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Difference between revisions of "Specter - Celestial Scepter Roamer"

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==Overview==
 
==Overview==
A hybrid Scepter Specter build for WvW roaming, offering a strong mix of defense and offense. Plenty of condition pressure, boon spam, and even some burst damage.
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A Celestial Scepter Specter build for WvW roaming, offering a strong mix of defense and offense. Plenty of condition pressure, boon spam, and even some burst damage.
  
  

Revision as of 10:44, 12 January 2024

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

Focused on: Hybrid damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

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


Overview

A Celestial Scepter Specter build for WvW roaming, offering a strong mix of defense and offense. Plenty of condition pressure, boon spam, and even some burst damage.


Skill Bar

Scepter/Pistol
Sword/Dagger
Utility


Skill Variants

Utility

  • Well of Silence - AoE CC and extra condition cleansing.
  • Well of Bounty - useful boons and Well synergy.
  • Roll for Initiative - stun break + evade frame and extra initiative. Also cleanses movement-impairing conditions.
  • Prepare Thousand Needles - strong condition burst and moderate CC, but it can be hard to utilize in open fields especially against ranged enemies. Consider equipping this skill when taking supply camps, especially if you can ball up the NPCs so they all get hit.


Heal

  • Well of Gloom - not quite as good under pressure as Withdraw and it's strictly worse against conditions, but has better mobility on top of Well synergy from traits and some AoE healing in case you're roaming in a group.


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Specializations

Variants

  • Shallow Grave is also a viable option if you need more cleansing.
  • Larcenous Torment increases your damage while still providing health regen in combat via the life steal, but it's harder to get healing value out of this trait when you're really pressured and have to focus on survival instead of applying conditions.


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
Pistol
Celestial
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Celestial
Dagger
Celestial
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic


Equipment Variants

Relics

  • Relic of Antitoxin - defensive pick against conditions.
  • Relic of Akeem - better burst damage, but requires some setup.


Runes

  • Rune of Superior Rune of Orr - bit more defensive condition rune that could help against other condition builds.
  • Rune of Superior Rune of the Necromancer - it's like Trapper but with more HP instead of condition duration.


Infusions

  • Vital WvW infusions are good too if you're looking for a defensive option. On this build they grant extra value because vitality also scales up your shroud health pool.

Sigils

Sword/Dagger

  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing - consider replacing one of the S/D sigils with this if you're having trouble against condition specs.


Consumables

Food

  • - good stats and passive damage mitigation.
  • - mainly a budget defensive food that provides more frequent access to dodging.


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).


Usage

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.
  • Using Siphon (Specter's version of Steal) and spending Initiative builds Shadow Force.


General

  • Most of your Specters skills double as support skills. While your role is to kill targets, a good Specter also keeps an eye on allies and helps them in critical moments by granting them Barrier.
  • Because of Shroud you can be a bit more reckless with spending Initiative as Shroud skills are free and by the time you've rotated through Shroud skill your Initiative should be back to full.
  • Siphon removes boons when used on enemies and Daze Dazes them right after, allowing it to interrupt targets even through Stability Stability.
  • Offhand pistol's main purpose is to combo stealth with Black Powder and to provide a quick interrupt via Head Shot.
  • Stealth stacking rotation:
  1. Black Powder
  2. Enter Shadow Shroud
  3. Grasping Shadows
  4. Dawn's Repose


Damage

  • Most of the weapon damage comes from spamming skill #3 on Scepter: Measured Shot + Endless Night.
    • Scepter is the main weapon set of the build, the other one fills more of a utility/situational purpose. Sword/Dagger has good defensive skills, chase potential and damage.
  • Siphon and Head Shot are great at procing Quickness Quickness from Sigil of Superior Sigil of Celerity which makes it much easier to land your Scepter #3 chain.
  • If you're about to weapon swap from S/D consider using the Infiltrator's Strike Measured Shot chain to stack Immobilize Immobilize and proc Sigil of Superior Sigil of Geomancy in melee.
  • On S/D you'll open with Infiltrator's Strike from range to leave an escape route with Infiltrator's Return. Teleporting in and out can help you avoid damage, cleanse conditions, and do a setup with Immobilize Immobilize. Sometimes all you'll be doing on this set is use these skills + the autoattack if you want to play defensively.
  • On Celestial builds the Flanking Strike (thief dual) + Larcenous Strike chain is more about softening up targets by stealing their boons boons with unblockable attacks (and evading incoming attacks in the process), but this chain is quite costly and very telegraphed and thus easy to avoid. Try baiting some dodges first, or use it when the enemy's blocking/channeling a skill. The Immobilize Immobilize from Infiltrator's Strike could help with landing these skills too, even when used in the middle of it: port in, hit them with Flanking Strike, port out, and then back in for a Larcenous Strike.
  • Skills 4-5 on S/D are rarely used, although Dancing Dagger is good for some ranged poking or killing Mesmer clones with the bounces.
  • As for Shroud, skills 2 and 4 is where the damage comes from. The second skill is a ground targeted AoE which goes off after a short delay, Infiltrator's Strike or a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Hydromancy proc might make it easier to land this right after entering Shroud. Skill 4 is a channeled point-blank AoE which is much easier to land. Shadowfall is great at setting up these slow Shroud skills too.
    • The delay of Shroud skill 2 makes it ideal for comboing with skill 4, as you can make them hit at the same time.
  • Burst combo example:
  1. Shadowfall
  2. Grasping Shadows (Shroud 2)
  3. Eternal Night (Shroud 4)
  4. Dawn's Repose (Shroud 3)
  5. Drop out of Shroud, keep spamming your Scepter 3


Sustain

  • The main sources of condition removal are Shadowstep, Hungering Darkness, Withdraw and Infiltrator's Return (Sword #2's chain skill).
  • Shadowstep is the only stun break in the build but it's a double stun break with condi cleansing on top. Try to use other methods for cleansing first in order to preserve this for handling incoming CC.
  • Well of Bounty should more or less be used on CD for the boons, but you could hold on to it a bit longer if you feel like you'll need the Stability Stability soon. Try to stay inside this well because each second you're getting a new boon.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 3 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Hanz gave this build 5 stars • October 2024
It's a cele build. It does cele things. High uptime on important boons like Alacrity and even Quickness, great hybrid damage, capable in both ranged and melee. Extremely obnoxious especially with the mobility it has. Post Cele nerf edit: this build wasn't really affected, boons weren't all that important and most conditions had good base durations.
4 stars
Zenn gave this build 4 stars • April 2024
Strong but half the value is missing in WvW. In PvP this is great because of the support angle, being able to multitask not just kill. But if you're roaming solo the support element is gone and I think other thief builds do it better. In 1v1s it's still good but it's very predictable and slow. In a group this is a 5 tho.
5 stars
Rektile gave this build 5 stars • January 2023
Fantastic build, played it with Aristocracy runes for better Might uptime. Insane mobility, great hybrid pressure (right up there with Celestial Harbinger when played well), great boon uptime, high survivability (2 health bars & Cele stats), and little reliance on stealth. Spamming Scepter/Pistol 3 will make every projectile and melee oriented spec absolutely loathe you.

Comments

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