Harbinger - Pistol Curses

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

Focused on: Condition damage and Boon removal

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on December 13, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A high condition damage PvP Harbinger build made to teamfight.

Skill Bar

Pistol/Dagger

Staff

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility:

Always keep Spectral Walk but the other 2 slots are more flexible. Other viable options include:

• Corrupt Boon - unblockable single target boon corruption that's hard to avoid, great for bursting targets without any other setup. It's even good for defensive purposes while under pressure - quickly corrupting Stability and Might into Fear and Weakness for instance could save you.

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

• Well of Corruption - less bursty than Corrupt Boon but it's AoE.

• Spectral Armor - relatively low CD stun break + damage mitigation and better Life Force management.

• Spectral Ring - area denial that can save your life or cage in enemies to set up kills.

• Corrosive Poison Cloud - excellent anti-projectile skill which also brings Poison and Weakness spam to the table, further mitigating damage as well as enemy healing.

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Specializations

Variants

• Soul Marks makes your Staff marks unblockable but weakens your shroud auto spam.

Specialization Variants

Death Magic offers better sustain but lower damage than Soul Reaping:

Equipment

Pistol

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Staff

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Runes and sigils

• With the Soul Reaping variant Rune of Balthazar and Sigil of Smoldering on Pistol/Dagger also become viable options because of Dhuumfire synergy.

Relics

• Relic of Akeem - improves condition variety on your bursts if you can proc it consistently with CC.

• Relic of Antitoxin offers better cleansing at the expense of damage.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

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

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

General

• Role: follow the teamfight, stay with the support if you have one.

• Don't spam your marks on the ground out of combat - they are easy to spot and a single dodge from the enemy can get rid of them. Skills 4-5 are also valuable defensive cooldowns and you don't want to risk not having them for the next fight. There are exceptions of course, Mark of Blood (because it's not a key skill and has a low CD) or even Chilblains can be used a bit more freely. For example place them at an entrance or under yourself to help your team spot Stealthed enemy movements or force a dodge at the start of the fight. Or if you see an enemy with teleport skills approaching you could place Reaper's Mark right before they jump you to ruin their burst.

• Entering Shroud triggers Weakening Shroud. If you're CC'd and getting focused you can enter shroud for the Weakness and boon rip as a defensive measure and even proc Plague Sending for some cleansing and additional counter-pressure.

• Corrosive Poison Cloud is one of the more versatile skills in the build:
  • The healing and endurance reduction from Poison and Weakness is great for wearing down enemy bunkers/supports.
  • Could be used defensively for AoE projectile denial, helping you and your teams survive pressure, even shutting down elites such as Lich Form.
  • It's unblockable and the Poison does solid damage on its own.

• 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).

Sustain

• Both entering and staying in shroud removes conditions thanks to Plague Sending and Shrouded Removal (Death Magic-only).

• When playing with Death Magic removing and applying conditions generates Carapace stacks, reducing strike damage taken. At 25+ stacks Corrupter's Fervor is going to start pulsing Protection for, well, further protection. This boon also reduces condition damage taken thanks to Dark Defiance.
  • Shrouded Removal grants Carapace even if the condition was removed through other means, like Spectral Walk.

• 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 travel around the map in general. Last but not least, teleporting to the wurm with Necrotic Traversal grants 10% life force, which means you could consider using the teleport before even leaving spawn at the start of a game in order to start off with some LF.

• Harbinger has better mobility than the average Necromancer build which could prove useful when it comes to surviving damage. Devouring Cut and Voracious Arc are both great for building (or closing) gaps.

• Skill #4 on both weapon sets is a condition transfer: Deathly Swarm and Putrid Mark.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: Bel