loop

Most of the time when you enter shroud, you want to do the following loop:

1. Grasping Shadows
2. Eternal Night
3. Haunt Shot until Grasping Shadows is off cooldown
4. Grasping Shadows
5. Exit Shadow Shroud

Use Siphon if it comes off cooldown between steps 1 and 4.

Short Shroud Loop

Sometimes you will end up going into shroud just before your utility skills come off cooldown. In this case, do a much shorter loop:

1. Grasping Shadows
2. Eternal Night
3. Exit Shadow Shroud

Video example

Video example (with fractal relic)

Spear Rotation

Spear is more complicated than other thief weapons as it employed a combo system where skills 2 and 3 each have three sub-skills that are classified as Lead Attacks, Follow Ups or Finishers. These flow together in order, with the active skills changing depending on where you are in the chain, and you can switch between 2 and 3 for different effects.

Additional complexity is added by your stealth attack, and skills 4 and 5, all gaining bonuses if they are used after a Finisher:

• Ashen Assault regenerates 4 initiative
• Distracting Throw grants a 10-second damage buff
• Shadow Veil blocks additional attacks

If this isn't enough, Distracting Throw will also count as a Lead Attack in this case, which means the next combo will skip the normal Lead Attack.

Rotation Explanation

The buff from Distracting Throw is strong enough that we want to get it as soon as possible, but as it needs to follow a finisher (and cannot follow a stealth attack), we first do a basic combo of Mantis Sting ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Falling Spider.

Your strongest weapon skill is Ashen Assault as not only does it do great damage, it regenerates enough initiative to maintain a rotation without ever having to rely on autoattacks. Specter lacks a convenient way to access Stealth though, so must rely on Shattering Assault (the Finisher' on skill 3). Hence your highest damage combo looks like Mantis Sting ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Shattering Assault ⇒ Ashen Assault (though the first time round we replace Mantis Sting with Distracting Throw). This combo is slightly shorter than the duration of Revealed, so the rotation has to be padded.

The best way of doing this is to use shroud skills. Grasping Shadows ⇒ Eternal Night is all that's needed to make the loop long enough to Stealth again. The cooldown of Eternal Night is too long to use every loop, so a non-stealth combo is used every other time instead.

Opener

1. Thieves Guild
2. Prepare Thousand Needles
3. All Venom skills as soon as you're in combat - many encounters remove these as part of the boon strip at the start of the fight, but in some fractals this isn't the case and they can be cast earlier.
4. Siphon

Loop

When your target is above 90% health, Unsuspecting Strike is stronger than Mantis Sting

1. Mantis Sting ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Falling Spider
2. Distracting Throw ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Shattering Assault ⇒ Ashen Assault
3. Enter Shadow Shroud ⇒ Grasping Shadows ⇒ Endless Night ⇒ Exit Shadow Shroud
4. Mantis Sting ⇒ Entangling Asp ⇒ Shattering Assault ⇒ Ashen Assault
5. Return to start of loop

• Use Siphon and your utilities off cooldown. You can do this without interrupting your combos, but be aware that the pulsing damage from Thousand Needles will reveal you if you are stealthed. The cooldown starts when you place the trap though, so you have flexibility when you activate it.

Utility

CC

• Basilisk Venom
• Shadowfall can provide more reliable CC on encounters with extra targets (equivalent to 3 basilisk venom hits), or you want to pull targets together
• Mind Shock
• Headshot, if bringing offhand pistol

Support

All your Scepter skills and Siphon can be used with an allied target to provide them barrier and Dark Sentry. This is a DPS loss, but can be used to save people if a healer isn't going to (particularly helpful on the tank).

General Tips

• Almost all your damage on Scepter can be done at range, but Eternal Night and Mind Shock are both melee range. If you are not in range to use them, either delay or skip them during the shroud loop.
• While in Shadow Shroud, incoming damage is absorbed by your Shadow Force rather than your health. If you believe an incoming attack will kick you out before finishing the full Shroud loop, it may be worth doing a shorter one instead.
• Avoid staying for too long in Shadow Shroud as the DPS from Haunt Shot is worse than that of Scepter, and you need to spend initiative to maintain stacks of Lead Attacks.
• If there is nothing to attack, you can target allies with Scepter skills to buff them with barrier, and apply stacks of venom via Dark Sentry just before a new phase starts.