Build:Harbinger - Power Spear Vampbringer

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage, Boon removal and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on December 13, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A high damage PvP Power Harbinger build meant to teamfight, but can hold it's own in some duels. This version of Spear harbinger focuses on life steal and mobility to survive and stick to targets better.

Skill Bar

Sword/Sword

Spear

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

For the optional slot:

• Summon Flesh Wurm - even better mobility + a stunbreak.

• Elixir of Ignorance - low CD stunbreak with Resistance access which makes it easier to pressure targets that rely on conditions such as Blind or Weakness to survive.

• Spectral Ring - added AoE Protection and CC and with Fear. Good for kiting or teamfights.

• Well of Darkness - works both as a defensive and offensive skill.

• Well of Suffering - good AoE damage with Vuln stacking.

• Well of Corruption - decent AoE damage and more boon corruption. Mostly offensive but also has some defensive value, as it can transform boons like Might and Fury into Weakness and Blind, significantly lowering the damage your opponent can do.

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Equipment

Sword

Sword

Sigil

Sigil

Spear

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Rivers - extra Alacrity can help with everything from damage to survival.

• Relic of Fireworks - better burst damage.

• Relic of the Centaur - more Stability sources to help survive CC.

Amulets

• - higher risk/reward option.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Harbinger Shroud doesn't replace your health bar! Unlike other Necromancer shrouds, Harbinger Shroud can't be used to soak up damage, which makes this spec more squishy by default.

• You can enter shroud even with no Life Force, but staying inside still drains your LF each interval.

General

• Role: roam the map looking to +1 fights, decap, and occasionally duel. Your AoE damage isn't great in teamfights and you're way too squishy to survive in melee against multiple opponents.

• Entering Harbinger Shroud gives you life force, so start dropping in/out of shroud the moment the game starts (before you'd even leave spawn) and keep doing it even out of combat for the rest of the match for free LF (and mobility from skills 3-4).

• Your elite is both defensive and offensive, dealing decent damage while applying defensive boons.

Damage

• Spear and shroud are your main sources of damage, Sword is more of a utility weapon used for survival.

• Spear has it own unique mechanic: soul shards. Perforate (skill #2) spends them, skills 3-5 build them. The cap is 6 soul shards.

• Leaving shroud resets the CD of Spear's Isolate, and Isolate's chain skill Distress refreshes the CD of Perforate. This will always give you an option to do good followup bursts after leaving shroud, or to chase down targets (shroud already has good mobility, and you can teleport to targets struck by the ranged Isolate).

• Dark Barrage is best used in melee range where all of the projectiles hit your main target.

• Vital Draw is an excellent setup for burst combos as it's quite a long CC.
  • Follow up with any other shroud skill except for Voracious Arc as that one dazes targets and could therefore stunbreak your enemies. It's still good to use near the end of Vital Draw.

• Tainted Bolts (shroud auto) can do a lot of damage with Quickness and makes for a great filler skill if you're out of CDs or don't want to go into melee.

• Elixir of Ambition does decent AoE damage too. While this could act as a ranged skill, you need to be inside the landing area if you want to get the boons from it.

Burst combo examples

Shroud combo:

1. Devouring Cut to get into melee range.
2. Voracious Arc to deliver damage while avoiding incoming attacks and dazing the target, making it harder for them to prevent the next step of the chain. It's also yet another mobility skill in case you were still not in melee range.
3. Vital Draw for CC.
4. Dark Barrage at point-blank range for maximum effectiveness.
5. Tainted Bolts spam.

Spear combo:

1. Optional: if you're on Sword, use Devouring Visage for the ranged Fear and immediately swap weapons. This will make it easier to land the next skill.
2. Isolate from range.
3. Cast Extirpate from a safe distance.
4. Teleport in with Distress as Extirpate's cast bar is starting to fill up. Your goal is to hit the target right after using Distress.
5. Optional: Addle for Immobilize
6. Perforate with max soul shards.

Sustain

• While life steal provides some bonus healing in combat, mobility is your real survival tool. Use sword, shroud and utilities to get out of harm's way. The build is very squishy, you need good awareness and reaction times to know when to get out.

• Important mobility skills:
  • Sword: Path of Gluttony and Gorge
  • Shroud: Devouring Cut and Voracious Arc (VA also evades attacks which is especially nice while you're Immobilized and can't dodge)
  • Utility: Spectral Walk and Summon Flesh Wurm
  • We could also list Spear's Distress (chain of skill #4), but it can't really be used for escaping (long cast time on Isolate + requires a secondary target to port to other than the enemy who's chasing you).

• Other than mobility, your main line of defense is Harbinger Shroud. Both entering and leaving shroud cleanses conditions, and entering it also gives you Stability as well as damage reduction + a Weakness proc on enemies. If you're being focused, entering shroud just for damage reduction/cleansing and to use the 2 mobility skills before dropping out of shroud is a perfectly fine thing to do.

• Condi cleansing is mainly limited to shroud and Elixir of Bliss.

• Spectral Walk (SW) is great for preventing condition pressure from ramping up on you. Activating its chain skill which "ends" Spectral Walk does not stop the cleansing. This skill has many uses, for example:
  • Activate SW ⇒ jump off a cliff while being chased ⇒ Spectral Recall when your enemies jump after you.
  • Activate SW ⇒ Necrotic Traversal (Flesh Wurm skill) ⇒ teleport back when they catch up to you. This works for stomping downed enemies as well, the channeling isn't interrupted by either of these teleports!

• Summon Flesh Wurm should be placed well before entering combat, preferably at a spot where your enemies can't reach it easily. Wurm provides you with an escape route and makes it easier to move around the map in general.

Related Builds

• Harbinger - Spear Vampbringer Roamer - WvW version of the build.