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Specter - Alacrity Support Condi DPS

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

Focused on: Condition damage and Support

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required: End of Dragons builds

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on June 28, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition boon support build for Specter. Provides permanent Alacrity Alacrity, Fury Fury, Swiftness Swiftness and Vigor Vigor, and ~13 stacks of Might Might. Specter also provide some healing when it exits shroud and with each well, making it an effective choice for groups that want more support without committing to a full healer. In an emergency, specter is also able to tether to a single target to provide barrier.

The healing variant of this build has a lot of overlap with the Support Healer, so you can mix and match options between these to suit your group.


Skill Bar

Scepter/Dagger
Utility


Weapon Variants

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 and Quick Pockets.


Template Code

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Specializations


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
  • This setup requires no boon duration.


Healing Variant

For an ~8% DPS loss, you can increase the healing done by your wells. Be aware that the lower vitality of this setup will reduce the heal from Consume Shadows, even if it is higher healing overall.

Head
Celestial
Shoulders
Plaguedoctor
Chest
Celestial
Hands
Plaguedoctor
Legs
Plaguedoctor
Feet
Plaguedoctor
Backpiece
Celestial
Accessory
Plaguedoctor
Accessory
Plaguedoctor
Amulet
Plaguedoctor
Ring
Plaguedoctor
Ring
Plaguedoctor
Scepter
Celestial
Sigil
Dagger
Celestial
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
  • If the extra +243 toughness from the celestial gear is interfering with tanking, you can lower it by swapping in plaguedoctor stats plaguedoctor stats instead. Full plaguedoctor stats plaguedoctor stats gear is a ~3% DPS loss from the optimal healing variant.
  • It is strongly recommended to use the mint versions of ascended food for the +10% healing modifier as it will affect the healing from Consume Shadows.


Consumables

In fractals, you can run DPS food/utility if you have extra concentration from the Mist Mobility Potion.


Food


Utility


Usage

Rotation

If you're using a pistol offhand, ignore any weapon swaps below.

Opener

  1. Well of Gloom, Well of Bounty, Well of Sorrow and Shadowfall - You can delay Shadowfall if there will be a breakbar soon.
  2. Twilight Combo
  3. Spider Venom. This is instant cast, so can be used during the cast time of step 2. Make sure you're within range of allies!
  4. Siphon
  5. Twilight Combo x2
  6. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap
  7. Twilight Combo
  8. Enter Shadow Shroud


Opening Shroud Loop

The first two uses of Shadow Shroud are 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 Grasping Shadows
  2. Mind Shock Mind Shock
  3. Eternal Night Eternal Night
  4. Haunt Shot Haunt Shot until Grasping Shadows Grasping Shadows is off cooldown
  5. Grasping Shadows Grasping Shadows
  6. Haunt Shot Haunt Shot until Grasping Shadows Grasping Shadows is off cooldown
  7. Grasping Shadows Grasping Shadows
  8. Exit Shadow Shroud


Post-Shroud

  1. Twilight Combo x3
  2. Weapon Swap Weapon Swap
  3. Twilight Combo
  4. Siphon
  5. Twilight Combo
  6. Well of Gloom, Well of Bounty and Well of Sorrow
  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 the shroud loop below.
  • Use Siphon, Spider Venom and your Wells off cooldown.
  • 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.
  • Weapon Swap 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 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.


Shroud Loop

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

  1. Grasping Shadows Grasping Shadows
  2. Mind Shock Mind Shock, if available
  3. Eternal Night Eternal Night
  4. Exit Shadow Shroud

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


If you use both Mind Shock Mind Shock and Siphon while in shroud, stay in a little longer to get a second use of Grasping Shadows Grasping Shadows before you exit.


Video example (no weapon swap)


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 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 can be done at range, but Eternal Night Eternal Night and Mind Shock 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.
    • If you have more than 2 stacks of Consume Shadows when you exit, the group healing you provide will exceed the personal damage mitigation you would have had. You're helping!
    • Alternatively, if there are no allies within range, you can use Shadow Shroud defensively to absorb incoming damage, as you lose your Shadow Force on Shroud exit regardless.
  • Avoid staying for too long in Shadow Shroud as the DPS from Haunt Shot 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.
  • You can mitigate certain mechanics through the Stability Stability from Well of Bounty, but you may wish to bring more boon duration if you need to delay it, to make up for the lower Alacrity Alacrity provision.
Retrieved from "https://metabattle.com/wiki/index.php?title=Build:Specter_-_Alacrity_Support_Condi_DPS&oldid=11617"


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 6 votes.
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4 stars
OfficerAndyGentleman gave this build 4 stars • November 2022
A strong support option that provides a decent amount of barrier and an easy path to providing more direct healing if needed. Does ok damage, but is somewhat weak in the boon-provision department as it can't maintain might, which is usually the alacrity's job. Despite that, the versatility in builds makes it an interesting choice, and if you can convince your group to share alacrity between two players so you can drop Well of Bounty its value skyrockets.
5 stars
Kisyana gave this build 5 stars • August 2022
An absolutely great build, decent at carrying underperforming groups, performing sweetly in open world due to high sustain.
5 stars
Primeauxvera gave this build 5 stars • March 2022
Great build, I'm running half plaguedoctor half celestial because it was convinient to gear and it has so much utility / heals with a fair amount of damage it's just fantastic. Pair it up with a cele quickbrand or condi quickbrand with advanced on. The stability and aegis will flatter it so perfectly
5 stars
Rip cel gave this build 5 stars • March 2022
I would recommend the celestial build as a solo healer for its subgroup on many low pressure encounters. On golem w/o allies it does about 22k dps, and has the benefit of massive healing output being part of its rotation. It does however need might to be covered by other sources(quickness harb, might warrior, condition tempest)
4 stars
Lucinellia gave this build 4 stars • March 2022
A very reasonable build that could be better tweaked and optimised. A safer setup for raids and strikes, in terms of boon duration and damage output, involves full Ritualist with Renegade runes, Demon and Doom sigils on Scepter and Dagger and Peppercorn-Spiced Eggs Benedict alongside Toxic Maintenance Oil. Use with Sc/P for CC. With this setup, Specter can do very reasonable DPS, full alacrity, additional supplementary boons and good sustain via barrier and healing from Consume Shadows. The crowd control output is also very strong via an Sc/P offset and this pairs well with a Firebrand that covers might and quickness. There is additional scope for utility via boon rip (via Bountiful Theft) and also by replacing Spider Venom with Prepare Shadow Portal, Seal Area and Smokescreen. The most glaring place where alacrity Specter lacks is might output, which is far stronger on alacrity condition Renegade, alacrity condition Mechanist and alacrity condition Mirage. The biggest advantages offered by Specter, relative to these other (generally better) options, is in healing and CC but the need for this in most groups will be somewhat niche and Renegade, Mechanist and Mirage are stronger options for both boons and DPS. Alacrity Specter would need higher sustained might output to be rated 5 stars. As is, it is a bit more of a niche option that will shine where the additional sustain and heavy CC can be utilised and the group setup can support it.
4 stars
Sootser gave this build 4 stars • March 2022
You can swap the elite for whatever is needed. You get permanent alacrity from the 3 other wells. I run this build with scavenging runes (dps is about the same) and basilisk venom/thieves. Just did a strike with my guild where everything was optimal and I gave 100% uptime on all boons, solid healing and 25k dps (lack a few pieces of ritualist).

Comments

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